Max Factor’s Kissing Machine, estimate $50,000-$100,000, Super Auctions’ May 15, 2010 sale of articles from the Hollywood Entertainment Museum. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com and Super Auctions.
Music fans, does this curious contraption look familiar? You may recognize it from the cover art for the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ 2003 Greatest Hits album cover, but beyond that, it has nothing to do with the famous LA bad-boy band. It’s actually a Hollywood relic known as the “Kissing Machine,” and it comes from the fabled Max Factor collection to be auctioned by Super Auctions on May 15. Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers.com.
Max Factor (born Maximilian Faktorowicz in 1877) was a Polish cosmetician who founded the company bearing his name in 1909. Always experimental and forward thinking, the firm became a leader in theatrical and movie makeup, and its products became favorites with a legion of image-conscious film stars.
While we’re not exactly sure how the “Kissing Machine” is activated, it’s most likely that its purpose was to test the staying power of Max Factor lipstick, presumably during a kiss.
A unique item, both from a historical and pop-culture standpoint, it could possibly make $50,000-$100,000 in Super Auctions’ May 15 Hollywood Entertainment Museum IV auction.
In Mint State 66, this 1834 half dollar requires a starting bid of $15,000. Image courtesy of Universal Live.
NORTHBROOK, Ill. – Universal Live, during its live coin auction May 13, will present an interesting array of foreign and domestic coins from a collector’s estate. Most of these coins are 50-plus years old and hail from varied countries. LiveAuctioneers will facilitate live bidding for the 4 p.m. Central auction.
Martin Shape of Universal said that many of the coins were from countries that he rarely sees such as Southern Rhodesia Africa and German East Africa. Also available are a 1781 half-penny from Ireland, Kuwait 50 Fils, old paper currency from Luxembourg, 1862 coin from Lombardy/Venetian Italy and an interesting silver medal from the 1867 Illinois Agricultural Fair.
Universal has also acquired a series of slabbed gold and silver coins, which includes an 1882 $3 gold piece, NGC 62 Prooflike; an 1883-CC Morgan dollar, PCGS MS63 Proof Like OGH; and an 1834 Capped Bust Half, NGC MS66.
The Illinois State Agriculture Society Medal awarded this silver medal in 1867 for best spinning wheel. It is 1 5/8 inches diameter. Image courtesy of Universal Live. This 1883 CC Morgan silver dollar, MS63 Proof Like, has a $500-$775 estimate. Image courtesy of Universal Live. Estimates range from $17,000 to more than $21,000 for this 1882 $3 gold coin, NGC Mint State 62 Proof Like. Image courtesy of Universal Live. This 1904A German East Africa 1/4 Rupie coin of high grade has a $50-$80 estimate. Image courtesy of Universal Live.
Michael Kaplenk Lidded Vessel, Image courtesy of Belhorn Auction Services.
COLUMBUS, Ohio – On Sunday, May 16, Belhorn Auction Services will disperse one of the largest single-owner collections of contemporary art pottery to come to auction in recent years – the Philip Sartore collection. Internet live bidding will be provided by LiveAuctioneers.com.
The Sartore collection includes more than 600 pieces of art pottery by artists from Indiana, the Midwest and across the United States. Highlights from the collection were recently displayed at the Richmond (Ind.) Art Museum. In preparation for that exhibit, Philip Sartore wrote the following:
“I first met potters Walt Schmidt and Barb Bihler in 1980. I purchased a teapot and cups, but not much else. In 1985, I asked Barb to make my first set of dishes – a brown rim with white on the bottom and lots of black specks. The reason for the black specks is that I like pepper and should I be out [of pepper], the black specks would give me the impression. By the late 1990s, I would see a pot and purchase it. In 1999, I met Larry Spears and he made me a pottery collector.”
Sartore continued: “I purchased art and antiques. It proved an impossible dream to afford those things. Add a bad experience, and I decided to look for contemporary art. The most affordable thing was pottery. As I met more and more potters, I saw wonderful things. These pieces may or may not be ‘art’. I think so. There are so many styles, sizes, glazes, etc.”
Sadly, Philip Sartore passed away before his collection was exhibited. After the exhibition, Philip’s family decided it best to sell the collection at auction to allow other enthusiasts the opportunity to share in Philip’s passion.
“We feel honored to offer Philip’s collection to the public,” said Greg Belhorn, auctioneer and president of Belhorn Auction Services. “It has been a real pleasure handling this pottery while getting know some of the artists who created these works. The collection represents pieces that are purely art forms as well as those that are purely functional and others that serve both purposes. Traditionally our auctions have offered antique art pottery. This auction has provided a nice break from that.”
For additional information on any piece in the sale, call Greg Belhorn at 614-921-9441 or e-mail auctions@belhorn.com.
Dutch conjuror Fred Kaps, who appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show on Feb. 9, 1964, the same night as the Beatles performed, often used this walking stick to produce a live white rabbit. The 33-inch-long stick with faux ears on the top end and a spring-loaded rabbit tail at the tip has a $2,500-$3,500 estimate. Image courtesy of Potter & Potter Auctions.
CHICAGO – Magic specialists Potter & Potter Auctions – no relation to the young sorcerer Harry – will sell Part IV of Jay Marshall’s legendary magic memorabilia collection May 16. LiveAuctioneers will provide Internet live bidding.
Among the highlights will be apparatus of significant historic association, rare books, early posters and broadsides, and ephemera and props suitable for all levels of collectors. Twenty lots of Houdiniana will also be featured in the auction. Included are a signed Harry Houdini letter and an autographed publicity photo, each estimated at $800-$1,000.
The auction will begin at 9 a.m. Central.
Exhibition will be held during the week of May 10, with special showings arranged for attendees of the Magic Collectors’ Weekend (held in Rosemont, Ill., on the three days preceding the auction).
In several instances, magic tricks will be sold by the trunk load. Magicians who worked the chautauqua and lyceum circuits packed their acts in large trunks for transit. Passed down from famous magicians to serious collectors, these rare trunks filled with secrets of the craft carry estimates of several thousand dollars each.
Single props like Fred Kaps’ Rabbit from a Cane and a stylish Card Star made by Okito (Joe Berg) of Chicago have estimates of more than $1,000 apiece. Talk about a tough act to follow, Kaps had the distinction of following the Beatles on stage on the Ed Sullivan Show on Feb. 9, 1964.
Magician posters will include a circa 1908 three-sheet color lithograph promoting Germain the Wizard’s (Karl Germain/Charles Mattmuller) Witch’s Cauldron illusion, which has a $3,500-$4,500 estimate, and a circa 1938 three-sheet two-color lithograph for Dante (Harry August Jansen), a London magician, which is estimated at $800-$1,200. Both posters are linen backed.
Gabe Fajuri, president of Potter & Potter Auctions, and managing auctioneer Sami Fajuri, have 30 years combined experience in the antiquarian and collectibles auction trade.
Cooper & Cooper Auctions is located at 3729 N. Ravenswood Ave., Suite 116, in Chicago.
An Asian robe is one of the many props contained in this Edwin Brush/Lightner the Wizard theatrical trunk. A unique, impressive and historically significant piece of magicana from the era of chautauquas and lyceums, the trunk carries a $2,500-$3,500 estimate. Image courtesy of Potter & Potter Auctions. This three-sheet poster color lithograph poster in orange and black gave the public a glimpse of Germain the Wizard’s Witch’s Cauldron illusion, which materialized a female ghost from the flames of a fire. The circa 1908 poster, which is 41 inches by 76 1/2 inches, has a $3,500-$4.500 estimate. Image courtesy of Potter & Potter Auctions. A magician in the late 1940s used this handsomely crafted card star to produce specific playing cards on command. The lacquered wooden star stands 19 3/4 inches high with a span of 12 3/4 inches. It has an $800-$1,200 estimate. Image courtesy of Potter & Potter Auctions. Vaudeville and chautauqua magicians Imro Fox, Frank Ducrot and Eugene Laurant used this H. Aston Model 1847 percussion pistol much like a wand. Passed down from one great magician to another, this prop is expected to bring $3,000-$4,000. Image courtesy of Pottery & Potter Auctions.
The Counting, by Jeanne Johnsey and Elisabeth Isensee Courbois.
HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) – Hattiesburg becomes a virtual character in The Counting, a new novel by authors Jeanne Johnsey and Elisabeth Isensee Courbois.
Familiar places mentioned in the narrative include Hudson’s Salvage Center, the University of Southern Mississippi and Forrest General Hospital, while other businesses’ identities have been subtly changed, but will still be recognizable.
“When people ask me what ‘The Counting,’ is about, I usually tell them, in a nutshell, it is about love, betrayal, revenge, and the antique business,” said Johnsey, who has a doll shop inside Calico Mall Antiques Center in downtown Hattiesburg.
While much of the story takes place at the fictional Compton House antiques store, and all the local name-dropping adds even more reality to the tale, it is all just a figment of their vivid imaginations.
“Elisabeth and I were both familiar with the antiques business, and that’s why we chose to have our characters involved in that business,” Johnsey said.
Johnsey and Courbois met when they were both in graduate school at USM and soon discovered that they had a unique ability to write together.
“We were both in the workshop for writers, taking classes, and also teaching classes, and we both still had children at home,” Johnsey said.
“With all the activities, it was hard for each of us to find time for ourselves, to do our own writing. But if we were working together, and we each knew the other expected us to have five pages, or 10, by our next work session, we’d somehow be able to get it done, not to let the other down.”
It has taken a while to fine-tune the process, but the old friends have learned how to write fiction together. They started The Counting over a cup of coffee.
“We discussed the characters and plot,” Johnsey said. “Each one of us picked a scene to write before the next meeting. Maybe one particular character or action would especially intrigue each of us and we’d work on that one. Before the meeting, we’d e-mail pages to each other, and have suggestions ready for the next meeting. When we met again, we would read the text aloud over and over as we made changes.
“When we finally had a section to our liking, it was a great moment, worthy of celebration with Pepperidge Farm Geneva cookies. A lot of coffee and those Geneva cookies went into this book. Besides the little changes, we totally revised the book several times, wrote about twice as many pages as there were in the final book. We made lots of cuts to the final version to keep the pacing going.”
In The Counting, Ashley McLaurin leaves prison after serving eight years for a crime she did not commit. She is emotionally deadened after being disowned by her family and forced to give up custody of a child born to her in prison. All that remains is her desire for revenge.
When Ashley returns to Hattiesburg after her release, she notices that the town has really grown. That’s something Courbois, a native of the Netherlands, has also noticed since moving here in 1980.
“I first came to the U.S. because of my husband’s job,” Courbois said.
“We moved around all over the world, but the company decided not to move households anymore, so I wanted to find a nice place to raise my two boys. I was in California, and a friend told me Hattiesburg was a nice place to live. So I came and looked around and thought it was a nice place. I have seen Hattiesburg grow into a bigger city.”
Johnsey and Courbois published The Counting, through X-Libris, a print-on-demand company.
“The publishing business has gone through a lot of changes in the last decade, and getting a book to market in the traditional route is a slow process,” Johnsey said. “We became aware that a lot of new writers now are starting out by self-publishing. It gets your work out there where it can be read by people, and that is ultimately what you want, whether it is a dozen, or a thousand or more people.
“We enjoyed being able to design our own cover, take the pictures, and have it done just the way we envisioned it.”
View of the sculpture garden at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., Aug. 2007 photo by Gryffindor. WASHINGTON (AP) – The Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum will be open after a UPS delivery truck broke through a barrier and crashed into the building.
Smithsonian spokeswoman Linda St. Thomas says the truck came about a foot into the circular-shaped building Monday evening and shattered a large glass window.
Authorities called in the city’s bomb squad as a precaution. St. Thomas says it appears they checked each package in the truck.
Fire Department spokesman Pete Piringer says the truck crashed through a post and a flower pot barrier along Independence Avenue. The museum had closed about three hours before the crash.
The driver of the truck sustained serious, but not life-threatening, injuries.
The cause of the crash has not been determined.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
DALLAS (AP) – Authorities say they’ve arrested a man who worked for a security company hired by the Sixth Floor Museum.
That’s where a safe was taken last week in a thwarted burglary of the building that served as a perch for President John F. Kennedy’s assassin.
Dallas County sheriff’s spokeswoman Kim Leach says 30-year-old Patrick Cleveland of Dallas was charged Friday with burglary of a building and later released on bond.
Leach said there was no information on an attorney for Cleveland. A phone listing for him was disconnected.
Leach said more arrests were expected.
Authorities say the alleged burglary was interrupted early May 4 by a security officer who fired shots at two men driving toward him in a pickup truck carrying the safe on a winch attached to the truck bed. The men abandoned the truck after crashing it.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) – The exotic cars owned by a high-profile South Florida lawyer accused of concocting a Ponzi scheme are on display for potential bidders in a mult-million-dollar government auction.
Ten of Scott Rothstein’s cars went on display Monday outside a Miami warehouse. They will go on auction June 3 at the Broward County Convention Center. Among the cars up for sale were a Bugatti, a Lamborghini, a 2009 white Bentley and a 1967 red convertible Corvette Stingray.
The cars were forfeited to the government under an agreement in which the attorney pleaded guilty to running a billion-dollar Ponzi scheme out of his Fort Lauderdale law office. He faces up to 100 years in prison at a June 9 sentencing.
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Information from: South Florida Sun Sentinel, http://www.sun sentinel.com
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
NEW YORK (AP) – An Argentine writer is trying to stop a memorabilia dealer from trying to sell what he says is one of few remaining copies of the document at the heart of the film Schindler’s List.
The document – a roster of 801 Jewish workers whom German businessman Oskar Schindler employed to spare them from Nazi concentration camps during World War II – is being offered for $2.2 million. Dealer Gary Zimet says the seller bought the 1945 document from relatives of Schindler’s accountant.
But Marta Erika Rosenberg said in a lawsuit filed last week in a Manhattan court that the proposed sale would infringe on rights bequeathed to her by Oskar Schindler’s widow, Emilie. She died in 2001.
Rosenberg, Emilie Schindler’s biographer, says she inherited the widow’s interest in the list. The document went through several revisions and eventually saved more than 1,000 Jews. A handful of other surviving copies are held in museums and archives.
The Buenos Aires-based Rosenberg wants proof that the copy Zimet is offering is genuine – and wants to block the sale if it is.
“She’s not interested in profit or fame,” said her lawyer, John P. Gleason. Her goal, he said, is “to preserve, protect and correct the historical record.”
Zimet called Rosenberg’s claims baseless, saying the document was properly obtained through channels independent of Emilie Schindler.
“The list is indisputably authentic, and she has no right to it,” said Zimet, who declined to identify the seller. His Washingtonville, New York-based business, M.I.T. Memorabilia Inc., specializes in autographs, manuscripts and other historic documents.
Schindler’s story was chronicled in the 1993 Steven Spielberg film Schindler’s List, which won best picture and other Academy Awards.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
