Stories for August '16
(Fragment)Connecticut Man and New York Dealer Plead Guilty
Two men have pleaded guilty to hiding assets from the court. On May 19 antiques dealer Henry Neville, former president of the New York City operations of Mallett plc, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct justice, obstruction of justice, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud, and false statements. On ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Farmer Joins Freeman's
Virginia appraiser and consultant Ken Farmer has been retained as a consultant to Freeman’s Auction of Philadelphia, according to a press release. Farmer will focus on helping to develop the company’s presence throughout the Southeast. His primary focus will be securing property for consignment and helping with Americana sales.
Farmer will ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Voters Approve Changes to Wiscasset, Maine, Traffic
Wiscasset, Maine, is known for its many antiques shops. It’s also well known as a traffic bottleneck in the summer months. Antiquing in Wiscasset, Maine, is going to be more difficult in the future, according to several dealers in the small town.
On June 14 Wiscasset voters were asked to decide ... (Read More)
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(Feature)Betsey Telford-Goodwin, Rocky Mountain Quilts, York, Maine
In the Trade
Why, you may ask, is a business with the name “Rocky Mountain Quilts” located in York, Maine? There’s a long answer (which needn’t detain us here) and a short answer. The short answer is simply that owner Betsey Telford-Goodwin was homesick. She had grown up in Chestnut Hill ... (Read More)
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(Computer Article)Web Resources for Researching Antiques
Computer Column #332
John P. Reid, <[email protected]>
There are Internet resources for researching antiques of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
When the Old Was New
Auction-goers and pickers in rural areas often buy today’s antiques that were sold new a century ago in mail-order catalogs. Mail-order sales were made easier in the ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Notre Dame Sued over Purportedly Stolen Collection
A collection of pre-Columbian artifacts at the University of Notre Dame’s Snite Museum of Art, Notre Dame, Indiana, includes stolen property according to a Pennsylvania man who is suing the university. Notre Dame and the dealer who sold the collection to the university deny the accusation.
Scott Leff, the son of ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Boynton Beach Sees Antiques Stores as Key for Growth
Editorial
The City Commission of Boynton Beach, Florida, a city of approximately 69,000 residents, should be congratulated. It has recognized that antiques shops and consignment stores can help boost the economy in cities.
On July 5 the City Commission approved relaxed rules regarding antiques stores and consignment shops. The new rules are ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)The GSA Goes after Another Painting
Collector Myron Kaplan paid $57,500 for Abstraction #6 by Ad Reinhardt (1913-1967) at Sotheby’s on November 20, 1997. The 16¼" x 20" oil on canvas was estimated at $15,000/20,000, and the provenance in the catalog noted that it was “acquired directly from the artist.”
In May 2016—almost 20 years after he ... (Read More)
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(Book Review)A Useful Dictionary of Canton Forms
A Book Review
Collecting Canton: In Pursuit of the Best by Gail and Rich Mellin, with Erica Mellin Scioscia Mellin’s Antiques Publishing, 2015, 167 pages, hardbound, $165 postpaid from Mellin’s Antiques, (203) 938-9538 or (www.mellinsantiques.com).
After purchasing two dinner plates in the 1970s, Gail and Rich Mellin fell in love with blue ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Firehouse Antiques Expands
Firehouse Antiques in Galena, Maryland, is expanding and has purchased a Victorian building at 100 North Main Street, adjacent to its current location at 102 North Main Street. The 150-year-old Victorian building has served as a country inn, store, and residence and will now be home for antiques offered by ... (Read More)
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(Book Review)The Folk Art Collection of Elie and Viola Nadelman
A Book Review
Photos courtesy New-York Historical Society
Making It Modern: The Folk Art Collection of Elie and Viola Nadelman
by Margaret K. Hofer and Roberta J.M. Olson
New-York Historical Society, in association with D Giles Limited, London, 2015, 375 pages, hardbound, $65.
A current exhibition at the New-York Historical Society (N-YHS) has taken on ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Lawsuit over Picasso Sculpture Settled
The lawsuit filed in January by Gagosian Gallery of New York City against Pelham Europe, Ltd. involving the sale of Pablo Picasso’s 1931 sculpture Buste de Femme (Marie Thérèse) has been settled.
“We are pleased that the dispute between the Picassos and Pelham has been settled and Mr. Black will receive ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)New Americana Week Show in New York City
A new show will be added to the calendar during Americana Week in New York City next January when dealer and show manager Debbie Turi introduces Antiques Folk Art Design NYC, to be held at the Prince George Ballroom at 15 East 27th Street.
The venue, approximately 8500 square feet spread ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Letter from London, August 2016
Ian McKay, <[email protected]>
There is a fair amount of sculpture and not a little bare flesh—carved and painted—in this month’s “Letter,” and with other stories headed “The Red-Haired Girl…” and “Bronzed Beauties…” I might be accused of being single-minded in my pursuit of subjects for this selection. I plead coincidence, and ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Former Director of Warhol Museum Joins Sotheby's
Eric Shiner, director of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, will join Sotheby’s this September. Based in New York City, Shiner will enter Sotheby’s fine art division as a senior vice president focused on private sales of 20th- and 21st-century art.
Shiner’s new role follows eight years at the Andy ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Austin's Antiques Sold and Renamed
Peter Austin sold Austin’s Antiques co-op in Chichester, New Hampshire, on June 1 to Cathy Consentino and Thomas Thompson, two longtime dealers. Austin had owned the business for 23 years.
“After a lot of thought, the name is being changed to Thos. Bartlett Antiques & Oddments,” Consentino wrote. “The layout has ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)The 60th Anniversary of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum
The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum (AARFAM) in Williamsburg, Virginia, is kicking off its diamond anniversary in 2017 with the loan exhibition at the Winter Antiques Show at the Park Avenue Armory, January 20 through 29. The oldest continuously operating museum in the United States dedicated solely to the ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Minnesota Dealer Pleads Guilty in Ivory Case
Antiques dealer Jay Anthony Anderson, 66, of Wabasha, Minnesota, pleaded guilty on June 7 in federal court to smuggling elephant ivory. He was charged on May 16 with knowingly importing and exporting objects made from elephant ivory in violation of the laws and regulations of the United States, including the ... (Read More)
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(Young Collectors)Antiq-onomics, Part 1
The Young Collector
When Andrew began his life in the auction business, he was excited. He was fresh out of graduate school at Winterthur and the University of Delaware, where he’d spent hours in quiet, climate-controlled, well-lit rooms reviewing individual pristine, iconic Americana objects at his leisure. Then he showed up ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Porcelain, No Simple Matter
The Frick Collection in New York City has published Porcelain, No Simple Matter: Arlene Shechet and the Arnhold Collection, which accompanies the year-long special exhibition of the same name, exploring the complex history of making, collecting, and displaying porcelain.
The 34-page booklet includes installation photographs, a complete exhibition checklist, and a ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)New Show Manager for Zoar Harvest Festival Antiques Show and Sale
Slated for August 6 and 7, the 43rd annual Harvest Festival Antiques Show and Sale in Zoar, Ohio, will be managed by Steven Sherhag of Canfield, Ohio.
“Since 2008, dealers Jan and Dick Wilks have done a superb job managing and promoting Harvest Festival,” said Jon Elsasser, president of the Zoar ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Anonymous Donor Gifts Ohr Vase
The Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art in Biloxi, Mississippi, has acquired a piece of George Edgar Ohr ceramic art pottery from an anonymous donor. According to the museum’s director, Kevin O’Brien, “Although the museum has been fortunate enough to receive gifts of Ohr in the recent past, it’s always a special ... (Read More)
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(Book Review)American Furniture 2015
A Book Review
American Furniture 2015Edited by Luke Beckerdite The Chipstone Foundation, distributed by University Press of New England, 2015, 241 pages, hardbound, $65 plus S/H from University Press of New England, (800) 421-1561 or (www.upne.com).
Collectors and students of American furniture look forward annually to the publication of American Furniture, the ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Arion's Delaware Coast Antiques Show & Sale Canceled
Promoter Melvin L. Arion has announced that the 20th annual Delaware Coast Antiques Show & Sale will not be held this year. The cancellation is due to major construction at the Convention Center in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. The event is normally held the first weekend after Labor Day (this year ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Exhibitions, August 2016
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)
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(Fragment)Olde Hope Antiques at 40
On July 4 Edwin Hild and Patrick Bell celebrated 40 years in the antiques business. The story of their Olde Hope Antiques in New Hope, Pennsylvania, documents the evolution of the market for what used to be called country antiques into that catchall category called “folk art” over the last ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Rare Books and Manuscripts Sell at Gibson Auction
On July 2 Gibson Auction, Inc. in Orange, Virginia, offered a relatively small group of rare books and manuscripts for sale without reserve. The bulk of the lots came from the estate library of the Craige family of North Carolina and Virginia and had been collected over three generations.
The high ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)The Collection of Joan Rivers
Antique Jewelry & Gemology
Photos courtesy Christie’s
Christie’s held two sales of the personal property of Joan Rivers: a live auction on June 22 with 204 lots from Rivers’s Manhattan penthouse, and an eight-day online-only sale of 77 lots that included antique jewelry, designer clothing, and handbags and concluded on June 23.
Gemma ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Chait Gets a Year in Prison and a $10,000 Fine
Joseph Chait, 38, of Beverly Hills, California, the senior auction administrator of I.M. Chait Gallery, was sentenced on June 22 to one year and one day in prison and a $10,000 fine for conspiring to smuggle wildlife products made from rhinoceros horn, elephant ivory, and coral with a market value ... (Read More)
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(Auction)A Good Day for Southern Furniture
Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates, Mt. Crawford, Virginia
Photos courtesy Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates
Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates held its semiannual Americana and fine arts sale on June 18 at the firm’s gallery in Mt. Crawford, Virginia. These sales are commonly referred to as Evans’s southern sales, as there is ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Bill to Increase Reward for Reporting Ivory Violations Fails to Pass
A bill that would have authorized rewards of up to $25,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a person guilty of a felony or misdemeanor related to the sale of ivory and of rhinoceros horns passed the New York State Assembly on June 15. It did not ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)D-Day Flag Brings $514,000
A 48-star United States flag, 30" x 57", that led American troops to Utah Beach in France on D-Day, June 6, 1944, complete with a bullet hole from a German machine gun, realized $514,000 at Heritage Auctions in Dallas, Texas, on June 12. The buyer was Bert Kreuk, a Dutch ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Shaker Sale
Skinner, Inc., Marlborough, Massachusetts
Quiet but dedicated Massachusetts conservationist and philanthropist Erhart Rudolph Muller (1909-2015) and his wife, Ruth Tate Atwood Muller, began collecting Shaker art and artifacts in the 1940s. Ruth, who had arrived in the 1940s at Harvard, Massachusetts, as a librarian and married Erhart, died at 97 in ... (Read More)
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(Show)The 2016 Brandywine Show
Brandywine River Museum of Art Antiques Show, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania
The Brandywine River Museum of Art Antiques Show is a Memorial Day weekend tradition as firmly rooted as putting out American flags. Dealers at the 45th annual show, held May 27-30, brought mostly Americana and antiques from Europe or Asia that ... (Read More)
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(Show)Randolph Street Market Festival: Opening Weekend 2016
Chicago, Illinois
To the annals of great impresarios through history, add Sally Schwartz, the founder and driving force behind and still major-domo of the Randolph Street Market Festival in Chicago’s West Loop. Flo Ziegfeld and Sol Hurok, eat your hearts out!
For the May 28 and 29 opening of the seasonal outdoor ... (Read More)
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(Show)Thumbs-up at Rhinebeck Show
Antiques at Rhinebeck, Rhinebeck, New York
It was thumbs-up for the quality, presentation, variety, and dealer knowledge at Barn Star Productions’ twice-a-year Antiques at Rhinebeck show at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds in Rhinebeck, New York, a historic town along the Hudson River, south of Albany and north of Manhattan, on May ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Emancipation Proclamation and 13th Amendment Sell Together for First Time
Sotheby’s, New York Cit
Photos courtesy Sotheby’s
Sotheby’s offered an engrossed (handwritten) vellum copy of the 13th Amendment, one of only 14 such Lincoln-signed copies known, on May 25 at a sale called “Two Centuries of American History.” The document that abolished slavery in the United States sold to well-known philanthropist David ... (Read More)
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(Show)Fishersville Reflects the Market
Shenandoah Antiques Expo, Fishersville, Virginia
As a general rule, gardeners like rain, antiquers do not. The 58th Shenandoah Antiques Expo at the Augusta Expoland in Fishersville, Virginia, would have been a gardener’s delight. The weekend of May 20-22 was a rainy one. When I visited the Fishersville show on Saturday, I ... (Read More)
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(Auction)The Ring of the Lords
Thomaston Place Auction Galleries, Thomaston, Maine
At the Thomaston Place Auction Galleries two-day sale on May 21and 22 in Thomaston, Maine, a few of the five-figure head-liners flatlined with no buyers. Yet more than enough items from the hinterlands of low estimate limbo blew through their expectations and rose to the ... (Read More)
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(Auction)The Scranton Sale
Skinner, Inc., Killingworth, Connecticut
Hardly anyone was absent. The May 21 on-site sale of the collections of Killingworth, Connecticut, dealer Lewis Scranton packed the tents with collectors and dealers, some of whom had not been seen in the salesrooms in decades. Dealers, all of whom know and respect Scranton, an 11th-generation ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Portraits of Women and One Lovely Mare Star
New Orleans Auction Galleries, New Orleans, Louisiana
Photos courtesy New Orleans Auction Galleries
The May 21 and 22 New Orleans Auction Galleries estates sale was a banquet of furniture, jewelry, and decorative arts, but once again fine art from a major paintings collection brought the highest prices of the weekend. With over ... (Read More)
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(Auction)American Art
Christie’s, New York City
Photos courtesy Christie’s
Hung horizontally or vertically, Georgia O’Keeffe’s Lake George Reflection was a favorite during American paintings week in May. It is a large painting, 58" x 34", and Christie’s showed it both ways as the folding frontispiece in the catalog for the May 19 sale. For ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Two by Sargent Top Sotheby's Sale
Sotheby’s, New York City
Photos courtesy Sotheby’s
Sotheby’s 6 p.m. American art sale on May 18 began with champagne. Collectors toasted two extraordinary paintings by John Singer Sargent—Staircase in Capri, painted in 1878, and Poppies, painted in England in the summer of 1886.
Sargent painted Poppies in a garden in the Cotswolds as ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Spring Auction of American Art
Bonhams, New York City
Photos courtesy Bonhams
Twice a season, in December and May, collectors, curators, and dealers come to New York City to immerse themselves in American art. Auction houses hold lectures and cocktail parties to be sure that collectors get to the previews. Private dealers participating in “Just Off Madison” ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Two Rockwell Kents Top Portsmouth Auction
Northeast Auctions, Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Photos courtesy Northeast Auctions
There was something for everyone at Northeast Auctions’ May 15 sale in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where buyers showed up and bought from the extensive range of objects offered. Prices were all over the place, with some lots selling under the money and others ... (Read More)
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(Show)The Art of Design Then & Now Show
New York City
Fifteen dealers hopped on the bandwagon to exhibit at the first The Art of Design Then & Now show, held at the Bohemian National Hall on New York City’s Upper East Side, May 13-15.
The new show, put together by longtime show manager Marty Ellis, who is based in ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Thalhimer and Zelle Estates
Brunk Auctions, Asheville, North Carolina
Photos courtesy Brunk Auctions
In order to avoid low attendance at a Sunday sale, Brunk Auctions scheduled its spring catalog sale for Thursday evening, Friday evening, and all day Saturday, May 12-14. It was an experiment that left out-of-towners with an entire day to kill in North ... (Read More)
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(Auction)The Tenth Annual Ohio Valley Session
Garth’s Auctions, Delaware, Ohio
Photos courtesy Garth’s Auctions
Smalls dominated at Garth’s Auctions on May 14 in Delaware, Ohio. Little things, big interest. Glass and pottery, especially stoneware, had some of the greatest impact. They didn’t claim the top price of the day but consistently bobbed among the best.
The morning started with ... (Read More)
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(Show)Pure and Simple Antique Show and Sale
Kokomo, Indiana
A reverse-painted window, offered during the Pure and Simple Antique Show and Sale on May 14 in Kokomo, Indiana, summed up in four words what promoters Mike and Marti Korba have essentially been saying for seven years. Lettered on the glass pane was this message: “Come In / Convince Yourself.”
The ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Paintings and Sculpture at Skinner
Skinner, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts
Photos courtesy Skinner
A mere fragment took top honors at Skinner’s May 13 auction when it sold for $92,250 (includes buyer’s premium). It was an early 20th-century 22¼" x 15½" oil on canvas study of water, a fragment that had been relined and had some retouching and some ... (Read More)
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(Feature)Wallace Nutting Blacksmith Photograph Sells for $4180
Shoeing the Gray Mare, a rare Wallace Nutting hand-colored photo, sold for $4180 (includes buyer’s premium) at Michael Ivankovich’s auction on May 13 in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania. The 10½" x 12½" framed 1905-10 photograph features a blacksmith shoeing a white horse outside a barn and is signed “Compliments of Wallace ... (Read More)
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(Show)The Last Spring Masters
New York City
New York City bid adieu in early May to Spring Masters while putting out a welcome mat for TEFAF New York. The fair will reappear at the Park Avenue Armory October 22-26 and again May 4-9, 2017, as part of a new venture between Michael Plummer and Jeff ... (Read More)
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(Show)Gold Rush and Beyond
Old West Show, Grass Valley, California
Old West Show producer Brian Witherell called the 2016 Old West Show, held May 6 and 7 in Grass Valley, California, “a transition year. We promised not to fix it because it wasn’t broke, but we did decide to start transitioning now because we had ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Animals and Art at Daniel Buck
Daniel Buck Auctions, Lisbon Falls, Maine
Daniel Buck is a relative newcomer on the New England auction scene. He’s completed a dozen or so auctions from his Lisbon Falls, Maine, hall, and his two-day sale on May 6 and 7 brought forth a strange but potent mix of art, antiques, and ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Native American and Ethnographic Art Auction
Skinner, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts
Photos courtesy Skinner, Inc.
Skinner’s Boston gallery was abuzz during the preview for its May 6 auction of American Indian and ethnographic art. The talk was about the catalog cover lot: a rare Blackfeet chief’s shirt and leggings. The shirt, from the 1830s, was made from two sinew-sewn ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Impressionist and Modern Art
Doyle New York, New York City
Photos courtesy Doyle
A sale of European and American Impressionist and modern art was held at Doyle New York on May 3. Overall the sale totaled $2,174,563; 88% of the lots sold. American art sales contributed $1,148,188 to the total, with 85% sold by lot. Lots ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Nostalgia at Noon in Ramseur
C & A Antique Auction, Ramseur, North Carolina
Photos courtesy C & A Auction
On May 1 auctioneer Carson Cockman presented bidders with two distinct versions of the past. For those who valued their early adulthood and had deeper pockets, there was period tobacco, coffee, and petrol-related merchandise. Those enamored with childhood ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Nautical Antiques Auction
Boston Harbor Auctions, Quincy, Massachusetts
Photos courtesy Boston Harbor Auctions
The Lannan Ship Model Gallery, the host of the Boston Harbor Auctions sale held on April 30, was created in 1967 in Quincy, Massachusetts, by Joseph G. Lannan Jr. (1926-2011) in the basement of his home. Lannan, a graduate of Massachusetts Maritime ... (Read More)
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(Show)A Detour on the Barbecue Trail
Liberty Antiques Festival, Liberty, North Carolina
A traditional measure of success for an antiques show is the number of big-ticket items sold. In the South, we like to include the barbecue factor in our success calculations.
Here’s an example. On Friday, April 29, the first day of the two-day Liberty Antiques Festival ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Historic Firearms and Early Militaria
Cowan’s Auctions, Cincinnati, Ohio
Photos courtesy Cowan’s
Well before the catalog was printed and the online listings were posted, Jack Lewis, director of historic firearms and early militaria at Cowan’s Auctions, knew the April 26 and 27 sale was going to be special. That event, held at Cowan’s gallery in Cincinnati, Ohio, ... (Read More)
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(Auction)North American Decoys at Auction
Guyette & Deeter, St. Charles, Illinois
The 31st Guyette & Deeter spring auction, held April 21 and 22 in St. Charles, Illinois, was notable for several reasons. To begin, the annual event is one of the larger sales held by the decoy auction firm. This year more than 600 lots were ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Interesting Couture Labels on Vintage Fashions
Augusta Auctions, New York City
Photos courtesy Augusta Auctions
A sprinkling of couture labels by lesser-known fashion designers, as opposed to well-known and revered designers, were seen on vintage clothing at an auction of couture and vintage fashion, historic textiles, and fashion accessories held by Augusta Auctions at Landmark on the Park, ... (Read More)
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(Show)The Bowmanville Show, a Canadian Easter Tradition
Bowmanville Antiques & Folk Art Show, Bowmanville, Ontario
All prices given in Canadian dollars
Tied as it is to Easter every year, the Bowmanville (Ontario) Antiques & Folk Art Show can land on the calendar just about anywhere in March or April. Naturally, there’s a religious rationale for this meandering holiday, but ... (Read More)
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