Stories for September '18
(Issue Story)What Is a “Show”? Editorial, September 2018
What is an “antiques show?” We’re sure that most M.A.D. readers could provide a definition with little problem.
We recently got a letter from a dealer who had seen an ad for a “Summer Antique Show.” It was “one weekend only” and promised 40 dealers. Better yet, it offered free admission. ... (Read More)
|
(Fragment)The Winter Show
“The Winter Show is its new name,” said Helen Allen, executive director of the 65th annual January fund-raiser at the Park Avenue Armory for the East Side House Settlement in the South Bronx. On July 30 Allen called to announce the new branding. East Side House applied to the United ... (Read More)
|
(Fragment)Stolen Pipe Tomahawk, Gifted By Washington to Cornplanter, Recovered and On Display
An 18th-century Native American pipe tomahawk, purportedly gifted to Seneca leader Cornplanter (d. 1836) by President George Washington in 1792, has been returned to the New York State Museum and is on exhibit through December 30.
Photo courtesy New York State Museum.
For nearly 70 years the tomahawk was in the hands ... (Read More)
|
(Issue Story)Letter from London, September 2018
This month’s “Letter” sees me embarking on a pick and mix from a range of summer sales that will keep me busy for at least a couple more issues before the new season sales in the U.K. pick up any real momentum. This month’s selection, however, focuses so heavily on ... (Read More)
|
(Issue Story)Bentley Chappell and Nancy Barshter, Montague, Massachusetts
In the Trade
When I first ran across Nancy Barshter and Bentley Chappell, I said to myself, “Wow, these people are really specialized.”
Chappell sells British Aesthetic Movement transferware pottery from the 1870s and ’80s, and Barshter sells British pottery made for children: mugs, ABC plates, and Lilliputian tea sets.
Bentley Chappell and ... (Read More)
|
(Young Collectors)Antiques Confidential
The Young Collector
Is there anyone more obnoxious than a person whose eyes have just been opened? There are no more ardent evangelists than the newly converted. No one is going to nag you about that lingering smoking habit more than the person who stood next to you and smoked for ... (Read More)
|
(Fragment)Jason Busch Named New Director of American Folk Art Museum
On August 2 the board of trustees at the American Folk Art Museum (AFAM) announced that Jason T. Busch will be its new executive director and take over the job on September 10. Busch had been the deputy director of the Saint Louis Museum and most recently the director of ... (Read More)
|
(Fragment)Emory Loses $19,000 in Fake Invoices Scam
Originally appeared in The Emory Wheel, the student newspaper at Emory University. Reprinted with permission.
Emory University lost more than $19,000 over a three-year period via payments of several fraudulent invoices for art acquisitions.
The Michael C. Carlos Museum. Hagar Elsayed, Video Editor.
Officials at the Michael C. Carlos Museum contacted Emory Police ... (Read More)
|
(Issue Story)Winslow Homer and the Camera: Photography and the Art of Painting
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine
The idea of a small masterpiece lying around somewhere unnoticed—a Homer in a hayloft—never fails to stir our imagination. The object that launched five years of research by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art in Brunswick, Maine, and has culminated in a fascinating, multilayered ... (Read More)
|
(Computer Article)Prepare for Internet Disruptions
Computer Column #356
Last year column #345 covered income tax return software in the middle of the summer because adopting new software should be done well ahead of the start of tax season. This year we will cover keeping online life going in the middle of foul weather. Those in northern ... (Read More)
|
(Book Review)Clockwork Music
A Book Review
Musical clocks: that was it. Before the early 1800s, to hear music not from “live” musical instruments and human voices, you had about one choice. True, there were a handful of exotic music-playing automata in royal palaces, but for the rest of us, a mechanical clock with bells, ... (Read More)
|
(Fragment)John Bartlam Saucer on Loan to MESDA
Curator Daniel Ackermann calls the John Bartlam saucer now on long-term loan from a private collection to the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts at Old Salem Museums and Gardens (MESDA) “one of the most important ceramics ever made in America.”
John Bartlam (1735-1781), porcelain saucer, 1765-70, Cainhoy, South Carolina, soft-paste ... (Read More)
|
(Issue Story)The Thrill of the Chase: A Detective Story
Harry Chase (1853-1889) returned to St. Louis, Missouri, at the end of September 1879, after three years of art study in Europe—two years in Paris under Paul Constant Soyer, and a year in The Hague under the great Dutch marine painter Hendrik Willem Mesdag. Twice in those three years, in ... (Read More)
|
(Fragment)Tremont Auctions Will Not Move
In our July issue (see p. 15-D), we reported that Tremont Auctions would be relocating in the fall. On July 19, the auction house announced that it is staying in Newton, Massachusetts.
“Tremont Auctions is pleased to announce that we’re still calling Newton ‘home’ through June of 2019,” an e-mail announcement ... (Read More)
|
(Fragment)Carol Cadou’s Plans for Winterthur
Soon after Carol Cadou, the first Charles F. Montgomery Director and CEO at Winterthur, began her new job this summer she agreed to an interview. Her newly endowed title was named in honor of Charles Montgomery, first director of Winterthur.
To assume her role as Winterthur’s director, Cadou left her previous ... (Read More)
|
(Fragment)Two Charged in Connection with $8 Million Theft from Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh is the victim of a multimillion-dollar theft—approximately $8 million—and according to authorities it was an inside job.
An affidavit filed in Allegheny County court in Pennsylvania by detectives Frances Laquatra and Perann Tansmore notes that the alleged thefts came to light during an appraisal of the ... (Read More)
|
(Issue Story)Exhibitions, September 2018
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)
|
(Fragment)Dealer's Collection Stolen in Santa Fe
A theft occurred on Monday, August 13, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, resulting in the loss of a personal collection of jewelry belonging to dealer Judi Stellmach of Blue Dog Antiques. Any information will be gratefully received. Contact Judi or Cy Stellmach at (860) 458-9038 or (860) 458-9039 or via ... (Read More)
|
(Fragment)Pennsylvania Gazette with “Join, or Die” Cartoon Brings $50,000
An original May 9, 1754, Pennsylvania Gazette newspaper featuring Benjamin Franklin’s famous “Join, or Die” cartoon sold for $50,000 (includes buyer’s premium) on July 26 in an online sale of Nate D. SandersAuctions in Los Angeles, California.
The last time it had sold, at Heritage Auctions in an April 11 and 12, 2012, sale ... (Read More)
|
(Auction)Old-Fashioned Auction Brings Forth Treasures
John McInnis Auctioneers, Newbury, Massachusetts
John McInnis Auctioneers’ two-day auction June 23 and 24 had it all: an old-fashioned standing-room-only event on the historic Lower Green in Newbury, Massachusetts, a food truck with a plentiful menu, no reserves, no estimates, no Internet bidding, and iffy cell phone reception, all in place ... (Read More)
|
(Auction)Abolitionist Banner Leads at Evans Americana Sale
Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates, Mt. Crawford, Virginia
Photos courtesy Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates
Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates held its 34th semiannual Americana and fine antiques auction spotlighting Virginia and the South on June 22 and 23 at the firm’s gallery in Mt. Crawford, Virginia. We have become accustomed to ... (Read More)
|
(Issue Story)Carole Tanenbaum’s Vintage Costume Jewelry
Antique Jewelry & Gemology
Photos courtesy Ripley Auctions
In late winter this year, I was eating at an osteria in a nearby coastal Maine town with a friend, who told the owner/cook/baker that I write a column about antique jewelry. We had become regular visitors, slogging through winter, taking respite in his ... (Read More)
|
(Auction)Southern Plains Ghost Dance Shirt Brings $225,000
Bonhams, Los Angeles, California
Photos courtesy Bonhams
After years of holding sales only in San Francisco, Bonhams held its sale of Native American art in Los Angeles for the first time on June 4, and that’s the plan for the future.
This Southern Plains Ghost Dance shirt sold for $225,000 (est. $15,000/25,000) to ... (Read More)
|
(Auction)Ottenberg American Art Collection Buoys Sale
Freeman’s, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Photos courtesy Freeman’s
In June and again in December, Alasdair Nichol, chairman of Freeman’s Auction in Philadelphia and head of the American art and Pennsylvania Impressionists department, fills a salesroom with collectors, the trade, sometimes a curator or two, a bank of 15 men and women on phones, and ... (Read More)
|
(Show)Objects of Desire
Wilton, Connecticut
A new show with a new concept was held in Wilton, Connecticut, the first weekend of June. Under the helm of Karen DiSaia of DiSaia Management, Old Lyme, Connecticut, Objects of Desire: Style for the Garden and Home featured 26 dealers who brought antique, vintage, mid-century, and contemporary offerings ... (Read More)
|
(Auction)It’s a Bidding “Three-for-All”
Thomaston Place Auction Galleries, Thomaston, Maine
Thomaston Place Auction Galleries is expanding its regular schedule of four major auctions per year from two days apiece to three. One session will present Maine artists, both past and present. The rest of the added days will be focused on collections. As the company’s ... (Read More)
|
(Auction)Jewelry and a Cache of Feininger Works
Grogan & Company, Boston, Massachusetts
When Lucy Grogan took the podium at the start of the jewelry portion of the sale at Grogan & Company’s spring auction held on June 3 in the Boston gallery, vacant seats filled quickly. She began with a gold pendant necklace by Greek goldsmith Ilias Lalaounis ... (Read More)
|
(Auction)Art and Design Auction
Treadway Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
Photos courtesy Treadway Gallery
In large part, it was business as usual when Treadway Gallery held its art and design auction on June 3 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Then again, not really. The day marked a new era for Don Treadway, who founded the auction arm of his company ... (Read More)
|
(Show)The Heartland Antique Show
Richmond, Indiana
Of the things normally scribbled into a reporter’s notebook, there are these: 100 dealers from 20 states. Twenty-ninth year. Strong sales of smalls across the floor. Spotty movement of furniture. A good gate that resulted in overflow parking.
Three terns, carved and painted wood, mid-20th century, New England, $195 the ... (Read More)
|
(Auction)Antiques Week on the Potomac
The Potomack Company, Alexandria, Virginia
Photos courtesy The Potomack Company
The Potomack Company kicked off summer with an ambitious four-session catalog auction of antiques, fine arts, jewelry, and specialty collections. During the first week of June, nearly 1600 lots crossed the block. The week began on June 2, with a live sale ... (Read More)
|
(Show)Brandywine River Museum of Art Antiques Show
Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania
On Memorial Day weekend, May 25-28, the 47th annual Brandywine River Museum of Art Antiques Show filled the courtyard, downstairs galleries, and three floors of the atrium of the old Hoffman’s grist mill, built in 1864 and now transformed into a modern art museum.
A brief history of the ... (Read More)
|
(Auction)Smith’s Memorial Day Auction
William A. Smith, Inc., Plainfield, New Hampshire
Photos courtesy William A. Smith, Inc.
The auction hall was packed to overflowing for William A. Smith’s annual Memorial Day auction at the company headquarters in Plainfield, New Hampshire, on May 28. Soaring above all the rest was a dramatic oil on canvas by American ... (Read More)
|
(Auction)American Art at Auction
Sotheby’s, New York City
Photos courtesy Sotheby’s
Overshadowed by months of legal proceedings over the sale of several paintings owned by the Berkshire Museum of Art, Sotheby’s nevertheless “kept calm and carried on” with its May American art sale. The 120-lot sale, held the morning of May 23, included three lots from ... (Read More)
|
(Show)The Chicago Antiques + Art + Design Show 2018
Chicago, Illinois
Here’s an amazing anecdote from the second Chicago Antiques + Art + Design Show, held May 18-20. We swear that it really happened, and every word is true. This was told to us by Andrew Rowan of G. Sergeant Antiques, Woodbury, Connecticut.
Here is an accent table made from parts ... (Read More)
|
(Show)A Rainy Day at Fishersville
Shenandoah Antiques Expo, Fishersville, Virginia
The 62nd Shenandoah Antiques Expo was held on the grounds of Augusta Expoland in Fishersville, Virginia, the weekend of May 18-20. The Fishersville show is organized and promoted by Heritage Promotions. Over the years we have come to know the Fishersville event as something of a ... (Read More)
|
(Auction)Ornate Estate Pumps Up the Sale
New Orleans Auction Galleries, New Orleans, Louisiana
Photos courtesy New Orleans Auction Galleries
When the New Orleans Auction Galleries (NOAG) offers an “important estate” sale, thoughts might turn first to the contents of an antebellum plantation on the River Road or a French Quarter townhouse. Not perhaps Englewood, New Jersey, but the ... (Read More)
|
(Auction)Volcano of Timepieces
R.O. Schmitt Fine Arts, Manchester, New Hampshire
I thought of recent Hawaiian Big Island eruptions as, for more than 16 hours, nearly 1200 lots of clocks and watches flowed from R.O. Schmitt Fine Arts’ auction in Manchester, New Hampshire. On May 19 and 20, most lots slowly streamed by like lava; ... (Read More)
|
(Show)The 2018 Penn Dry Goods Market
Pennsburg, Pennsylvania
The lectures were the big draw at the annual Penn Dry Goods Market, held at the Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center in Pennsburg, Pennsylvania, May 18 and 19. Lecture attendees came to listen and then shopped the stalls of the 24 dealers who offered vintage textiles and related Americana; ... (Read More)
|
(Auction)A Fresh Start for Barridoff Galleries
Barridoff Galleries, South Portland, Maine
The newly reconstituted Barridoff Galleries is open for business at its South Portland, Maine, location. The building renovations are new, the location is new, and even the landscaping in the rural/urban/industrial setting had a fresh scent to it.
Continuing the parade of Waldo Peirce (1884-1970) offerings that ... (Read More)
|
(Auction)Regional Ohio Valley Sale with Jewelry
Garth’s Auctions, Delaware, Ohio
Photos courtesy Garth’s
Garth’s Auctions took a slightly different approach to the May 12 auction of Americana, held in Delaware, Ohio. For the past 11 years, the May sale has been highlighted by an annual Ohio Valley session. This year, the auction was promoted as “featuring regional items ... (Read More)
|
(Auction)Paintings, Photos, and Prints
Skinner, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts
American and international bidders pursued an eclectic range of paintings, prints, photographs, and sculpture at Skinner’s two-session auction on May 11 in the Boston gallery. Prints and photography sold at 10 a.m.; paintings and sculpture sold starting at 2 p.m. The break allowed bidders and staff time ... (Read More)
|
(Auction)Martha Stewart’s Studio Props
Kaminski Auctions, Beverly, Massachusetts
It seems as if everyone is considering deaccessioning these days, even the domestic diva Martha Stewart. Collectors and a few dealers wanting a piece from Stewart went in droves to Kaminski Auctions’ previews and to the May 5 and 6 auction of her studio props. Close to ... (Read More)
|
1 (800) 752-8521 • PO Box 1429 • Waldoboro, ME 04572
