Furniture Specific: Add oil only if it squeaks
Stones among all-star contributors to May 6 auction benefiting Haiti
NEW YORK – Mick Jagger, L’Wren Scott, Rachel Weisz, Catherine Zeta Jones, Michelle Williams, Sienna Miller, Jude Law, Helmut Lang, John Currin, Rachel Feinstein, Naomi Watts, Zac Posen, Christopher Niquet, Margery and Ted Mayer, EJ Camp, Edie Falco and Dr. David A. Colbert will lend a hand – figuratively – when they host a benefit and auction May 6 to raise funds for Haitians who suffered the loss of a limb during the earthquake in January. LiveAuctioneers will provide Internet live bidding.
“I came back from Haiti believing that one of the most important things we can do is to provide the prosthetics and related services that people who were injured will need to function again,” said Colbert, a prominent New York physician, after his first visit to Haiti after the earthquake. “If each of us does one little thing, it can add up to a very big thing, so we are raising money for a prosthetics clinic in Port au Prince that we know will make a big difference,” he said.
The auction will feature the works of major artists, photographers and designers. Guitars have been signed and donated by Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Woods, Bono, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Bryan Adams, and drum skins from Charlie Watts and Kenney Jones.
Another major lot in the benefit auction is a luxury cruise with Yachts of Seabourn.
Auction items have been donated by country music artist Taylor Swift; designers Zac Posen, Thakoon, Narciso Rodriguez, Helmut Lang, Calvin Klein; jewelry designers Fred Leighton and Diana Broussard; artists Elizabeth Peyton, Shaun Dulaney, Luca Pizzaroni, Tauba Auerbach, Huma Bhabha, Jules de Balincourt, Jason Fox, Rachel Harrison, Mary Heilmann, Jacob Kassay, Louise Lawler, Chris Martin, Dave Muller, Wangechi Mutu, Stephen Shore, James Siena, Philip Taaffe, Fred Tomaselli, Kelley Walker, Jill Moser, David Benaïnous, Andrea Tess; and photographers Annie Leibovitz, EJ Camp, Sante D’Orazio, Jim Marshall, Roberto Dutesco and Al Satterwhite.
Also helping to raise funds for the cause, accessory designer Paige Novick teamed up with her friend Lu Simon, who is Haitian, to create the Hope Bracelet. A double leather strap using a vintage coin that reads L’Union est la force, translated to “There is strength in unity.” It is available for $200 at www.nydgfoundation.org/haiti
The benefit and auction will be held May at The Greenhouse, Scholastic, 557 Broadway. The event includes a VIP reception from 6 to 7 p.m. ($750/person) and a cocktail party and auction from 7 to 10 p.m. ($400/person).
Tickets, list of auction items and more information are available at www.nydgfoundation.com/haiti
NYDG Foundation doctors respond to medical crises around the world. The address is 119 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10003.
ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE
Fiat heir designs furniture with automotive flair
MILAN (AP) – This would be a car fanatic’s dream room: an exhaust-pipe chandelier hanging over a crystal dining table top resting on Formula One tires.
The creations embody the identity of their designer: Lapo Elkann, an heir to the Fiat auto empire, whose latest foray into the world of design was on premiere at the Milan Furniture Show, which ended Monday.
“It’s not only about automobiles. It’s also the concept of recycling, which today is essential,” Elkann said.
Probably no one can tap into the Ferrari tire supply chain more easily than Elkann. He’s also taken shock absorbers from trucks and tanks and made them the base for side tables, with a crystal top or one of fine, wooden kite board.
Elkann’s designs are being realized by the Italian company Meritalia. But this is not his first time working as a designer: He helped on the retro-chic Fiat 500 and has designed sunglasses. He also customizes his own cars.
The chandelier Wroom Wroom costs about $13,163, the dining table Roll Roll sells for $9,400 and the shock-absorbing side tables start at $1,343.
Elkann’s entree into Meritalia was thanks to Gaetano Pesce, the New York-based Italian designer of whimsical furniture.
Elkann, 32, and Pesce, 70, each had a store front window of Meritalia’s central Milan store to show their creations in the hottest opening of design week, paparazzi bulbs flashing. Pesce’s was a green carpet-covered sofa with brown cushions draped with oversize fabric flowers. “Fiorita,” the soft, inviting sofa, starts at about $8,730.
“I thought to make a meadow where flowers have been planted, and some have already grown,” Pesce said. It was the natural segue to his “Montanara” modular sofas of last year, featuring winter mountain scenes. Expect to see Pesce’s vision of summer next year and fall the next.
Pesce said he saw in Elkann a creative power and did what he had done for other friends: suggested that Meritalia work with him. The pair of Italians with New York roots met in 2004 when Elkann opened a Fiat cafe at Milan’s Triennale design and modern art museum.
“He translated the vitality of his family. He did not pretend to make things very elegantly. That is not interesting,” Pesce said.
Also of note at the Milan furniture show:
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The designing Brazilian brothers Fernando and Humberto Campana have taken inspiration from cloth dolls handmade by women in the remote Brazilian village of Esperanca for their latest creation: a white Murano glass chandelier featuring glass figures of the folkloric dolls dressed in red and black.
The white base of the chandelier, which is called “Esperanca,” creates a cloud-like atmosphere, from which jut the torsos or legs of the dolls. The chandeliers are made on the Venetian glass-blowing island of Murano for Venini.
While the Esperanca dolls sell for about $10 in Brazil, the chandelier is pricier – about $53,000 for a large version, $39,600 for a small. Each are in a limited series of five.
For the more price-conscious, the brothers also created limited-edition vases with the figures, at $6,580 each.
The glasswork is the second project they have made based on the Esperanca dolls, after a chair, “Multidao,” that featured dozens of them sewn onto it. That chair brought the dolls national attention in Brazil, Humberto Campana said.
The brothers liked that they were helping the village, so they decided to do more. “We wanted to reproduce the dolls in glass, which was more sophisticated, more detailed,”’ Humberto said.
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The “Bend Sofa” by Milan-based Spanish designer Patricia Urquoia is understated and contemporary, and could fit anyone’s living room, if not budget. Its undulating modular forms allow maximum versatility.
A brown, three-section, L-shaped model in its Milan showroom runs about $11,760. Another layout nearby showed just how versatile the design is: The long white sofa alternated backs, allowing one sofa to serve many spaces.
B&B Italia’s sofas are made in the Brianza area near Lake Como. Their classic styles have a long life, even 25 to 30 years, with the possibility of changing the velcro-attached fabric.
The B&B Italia customer “is someone who sees the difference between what we do and what Crate & Barrel does or what IKEA does,” said Jonathan Friedlander, B&B Italia USA’s marketing director. “There is a great overlap with the art world. People who are culturally sophisticated, educated and, of course, people who are wealthy.”
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Designer Daniele Basso, who once worked for Versace in Italy and the United States, presented stainless steel mirrors by his Glocal Design company. This year’s novelty: a mirror panel shaped like the Berlin Wall, starting at about $1,070.
Recognizing the connection between design and fashion, Basso displayed his mirrors in the via Manzoni showroom of the Italian outdoor-wear maker Napapijri. After all, fashion needs mirrors.
“Design is not about beauty and aesthetics. It is a way to resolve problems,” Basso said.
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One thing that won’t be going on sale soon but would appeal to any former kid who loved slime or rubber worms: Pesce’s armchairs made out of silicon tubes. They look as if they were molded out of thick spaghetti, colorful garden hoses or glowing blue worms. Pesce has been experimenting with the material since 1996. The first chairs weighed about 172 pounds; they’re now down to 40 pounds.
“To experiment with design is very important because design is the art of our time. It is very mature and advanced, not just things practical, and you can tell a story, a political story, a philosophical story, a religious story,” Pesce said. “That’s what art did in the past. If you go to a contemporary art store, no one understands anything. Design has the capacity to talk to anyone. That is democracy.”
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-ES-04-20-10 1156EDT
Apollo Theater exhibit in DC includes Michael Jackson’s hat
WASHINGTON (AP) – Michael Jackson’s fedora, Ella Fitzgerald’s dress and Louis Armstrong’s trumpet are together in Washington to celebrate New York’s Apollo Theater that helped make these stars shine.
The Smithsonian’s not-yet-built black history museum is bringing Harlem to the nation’s capital with the first exhibit focused on the Apollo and its impact. It opens Friday at the National Museum of American History.
The late King of Pop won the theater’s Amateur Night as a youngster in 1967 with the Jackson Five. Fitzgerald debuted on Amateur Night at age 17. Many other top names also were frequent performers.
Singer and actress Leslie Uggams toured the exhibit Tuesday, recalling the start of her career at the Apollo. She debuted at age 9 and soon was appearing in 29 shows a week.
The Apollo Theater is one of the most famous music halls in the United States, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It serves as the home base for Showtime at the Apollo, a nationally syndicated variety show consisting of new talent.
The theater is located at 253 W. 125th Street in New York City’s Manhattan borough.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-ES-04-20-10 1315EDT
Auction Central News adds new columnist, TV personality Reyne Haines
NEW YORK – Auction Central News has announced the addition of a new column, Reyne Gauge, written by high-profile appraiser, author and TV host Reyne Haines.
The column, which is styled as a blog, “brings a fresh twist to coverage of people and events in the antiques and collecting world,” said Auction Central News’ editor-in-chief, Catherine Saunders-Watson, “and who better to liven up the scene than Reyne, who has her finger firmly on the pulse of what’s going on in auction salerooms and quickly recognizes which types of antiques are merging into the mainstream? Reyne will be a great asset to our freelance team.”
Haines’ greatest expertise is in 20th-century decorative arts. She has been called upon to appraise collectibles ranging from antique watches to $20 million paintings. Her appraisal skills are also in great demand with investment firms, high-end estate executors and producers of charity auctions. She has been the host of The Art of Collecting on KPRC, Houston’s NBC, a repeat guest on CBS’ The Early Show, and can be heard on Martha Stewart Living Radio on Sirius Satellite Radio Network. As a regular contributor to the Washington, D.C., digital newspaper Huffington Post, Reyne blogs on current topics and industry events. Haines’ professional background includes working as a model, news announcer and journalist. In 1991 she founded Reyne Gallery, which specializes in 20th-century decorative arts with an emphasis on Tiffany Studios; and co-founded The Finer Things in New York City, a company that acquired and sold luxury goods for clients at auction and privately.
With a hand in many projects, Haines is continuously expanding her expertise as she develops original television programming, writes trade books and fuses broadcast media with the Internet to connect with her ever-growing national fan base of collectors.
Reyne has written for – or been interviewed by – such publications as The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, BusinessWeek, Home & Garden, Hemisphere Magazine, Worth Magazine, TV Guide, Family Circle Magazine, Time Out New York, Traditional Home, Romantic Home, Inspire Magazine andThe Collectors Weekly. She has also contributed to books including Antiques Roadshow Collectibles by Carol Prisant and Adventures at the Auction by Leslie Hindman. In 2003, she wrote The Art of Glass for the Dayton Art Institute. She penned the introduction to the new Warman’s Companion on Watches and a chapter on investing in Tiffany for the 2009 edition of Warman’s Antiques and Collectibles. In April 2010 her latest publication, Vintage Wristwatches, hit the shelves of bookstores nationwide.
Reyne Gauge will debut on Auction Central News later this week.
# # #
Internet bids blazed in April 18 auction of Iron Man film props
CHICAGO (AP and ACNI) – It’s not every day you get to attend a billionaire’s yard sale. OK, defense contractor Tony Stark (a k a “Iron Man”) is a fictional character played by Robert Downey Jr., but to fans of both the film and comic books attending last weekend’s Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (C2E2), the display of props and costumes from the film Iron Man and the auction of those items on Sunday felt very real.
It probably helped that employees from Propworx, the auction house hired by Marvel Studios to oversee the auction, were dressed in T-shirts bearing the Stark Industries logo. And it didn’t hurt one bit that LiveAuctioneers.com – providers of Internet live-bidding services to more than 900 auction houses worldwide – was chosen to facilitate the online bidding. In the end, 57.1% of the sale’s gross was generated from fans using LiveAuctioneers to place their bids through cyberspace.
A total of 219 items from the film – everything from dresses worn by Gwyneth Paltrow (as Stark’s secretary Pepper Potts) to props used in the making of the big-budget 2008 hit – were entered in the auction.
Props actually used in production by the stars (referred to as “hero props”) sold for prices more than double those for the same props never used on screen). Lot 127, a fictional Chronicle newspaper with the headline “Who Is the Iron Man?,” showing wear around its edges from being held by Downey over several takes, sold for $1,200. A double of that same prop fetched $720.
The item that made the highest price at auction was Lot 29, the Iron Monger Hero Helmet and Torso. Film producers indicated it was used for “practical, non-CGI shots.” It sold to a Chicago movie memorabilia collector for $19,200.
The bidder, who wished to remain anonymous, said he had placed a ceiling price of $18,000 on the item, but then decided at the last minute to raise his final bid.
“It’s a great movie and a unique piece,” he said. “I think it will be a good investment.”
Other items receiving high bids:
- An Iron Man Crushed Mark III Helmet, seen in the final battle in the film but not used by Downey ($13,200 to another anonymous Chicago bidder).
- The Iron Man Hero Mark I RT Unit, a power source that Paltrow removes from Downey’s chest ($10,800 to a LiveAuctioneers.com bidder).
- The Iron Man Hero Mark II RT Unit she replaced the other unit with in that same scene ($10,200 to a LiveAuctioneers bidder).
- The Iron Man Mark I Mask piece members of the Ten Rings team found in the sand after Tony Stark’s escape ($9,000 to a LiveAuctioneers bidder).
- Hero left-hand glove with armor plate Tony Stark designed and wore with the Mark III Iron Man suit ($6,600 to a LiveAuctioneers bidder).
“This is more than just a garage sale. We see this as much more than just selling props,” said Propworx founder and CEO Alec Peters. “Auctions like these are as much about selling the brand as they are about selling assets.”
“There are hundreds if not thousands of warehouses in Los Angeles packed with items from film and television,” added Propworx’s Shelley Oliver Littleton. “These are huge expenses on balance sheets. Auctions monetize those assets and give fans a shot of owning one-of-a-kind items.”
“I really don’t think it’s just about making money for Marvel,” she added. “Marvel has built their business on pleasing the fans, and auctions like this are less about making money and more about making fans happy.”
And while all of the items on the auction block were from the film and not it’s soon-to-be-released sequel, Marvel Entertainment brand manager Michael Pasciullo said both the comic book and film are benefiting from the auction.
Things like this raise awareness for the brand, he said. The character has been around since the 1960s, but before the movie came out he wasn’t that known outside the comic-book community.”
One bidder paid $840 for Lot 24, the Mark I Iron Man Armor Butt Plate. (“An integral piece of the Iron Man Mark I armor,” according to the hardcover auction catalog – which, at $20, was the cheapest thing you could buy that had an association with the auction).
“Something that appears ordinary to you might mean something more to a fan,” Oliver Littleton said. “You just never know what will appeal to a fan.”
Click here to view the fully illustrated catalog, with prices realized, for the April 18 Propworx Iron Man auction.
# # #
Catherine Saunders-Watson of Auction Central News International contributed to this report.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Click here to view the fully illustrated catalog for this sale, complete with prices realized.
ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE
Slotin Auction to disperse landmark folk art collections May 1-2
Headlining the event will be the prestigious folk art collections of Karen and Werner Gundersheimer and Roger Schlaifer. Both collections have been widely exhibited and illustrated. Many of the works were highlighted in the book American Folk Art of the Twentieth Century by Jay Johnson and William Ketchum Jr. The auction will read like a “who’s who” in folk art.
Almost every artist featured in Johnson and Ketchum’s landmark book will be represented in the auction. The sale will also feature an ambitious fund-raiser for Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art; the Clay Morrison Estate to benefit the School of Art Institute of Chicago; and property of the Columbus Museum of Art.
An oil on canvas painting by Georgia artist Mattie Lou O’Kelley (1908-1997), The Watermelon Cutting, signed and dated 1979, is expected to bring $20,000-$30,000. The work served as cover art for William Ketchum’s book American Folk Art. Also sold will be a 1978 work by O’Kelley titled Spotted Cat (est. $8,000-$12,000), which appeared in Life Magazine.
A large (40 inches by 15 1/2 inches) museum-quality mixed media on paper rendering by Sister Gertrude Morgan (1900-1980), titled The Great Now Jerusalem, featuring Sister Gertrude marrying Jesus, has been conservatively estimated at $30,000-$40,000. The paint, acrylic, tempera and ballpoint pen on paper work depicts angels and dinner table detail and is signed.
Six works by Clementine Hunter (1886-1988) will cross the block, including Madona (sic) of the Lilies, a large paint on board work executed in the 1950s and recently exhibited at the African American Museum in Dallas. The 23- by 19-inch painting includes authentication papers from Shelby Gilley, and is expected to command $8,000-$12,000.
The auction will feature 23 works by the talented and prolific potters from the Meaders family. A china plate teeth face jug by Lanier Meaders was the top lot at Slotin’s last Southern Fold Pottery Auction in November, bringing $8,855. This sale will feature a late 1960s china plate teeth face jug, attributed to Lanier and in mint condition (est. $3,000-$5,000).
What would a Slotin Auction be without Howard Finster (1916-2001)? This auction has 26 renderings by the artist, including an enamel on board beauty titled There Were Just Enough (est. $5,000-$8,000). The pre-1976 work was exhibited at the Philadelphia Art Alliance Show titled Howard Finster, Man of Vision, and was featured in a pair of authoritative folk art books.
An oil on board by Red Grooms, titled Bill Traylor and Fighting Dogs, acquired from the Marlborough Gallery, N.Y., is expected to hit $5,000-$7,000. An ink and watercolor on paper by David Hockney, titled Family Outing, should make $2,000-$4,000. And No. 74, The Tragic Fire at Bucks Stables, Independence, Indiana, by Tella Kitchens, should breeze to $7,000-$10,000.
Welcoming Lady, a 6-foot-tall painted cement sculpture by an anonymous maker, circa 1920s, should rise to $4,000-$6,000.
Additional artists of note in the sale include Frank Jones, Joseph Yoakum, S.L. Jones, Raymond Coins, Sam Doyle, Thornton Dial, Charlie Willeto, George Lopez, Felipe Archuleta, Robert St. Brice, Forrest King Moses and Edgar Tolson.
Also represented in the sale will be William Dawson, Jesse Howard, Eddie Arning, Bryan McNutt, Justin McCarthy, Victor Joseph Gatto, Andrea Badami, Lawrence Lebduska, Gustav Klumpp, James Castle, Chief Wiley, Frog Smith, Stephen Huneck, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Mose Tolliver, Robert Brady (nudes), Teofilo Magliocchi (sensual pencil drawings) and many others.
The auction will also feature some rare and special treats, like the anonymous water hose-powered whirligig, circa 1940s; a Flemish Impressionist work by Edmond Verstraeten, 1870-1956; an original study by Norman Rockwell; circus sideshow banners; African American juke joint signs; 19th-century ledger drawings; and works of mid-century modernism.
Additional surprises will include contemporary art by Todd Murphy, profound art by Monji, Jewish folk art from Burma, Day of Dead masks, skeletons and costumes, newly acquired 1950s drawings by Boykin Richardson, African American quilts, industrial skull molds, a real North Georgia moonshine still and a drivable 1992 folk art van, painted by Sam McMillan.
Slotin Auction’s next big sale after this one will be held in November and feature the prestigious Howard Campbell Americana Collection. More information will be posted on the Web site as the auction date draws near at www.slotinfolkart.com. Slotin Auction has been in business for about 17 years. The firm conducts several sales a year in a converted grocery store in downtown Buford.
Slotin Auction is always accepting quality consignments. To consign a single piece or an entire collection, call (770) 532-1115 or (404) 403-4244. Or, you can send an e-mail to auction@slotinfolkart.com. To order a free 140-page color catalog for the Spring 2010 Masterpiece Auction, call (770) 532-1115.
To learn more about Slotin Auction and the firm’s calendar of upcoming events, please log on to www.slotinfolkart.com.
ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE
Prototypes, storms and flying bats are forecast for Brunk Auctions’ May 1 sale
ASHEVILLE, N.C. – In the 1930s, expensive, hand-crafted automobiles had incredibly long hoods, narrow bodies and small passenger compartments. The 1935 Duesenberg roadster is a classic example of that iconic form. Following in Duesenberg’s tire tracks was the Caudron C450, a sleek propeller-driven French racing plane. The Caudron won the Coupe Deutsch de la Meurthe race in 1934 and 1935. Before constructing the Caudron, a small mahogany prototype was wind tunnel tested. That 15-inch aircraft model is one of seven wooden experimental designs for sale at Brunk Auctions on May 1, with Internet live bidding provided by LiveAuctioneers.com.
For those who have never quite outgrown a fascination with model airplanes, these models are above and beyond balsa wood kits. All were crafted of mahogany in France, where they were purchased by the consignor. Included are two biplanes, a delta wing with a pusher motor (est. $1,000/$2,000), a Dornier-style seaplane (est. $800/$1,500), a twin-engine pusher transport (est. $1,000/$2,000) and a 98-inch Canard model from 1910-1920 (est. $1,000/$2,000). The prototype that became the Caudron C450 is estimated at $400/$800. [To see an actual Caudron C450 in flight, visit www.youtube.com and search for “Caudron C450.”]
At the opposite end of the presale estimate scale is Recollections of a storm from the…, an unsigned oil on canvas attributed to John Frederick Kensett (American, 1816-1872). The painting is included in the upcoming catalogue raisonné for Kensett compiled by Babcock Galleries, New York City. Presale estimate on the Kensett is $30,000/$60,000.
Along with Sanford Robinson Gifford, Fitz Hugh Lane, Jasper Francis Cropsey and Martin Johnson Heade, Kensett is considered part of the second generation of Hudson River School artists. The group also became known as the “Luminists,” for their detailed treatment of outdoor light. That trait can be clearly seen in Recollections, a painting of rain and swirling storm clouds in New York’s Catskill Mountains.
Not to be overlooked is a Tim Tansel (1810-1852) engraved powder horn. Tansel was one of the few carvers who produced more than 50 carved and engraved powder horns in his lifetime. The signed but undated horn in this sale has Tansel’s trademark fish-mouth edge at the spout. Engravings include a woman in a polka dot dress, an eagle shield, a man on horseback and the words E Pluribus Unum, Protection and Indemnity. Dating from the mid-19th century, the horn is expected to bring $2,000/$4,000.
No Brunk Auctions sale of late would be complete without a large collection of Chinese antiques. Included in the May 1 sale are porcelains, snuff bottles, figures, stone carvings, low tables, furniture and perhaps the most underappreciated category: Chinese rugs. The best of the 65-rug collection is a 6 ft. 2 inch by 10 ft. 6 inch 19th-century Chinese rug with rows of bats, medallions and open knots on a yellow ground surrounded by three decorative borders on a blue ground. With even medium pile, it is estimated to bring $2,000/$4,000.
The Chinese porcelain attracting the most pre-sale attention is an 11½-inch vase with a heavy quadrilateral hu base, open angular handles and molded panels on each side. In celadon with a blue Guangxu mark (1875-1908), the period vase is expected to sell for $5,000/$10,000.
Also included is a 17-lot collection of Sèvres porcelain. Featured on the cover of the sale catalog is a pair of 9-3/8 inch Sèvres lidded potpourris with pierced lids and shoulders (est. $1,000/$2,000). Surrounding the piercings is an elaborate glossy and matte gilt ornamentation on a cobalt ground. Each jar has a landscape handpainted on one side and a scene with a mother and children on the other. The base has the Sèvres mark with date mark for 1780 and the initials “GL,” possibly for the painter or gilder.
For more information on any lot in the sale, call 828-254-6846.
ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE
April 24 is Fiesta time again for Strawser Auctions
WOLCOTTVILLE, Ind. – Michael G. Strawser has been conducting semiannual Fiesta specialty auctions for about 15 years. He holds the world’s record for a piece of Fiesta: $20,075 for a rare individual teapot, which he sold at auction in 2004. Strawser doesn’t expect to set any records when he conducts his next Fiesta auction April 24, but collectors can expect to find high-quality consignments in outstanding condition.
LiveAuctioneers will provide Internet live bidding.
The auction will be conducted at the LaGrange County 4-H Fairground in LaGrange, Ind. Selling will begin at 10 a.m. Eastern.
Homer Laughlin, one of America’s leading dinnerware manufacturers, introduced Fiesta dinnerware in Pittsburgh at the Pottery and Glass Show in 1936. The legendary Fredrick Rhead designed the brightly colored pieces that are accented by concentric circles.
Strawser will sell more than 2,000 pieces at the auction, starting with approximately 50 lots if post 1986 Fiesta, which is distinguished from vintage Fiesta by all new colors. The sale will also include a selection of similarly looking Kitchen Kraft, Harlequin and Riviera lines.
Among the more valuable items in the sale are 10-inch and 12-inch Fiesta flower vases, several in scarce colors, which have high estimates of up to $800 apiece.
Strawser said the prices of Fiesta are generally soft now, but that the auction represents a good time for buyers to acquire fine pieces at affordable prices.
For details call 260-854-2859.
ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE
Hurricane Katrina swept buyers of historic home into restoration mode
PASCAGOULA, Miss. (AP) – An 1894 house that has been home most recently to the Knights of Columbus has been brought back to life as a bed and breakfast, thanks to more than three years of hard work by Ken and Debbie Steiner.
The Steiners bought the property in early 2005, and if it hadn’t been for Hurricane Katrina, they might have never opened their business.
They initially bought it as an investment property, but grants that became available after the storm “got the ball rolling” toward opening the business, Debbie Steiner said.
Grand Magnolia Ballroom & Suites has evolved to include a reception hall next door for weddings, proms and other events.
“When we took away the addition the KCs had added … we realized that no. 1 we had a huge slab beside the property and no. 2, that unless you are a member of the country club, Pascagoula has very few places to hold smaller receptions,” Debbie Steiner said.
Building a reception hall just made sense, the Steiners said.
Overseeing and handling much of the work himself, Ken Steiner built a 5,000-square-foot building complete with stage, projection screen, state-of-the-art sound system and chairs for 200 people. It has a nearly 20-foot cathedral ceiling and onsite caterers’ kitchen.
A country music act has already performed there, and several wedding parties and the Pascagoula High School prom have been scheduled, based entirely on word-of-mouth, Debbie Steiner said.
From the outside, the hall looks like a sedate, gray French Quarter home.
“The idea is that someone holding a wedding could have members of the wedding party or out-of-town guests stay at the bed and breakfast,” Debbie Steiner said. “And it’s working out that way – my first bride is bringing people here in May.”
A flower-filled courtyard with fountains, fish pond, tables and chairs separates the reception hall from the 7,000-square-foot, two-story house, which has been restored to its original splendor and filled with antiques the couple picked up during travels throughout the South.
Downstairs includes two sitting parlors, a large dining room, a bright, airy kitchen and a large bedroom that will eventually house an innkeeper. There are 16 hanging crystal chandeliers and original hardwood floors throughout. Upstairs are six bedrooms, each decorated by Debbie Steiner to reflect the style of coastal cities: Old New Orleans, Key West, Charleston Square, Cape Cod, Old Savannah and the Garden Room.
“But the main thing is, I wanted them to be plush,” she said. “All the rooms have high-quality European linens. I want people when they get up in the morning to say, ‘My gosh, that’s one of the best night’s rests I’ve had in years.’”
Each room has its own full bathroom and its own air-conditioning controls. Nostalgic mosquito netting drapes over the heads of some of the beds. Based on double occupancy, rooms cost $85 a night with a simple continental breakfast and $110 with a full breakfast.
Debbie said as long as she’s covering her overhead, she hopes to keep the prices low and within reach of as many people as possible.
To start, breakfasts will be catered by area restaurants, but eventually the Steiners hope to make their own recipes for guests in the catering kitchen.
The family, which includes daughter Susanne, plan to run the business to start, and eventually hire an innkeeper as business grows.
The Steiners said that after Katrina, they learned from Pascagoula resident Liz Ford that grants were available to restore historic homes damaged in the storm.
They applied for and received a $150,000 Mississippi Department of Archives and History grant, which allowed them to perform basic roof and foundation repairs, but not much else.
Family discussions led to the idea for a B&B, and the Steiners ended up pouring much, much more into the restoration. They decline to reveal the amount, but people who have seen the house agree that it looks like “a million bucks” and is just as elegant as similar establishments in larger cities like Mobile.
The Steiners are passionate about Pascagoula, and hope revitalizing their corner of the Orange Street Historic District will be part of a larger downtown and riverfront plan.
“We’re hoping that it will inspire that person who has always wanted to open their own little dress or book shop to go ahead and do it,” Debbie Steiner said. “I would like to help get people motivated to rejuvenate downtown.
“So many people have forgotten what it used to be like.”
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Information from: The Mississippi Press, http://www.gulflive.com
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