Rare North Carolina surveyor’s compass, made in the late 18th century by Camm Moore ($28,750). Image courtesy Leland Little.
HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. – A rare North Carolina surveyor’s compass, made around the late 18th century by Guilford County artisan Camm Moore (1755-1845) soared to $28,750 at a quarterly cataloged auction held March 21 by Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales Ltd. It was the final sale held in the firm’s South Nash Street location. Next month, the firm moves into new digs, at 620 Cornerstone Court.
“With the success of this cataloged auction, we were able to end on a very positive note at our present address,” said Leland Little, owner of the firm, “but we very much look forward to our move in April into a 10,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility that is ideal for our needs.” An inaugural sale is slated for Saturday, April 11, and the next cataloged auction will be held the weekend of June 13-14.
The surveyor’s compass was in working order, with an untouched natural patina. It had a silver (or silvered brass) dial, engraved with “Made by Camm Moore, Guilford” around the center ring. Four quadrants were marked “0-90” and the compass was set in a brass housing, with a lid and two hinged sighting posts. Moore was primarily known as a silversmith, but he also made surveying instruments.
Leland Little estimated about 250 people packed his showroom to participate in the final sale of a 10-year run on South Nash Street. “It was standing room only all day long,” he said. “As usual, it was a strong collaborative effort that carried the day. We have a wonderful team and support staff.” Also, about 1,000 pre-bids were recorded via phone, absentee and online through LiveAuctioneers.com.
Earliest known Mickey Mantle game-used New York Yankees home jersey, 1952. Image courtesy Grey Flannel Auctions.
WESTHAMPTON BEACH, N.Y. – Grey Flannel Auctions’ phone and Internet auction running from April 6 to April 29 features an 850-lot selection of blue-chip sports memorabilia with impeccable provenance. Leading the lineup is a highly important item of baseball apparel that was game-worn and very clearly autographed by one of the greatest players ever to wear the New York Yankees pinstripes: Mickey Mantle.
The auction’s headliner, the 1952 Mantle jersey is the earliest known home jersey worn by the strapping young Oklahoman in his first year as centerfielder for the Yankees. Not only did “The Mick” wear the flannel jersey with the number “7” on its back during play in 1952, he also signed it on the lower left-front shirttail in a broad hand with a black marker.
According to Grey Flannel Auctions’ president, Richard E. Russek, the autograph – in and of itself – is rare because of its vintage and because it is so large. The autograph has been authenticated by JSA Spence Authentication, and the jersey has been authenticated by MEARS. Written documentation (JSA Spence COA and MEARS LOA) from both companies will be included with the auction lot, which has been photo-matched for positive I.D.
As further provenance, the inside collar of the Mantle jersey has a Spalding & Bros. manufacturer’s tag and a white felt strip tag chain-stitched in blue with the words “M. Mantle 52.” A Yankees 1903-1952 50th Year patch is sewn onto the jersey’s left sleeve.
When you study the working lives of famous architects, some appear to have been as solitary as a skyscraper, with nameless assistants blending into the skyline around them.
Florence ‘Shu’ Knoll with her dog Cartree. Image courtesy Knoll International.
But Florence “Shu” Knoll, the brilliant American architect, interior space-planner and furniture designer, had a gift for collaborating with others and for recognizing and promoting great work.
Florence Knoll helped create, and for a time ran, Knoll Furniture with an elegant steeliness that contrasted with her fetching looks and nickname. She assisted in bringing into form some of the most enduring design products of modernist luminaries like Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Isamu Noguchi, Eero Saarinen and Marcel Breuer, at the same time producing singular interiors and furniture of her own. Her achievements would have been remarkable for anyone, but for a woman in postwar corporate America, they were extraordinary.
Florence Knoll Bassett was born Florence Schust in Saginaw, Mich., in 1917. Orphaned at age 12 by the death of her mother Mina (her father, Frederick Schust, died when she was 5), Florence was taken in hand by a guardian who guided her to select a girls’ boarding school.
Florence Knoll with Eero Saarinen. Courtesy Knoll International.
The guardian fatefully chose the Kingswood School, part of the Cranbrook Educational Community, in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., which was presided over by the Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen. With his textile-designer wife, Loja, Saarinen recognized Shu’s talent and brought her under the wing of their family.
Cranbrook presented a holistic approach to design that Florence carried forth with her. At Kingswood, she designed her first house, conceptually complete in every detail, at age 14. She continued her study of architecture at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, at the Architectural Association in London, and at ITT in Chicago.
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In 1943 she was working for Harrison and Abromovitz Architects in New York when she met Hans Knoll, a furniture manufacturer. She went to work for Knoll and began the Knoll Planning Unit, a design group within the company that would set the standard for interior space-planning practices. She married Hans Knoll in 1946 and the company became Knoll Associates.
At Knoll, Florence designed regional showrooms (in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Milan) that fluently communicated the Knoll brand and showcased the company’s products with color and great modern style. She is also credited with elevating standards of furniture manufacture to a new level of quality. Her exactitude could be frustrating for those who worked under her, but the result was worth it.
A classic Knoll living room. Courtesy Knoll International.
Perhaps most significantly, she brought her relationships with teachers Eliel Saarinen, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Marcel Breuer, and friends Isamu Noguchi, Harry Bertoia and Eero Saarinen into the Knoll fold, famously giving them design credit and paying them royalties for their products, a practice unusual in the furniture industry. With Swiss graphic designer Herbert Matter, Knoll helped create a series of inventive print advertisements.
A Knoll Sofa with table, USA, 1970s. Image courtesy Rago Arts and Auction Center.
In 1947 she established Knoll Textiles. Florence Knoll designed acclaimed office projects for CBS, the Rockefeller family, Look magazine and Connecticut General Life Insurance.
In 1955, Hans Knoll died in a car accident while on a business trip. People assumed the company would close, but Florence became president and Knoll went forward. She married banker Harry Hood Bassett in 1958, selling Knoll in 1959, but stayed involved in the company for several more years.
Florence retired in 1965, but kept her hand in the design world with projects for a few favored clients. In 2003 she was recognized with a National Medal of Arts, and in 2004, she came out of retirement to design an exhibition of her own work for the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2004.
Curator Kathryn Hiesinger considers herself honored to have been Shu’s last client. “Our exhibition space was small, about 330 square feet. It’s a problematic space, long and skinny, broken up by windows, but Shu domesticated it and made it beautiful,” Heisinger said. “Her solutions were so smart and inventive. The staff called it the Shu-Box. She designed the whole exhibition, down to the last detail. She sent us a list of furniture for the show, illustrated with meticulous color drawings she made of each piece. Mrs. Bassett made at least three trips to Philadelphia in preparation for the show. Everything she did was impeccable.”
Florence Knoll Bassett is revered by generations of architects, designers, students and collectors of Modern furniture. Knoll International remains a highly respected manufacturer of furniture and textiles, still producing the designs of Florence Knoll.
‘The Night Cafe’ by Vincent Van Gogh. Image courtesy Wikipedia.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) – A descendant of the original owner of a famous painting by Vincent Van Gogh will press his claim against Yale University that he is the rightful owner, his attorney said Friday.
The Ivy League university sued Tuesday in federal court in Connecticut to assert its ownership rights over The Night Cafe and block Pierre Konowaloff from claiming it. Konowaloff is the purported great-grandson of industrialist and aristocrat Ivan Morozov, who owned the painting in 1918.
Russia nationalized Morozov’s property during the Communist revolution. The painting, which the Soviet government sold, has been hanging in the Yale University Art Gallery for almost 50 years.
Allan Gerson, Konowaloff’s attorney, said Friday he will argue that his client is the rightful owner of the painting. He also said financial compensation is a possible solution.
“He wants his claim to rightful ownership vindicated,” Gerson told The Associated Press.
But Konowaloff, if he wins the case, will ensure that the public can still view the painting, Gerson said.
CARAWAY, Ark. (AP) – Fire claimed memorabilia from the movies Walk the Line and A Painted House when two buildings in Caraway burned.
The fire began in a tin structure in which items from the movies were stored. The building, owned by Melton Emery, had items he had collected over the last 15 to 20 years. The fire also consumed a second structure.
“He kept some old-time memorabilia there,” Caraway Fire Capt. Don Fletcher told The Jonesboro Sun. “There were some movie sets and old guitars from Walk the Line, plus some tractors.”
Fletcher said the fire, which started when winds caused electric lines to arc, gutted the buildings.
Part of the 2005 movie Walk the Line about Johnny Cash was filmed in Dyess, where Cash grew up. A Painted House, from 2003, was filmed in nearby Lepanto. The movie is from the John Grisham book of the same name and is based on the writer’s early youth in northeast Arkansas.
Merret Emery, Emery’s son, said his father began collecting memorabilia as long as two decades ago. The collection increased when production for A Painted House began in 2002.
“He always collected farm equipment. When they decided to do A Painted House they searched for local places so that they don’t have to carry things a long way,” Merret Emery said. “The people in Lepanto told them to go see Melton.”
The relationship with production companies continued when scenes from Walk the Line were being filmed, Merret Emery said.
A Walk the Line prop man came to his shop and said, ‘Do you have a copy of the album, Walk the Line?,”’ Merret Emery said. “He went and pulled the album out of a box in the back.”
The album was kept on the set during the entire filming, Merret Emery said.
Melton Emery also provided the mule, which was used in the opening scene of the film.
Father and son watched as the fire destroyed the two buildings. Merret Emery said his father’s reaction was subdued.
“He would think about it, and it brought back memories,” Merret Emery said. “He said it could have been one of our houses that burned. He then said it was not anything important.”
Firefighters were called just before 3 p.m. Tuesday to the buildings at the intersection of Arkansas 135 and Arkansas 138.
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Information from: The Jonesboro Sun, http://www.jonesborosun.com
Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers Archive/Village Doll & Toy Shop.
ARCOLA, Ill. (AP) – Known for its ties to some of the most famous dolls of all time, the town of Arcola is about to lose the Raggedy Ann and Andy spotlight with the closure of a museum dedicated to the famed storybook characters.
Doll creator Johnny Gruelle was born in Arcola in 1880, and his granddaughter, Joni Wannamaker, has operated a museum of Raggedy Ann and Andy memorabilia there for 10 years. The city is also known for its annual festival dedicated to the two dolls and the stories written about them.
This important arm of Arcola’s heritage is about to suffer a potentially crippling blow, as the museum will be shuttered by the end of the year, while the Original Raggedy Ann & Andy Festival has been canceled for this summer.
While a portion of the museum building may continue to house a small exhibit, most of the items are being transferred to the Strong National Museum of Play in New York, as Wannamaker and her husband, Tom, can no longer afford to pick up operational expenses not covered by dwindling membership dues and sales in the museum’s gift shop.
“It’s very sad for us,” Wannamaker said. “We’re going through terrible misery about this, we really are.”
Mother-of-pearl inlay and painted and gilded decorations embellish this slipper chair probably made in England. The seat is 15 1/2 inches from the floor. The chair sold for $329 at a Sloans & Kenyon auction in Chevy Chase, Md., in November.
Getting dressed was more complicated for a well-to-do woman in the 19th century. She wore undergarments, a camisole, petticoats, a laced corset, long stockings, shoes, a dress and accessories. To help with this project, furniture designers invented the slipper chair for the bedroom. It’s a chair with short legs that put the seat about 15 inches from the floor instead of the more normal 17 to 18 inches. That meant it was possible to bend only slightly to reach your feet to put on slippers (shoes) and stockings. The slipper chair was not made until Victorian times. Earlier Chippendale and Sheraton chairs were all of regular height. Slipper chairs were made in all Victorian styles: Gothic Revival (1840-60), Rococo or Louis XV Revival (1845-65), Louis XVI Revival (1860s), Renaissance Revival (1850-75), Greco-Egyptian Revival (1860-90) and Eastlake (1870-1900). The chairs are still useful in the bedroom for those who have problems tying shoes or slipping into elasticized tights.
Although most slipper chairs were made of wood and covered with upholstery, some unusual chairs from England were decorated with black lacquer and mother-of-pearl inlay. They went well with the papier-mâché furniture popular in England in the 19th century. Because of its short legs, the slipper chair usually sells for less than the matching full-size chair in a bedroom set. Continue reading
