Stories for April '19
(Fragment)Bonhams Raises Buyer’s Premium
On March 4 Bonhams raised its buyer’s premium. The new rates are 27.5% on the first $3000 of the hammer price; 25% of the hammer price of amounts in excess of $3000 up to and including $400,000; 20% of the hammer price of amounts in excess of $400,000 up to and ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Reproduction
On February 17, just a month after she had shepherded a successful Outsider art sale at Christie’s, Cara Zimmerman gave birth to Alexander Dylan Forsyth, 6 lbs. 7 oz. and 19 inches long. Mother and father could not be happier, she wrote in an e-mail.
Originally published in the April 2019 ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Another Slice of the Loaf
In a world where transactional costs are coming down thanks to technology, four big auction houses—Sotheby’s, Christie’s, Phillips, and Bonhams—have all “adjusted” their buyer’s premium, making it even costlier for buyers to acquire art and antiques via auction.
None have crossed the 25% line, except for Bonhams, which now charges 27.5% ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)The Frenzy for Fresh to the Market
Fresh-to-the-market antiques seem as desirable to collectors as fresh-to-the-market corn on the cob, tomatoes, or other vegetables at a farmer’s stand. Dealers talk up pieces in their shops and show booths as untouched by the eyes of collectors. Entire shows take pride in antiques that have not been shopped around. ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Letter from London, April 2019
One Last Look at the Old Year and Old Masters
Illustrated and/or featured here, though in some instances only briefly identified, is a selection of some of the old masters that caught my eye in end-of-season picture sales in London. I started out with rather more, but in order to wrap ... (Read More)
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(Computer Article)What’s New in Word Processors
Computer Column #363
The computer has become a most important tool for writers. Those who write on a computer word processor may not know how difficult writing was on a typewriter. Four decades ago, I wrote by typewriter an article for a camping magazine on forest fires. In those days, manuscripts ... (Read More)
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(Young Collectors)The Art of Being Irrational
The Young Collector
We all like to think we are rational human beings, that we have it together and see the world as it is. After all, the world is a safer place if we are able to predict our own reactions and choices, and all the more so if we ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Exhibitions, April 2019
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 website for ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Drexel Plans to Rescue Philadelphia History
Who says no one is interested in history? Four hundred people gathered on February 27 at the Constitution Center in Philadelphia at a meeting organized by the board of trustees of the Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent to learn how Drexel University plans to rescue the failed Atwater ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Nursing Madonna Sells for $2,470,000
At Freeman’s in Philadelphia on February 27, 18 phone bidders competed with bidders online and in the salesroom for a late 15th-century Netherlandish Nursing Madonna painting attributed to the Master of the Embroidered Foliage. It sold for $2,470,000 (includes buyer’s premium).
Probably painted in Brussels by a group of artists, it ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Sotheby’s Raises Buyer’s Premium
On February 25 the buyer’s premium rates at Sotheby’s changed. For New York auctions (excluding wine auctions), the new rates are 25% on the hammer price up to and including $400,000; 20% on the hammer price in excess of $400,000 up to and including $4,000,000; and 13.9% on the portion ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Bartlam Tea Bowl and Saucer Sell for $65,500
A previously unrecorded American porcelain tea bowl and saucer attributed to the John Bartlam manufactory in Cain Hoy, South Carolina, 1765-69, sold after the auction for $65,500, its reserve price, at Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury, Wiltshire, U.K., on February 19. The buyer was London dealer Roderick Jellicoe, who has ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Jewelry Sale Brings In Over $2 Million
Antique Jewelry & Gemology
Moderately estimated jewelry was sold in Doyle New York’s two recent sales—a February 19 auction of 850 lots of jewelry, watches, and gold coins, in addition to contents of abandoned safe deposit boxes by order of Bank of America, and a February 20 fine jewelry sale.
All 199 ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Hudson Valley Cupboard Sells for $46,000
A mid-18th-century Hudson Valley stepback cupboard, found in a Dutch stone house in Ulster County, New York sold at Hyde Park Country Auctions, in Poughkeepsie, New York, on February 16 for $46,000 (includes buyer’s premium).
“The estimate was $3000/6000. The consignor would have been happy with $2000,” said Dominick J. Navarra, ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Dogs in Art at Doyle
Doyle, New York City
Photos courtesy Doyle
Doyle’s sporting art sale on February 13 coincided with the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show and the opening of the American Kennel Club Museum of the Dog in midtown Manhattan. The catalyst for the 238-lot sale was the collection of James W. Smith (1941-2018) of ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Chronometers Set the Pace at CRN
CRN Auctions, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts
Photos courtesy CRN Auctions, Inc.
The annual CRN Auctions’ winter sale, held on January 27 in its Cambridge gallery, began with a group of choice chronometers—mostly marine examples—and a few navigational instruments from a meticulously held Connecticut collection that found great favor with bidders. The collector had ... (Read More)
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(Show)Lebanon Antique Show
Lebanon, Ohio
Midway through the first day of the Lebanon Antique Show, held January 26 and 27 in southwestern Ohio, show manager John Wanat was helping a buyer move a room-size Oriental rug. The new owner was from Cincinnati, roughly a half-hour’s drive away, and hadn’t come to the show to ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Edmondson’s “Uplifted Lady” Raises the Roof
Case Antiques Auctions and Appraisals, Knoxville, Tennessee
Photos courtesy Case Antiques
John Case and the entire auction house team in Knoxville, Tennessee, were elated with the results of their January 26 one-day sale of over 850 lots. While the top-ten list contained everything from modern paintings to regional pottery to Federal formality, ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Pushing the Button Collection and Pulling Another
Brunk Auctions, Asheville, North Carolina
Photos courtesy Brunk Auctions
In 2017 figure skater champion and straight-talking sports commentator Dick Button lent a portion of his skating-related art collection to the Fenimore Art Museum. His posters, paintings, sculptures, skates, costumes, and other artifacts filled six gallery rooms at the Cooperstown, New York, museum. ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Quinn’s Opens 2019 with Strong Sales
Quinn’s Auction Galleries, Falls Church, Virginia
Photos courtesy Quinn’s Auction Galleries
Quinn’s Auction Galleries opened its 2019 sales year with a pair of midwinter cataloged auctions at the firm’s Falls Church, Virginia, gallery on January 24 and 26. The first sale comprised 385 lots of modern prints, posters, and works on paper. ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Sculpture Stampedes Past Paintings at Skinner
Skinner, Boston, Massachusetts
Photo courtesy Skinner
Good Western sculpture was the most interesting art in the January 25 auction of fine American and European works of art at Skinner’s Boston gallery. Sculpture by Western artist Harry Andrew Jackson was front and center, along with a wide range of paintings, drawings, and sculpture.
The ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Collectors’ Passion Sale
Nye & Company, Bloomfield, New Jersey
Photos courtesy Nye & Company
Nye & Company held its first sale of 2019 on January 23, a few days after Sotheby’s and Christie’s Americana Week sales had concluded and during the second week of the Winter Show. Called a “Collectors’ Passion Sale,” the auction drew ... (Read More)
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(Show)The New York Antique Ceramics Fair
New York City
There were nine dealers at the New York Antique Ceramics Fair, which filled half of the third floor of the National Bohemian Hall, January 17-20, in New York City. The dealers rescued the fair when, after nearly two decades of participating in Americana Week in New York, show ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Backus Painting Brings $20,900
One day before the January 20 auction conducted by Ron Rennick of Rennick Auctions Inc., Vero Beach, Florida, featuring paintings by A.E. Backus and Highwaymen, Zollie Reed of Melbourne brought in two paintings by Harold Newton (1934-1994) that she personally had bought from Newton and a painting by Alfred Hair ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Outsider and Vernacular Art at Auction
Christie’s, New York City
Photos courtesy Christie’s Images, Ltd., 2019
Christie’s sale of Outsider and vernacular art held a treasure-trove of works from notable collections, including the William Louis-Dreyfus Foundation and the Louis-Dreyfus family collections; and the collections of Larry Dumont, Eugenie and Lael Johnson, and Bonnie Grossman, founder of the Ames ... (Read More)
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(Auction)The Nelson and Happy Rockefeller Collection
Sotheby’s, New York City
Photos courtesy Sotheby’s
Nelson Rockefeller shared the collecting gene with his mother, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller (1874-1948), and with his aunt Lucy Truman Aldrich (1869-1955). Between 1934 and 1956, Lucy’s collections were given to the Rhode Island School of Design, where they were joined by gifts from her younger ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Chinese Export Art
Christie’s, New York City
Photos courtesy Christie’s Images, Ltd., 2019
Houqua (1769-1843) was the most powerful and wealthy of the Chinese merchants who made up the Co-Hong in Canton. By the time he retired in 1834, his wealth was estimated at $26 million. China traders wrote about his lavish entertaining and generous ... (Read More)
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(Show)The Word is Out on Outsider Art
Outsider Art Fair, New York City
The word is out. The seventh edition of the Outsider Art Fair (OAF) under the helm of gallerist Andrew Edlin’s Wide Open Arts, held January 17-20, during Americana Week, was a big hit with collectors, dealers, and curators who made the trip downtown to the ... (Read More)
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(Auction)The Contents of Little Cassiobury
Christie’s, New York City
Photos courtesy Christie’s Images, Ltd., 2019
When Cassiobury Park, the Earl of Essex’s country house for 250 years in Hertfordshire, northwest of London, was demolished in 1927, some of its interior features were sold to museums and wealthy Americans. A grand staircase went to the Metropolitan Museum of ... (Read More)
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(Auction)The Vogel Collection
Sotheby’s, New York City
Photos courtesy Sotheby’s
The collection of Anne H. and Frederick Vogel III was part of the fast-moving, well-attended, and informative all-day Americana Week symposium at Sotheby’s in New York City on January 15. The stunning installation on the second and third floor at Sotheby’s of the Vogels’ 17th- ... (Read More)
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(Show)January Show Kicks Off Antiques Season in Ohio
Hudson Antique Show, Richfield, Ohio
Hosting an antiques show in January in Ohio is always a thrill. Steve Sherhag, show manager for the Hudson Antique Show, held at the Richfield, Ohio, Days Inn, January 12 and 13, has learned to go with the flow. This year the weather was not an ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Americana and Decorative Arts
Garth’s Auctions, Columbus, Ohio
Photos courtesy Garth’s Auctions
Decorative arts took second billing to Americana during the January 12 sale held by Garth’s Auctions in Columbus, Ohio. “There was a level of Americana in that auction that was commensurate with the level of quality we had for Thanksgiving,” said Jeff Jeffers, Garth’s ... (Read More)
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(Auction)A World-Class Restoration Job Leads Gamage Sale
Bruce Gamage Auction, Rockland, Maine
Bruce Gamage’s January 5 and 6 auction in Rockland, Maine, was a good kickoff to his auction year.
What was arguably the oldest piece of furniture in the sale turned out to be the most expensive. The extensive repairs on an extraordinary Pilgrim-century chest, circa 1690, seemed ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Nipper Nets Top Spot at Nadeau’s
Nadeau’s Auction Gallery, Windsor, Connecticut
Photos courtesy Nadeau’s Auction Gallery
It’s a very good sign when an auction gallery has standing room only nearly an hour before the beginning of the sale. Such was the case at Nadeau’s Auction Gallery’s annual New Year’s Day auction in its Windsor, Connecticut, gallery where every ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Foster Kicks Off Maine’s New Auction Year
Robert L. Foster Auction Company, Newcastle, Maine
It was a grand way to open a new year for the Maine auction trade. Once again, people flocked by the hundreds to Robert Foster’s New Year’s Day auction in Newcastle, Maine, as they’ve been doing for the past several decades. Some works by ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Fall Sales Bring Six-Figure Success
New Orleans Auction Galleries, New Orleans, Louisiana
Photos courtesy New Orleans Auction Galleries
The New Orleans Auction Galleries (NOAG) had a remarkable year with a total of nearly $16 million ($15,930,000) for all sales. This figure was the result of ten events in all, a total that included major estates auctions featuring ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Tremont Auctions Moves
Tremont Auctions, formerly of Newton, Massachusetts, has moved to new quarters in Sudbury, Massachusetts, and is open for business. The new gallery at 615 Boston Post Road (Route 20) is larger, with more accommodation for storage and parking than at the previous location. In addition, it is situated on a ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Sotheby’s Expands
Sotheby’s new expanded exhibition galleries at its York Avenue, New York City, the location will be ready in time for its May sales of Impressionist, modern, and contemporary art. The renovation and expansion was designed by Shohei Shigematsu of OMA New York, in collaboration with Sotheby’s.
Exhibition and auction space has ... (Read More)
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