Stories for June '18
(Issue Story)Books Received, June 2018
Books Received
These are brief reviews of books recently sent to us. We have included ordering information for publishers that accept mail, phone, or online orders. For other publishers, your local bookstore or a mail-order house is the place to look. This catalog examines the work of 21 self-taught artists through ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)The Pottery Industry in Southeastern Massachusetts
The red earthenware manufactured in Bristol County, Massachusetts, in the 18th and 19th centuries has been desired for at least a century now by collectors, dealers, and museums. A combination of factors have contributed to this infatuation, including the refinement of the production, the color of the glazes, and the ... (Read More)
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(Book Review)The Art of the Peales
A Book Review
The Art of the Peales in the Philadelphia Museum of Art: Adaptations and Innovations by Carol Eaton Soltis Philadelphia Museum of Art in association with Yale University Press, 2017, 344 pages, hardbound, $65.
Carol Eaton Soltis, project associate curator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA), has created a ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Letter From London, June 2018
Letter from London
The really big money went on pictures, notably some “Orientalist” paintings and a newly discovered example of canine portraiture, but the most expensive single piece featured in this month’s “Letter” is an exceptionally rare Leica camera—though it was actually sold in Vienna, not London.
This month’s most pictorial piece ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Tom Wesdorp, Antiques Anonymous, Millerton, New York
In the Trade
Tom Wesdorp calls his business Antiques Anonymous. It is, he said, “A play on Alcoholics Anonymous: you’ve got to get your fix once you’ve been bitten by the buying bug.”
But the term might also apply to him—and to dealers like him—in another sense. Although Wesdorp is hardly “anonymous,” ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Rococo: Celebrating 18th-Century Design and Decoration
This year marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Chippendale (1718-1779), English furniture maker, author of The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director (1754), and important disseminator of what is commonly known today as the Rococo style. Since the 1840s, the term “Rococo” has been used to describe a variety ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Exhibitions, June 2018
Black-figure amphora, 675-650 B.C.E., attributed to the Swing Painter (Greek, Attic), terracotta. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund.
—Through July 8 —Richmond, Virginia
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) presents The Horse in Ancient Greek Art. The exhibition was organized in partnership with the National ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Journal of Revolutionary War Prisoner of War Donated to Museum of the American Revolution
The original handwritten journal of Christopher Hawkins (1764-1837), who was captured from a privateer ship and was a prisoner of war during the Revolutionary War, has been donated to the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia.
The journal was discovered nearly two decades ago in the linen closet of Margaret ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Court Battle over Withdrawn Lot
One of baseball’s foundational documents—once headed to the auction block—is now at the center of a lawsuit between an auction house and a 92-year-old widow. The sale was stopped, but allegedly the auction house will not release the document, claiming that it is owed for expensive but futile marketing efforts.
On ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Lemuel Shaw and Keith Downer
The unidentified portrait of a man that hung outside the chambers of Chief Justice Ralph D. Gants of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court intrigued many when it was retrieved from storage after the relatively recent restoration of the John Quincy Adams Courthouse in Boston. It was among a group of ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Software for Antiques Shops and Malls
Computer Column #353
Software for antiques shops and malls has been a common subject of these columns over the years. Programs for dealers have a point-of-sale (POS) cash register feature and inventory recordkeeping. Those for malls or group shops accept items from more than one dealer on a single sales slip ... (Read More)
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(Auction)The Collection of Ruth Bryson
Pook & Pook, Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Photos courtesy Pook & Pook
In 1982 Ruth Bryson and her husband, Jack, bought a stone farmhouse in Quarryville, Pennsylvania, in the southern part of Lancaster County. After they restored it and filled it with appropriate Pennsylvania antiques, Ruth opened her antiques shop in a barn on ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Wearable Antique Jewelry Is Hot at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers
Antique Jewelry & Gemology
Photos courtesy Leslie Hindman Auctioneers
Leslie Hindman Auctioneers held a sale of jewelry in Chicago April 10 and 11. Katie Guilbault, head of sale, and Jamie Henderson, jewelry associate specialist, shared news about results and market trends after the sale, for which over 1000 people had registered on ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Fraktur by Christian Beschler Sells for $39,500
In his article in the Spring 2008 issue of Antiques & Fine Art, antiquarian Donald M. Herr, a retired Lancaster, Pennsylvania, veterinarian, identified the Sussel-Unicorn Artist as Christian Beschler, a schoolmaster in Upper Mahanoy Township, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. When Herr photographed Thomas Umholtz’s fraktur collection for the article, he told ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Future Farmer by Falter
An oil on panel painting by artist and illustrator John Philip Falter (1910-1982) sold for $92,400 (including buyer’s premium) in a sale held on March 31 by Ripley Auctions in Indianapolis, Indiana. Rendered around 1955, the painting depicts a Future Farmers of America student, with his father, receiving a check ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Salts, Flasks, Inks, and Targets Keep Heckler’s Auction 159 Interesting
Norman C. Heckler & Company, Woodstock Valley, Connecticut
Photos courtesy Norman C. Heckler & Company
Auction 159, the Norman C. Heckler & Company event that ended on March 28, included not only types of early glass that the organization knows inside and outside—historical flasks, whiskeys, sodas, inks, bitters, and pattern-molded glass—but also ... (Read More)
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(Show)Raleigh Extravaganza Stories
Raleigh Antiques Extravaganza, Raleigh, North Carolina
“There are eight million stories in the naked city.” From March 23 to 25, Raleigh added a few more.On opening day at the Raleigh Antiques Extravaganza, M.A.D. met Kim Reed of Kim Reed Oriental Rugs and Antiques, Mohnton, Pennsylvania. Reed, a first-timer at Raleigh, brought ... (Read More)
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(Show)Ninth Annual Antiques Show at the Madeira School
McLean, Virginia
I must confess that I missed the first eight annual antiques shows at the Madeira School in McLean, Virginia. I am very sorry that I did. The Madeira show is produced by Dordy Fontinel Show Management, Inc. I have covered Fontinel’s shows in Annapolis, Maryland, and Middleburg, Virginia, but ... (Read More)
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(Show)The Connecticut Spring Antiques Show
Hartford, Connecticut
Dealers and collectors have traditionally looked forward to the Connecticut Spring Antiques Show. The very name is suggestive of freshness. The show opened in 1974 at the massive granite Connecticut State Armory and Arsenal in Hartford. It has moved around some but has been back at the armory since ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Legendary Shenandoah Valley Redware Lamb Brings $49,200
Crocker Farm, Sparks, Maryland
Photos courtesy Crocker Farm
On March 24 the Zipp family of Crocker Farm held their first sale of 2018, a 474-lot sale that grossed $663,190. An uncataloged group of pottery was sold directly following the main sale. It is difficult to think of another auction company that has ... (Read More)
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(Auction)A 1700-Gun Salute at Julia’s—Will the Last One Out Please Turn Out the Lights?
James D. Julia Inc., Fairfield, Maine
At a total of nearly $15 million and with a puny 13% buy-in rate, it was a fitting close to James D. Julia’s auction career. As most of the auction world now knows, James D. Julia Inc. has been sold to Morphy Auctions, Denver, Pennsylvania. ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Annual Spring Sale Loaded with Primitives
Laughlin Auctions, Edinburg, Virginia
Photos courtesy Laughlin Auctions
Laughlin Auctions, Inc. held its 31st annual spring auction on March 17 at its facility in Edinburg, Virginia. As expected, the main sales floor was loaded with a wide variety of offerings, and because Laughlin does not offer online bidding, there was a very ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Catesby Engravings in “Fabulous” Condition Sell at Auction
Garth’s Auctions, Delaware, Ohio
Photos courtesy Garth’s Auctions
Two hand-colored engravings by English naturalist Mark Catesby (1683-1749), estimated conservatively at $250/500, raised a few eyebrows when they realized $7080 for the pair (including buyer’s premium) to become the top lot of the day during a sale of American and Continental fine and ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Margaret Bourke-White Images Found in Cleveland Bring Top Dollar
Rachel Davis Fine Arts, Cleveland, Ohio
Photos courtesy Rachel Davis Fine Arts
The year was 1994, and Rachel Davis of Rachel Davis Fine Arts had one of those experiences auctioneers dream about. The daughter-in-law of a Cleveland artist and photographer had been going through items she had inherited from her father-in-law and ... (Read More)
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(Show)Fox Valley Frenzy
Spring Fox Valley Antiques Show, St. Charles, Illinois
If you think that shows are independent entities or that the world of antiques shows is not interconnected, think again. We learned the truth when we arrived at the 61st Spring Fox Valley Antiques Show, held by the Chicago Suburban Antiques Dealers Association ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Intarsia Patchwork Table Cover Tops Auction
Cowan’s Auctions, Cincinnati, Ohio
Photos courtesy Cowan’s
Cowan’s sale of fine and decorative art held March 10 in Cincinnati, Ohio, offered an international buffet of consignments while also keeping a wide array of Americana on the table. Although the U.S. goods were strong, as is usually the case at Cowan’s, it was ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Storm Disrupts Americana Auction
John McInnis, Amesbury, Massachusetts
Even the best-laid plans of mice and men are subject to the vagaries of weather. John McInnis Auctions’ March 9 and 10 estates sale of Americana was a major-league victim of said vagaries when the nor’easter that blanketed much of the Northeast left the Amesbury, Massachusetts, auction ... (Read More)
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(Show)Country Spirit Antique Show
Arcola, Illinois
Shortly before the opening of her Country Spirit Antique Show, promoter Jill Mattingly likes to post images on Facebook depicting some of the show’s dealers standing next to hand-picked favorite items from their booths. It’s a good way to market the event while also giving the sellers added exposure. ... (Read More)
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(Show)Rural Life Antique Show
Tuscola, Illinois
Kyla Ruf was on the move. It was 10:30 a.m. on the first day of the Rural Life Antique Show, held in three venues in Tuscola, Illinois, March 2 and 3. The show had been going on for two and a half hours, and Ruf was seeing her most ... (Read More)
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(Show)A Gathering on the Prairie
Arthur, Illinois
The kitchen might not have been the most important part of A Gathering on the Prairie, but it did say something about the show. More on that shortly.
Held March 3 at the Otto Center in Arthur, Illinois, A Gathering on the Prairie, now in its 15th year, is the ... (Read More)
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