Stories for October '15

(Fragment)

Gary Sullivan Goes Public
by Bob Frishman

Gary Sullivan posed with his Bristol, Rhode Island, tall clock by Josiah Gooding. The Federal high-style case in old finish resembles sophisticated ones made by the Seymours and other first-rate Boston cabinetmakers and may have been ordered from Boston. Circa 1815, it was priced at $84,000. Much of Sullivan’s inventory is ... (Read More)

(Fragment)

Philadelphia Show Update
by M.A.D. Staff

The 2016 Philadelphia Antiques and Art Show, scheduled for April 14-17, will have an underlying theme of recognizing dealers and collectors alike, according to managers Karen DiSaia and Diana Bittel. “Our loan exhibit will exemplify the importance and pleasure of collecting, which is how most dealers started in the business,” ... (Read More)

(Auction Law and Ethics)

Learn the Competition
by Steve Proffitt

Auction Law & Ethics Who hasn’t done it? We all have. We will continue to. We do it because we can’t resist. As a small panel of bid assistants grip receivers to several open telephone lines, with others strategically positioned to work with the assembled crowd, the auctioneer summarizes the high points ... (Read More)

(Fragment)

New Show for Richmond
by M.A.D. Staff

The new Virginia Festival of the Antique will be held October 23-25 at the Virginia Historical Society at 428 North Boulevard in Richmond. “The Virginia Festival of the Antique is an adaptation of famous Richmond antique shows from the last several decades. We are committed to making the show more academic, ... (Read More)

(Fragment)

American Folk Art, Lovingly Collected
by M.A.D. Staff

Two Children in Blue is a watercolor and graphite on paper attributed to Mary B. Tucker. She probably worked in Massachusetts from about 1840 to 1844. This 20 1/16" x 24 5/8" portrait is one of a group of 17 watercolor portraits, of which eight are signed and dated by ... (Read More)

(Young Collectors)

Historical Accommodations
by Hollie Davis and Andrew Richmond

The Young Collector Several months ago, Robert Hunter, editor of Ceramics in America and photographer extraordinaire, posted a Paul Scott platter on his Facebook page. Scott has “a penchant for rescuing cast-offs…[and] using them as a canvas for biting social commentary,” according to the online statement from Ferrin Contemporary, taking “fragments” ... (Read More)

(Fragment)

Mastro Sentenced to 20 Months
by M.A.D. Staff

On August 20 the former owner and CEO of a sports memorabilia auction house was sentenced to 20 months in federal prison for using phony bids to fraudulently inflate the price of his company’s listings at auction. William Mastro, as the owner and chief executive officer of Mastro Auctions, and several ... (Read More)

(Fragment)

California Art Dealer Pleads Guilty to the Sale of Horns from Black Rhinoceros
by M.A.D. Staff

Lumsden W. Quan, 47, an art dealer from San Francisco, California, pleaded guilty on August 21 to conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act and the Endangered Species Act and to a violation of the Lacey Act for knowingly selling black rhinoceros horns to an undercover agent from the U.S. Fish ... (Read More)

(Issue Story)

Wilson Forero and S.T.B. Jablonski, Antiquario Villas & Cottages, Woodbury, Connecticut
by Frank Donegan

Steve Jablonski (left) and Wilson Forero. Antiquario Villas & Cottages on U.S. Route 6 in Woodbury, Connecticut. A corner in one of the seven rooms of the house that are used as a shop. View of the keeping room—another retail space. One of the upstairs salesrooms. The landscape panels on the wall are from ... (Read More)

(Fragment)

U.S. Antique Shows Cuts Pier Antique Show Admission Fee in Half
by M.A.D. Staff

U.S. Antique Shows is cutting the admission fee to the Pier Antique Show in New York City in half, from $20 to $10. The show, with over 300 exhibitors, will take place November 14 and 15 at Pier 94. “The decision to offer discounted admission was made to attract and retain ... (Read More)

(Fragment)

Maine Antiques Festival Changes Dates
by M.A.D. Staff

Paul Davis of Coastal Promotions has announced that the 2016 Maine Antiques Festival in Union, Maine, will change dates, moving up a weekend. The new dates will be August 5 and 6. According to Davis, “After 34 years of being the second full weekend in August the decision has been made ... (Read More)

(Issue Story)

Harrisburg, We Have a Problem
by Clayton Pennington

Editorial Former Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Mayor Stephen Reed was arrested in July and charged with over 400 crimes. He’s accused of using public money to buy antiques for a series of proposed museums. Reed, elected mayor in 1981, held office until early 2010. During his tenure, he bought thousands of antiques on ... (Read More)

(Fragment)

Deer and Folly
by M.A.D. Staff

  In our September issue, Celia Briggs sought help identifying the pattern of blue transferware shards found on a beach in Maine. Dayton Bard of Santa Fe, New Mexico, provided an answer, pointing to an example he found on eBay and another in Brunk Auctions’ September 11 and 12 sale. The ... (Read More)

(Computer Article)

Malware and Moving Files
by John P. Reid

A Trojan horse, useful software that hides some malicious content, detected by Avast, one of many available Internet security programs. Computer Column #322 John P. Reid, [email protected] There are two topics this month: protection from computer malware and a new product for moving files between digital devices. Malware In June the Symantec Corporation published one ... (Read More)

(Book Review)

Books Received, October 2015
by M.A.D. Staff

These are brief reviews of books recently sent to us. We have included ordering information for publishers that accept mail, phone, or online orders. For other publishers, your local bookstore or a mail-order house is the place to look. The Golden Age of English Horology: Masterpieces from the Tom Scott Collection ... (Read More)

(Fragment)

Former Executive Arrested and Charged with Conspiracy, Obstruction, and Fraud
by M.A.D. Staff

“This type of scheming only ends in handcuffs.” That’s what Diego Rodriguez, assistant director in charge of the New York field office of the FBI, had to say about the arrest of Robert A. Olins, 58, on August 26 in West Hartford, Connecticut. Olins was charged with conspiracy, obstruction, and ... (Read More)

(Issue Story)

Letter from London, October 2015
by Ian McKay

Ian McKay, <[email protected]> Lemurs amuse the Duchesse de Choiseul’s country house guests but Cathedrale the ram disgraces himself in the first of this month’s pieces. Atmospheric, lamplit, moonlit and even softly sunlit, but usually damp canvases of Atkinson Grimshaw—“Grimmy” to one well-known admirer—contribute to the picture content, along with my old ... (Read More)

(Fragment)

Quinn and Farmer Dissolve Relationship
by Walter C. Newman

Paul Quinn and Ken Farmer have announced the dissolution of their jointly owned firm, Quinn & Farmer Auctions, LLC, effective September 30. Readers may recall the history of this three-year relationship. Quinn and Farmer had joined forces in October 2012, and in doing so formed a loosely configured network of auction ... (Read More)

(Issue Story)

Exhibitions, October 2015
by M.A.D. Staff

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 website for ... (Read More)

(Issue Story)

Reward Offered for Two N.C. Wyeth Paintings
by M.A.D. Staff

Go, Dutton, and that Right Speedily. The Encounter on Freshwater Cliff It’s a bizarre tale involving a one-time child actor, a reality television producer, a fictitious trip in a Bentley to a stolen goods warehouse, a Texas police officer who nearly recovered millions in stolen art, and possibly a five-figure reward. The FBI ... (Read More)

(Issue Story)

Jewelry at a One-Day Maine Antiques Show
by Mary Ann Brown

An 1860-70 sterling silver chatelaine with sterling implements (thimble case, thimble, pincushion, patch box, stamp box, and an enamel and gold watch with pearl) was $1295.  Chatelaines were worn by the woman of the house, who had all essential necessities at her fingertips with this accessory. These are rare and ... (Read More)

(Auction)

Baten, Blum, and a Bevy of Bids
by Clayton Pennington

The Colchester, Connecticut, cherry block- and shell-carved chest-on-chest, 74" high and 40¼" wide, attributed to Samuel Loomis (1770-1800), sold for $408,000 to Colchester, Connecticut, dealer Arthur Liverant of Nathan Liverant and Son, who held his cell phone to his ear, underbid by a telephone bidder. The price was a good ... (Read More)

(Show)

The New Hampshire Dealers Association Show, 2105
by Lita Solis-Cohen

This Pennsylvania schoolhouse quilt in fine unwashed condition, circa 1890, was $5950 from Richard Axtell of Deposit, New York. It sold and was replaced at the show with a similar one. This mahogany chest of drawers, made in coastal New Hampshire, 1800-10, is by an unidentified maker whose works are in ... (Read More)

(Show)

Antiques in Manchester: The Collector's Fair
by Lita Solis-Cohen

Show manager Karen DiSaia worked hard and kept smiling. She clearly loves to manage antiques shows. This is what antiques shows are about. Collectors and dealers are shown looking over Peter Eaton’s make-do chair. James William Lowery of Baldwinsville, New York, asked $19,500 for this walnut Dutch cupboard from Pennsylvania, 1800-20, ... (Read More)

(Show)

MidWeek Antiques Show
by Frances McQueeney-Jones Mascolo

Peter Baker Antiques is based in Elgin, Quebec, and he presented fine Canada-made furniture such as the 12' refectory table on trestle legs and with partitions for place settings. It was from a convent and priced at $12,000. The Quebec-made bird weathervane, circa 1890, was tagged $1850, and a Quebec-made ... (Read More)

(Show)

Desserts at Deerfield
by Fran Kramer

New to the show was Adam Irish of Old as Adam, Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Here he is showing off his prize vintage umbrella, circa 1903, from New Hampshire, priced at $375. He has had a shop since 2012 in Portsmouth but has been collecting antiques for 20 years. His business ... (Read More)

(Auction)

Folk Art Auction in Manchester
by Lita Solis-Cohen

This 19th-century miniature portrait of a young lady in a black dress and tartan shawl was signed near the left shoulder “G.L. Saunders 1845.” It sold for $20,000 (est. $1000/2000) on the Internet, underbid by a phone bidder. The portrait was found in the church rectory in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The ... (Read More)

(Fragment)

The 15th Anniversary of the National Museum of American Illustration
by Lita Solis-Cohen

Norman Rockwell’s 1963 portrait of John F. Kennedy, a study for the April 6, 1963, Saturday Evening Post cover, sold for $900,000 to an anonymous collector. National Museum of American Illustration photo. Evangeline Lilly (right) is shown accepting her American Civilization Award on stage with Judy Goffman Cutler and Laurence Cutler. ... (Read More)

(Auction)

Gelston Running Curlew Brings $258,750
by Clayton Pennington

This running curlew by Quogue, Long Island, carver Thomas Gelston was once in the collections of folk art legend Stewart Gregory and Dr. Lloyd Griffith. Estimated at $95,000/125,000, it sold to collector Cap Vinal for $258,750, underbid by the phone. According to Jon Deeter, there were five bidders on it ... (Read More)

(Show)

Round Lake Antiques Festival
by Casey O’Brien and Betty Flood

Barbara Milano, owner of Milano’s Treasures and an exhibitor at the Gristmill Antique Center, Troy, New York, had a great Saturday. She posed with an old outhouse seat from an upstate New York barn, which she said had been well used. Milano also displayed a set of books on the ... (Read More)

(Auction)

$1.6 Million Decoy and Sporting Art Auction
by Frances McQueeney-Jones Mascolo

The Anthony Elmer Crowell preening wood duck was the highlight of the auction and realized $210,000. Albert Elmer Crowell’s miniature green heron, 4 1/4" x 5 1/4" pictured left, carved around 1930, was estimated at $1000/1500 and brought $5100. His miniature bluebill drake is at 1 1/8" x 2 1/8" one of ... (Read More)

(Show)

"'Pretty Good' Is the New 'Great' in the Antiques Business"
by David Hewett

Michael and Lucinda Seward of Pittsford, Vermont, showed this painting by Lucy H. Doane, who died in 2010 at the age of 101. Born in Nahant, Massachusetts, Doane lived, painted, and taught art in Vermont and Massachusetts. The 21½" x 27½" boating scene was $1250. Stone Block Antiques, Vergennes, Vermont, brought ... (Read More)

(Show)

Raleigh's Summer Show
by Pete Prunkl

The eight tumblers on a Rogers silver tray ($285) are old Waterford in the Alana pattern. Robert and Sharon Kurschner of Sterling Treasures, Camden, South Carolina, were asking $985 for all eight. The carafe ($164) is not Waterford. The silver primrose tray at the back is $325. Jane Lavinder of Lavinder ... (Read More)

(Show)

Goosefare Antiques Show at High School Hits Middle Age at 35
by Mark Sisco

Patricia Ann Breame of Woodstock, Maine, offered an unusual form of Sheraton dressing stand for $2300. It has upper and lower drawers, a protruding upper section, and brown and black pinstriping over an old mustard-yellow base. It was signed “J. BROWN” in heavy slashes of black paint. Her best news ... (Read More)

(Auction)

Elephant Stampedes to $166,750, Leading Crocker Farm Summer Sale
by Karl H. Pass

Leading off the sale was this 14½" high four-gallon stoneware jar marked “WEST TROY / N.Y. / POTTERY” and depicting an elephant in profile. The large design took up a big portion of the jar’s front. The decoration was done using slip-trailed and brushed techniques. The elephant has boot-like feet ... (Read More)

(Auction)

July Estates Auction Balances Live and Online Platforms
by Karla Klein Albertson

The son of freed slaves, William Edmondson (1874-1951) worked hard at service jobs in Nashville until receiving what he considered a God-sent calling to become a sculptor at the age of 57. His medium was limestone; his tools were a hammer and railroad spike. In 1937 he was the first ... (Read More)

(Show)

Antiques in the Church Yard
by Julie Schlenger Adell

A partial view of the field shows the “Kettle Korn” booth and two customers carrying their new garden loveseat. Vin and Margaret Rowan of Fenwood Studio asked $3400 for this pie safe made from walnut. The punched tin doors allowed pies to cool while keeping the bugs away. On the top ... (Read More)

(Auction)

Bunch Sells Raccoon Creek Inventory
by Lita Solis-Cohen

Rufino Tamayo (Mexican, 1899-1991), oil on canvas, Abstract Portrait, signed and dated “’71” lower left and signed on the back, 18¾" x 22½", sold on LiveAuctioneers for $35,090 (est. $20,000/40,000)—that is $29,000 hammer plus 21% premium. According to the consignor, he had purchased it from an estate sale in St. ... (Read More)

(Show)

Locust Grove Antiques Market
by Don Johnson

Antiques are one attraction, while the property is another. A National Historic Landmark, Locust Grove sits on 55 rolling acres south of the Ohio River, part of the original 694-acre farm established by William and Lucy Clark Croghan in 1790. Lucy’s brother was George Rogers Clark, who founded Louisville and ... (Read More)

(Auction)

Southern Collections Shine
by Karla Klein Albertson

An inspired view of fishermen at The Cove in Ponce Park on the coast of Florida south of St. Augustine by South Carolina artist William Aiken Walker (1838-1921) was the top lot of Neal’s June sale. With bidding from eight phones and the floor, the 6½" x 12½" 1895 oil ... (Read More)

(Auction)

More of the Merrill C. Berman Collection
by Susan Emerson Nutter

Described by Heritage Auctions as “simply the finest political campaign banner in collectors’ hands,” the Polk and Dallas double-sided jugate banner from the 1844 campaign was first shown publicly when it was the cover art for the 1984 exhibition catalog ... (Read More)

(Auction)

The John Michael Kauffmann Estate Sale
by Frances McQueeney-Jones Mascolo

The imposing 17th-century carved oak tester bed was carved elaborately in the Elizabethan style and sold for $7762.50. This copy of Henry David Thoreau’s 1864 The Maine Woods is from a small edition produced by Ascensius Press in 1998, when the letterpress printer and publisher Scott Vile was in Portland, Maine. ... (Read More)

(Auction)

Cheap History and Expensive Other Stuff
by Mark Sisco

This Patek Philippe & Co. 18k yellow gold minute repeater pocket watch topped the sale at $14,375. The company still produces such intricate timekeeping gems. Gustav Stickley #636 oak library table with a stretched leather surface, 48" diameter, $8050. The 27" long 19th-century Black Hawk running horse weathervane in a mottled patina, ... (Read More)

(Auction)

The June Auction
by Frances McQueeney-Jones Mascolo

The high lot of the sale was the platinum, onyx, turquoise, and diamond sautoir, 38½" long including the tassel, most likely made by Boucheron, as it was signed indistinctly “B…ron Paris.” Estimated at $2000/4000, it brought $84,000 from a New York diamond merchant who is also a collector, and he ... (Read More)

(Auction)

Julia Winds Up the Toy, Doll, and Advertising Game
by Mark Sisco

This Caille “Busy Bee” trade stimulator, fresh to the market, brought $26,662.50. Julia photo. Accompanying this Arcade Manufacturing Company model of a 1930s two-tone black and sea-foam-green Buick sedan was a vintage tin sign (not shown) reading “MEN AT WORK Except WHILE BUICKS ARE PASSING.” The pair went for $6517.50. The Dent ... (Read More)

(Auction)

Maid of Dreams Tops Auction
by Jackie Sideli

The top lot was this Edward S. Curtis orotone, Maid of Dreams,which was signed on the lower right “Curtis LA c” and numbered “R8-09.” According to notes from the catalog, it retains its original Curtis frame that measures 12½" x 10¾". It sold for $6300 (est. $5000/7000). This silver-mounted violin bow ... (Read More)

(Show)

A Country Gathering
by Don Johnson

Pam Bauer of P.L. Greene Unique Identities, New Haven, Missouri, is no stranger to A Country Gathering. “I’ve been here from the start,” she said. Fresh to the market was an 1860s pie safe in old paint with eight punched tins, priced at $850. It had been acquired in Pennsylvania ... (Read More)

(Auction)

A Landmark Antiques Shop Closes
by Alice Kaufman

An 8' high x 12' wide x 15" deep Honduras mahogany showcase from the Scotland Silver Shop in Edinburgh sold to a bidder in the room for $3125 (est. $3500/7500). All the showcases have glass shelves and lighting. Another Honduras mahogany showcase, this one 7'3" high x 5' wide x 14" ... (Read More)

(Auction)

Rookwood XXV Auction
by Don Johnson

Rookwood Black Iris scenic vase, Kitaro Shirayamadani, 1907, decorated with five barn swallows flying through trailing boughs of English ivy on a black ground, 14¾" high, a few tiny lines of crazing, $49,450. Rookwood mouse paperweight, Kitaro Shirayamadani design, cast in 1936, later Goldstone glaze, 3 1/8" high, excellent condition, $2645. ... (Read More)

(Auction)

Personal Collection of Helen Frankenthaler Sold
by Jackie Sideli

The top lot of the sale was this outstanding Cartier 18k yellow gold and diamond ring. It is faintly signed “Cartier,” and according to notes from the catalog, the diamond weight is approximately 2.65 carats. The ring opened with a left bid of $14,000 and sold quickly to a couple ... (Read More)
Web Design By Firefly Maine Maine Web Design