Stories for November '19

(Issue Story)

Courage in the Antiques World
by Baron Perlman

The great—from Homer to George Washington to Winston Churchill—have long been fascinated by courage. And who can blame them? Bravery on the field of battle is one of the most admirable and inexplicable virtues imaginable. How and why, then, can we indulge ourselves, talking about “bravery” in the pedestrian field ... (Read More)

(Issue Story)

The Center for Pennsylvania German Studies Opens
by Lita Solis-Cohen

Local history makes a community proud. It adds to quality of life. Take the town of Trappe, Pennsylvania, for example. It’s a crossroads 25 miles northwest of Philadelphia and just a few miles from the larger community of Collegeville, where Ursinus College has flourished since it was granted its charter ... (Read More)

(Fragment)

Alaska Man Sentenced
by M.A.D. staff

A Skagway, Alaska, man has been sentenced for illegally exporting a raw ivory tusk, using falsified forms to have it admitted to Indonesia, and thereafter illegally importing the carved tusk, for sale, back into the United States. James Terrance Williams, 67, of Inside Passage Arts was sentenced to serve two years ... (Read More)

(Fragment)

Dawes Named Chairman and CEO of Salmagundi Club
by M.A.D. staff

Nick Dawes, senior vice president for special collections at Heritage Auctions, has been named chairman and CEO of the Salmagundi Club after serving on the board of the nonprofit club for several years. Salmagundi is the oldest artists’ club in New York City and one of the oldest in the ... (Read More)

(Young Collectors)

Looking for the Good
by Hollie Davis and Andrew Richmond

School has started back at our house, and every year it is an anxiety-ridden process. Like anything that comes with tremendous rewards, homeschooling also comes with tremendous responsibility. And as with anything that comes with tremendous responsibility, there are people who are happy to take your money to alleviate some ... (Read More)

(Book Review)

Robert Ellison’s Art Pottery at the Met
by Lita Solis-Cohen

In June 2013 the Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired 76 pottery vessels by European artist potters from the encyclopedic collection assembled over decades by artist, photographer, and ceramic historian Robert Ellison Jr. Of the 76 works, 54 were generously donated, and 40 of them were put on view in 2014 ... (Read More)

(Fragment)

Doyle Expands Its Florida Operations
by M.A.D. staff

Doyle Auctioneers & Appraisers of New York City has expanded its Florida operations, adding two auction professionals. Furniture and decorative arts specialist Sebastian Clarke has been appointed senior vice president, and jewelry specialist Katherine Van Dell has been appointed vice president. Clarke and Van Dell are husband and wife. They join ... (Read More)

(Issue Story)

The North Yarmouth, Maine, Pottery Industry, 1791-1890
by Justin W. Thomas

The late 18th- and 19th-century red earthenware industry of North Yarmouth, Maine, in an area that became known as Yarmouth after 1849, is an aspect of Maine’s utilitarian pottery production that is somewhat forgotten today. From about 1791 to 1890 this was arguably Maine’s largest production center, located about 12 ... (Read More)

(Issue Story)

Letter from London, November 2019
by Ian McKay, [email protected]

A further selection of “Rothschild” specials is featured in this month’s “Letter,” offering a picture of a “ham dinner” by David Teniers and some exceptional pieces of furniture. Among the latter are Marie Antoinette’s writing table and a pair of mid-18th-century console tables that, rather unusually, feature polished steel in ... (Read More)

(Fragment)

American Furniture Study Center
by Frances McQueeney-Jones Mascolo

American Furniture Study Center ... (Read More)

(Fragment)

Former Partners to Face Off in Legal Battle
by Clayton Pennington

In 1987 an informal partnership of Treadway Gallery and John Toomey Gallery was formed to conduct sales. For the next 30 years, the pair sold hundreds of thousands of lots, regularly publishing thick catalogs filled with every kind of antiques and art but with a special emphasis on Modernism and ... (Read More)

(Fragment)

Winter Show Loan Exhibition Reflects Global Market
by M.A.D. staff

Masterworks from the collection of the Hispanic Society Museum & Library, spanning 4000 years of Hispanic history, art, and culture, will be the loan exhibition at The Winter Show, January 24-February 2, 2020, the annual benefit for the East Side House Settlement in the South Bronx. The exhibition is co-curated by former ... (Read More)

(Issue Story)

Winterthur Purchases Two Genre Paintings
by Lita Solis-Cohen

Photos courtesy Winterthur Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library purchased two genre paintings at Christie’s in January: Self-Portrait of John Lewis Krimmel with Susannah Krimmel and Her Children, 1810-11, by John Lewis Krimmel (1786-1821) and Family Group in a New York Interior by François-Jules Bourgoin, a 19th-century immigrant from France. Both paintings ... (Read More)

(Book Review)

American Silver in the Philadelphia Museum
by Lita Solis-Cohen

Dedicated to the memory of Robert L. McNeil Jr. (1915-2010), a museum trustee, passionate collector of American art, and benefactor of scholarship, American Silver in the Philadelphia Museum of Art: Volume I, Makers A-F is the long-awaited first of four volumes to be published over the next five or six ... (Read More)

(Issue Story)

Fired for Ephemera
by Clayton Pennington

Officer Charles Anderson, a member of the Muskegon, Michigan, police department for 22 years, was fired on September 12. The cause of his termination was a framed piece of ephemera Anderson had purchased for $20 to $30 at the Shipshewana Flea Market in Indiana. The piece of ephemera, a blank Ku ... (Read More)

(Issue Story)

Exhibitions, November 2019
by M.A.D. staff

Harley Bartlett, Moon Glow, oil. —Through November 15 —Old Lyme, Connecticut The Lyme Art Association (LAA) presents its 2019 New England Landscape Exhibition, focusing on the “subject matter that inspired our founders, the Lyme Impressionists. Contented cows, bucolic pastures, and harbor scenes are popular subjects in this exhibition,” stated LAA’s gallery manager, ... (Read More)

(Issue Story)

100% Sold at Litchfield Auctions
by Mary Ann Brown

Antique Jewelry & Gemology Photos courtesy Litchfield Auctions Litchfield Auctions’ sale of jewelry on September 15 yielded a “white glove” result—100% sold—with “most items selling at or above estimate,” according to a post-sale press release. The 360-lot auction realized $960,500 with buyers’ premiums. “With a live crowd of auction-goers present at the gallery, ... (Read More)

(Fragment)

“Blue Dog” Benefit
by M.A.D. staff

Leading the Benefit Shop Foundation’s Red Carpet auction on September 11 was Dreaming of You, one of George Rodrigue’s “Blue Dog” paintings, which sold for $25,600 (includes buyer’s premium). The title, Dreaming of You, and the year 2000 are handwritten on the reverse of the painting. “This signed painting was acquired ... (Read More)

(Fragment)

Ivan the Terrible Returns Home
by Walter C. Newman

On September 9 a ceremony was held in the gallery of The Potomack Company in Alexandria, Virginia. The event was the culmination of nearly two years of research, investigation, and diplomatic discussions related to the return of a large oil painting to Ukraine. Among those present at the repatriation ceremonies ... (Read More)

(Auction)

Valuable Words to Remember: Hunter Family
by Pete Prunkl

Wooten & Wooten Auction & Appraisal, Camden, South Carolina Photos courtesy Wooten & Wooten When antiques show dealers query your reporter, their questions are always the same: “What’s selling?” For dealers in the South, Jeremy Wooten’s auction on September 7 in Camden, South Carolina, provided a quick and reliable answer: furniture made ... (Read More)

(Show)

Baltimore Art, Antique & Jewelry Show
by Walter C. Newman

Baltimore, Maryland The 39th annual edition of the Baltimore Summer Antiques Show was held over Labor Day weekend, August 29-September 1, at the Baltimore Convention Center. Officially named the Baltimore Art, Antique & Jewelry Show, the event is staged and managed by the Palm Beach Show Group. Following its format from ... (Read More)

(Auction)

Fifty Years in the Trade for Veilleux
by Mark Sisco

Thomaston Place Auction Galleries, Thomaston, Maine This year, Kaja Veilleux marks a half-century of working in the antiques trade. As the owner of and lead auctioneer for Thomaston Place Auction Galleries, he celebrated the 50-year mark with a strong three-day sale from August 23 to 25, topped by a contemporary marine ... (Read More)

(Show)

Log Cabins and a Bit of Buzz
by Don Johnson

Log Cabins on the Hill Antique Show, Oakland, Illinois Christy Morrow was enjoying herself. From inside the schoolhouse at Independence Pioneer Village, just north of Oakland, Illinois, Morrow was one of about a dozen dealers set up during the fall installment of the Log Cabins on the Hill Antique Show, held ... (Read More)

(Show)

Maine Antiques Dealers Summer Show
by Mark Sisco

Coastal Maine Antiques Show & Sale, Damariscotta, Maine The 22nd Maine Antiques Dealers Association (MADA) Coastal Maine Antiques Show & Sale, held this year on August 21, looked like a carbon copy of last year’s show. The long-term relationship with the Round Top Farm is history, and the new location at ... (Read More)

(Auction)

Big Names Emerge from Rural Maine
by Mark Sisco

Charles M. Talbot Associates, Turner, Maine Visit a Charles M. Talbot Associates auction, and you might feel as if you’ve stumbled into some kind of time warp. The old Talbot homestead is nestled in the foothills of Turner, Maine, overlooking a beautiful vista of the White Mountains. On a clear day, ... (Read More)

(Show)

“A Tradition of Trust and Integrity”
by Mark Sisco

Ellsworth Antiques Show at Woodlawn, Ellsworth, Maine The Ellsworth Antiques Show at the Woodlawn Museum in Ellsworth, Maine, which ran this year from August 15 to 17, opened on a pleasantly warm day, unbedeviled by weather concerns. But it was a day following a spectacular 3% drop in the S & ... (Read More)

(Issue Story)

Canes, Collectors, and Corn
by Ralph Finch

On August 15, at the end of a cornfield, just a tractor’s drive from Grand Rapids—no, not the big one in Michigan (population 188,031), but the two-block-long version (pop. 965) in Ohio and not too far—as the crows fly, and they often do—from Toledo, we were at Whalen Realty & ... (Read More)

(Auction)

Forke Collection of Americana Sold
by Frances McQueeney-Jones Mascolo

Skinner, Inc., Marlborough, Massachusetts Photos courtesy Skinner, Inc. A New England collection formed in Nebraska speaks of love. The collection of Don and Marilyn Forke was gathered carefully and in meticulous detail over the last half century. They kept records of the objects they acquired: from whom, from where, and provenance, construction, ... (Read More)

(Auction)

California and Western Paintings and Sculpture
by Alice Kaufman

Bonhams, Los Angeles, California Photos courtesy Bonhams Specialist Kathy Wong described Bonhams’ August 6 auction of California and Western paintings and sculpture as “very strong—especially great for late summer standards, but great overall.” Late summer sales can be “hit or miss,” she said, “with many clients away on holiday. But there was a ... (Read More)

(Show)

Repurposing the Maine Antiques Festival—Not Your Mother’s Antiques Show Anymore
by Mark Sisco

Maine Antiques Festival, Union, Maine The Maine Antiques Festival, held this year in Union, Maine, August 2-4, is changing, slowly but surely. The decades-old complaint of veterans of the antiques business has been that not enough young people are taking up the trade. But show owner and manager Paul Davis has ... (Read More)

(Auction)

Americana, Fine Art, and Marine Auction
by Jackie Sideli

Rafael Osona Auctions, Nantucket, Massachusetts Photos courtesy Rafael Osona Auctions The indefatigable Rafael Osona was at the auction podium for nearly eight hours without a break for his Americana auction on Nantucket on Saturday, August 3. Osona has many auctions over the summer months. The August 3 Americana sale was his specialty ... (Read More)

(Show)

Historic Setting Is Boost for Annual Show
by by Susan Emerson Nutter

Zoar Harvest Festival & Antiques Show, Zoar, Ohio The tents were a dead giveaway. Rounding the corner into Zoar, Ohio, during the last weekend in July, the huge white tents bordering cornfields could mean only one thing. The 46th annual Zoar Harvest Festival was underway, and with it antiques. Clarification: great ... (Read More)

(Auction)

John McInnis Has a Field Day
by Mark Sisco

John McInnis Auctioneers, East Boothbay, Maine On July 27 and 28 John McInnis auctioned the contents of the 18th-century Colonial homestead known as the Murray House in East Boothbay, Maine. With help from a personal connection to the owners, McInnis was able to snatch it away from other more local auctioneers ... (Read More)

(Auction)

Making Hay While the Sun Shines
by Karla Klein Albertson

New Orleans Auction Galleries, New Orleans, Louisiana Photos courtesy New Orleans Auction Galleries During the first seven months of 2019, the New Orleans Auction Galleries (NOAG) presented three major estates sales, with smaller specialized events in between. The most recent of the large auctions, held on July 27 and 28, consisted of ... (Read More)

(Auction)

Summer Migration on the Cape
by Frances McQueeney-Jones Mascolo

Decoys Unlimited, Inc., Plymouth, Massachusetts Photos courtesy Decoys Unlimited Part three of the annual summer decoy migration took place July 25 and 26 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, where Judy and Ted Harmon’s Decoys Unlimited, West Barnstable, Massachusetts, continued the auction of prized decoys migrating from one collection to another. Collectors know the birds, ... (Read More)

(Auction)

Plover Trio Stars in Sporting Sale
by Frances McQueeney-Jones Mascolo

Copley Fine Art Auctions, Plymouth, Massachusetts Photos courtesy Copley Fine Art Auctions Everything was in place for a booming sporting art sale at Copley Fine Art Auctions on July 25 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and no one was disappointed. The sale brought over $3 million. A large part of that was the $1,140,000 ... (Read More)

(Auction)

Amusing Style Selections
by Danielle Arnet

Wright, Chicago, Illinois Photos courtesy Wright When a sale is announced as “The Amusing Style,” one has to wonder. Amusing in what way? As in ha-ha? Perhaps as offbeat and unusual? Or maybe silly? Fortunately, the July 24 sale at Wright in Chicago came with an explanation. The expression is a construct articulated ... (Read More)

(Auction)

Bidders and Birds Deliver at Auction
by Frances McQueeney-Jones Mascolo

Guyette & Deeter, Portsmouth, New Hampshire The annual fowl and feathers week in New England began on July 23 with the Guyette & Deeter two-day auction in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The swarm of buyers were focused on prized decoys from such well-known collections as those of Ginny and Gordy Hayes, Richard ... (Read More)

(Auction)

Standout Furniture and Decorative Arts
by Danielle Arnet

Hindman Auctions, Chicago, Illinois An attractive consignment of Americana in a July 17 and 18 fine furniture, decorative arts, and silver sale at Chicago’s recently revamped Hindman Auctions told a silent tale of two sisters. The pair shared well-known collectors as parents—Willard and Faith Henoch of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who contributed to varied ... (Read More)
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