Stories for April '21
(Young Collectors)Control Issues
The Young Collector
Pandemic lifestyle grates on a person. Of course, at this point in winter, everything grates on a person, and as the anniversary of a year in shutdown rolls around for many of us, it grates all the more.
Many aspects of this are, as the kids would often say ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Auction Prices Realized, April 2021
Here are a few notable prices of antiques sold recently at auction, as provided by press releases. All prices include the buyer’s premium when charged. We’re always looking for news of prices realized at auctions, particularly unusual or top lots. Send pictures, complete descriptions, and information to A.P.R., Maine Antique ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Lost and Found: Copley Portraits Reunited
If a longtime trustee had not asked Tom Denenberg, director of the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont, to take a look at a Modernist painting illustrated in Sotheby’s online catalog for a December 11, 2020, American art sale, he might not have known that John Singleton Copley’s portrait of Mrs. ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Saint Louis Art Museum Buys David Drake Ceramic Jar
The Saint Louis Art Museum has acquired a ceramic vessel signed and dated by the enslaved ceramicist David Drake (c. 1801-1870s). The museum purchased the work in December for $155,000 from dealer Robert Hunter of Yorktown, Virginia.
Jar by David Drake (c. 1801-after 1870), dated June 6, 1857, alkaline-glazed stoneware; ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Letter from London, April 2021
While business appears to have been quite brisk in New York and other U.S. locations in 2021, the major London salerooms, as is generally the case, have been rather slow getting into “New Year” gear.
From those sales that had taken place before my copy deadline was reached, I have selected ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Keno Sues for Payment
On February 4 Keno, Inc., the New York City company owned by Leigh Keno, filed a motion for summary judgment against Grace Lu of Great Neck, New York. Keno claims it is owed $133,450.
The case, filed in Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York, alleges ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Hanging with Graham C. Boettcher
We are all spending much more time now in our houses and apartments because of COVID-19. Because we all might enjoy staring at someone else’s walls for a change, this column gives our readers an idea of what some of their colleagues, fellow collectors, and other readers surround themselves with ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Conditions of Sale
When an auction is advertised as having “No Buyer’s Premium,” it doesn’t necessarily mean there will not be other charges.
A regional auction house touts that it doesn’t charge a buyer’s premium, which is an attractive incentive to bid in these days when the buyer’s premium is pushing ever closer to ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Dover Antiques and Vintage Market—New Name and New Day of the Week
Gurley Antique Shows has scheduled its Dover Antiques and Vintage Market at the Dover Elks Lodge, 282 Durham Road, Dover, New Hampshire, for three Saturdays—April 24, May 22, and June 19—with more dates to follow. These shows will be outdoors from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. There will be 50-plus ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Art and Antiques in Time of Crisis: The Metropolitan Fair of 1864
Like many in the art and antiques field, I have been stuck at home, with daily business largely at a standstill. I’ve used part of the time to fine-tune a manuscript written in 2019 for the Frick Center for the History of Collecting about the remarkable New York City dry ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Leland Little’s New Sporting Arts Department
A root-head goose by Lawrence Howard (1891-1975) of Ocracoke, North Carolina, sold for $12,600 (includes buyer’s premium), topping the first sale conducted by the new sporting arts department of Leland Little Auctions in Hillsborough, North Carolina, on February 25.
$12,600.
The catalog noted that “surviving root head decoys are rare and geese ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Freeman’s Record Sale Topped by $4.7 Million White Interior
None of the 12 bidders competing for lot 56 at Freeman’s February 23 sale had traveled to Philadelphia to inspect Carl Moll’s painting White Interior. Eleven high-resolution images in the online-only catalog were enough to entice three of them to continue bidding past $3 million.
Auctioneer David Weiss opened the bidding ... (Read More)
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(Show)In the Cloud with the New York Antiques Show
The New York Antiques Show Online
It is a bit surprising to learn of an entirely new antiques event entering today’s turbulent environment. But that is what occurred the weekend of January 29-31 when the inaugural New York Antiques Show debuted as an entirely virtual event.
This new New York Antiques Show ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Theus Portrait Bought by Family Member
Wooten & Wooten Auctions, Camden, South Carolina
Photos courtesy Wooten & Wooten
In 1740, at the age of 24, Swiss émigré Jeremiah Theus (1716-1774) was advertising his skills as a painter to the citizens of Charleston, South Carolina. For the next three decades, he was perhaps the only full-time portrait painter in ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Online Sale of Folk Art and Americana
Circle Auction, Kansas City, Missouri
Photos courtesy Circle Auction
The product of what started as a side business for Ezra H. Griffith, a soda company representative, more than 150 years ago in New York was the show-stopper for a Circle Auction sale on January 30 that otherwise featured many items typically found ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Hap Moore’s Old-Fashioned Auction
Hap Moore Antiques Auctions, York, Maine
Hap Moore, bless his good ol’ heart, is steering clear of online auctions and going with the now old-fashioned, in-person, in-your-face auctions. Even though current Maine COVID-19-related regulations restrict gatherings to 50 people, Moore still prefers them to online selling. “I will not do online ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Shearer Desk and Weathervanes Are Highlights
Bonhams, Los Angeles, California
Photos courtesy Bonhams
How ironic that a desk made by a pro-Tory joiner who wrote and hid a letter within it referring to the British burning of the Capitol on August 24, 1814, should come to market the same month the second assault on our nation’s Capitol building ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Two-Day Sarasota Auction
Sarasota Estate Auction, Sarasota, Florida
Photos courtesy Sarasota Estate Auction
On January 23 and 24 Sarasota Estate Auction, Sarasota, Florida, brought forth an online auction consisting of almost 1500 lots that totaled over $750,000. Owner and auctioneer Andrew Ford hammered down a robust collection of Tiffany lamps, silver, and fine art. But ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Five-Lot Sale Brings $930,470
Keno Auctions, New York City
Photos courtesy Keno Auctions
"We had a total of 642 registered bidders from 28 countries, including the 18 registered to bid by phone with Keno Auctions,” said Leigh Keno after his five-lot white-glove sale on Saturday, January 23, that brought a tidy $930,470 (including buyers’ premiums). He ... (Read More)
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(Auction)“In Praise of America” Sale
Christie’s, New York City
Photos courtesy Christie’s
Christie’s Americana Week sales totaled $9,202,500 and established five auction records. A rare contemporary 1776 broadside of the Declaration of Independence from the collection of Ambassador J. William Middendorf II (b. 1924) sold for $990,000 (with buyer’s premium) against a $600,000/800,000 estimate. It was the ... (Read More)
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(Show)The 2021 Winter Show
New York City
It had been a tough year for art and antiques dealers. Shows were canceled, galleries closed, and travel restricted as the nation wrestled with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Auctions, with their strong online presence in place, expanded distance buying and prospered despite Sotheby’s adding a 1% “overhead premium” and Christie’s ... (Read More)
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(Auction)“Vineyard Dreams”
Sotheby’s, New York City
Photos courtesy Sotheby’s
Sotheby’s January 8-22 online sale of the contents of a tastefully decorated summer house on Martha’s Vineyard brought $310,716 and was 95% sold by lot.
What do you do with a collection when you sell your house quickly and need to empty it? If you bought ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Silver, Chinese Export, and Prints
Sotheby’s, New York City
Photos courtesy Sotheby’s
Sotheby’s sold silver, Chinese export porcelain, and prints on Friday afternoon, January 22, in a timed online sale that began at 1 p.m. and added $1,141,938 to Sotheby’s week’s total. The sale of 98 lots was not over before Christie’s John Hays appeared live on ... (Read More)
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(Auction)American Furniture and Folk Art
Sotheby’s, New York City
Photos courtesy Sotheby’s
There was no annual conclave of collectors of Americana in New York City in January. The auctions and the Winter Show had an online presence. Appointments were made to view the offerings at Sotheby’s and Christie’s and to see what was consigned during the year ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Chinese Export Art
Christie’s, New York City
Photos courtesy Christie’s
Christie’s has been selling the Tibor collection over the past several years. Formed over decades, it numbers more than 500 works and encompasses every category of Chinese export porcelain, from small, charming teawares to massive pairs of jars. The collection is named for the richly ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Heritage Examines the Current Jewelry Market
Antique Jewelry & Gemology
Photos courtesy Heritage Auctions
Heritage Auctions, based in Dallas, Texas, presented a discussion about the state of the jewelry market, “Fine Jewelry Virtual Market Commentary,” on January 19 via Zoom. Jill Burgum, senior director of fine jewelry, based in Dallas, and Gina D’Onofrio, director of fine jewelry, based ... (Read More)
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(Auction)American Folk-Art Finds
New Haven Auctions, New Haven, Connecticut
Photos courtesy New Haven Auctions
Howard and Nancy D. Wagner of Beaver Creek, Ohio, were historians, collectors, and preservationists and were also the owners of The Yankee Peddler in Fairborn, Ohio. They had keen eyes and had gathered an impressive group of some 400 American folk-art ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Americana Sells in Los Angeles
Andrew Jones Auctions, Los Angeles, California
Photos courtesy Andrew Jones Auctions
Los Angeles is a notoriously difficult place to sell Americana, especially furniture, but on January 12 the almost 200 online and phone bidders participating in Andrew Jones Auctions’ only such sale of the year snapped up 93% of the more than ... (Read More)
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(Show)The Online Washington Winter Show
Washington, D.C.
The Washington Winter Show was founded in 1955 as the Washington Antiques Show. Over the years the show has been reinvented, its organization and name have been changed, and it has occupied several venues. Throughout, however, the event has remained true to its original goal: to raise funds in ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Five-Day Gun Battle at Poulin
Poulin Antiques and Auctions, Inc., Fairfield, Maine
Photos courtesy Poulin Antiques and Auctions, Inc.
It took five days, December 11-15, 2020, to bring up all 3393 lots in the Poulin Antiques and Auctions mammoth firearms auction in Fairfield, Maine. Colonial American weaponry, Civil War artifacts, and World War II armaments figured in ... (Read More)
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(Auction)African American Art at Swann Galleries
Swann Galleries, New York City
Photos courtesy Swann Galleries
Winding down 2020—a year filled with 28 online auctions and countless Instagram Live and Zoom events—Swann Galleries held its African American art sale online starting at noon on December 10. Always a standing-room-only event in previous years, it drew bidders vying for 211 ... (Read More)
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(Auction)American and European Art
Hindman, Chicago, Illinois
Photos courtesy Hindman
"It was a wonderful sale. There were no million-dollar home runs, but ninety percent of the lots found buyers, and hammer prices exceeded our presale low estimate by almost $300,000.” That’s how Joe Stanfield, director of fine art at Hindman, Chicago, described the December 10, 2020, ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Modern and Historical Native American Art
Bonhams, Los Angeles, California
Photos courtesy Bonhams
Department director Ingmars Lindbergs was “pleased overall” but then described the December 8, 2020, modern and historical Native American art auction, held in Los Angeles, as “uneven.” He explained that “it started energetically, but one-third into the jewelry (there was a LOT of jewelry),” the ... (Read More)
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(Auction)New Jersey Stoneware Cooler with Incised Ship Sells for $252,000
Crocker Farm, Sparks, Maryland
photos courtesy Crocker Farm
"We were really excited about having three million-dollar sales in a row,” said Mark Zipp of Crocker Farm following his family’s late autumn online auction, which ran from November 20 to December 4, 2020.
“No one obviously knew what to expect when COVID hit, and ... (Read More)
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(Auction)The Road West: Steve Turner’s Collection of African Americana, Part II
Cowan’s Auctions, Cincinnati, Ohio
Photos courtesy Cowan’s Auctions
The second and final installment of the sale of Steve Turner’s collection of African Americana, held on December 3, 2020, by Cowan’s Auctions, Cincinnati, Ohio, saw the same strong interest as the first sale, conducted at Hindman in Chicago in February 2020. The biggest ... (Read More)
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(Auction)“Tradition & Innovation” and “Art & Design” at Toomey
Toomey & Co. Auctioneers, Oak Park, Illinois
Photos courtesy Toomey & Co.
While much of the world was deep into a pandemic and many were depressed about social isolation and other issues, with a dismal year closing as retail tanked and hospitality industries closed in droves, let it be celebrated that a ... (Read More)
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