Stories for October '22
(Issue Story)Letter from London, October 2022
There is a somewhat wider price range than usual evident in the lots that make up this month’s selection—one that includes works sold for as little as $240 and in excess of half a million dollars.
One famous Japanese print, The Great Wave,made that biggest splash, but a second got into ... (Read More)
|
(Issue Story)Book Reviews
Here are brief reviews of books we’ve recently seen. We have included contact information for books that you can order directly from the publisher or museum. We also encourage you to consider supporting your local independent bookstore.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wandering Whalemen and Their Art: A Collection of Scrimshaw Masterpieces by Alan Granby (Cahoon ... (Read More)
|
(Issue Story)Four Pieces of Privately Sold Rhode Island Furniture on View
For nearly 50 years, M.A.D. has covered the market for American antiques by reporting sales at auctions and shows, often highlighting the fine points of design and craftsmanship, and quoting scholars who have written about the art in American furniture.
Record prices were paid at auctions. Dealers who kept their business ... (Read More)
|
(Fragment)Toomey & Co. Joins Rago/Wright
On September 7 it was announced that Chicago auction house Toomey & Co. is joining Rago/Wright. As with Rago/Wright’s 2021 partnership with LA Modern Auctions (LAMA), Toomey & Co. will maintain its name while all four houses work together to share technology, expertise, and marketing efforts.
The Toomey & Co. office ... (Read More)
|
(Issue Story)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., Maine Antique ... (Read More)
|
(Issue Story)Hanging with Jill Bokor
As executive director of Salon Art + Design for the last 11 years, and a magazine editor and publisher for over 20 years before that, Jill Bokor has enjoyed many chapters in her life—professionally, personally, and in what she collects.
Jill Bokor.
A native New Yorker, Jill is currently going through a ... (Read More)
|
(Issue Story)New Ammi Phillips Discoveries
David R. Allaway has spent more than a decade creating the digitized catalog of portraits by Ammi Phillips (1788-1865), the most prolific American folk artist. His study identifies sitters, provenance, and sale information. It lists Phillips’s portraits in alphabetical order in Volume 1, with sections on unidentified portraits, and displays ... (Read More)
|
(Fragment)R. Scudder Smith, 87, Publisher and Editor
Reprinted courtesy Antiques And The Arts Weekly
The Smith family announces with sadness the passing of R. Scudder Smith on August 14. He was 87 years old. Born April 12, 1935, Robert Scudder Smith was the elder son of Paul Scudder Smith and Mary Starr Conger Smith, and older brother to ... (Read More)
|
(Issue Story)Bite the Bullet
At every auction I attend as a reporter, I register and get a bidding number. The reason is two-fold: the registration gets me on the auction house’s mailing list, and, who knows, I might get a bargain if something is going cheaply. At every registration, I’m asked if I have ... (Read More)
|
(Issue Story)Exhibitions, October 2022
Sign for the Black Horse, circa 1771. Connecticut Historical Society, 1961.63.8.
—Ongoing —Hartford, Connecticut
Between 1750 and 1850 more than 50,000 inn and tavern signs were produced by American painters, creating a distinct visual language and offering a glimpse into tavern life, travel, and patriotic ideals. Only a fraction of these signs ... (Read More)
|
(Fragment)Musgo Sign Brings $1.5 Million
Richmond Auctions in Greenville, South Carolina, sold a 48" diameter double-sided porcelain Musgo Gasoline sign for $1,552,500 (including buyer’s premium) August 27, setting a new world record for a porcelain advertising sign sold at auction. The estimate was $100,000/750,000.
The buyer was a private collector who wishes to remain anonymous, said ... (Read More)
|
(Fragment)Heritage Auctions Hits it Out of the Park
A 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card sold for $12,600,000 (includes buyer’s premium) when bidding closed August 27 at Heritage Auctions, Dallas, Texas. The trading card, graded a Mint+ 9.5 by Sportscard Guaranty Corporation, now holds the record for the most valuable sports collectible ever sold at auction.
Photo courtesy Heritage ... (Read More)
|
(Issue Story)Freeman’s Summer Jewels Auction
Antique Jewelry & Gemology
Photos courtesy Freeman’s
The top price in the sale was for this diamond and platinum 16" long solitaire necklace from a private Massachusetts collection. The necklace is centered by a brilliant-pear-cut diamond in a platinum basket setting, suspended from a platinum rope chain. It was accompanied by a ... (Read More)
|
(Show)The 65th Annual New Hampshire Antiques Dealers Association Show
The New Hampshire Antiques Show, Manchester, New Hampshire
It was 65 years ago when the New Hampshire Antiques Dealers Association (NHADA) held its first annual show. According to the organization, it was held in an upstairs room at the Highway Hotel in Concord. From that humble beginning, the Dealers’ Show, as ... (Read More)
|
(Show)The 2022 Antiques in Manchester: The Collector’s Fair
Manchester, New Hampshire
“It’s a major show, during a major week, and people get on airplanes to come here.”
Those words came from Christopher Settle, a Newton, Massachusetts, furniture dealer, explaining why Antiques in Manchester: The Collector’s Fair is the only antiques show he does.
A major component of Antiques Week in New ... (Read More)
|
(Show)Americana Celebration: The Buzz Was On
Concord, New Hampshire
On Tuesday, August 9, inside the Everett Arena in this capital city, about 9 a.m., a rash of red circles broke out. But no humans were affected. The small red dots were sold tags, and they spread like wildfire. Up one aisle and down another, on this booth ... (Read More)
|
(Show)Hot August Show in Deerfield
Deerfield Antique Show, Deerfield, New Hampshire
On Monday, August 8, Gurley Antique Shows—the antiques show promotion company headed by brother and sister duo Joshua and Rachel Gurley—opened the Deerfield Antique Show to a waiting crowd at the Deerfield, New Hampshire, fairgrounds.
It’s an appropriate venue. The fairgrounds easily accommodates a large antiques ... (Read More)
|
(Show)New Venue, Happy Crowds at 44th Annual Show
Cashiers Antique Show, Cashiers, North Carolina
Photos by Donna Prunkl
COVID-19 and summer school conspired to force the Cashiers Antique Show from its traditional venue, the Blue Ridge School in Cashiers, North Carolina. This year it nestled into the Village Green of Cashiers, a private, nonprofit park near the crossroads of Highways ... (Read More)
|
(Show)The “Warmup” Show for Antiques Week
Milford Antiques Show, Milford, New Hampshire
On a heat-wave week in the southern part of mountainous New Hampshire at the beginning of and through several days of shows for Antiques Week in New Hampshire, dealers and patrons dressed in short sleeves or no sleeves, cooling fans showed up in booths, and ... (Read More)
|
(Auction)Ever-Surprising Country Store Sale
Mebane Antique Auction Gallery, Mebane, North Carolina
Photos courtesy Mebane Antique Auction Gallery
Auctioneer Jon Lambert crammed over 3500 lots into his 29th annual country store sale, August 4-6. Included were bottles, fruit jars, display cases, tobacco tins, gasoline pumps, advertising signs, shipping boxes, neon trade signs, various old machines, and some ... (Read More)
|
(Show)The 2022 Downeast Art & Antiques Show
Blue Hill, Maine
There was no sophomore slump for the Downeast Art & Antiques Show. The show, in its current incarnation, is two years old, and it improved on its impressive debut last year. It’s a well-curated, beautiful little show.
The show is a direct descendant of the Ellsworth Antiques Show, first ... (Read More)
|
(Show)The 40th Camden Show in 43 Years
Camden-Rockport Antiques Show & Sale, Rockport, Maine
On July 23 and 24 John and Elizabeth DeSimone of Goosefare Antiques & Promotions revived the annual Camden-Rockport Antiques Show & Sale after a two-year COVID-19-induced suspension. Many of the dealers said they were glad the show was back, and customers also seemed happy ... (Read More)
|
(Auction)Art Auction Tops $16 Million
Coeur d’Alene Art Auction, Reno, Nevada
Photos courtesy Coeur d’Alene Art Auction
The sale total for Coeur d’Alene Art Auction’s July 2021 sale came in at a whopping $17.5 million. After that record-setting event, Mike Overby of Coeur d’Alene Art Auction predicted, “When prices realized at auction are good, that’s when people ... (Read More)
|
(Auction)Chinese Export Bowls Lead the Way at Auction
Nye & Company, Bloomfield, New Jersey
Photos courtesy Nye & Company
With a good mix of consignors and a large group of Ralph Lauren furniture from a New York City dwelling, Nye & Company’s July 20 online “Estate Treasures” auction totaled $308,272.
The sale, with a preview open for pre-auction bidding from July ... (Read More)
|
(Auction)The Sporting Sale
Copley Fine Art Auctions, Hingham, Massachusetts
Photos courtesy Copley Fine Art
Copley Fine Art Auctions’ 17th annual sporting sale, held absentee and online July 14 and 15, brought just over $3.1 million. With 675 lots, it was one of the company’s largest sales and had about a 95% sell-through rate.
Sporting art by ... (Read More)
|
(Auction)Three-Day Sale in Maine
Thomaston Place Auction Galleries, Thomaston, Maine
Photos courtesy Thomaston Place Auction Galleries
On July 8, 9, and 10 Thomaston Place Auction Galleries held a three-day sale dubbed “July Splendor.” In all, 1431 lots were due to be sold, a Herculean undertaking, and auctioneer and owner Kaja Veilleux called just about every minute ... (Read More)
|
(Show)A Day in the Country
Pure Country Antique Show, Chrisman, Illinois
Mark and Jill Mattingly have created an event that goes beyond an ordinary antiques show. The second annual Pure Country Antique Show, held July 9 at the Bloomfield Barn near Chrisman, Illinois, not only featured a growing field of dealers in a beautiful rural setting ... (Read More)
|
(Show)Antiques and Artisans in the Church Yard
South Salem, New York
Buying commenced at 9 a.m. on the grounds of Stevens Memorial United Methodist Church in South Salem, New York, at the annual July 4 Antiques and Artisans in the Church Yard show, managed by Debbie Turi of D. Turi Antique Shows.
Red, white, and blue flags, clothing, and ... (Read More)
|
(Auction)The Sale of Mark and Marjorie Allen’s Estate
Pook & Pook, Inc., Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Photos courtesy Pook & Pook
On July 1, the morning after the first session of the sale of Mark and Marjorie Allen’s estate at Pook & Pook, an image of a large pine server with well-worn blue paint was posted on Instagram announcing its price of ... (Read More)
|
(Auction)Native American Art Auction
Bonhams, Los Angeles, California
Photos courtesy Bonhams
“Overall decent,” said Ingmars Lindbergs, director of Native American art at Bonhams, about the results of the June 29 sale in Los Angeles. To Lindbergs, this was very much a “decent interim sale with some highlights,” coming in anticipation of a bigger two-day October auction. ... (Read More)
|
(Auction)Arroyo Collection Sold at New Haven Auctions
New Haven Auctions, Branford, Connecticut
Photos courtesy New Haven Auctions
New Haven Auctions gathered desirable antiques for its two-day sale June 25 and 26 in the Branford, Connecticut, gallery where over 800 lots found new owners. New Haven principal Fred Giampietro told M.A.D. that the auction drew 40 or 50 live bidders ... (Read More)
|
(Show)One-Day Show at Laudholm Farm Keeps Getting Better
Wells Antiques Show and Sale, Wells, Maine
Far and away one of the most beautiful sites for an antiques show is at Laudholm Farm, the National Estuarine Research Reserve, Wells, Maine, where Goosefare Antiques & Promotions presents a very well-attended annual event.
Eager buyers gather well before the opening. Precisely at 10 ... (Read More)
|
(Show)CSADA’s First Annual Fox Valley at Garfield Farm Antiques Show
Chicago Suburban Antiques Dealers Association, Campton Hills, Illinois
I went to a really great reunion this June. I thought I did. Really—it seemed like a reunion, what with people greeting each other like long-lost friends, with lots of hugs and fist bumps, catching up, and the usual “so great to see ... (Read More)
|
(Auction)Crafting Modernism
Sotheby’s, New York City
Photos courtesy Sotheby’s
The June 10 sale titled “Crafting Modernism: Masters of the American Studio Design Movement” was Sotheby’s first sale devoted entirely to works from the American studio design movement. The works made in the 20th and 21st centuries by the leading artists who defined the period ... (Read More)
|
(Auction)Modern and Contemporary Art Auctions
Sotheby’s, New York City
Photos courtesy Sotheby’s
Sotheby’s introduced a new sale platform for American art by integrating works into its 20th-century modern and contemporary art sales in May. The auction house offered over 600 lots over a two-day period in morning and afternoon sessions May 18 and May 20.
“This strategic step ... (Read More)
|
(Fragment)Full Schedule for Bath Antique Sale
For the first time since acquiring the Bath (Maine) Antique Sale, Gurley Antique Shows has announced that the show will have a full six-show schedule. The first show this fall, October 9, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., will have approximately 50 dealers from Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont exhibiting.
The ... (Read More)
|
1 (800) 752-8521 • PO Box 1429 • Waldoboro, ME 04572
