Stories for December '14
(Issue Story)Exhibitions
Maine Antique Digest includes, as space permits, brief announcements of exhibitions planned by galleries, museums, or other venues. We need all press materials at least six weeks in advance of opening. We need to know the hours and dates of the exhibit, admission charges, and phone number and Web site ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)John M. Hess Auction Service and Conestoga Auction Company Join Forces
Two large auction companies—John M. Hess Auction Service and Conestoga Auction Company, both based in Manheim, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania—recently entered into a joint venture, joining forces, yet will remain under each existing company’s banner.
“It was just finalized on Friday,” said Jeff DeHart, president of Conestoga. “The merger seemed like a ... (Read More)
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(Computer Article)Web Site Editing on Mobiles and Tablets
The beginnings of a Web page composed on a tablet computer.
Computer Column #312
John P. Reid, [email protected]
Many things that used to be done on computers can be done today on tablets and sometimes smartphones. Creating and editing Web sites are among these. Editing is done through tools that actually exist only ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Furniture Restorers Charged with Scams in the West
Parker County Sheriff’s Sgt. Randy Branum inventories one of three storage units filled with stolen antique furniture.
Over the last several months, police in communities in Texas and Colorado reported several incidents of fraud and theft by furniture restorers and refinishers.
Parker County, Texas, sheriff’s office investigators received at least 11 complaints ... (Read More)
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(Book Review)Books Received
These are brief reviews of books recently sent to us. We have included ordering information for publishers that accept mail, phone, or on-line orders. For other publishers, your local bookstore or mail-order house is the place to look.
Printed Textiles: British and American Cottons and Linens, 1700-1850 by Linda Eaton (The ... (Read More)
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(Book Review)Four Centuries of Quilts
A Book Review
Four Centuries of Quilts: The Colonial Williamsburg Collection
by Linda Baumgarten and Kimberly Smith Ivey
The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, in association with Yale University Press, 2014, 368 pages, hardbound, $75 plus S/H from the Colonial Williamsburg, (757) 565-8450 or (www.history.org/Publications/books/index.cfm), or from Yale University Press, (800) 405-1619 or (http://yalepress.yale.edu).
Two textile ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Northeast Auctions Drops New Hampshire Antiques Week Sale in Manchester
Hints of coming changes occurred even as Ronald Bourgeault was holding his big Americana sale at the Center of New Hampshire Radisson Hotel in Manchester, New Hampshire, on August 2 and 3 of this year. (See M.A.D., October, p. 30-E.) A friendly runner tipped us to the news during inspection ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Letter from London
Ian McKay, <[email protected]>
With the new season sales getting well into their stride as I write, the high summer sales remaining in my files must be largely cleared away in this “Letter.” This selection therefore devotes quite a bit of space to the old master drawings and watercolours to which, in ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Two Americana Week Shows Tweak Names
Two shows that are part of Americana Week in New York City have slightly changed their names.
Liz Lees and Meg Wendy have announced that they have changed the name of the New York Ceramics Fair to the New York Ceramics and Glass Fair.
“With glass being recognized as an established art ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Low Society
Editorial
It’s no secret that collecting habits have changed, but rarely has there been such stark black-and-white evidence. A recent letter sent to members of the Antiquarian Society of California details the shift.
The Antiquarian Society of California is no fly-by-night organization. It was formed in 1953 when Gregor Norman-Wilcox, curator of ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)John Bourne of Pittsford, Vermont
John Bourne is shown with a friend.
The English glider horse is named Piper. The base has the maker’s plaque, which reads, “‘Piper’/ J. Collinson & Sons/ Liverpool, England.” It’s $1250. Bourne said, “I like horses,” and pointed out that Piper is so heavily constructed that “this one would hold me.”
A ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)B Is for Buttersworth, F Is for Forgery: Solve a Maritime Art Mystery
From the Mariners’ Museum Web site: “The Mariners’ Museum is taking a stand against crime with its latest exhibition…. Hidden in plain sight among 35 paintings by 19th-century maritime artist James Edward Buttersworth is a modern forgery. Museum visitors will become detectives as they examine the paintings for style and ... (Read More)
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(Auction Law and Ethics)Prepare for Value
Auction Law & Ethics
Value doesn’t exist for those who don’t see it.
“Where are you taking that stuff?” my colleague asked a truck driver preparing to haul a trailer load of material away from the plant where we worked. Between college and law school, I worked for Westinghouse Electric Corporation.
“To the ... (Read More)
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(Young Collectors)Pickups, Pumpkins, and Popovers
The Young Collector
Ah, time again for our annual fall pilgrimage to the ADA Deerfield Show and the holy shrine of autumn, the Connecticut River valley. Andrew feels very lucky to work in a business and for a company that allows us a long weekend in New England every year in ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Peter Kenny Leaves the Met
Peter Kenny, a longtime curator and administrator of the American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, will join Classical American Homes Preservation Trust (CAHPT) as co-president with Margize Howell, the foundation’s current executive director. Richard H. Jenrette, founder and chairman of CAHPT, announced that the ... (Read More)
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(Show)Crowds Everywhere for Vermont Antiques Week Shows
Weston Antiques Show, Okemo Antiques Show, Ludlow Antiques Show, Magic Mountain Antiques Show, and Antiques in Vermont
The managers and organizations running the five shows held during Vermont Antiques Week, October 2-5, had to be satisfied with the attendance this year. The selling floors of all were filled within minutes ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Eight Valkyrie Sisters
What did he know and when did he know it?
Was he aware that the New York Yacht Club had received a challenge for the America’s Cup dated March 19, 1889, from the Royal Yacht Squadron on behalf of Windham Thomas Wyndham-Quin, 4th Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl of Dunraven Castle, ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Florida Auction House Charged with Wildlife Trafficking
Selling several rhinoceros horns and pieces of ivory has landed Boynton Beach, Florida, auction house Elite Decorative Arts in legal hot water. On October 24, charges of conspiracy to traffic protected wildlife were filed in federal court against Elite Estates Buyers, Inc., d/b/a Elite Decorative Arts, and Christopher Hayes, Elite’s ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)The Riddle of the Sphinx
Photos courtesy John W. Coker Auctions, Ltd.
One of 19 reverse-painted and scenic glass lamps from the estate of the late Elizabeth and Donald Bates of Seymour, Tennessee, was impossible to miss. Sold by auctioneer John W. Coker on site in Seymour, Tennessee, on October 18, the lamp had a finely ... (Read More)
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(Show)Fewer Participants, Still Top-Quality Merchandise at ADA Show
The 14½" high early 19th-century sheet-iron door handle backplate in the form of a fiddler is a Connecticut piece, said Greg Kramer of Robesonia, Pennsylvania, who priced the unusual find at $2250.
The Colonial Revival spinning wheel settee, offered by A Bird in Hand Antiques, Florham Park, New Jersey, was found ... (Read More)
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(Auction)A Snake, an Eagle, and More Americana
Rare Japanese Meiji period painted-iron articulated snake, probably Myochin school, 62" long, sold for $90,000 (est. $20,000/30,000). The buyer left a bid with the auctioneer, and it was underbid on the phone.
Wilhelm Schimmel (1817-1890) of Cumberland Valley, Pennsylvania, carved and painted spread-wing eagle, 9" x 12¼", with an untouched polychrome ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Dealer Sues Harvard over Sale Cancellation
In 2011, Boston dealer John Curuby consigned four medical kits—two from the 18th century and two from the 19th century, both in wooden cases—to Grogan & Company. Before the kits could be sold, Harvard University intervened and convinced Grogan to cancel the sale. On October 3, 2014, Curuby filed a ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)The American Museum of Folk Art Purchases Stock Portraits at Doyle New York
Photo courtesy Doyle New York.
In 1845 Joseph Whiting Stock (1815-1855) painted posthumous portraits of Mary Wilcox and her younger brother Francis (who died 140 years ago at ages four years, two months and two years, four months). The works were commissioned by the children’s father, Philo Franklin Wilcox, a wealthy ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Keno Auctions’ Contemporary Art and Design Sale
Ruth Asawa (Japanese-American, 1926-2013), hanging five-lobed continuous form with spheres inside four of the lobes, two of the inside spheres containing spheres within them, circa 1954, iron and brass wire, 103" high, diameter at base 21", sold for $329,000 (est. $100,000/200,000). There are a number of Ruth Asawa sculptures at ... (Read More)
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(Auction)The Warden Family Americana Sale
The auction’s top price of $16,250 (est. $5000/ 7000) was paid for this 27" x 22" oil on canvas portrait attributed to 18th-century English painter John Wollaston.
This 13½" x 12" second half of the 18th-century family record for Moses Chase and Susanna Kelly of Deerfield, New Hampshire, painting on paper, ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Learning the ABCs at Cottone's Auction
This 19th-century sterling silver covered tureen, 65.8 ozt., 9" x 13" x 10", opened at $10,000 and sold for $25,300 to a collector on the phone.
An Internet bidder from the South took home this Pablo Picasso pitcher, Bearded Man’s Wife, 1953, 15" high x 11" wide, in excellent condition, ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Triple Portrait Sells for $15,000
This unattributed 29" x 31½" oil on canvas portrait of three children, bearing an American Folk Art Gallery label on the back of the frame, sold in the room for $15,000 (est. $7000/10,000) to collectors Michael and Suzanne Payne. The Paynes recognized it as a work by upstate New York ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Prints and Drawings: A Green-Haired Muse and Black-and-White Images of Manhattan
Shadow Dance by Martin Lewis (1881-1962) fetched $42,500. The 1930 drypoint and sand-ground print from an edition of 109 is 9¼" x 10¾". This was not the first time that the print has done very well at Swann. The auction house set a still-standing record when it sold a copy ... (Read More)
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(Auction)American Furniture, Outsider Art, and Folk Art
The Crowninshield family mahogany bombé chest of drawers, Marblehead, Massachusetts, circa 1770, 33¼" high x 40" wide x 22" deep, appears to retain its original cast brass hardware and sold on the phone for $581,000 (est. $300,000/600,000). Other bombé chests from this group have sold for $2,023,500 at Christie’s in ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Auction in Cambridge
The 6¼" x 10¼" unframed moonlit scene of ships under full sail, with one flying an American flag, by James Edward Buttersworth (1817-1894) came from an Arizona estate and sold to a Worcester, Massachusetts, dealer for $11,400.
The 17¼" x 23¼" watercolor on silk mourning picture had gold foil decorations and ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Two Mansions Antique Cane Collection
Defensive canes take many forms. The simplest are either swords or knives housed in the cane shaft. This exceedingly rare French cane, circa 1870, saw short production because of numerous accidental injuries to the owners. With razor barbs, this example was the sale’s highest-selling lot at $8160 (est. $4500/6000).
Dating ... (Read More)
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(Auction)An Expressionist’s Flowers, a Sargent Head, and a Girl Smelling an Apple
The unsigned 22" x 17¼" oil on canvas study of a man’s head by John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), circa 1878, inscribed on the stretcher 182 and 4242, sold for $243,000.
Apple Perfume by Charles Courtney Curran (1861-1942) brought $65,190. The 22" x 18" oil on canvas is signed and dated 1911, ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Fall Harvest Sale Totals $837,000
The sale’s top entry, a Rock and Graner (Germany) battleship, circa 1900, hand painted, came from a European estate, had been proudly possessed by one family for nearly a century, and was essentially original and exceptional. Measuring 19" long, it sold for $30,680 (est. $35,000/45,000).
Keystone (U.S.) “Ride ’Em” Coast-to-Coast bus, ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Neal's September Sale: A Preview of Coming Attractions
The top lot by far was one of Charles Giroux’s rare Louisiana landscapes, a 24" x 34" bayou scene with a Creole cottage, which brought $155,350 (est. $40,000/60,000). Other works by the French-born artist, active in New Orleans 1868-85, are a related 1860 view of a bayou plantation at the ... (Read More)
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(Auction)A Goddess of Harvest Bowl Tops Auction at $52,500
This Fenton Goddess of Harvest bowl in blue with a candy ribbon edge sold for $52,500. The Goddess of Harvest pattern is extremely rare, and the bowl is the only example known in blue.
This rare aqua opalescent Northwood Poppy Show plate brought $24,000.
Holly is one of Fenton’s more desirable patterns, ... (Read More)
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(Auction)The John Snyder Sale
A 19th-century Chinese Manchu woman’s ceremonial headdress, richly decorated with blue enameled and gilt metal, mounted with tourmaline, jade, pearls, coral, and rubies designed as flowers and phoenixes and butterflies, 7" tall x 12" wide, sold on line for $22,990 (est. $10,000/20,000). According to John Snyder’s colleague Peter Seibert, Snyder ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Successful September Auctions in Chicago and Boston
Antique Jewelry & Gemology
Photos courtesy Skinner and Leslie Hindman
I’m back to covering auctions again after spending the last couple of months attending and writing about antique and vintage jewelry sold at shows by dealers. These are two of the ways we learn about what’s happening in the market and about ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Good Times and Good Buys at Mason Sale
The Asbestos brand sad iron case includes two sizes of irons and a detachable handle assembly. The kit is housed in a finger-jointed wooden box and displays a patent date of May 22, 1900. The case and contents sold for $104.50 (est. $50/125).
Here is one selection from the group of ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Country Americana at Garth's
Acoma pot signed by Marie Z. Chino (1907-1992), polychrome grid design, possibly 1940’s, 7½" high x 9" diameter, slight wear and minor rim flake, $4500.
One-piece corner cupboard attributed to the Ralph family of Sussex County, Delaware, early 19th century, pine with old green paint, elaborate molded and carved decoration, 87" ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Stick with Hap Moore
This handmade wooden walking stick, with a connection to Abraham Lincoln via an embedded metal plate reading, “From fence rail Abraham Lincoln split in Decatur, Ill. on his father’s farm and made at Niantic, Ill. by Franklin A. Pickering in 1865,” sold for $6325.
Peggy Bacon gouache of a coastal ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Cowan's Inaugural Auction in Cleveland
Circa 1900 brewing company sign showing a bird’s-eye view of “The John Wagner Sons Br’g. Co. / Sidney, Ohio, U.S.A.,” color lithograph on paper, 22½" x 33½" (sight size) plus frame, toning and minor foxing, top of frame scratched, $7200.
Late 19th-century American Star high-wheel bicycle by H.B. Smith Machine Company, Smithville, ... (Read More)
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(Show)American Folk Art Festival
Sacramento contemporary folk artist Susan Arnot makes everything at her booth by “lots of cutting, sewing, gluing,” she said. Her best seller was “the Little Black Cat Theater.”
Karen Pierce of Cottage Creek Antiques, Reno, Nevada, was asking $15 for this 10" diameter old egg basket filled with painted mini gourds. ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Dealers and Collectors Super Selective at Shaker Sale
The sisters cupboard over drawers in original bittersweet red-orange paint has some great features: there are two original pegs on each side, original brass knobs, and the original iron key in a concealed hiding place. Read the story to discover why that key nearly drove Will Henry mad. The cupboard ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Back-to-Back Sales for John McInnis
The North Carolina secretary-desk by William Seay dated from about 1790. It sold to a bidder from the South for $51,750. McInnis photos.
The China trade portrait of the American ship Julia A. Brown off Hong Kong sold on line for $4255.
The 19th-century bicycle repairing sign (10" x 36") with ... (Read More)
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(Auction)All in the Family
This primitive portrait of a young Marcia Ingraham, circa 1823, was solidly attributed to John Brewster via style and recorded family history and had a $15,000/25,000 estimate. I counted at least eight phone bidders in play as it opened for $50,000, and most were still hanging in as it passed ... (Read More)
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(Auction)The Draw of Houdini
This is the archive book about the 1902 trial in which Houdini was victorious in a slander lawsuit against a German cop and newspaper editor. It includes a 50-page trial transcript in German (and an English translation) and documentation of his demonstration of escaping from handcuffs. The book sold for $31,200 ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Garrett Klinger's First Sale in New Location
The 19th-century yellow Staffordshire child’s tea set sold in the salesroom for $2850 (est. $1600).
An English delft blue and white bottle-form vase with Chinese decorations, 10¼" high, with rim chips noted in the catalog, sold on line for $1320 (est. $150).
The 18th-century English delft urn-shaped vase with Chinese decoration sold ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Cowboys and Indians
The Bronco Buster by Frederic Remington was produced by the Roman Bronze Works and marked “75.” It bought $138,000, the top price at the auction.
The late 1890s or early 1900s Sioux Indian vest with nearly complete beadwork coverage on brain-tanned deer hide sold for $34,500.
A French Romanesque (12th century) bas-relief ... (Read More)
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(Show)Coastal Maine Antiques Show
Armillary spheres were designed to illustrate the sun, moon, and other astronomical bodies in relation to the earth. Gary Hume of Wells, Maine, re-creates them out of 19th-century parts. This one was formed from a side piece of a grinding wheel, an old iron wheel, and other parts, and it ... (Read More)
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(Show)The Antique American Indian Art Show Santa Fe
This circa 1920 Apache basket was priced at $5800 at the American Indian Shop, Fresno, California. Bryan Taylor, “the basket guy,” said, “I did well buying and selling—selling jewelry and little things, and buying baskets—eight so far!”
Ramona Morris of Delaplane, Virginia, was asking $20,000 for this Plateau woman’s dress, 1850-70. ... (Read More)
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(Show)21st Annual Folk Fest
Jackie Haliburton’s memory paintings focus on hats and body shapes within a southern African-American community. Butt Stop is typical of her work. She asked $1500 for this large (3' x 8') acrylic on canvas.
The artist John “Cornbread” Anderson was widely represented at Folk Fest. His 36" square oils on ... (Read More)
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(Show)Objects of Art Santa Fe
Michael Smith, who has a gallery on Canyon Road in Santa Fe, was asking $18,500 for this large (74" x 46") circa 1920 Navajo weaving of a Hopi kachina. Smith said he’d met “a lot of people.” By the day after the opening, he’d sold “a nice painting,” but “business ... (Read More)
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