Original art by Robert Kauffmann (American, b. 1983-) for the cover of Liberty Magazine, June 1, 1935. Image courtesy K&M Auction and LiveAuctioneers.com.WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – In June of 1935, a good 40 years before female tennis players would become household names, Liberty magazine published a cover story titled “Man Against Women in Tennis.” While the article is unavailable to review in its entirety, the title – in and of itself – presents a rather clear picture of how women of that era were regarded on the court. One man, it suggests, could run circles around multiple female opponents. Adding insult to injury, the article was written by a woman.
The cover art, a courtside portrait of an attractive, presumably well-heeled young couple, further validated the role designated to women of the 1930s who entertained ideas of playing a sport as male dominated as tennis. The man in the picture – which was created by American illustrator Robert Kauffmann (b. 1893-) – sits back casually, his tennis sweater draped around his neck, a tennis racquet in hand and an intense expression on his face. His female friend, on the other hand, assumes a passive pose, content to be the smiling, stylishly dressed companion. Admittedly, she looks happier in her role than he does.
The original oil-on-canvas artwork Kauffmann painted for the Liberty cover is coming to auction on Aug. 1, with a $4,000-$5,000 estimate and Internet live bidding available through LiveAuctioneers.com. K&M Auction Liquidation Sales is offering it as lot 130 in its Saturday auction of 18th-19th Century Bronzes, Art, Furniture and Modern Design. The canvas measures 29 inches by 24 inches and is artist-signed at lower left.
Liberty was a general-interest weekly magazine that published between 1924 and 1950. At one time it was said to be “the second greatest magazine in America,” ranking behind The Saturday Evening Post in circulation.
Liberty carried work by many of the most important and influential writers of the period and serialized many early novels by P. G. Wodehouse, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edgar Rice Burroughs and others. Unusually for a magazine of the era, they bought the rights to many of the printed works outright, and these remain in the hands of the Liberty Library Corporation.
The magazine reportedly lost credibility in 1936 when it conducted a poll indicating Alf Landon would win the American Presidential election. As history would show, Franklin D. Roosevelt won in a landslide. Later, the Liberty poll was determined to have been either biased or poorly formulated, as it only tapped people who owned telephones, which many people did not own in the 1930s, thus skewing the results.
Liberty magazine may be long gone, but its cover art remains vibrant. To view the Kauffmann artwork, as well as the fully illustrated catalog for K&M’s Aug. 1 sale, and to sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet on auction day, click here.
An eagle stands atop a late-18th-century English mirror having a convex glass and two candleholders. Measuring 36 by 25 inches, the mirror has a $2,500-$3,500 estimate. Image Courtesy Rago Arts and Auction Center.LAMBERTVILLE, N.J. – A long-hidden cache of English antiques and art will be auctioned without reserve, along with 600 other largely unreserved lots, at the Rago Arts and Auction Center on Aug. 7 and 8. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
The estate of English and Continental antiques dealer Joseph Stanley has been shuttered in a New Hope, Pa., mansion since the mid-1980s. Rago’s will sell its many rooms of property, along with additional lots of fine art, 19th- and 20th-century furniture and design, rugs, jewelry, watches, silver, ethnographic art and collectibles.
The first day will be a Discovery Auction, a semiannual event that features items that don’t quite meet Rago’s standards for its high-end cataloged sales. Everything is sold to the highest bidder; no reserves.
“The Discovery sales are the most fun we get to have all year. It’s the way great country auctions used to be, but with a way broader selection for people who want anything from the perfect sofa to silver, modern design or antiquities, lighting, an original work of art or garden items.” said David Rago.
This Discovery Auction includes more than 200 lots of jewelry, silver and accessories, many from Tiffany & Co., Omega, Lalique, Baccarat and Cartier. Included is a Tiffany & Co. Atlas necklace and earrings, a Faraone bypass bracelet, watches by Cartier and Omega, Mont Blanc fountain pens and a perfume bottle collection.
Modern furnishings are abundant in this sale. There are more than 100 lots from which to choose, from a Dakota Jackson Aldhabra dining table to furniture by Warren McArthur, Norman Bel Geddes, Heywood Wakefield, Howell Co., Paul McCobb, Edward Wormley, Wendy Murayama, George Nelson, Paul Evans, Charles Eames, Alvar Aalto, Wolfgang Hoffman, Knoll and Dunbar.
“Buyers will find the best of the Stanley estate in the Saturday sale, all unreserved,” said Tom Martin, the specialist in charge of estates at Rago’s. “We’ve included 200 lots of his antique English furniture and over 100 paintings and 100 lots of decorative arts and accessories. It’s a treasure trove.”
Highlights include an English partner’s desk in mahogany, circa 1840-1850 (estimate $3,000-$5,000); a 19th-century English Regency four-drawer bowfront chest (estimate $1,500-$2,000); a Regency card table in rosewood with satinwood crossbanding, brass inlay and lyre base, circa 1810 (estimate $1,500-$2,500); and a mahogany cellarette on stand, circa 1760-1790 (estimate $1,200-$1,500). Also among the finest furnishings are a pair of tortoiseshell chairs in the Regency style with horsehair upholstery, late 19th or early 20th century (estimate $10,000-15,000), and a circa 1860 Victorian Rococo mahogany sideboard with marble top attributed to Alexander Roux (estimate $6,000-$8,000).
From the Stanley estate come 18th- and 19th-century portraiture, marine art, animal art, landscapes and Chinese export paintings.
Decorative arts and accessories include a 19th-century Italian marble statue, Susanna After the Bath, on a green marble base (estimate $12,000-$18,000) and a 19th-century Biedermeier mantel clock (estimate $1,500-$2,000).
Americana highlights include a circa 1900 patchwork quilt in the Bethlehem Star pattern (estimate $400-$600); a circa 1900 American copper weathervane topped with a rooster (estimate $1,000-$1,500); and a 30-hour Philadelphia grandfather clock by Joseph Wills with brass dial and works, in a walnut case, 19th century (estimate $2,000-$3,000).
For details contact Kristina Wilson at 609-397-9374 or kristina@ragoarts.com
Previews will be conducted Aug. 1 through the morning of Saturday, Aug. 8 at Rago Arts and Auction Center. Hours are noon to 5 p.m. and by appointment. Doors will open at 8 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 7, and 9 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 8.
Bidding is available in person, by phone, by advance bid and online. Rago’s has engaged the services of LiveAuctioneers (liveauctioneers.com) to provide clients with online bidding. View the fully illustrated catalogs and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet during the sale at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
An impressed mark identifies this 5 3/4-inch-square tile as the work of Marblehead Pottery. The starting bid for this Discovery Auction lot Aug. 7 is $200. Image Courtesy Rago Arts and Auction Center. ‘The Charles Morgan Off Cape of Good Hope’ is the title of this 19th-century nautical painting by an unknown artist. Image Courtesy Rago Arts and Auction Center. Standing 80 inches high and 59 inches wide, this Irish country step-back cupboard dates to around 1810. It will sell at the Discovery Auction on Aug. 7. Image Courtesy Rago Arts and Auction Center. Ethan Allen Greenwood (American 1779-1856) painted this portrait late in life. The 30- by 24-inch oil on canvas has a $2,000-$3,000 estimate. Image Courtesy Rago Arts and Auction Center. A serpentine front and inlaid mahogany enhance this English Regency breakfront, which is estimated at $3,000-$4,000. Image Courtesy Rago Arts and Auction Center.
Indiana Fan Co. of Indianapolis produced this rare water-powered fan, which sold at auction for $1,100 in 2004. Image courtesy Webb’s Auctions, Winter Garden, Fla., and LiveAuctioneers archive.ZIONSVILE, Ind. (AP) – Just in time for the dog days of summer, a new museum dedicated to the cooling effect of old-time fans has blown into Indiana.
The Museum of the Antique Fan Collectors Association opened Thursday at the corporate headquarters of Fanimation, a central Indiana company that designs and makes upscale ceiling fans.
The fan museum had previously been located in Andover, Kan., but now it is in Zionsville, a suburb northwest of Indianapolis.
Fanimation founder and president Tom Frampton said the museum features about 450 fans ranging from electric fans from the 1880s to water-powered fans that date from the early 1880s.
Frampton owns about a third of the collection, and the rest are on loan from members of the Antique Fan Collectors Association.
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Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This information may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
NEW YORK (AP) – Experts will spend the next two years painstakingly restoring murals in Manhattan’s historic Rockefeller Center.
The team already has been working nine months in the Art Deco lobby of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. They’re removing decades of yellowed varnish, one inch at a time.
Abolition of War, by Spanish painter Jose Maria Sert, depicts a woman astride two cannons while holding a baby. As the painting aged, the baby became less visible.
Conservator Gillian Randell worried that a chemical solution could damage the murals. He tried an electric toothbrush, but the varnish didn’t come off. He finally started gently flaking it off with a “low-tech” tool that’s commonly used for book binding.
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Information from: The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com
Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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