Stories for April '24
(Fragment)John Hays Appears in Newly Released Movie
The film Upgraded is a 2024 American romantic comedy directed by Carlson Young and starring Camila Mendes, Archie Renaux, Marisa Tomei, Lena Olin, and John Hays, deputy chairman of Christie’s Americas.
The 104-minute movie is the story of Ana (Camila Mendes), an ambitious intern dreaming of a career in the art ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Accused Murderer Sentenced in Fake Art Case
Brian R. Walshe, 49, of Lynn, Massachusetts, was sentenced on February 20 to 37 months in prison and three years of supervised release. Walshe was also ordered to pay restitution of $475,000. In April 2021 Walshe pleaded guilty to one count each of wire fraud, interstate transportation for a scheme ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Arrest Warrants Filed for Pair
On December 10 the York County (Maine) Sheriff’s Office responded to an antiques business in Arundel, Maine, for the report of a theft. The business reported that over $9000 of jewelry had been stolen.
During the course of the investigation, persons of interest were identified as Pardelian Muntean (a 21-year-old male) ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Acquires Philadelphia Tea Table
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has acquired one of the finest scalloped-top Colonial tea tables, the gift of Barbara L. and Theodore B. Alfond. Made in Philadelphia around 1775, it was sold at Christie’s January 19, 2001, consigned by a descendant of Gouverneur Cadwalader, whose mother, Christine Biddle, had ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)The Mystery Novels of George Sims
It’s the first 60 characters that count. That’s what the LiveAuctioneers guy said. Search engines give weight to the first 60 characters, so listings should be front loaded with the most important keywords. Well, OK. I’ll have to go back and do some rearranging. Better search engine optimization (SEO) might ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Garth’s Dissolution Underway
On January 4 Garth’s Auctions, Inc., filed for judicial dissolution in the Court of Common Pleas in Franklin County, Ohio. According to the complaint, “Garth’s is insolvent, the property and assets of said company are insufficient to pay all of its debts and it cannot meet its obligations as they ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Back to the Beginning
Beneath the Surface
Twenty years ago in February, we were going to Nashville to plug an auction house. To be honest, we had no idea what we were doing in any strategic sense. Literally, someone just said, “You should go to the shows in Nashville. Here’s a credit card!” The goal ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)New Director of Bayou Bend
Dr. Daniel Kurt Ackermann has been named director of the Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens, the house museum for American decorative arts of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH).
Dr. Ackermann comes to Bayou Bend after a career of 16 years at Old Salem Museums & Gardens and the Museum ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)New Ownership of Fiddlers Antiques Show
The Fiddlers Antiques Show in Nashville, Tennessee, has been sold to Mark and Jill Mattingly of Chrisman, Illinois. The long-running event, which takes its name from the Fiddlers Inn motel where dealers sold from their rooms, had most recently been owned by Bill and Kay Puchstein since 2020. The change ... (Read More)
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(Book Review)Celebrating the Beauty of Life at Home
A Book Review
This book isn’t about antiques, though there are lots of antiques on almost every page, and it’s not about old houses, though most of the houses are old, and if they’re not old, they feel old in that lovely, comfortable way an old house feels. The owners of ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Democracy in America
Voices and Votes: Democracy in America, presented by the Smithsonian’s Museum on Main Street in cooperation with the Museum Association of New York (MANY), examines the nearly 250-year-old American experiment of a government “of, by and for the people” and how each generation continues to question how to form “a ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Rooms That Tell America’s Story
A Book Review
We often think of the many spectacular rooms of the White House when we imagine our leaders greeting those of other countries such as presidents and prime ministers, heads of states, secretaries of state, and diplomatic ministers. But before a visit to the White House, most foreign dignitaries ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Auction Prices Realized, April 2024
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)The Philadelphia Show
The Philadelphia Show on the East Terrace of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, held during the last weekend in April (April 25-28), is where 41 dealers in American, European, and Asian works of art hope to find the next generation of collectors and to reconnect with the passionate antiquarians who ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Hanging with John Nye
(On March 25th, it was announced Nye & Co. had been sold to Andrew Holter)
Born in Boston and raised in Lexington, Massachusetts, when the aesthetic of furnishing a room was pairing an Oriental rug with mahogany furniture, John Nye—outdoorsman and owner of the auction house Nye & Company in Bloomfield, ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Buy the Dip
In this issue we complete our coverage of Americana Week in New York City, a bellwether event. By crunching numbers and looking at past sales, one thing stands out—prices of antiques are lower. The elite, high-powered, and fresh stuff still brings significant numbers, but there are plenty of bargains.
Rather than ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Baltimore Sideboard Gifted to MESDA
The Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA) is the recipient of an inlaid sideboard made in Baltimore, Maryland, between 1800 and 1815, a gift of Beth and Stanley Weiss from the Stanley Weiss collection. “In the early nineteenth century, Baltimore’s craftspeople produced some of the most sophisticated inlaid Neoclassical ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Exhibitions, April 2024
The Whole Booke of Psalmes, London, Company of Stationers, 1643.
—Through April 13 —New York City
Judging a Book by Its Cover: Bookbindings from the Collections of The Grolier Club, 1470s-2020 highlights selections from seven centuries of the Grolier Club’s collection of bindings. The exhibition explores the history of decorated bindings, ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Acknowledging, Not Erasing, the Past
Slotin Folk Art Auction, Buford, Georgia
Photos courtesy Slotin Folk Art Auction
Many collections that come to auction are pleasing to the eye; they encapsulate the history of an artist or celebrate the material produced by a company. Maybe the collection is a representation of a certain genre, time period, or artistic ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Potomack Midwinter Sales Cover All the Bases
The Potomack Company, Alexandria, Virginia
Photos courtesy The Potomack Company
The Potomack Company’s most recent suite of online-only sales ran from February 6 to 9 out of the firm’s Alexandria, Virginia, gallery. More than 970 lots were offered in five broad categories: 20th- and 21st-century fine art (February 6); American, English, and ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Boston Collects
Doyle, Boston, Massachusetts
Photos courtesy Doyle
Doyle presented “Boston Collects” February 9 at its location in Back Bay, Boston. The title of the auction refers to the objects for sale, as they all had Boston relevance, whether by maker or collector, or they were sold in Boston.
One major collection was from the ... (Read More)
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(Auction)The Kindig Collection
Pook & Pook, Inc., Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Photos courtesy Pook & Pook, Inc.
The two-day sale at Pook & Pook, Inc., February 8 and 9 was a diverse assemblage of antique furniture and furnishings from the Kindig warehouses. It marked the end of an antiques business run by three generations of Kindigs in ... (Read More)
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(Show)New Committee, New Venue for New Bern Show
New Bern Antique Show & Sale, New Bern, North Carolina
Photos by Donna Prunkl
For the 37th edition of the New Bern (North Carolina) Antique Show & Sale, committee chair Cathy Alix wanted to give the popular show a new look. Instead of the Riverfront Convention Center, she and her committee chose ... (Read More)
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(Show)Buying Was Good at Boxborough Show
The Boxborough Antique Show, Boxborough, Massachusetts
A full parking lot outside the Boxborough Antique Show Sunday, February 4, in Boxborough, Massachusetts, greeted visitors, hinting at the wide selection of antiques within where Rachel and Joshua Gurley unwrapped their antiques show. Collectors and dealers had much to choose from. The Gurleys run ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Manuscript and Printed Americana
Sotheby’s, New York City
Photos courtesy Sotheby’s
Sotheby’s “Visions of America,” its umbrella for Americana Week sales, ended January 29 with an offering of just 16 lots of manuscript and printed Americana, of which five sold. Maps and letters related to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and views of Mexico contributed ... (Read More)
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(Show)Americana at the Winter Show
New York City
The 70th Winter Show celebrated its platinum anniversary with 70 booths of art and antiques in the Park Avenue Armory in New York City. The cavernous 144-year-old brick building was transformed into a garden of delights—gratifying to the eyes, stimulating for the brain, and teasing the heart.
The ten-day ... (Read More)
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(Show)Celebrating Anonymous Art and Design
Nameless Art + Design Show, New York City
American art and design by unknown makers was the theme of Nameless Art + Design Show, a new show that took place in far west Chelsea January 26-28. It overlapped with the final weekend run of the Winter Show, which took place 40 ... (Read More)
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(Show)Antiques Art & Design at Wallace Hall
New York City
With a new owner, Antiques Art & Design at Wallace Hall rolled into town January 19-21 during a bitter cold and flurry-filled Americana Week in New York City.
Featuring 28 dealers, many of whom were returnees, the show opened the morning after the Winter Show gala preview. Now presented ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Americana Online
Sotheby’s, New York City
Photos courtesy Sotheby’s
Cotton album quilt, Baltimore, Maryland, circa 1847, with many names and initials of makers, including Mary W. Paul, B. Kinsey, Jannette Russell, Sarah Osgood Read, M. Bailey, Elisabeth Wherritt, MD Lane, M. Bayless, Martha R. Smith, and Margaritte, 9'7" x 9'7", in fine condition, sold ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Hudson River School in Focus
Sotheby’s, New York City
Photos courtesy Sotheby’s
As part of Americana Week, Sotheby’s offered 37 lots of Hudson River school paintings, with works from the Maryann and Al Friedman collection, in an online-only sale from January 11 to January 20.
The sale totaled $1,608,455. Ten of the 37 lots were offered without a reserve. ... (Read More)
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(Auction)The Bar Cross Ranch Sale
Sotheby’s, New York City
Photos courtesy Sotheby’s
The single-owner sale January 19 of the contents of the house at Bar Cross Ranch contributed $4,000,390 to Sotheby’s January “Visions of America” total. All but three of the 58 lots sold, which is 95% sold by lot. Total estimates were $2,384,600/3,541,900.
The collection was from ... (Read More)
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(Auction)New Jersey Glass Stuns at Americana Sale
Pook & Pook, Inc., Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Photos courtesy Pook & Pook, Inc.
Gorgeous, glistening glass in vibrant blue, yellow, orange, and green illuminated the catalog cover and auction results of Pook & Pook, Inc.’s “Americana & International” auction, which took place January 18 and 19 in person in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, and online ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Disappointing Results at Sale of Native American Art
Sotheby’s, New York City
Photos courtesy Sotheby’s
A small selection of Native American art on view at Sotheby’s was offered online at 3 p.m. on Friday, January 19, with disappointing results. Of the 29 lots offered, just 17 sold for $263,525—that is only 59% sold by lot. Total estimates were $513,000/778,000.
Yokuts polychrome ... (Read More)
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(Auction)The Lee and Susan Stahl Collection of American Art Pottery
Toomey & Co., Chicago, Illinois
Photos courtesy Toomey & Co.
American art pottery may not be widely thought of as a stop-the-presses, newsworthy collectible, but when a piece recently set a new world auction record, the collecting world paid attention.
The new record happened January 17 when Toomey & Co. in Chicago, part ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Americana and More at New England Auctions
New England Auctions, Branford, Connecticut
Photos courtesy New England Auctions
It just keeps getting better at Fred Giampietro’s New England Auctions in Branford, Connecticut. The January 10 and 11 auction was the best sale yet, with over 13,000 bidders registered. Over two days bidders pursued over 900 lots of Americana, folk art, ... (Read More)
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(Auction)The Collection of Bruce and Vivalyn Knight
Amelia Jeffers Auctioneer & Appraiser, Delaware, Ohio
Photos courtesy Amelia Jeffers Auctioneer & Appraiser
More than 800 lots from the collection of Bruce and Vivalyn Knight of Springfield, Ohio, sold for $1.15 million during an auction conducted by Amelia Jeffers Auctioneer & Appraiser January 5 and 6 at Delaware, Ohio.
Jeffers promoted the ... (Read More)
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(Auction)The Donald F. Moylan Collection
Hindman, Cincinnati, Ohio
Photos courtesy Hindman
The first of two auctions of items from the collection of Dr. Donald F. Moylan was held by Hindman (now Freeman’s | Hindman) November 3 in Cincinnati, Ohio. The single-owner sale netted $830,372.
Moylan began collecting in the early 1970s, buying from well-respected dealers such as John ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Two-Day Auction at Nye & Company
Nye & Company, Bloomfield, New Jersey
Photos courtesy Nye & Company
When Christie’s and Sotheby’s get large collections of Americana for sale, they skim the finest examples for New York City sales and often refer the rest to a regional auction house or invite regional auctioneers to compete for the consignment. That ... (Read More)
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