Georgia O’Keeffe legacy watchers take on elementary school

Public domain image of Georgia O'Keeffe during her time at the University of Virginia, where she was a teaching assistant. Photo was taken on July 19, 1915 by Rufus W. Holsinger (1866?-1930). Courtesy Wikipedia.

Public domain image of Georgia O'Keeffe during her time at the University of Virginia, where she was a teaching assistant. Photo was taken on July 19, 1915 by Rufus W. Holsinger (1866?-1930). Courtesy Wikipedia.
Public domain image of Georgia O’Keeffe during her time at the University of Virginia, where she was a teaching assistant. Photo was taken on July 19, 1915 by Rufus W. Holsinger (1866?-1930). Courtesy Wikipedia.
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) – The guardians of Georgia O’Keeffe’s legacy are not happy with an Albuquerque elementary school named after the artist.

Officials of The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe complained recently about a “GOK” logo proposed for the school’s new facade, and about T-shirts that said “Georgia O’Keeffe Kindergarten.” E-mails from the museum warned of possible trademark infringement and suggested that fees may be required for some uses of the name.

“Everyone’s shocked,” said Yvonne Dion, president of the school’s parent-teacher organization. “This has never, ever, ever been an issue.”

O’Keeffe, one of the foremost American painters, was a modernist whose best-known works include large-scale depictions of flowers. She lived for almost 40 years in northern New Mexico, where the starkness inspired her desert landscapes and iconic paintings of skulls and bones.
She died in Santa Fe in 1986 at the age of 98.

The school has borne O’Keeffe’s name since it opened in 1988. While no one asked for permission, O’Keeffe’s estate and the foundation that was formed to perpetuate her legacy didn’t object at the time.

Among the foundation’s stated goals: “to fight the proliferation of unauthorized coffee mugs, T-shirts, buttons, scarves, trivets and other pernicious appropriations of her work.”

Three years ago, the museum took over the foundation’s work and acquired the rights to the artist’s art, likeness and name. The museum wants to ensure that “any uses of the material will promote Miss O’Keeffe and her art in a respectful manner,” rights and reproductions manager Judy Lopez said in an e-mail in June.

The school’s principal, Lucinda Sanchez, was distressed by the message and its tone. “We’ve never used or represented Ms. O’Keeffe’s name in a disparaging way,” Sanchez said. “We’ve worked hard to honor it – and make it a fabulous school.”

The school hasn’t used or reproduced O’Keeffe’s art, she said. If there’s artwork on T-shirts, it’s typically a ram, the school’s mascot. The school’s name does appear on items such as wristbands, water bottles and the T-shirts provided to kindergarten students for field trips.

“For safety, we usually have kids wear T-shirts with the school name on it, just in case they get lost,” Sanchez said.

The award-winning school in northeast Albuquerque, which has 600 students in kindergarten through 5th grade, opened with portable buildings. Permanent facilities are being built and should be ready in 2010.

The initials “GOK” are proposed to appear on the front of the new school.

According to copies of e-mails provided by Albuquerque Public Schools, a lawyer for APS who spoke to Lopez said Lopez thought people might be encouraged to refer to the school as “Gok” – which sounds “just awful” and which she believed O’Keeffe would not approve of – rather than “G-O-K.”

A second e-mail from Lopez, in July, objected to a kindergartener’s T-shirt.

The e-mail said the museum wants to be told about any use of the artist’s name before products are produced. The museum will be “generous in granting permission” and will waive fees “for approved internal use.” The museum may have to charge fees for commercial usage, Lopez said.

Lopez refused to comment for this story, and other museum officials did not respond to repeated requests for interviews.

Sanchez said she’s happy to discuss changes to the “GOK.”

But the principal and the PTA president are worried about a cumbersome approval process for, say, trinkets given to students as rewards. “Everyone is a little blown away that we may have to be going through all these hoops,” Dion said.

And the idea of paying the museum for using the school’s name on T-shirts sold as fundraisers for the library or other projects rankles school officials. “We’re a school, and we’re doing our best to educate children, and we’re not out to commercially gain from Ms. O’Keeffe,” Sanchez said.

The women say it might just be easier to change the name of the school.

The museum said in a statement it was proud to have a school named after O’Keeffe, that it “never had the slightest intention of asking that the name be changed,” and that it looked forward to talking with school officials about the further use of the artist’s name.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-CS-07-28-09 1430EDT

Stray wolf led to woman’s new career as chair caner and weaver

Circa-1870 Victorian lacquer and mother-of-pearl chair with cane seat. From the Estate of Walter and Bluma Muller of Birmingham, Michigan. To be offered with a $300-$500 estimate in DuMouchelles' Aug. 15 auction, with Internet live bidding through LiveAuctioneers.com. Image courtesy DuMouchelles and LiveAuctioneers.com.
Circa-1870 Victorian lacquer and mother-of-pearl chair with cane seat. From the Estate of Walter and Bluma Muller of Birmingham, Michigan. To be offered with a $300-$500 estimate in DuMouchelles' Aug. 15 auction, with Internet live bidding through LiveAuctioneers.com. Image courtesy DuMouchelles and LiveAuctioneers.com.
Circa-1870 Victorian lacquer and mother-of-pearl chair with cane seat. From the Estate of Walter and Bluma Muller of Birmingham, Michigan. To be offered with a $300-$500 estimate in DuMouchelles’ Aug. 15 auction, with Internet live bidding through LiveAuctioneers.com. Image courtesy DuMouchelles and LiveAuctioneers.com.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) – The reason Dale Carleo is a chair caner and weaver is because of a wolf.

Thirteen years ago, the animal followed a neighbor home. Then the stray lay down in Carleo’s yard and would not leave.

“That whole day he spent trying to win us over,” she said. The wolf sat in front of the lawn mower, stole her daughter’s sunglasses and stared through the backyard fence at the family that evening. “He was magnificent and skinny.”

Carleo had two dogs already – a golden retriever and a sheltie – but decided that the wolf was not going to the pound.

Later that night, she left the garage door open and set out food and water. In the morning, all her neighbors’ newspapers were in her yard. So was the wolf.

After researching online, she suspected he was a hybrid, a runaway from a rural breeder. His feet were blistered.

She named him Fletcher and forgave him when he chewed through two couches.
Carleo, formerly an X-ray technologist who had thought about resuming work, realized that she had to reinvent herself. Her three children were older, her mother had recently died and she wanted a job.

But Fletcher, it was obvious, didn’t like being alone.

After she wrote about her mother to a childhood friend she had not seen in 30 years, the woman wrote back and said, “I’m a chair caner in Annapolis.” Instantly, Carleo knew this was the work she was looking for.

Carleo went for a visit and, after a weekend of caning, came home and launched her business with a book, her father’s tools and chairs from garage sales. Caning and weaving could be done anywhere. She liked the natural materials. She liked rescuing old furniture. She liked working with old tools.

“She had a basket of these,” Carleo said, holding up a splint basket of wooden pegs used in caning. As she picked up and tossed the pegs into the basket, they rattled back in with soft clacking sounds.

“I just loved working with pegs,” she said, laughing. “I guess I didn’t get enough peg time as a child.”

Today, her business, Wolf Chair Caning & Weaving, draws from local furniture refinishers and restorers such as Craftsmanship by Weathersby in Virginia Beach and Smith Furniture Service and The Strip Joint in Norfolk, as well as clients who seek her out.

The chairs that arrive at Carleo’s often have been refinished, but she prefers the wear and patina on old caning.

“I get some 70-year-old seats in here, and the colors are extraordinary,” she said, calling herself a purist. “It’s a sin to take them out.”

But she does – although she can’t bring herself to throw away someone else’s handiwork. To honor the years of service that old rush or cane has given, she saves and then burns it in her patio chimenea or, in winter, in her fireplace.

“I give it a Viking funeral,” she said, laughing.

She cleans the chairs and rubs in beeswax, especially into places exposed to the light for the first time in years.

“I usually oil the old guys,” she said, patting an oak chair from a barn sale in Rhode Island. “The wood is so dry, and the channel and holes weakened the wood over time. This one hadn’t been fed in years and years.”

She tries to duplicate the material that was originally on the chair, matching the width of the cane or adjusting it to improve a seat’s strength and durability.

While weaving with damp cane, she often thinks of the craftsman who originally worked on a chair.

“You can tell if the person who drilled the holes was a caner,” she said, “if they line up.”
When the geometry is off, the seat was probably a homemade project. Years ago, a lot of caning was done by the blind, a feat Carleo admires.

It is a peaceful task.

As she works, she sometimes listens to a book on tape, sometimes to the ticking of her clock, the soft clunk of wood on wood, the whisk of cane being pulled through holes. Pegs or wedges drop from her hands back into her work basket; a rawhide hammer covered with bite marks thumps in stubborn pieces.

Fletcher, she recalled, loved to chew on the hammer and stole it whenever he could.

“We had him 10 and a half years,” she said. “He was known all over the state in all the soccer clubs where my son played.”

Most people, she said as she worked on a chair with a style of woven seat called “German caning,” want their new cane stained. But here again, she likes to leave the natural color, knowing that over years of use it will pick up a patina unique to the home it’s in.

It takes about four or five hours to do a caned seat. Rush is a little faster. For cane, she charges $2.25 per hole. An average chair seat has 72 to 82.

To extend the life of a caned chair, Carleo advises her customers not to sit on their knees or feet, to keep chair seats out of bright light and, when the seats sag, to wet them with a mixture of glycerin and water, put them in the sun and see if they’ll tighten as they dry.

Over the years, she’s learned a variety of caning and weaving patterns and styles: Danish is a lot of fun, she said, calling the twisted rope seats and nailing technique a whole different ball game.

She keeps a small photo album of chairs she’s caned, patterns she’s woven and materials she’s used in the craft: pegged German cane, flat reed herringbone, popcorn weave, Mexican cattail, twisted cattail, sea grass.

She works in her living room beside a tapestry of a wolf, a reminder of the one who started it all.

More than a dozen chairs of different sizes and vintages wait in the room over her garage. Some are caned, some are woven, all are well worn.

“Every chair is like a person,” she said. “It’s like an entity. Some of them give me a very powerful feeling. There’s such character in them sometimes that they almost make me cry. Some of them must have such good stories. If only they could talk.”
___

Information from: The Virginian-Pilot, 
http://www.pilotonline.com

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-ES-07-28-09 0843EDT

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

Italian faux-bois polychromed gondola chair with caned seat, early 20th century, to be sold Aug. 8 by New Orleans Auction Galleries. Estimate $800-$1,200. Image courtesy New Orleans Auction Galleries and LiveAuctioneers.com.
Italian faux-bois polychromed gondola chair with caned seat, early 20th century, to be sold Aug. 8 by New Orleans Auction Galleries. Estimate $800-$1,200. Image courtesy New Orleans Auction Galleries and LiveAuctioneers.com.

Six English Regency chairs with caned seats and original painted stenciling, 19th century, to be auctioned by Rago's on Aug. 8. Estimate $600-$800. Image courtesy Rago Arts & Auction Center and LiveAuctioneers.com.
Six English Regency chairs with caned seats and original painted stenciling, 19th century, to be auctioned by Rago’s on Aug. 8. Estimate $600-$800. Image courtesy Rago Arts & Auction Center and LiveAuctioneers.com.

Six oak spool-turned side chairs with cane seats, circa 1900, to be auctioned by Jackson's International on Aug. 15. Estimate $150-$250. Image courtesy Jackson's International and LiveAuctioneers.com.
Six oak spool-turned side chairs with cane seats, circa 1900, to be auctioned by Jackson’s International on Aug. 15. Estimate $150-$250. Image courtesy Jackson’s International and LiveAuctioneers.com.

Witness to testify incapacitated man’s antique cars were illegally sold

HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) – A Hagerstown woman has agreed to testify against her husband in a case alleging they illegally sold 26 antique cars and other assets belonging to a man with dementia after obtaining his power of attorney.

Prosecutors agreed on Monday to drop charges against 25-year-old Angie Meldron if she testifies truthfully at the trial in September of her 40-year-old husband Daniel.

Angie Meldron was charged in January with taking the victim’s property and neglecting him by allowing him to live in unsanitary conditions with no heat at his home in Boonsboro, Maryland.

Investigators allege the couple sold the antique cars for $325,000. They also allegedly deprived him of investment and bank accounts worth another $307,000.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-ES-07-27-09 1601EDT

Pressure building for New Orleans Auction Galleries’ Aug. 8-9 sale

Alexander Roux is credited with creating this Neo-Grec inlaid rosewood cabinet at his New York shops in the third quarter of the 19th century. It has a $6,000-$9,000 estimate. Image courtesy New Orleans Auction Galleries.

Alexander Roux is credited with creating this Neo-Grec inlaid rosewood cabinet at his New York shops in the third quarter of the 19th century. It has a $6,000-$9,000 estimate. Image courtesy New Orleans Auction Galleries.
Alexander Roux is credited with creating this Neo-Grec inlaid rosewood cabinet at his New York shops in the third quarter of the 19th century. It has a $6,000-$9,000 estimate. Image courtesy New Orleans Auction Galleries.
NEW ORLEANS – Summer heat and humidity in the Crescent City hasn’t stopped New Orleans Auction Galleries Inc. from putting together an August sale that will have auction-goers wiping their brows as bidding intensifies. The auction Aug. 8-9 will feature art, antiques and curios from numerous Southern estates and private collections. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.

One of the most impressive pieces comes to New Orleans Auction Galleries via a northern route. It is a George III sterling silver epergne by John Christopher Romer, regarded as one of the last great masters of the art of rococo silver tableware. The epergne is hallmarked London, 1765-1766. Standing 14 1/4 inches high, the epergne has a large pierced basket raised on four cast rococo-scroll legs and eight scrolling arms, each supporting a circular pierced basket. Described as having beautiful patina, the epergne boasts an estimate of $18,000-$25,000.

“It’s a fantastic piece, especially since you don’t see Georgian silver like this in fine condition,” said Charles Cage, office manager and silver specialist at New Orleans Auction Galleries.

The auction catalog notes that Romer was born in Norway around 1715 and immigrated to England before 1744. His mark appears regularly on high-quality table silver from 1760 into the 1770s. Cage said that Romer was certainly related – probably a brother – to Emick Romer, a prominent silversmith who immigrated to England.

“It’s only recently been discovered they came from Norway,” said Cage.

Also noteworthy to silver enthusiasts, and far more affordable, is lot 383 consisting to two Continental silver spoons of Jewish interest. One is marked Gdansk, Poland, 1771-1779, by Johann Christoph Wonecker Jr. (1730-1813). While there is no evidence that Wonecker was Jewish, it is known that he made ritual articles for Danzig’s large Jewish population. The other is marked Vilnius, Lithuania, 1899-1908, by Leiba Schmuelovich Gold (1826-1904), who worked in a settlement where Jewish craftsmen were allowed to practice their trade. The estimate for the pair is $100-$200.

Another fascinating and seldom-seen item available at the auction is a set of trench binoculars, sometimes called “donkey ears.” The brass periscopic device comes with a mahogany and brass field tripod. Manufactured following World War I by Ross, London, the set has a $1,500-$2,000 estimate.

In the furniture category, an American Neo-Grec inlaid rosewood cabinet attributed to Alexander Roux has a single door with an oval porcelain plaque. A similar double-door cabinet with identical bronze capitals and grain-inlaid pilasters is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Made in the third quarter of the 19th century, this ornate cabinet is in good overall condition and has a $6.000-$9,000 estimate.

Also from the third quarter of the 19th century is a Louis XV-style rosewood and kingwood commode having a bombe case and a shaped Breche Arlequino marble top. With two short drawers over two long drawers – all with floral inlays of exotic wood – the commode is 46 inches wide, 33 1/2 inches high and 26 1/2 inches deep. It has a $7,000-$10,000 estimate.

Also carrying a $7,000-$10,000 is a desk crafted for the U.S. House of Representatives. The American Renaissance Revival oak desk was one of 262 desks designed by Capitol architect Thomas Ustick Walter for the 1857 renovation of the House Chamber. They remained in service until an 1873 remodeling, when the desks were wither given to congressmen or sold.

“The man who owned it had it all his life. He used it when he was a kid because they’re kind of small,” said Cage. The slant-lid desk is 36 1/2 inches high, 29 5/8 inches wide and 20 1/2 inches deep.

Estimated to make $3,000-$5,000 is an 18th-century Chinese walnut altar table having an 89-inch-long single-plank top with inset upturned ends. Phoenix heads and scrollwork are carved in relief on a solid apron.

Among the top paintings in the auction are two by French artists Charles Clement Calderon (1870-1906) and Felix Armand Heullant (circa 1834-1905). Heullant’s An Acadian Idyll is an oil on panel, 17 3/4 by 24 inches and is in a period carved ebonized and parcel giltwood and plaster frame in the Barbizon style. Its estimate is $9,000-$12,000. Calderon’s painting of boats in the Grand Canal in Venice is 29 1/2 by 49 1/4 inches. Calderon was a Parisian born artist best known for his views of Venetian life. He was a student of Alexandre Cabanel and his works were represented at the Colonial Exposition of 1906. The collector from Louisiana acquired the painting from Mortimer Brandt Gallery, New York, in the 1940s. It has a $14,000-$18,000 estimate.

Topping the list of estate jewelry is a lady’s modern diamond ring with a 7.01-carat yellow diamond flanked by 1-carat diamonds, which has a $60,000-$90,000 estimate. Three lots have $35,000-$50,000 estimates: a pair of 18-karat gold emerald and diamond earrings, a platinum diamond and emerald ring with a 21.63-carat rectangular step-cut emerald, and an 18-karat white gold and diamond wide bracelet composed of 26.83 carats of diamonds arranged in diagonal rows.

Previews are held daily at New Orleans Auction Galleries, 801 Magazine St. An evening preview Aug. 1 will coincide with White Linen Night, the high point of the summer in the Crescent City. The annual arts celebration takes place throughout the Warehouse/Arts District, and at the Contemporary Arts Center. White Linen Night is a time to put on your white outfits, get out and enjoy the works of the city’s art community. With about 20 art galleries participating, four blocks of Julia Street will be closed off for a New Orleans-style block party.

The auction will begin Aug. 8 at 10 a.m. Central at New Orleans Auction Galleries. The auction will resume Aug. 9 at 11 a.m. Central.

For details phone 504-566-1849.

View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet during the sale at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

 

Click here to view New Orleans Auction Galleries, Inc.’s complete catalog.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

Dating to the third quarter of the 19th century, this Louis XV-style rosewood and kingwood commode has a shaped Breche Arlequino (Italian) marble top. The drawers are banded and have floral exotic wood inlays. Image courtesy New Orleans Auction Galleries.
Dating to the third quarter of the 19th century, this Louis XV-style rosewood and kingwood commode has a shaped Breche Arlequino (Italian) marble top. The drawers are banded and have floral exotic wood inlays. Image courtesy New Orleans Auction Galleries.

‘Grand Canal, Venice' is an oil on canvas by Charles Clement Calderon measuring 29 1/2 by 49 1/4 inches. Calderon (French, 1870-1906) was best known for his views of Venetian life. The work carries a $14,000-$18,000 estimate. Image courtesy New Orleans Auction Galleries.
‘Grand Canal, Venice’ is an oil on canvas by Charles Clement Calderon measuring 29 1/2 by 49 1/4 inches. Calderon (French, 1870-1906) was best known for his views of Venetian life. The work carries a $14,000-$18,000 estimate. Image courtesy New Orleans Auction Galleries.

Felix Armand Heullant (French, circa 1834-1905) painted ‘An Acadian Idyll' in oil on 17 3/4- by 24-inch board. Presented in a period Barbizon-style frame, the painting is estimated at $9,000-$12,000. Image courtesy New Orleans Auction Galleries.
Felix Armand Heullant (French, circa 1834-1905) painted ‘An Acadian Idyll’ in oil on 17 3/4- by 24-inch board. Presented in a period Barbizon-style frame, the painting is estimated at $9,000-$12,000. Image courtesy New Orleans Auction Galleries.

London silversmith John Christopher Romer crafted this early George III sterling epergne in 1765-1766. Weighing 159.53 troy ounces, the rococo silver masterpiece has an estimate of $18,000-$25,000. Image courtesy New Orleans Auction Galleries.
London silversmith John Christopher Romer crafted this early George III sterling epergne in 1765-1766. Weighing 159.53 troy ounces, the rococo silver masterpiece has an estimate of $18,000-$25,000. Image courtesy New Orleans Auction Galleries.

An 18-karat white and yellow gold setting secures a natural light yellow cushion-cut diamond weighting 7.01 carats, which is flanked on either side by a white trillion-cut diamond weighting 1.0 carat each. The stunning lady's ring is estimated at $60,000-$90,000. Image courtesy New Orleans Auction Galleries.
An 18-karat white and yellow gold setting secures a natural light yellow cushion-cut diamond weighting 7.01 carats, which is flanked on either side by a white trillion-cut diamond weighting 1.0 carat each. The stunning lady’s ring is estimated at $60,000-$90,000. Image courtesy New Orleans Auction Galleries.

Clarity Sells’ Aug. 15 auction features 40-year, single-owner collection

Antique papier-mache and wood horse with tiny spoke-metal wheels. Image courtesy Clarity Sells.

Antique papier-mache and wood horse with tiny spoke-metal wheels. Image courtesy Clarity Sells.
Antique papier-mache and wood horse with tiny spoke-metal wheels. Image courtesy Clarity Sells.
CLEVELAND, Tenn. – A large single-owner collection comprising around 400 lots in an array of categories – including Chein toys, Coca-Cola collectibles, framed art and lithograph prints, Indian art and artifacts, vintage dolls, toy trains and airplanes, Americana and more – will be sold in an Aug. 15 online, phone and absentee auction hosted by Clarity Sells Auction Gallery. Absentee and Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers.com.

The collector is a gentleman from northern Georgia who, out of modesty, has requested anonymity until after the sale is over. With help from his wife, he has accumulated hundreds of items over a period of 40 years. “Once you step inside the home, where items are kept on shelf after shelf and room after room, time flies by as stories reveal the origins of his favorite pieces,” said Steve Poteet of Clarity Sells.

Poteet spent four days in the home, cataloging the auction. He said bidder interest will be keen for the several toys made by J. Chein & Co. Included are a 17-inch Hercules Ferris Wheel (circa 1950s), a Playland Merry-Go-Round carousel with children seated atop horses and swan coaches, and a very rare Aeroplane Whirler Space Ride (circa 1960s), depicting what was, for the time, futuristic space travel. Production of this toy was very short-lived, and only a few examples are known to exist today.

Chein toys are coveted by collectors of American tin. The consignor bought five of the toys at a garage sale in 1972, for just $5 each. Not long ago, someone who’d heard about the toys paid the man a visit. “He offered me $500 for all five and I showed him the door,” the collector said. “One of the toys alone was appraised at $1,200, and that was many years ago.”

For more than 75 years, J. Chein & Co. produced some of the finest lithographed-tin toys ever made in America. Founded in 1903 by Julius Chein, the New Jersey-based firm almost immediately started making wonderfully colored but inexpensive toys – from model amusement rides and wind-up characters to coin banks and sand pails. Its dime-store offerings delighted both kids and collectors.

Indian art and artifacts, which filled one corner of a basement room in the consignor’s home, include arrowheads (or points), found by the collector himself, on digs in northern Georgia and throughout the Southeast. “I found lots of points and pieces of broken pottery in a campsite at Carter’s Dam, in Adairsville (Ga.),” he said. “One time I found a skeleton, but I didn’t keep it. I called the warden.”

The Coca-Cola collectibles include a pair of horse-drawn Coke wagons, one old and one new. The older one – purchased by a friend’s father in the 1930s, when the boy was just 11 years old – will attract more bidder interest, but the newer one (circa 2005), is a nice example, too. Also offered will be a 6-pack of Coke in a rare aluminum case.

More than 100 framed art and lithograph prints will cross the block. One lot of note is a framed print depicting the experience of immigration titled Pillars of a Nation. A man whose grandfather passed through Ellis Island in New York when he emigrated from Hungary in 1907 commissioned the work. It comes with a certificate of authenticity on the reverse side, and is signed and numbered (3,094/20,000).

Also to be sold will be a pair of companion C.M. Russell screened prints, produced from watercolor paintings done in the early 1900s; a documented work by the legendary artist Chesley Bonestell (subject of the book Worlds Beyond – The Art of Chesley Bonestell), titled Saturn as Seen From Titan; and an intriguing original portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte, depicting the former French leader in a seated pose, done around 1865.

Vintage dolls and toys include a papier-mâché and wood horse, sitting atop tiny spoke metal wheels, quite old and rare; porcelain-face dolls, produced by manufacturers worldwide; celluloid dolls from the 1940s and ’50s (U.S.-made), papier-mâché clown dolls in immaculate condition, an original Kewpie doll in a grass skirt, and toy airplanes (one with a gas engine, World War II edition).

Glassware will include a Dale Tiffany style-signed, dragonfly art glass lamp, Avon bottles, a beautiful vase, 34 inches tall with a 6-inch base; another vase, 12 inches tall; and eight Christmas-themed Smucker’s jelly plates. Also offered will be a pair of Fu lions on carved teakwood stands. The lion cubs play on their mother’s back in carved pink gemstones – possibly jade.

The consignor has been collecting “stuff” (as he calls it) since moving his family to northern Georgia in the 1960s. He got the bug while working for Virgil’s Auctions in Adairsville, in the 1960s. “I worked the floor, but we’d go on trips to New York and New Jersey, looking for items to bring back and sell. Some of it I ended up buying for myself, like a porcelain frog I paid a quarter for. About a week later a guy offered me seven bucks for that frog. That’s when I realized there was profit in collecting.”

All but approximately 20 of the 400 lots in the sale are from the single-owner collection. Those 20 lots are mainly Chinese porcelain pieces and antique view cameras which are from another Southern collector. The auction will begin promptly at 11 a.m., E.S.T. Call Clarity Sells for more details, at 423-339-5581.

View the fully illustrated catalog and bid absentee or live via the Internet through www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

Click here to view Clarity Sells Online Gallery’s Auction’s complete catalog.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

Bidder interest will be keen for the group of Chein toys, which are highly coveted by collectors. Image courtesy Clarity Sells.
Bidder interest will be keen for the group of Chein toys, which are highly coveted by collectors. Image courtesy Clarity Sells.

Large 76-inch-by-88-inch hand-sewn yo-yo quilt made of polyester-cotton blend and containing 891 yo-yos. Image courtesy Clarity Sells.
Large 76-inch-by-88-inch hand-sewn yo-yo quilt made of polyester-cotton blend and containing 891 yo-yos. Image courtesy Clarity Sells.

Pair of Fu Lions made from carved pink gemstones (possibly jade), on carved teakwood stands. Image courtesy Clarity Sells.
Pair of Fu Lions made from carved pink gemstones (possibly jade), on carved teakwood stands. Image courtesy Clarity Sells.

Framed lithographic print depicting the experience of immigration, titled Pillars of a Nation. Image courtesy Clarity Sells.
Framed lithographic print depicting the experience of immigration, titled Pillars of a Nation. Image courtesy Clarity Sells.

Most of the arrowheads (points) and other Native-American artifacts were unearthed by the consignor. Image courtesy Clarity Sells.
Most of the arrowheads (points) and other Native-American artifacts were unearthed by the consignor. Image courtesy Clarity Sells.

AT&T’s historic Golden Boy statue moves to Dallas

The Spirit of Communications, or Golden Boy, appeared on telephone books in the Northeast during the early to mid-20th century. An example is this 1953-1954 Manhattan telephone book. Image courtesy of Gwillim Law, www.oldtelephonebooks.com.

The Spirit of Communications, or Golden Boy, appeared on telephone books in the Northeast during the early to mid-20th century. An example is this 1953-1954 Manhattan telephone book. Image courtesy of Gwillim Law, www.oldtelephonebooks.com.
The Spirit of Communications, or Golden Boy, appeared on telephone books in the Northeast during the early to mid-20th century. An example is this 1953-1954 Manhattan telephone book. Image courtesy of Gwillim Law, www.oldtelephonebooks.com.
DALLAS (AP) – Golden Boy may – or may not – be one of the masterpieces of American sculpture, but Dallas residents of a certain age might remember him from the cover of a phone book.

“Spirit of Communication,” better known as “Golden Boy,” was the second-largest sculpture in New York – after the Statue of Liberty -when it was first installed in 1916. The 28-foot gilded bronze statue resides in the lobby of AT&T’s headquarters on Akard Street in Dallas, its latest home in 93 years as a symbol of one of the nation’s most famous corporate names.

In the company’s glory days, Golden Boy towered over Lower Manhattan, 9 tons of bronze covered in the thousands of sheets of gold leaf that gave him his nickname.

For most of the 20th century, the statue turned up on company letterhead and stock certificates, and for much of the middle part of the century on local telephone books.

After the Bell System was broken up in the 1980s, he was exiled to New Jersey, where he was eventually consigned to an office park. Now, after SBC acquired AT&T, adopted its name, and moved its corporate offices to downtown Dallas, he’s here.

Lee Sandstead, who hosts the Travel Channel’s Art Attack, is enthusiastic, almost effusive.

“This is absolutely a serious work of art, and it’s absolutely a masterpiece,” said Sandstead, an art historian. “It’s perhaps the most beautiful depiction of the male figure in American art.”

Sandstead is considered the leading expert on Evelyn Beatrice Longman, the statue’s sculptor.

The arrival of Golden Boy gives downtown Dallas its second corporate icon with classical allusions. The first, of course, is Pegasus, the flying red horse that has crowned the top of the Magnolia Building since 1934. (A full-scale copy, for those afraid of heights, is at ground level in the Old Red Museum of Dallas History & Culture.)

Golden Boy is the older of the two works. Sandstead said the design was chosen in a national competition, and the statue was hoisted, with great fanfare, to the top of AT&T’s headquarters on lower Broadway in 1916. It was the second-largest sculpture in New York, behind the Statue of Liberty, he said, and doubly notable because of its sculptor.

Longman is one of the few women in American history to create monumental sculpture.

“The work was considered too physically demanding for a woman,” he said. “It required lifting heavy equipment up and down scaffolding, and bending metal.”

She was a protegée of Daniel Chester French, working with him on the design of the Lincoln Memorial. She is now largely – and, Sandstead thinks, unfairly – forgotten.

“If she had been born 30 years earlier, she would have been more famous,” he said. “By 1915, her kind of art was beginning to wane in popularity, critics were beginning to be attracted by the modernist movement, which was more abstract.”

The sculpture was moved in 1984 to the company’s new building, whose postmodern-notched roof _ it was nicknamed the Chippendale Building – meant Golden Boy had to be moved to the lobby.

A persistent Internet rumor says that officials, concerned that the male nude could now be viewed up close and eye level, ordered Golden Boy un-gendered. Not true.

The sculpture was moved to one site in New Jersey in 1992, then to another 10 years later. Earlier this year, it decamped for Texas.

A former AT&T chairman once explained Golden Boy’s nomadic existence by saying, “He goes where we go.”

An AT&T spokeswoman last week said the company still feels the same way.

“It’s always been with the corporate headquarters. It’s absolutely fitting that he should be here now,” Sarah Andreani said.

The work now commands the lobby facing AT&T Plaza. Company employees on a recent morning seemed already used to Golden Boy’s presence, scurrying to their jobs without glancing up.

But visitors seemed impressed, snapping photos on their cellphones and peppering the reception desk with questions.

“I take it it’s not real gold,” one woman said.

“Just in small sheets,” the receptionist explained.

“Well, I think he’s cool,” she replied.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-WS-07-27-09 1308EDT

Indiana University opens art conservation lab to public

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) – Indiana University is opening up for public view its efforts to restore murals by artist Thomas Hart Benton at the school’s Bloomington campus.

The IU Art Museum’s conservation lab is now open to the public on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays through the end of August.

The lab is in the midst of conserving two panels from Benton’s Indiana murals, which were created for the Indiana Hall at the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago.

The murals’ 22 panels stretched a total of 250 feet. The conservation effort is complicated by the fact that Benton didn’t record specifics on how he created his paints.

The state gave the murals to IU in 1940.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-CS-07-28-09 0402EDT

Tennis, anyone? Original cover art a love match for tennis buffs

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.

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.
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.

Click here to view K&M Auction Liquidation Sales, Ltd.’s complete catalog.

Rago’s Aug. 7-8 auction features estate of prominent dealer

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.

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.
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.

 

 

Click here to view Rago Arts and Auction Center’s complete catalog.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

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.
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.
‘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.
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.
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.
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.

Antique fan museum creates a stir in Indiana

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 Live Auctioneers archive.

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.
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.

Information from: WTHR-TV, http://www.wthr.com/

AP-CS-07-26-09 1331EDT