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Book Reviews by Lita Solis-Cohen & M.A.D. Staff
Book Reviews
A Guide to Taking Good Care
by Lita Solis-Cohen
Did you know that using microfiber dustcloths is the safest and most efficient way to keep most objects clean? They are charged with static electricity and are dry and lint free. A long soft-bristled brush is the tool to use to dust ... (Read More)
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Auction Prices Realized
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., ... (Read More)
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In the long sleepless night before the “shots heard round the world” were fired “shots heard round the world” were firedon Lexington Green on April 19, 1775, a solemn group of patriots sat in that Colonial town’s Buckman Tavern awaiting the arrival of British soldiers from Boston. Diaries report that ... (Read More)
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Beneath the Surface
Back when COVID-19 was terrible (or is that still now?) we wrote about an imaginary trip we’d get to take someday when much of this was behind us. Recently, much like a movie adaptation of a novel with some of the important bits trimmed out of it, we ... (Read More)
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John and Elizabeth DeSimone ofGoosefare Antiques & Promotionshave announced a new series of monthly winter shows in Portland, Maine. The shows will be on Sundays from December through April at the Italian Heritage Center, off Congress Street.
“The hall is well lit, level to the ground, with three large loading doors, ... (Read More)
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The New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) will serve as the 2022-24 Curatorial Internship Grant partner of the Decorative Arts Trust, a nonprofit organization that underwrites curatorial internships for recent master’s degree or Ph.D. graduates in collaboration with museums and historical societies.
These internships allow host organizations to hire a deserving ... (Read More)
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Most collectors know—and I have written about it myself—that one of the primary motivators for collecting is the hunt. Not knowing when one will find a piece to covet, even what it will be, renders the ongoing search full of unknowns. The hunt lies at the heart of what we ... (Read More)
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On October 19 curator Inhee Moon of Englewood, New Jersey, was arrested on a charge of theft by deception. According to Bergen County prosecutor Mark Musella, on June 15 detectives from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Financial Crimes Unit received a complaint against Moon that accused her of unlawfully taking ... (Read More)
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One lot towers above all others in this month’s selection, not physically but in financial terms—an early 16th-century Samson and Delilah plate that utterly demolished its estimate in selling at $1.71 million in Edinburgh—but in drawing on English and Irish country sales as well some of what the Scottish capital ... (Read More)
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The Haddam Historical Society has announced that the Connecticut Spring Antiques Show will be held in Hartford March 26 and 27, 2022, after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Debbie Turi will be the new show manager, taking over for Karen DiSaia, who has agreed to provide guidance ... (Read More)
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Daring Design: The Impact of Three Women on Wharton Esherick’s Craft, an exhibition at the Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, opened early in September and continues through February 6, 2022. It demonstrates the importance of commissions from three women on the creative life in the early career of Wharton ... (Read More)
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Olde Hope, New York City
There must be something in the New York fall air. Weathervanes seem to be everywhere, including at Olde Hope’s New York City gallery exhibition and sale and at the American Folk Art Museum’s months-long, well-publicized exhibition American Weathervanes: The Art of the Winds (open through January ... (Read More)
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Objects tell stories, and those stories keep evolving, certainly for Holly and Jeff Noordsy, antique bottle, glass, and earthenware dealers who live in Cornwall, Vermont.
Jeff and Holly Noordsy in their abode.
Their story begins at a film studies class during the January term at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont. Jeff, then ... (Read More)
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Claude Monet (1840-1926), Charing Cross Bridge, brouillard, 1902, oil on canvas, 28¾" x 36¼". Collection of Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO). Gift of Ethel and Milton Harris, 1990. Photograph © AGO.
—Through January 23, 2022 —San Antonio, Texas
Claude Monet and James Abbott McNeill Whistler were both fascinated by London’s Thames River. ... (Read More)
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Passing It On
In 2020, staring into the teeth of the COVID-19 pandemic, Germany launched a rescue package dubbed Neustart Kultur (Restart Culture), which committed one billion euros in order to maintain the country’s cultural scene and infrastructure. When the initial funds were used up, Germany threw another billion euros at ... (Read More)
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Chris Strand, the longtime director of garden and estate at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, has been named its Charles F. Montgomery Director and CEO. Strand has served as interim director and CEO at Winterthur since May.
As interim director, Strand was responsible for all aspects of museum, library, and garden ... (Read More)
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Antique Jewelry and Gemology
Photos courtesy Rago/Wright
Dianne Batista, director of fine jewelry, reported “really solid results and a lot of activity” when Rago/Wright, Lambertville, New Jersey, held its fall jewelry sale on October 20. She said it was a co-branded auction on the Rago and Wright platform. “We are doing that ... (Read More)
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Virginia Pickers Antiques & Collectables Show, Glen Allen, Virginia
The fall 2021 edition of the Virginia Pickers Antiques & Collectables Show was held October 15 and 16 at Gilman’s Farm in Glen Allen, Virginia. This marks the seventh semiannual Virginia Pickers sale, and its growth is obvious.
The spring show had 150 ... (Read More)
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Witherell’s, Sacramento, California
Photos courtesy Witherell’s
“Buyers drop more than $3.1M during auction of Al Capone’s heirlooms” was a headline in the New York Post on October 12. But even before the blockbuster prices, the Witherell’s auction on October 8, “A Century of Notoriety: The Estate of Al Capone,” was a remarkable ... (Read More)
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Antiques Dealers’ Association of America
The Antiques Dealers’ Association of America, Inc. (ADA), established in May 1984 as a nonprofit trade association to make the business of buying and selling antiques more professional, was one of the first to launch an online antiques show. In 2019 when COVID-19 closed shows and ... (Read More)
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Fishersville Antiques Expo, Fishersville, Virginia
The 67th semiannual Fishersville Antiques Expo was held as scheduled, October 8 and 9, at the Augusta Expo in Fishersville, Virginia. The show is staged by Heritage Promotions, Lynchburg, Virginia. The firm is co-owned by Ray and Martha Stokes and their daughter, Lesley Bartram. Fishersville is ... (Read More)
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Ludlow, Vermont
The fall foliage was not even close to peak (blame the warm weather evenings), but the annual Black River Antique Show, October 1 and 2, was, as usual, the place to find good buys. There was some brisk business, according to show manager Steve Sherhag of Ohio.
Steve Sherhag’s booth ... (Read More)
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Ludlow, Vermont
We knew that Vermont has ski resorts and lodges, but an ice house? In Ludlow, Vermont, one of the annual fall antiques shows was held in what most of us would call an outdoor ice skating rink. Jackson Gore Lodge at Okemo Mountain is a high-end resort with an ... (Read More)
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Pook & Pook, Inc., Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Photos courtesy Pook & Pook
A Mickey Mouse print by Andy Warhol sold for $196,800 (including buyer’s premium); a Harriet Whitney Frishmuth bronze fountain sold for $147,600; an Elie Nadelman bronze head of a man wearing a jaunty hat sold for $116,850; and four bronze 1992 ... (Read More)
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Hindman, Cincinnati, Ohio
Photos courtesy Hindman
An Andrew Clemens sand bottle sold for a record $956,000 (including buyer’s premium) against an estimate of $100,000/150,000 during the Hindman auction of American furniture, folk art, and decorative arts on September 30 and October 1 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Wes Cowan, vice chair of Hindman, said ... (Read More)
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The Potomack Company, Alexandria, Virginia
Photos courtesy The Potomack Company
The Potomack Company held its recent suite of targeted sales in five sessions, spaced over a three-day period, September 28-30, at its Alexandria, Virginia, galleries. Potomack has settled comfortably into a groove of offering these smaller, more precisely curated auctions in series. ... (Read More)
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Hindman Auctions, Chicago, Illinois
Photos courtesy Hindman Auctions
We love these salad days in the auction biz, and still they continue. This September in a series of three days (September 27-29), each with a cataloged fine art sale, Hindman Auctions in Chicago realized over $7.5 million. In the process, more than 15 ... (Read More)
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Heritage Auctions, Dallas, Texas
Photos courtesy Heritage Auctions
A broadside offering a $100,000 reward for the capture of one of America’s most notorious assassins sold for a record $275,000 (including buyer’s premium) at Heritage Auctions’ September 25 and 26 Americana and political auction. Issued by the U.S. War Department on April 20, ... (Read More)
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On September 26 Cordier Auctions & Appraisals, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, hosted an online auction of art from the collection of Raymonde “Ré” DéSabres Plaut (1925-2020); the sale benefited the Art Association of Harrisburg and the Humane Society of Harrisburg Area. The artist loved art and animals, and one of her final ... (Read More)
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Battersea Antiques Show & Historic Trades Fair, Petersburg, Virginia
The second annual Battersea Antiques Show & Historic Trades Fair was held September 18 and 19 on the grounds of Historic Battersea in Petersburg, Virginia. The event is sponsored by the Battersea Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded in 2006 whose purpose is ... (Read More)
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Carlsen Gallery, Freehold, New York
Photos courtesy Carlsen Gallery
In September 1992 the Carlsen family held the first auction at their new gallery. There were no computers, no websites, no Internet, and no smartphones. Carlsen’s buyer’s premium was 5%. George Bush was president. The average annual personal income was $22,000. Gasoline was ... (Read More)
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A September 18 online sale described as “small and exclusive” by Cottone Auctions, Geneseo, New York, netted $3.75 million, with a painting by John Frederick Kensett (1816-1872), a Navajo chief’s blanket, and a circa 1870 timepiece setting the pace.
Singing Beach & Eagle Rock, Magnolia, Massachusetts by Kensett, a Hudson River ... (Read More)
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Lombard, Illinois
Assume, for the sake of elucidation, that you are on the board of directors of a nationwide collecting group with more than 6000 members. For as long as most remember (some 54 years) the group has held a multi-day annual show each spring in the same location. The event ... (Read More)
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Original Semi-Annual York Antiques Show and Sale, York, Pennsylvania
Photos by Kathy Lesieur
There was a good gate on Friday, September 17, at what show manager Melvin Arion called the 177th Original Semi-Annual York Antiques Show and Sale even though the last one held, pre-COVID-19, January 31-February 2, 2020, was the 174th. ... (Read More)
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Bertoia Auctions, Vineland, New Jersey
Photos courtesy Bertoia Auctions
September 10 and 11 found the gallery of Bertoia Auctions once again filled with the ultimate antique toy fantasyland, compliments of the Aaron and Abby Schroeder collection. This autumn event was round two. The first auction to disperse the couple’s collection took place ... (Read More)
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Decoys Unlimited, West Barnstable, Massachusetts
Photos courtesy Decoys Unlimited
The Decoys Unlimited online sale held on August 28 was the third of the summer wildfowl auctions. At this auction, miniatures by Anthony Elmer Crowell (1862-1952) were the hot lots. Some 37 lots by Crowell were offered.
It is fitting that Crowell works performed ... (Read More)
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Skinner, Marlborough, Massachusetts
Photos courtesy Skinner
Skinner’s summer Americana sale on August 19 in the Marlborough gallery had a live audience of 12 to 15 carefully masked and spaced bidders for the 166-lot sale. The online sale, August 9-18, offered 2030 lots.
In preliminary remarks Stephen L. Fletcher, head of Americana among other ... (Read More)
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Pook & Pook, Inc., Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Photos courtesy Pook & Pook, Inc.
A rare 21" x 17½" early antislavery broadside, “Sclaven Handel”(Slave Trade), printed in German in Philadelphia by Samuel Saur for Tobias Hirte, dated 1794, one of three known copies, sold for $10,332 (includes buyer’s premium), above the $4000/6000 estimate, at ... (Read More)
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Eldred’s, East Dennis, Massachusetts
Photos courtesy Eldred’s
Eldred’s July 28-30 three-day sale was just what a summer sale should be. Replete with Provincetown art, the sale included a group of white-line woodblock prints by artists of the Provincetown Printers, formed in 1915. Bror Julius Olsson Nordfeldt (1878-1955), who spent summers in Provincetown, ... (Read More)
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