Stories for December '20
(Book Review)Book Reviews
"Wear the old coat and buy the new book” is a sentiment attributed to Austin Phelps. You’ll find many interesting new antiques-related books in this month’s selection. We have included contact information for books that you can order directly from the publisher or museum. We also encourage you to consider ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Auction Prices Realized, December 2020
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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(Young Collectors)Waiting for the Light
The Young Collector
Usually about this time of year, we would turn in a travelogue of sorts. Light, we imagine, entertaining, we hope, the kind of thing you want to read about someone else doing because you would have more sense than to do it yourself. One of these crisp, bright ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Letter from London, December 2020
Though Bonhams helped by getting their new season’s bigger sales under way a little earlier than most, recent weeks have seen most of the big sales taking place in the Far East and North America. So while there are several London sales in what follows, I have dipped into some ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)January York Show Canceled
Promoter Melvin Arion has canceled The Original 176th Semi-Annual York Antiques Show & Sale, scheduled for January 29-31, 2021, in York, Pennsylvania, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. For more information, visit the website (www.theoriginalyorkantiquesshow.com) or call Arion at (302) 542-3286.
Originally published in the December 2020 issue of Maine Antique Digest. ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Hanging with Rebecca and Taylor Thistlethwaite
We are all spending much more time now in our houses and apartments because of COVID-19. Because we all might enjoy staring at someone else’s walls for a change, this column gives our readers an idea of what some of their colleagues, fellow collectors, and other readers surround themselves with ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)David A. Schorsch and Eileen M. Smiles Launch New Blog
David A. Schorsch and Eileen M. Smiles of Woodbury, Connecticut, have launched a new educational and editorial blog to showcase and discuss works within the broader context of the Americana field. The second-generation firm will offer a perspective based on the dealers’ experience and position in the marketplace.
The first entry ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Vermont Latest to Get It Wrong but Gives Dealers Some Time
Vermont antiques dealers have about a year to legally sell all their antique scrimshaw, ivory netsuke, or any other antique that will be illegal to sell under a newly passed animal parts and products law.
The law—signed on October 8—prohibits the buying and selling of any item of a covered animal ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Exhibitions, December 2020
Adriaen van Diest (1655-1704), The Battle of Lowestoft, circa 1690, oil on canvas, 40¾" x 71¼". Gift of the Berger Collection Educational Trust.
—Through December 6 —Denver, Colorado
Treasures of British Art: The Berger Collection showcases about 60 paintings gifted to the Denver Art Museum (DAM) by the Berger Collection Educational Trust ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Judge Strikes Down Claim to Stolen Hamilton Letter
On October 28 United States Magistrate Judge Judith Gail Dein ruled that a July 21, 1780, letter from Alexander Hamilton to the Marquis de Lafayette is a public record and the property of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
The letter had been stolen from the Massachusetts Archives sometime between 1937 and 1945 ... (Read More)
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(Show)Art Fair Moves Online for 2020
The American Art Fair
The 13th edition of The American Art Fair, a show typically held at the Bohemian National Hall on New York City’s Upper East Side, pivoted to an online venue in response to the pandemic. Held about a month earlier than usual, October 9-18, the fair featured 24 ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Nagel Portrait—Consigned by the Sitter—Breaks Auction Record
Patrick Nagel’s 1983 Jeana sold at Heritage Auctions on October 16 for $350,000 (includes buyer’s premium), establishing an auction record for the artist. The estimate was $60,000/80,000. The previous Nagel auction record was $300,000 for Kristen, sold at Phillips in New York City on May 15, 2019.
Patrick Nagel (1945-1984), Jeana, ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Buyer of World Record Ledger Drawing Revealed
In the August Maine Antique Digest, we reported that Maine Heritage Auctions, Dallas, Texas, had established an auction record when the firm sold a single ledger drawing for $106,250 (includes buyer’s premium) on May 29.
On October 13 the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) in Richmond, Virginia, revealed that it ... (Read More)
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(Show)The ADA Online Deerfield Show
Antiques Dealers’ Association of America
The Antiques Dealers’ Association of America (ADA), founded in 1984 to make the antiques trade more honest and ethical, has been organizing shows for its members since the summer of 1985. In 1998 it moved its fall show to Deerfield, Massachusetts, as a fund-raiser for Historic ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Fall Jewelry Sale
Antique Jewelry & Gemology
Photos courtesy Rago Arts and Auction
Rago Arts and Auction held its fall jewelry and watches auction on October 6 in Lambertville, New Jersey. I talked with Dianne Batista, director of fine jewelry at Rago, about the sale, and she said she was working on the deadline for ... (Read More)
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(Show)Antiques at Fletcher Field
Proctorsville, Vermont
Antiques at Fletcher Field was the larger of the Vermont Antiques Week shows in 2020. Because of the pandemic, there were only two shows this year, both managed by Ohio dealer and show promoter Steve Sherhag. The new event, held October 3 and 4, replaced the Okemo Antique Show ... (Read More)
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(Show)The Black River Antique Show
Ludlow, Vermont
The Black River Antique Show, held October 2 and 3, opened on Friday at 1 p.m. under a large tent pitched on the Paul P. Pullinen Field adjacent to the Ludlow Elementary School in Ludlow, Vermont. It was one of two shows that constituted Vermont Antiques Week in 2020, ... (Read More)
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(Show)Pop-up Antiques Show at Thomaston’s New Green Space
Thomaston, Maine
It doesn’t have a name, so let’s call it the “Great Thomaston Show of No’s.” It was held on September 26 at Thomaston Green, a community park in the heart of downtown Thomaston, Maine, that once housed the former Maine State Prison. Every descriptor about the show seems to ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Larkin Ambrotype Tops Jefferson Land Grants at Mebane
Mebane Antique Auction Gallery, Mebane, North Carolina
Photos courtesy Mebane Antique Auction Gallery
Around 1937, unmarried sisters Maude Spotswood Larkin and Mary Dillard Larkin, who resided in the historic Garland Hill neighborhood of Lynchburg, Virginia, inherited a massive collection of family letters, documents, photographs, books, and furniture. The collection descended from their ... (Read More)
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(Auction)American and European Works of Art
Skinner, Marlborough, Massachusetts
Photos courtesy Skinner
Skinner’s Marlborough, Massachusetts, gallery was the site of a September 25 auction of American and European works of art. Vice president and department director Robin S.R. Starr took the podium precisely at noon with an audience of no one. Skinner staffers were in place at their ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Bugatti Furniture Attracts International Attention
CRN Auctions, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Carl Nordblom and Karin Phillips of CRN Auctions can be relied on to assemble auctions of items considered esoteric, even for Cambridge, Massachusetts.
At the September 20 auction, eight lots of furniture by Italian designer Carlo Bugatti (1856-1940) spurred international bidding. Bugatti, a designer of ceramics, musical instruments, ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Art and Design of the Early 20th Century
Toomey & Co. Auctioneers, Oak Park, Illinois
Photos courtesy Toomey & Co. Auctioneers
As long as auction houses have existed, the pace of major overall change has been glacial. Yet within this year, the pandemic has for many auction houses eliminated in-person viewing, presale handling of lots, live auctions with on-floor bidding, ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Country Americana
Garth’s, Columbus, Ohio
Photos courtesy Garth’s Auctions
A presentation pitcher in an Albany slip with scratched text and decoration sold for $6120 (including buyer’s premium) to lead the country Americana sale held by Garth’s in Columbus, Ohio, on September 12. The 10½" tall pitcher was incised “Mrs. R. Pannabaker from Charles 1891” ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Fine Art and Decorative Rarities
Thomaston Place Auction Galleries, Thomaston, Maine
Photos courtesy Thomaston Place Auction Galleries
Thomaston Place Auction Galleries is up and running full steam ahead, bucking the headwinds of the COVID-bedeviled economy. Thomaston Place put up its usual upscale summer auction on August 29 and 30 this year, with a sale top-heavy with major ... (Read More)
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(Show)Country Farm Antiques Show
Casey, Illinois
They needed this. Everyone did. After the stay-at-home orders, social distancing, and lack of time with family and friends. After the loss of income due to multi-state shutdowns. After the absence of in-person, hands-on, face-to-face opportunities to shop. After any sense of just being able to get out and ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Kolar Collection at Skinner
Skinner, Marlborough, Massachusetts
Photos courtesy Skinner
John Kolar coauthored Weathervanes: Three Centuries of a Pennsylvania Folk Art Tradition with Jennifer Royer, and he collaborated with Patrick Hornberger in the writing of The Lancaster Long Rifles. Kolar, also a scholar and collector, gathered an enviable collection of decorative arts of Pennsylvania and Ohio. ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Circus, Sideshow, and Oddities Sale
Potter & Potter Auctions, Chicago, Illinois
Photos courtesy Potter & Potter Auctions
A smart bidder can find just about anything in a Chicago auction, from a Meissen monkey band to prime mid-century furniture. But one auction house has traveled a different path. Tucked into a North Side neighborhood in the upscale Lincoln ... (Read More)
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