February 2009 - Page 2 of 8 - Auction Central News

Painting by Robert Scott Duncanson a big winner in Cowan’s Feb. 7 sale

'Robbing the Eagle's Nest' by Robert Scott Duncanson, dated 1856, $105,750. Image courtesy Cowan's Auctions.

CINCINNATI – With a packed auction house and phone banks at capacity, the economic recession seemed far from everyone’s mind at Cowan’s Auctions Winter Fine and Decorative Art Sale held on Feb. 7, 2009. More than 1,050 registered bidders from 22 countries vied to take home one or more of the 667 lots offered at the auction.

Online bidders through LiveAuctioneers had a significant impact, as well. The 488 approved online bidders prevailed on 78 of the sale’s lots, including a woven tapestry of a sheep-shearing scene, which was purchased via the Internet for $6,600 against a presale estimate of $1,000-$1,500.

Decorative Arts Director Diane Wachs was elated with the outcome. “The auction did very well. We had the biggest in-house audience we’ve ever had at Cowan’s.” Wachs described the bidding as “aggressive,” both from retail buyers and dealers.

The highest selling item of the sale was the painting titled Robbing The Eagle’s Nest, by Robert Scott Duncanson (1823-1872). The large oil on canvas sold for $105,750 (all prices quoted are inclusive of 17.5 percent buyer’s premium), more than doubling its high estimate of $50,000. The painting was originally acquired directly from the artist, and descended from the buyer to the present owner.

A bust of Minnehaha by Edmonia Lewis sold well above its estimated price and grossed $52,875. Lewis was the first African-American and Native-American woman to gain international recognition as a sculptor. In October 2007, Cowan’s set an auction sales record with the sale of another Lewis sculpture, The Bride of Spring, for $138,000.

Minnehaha is a character in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic poem, The Song of Hiawatha (1855), the single best-selling poem in the English language of the entire 19th century. To date there are five known signed and dated originals of Lewis’s Minnehaha bust housed in public and private collections. This previously unknown example adds one more to that number.

Official: 5 elephants killed in Kenya, auction and other sales to blame

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – Poachers seeking ivory have killed five elephants in southeastern Kenya in the past six weeks, a government wildlife official said Monday.

The elephants were killed in the Tsavo East National Park and its surrounding areas in southeastern Kenya, said Jonathan Kirui, an assistant director of the Kenya Wildlife Service.

“This is the highest number elephants killed at this park in recent times for their tusks in such a short period,” Kirui told The Associated Press.

Kirui, whose area of responsibility includes the park, said informers have told the wildlife agency that the price of a kilogram of ivory in Kenya rose to between 3,000 and 4,000 shillings ($37 and $50) in 2008. A year earlier a kilogram of ivory sold for 1,000-2,000 shillings.

James Isiche of the International Fund for Animal Welfare said his organization is concerned the latest reports could portend a return to the elephant poaching era of the 1970s and 1980s, when poachers devastated Kenya’s elephant population.

The U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, imposed a global ban on the ivory trade in 1989 and Kenya reformed its wildlife conservation department to form the current Kenya Wildlife Service, helping to reduce poaching. But the current estimated population of 30,000 is still less than a fifth of the 1973 estimate of 167,000.

Lost pages of Buck’s Good Earth returning home via FBI

PERKASIE, Pennsylvania (AP) – The long-lost handwritten manuscript of Pearl S. Buck’s classic novel The Good Earth is set to go on display next month at the late author’s home outside Philadelphia.

The Pearl S. Buck House, in Hilltown Township, will display the 400 hand-edited pages for six months, beginning March 3.

It will be the first time since May 1930 that the manuscript will be reunited with the desk, chair and typewriter that Buck used when she wrote the novel, said Donna Rhodes, a curator at Buck’s home.

The Good Earth, Buck’s most famous book, follows the life of a peasant farmer in pre-Revolutionary China as he marries, accumulates wealth and experiences both success and heartache. Buck, the daughter of Presbyterian missionaries, lived mostly in China from infancy through age 40.

The novel won the Pulitzer Price in 1932 and helped earn Buck the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938.

The manuscript had been missing for about 40 years when it was found in June 2007. The daughter of Buck’s longtime secretary said she found the pages in a suitcase in her basement and took them to a Philadelphia auction house, which called the FBI.

The manuscript has spawned a legal fight involving Buck’s heirs and foundations with links to her. A lawyer representing Buck’s birthplace in Hillsboro, W.Va., also staked a claim for ownership based on a notarized “bill of sale” that Buck signed in 1970, three years before she died.

Belhorn one of 8 auction-house participants in Feb. 28 Super Auction

Rookwood 1930 art deco matte blue bowl. Image courtesy Belhorn Auction Services LLC.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – It’s a new concept that’s sure to attract collectors’ attention: The Super Auction. Greg Belhorn of Belhorn Auction Services, will launch the new series of megasales on Feb. 28, with antiques, art and quality collectibles from eight auction houses in three states: Michigan, Indiana and Ohio.

The premiere event to be held at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds, 5055 Ann Arbor-Saline Road, Ann Arbor, Mich., will begin at 10 a.m. EST on Saturday. The 194 lots offered by Belhorn Auction Services will be open to real-time Internet bidding through LiveAuctioneers.com.

The fast-paced day of selling will last approximately five hours, with three auction rings operating throughout the 1,400-lot event. Collections from across the Midwest and South are scheduled to cross the block.

Included in the sale are selections of vintage toys including vehicles, banks and lead soldiers; American art pottery, sports memorabilia featuring tobacco cards and early hockey cards; sterling silver by Tiffany and others, military items, sportsmen’s memorabilia, decoys and firearms, timepieces including wall and mantel clocks and pocket watches; a large and varied selection of antiques, paper and ephemera; and a selection of coins.

Full details and auction inventories are available at www.thesuperauction.net. The Belhorn Auction Services lots may also be viewed and bid on through www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

Paleontologist pleads not guilty to fossil theft

GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) – A paleontologist who found one of the world’s best-preserved dinosaurs has pleaded not guilty to a federal charge that he stole fossils from Bureau of Land Management property near Malta.

Nate Murphy entered his plea Feb. 19 in U.S. District Court in Great Falls.

The federal charge alleges Murphy took fossils from BLM land between August 2006 and August 2007 and that the fossils were worth more than $1,000. Court records are not more specific about the items allegedly taken.

Murphy also faces a state charge that he took a turkey-size raptor fossil from private land near Malta with the intention of selling replicas of the fossil, which is worth between $150,000 and $400,000.

Murphy didn’t comment at the federal arraignment, but has previously said he never stole or sold dinosaur fossils.

Kevin O’Brien, a spokesman for the state attorney general’s office, said the state and federal cases stem from the same investigation.

The federal trial is set for Feb. 24 while the state trial is scheduled for March 18.

Murphy, who was released on his own recognizance, lives in Billings and runs a paleo-outfitting business, where he takes paying amateur diggers to private land near Grass Range to search for dinosaur fossils.

Murphy’s most famous find was a mummified dinosaur dubbed Leonardo, a 77 million-year-old duckbill with fossilized skin and organs. The dinosaur was featured on the cover of Newsweek and National Geographic and was featured in a Discovery Channel documentary. It is currently being displayed at the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences.

Information from: Great Falls Tribune, http://www.greatfallstribune.com

AP-WS-02-20-09 1233EST

High Noon Western Americana weekend rustles up top prices

As expected, the top lot of the auction was this Edward H. Bohlin saddle that sold for $89,125. Image courtesy High Noon Western Americana Show and Auction.

PHOENIX, Ariz. – On Feb. 7-8 the Phoenix Convention Center became the site for an event unlike any in the world – the 19th annual High Noon Western Americana Show and Auction. Those passionate about the American West shopped from more than 150 exhibitors whose offerings spanned 300 years of history from the finest leatherwork, fine art, jewelry, clothing and cowboy and Western accoutrement. Sales were reported as higher than expected, which pleased many of the exhibitors and a sense of esprit de corps permeated the weekend. Others were just happy to see old friends and buy or trade for something special.

On Saturday evening, more than 700 bidders were ready in the saleroom with more registered online, by phone and absentee to bid on the 350-plus lots offered in the High Noon Western Americana Auction. At the end of the evening auction sales totaled more than $1.4 million. In these trying economic times, the auction revealed that “people are still spending money,” said Linda Kohn, co-owner of High Noon. “Money was flowing, though perhaps not pouring, and there were still some showstoppers at the auction.” All prices reflect a 15 percent buyer’s premium.

Kovels – Antiques & Collecting: Week of Feb. 23, 2009

This carved oak desk was used by a U.S. congressman sometime after 1857. It was probably made in Boston. It auctioned for $10,158 at Sloans & Kenyon in Chevy Chase, Md.

Want to buy a House of Representatives seat? You could have in November at a Sloans & Kenyon auction in Chevy Chase, Md. But it was an old seat – or more correctly, a desk. The Doe Hazelton Co. of Boston made 262 desks for the U.S. House of Representatives as part of a remodeling project in 1857. Each was an individual desk in the Victorian style with a lift-lid, drawer, cast-iron inkwell and appropriate carving of stars and stripes, latticework and trim. The desk, 34 3/4 inches high at the back of the slanted top, was made to hold an open book or papers at the best angle for reading and writing notes. Each had a matching carved and upholstered armchair. When the House of Representatives was redecorated again, the old desks and chairs were given to representatives or sold. The desk that sold recently brought more than $10,000. A chair from the same era, made by Bembe & Kimbel, auctioned last year for $19,600.

Fugitive auctioneer dies of heart attack during police-escorted ride to airport

PORTLAND, Ore. (ACNI) – For more than four years, law enforcement agencies pursued rogue auctioneer Robert W. Mathisen across the country, intent on extraditing him back to Oregon to face multiple felony charges. But Mathisen will never see his day in court or face the more than two dozen Oregon citizens – many of them elderly – whom he allegedly cheated by taking both their money and antiques they had consigned to his Portland auction company, Professional Auction Group. Mathisen, 63, died of a heart attack on the morning of Feb. 12 as he was being transported by Multnomah County sheriff’s deputies to board a flight back to Oregon for arraignment.

On Jan. 29, 2009, U.S. Marshals tracked down and arrested Mathisen in Buffalo, New York. He had been on the run since 2004 and was wanted for a laundry list of crimes including aggravated theft for failure to pay consignors after selling their property, cherry-picking and keeping valuables that should have been auctioned, and fraudulently borrowing thousands of dollars in cash from victims who never saw their money again.

Because he was a previously convicted felon (1994 conviction for racketeering, theft by deception), Mathisen was also wanted for “felon possession of a firearm,” since seven collectible guns were among the cache of goods he allegedly stole from consignors. Police estimated that, in all, Mathisen had fled the state of Oregon with an estimated $1.7 million worth of antiques, furniture, jewelry and other personal property stolen from consignors.

A turning point in the case came in 2006 when one of Mathisen’s three sons, Darryl – who claimed he had been bilked by his own father – came forward with information that led police to the Chicago suburb of Mundelein. It is believed that Mathisen and his wife, Ginger, had been living there and that during their time spent under the radar in Illinois, Robert Mathisen had consigned some of the ill-gotten gains to Direct Auction Galleries, an unsuspecting auction house in Chicago that has no involvement with the felony case.

EBay retiring current search engine in April

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Jeff King, eBay’s Senior Director of Finding, has confirmed through eBay’s Announcements page that the current search engine in use on eBay will be retired in April of 2009. A new search engine that King describes “faster and easier” will take over the job of scouring the world’s busiest commerce site.

“In a nutshell, it looks at a multitude of details in listings to deliver more of the results you want,” said King. “It makes it easy to browse and narrow your selection, and lets you choose how you want to see the results. With the new auto-complete feature it even ‘anticipates’ what you’re typing in the search box.”

King said suggestions from eBay users had contributed to the new search design. “The response from the community to the new finding has been great,” he added. “We’ve incorporated a lot of these suggestions already, and in the coming months we’ll be introducing more new features and enhancements to make it even faster and easier.”

Until now, eBay buyers and sellers have been given the option of using the new or old search engine. As more and more registered users adopted the new technology – 90 percent, according to King – eBay is now ready to take the permanent leap to the improved model. Those who are still using the original search-engine technology will receive messages during their searches to remind them that the changeover will occur in April.

Virginia estates featured in Tom’s Auctions’ March 7 sale

Unique advertising chair promoting Piedmont (Virginia) cigarettes, with porcelain sign embedded. Image courtesy Tom's Auctions & Appraisals.

IVOR, Va. – More than 400 fresh-to-the-market lots, drawn from prominent area estates, will be sold at auction Saturday, March 7, by auctioneers Tom Perry and Jay Bradshaw of Tom’s Auctions & Appraisals, beginning at 9 a.m. EST. The sale will be held in a former schoolhouse building now used for community activities, located at 8420 Bell Avenue in Ivor, a lovely rural town in eastern Virginia conveniently located off Route 460.

Consignments from four important estates will headline the event – two from Virginia Beach and one each from the Virginia towns of Smithfield and Drewryville. Other estates will also be represented, from Virginia, the Carolinas and other nearby states.

Many items slated to cross the block are indigenous to the area, specifically South Hampton County, Virginia. These include several log cabin quilts made around 1900 by a descendant of the consignor, measuring about 72 inches by 54 inches; an early framed print of the Confederate monument, placed in Courtland, Va.; a collection of locally dug Indian arrowheads, and an enormous hand-carved wooden arrowhead, over 2 feet tall.

Other Virginia-specific lots include a handwritten land deed, dated 1861 and with an additional related court document summoning local residents to court in 1907; an ambrotype; several daguerreotypes; and other early pictures and photos of various unidentified local residents, some in cases and ranging in dates from around 1860 to 1920.

Pennsylvania will also be represented, in the form of a beautiful six-board early blanket chest (circa 1840-1880), Pennsylvania Dutch painted, with feet; an early settle table that cleverly converts to a chair (circa 1850), pine, with huge boards, one drawer and a two-board top; a matching set of six early plank-bottom chairs (circa 1850s); and several other pairs of lovely early Pennsylvania painted chairs.

Victorian furniture will be offered in abundance. Examples include a large fancy side-by-side mahogany secretary; a walnut secretary (circa 1860s-1880s); an oak hall seat; a high-back bed; and a nice corner chair. Fine artwork will include a large oil on canvas rendering of St. Paul’s Church by Jean Batail (French, born 1930); and a large oil painting of Mary and Jesus by an unknown artist (circa 1880).

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