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The Decorative Arts Society, Inc. (DAS) recognized scholarly works produced in 2023 by presenting its Charles F. Montgomery Prize and Award and Robert C. Smith Award on November 12 at the Explorers Club in New York City. Recipients were chosen after careful review of numerous worthy and laudable publications submitted ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)
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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Fairhaven, Massachusetts, resident Thomas E. Linzee Jr. has donated an 18th-century silver tankard with an unusual characteristic to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
The tankard, which descended in Linzee’s family over the last 260-plus years, was made in the 1750s by Boston silversmith Samuel Minott (1732-1803). The form conforms to ... (Read More)
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Painted with Silk: The Art of Early American Embroidery on view at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) opened on December 13 and continues through June 15. It is mostly a loan exhibition of 69 samplers and pictorial embroideries and memorials from three private collections. One painting and two early ... (Read More)
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The Decorative Arts Trust has announced seven 2025 Dean F. Failey Grant recipients: Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama, for the exhibition Silver & Ceremony from Southern Asia, 1850-1910; Historic Deerfield, Deerfield, Massachusetts, for the exhibition Body by Design: Fashionable Silhouettes; Honolulu Museum of Art, Honolulu, Hawaii, for quilt conservation; ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)
Hand-Me-Downs by Hollie Davis and Andrew Richmond
Beneath the Surface
At the end of every year, we spend time sorting through the house, moving along things that can be used by someone else to make room for the things that are coming in the form of holiday gifts. There is a whole process of evaluating and assessing that ... (Read More)
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Heritage Auctions, Dallas, Texas, reached $1,867,023,603 in total sales in 2024, the highest ever for the 49-year-old company, the firm stated in a press release. That’s almost $1 billion more than the auction house recorded only four years ago, when sales totaled $873 million.
CEO and cofounder Steve Ivy said, “While ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)
Photos by Sean Cochran, Stair Galleries
Colin Stair of Stair Galleries literally grew up in the business of art and antiques. His great-grandfather, who was an architect, and his grandfather established Stair & Co. in Mayfair, London, branching out in the 1950s and 1960s to five other locations. “They had a ... (Read More)
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On December 12, just after M.A.D. went to press and reported on the upcoming January Americana sales in New York City, which for half a century have been the barometer of this segment of the marketplace, Sotheby’s announced it had laid off more than 100 staff members around the globe, ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)
Editorial, February 2025
That didn’t last long. On February 1, 2024, Sotheby’s announced a new commission structure that would go into effect on May 20, 2024. The convoluted buyer’s premium would be reduced to 20% of the hammer price up to and including $6 million. Beyond $6 million, the buyer’s premium ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)
Edgar Miller (1899-1993), Celotex Building Products, printed program cover for The Architects Ball, 1938. Collection of DePaul Art Museum, gift of Paul and Janis Miller, 2013.71.107a.
—Through February 23 —Chicago, Illinois
Edgar Miller: Anti-Modern, 1917-1967 at the DePaul Art Museum presents the artist as a multifaceted creative practitioner. He was an architect, ... (Read More)
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On December 22 a Brown Derby flat-top instructional beer can sold for $93,600 (includes buyer’s premium) at an auction conducted by Morean Auctions, Brimfield, Massachusetts. That price establishes a new auction record price for a beer can. The estimate was $40,000/60,000. The can came from a private collection.
The auction listing ... (Read More)
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On December 18 Tiffany & Co. announced it had acquired a historical 1912 pocket watch at an auction conducted by Henry Aldridge & Son Ltd. in Devizes, England. The company paid £1,568,000 ($1.97 million), making the 18k gold pocket watch the highest-valued piece of Titanic memorabilia ever sold.
The Tiffany & ... (Read More)
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Brian Anthony D’Ambrosio, 50, of Santa Fe, New Mexico, was sentenced December 16 to six months in prison, to be followed by one year of supervised release, and fined $4000. D’Ambrosio pleaded guilty in July to theft of major artwork. He admitted stealing 100-year-old items, including letters by the wife ... (Read More)
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(Auction)
Freeman’s | Hindman, New York City
Photos courtesy Freeman’s | Hindman
“Design for Living: A Private Collection of Georg Jensen Silver” was held at Freeman’s | Hindman, New York City, two weeks before Christmas Day. The sale of 99 lots on December 11, ranging from small-scale objects to large-scale candelabras made by ... (Read More)
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(Auction)
Freeman’s | Hindman, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Photos courtesy Freeman’s | Hindman
The December 8 American art and Pennsylvania Impressionism sale at Freeman’s | Hindman in Philadelphia gave a good reading on the state of that marketplace. Consigned artworks were largely fresh to market. Many had been acquired directly from the artist or art ... (Read More)
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(Auction)
Mebane Antique Auction Gallery, Mebane, North Caroline
Photos courtesy Mebane Antique Auction Gallery
The two lots that produced the most excitement and the highest prices at Mebane Antique Auction Gallery’s Americana and Continental antiques sale December 6 and 7 in Mebane, North Carolina, came with dramatically different histories. Their selling prices, though, ... (Read More)
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Hartford House Holiday Open House & Antique Show, Burghill, Ohio
Steve Sherhag of Canfield, Ohio, is a force to be reckoned with. Being idle is just not in the guy’s DNA. When he’s not out buying antiques for his business, Early American Antiques, or managing antiques shows in Ohio, you might ... (Read More)
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(Auction)
Briggs Auction, Inc., Garnet Valley, Pennsylvania
Photos courtesy Briggs Auction
Four framed needlework potholders estimated at $200/400 sold for $43,050 (with buyer’s premium) at Briggs Auction’s online-only sale December 6 in Garnet Valley, Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
These are not your ordinary potholders. According to A Winterthur Guide to American Needlework (1976) by Susan ... (Read More)
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(Auction)
Augusta Auctions, Bellows Falls, Vermont
Photos courtesy Augusta Auctions
One of hundreds of young women plucked from obscurity in New York in 1919 to compete in a first-of-its-kind beauty pageant, Edith Hyde shimmied her way to the title in an Egyptian-inspired harem costume with—gasp—pantaloons described as diaphanous.
Since the judges of the contest, ... (Read More)
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(Auction)
Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates, Mt. Crawford, Virginia
Photos courtesy Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates
The fall “Premier Americana” sales at Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates were held November 21, 22, and 23 at the firm’s galleries in Mt. Crawford, Virginia. A total of 1623 lots crossed the block during the sales. ... (Read More)
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(Auction)
Freeman’s | Hindman, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Photos courtesy Freeman’s | Hindman
Freeman’s annual fall Americana sale is always scheduled for the week after the Delaware Antiques Show, the leading conclave for this segment of the marketplace. Dealers stop to preview on their way to set up or rush over to have a look ... (Read More)
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(Auction)
Bonhams, New York City
Photos courtesy Bonhams
Bonhams held its American art sale the week before Thanksgiving, as is its custom. A selection of works from the estate of Linda L. Bean (1941-2024), granddaughter of the founder of L.L. Bean, was offered, including paintings by the Wyeth family of artists.
The November 19 ... (Read More)
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(Auction)
Hess Auction Group, Manheim, Pennsylvania
Photos courtesy Hess Auction Group
The cream rises. The sale at Hess Auction Group in Manheim, Pennsylvania, on November 16 is a good example. The consignments from the estate of Eugene and Vera Charles, collectors known for their good taste and insistence on good condition, provoked bidding ... (Read More)
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(Auction)
Crocker Farm, Inc., Sparks, Maryland
Photos courtesy Crocker Farm, Inc.
The Zipps of Crocker Farm held their third sale of 2024 from November 6 to 15, with the call-back session on November 16. The 490-lot auction grossed $719,460 (including buyers’ premiums). The printed catalog had 348 lots, and there were 458 registered ... (Read More)
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(Auction)
Toomey & Co., Chicago, Illinois
Photos courtesy Toomey & Co.
No one can accuse Riley Humler of playing loose and flowery with a descriptive term. When the Cincinnati-based art pottery specialist was asked to describe the November 15 online sale by Chicago auction house Toomey & Co. titled “Keramics & Rookwood: American ... (Read More)
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(Auction)
Heritage Auctions, Dallas, Texas
Photos courtesy Heritage Auctions
Twenty-five of the most iconic original paintings created for the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) by some of America’s most beloved illustrators highlighted Heritage Auctions’ November 15 American art auction.
These works are part of the collection of the Scouting Settlement Trust, which was established ... (Read More)
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(Auction)
Heritage Auctions, Dallas, Texas
Photos courtesy Heritage Auctions An exquisite selection of fine silver pieces ranging across centuries, from an extremely old and rare drinking cup to a stunning contemporary tea set, crossed the auction block at Heritage Auctions’ November 13 sale of fine silver and objects of vertu.
The auction featured ... (Read More)
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McLean, Virginia
The 48th annual McLean Antiques Show was held November 9 and 10 at the McLean, Virginia, Community Center. Produced and managed for the 16th year by Dordy Fontinel Show Management, Inc., the show assembled 34 dealers, including several members of the Art Deco Society of Washington. The show seems ... (Read More)
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(Auction)
Thomaston Place Auction Galleries, Thomaston, Maine
Photos courtesy Thomaston Place Auction Galleries
On November 8, 9, and 10 auctioneer Kaja Veilleux and his team at Thomaston Place Auction Galleries held a three-day sale in Thomaston, Maine, offering the buying public a large variety of goods in 1475 lots.
Thomaston’s sales are old-school marathon ... (Read More)
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Canfield, Ohio
For many “the holidays” refers to the time between Thanksgiving and the end of the year. For collectors of any and all things holiday, that time period is way too limiting. Christmas and Hanukkah, yes, but also New Year’s Day, Easter, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving—any day when ... (Read More)
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(Auction)
Freeman’s | Hindman, Cincinnati, Ohio
Photos courtesy Freeman’s | Hindman
Almanac having five pages of handwritten journal entries by the Reverend Samuel Kirkland (1741-1808), the accounts spanning a period likely beginning in 1803 and concluding in March 1804 and including details of Kirkland’s work with Oneida Indians, $28,575 (est. $600/800).
An 1803 almanac ... (Read More)
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Haddam, Connecticut
The 2024 Connecticut River Valley Antiques & Historic Homes Show came alive again October 19 and 20 with a new twist. Some 30 dealers were front and center, while the concurrent historic homes show curated for owners of old homes featured craftspeople skilled in working on historic properties. The ... (Read More)
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(Auction)
CRN Auctions, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts
Photos courtesy CRN Auctions, Inc.
Collectors and dealers know they can rely on CRN Auctions in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for the esoteric. The October 20 auction brought to market antiques, art, and objects ranging from Colonial to mid- and late 20th century.
The auction house delivered a cache of ... (Read More)
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(Auction)
Meander Auctions, Whipple, Ohio
Photos courtesy Meander Auctions
Meander Auctions held its fall antiques and art auction September 28 at the company’s gallery in Whipple, Ohio. Top lots ranged from Clyde Singer paintings to Blenko glass. The most notable inclusion, however, was the first part of the lifetime collection of Dr. Virginia ... (Read More)
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(Auction)
Stair Galleries, Hudson, New York
Photos courtesy Stair Galleries
The “Design from 1860 to 1910” sale that took place at Stair Galleries in Hudson, New York, on September 26 counted bold-faced consignors evocative of Big Oil (Ann and Gordon Getty) and Park Avenue (Jordan Saunders).
Also on the block were the contents of ... (Read More)
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(Auction)
Cagle Auction Co., Bogart, Georgia
Photos courtesy Cagle Auction Co.
Although outstanding material always comes to its block, Cagle Auction Company’s pottery sales are still under the radar. This has resulted in significant examples being purchased by astute collectors at great prices.
The September 7 sale in Bogart, Georgia, featured a number of ... (Read More)
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