Brunk’s Jan. 3-4 sale features art and antiques with a Charleston connection

This 6-carat diamond is one of four unmounted diamonds in the sale. Color is L or M, clarity is I1. Replacement value is $60,847 and its presale estimate is $16,000-$24,000 with a $15,000 reserve. Image courtesy Brunk Auctions.
This 6-carat diamond is one of four unmounted diamonds in the sale. Color is L or M, clarity is I1. Replacement value is $60,847 and its presale estimate is $16,000-$24,000 with a $15,000 reserve. Image courtesy Brunk Auctions.
This 6-carat diamond is one of four unmounted diamonds in the sale. Color is L or M, clarity is I1. Replacement value is $60,847 and its presale estimate is $16,000-$24,000 with a $15,000 reserve. Image courtesy Brunk Auctions.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The scenic oceanfront city of Charleston, S.C., commands center stage in Brunk Auctions Jan. 3-4 sale. For starters there is Louis Rémy Mignot’s 1854 luminist painting with the poetic title Solitude or Sunset. Mignot, one of Charleston’s most celebrated artists of the 19th century, was only 23 when he completed Solitude or Sunset. It was one of the most important paintings of his career. 

The painting has remained for generations in the possession of the Chazal family, French Catholic entrepreneurs originally from Santo Domingo. The 30 inch by 41 7/8 inch painting is in its original Barbizon gilt-wood frame and is estimated at $100,000 to $150,000, with an $80,000 reserve. 

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Marilyn Monroe photos sell for $150,000 at auction

NEW YORK (AP) – A collection of photographs of Marilyn Monroe taken for Vogue magazine the year she died has been auctioned in New York for nearly $150,000.

A spokeswoman for Christie’s auction house says the 36 photos taken by Bert Stern sold for $146,500 on Tuesday. The presale estimate was $100,000 to $150,000.

 

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Furniture Specific: Depression Era

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One of the most interesting and important times in American history is quickly fading from living memory. The Depression Era, as it is commonly called, encompassed the better part of three decades early in the 20th century and it had a profound effect on the course of the country, the conduct of the World War that followed and even on our life today.

While the Great Depression did not officially start until 1929 and was not truly over until the early 1950s, the general term for the period covers most of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. The survivors of that time are fast leaving us and with them will go a firsthand familiarity with an era that gave us a number of important words, phrases and concepts that many of us use today without really knowing the original context of the usage or the impact of them in their heyday.

Lifestyle words like Prohibition, speakeasy, bathtub gin, flapper and zoot suit come to mind as do governmentally generated ideas like the NRA (National Recovery Act), the WPA (Works Project Administration), the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) and the New Deal. And of course there were darker words like breadline, soup kitchen, Apple Annie and the match girl that reflect the desperation of the times.

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Gallery Report: December 2008

E. Howard #61 clock, $189,750, Fontaine’s

An E. Howard & Co. #61 astronomical floor regulator clock sold for $189,750 at a Fall Clock Auction held Nov. 8 by Fontaine’s Auction Gallery in Pittsfield, Mass. The second top lot was also an E. Howard clock, a #60 astronomical hanging regulator that soared to $46,000. A rare U.S. Clock Co. astronomical floor clock with regulator went for $37,375, a 30-day period Biedermeier lantern clock made $25,875, and a Brocot French figural three-piece clock set changed hands for $20,700. Prices include a 15 percent buyer’s premium.

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