Stories for September '13
(Fragment)New Miami Show
Puchstein Promotions will launch a new show in January. The Miami Antiques Extravaganza will be held January 24 through 26, 2014, at the Miami-Dade County Fairgrounds, located on the west side of Miami, Florida. The majority of the approximately 400 exhibitors will be inside the air-conditioned Arnold Hall and Coliseum; ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Don't Forget to Sign up for the 2014 Antiques Trade Directory!
To sign up for the Maine Antique Digest 2014 Antiques Trade Directory,please click here.
If you would like to look through our 2013 Antiques Trade Directory, please click here.
... (Read More)
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(Feature)Deadline Approaching for the 2014 Antiques Trade Directory. Sign up Today!
Deadline: September 13, 2013! Sign up for the Maine Antique Digest 2014 Antiques Trade Directory.
If you are an antiques dealer, an auctioneer, or a show promoter, you should be part of the Maine Antique Digest 2014 Antiques Trade Directory. This helpful volume will be bound separately and included with our ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Making Art Out of War: "Photography and the American Civil War"
Unknown artist, after an 1860 carte de visite by Mathew B. Brady (circa 1822-1896). Presidential campaign medal with portraits of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin (Hamlin on reverse, not shown), 1860. Tintypes in stamped brass medallion. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, purchase, The Overbrook Foundation Gift, 2012 (2012.12). Image: © ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Vermont’s Bromley Mountain Show Moves, Changes Name
The Bromley Mountain Antiques Show is moving a few miles east on Route 11 to Magic Mountain base lodge in Londonderry, Vermont, and will now be known as the Magic Mountain Antiques Show.
The show is still part of Antiques Week in Vermont and will join four other shows—the Weston Antiques ... (Read More)
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(Book Review)Books Received
These are brief reviews of books recently sent to us. We have included ordering information for publishers that accept mail, phone, or on-line orders. For other publishers, your local bookstore or mail-order house is the place to look.
The Value of Art: Money, Power, Beauty by Michael Findlay (Prestel, 2012, 208 ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Figure Out the Ending and Win a Free Lunch
Ann Smith of West Coast Antiques, Portland, Oregon, buys The Portland Payoff at a book signing at the July summer Expo Antiques Show.
Robin Williams, owner of Hampshire Antiques Ltd., Vancouver, British Columbia, has published a second novel, The Portland Payoff,whichfeatures dealers from Regency Antiques in Vancouver.
According to Williams, “This story ... (Read More)
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(Computer Article)Encryption
A mobile file encryption app.
Computer Column #297
by John P. Reid, E-mail: [email protected]
Most of us are careful to protect sensitive material on our desktop computers. A list of Internet passwords, business records, or banking information can be encrypted and password protected by most word processors including Microsoft Word and the free ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Exhibitions
Maine Antique Digest includes, as space permits, brief announcements of exhibitions planned by galleries, museums, or other venues. We need all press materials at least six weeks in advance of opening. We need to know the hours and dates of the exhibit, admission charges, and phone number and Web site ... (Read More)
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(Auction Law and Ethics)Whose Blood?
Auction Law & Ethics
Auctioneers get excited when they have a chance to put “blood in the water” for an auction. This auctioneering expression refers to alerting prospective bidders that a seller is in trouble and must sell. The message has considerable drawing power, so it is important for bidders and ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Letter from London
Ian McKay, [email protected]
As the summer season of London sales draws to a close, I find my “waiting for report” files bursting at the seams—as ever. Over the coming months, I will work through them, and forthcoming “Letters” will include lots of paintings and drawings, plenty of clocks, some good silver, ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Setting the Table
Editorial
On July 18 Detroit, one of largest cities in the United States, declared bankruptcy. The filing was made on the advice of Kevyn Orr, the emergency manager of the city, who was appointed by Governor Rick Snyder.
Orr is faced with a monumental task—the Motor City is estimated to be in ... (Read More)
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(The Art of Marketing)Successful Advertising
The Art of Marketing
Last month I began to cover the topic ofadvertising. Because it is such a large and complex topic, I’ve decided to continue on that same theme this month. Advertising plays a crucial role in persuading your target customers to buy from you. Companies spend millions of dollars ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)In Conversation: Modern African American Art
Gordon Parks (1912-2006), Harlem, circa 1948, gelatin silver print. ©1948 Gordon Parks Foundation.
Loïs Mailou Jones (1905-1998), Moon Masque, 1971, oil and collage on canvas.
John T. Biggers (1924-2001), Shotgun, Third Ward #1, 1966, tempera and oil on canvas.
Robert McNeill (1917-2005), New Car (South Richmond, Virginia), from the project “The Negro in ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Jason T. Busch Appointed Deputy Director of the Saint Louis Art Museum
Jason Busch in 2010.
Jason Busch will join the Saint Louis Art Museum in Saint Louis, Missouri, as deputy director in October. He will oversee the curatorial, exhibitions and collections, and education and public programs divisions. Busch, who turned 39 in July, is currently chief curator and the Alan G. and ... (Read More)
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(Young Collectors)Just Be Yourself
The Young Collector
Let’s talk for a minute about Brimfield. No, not that one, another one (named for that one), a little farther west: Brimfield, Ohio.
Don’t feel bad if you haven’t heard of it. Most people haven’t. Brimfield, Ohio, gets lost easily, pinched as it is between the suburban sprawl that ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Barbara Boardman Johnson, Pewter & Wood Antiques, Enfield, New Hampshire, and Cave Creek, Arizona
Barbara Boardman Johnson in New Hampshire.
Johnson’s shop Pewter & Wood in Enfield, New Hampshire. It’s on a dirt road, just like her place in Cave Creek, Arizona.
Eight bottle dolls (actually, one is mounted on a tin can rather than a bottle). “They’re under $350 each,” Johnson said.
Interior views of Johnson’s ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)William and Mary Winner
This walnut William and Mary period escritoire or fall-front desk is perhaps the only surviving American-made example of the form. It was the top-priced lot at Skinner’s Americana auction in Marlborough, Massachusetts, on August 10. Dennis Carr, curator of American decorative arts and sculpture at the Museum of Fine Arts, ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Antiques Dealer Pleads Guilty to Wildlife Smuggling Conspiracy
Qiang Wang, a.k.a. Jeffrey Wang, 34, a New York antiques dealer, pled guilty on August 7 in Manhattan federal court to conspiracy to smuggle Asian artifacts made from rhinoceros horns and ivory and to violate wildlife trafficking laws. Wang was arrested in February 2013 as part of Operation Crash, a ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Northeast Auctions Starts Antiques Week in New Hampshire with $2.3 Million Sale
These oval portraits by Rufus Porter of five members of the Bartlett family of Massachusetts brought $25,200.
This 9½" high Liverpool jug with an image of a member of the Boston Fusiliers sold for $11,400.
This Benjamin Frothingham-labeled Chippendale mahogany slant-lid desk with a reverse serpentine front brought $42,000.
Photos courtesy Northeast Auctions
Ron ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)“Dust Jacket” Plover Brings $214,000
$214,000. Pennington photo.
A black-bellied plover by A. Elmer Crowell that appeared on the cover of William J. Mackey’s 1965 book American Bird Decoys sold for $214,000 (est. $125,000/175,000) on August 1 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, at Guyette, Schmidt & Deeter’s annual summer two-day auction.
The plover was part of the Carolyn ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Catherine Sweeney Singer Named Director of the Philadelphia Antiques Show
Catherine Sweeney Singer at the 2009 American Art Fair in New York City.
On July 31, the board of the Philadelphia Antiques Show an- nounced the appointment of Catherine Sweeney Singer as the show’s director, which is a new position for the show. Sweeney Singer will be working with the exhibitors, ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Former Auctioneer Sentenced on Fraud Charges
Robert W. Duncan, former owner and auctioneer of Bob Duncan and Associates in Council Bluffs, Iowa, was sentenced on July 30 in federal court to four years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release. Duncan, 55, entered a guilty plea on March 12 to defrauding the Social Security ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Salt, Pepper, and Sugar Shakers Sell High
Mt. Washington Glass Company fig- or beet-shaped sugar shaker, in cased cranberry with polychrome floral decoration, dating to the fourth quarter of the 19th century, 3 7/8" high. The shaker was in remarkably good condition and came from collection of Richard “Dick” and Mary Ann Krauss of Clyde, Ohio. It ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Armed RobberSentenced to 9½ Years in Prison
On July 23, Robert A. Fiolka, 69, of Staten Island, New York, was sentenced to 114 months in prison for his role in the robbery of Blue Stove Antiques in Fair Haven, New Jersey.
Fiolka previously had pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Freda L. Wolfson to an information charging him ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Taylor Sentenced to 7½ Years in Prison and $1.2 Million in Restitution
Matthew Taylor, who sold paintings stolen from a Los Angeles art gallery and took elaborate steps to avoid paying taxes over several years, was sentenced on July 11 to 90 months in federal prison for the art-related and tax offenses.
United States District Judge John A. Kronstadt ordered Taylor, 45, of ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Surprises at Cobb Auctioneers and Canadian Cultural History at Dupuis
Antique Jewelry & Gemology
All prices include the buyer’s premium
This Cartier, Paris, diamond men’s tuxedo set, in white gold or platinum, is set with small diamonds on an opalescent stone. One cufflink back is not signed and is probably a replacement; the two smallest button backs are not signed and are ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Coping with an Antiques Paradigm Shift
Landschaft mit Vulkan (Landscape with Volcano), 30¼" x 28½", by Franz Sedlacek (Austrian, 1891-1945) sold for $188,800. It was the sale’s top-dollar painting. In 1927, the year he painted Landschaft, Sedlacek joined the Viennese Secession, a group generally opposed to academic art. He also worked in the New Objectivity style, ... (Read More)
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(Show)The New California Country & More Antiques Show
This Tesuque bowl was priced at $3900 by Barbara Miles of Miles & Miles Trading Co., Pacifica, California, who was exhibiting at the show for the first time. How did she know about the show? “I read about it on the Internet.”
Dealer Lise Thomas of Modesto, California, whose vintage Mexican ... (Read More)
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(Auction)American Paintings Auction (Freeman’s)
George Sotter (1879-1953), Covered Bridge, Winter, signed bottom right, oil on canvas, 22" x 26", $122,500 (est. $50,000/80,000) to someone who left a bid with the auctioneer.
Frederick R. Wagner (1861-1940), Steel Mills Pittsburgh, signed bottom left, oil on canvas, 56" x 68", $46,875 (est. $20,000/30,000) to a buyer in the ... (Read More)
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(Show)The Burton Antiques Market
Funky is prevalent at Burton. Made of wood and hand painted, the trio of stage props for an off-Broadway production of Carousel was offered at $850 by Ken and Jan Silveri of Hawks Inn Antiques, Hamburg, Pennsylvania. The couple had found the set in Buffalo, New York.
A bit of rain ... (Read More)
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(Auction)The Potomack Company Catalog Sale
High lot of the Potomack sale was this ancient Roman marble bust from the first century. The sculpture depicts Agrippina the Elder, wife of Germanicus and mother of Gaius or Caligula. The bust is life size, 14" x 8¼" x 5¾". The subject is depicted with her hair parted in ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Rago’s Design Auctions in June
In a rare armadillo form for a glazed stoneware vessel for flower arrangement, this 1890 pot, 4¼" x 8½" x 3½", is signed “R.W. Martin + Bros.” for Robert W. Martin. It sold for $43,750 (est. $15,000/20,000).
George Ohr (1857-1918) made this 9¼" x 4¼" pot, with in-body twist and folded ... (Read More)
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(Show)The Winnetka Summer Antiques Show
The small seating area by an exit was a nice idea. Items from The Century Shop, Louisville, Kentucky, included a pair of Black Forest carved panels, circa 1850, priced at $1850, and a Gothic Revival pier mirror, 63" high, with original gilding, for $6000.
Whitehall Antiques, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, brought ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Indian Art Sale Brings $2.25 Million
This 6 1/8" high John Tiktak stone sculpture sold to a Canadian collector for $43,750 (est. $20,000/40,000). Haas said a colleague at Bonhams, Ingmars Lindbergs, is “striking out into Inuit material. I never handled much of it before, but the very best artists can do very well. We invite more ... (Read More)
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(Auction)The Mike and Marianne Wilson Sale
This cherry accountant’s desk dated 1841 was attributed to western Pennsylvania and has original ocher swirl paint decoration. It has a slant lid and four recessed panel doors with two panes each and rests on high, turned feet. “It has powerful paint,” stated the private buyer. It sold for $18,880.
The ... (Read More)
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(Show)The Heartland Antique Show
Susie and Rich Burmann of New London, New Hampshire, asked $16,500 for the Pennsylvania or Ohio paint-decorated blanket chest, dated 1833, and $7800 for the 29½" long copper prancing horse weathervane with an iron head, late 19th century.
Blue and white coverlet with a corner block lettered “RY/ By D.I.G./ 1839,” ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Wyeth, Vroman, and Landesio Pace Thomaston Sale
This carved wooden fruit display opened the auction and blew away the $600/800 estimate when it sold for $6785.
India ink drawing by Andrew Wyeth, In the Georges Islands, $60,375.
Oil on canvas ship portrait of the Alfred Keen by Rockland, Maine, artist James Gardner Babbidge, $13,800.
Sometimes good period furniture seems on ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Rookwood XXIII, Art Glass 2013, Keramics 2013
Once the property of the czar of Russia, this is a 6" x 3½" (closed), 6 5/8" (open) St. Petersburg triptych. The painting depicts the resurrection of Christ with angels and two frightened guardsmen. In a gold-washed silver and enameled case, it is in excellent condition and sold for $57,500.
This ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Memorial Day Sale Attracts the Faithful Despite Cold Snap
This is how the Hannan merchandise (plus a few similar additions) looked as it was displayed in one of the rooms in the reconstructed French house. Now imagine about 20 would-be buyers squeezed into the room and see what it was like during Saturday and Sunday mornings’ inspection periods. The ... (Read More)
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(Show)Combing the Christie Classic for Collectibles
Ken Aubrey of Ottawa, Ontario, asked $350 for this 1950’s pedal car in green, yellow, and black by an unknown maker.
Bisback Family Antiques sold a circa 1880 file cabinet with 32 drawers from the Ayton, Wellington County, Ontario, municipal office for $2650. An artist needing storage space bought it.
George Lehto ... (Read More)
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(Show)Fearless Followers Forever
Edward and Lillian Miller of Pioneer Folk Antiques, Ellsworth, Maine, have a good eye—well, actually four—and they spot the whimsical and the colorful, such as this metal tractor part, $450, that looks almost like spokes of a game of chance, and the 1940’s metal “Candy-Soda” sign, $675.
This wonderful old 1840’s ... (Read More)
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(Show)The Brandywine River Museum Antiques Show
This is a rare 18th-century brass dog collar for Israel Morris’s dog with his address on it, 67 S. Second Street in Philadelphia. Having a lock but missing the key, it was $1100 from Tucker Frey.
Steven Still of Manheim, Pennsylvania, asked $5400 for this set of six birdcage bamboo ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Racing Icon’s Awards Sold
First presented at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1909, two years before the debut of the Indianapolis 500, the Prest-O-Lite trophy was eventually incorporated as an award for the Indy 500. Nine engraved silvered plaques commemorate winners and various driving accomplishments, such as lap leaders, from 1910 through 1940. The ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Hopper’s “Blackwell’s Island” Sells for $19.1 Million
Edward Hopper (1882-1967), Blackwell’s Island, oil on canvas, signed lower right, 34½" x 59½", painted in the fall of 1928, sold for $19,163,750 (est. $15/20 million). The subject—the island in the East River now known as Roosevelt Island—embodies the quiet tensions of Hopper’s best work. In 1928 it was the ... (Read More)
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(Auction)American Art
Ludwig Bemelmans (1898-1962), Chef, watercolor and ink on paper, 13½" x 10", signed lower right and bearing estate stamp (on the reverse), sold for $7500 (est. $3000/5000).
Theodore Earl Butler (1861-1936), New York Harbor, oil on canvas, 31½" x 44", signed and dated “T.E. Butler 1917,” sold for $86,500 (est. $40,000/60,000).
Paul ... (Read More)
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(Auction)American Paintings Auction (Sotheby’s)
John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), Marionettes: Behind the Curtain, oil on canvas, 29" x 20 7/8", painted in 1903, sold for $5,205,000 (est. $5/7 million) on one bid to a buyer who had placed an irrevocable bid.
Max Weber (1888-1961), Soloist at Wanamaker’s, 29¼" x 18½" gouache on paper laid down on ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Andy Williams’s Navajo Blankets and Arts of the American West
This Northwest Coast polychrome wood headdress (est. $175,000/225,000) sold for $425,000 to Vancouver, British Columbia, and New York City dealer Donald Ellis, bidding in the salesroom. At 10½" high, it has flaring nostrils and exaggerated wide-set, pointed oval eye rims beneath thick arching brows. It is painted in black with ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Major Nashville Estate Leads Sale
For the catalog, Case had photographed the Simon Willard of Roxbury tall-case clock from every possible angle in its assembled state as well as broken down into its component elements. The lot had been well advertised, and it fulfilled its promise as a top lot of the auction when it ... (Read More)
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(Feature)The Seventh Annual Ohio Valley Auction
Sawbuck table in mixed woods, three-board top, 19th century, 29" x 72", old refinish, $4406.
Reward of merit folk art bookplates, attributed to Ohio, watercolor and ink on paper, both in the same hand: One with a bird facing right on a branch, signed and dated “Benjamin Florey 1837” on the ... (Read More)
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(Show)The Springfield Antique Show & Flea Market Extravaganza
American art pottery is always available at the Extravaganza. These Rookwood Vellum glaze scenic vases offered by Jack and Luane McAuliffe of Fancy That Antiques, Marshall, Michigan, ranged from $2200 to $4900 each.
Traditional antiques can be found at the Vintage Marketplace. Tricia Le Tempt of The Red Door Antiques, Eddyville, ... (Read More)
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(Show)East Berlin Show Hits Its Sweet Sixteen
This sailor’s valentine was $3300 from Troy, Ohio, dealers John and Ellen Williams.
Local East Berlin dealer Andrea Hollenbaugh priced her assembled collection of 15 early printed cloth dolls and animals, mostly Arnold Print Works, at $2400.
Bill and Betty Annable of Oberlin, Ohio, were new to the East Berlin show this ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Expensive Corkscrews Sold On Line
B. Wilhelm corkscrew, $21,100.
Durand 1879 French patented rack and pinion corkscrew, $18,500.
The antique corkscrew collecting community conducts on-line auctions with an all-volunteer effort at ICCAuctions. During the sale that closed on May 11, a B. Wilhelm 1885 U.S. patent corkscrew, found 20 years ago in a Los Angeles antiques mall, ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Washington Tops in Texas Auction
Rembrandt Peale, Martha Washington, circa 1856, oil on canvas, 36½" x 29", signed lower left, inscribed on the back “Mrs. Martha Washington (1795) / Painted by / Rembrandt Peale / with improvements From / Original by Ch’s W. Peale / Philadelphia,” $158,500.
Rembrandt Peale (1778-1860), George Washington, circa 1856, oil on ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Inuit Art Auction
An artist from Arviat known only as Susan carved her Mother and Child of stone. It has a simplified, proud stance and rightfully earned $312 (est. $300/500). Auctioneer Duncan McLean thought it “quite a lovely little piece,” and it is.
Joe Talirunili (1893-1976), Povungnituk, is most famous for his carvings of ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Masters Are Hot—Others Not
Four Sam Doyle paintings on found metal sold. Dr. Buz Halo, 41" x 25", also had a conch shell “held” to the ear. Accompanied by Doyle’s original 1984 bill of sale and his legal agreement with Dr. Regenia Perry to be his agent, the lot brought $34,500 (est. $10,000/15,000).
With ... (Read More)
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