Jack-o’-lantern diecut. Photo courtesy of Skidstuff www.trocadero.com/skidstuff
You might find it hard to believe that Halloween is not another Hallmark holiday made to create millions of dollars in commercial candy, card and costume sales.
Also, Halloween wasn’t founded in America. Irish and the Scottish immigrants carried their versions of the tradition to North America in the 19th century. Soon to follow would be Canada, Ireland, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom.
Halloween was originally called Samhain, which was the name of an ancient Celtic festival that celebrated the end of the harvest season and the preparation of winter.
It was believed that on Oct. 31 the worlds of the living and the dead would cross and the dead would come back to life and spread sickness to the living and damage their crops. During the festival people wore masks to keep the evil spirits at bay.
Fast forward to the 20th century where the custom of trick or treating came to play during Halloween. Children in costumes knocked on doors asking the homeowner that simple question: “Trick or Treat?” The trick part happened to those who did not answer the door, or did so with no treats. Tricks played by kids in America often involved egging someone’s home, or draping their yard in toilet paper. In the United Kingdom, police have often been called out because of the severity of the “tricks” the children play. The term “trick or treat” first appeared in print in 1934.
The act of dressing up and begging door-to-door actually extends as far back as the Middle Ages when the poor would go knocking on doors on Hallowmas (Nov. 1). They would receive food in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls Day (Nov 2).
Halloween was also known as All Hallows’ Eve. It was one of four, and the most powerful, holy days throughout the year when spirits could walk the earth and communicate with the living.
Before the commercial world joined in, children would beg door to door for treats, but the treats were not wrapped sweets like we know today. They would receive nuts and homemade candies.
Today, the Halloween capital of the world is Anoka, Minn. In 1920, it was the first community to hold a Halloween celebration in effort to prevent kids from pulling pranks around town. The town organized a parade and the kids that participated were rewarded with candy and popcorn. Since that time, the city has continued the annual parade and festivities, with the exception of 1942 and 1943 due to the war.
On a final note, Halloween is the second largest commercial holiday in the United States. Surprisingly it beats out Valentine’s Day with $6.9 billion dollars in commercial sales each year.
ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
Spooky owl diecut. Photo Courtesy of Skidstuff www.trocadero.com/skidstuffWicked Witch diecut. Photo Courtesy of Skidstuff www.trocadero.com/skidstuffRoyal Bayreuth Devil & Cards tableware can serve as attractive adult Halloween decorations, but keep these expensive pieces out of the reach of children. Photo courtesy of Longbrook Antiques www.trocadero.com/longbrook
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) – Huntington police say three city residents have been arrested after items stolen from a dozen homes were discovered for sale at an antique store.
WSAZ-TV reported that 31-year-old Joseph Jackson and 25-year-old Frank Floyd are charged with two counts each of daytime burglary. Jackson also is charged with one count of receiving stolen property, while Floyd also faces a charge of driving on a suspended license.
Jackson and Floyd were held at the Western Regional Jail on Friday night. It wasn’t immediately known whether they had attorneys.
The station reported that the store’s owner, 50-year-old Virginia Ferguson, is charged with operating a business without a license, a misdemeanor.
The station says investigators recovered about $10,000 in stolen property.
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Information from: WSAZ-TV, http://www.wsaz.com
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
his classical girandole made about 1800 has all the features a collector desires. The mirror is convex, the frame is gilded pine and the top is a carved eagle. The four candles are held by scrolling arms and brass candle cups. Hammer price at a 2010 Cowan’s auction in Cincinnati was $20,000.
Before electricity, most people went to bed at sundown because their homes were dark. Candles, the glow of a fireplace and, by the 19th century, lamps using whale oil, lard, kerosene or gas added a little more light. The rich decorated their rooms with mirrors and polished brass, luster-decorated ceramics and other items that reflected light. It is said that when Thomas Edison was a child, his mother was sick but the doctor couldn’t help her because it was getting dark. Edison carried all the household’s mirrors and candles into his mother’s room so the candlelight was reflected in the mirrors, increasing the amount of light. The doctor was able to continue his work, and Edison’s mother recovered. Decorative mirrors used in homes usually do not serve such a noble purpose, but even today when your electricity fails, it is wise to put candles in front of a mirror to magnify the light. Our ancestors also knew that a convex mirror, one that has a surface that curves out, creates even more reflected light. From about 1800 to 1820, the “girandole” was a popular mirror to hang on a wall. It has a convex mirror, gilded frame and candleholders attached so that candlelight is reflected in the mirror. These furnished light for evening gatherings. Copies of antique girandoles are being made today, but the candles are now electrified. Elaborate antique girandoles sell for $2,000 to $20,000; recent copies sell for under $1,000.
Q: I bought an antique “Ideal Steinway” treadle sewing machine and can’t find any information about it. I would like to know where it was made and how old it is.
A: Homer Young Co. of Toledo, Ohio, advertised Steinway sewing machines in Good Housekeeping magazine in 1902. The company sold the machines only through mail-order catalogs. Thirty-five different styles were offered. The maker of the machines was not mentioned, but the company claimed they were made by the world’s largest sewing-machine factory. Sewing machines sold under a brand name that is not the maker’s name are referred to as “badged” machines. Many major manufacturers’ sewing machines were “badged” with the name of the company that offered them for sale.
Q: I have a glass juicer with the name “Sunkist” embossed in the glass. When was it made?
A: The Southern California Fruit Exchange, founded in 1893, changed its name to the California Fruit Growers Exchange in 1905 and adopted the Sunkist trademark in 1908. In 1916 it began to promote drinking orange juice. Juice was made by hand-squeezing fresh oranges at home using a reamer (the collectors’ name for a juicer). A glass Sunkist reamer cost 10 cents back then. Drinking orange or lemon juice has remained popular, but reamers lost some favor when electric juicers were introduced in the 1930s. Frozen juice concentrates, first sold in the 1940s, and bottled fresh orange juice have made reamers much less necessary. But you can buy new glass, plastic or metal reamers or collect old ones, including ceramic examples. Look for combination reamers: a figural pitcher with a reamer cover or an old wooden two-piece hinged reamer you press to make juice. The first patented reamer, dated 1889, was made in ceramic and metal versions. The Sunkist glass reamer is easy to find at prices from $10 to $50 online, but you would pay much less for it at a garage sale.
Q: I have an oval pendant given to me by my great-grandmother. I think she wore it in the 1920s. It’s a piece of glass carved from the back and held in a sterling-silver mount. A silver filigree tree branch and a tiny enameled blue bird are on the front of the glass. It’s about 2 inches long and is very delicate. What is this type of jewelry called? Value?
A: You probably have a pendant made from rock crystal, not glass. This type of jewelry, usually a pendant, is sometimes called “camphor glass” jewelry. It was very popular in the 1920s and ’30s but has been out of style the past 25 years. Large modern pieces or very ornate jewelry with colored stones and glitter has been popular instead. Rock-crystal pendants are subtle and feminine, but fragile. It is not used in rings because it could be easily hit and broken. The pendants usually are on a delicate white-gold chain about 16 inches long. Look for a “14K” mark somewhere on the pendant or chain. A chain and pendant sell for about $300.
Q: I have an old bottle that’s embossed “U.S.A. Hosp. Dept.” Can you tell me who made it and how old it is?
A: Your bottle was made for the U.S. Army Hospital Dept. between 1863 and 1865, during the Civil War. The War Dept. had trouble getting enough medicine from pharmaceutical companies, so labs were set up to make the drugs they needed. Most of the bottles were made in Pittsburgh, but some were made in Baltimore and St. Louis. The bottles were crudely made and contained bubbles and flaws. Bottles were made in different colors and sizes and with several different styles of lettering. Some had paper labels.
Tip: Animation cels should be kept away from direct sunlight and high humidity. They should be framed with acid-free mats.
Terry Kovel answers as many questions as possible through the column. By sending a letter with a question, you give full permission for use in the column or any other Kovel forum. Names, addresses or e-mail addresses will not be published. We cannot guarantee the return of any photograph, but if a stamped envelope is included, we will try. The volume of mail makes personal answers or appraisals impossible. Write to Kovels, Auction Central News, King Features Syndicate, 300 W. 57th St., New York, NY 10019.
Need more information about collectibles? Find it at Kovels.com, our website for collectors. Check prices there, too. More than 700,000 are listed, and viewing them is free. You can also sign up to read our weekly Kovels Komments. It includes the latest news, tips and questions and is delivered by e-mail, free, if you register. Kovels.com offers extra collector’s information and lists of publications, clubs, appraisers, auction houses, people who sell parts or repair antiques and much more. You can subscribe to Kovels on Antiques and Collectibles, our monthly newsletter filled with prices, facts and color photos. Kovels.com adds to the information in our newspaper column and helps you find useful sources needed by collectors.
CURRENT PRICES
Current prices are recorded from antiques shows, flea markets, sales and auctions throughout the United States. Prices vary in different locations because of local economic conditions.
Steeplechase Park admission ticket, Coney Island, N.Y., cardboard, image of George C. Tilyou on front, “10 rides $1.00” on back, blue on white, 1950s, 3 3/4 inches, $140.
“Remember Pearl Harbor” World War II bandanna, sailor, soldier, airman and marine at each corner, red, white and blue, 21 x 22 inches, $150.
Sterling-silver dresser set, hand mirror, brush, boot hook, Art Nouveau maiden in relief, marked “Unger Brothers,” circa 1914, 10-inch mirror, $175.
Pabst Blue Ribbon countertop display, “What’ll You Have?” woman in large bonnet with blue trim & ribbon, painted plaster, 1950s, 11 inches, $180.
Regency-style armchair, fruitwood, needlepoint back and seat, scrolled arms and feet, scalloped seat rail, 1880s, 44 inches, $350.
Daredevil Motor Cop toy, policeman on motorcycle, tin windup, moves, tips over, rights itself, continues, Unique Art, 8 1/2 inches, $450.
Jacquard coverlet, two parts, red, blue, green and beige floral and star design, floral and vine border, circa 1837, 82 x 97 inches, $480.
Art glass vase, King Tut pattern, green and gold iridescent swirls, lavender highlights, mounted on flaring silver-plated base, 1920s, 13 inches, $585.
Marx Brothers doll set, Harpo, Chico and Groucho, pliable rubber heads, stuffed cloth bodies, movable legs and arms, National Mask & Puppet Co., 1950s, 17 inches, $2,150.
Just published! The best book to own if you want to buy, sell or collect. The new Kovels’ Antiques & Collectibles Price Guide, 2011, 43rd edition, is your most accurate source for current prices. This large-size paperback has more than 2,600 color photographs and 42,000 up-to-date prices for more than 775 categories of antiques and collectibles. You’ll also find hundreds of factory histories and marks and a report on the record prices of the year, plus helpful sidebars and tips about buying, selling, collecting and preserving your treasures. Available online at Kovelsonlinestore.com; by phone at 800-303-1996; at your bookstore; or send $27.95 plus $4.95 postage to Price Book, Box 22900, Beachwood, OH 44122.
Dixie Selden (American, 1868-1935), titled ‘The Pottery Vendor,’ signed and dated 1926, 22 1/2 x 22 3/4 inches, estimate: $30,000-$50,000. Image courtesy Cowan’s Auctions Inc. CINCINNATI – On Oct. 9 Cowan’s will host its American Scene Auction, featuring a fine grouping of furniture, paintings and folk art spanning the 18th to the 20th centuries. The 686-lot auction will be held in Cincinnati at Cowan’s salesroom. A fresh-to-the-market Dixie Selden painting will cross Cowan’s auction block, leading the charge of this auction’s regionalist works. An exceptional Samuel Kirk coin silver hot water urn and the Shaker collection of Frank Elsner, Cincinnati, are other highlights.
LiveAuctioneers will provide Internet live bidding.
Dixie Selden’s The Pottery Vendor is estimated to sell for $30,000/50,000. Selden, a talented pupil of the famed Frank Duvenek, became prominent during her lifetime achieving accolades such as the Kenneth Maguire prize awarded to this painting. Her work has garnered attention by the art community; the Cincinnati Art Museum currently houses six of her works. In 2008 Cowan’s sold a Selden painting for $62,100, a world record for the artist.
Director of Paintings Graydon Sikes explained, “This is an exceptional impressionist example by Selden, with outstanding provenance and exhibition history, on the market for the first time in several decades.”
A large collection of Shaker furniture is expected to inspire competitive bidding in the auction. The collection comes from Cincinnati collector Frank Elsner, who, for over 50 years, found and bought all things Shaker from auctions to yard sales. A Shaker clothes press, circa 1830, is estimated to bring $2,000/2,500. A late 19th-century Shaker bonnet box and bonnets are expected to bring $1,000/2,000.
Diane Wachs, director of Fine and Decorative Arts notes, “Stepping into Frank Elsner’s house is like stepping right into an old shaker community.”
Cowan’s is offering an outstanding Hudson River Landscape estimated to bring $8,000/12,000. Although the artist is unknown, this landscape is housed in a beautiful Newcomb gilt and gesso frame. The frame, highly ornate and intricately molded, features a repeating decorative leaf pattern surrounded by a beaded band.
A logging scene by Glen Tracy, oil on canvas, is expected to bring $3,000/5,000. The historical painting portrays the early 20th-century’s deforestation practices of the Smoky Mountains in North Carolina. Sikes commented, “In this monumental painting by Tracy, laborers are cutting and loading logs onto a train. Tracy, an artist with Cincinnati roots, captured beautifully a growing industry during the 1920s that caused such great change to the forested areas in North Carolina.” The painting will be offered with railroad model locomotives, estimated to sell for $7,000/9,000.
A marble bust by Moses Ezekiel titled The Dying Alexander is estimated to sell from $4,000/6,000. The Cincinnati sculptor studied in Berlin at the Royal Academy with Albert Wolff and Rudolf Siemering. The bust is executed in the style of Lysipus, the Greek sculptor of the fourth century B.C.
An outstanding collection of hand wrought coin silver passed down from the Clay, Warfield and Breckenridge families will also be offered at the auction. Two pieces in particular, a Kirk hot water urn, expected to bring $7,000/9,000, and an E.& D. Kinsey coin silver presentation pitcher, estimated to bring $3,000/4,000, are sure to capture the attention of institutions and collectors.
Featured in the auction is a strong collection of 20th-century outsider art, including three wooden folk art carvings by Charles Wileto (1897-1964), all estimated to sell for $2,300/2,600.
To learn more about Cowan’s Auctions visit their website at www.cowans.com or call 513-871-1670.
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) – It all started with a sentence. One curious sentence in a historical document led to five months of poring over letters almost 100 years old, e-mailing stained glass experts and church tours, camera in tow.
Now it appears the question that sentence raised has finally been answered: Seminal stained glass artist Mary Tillinghast’s last work is housed in the Trinity Episcopal Church on Church Street.
The Tillinghast name might not be as familiar as glass artist global brands, Charles Lewis Tiffany and John La Farge. But she was not only a contemporary to them, but worked with Tiffany for six months before being poached by his archrival La Farge, eventually becoming his business partner. She later started her own company.
Local poet and writer Laura Hope-Gill didn’t know anything about Tillinghast when she ran across her name researching her book about Asheville architecture, “Look up Asheville,” slated for release this winter. She was reading an essay by Zoe Rhine about Trinity that mentioned only once Tillinghast having been hired to do the windows for the church, built in 1912.
Her name struck Hope-Gill: She wanted to know who was this woman, and how did she in time when women couldn’t even vote get hired for this job?
Hope-Gill isn’t the only one who didn’t know the windows portraying stoic saints and crosses immersed in abstract jewel-colored patterns came from New York-based Tillinghast.
Tillinghast’s dismissive treatment in the historical record is typical of other minority artists. It’s only been a relatively recent trend to re-examine the art historical canon and give credit to those contributors whose name was erased by prejudice.
“As a woman and an artist myself, I’ve felt hauntingly close to Mary in all of this,” Hope-Gill said. “I wouldn’t want my work, which is certainly equal to the work of male poets – it sounds ridiculous even to have to say that – to go unnoticed just because of my sex. And yet that is what has happened to countless women through time.”
The church’s history did not reflect her contribution, something that Rev. Carol Hubbard is excited now to update. (Some of Tillinghast’s original windows had to be replaced in the 1960s because they were beyond repair.)
Even Kent Watkins, a relative of Tillinghast writing a book about her life, didn’t know the last work of her life was in Asheville. She died during the completion of the Patton window on the church’s west wall.
Watkins recently came down from Washington to examine the Tillinghast letters in the UNC Asheville special collections library and help confirm Hope- Gill’s hunch.
“This experience of being told there are no Mary Tillinghasts in the church, of finding no trace of her in the records, even of knowing next to nothing about stained glass ought to have discouraged me from taking any more steps,” said Hope-Gill. “But I’ve come to understand the work of preservationists. It’s detective work.”
Hope-Gill said she wants her experience to “inspire more people to ask more questions about who did what, and I think that a lot of those people will find that those people are women.”
The story actually starts in 1845, the year of Tillinghast’s birth. She grew up in a wealthy family and even studied art in Paris for six years after school. Tillinghast returned when the family money ran out and first worked as a nanny in Boston.
It’s unclear how she started to work at Tiffany and Co., or how she rose to the top of her profession so quickly. She left no papers, records or materials of any kind behind, said Watkins.
But there are traces of her personality one much larger than her deceptively petite 5-foot-frame in the newspaper articles he has unearthed.
“She knew how to market herself very well, and she seemed to be aware of how to stand out,” he said. She was strong-willed, feisty and notorious for her social gatherings and salons with other artists in her Washington Square apartment.
Tillinghast was also “a jack of all trades,” Watkins said, noting that she was one of the first female members to be inducted into the American Institute of Architects. She was an accomplished decorator and textile artist, even making $30,000 curtains with silver thread for a Vanderbilt mansion in New York City.
She was also one of the first to use opalescent glass, a type that La Farge invented by incorporating white into the color mix, making it not transparent. She didn’t use this kind of glass at Trinity, which initially threw the history detectives off, because the glass was too expensive for the church.
Hope-Gill’s discovery also serves an important lesson about preservation, she said.
“We don’t know what we have here in Asheville because a lot of key people left after 1929,” Hope- Gill said. “There are engravings on our porches done by master carvers. There are wrought-iron ornaments about town done by historically significant artists Asheville is a museum that we hang out in, work in, live in.”
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Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
2006 photo from an observation point above the valley leading toward Denali National Park. Nic McPhee photo licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic License.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – The National Park Service is taking applications from visual artists for its 2011 artist-in-residence program at Denali National Park and Preserve.
Next year will be the 10th year of the program.
Up to four artists per year are picked to live in the historic East Fork cabin 43 miles into the park for 10 days between June and mid-September.
In return, each artist donates artwork inspired by their time in the park. Many works are on display in at park visitors centers.
Park superintendent Paul Anderson says the interpretations of the landscape, wildlife and cultural history are a wonderful means to help visitors better understand and appreciate the beauty and complexity of the park.
Artists-in-residence offer a public presentation at the end of their stays.
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Online program information: http://www.nps.gov/dena/artist-in-residence.htm.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CHICAGO (AP) – The Art Institute of Chicago is releasing its first mobile app, created to showcase its famous permanent collection of French Impressionist and Postimpressionist paintings.
The Art Institute holds one of the most important collections of 19th-century French art in the world. The museum is now making the images – and accompanying audio and visual learning tools _ available globally through a partnership with Toura, a leading mobile application platform provider.
The Art Institute’s French Impressionism App is available across multiple mobile platforms, including iPhone/iPod Touch, Android and an HD version available for the iPad.
Its initial price – for only two weeks – will be $1.99.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
NEW YORK – Richard Armstrong, Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and Museum, and Frank-Peter Arndt, Member of the Board of Management, BMW AG, today announced a long-term collaboration that will span six years of program activities, engage people in major cities around the globe, and inspire the creation of forward-looking concepts and designs for urban life. The initiative will engage a new generation of leaders in architecture, art, science, design, technology, and education, who will address the challenges of the cities of tomorrow by examining the realities of the cities of today.
An innovative movable structure that travels from city to city, the BMW Guggenheim Lab will bring together ambitious thinkers from around the globe and will be a public place for sharing ideas and practical solutions to major issues affecting urban life. There will be three different BMW Guggenheim Labs, each with its own architect, graphic designer, and theme and each traveling to three major cities worldwide. The BMW Guggenheim Labs will travel in separate, consecutive two-year cycles, for a total project period of six years.
Site-specific events and educational programs related to the cycle’s theme will include workshops, public discussions, performances, and formal and informal gatherings, which will tie the BMW Guggenheim Lab into the everyday fabric of the city. The BMW Guggenheim Lab will also present the responses of a multidisciplinary team of professionals assembled to study the theme.
The first BMW Guggenheim Lab will be installed in North America in late summer 2011 and will present programming into the fall of 2011, before moving on to the next two cities on its global tour, in Europe and Asia, respectively. At the conclusion of each three-city cycle, a special exhibition will be presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, exploring important issues that were raised, addressed, and presented at the BMW Guggenheim Lab’s different venues.
The theme for the inaugural BMW Guggenheim Lab will be Confronting Comfort: The City and You—how urban environments can be made more responsive to people’s needs, how people can feel at ease in an urban environment, and how to find a balance between notions of modern comfort and the urgent need for environmental responsibility and sustainability.
“Our collaboration with BMW brings together three kinds of expertise—an international museum, international design firms, and emerging talents from a number of different fields—for a research-and-development project with almost limitless potential,” stated Richard Armstrong. “We cannot predict, and do not want to predict, the outcomes of this open-ended experiment. We do know that it may change every city and community it touches, and point the way toward new possibilities for the urban environment worldwide. We are grateful to BMW for their collaboration on this adventurous project and greatly respect the company’s long-standing commitment to design, architecture, and the arts.”
“For almost 40 years now, the BMW Group has initiated and engaged in many international cultural cooperations. To us, sustainable commitment in the cultural sector is being aware of our social responsibility whilst preserving absolute creative freedom for our partners,” stated Frank-Peter Arndt. “As a company, we are extremely interested in an open-minded and productive dialogue with numerous representatives from art and science. For this reason, we also regard the joint initiative of the BMW Guggenheim Lab as an exciting global platform.”
Dr. Uwe Ellinghaus, Director Brand Management BMW, stated, “With the BMW Guggenheim Lab, BMW is significantly broadening its international cultural commitment. We are very proud to cooperate over a longer period of time with a renowned institution such as the Guggenheim. With the knowledge that the challenges of the future can only be tackled together, we look forward to the open, multidisciplinary exchange this project makes possible worldwide.”
Launching the BMW Guggenheim Lab
The pioneering Tokyo-based architecture firm Atelier Bow-Wow has been commissioned to design the first BMW Guggenheim Lab, and the Seoul-based firm of Sulki & Min has been announced as the designer of its graphic identity. The firms were selected for their intelligent designs, and for their ability to tackle complex issues with wit and an open mind.
The 5,000-square-foot structure will open at its North American venue in late summer 2011 and host a rich roster of public programming through the fall of 2011. Following this inaugural presentation, the BMW Guggenheim Lab will be dismantled in preparation for installation at the next city on its itinerary.
“Our thinking has always been informed by a sense of wonder at the sometimes surprising ways in which people create spaces that work for them, even within urban situations that look unpromising,” stated Yoshiharu Tsukamoto of Atelier Bow-Wow. “We are grateful, and extremely excited, to have been chosen to participate in the BMW Guggenheim Lab to carry forward these urban investigations into comfort, a theme that is so integral to our own ideas and concerns.”
According to Sulki Choi and Min Choi of Sulki & Min, “We thank the BMW Guggenheim Lab for giving us one of the most productive challenges we have yet encountered as graphic designers. The purpose of the BMW Guggenheim Lab is clear and singular. The expressions of the purpose over the next six years will be multiple and in almost constant flux. Our goal is to give this project a graphic identity that is strong, responsive, and playful.”
In each city, the programs, events, and ideas for the BMW Guggenheim Lab will be developed collaboratively by a different four-member, multidisciplinary BMW Guggenheim Lab Team of early- to mid-career professionals who have been identified as emerging leaders in their fields. The BMW Guggenheim Lab Team members will be nominated by a distinguished Advisory Committee, composed of internationally renowned experts from the creative, academic, and scientific fields, and will work closely with Guggenheim staff to develop the program.
Further details about the project, including the unveiling of the BMW Guggenheim Lab design, the announcement of the cities on the tour, the identification of Advisory Committee and BMW Guggenheim Lab Team members, and programming information will be revealed over the next several months.
The BMW Guggenheim Lab is curated by David van der Leer, Assistant Curator of Architecture and Design, and Maria Nicanor, Assistant Curator, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
David van der Leer stated, “It is more and more essential for museums to bring their architecture and design programming out of the confines of the gallery’s white box and into the realities of everyday urban life. The BMW Guggenheim Lab allows us to zoom out from the design fields to a more expansive, post-disciplinary view of the city, and then back in again on the problems, challenges, and chances offered by urban landscapes around the world.”
Maria Nicanor stated, “The BMW Guggenheim Lab is an invaluable opportunity to bring together local communities with international experts and young talents from a wide variety of fields in order to redefine how we want to live in urban environments today and tomorrow. By establishing a close connection with the neighborhoods it temporarily inhabits, the BMW Guggenheim Lab will become an open place for experimentation and change; for questions and ideas to flourish; for dialogue, and, we hope, for action.”
About Atelier Bow-Wow
Atelier Bow-Wow, architect for the inaugural BMW Guggenheim Lab, was established in Tokyo in 1992 by the husband-and-wife team of Yoshiharu Tsukamoto and Momoyo Kaijima. Best known for its surprising, idiosyncratic, yet highly usable residential projects in dense urban environments, the firm has developed its practice based on a profound and unprejudiced study of existing cultural, economic, and environmental conditions—a study that led it to propose the term “pet architecture” for the multitude of odd, ungainly, but functional little buildings wedged into tiny sites around Tokyo. Atelier Bow-Wow has also acquired an enthusiastic following through its innovative projects at exhibitions, including the 2010 Venice Biennale (as an official representative of Japan) and the São Paulo Bienal, and at venues such as the Hayward in London, the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, The Gallery at REDCAT in Los Angeles, the Japan Society in New York, and the OK Offenes Kulturhaus Oberösterreich in Linz, Austria. More information about Atelier Bow-Wow can be found at bow-wow.jp.
About Sulki & Min
Sulki & Min, graphic designer for the inaugural BMW Guggenheim Lab, is a partnership established in Seoul by Sulki Choi and Min Choi, who met as MFA students at Yale University in 2001. From 2003 until 2005 they were based at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht, the Netherlands, where they participated in a research project for the cultural identity of the city of Leuven, Belgium; designed the academy’s various publications and promotional materials; and, with Tamara Maletic and Dan Michaelson, designed the exhibition Welcome to Fusedspace Database at Stroom Den Haag. Their first solo exhibition, Sulki & Min: Factory 060421-060513, was presented at Gallery Factory, Seoul, in 2006, and received the 2006 Art Award of the Year from the Arts Council Korea. Their second solo exhibition, Sulki & Min: Kimjinhye 080402-080414, was held at Kimjinhye Gallery, Seoul, in 2008. More information about Sulki & Min can be found at sulki-min.com.
About the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
Founded in 1937, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is dedicated to promoting the understanding and appreciation of art, architecture, and other manifestations of visual culture, primarily of the modern and contemporary periods, and to collecting, conserving, and studying the art of our time. The Foundation realizes this mission through exceptional exhibitions, education programs, research initiatives, and publications, and strives to engage and educate an increasingly diverse international audience through its unique network of museums and cultural partnerships. Currently the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation owns and operates the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum on Fifth Avenue in New York and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection on the Grand Canal in Venice, and provides programming and management for two museums in Europe that bear its name: the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin. The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, a museum of modern and contemporary art designed by architect Frank Gehry, is scheduled to open in 2013. More information about the Foundation can be found at guggenheim.org.
About BMW’s Cultural Commitment
BMW’s cultural program is involved in more than 100 projects worldwide and has been a key element of corporate communications for almost 40 years. This cultural engagement focuses on contemporary and modern art as well as classical music, jazz, architecture, and design. The BMW Group has also been ranked industry leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes for the last six years. In 1972 three large-scale paintings by Gerhard Richter were created specifically for the foyer of the BMW Group’s Munich headquarters. Since then artists ranging from Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein to Olafur Eliasson, Thomas Demand, and Jeff Koons have collaborated with BMW. Moreover, the company has commissioned renowned architects such as Karl Schwanzer, Zaha Hadid, and Coop Himmelblau for the construction of its central buildings and plants. The company guarantees absolute creative freedom in all the cultural activities it is involved in—as this is just as essential for groundbreaking artistic work as it is for major innovations in a successful business. More information about BMW’s cultural commitment can be found at bmwgroup.com/culture.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – For generations of people living in Oklahoma City, or those just passing through on old U.S. Highway 66, the neon sign outside 66 Bowl has served as a landmark.
The sign – designed to look like a bowling ball hitting a bowling pin – harkened back to the heyday of The Mother Road in the 1950s and 1960s, when it wasn’t at all uncommon for weary travelers who had stopped for the night to join locals in bowling a few frames.
“It’s one of the most photographed signs on Route 66, anywhere,” said the bowling alley’s longtime proprietor, 78-year-old Jim Haynes. “It doesn’t matter what time of day it is. There’s always someone out there taking pictures of it.”
Now the sign, and everything else at 66 Bowl, is for sale. Haynes sold the building decorated with memorabilia from the famous highway for $1.4 million earlier this month and an auction of its contents is set for Friday. The building soon will become an Indian grocery store and restaurant.
“I can assure you that there will be some people there who will be most interested in obtaining that commercial archaeology,” said Michael Wallis, a prominent Route 66 historian from Tulsa who served as the voice of the sheriff of the mythical old highway town of Radiator Springs in the animated movie Cars.
“I call the signs and the signage the language of the highway,” Wallis said. “That’s truly how the highway speaks. It’s those signs, those bands of bright, candy-colored neon and sometimes zany graphics, that help lure people into the establishment.”
The bowling facility opened in March 1959. Haynes and his wife, Peggy, bought 66 Bowl in 1978 from its original owner, Educators Investment Corp., and have run it ever since. The facility has hosted countless parties, tournaments and concerts, including one last year featuring Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Wanda Jackson of Oklahoma City.
Two years after 66 Bowl opened, Jackson and Wendell Goodman had their first date there after she asked him out. Eight months later, they married.
“I’m still married to her 49 years later,” Goodman said. “We have a lot of fond memories of that place.”
Last year, Haynes helped celebrate 66 Bowl’s 50th anniversary. Now, he says, he needs to raise money to pay a debt. He said he couldn’t find a buyer interested in keeping it as a bowling alley.
“It was just one of those things,” Haynes said. “I can’t blame anybody. I’m unhappy about it because I had a lot of loyal bowlers and loyal employees. But that’s life.”
According to Oklahoma County Assessor’s Office records, Spices of Indian LLC bought the 25,636-square-foot building and the sale closed earlier this month. Local real estate agent Indu Singh, who helped broker the sale, said the building’s new owner hopes to open a Spices of India store there by the end of the year.
While the loss of a Route 66 icon is disappointing, Wallis said, he said restoration efforts along the highway will continue.
“We need the old and the new,” he said. “We need to be able to live with change. What we have to do is make sure we don’t lose our best examples from those various incarnations of Route 66. We can’t save it all but we’ve got to save some.”
The sign being sold isn’t the original, Haynes said. Not long after he bought 66 Bowl _ he can’t recall the year but thinks it was in the early 1980s – a fierce storm toppled that sign, he said. He said teary-eyed bowlers persuaded him to “replace it just like it was.”
“When it’s working right, it’s pretty neat,” he said. “The ball goes around the sign electronically and it hits the pins.”
Louis Dakil, whose auction company will conduct the 66 Bowl sale, said bowling alleys across the nation are aware of the event and he expects the bowling equipment should sell. He’s as curious as anyone about how much the sign _ still operational although badly in need of a paint job _ will fetch at the auction. Haynes said the minimum acceptable bid will be $50,000.
The auction will be “very unique because of the nostalgia and collectability, just being a part of Route 66,” Dakil said. “It’s nice to be a part of history, although it is sad in a way.”
Update:
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – The famous neon sign of an old U.S. Highway 66 landmark has been sold at auction for much less than the owner had wanted.
The sign at the 66 Bowl sold for $3,900 Friday to business partners Chuck Clowers and Cameron Eagle, who run Junk Yard Daddies, a restoration business. The owner of 66 Bowl, Jim Haynes, said he had hoped to get as much as $50,000 for the sign, which is designed to look like a bowling ball hitting a bowling pin.
The 78-year-old Haynes says an investment that went bad forced him to sell the building for $1.4 million earlier this month. The building’s new owners plan to turn it into an Indian grocery store and restaurant.
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Circa-1753 Italian violin, Lorenzo & Tommaso Carcassi, Florence, estimate $65,000-$80,000. Image courtesy Skinner Inc.
BOSTON – Skinner, Inc. will host an auction of fine musical instruments on Oct. 10, 2010 at its Boston gallery. Along with fine examples of Italian violins, bows and guitars, the auction features a varied collection of raw materials in maple, spruce, ebony and pernambuco as well as more than 100 lots of violin memorabilia, including signed and unsigned photos and cabinet cards from string players. Internet live bidding will be provided by LiveAuctioneers.com.
Featured are three examples from the most collectible period for American electric guitars, including a 1957 Gibson Les Paul “Goldtop” with “pre-PAF” humbucking pickups. Certified 100% original with all parts undisturbed for 50 years, its condition and sound are outstanding (lot 16, est. $60,000-$80,000).
Also up for bid is a 1958 Fender Stratocaster, also 100% original, with its matching Fender Deluxe “tweed” amplifier (lot 32, est. $12,000-$18,000). A Fender Stratocaster from 1963 in the Olympic White custom finish with a rosewood fingerboard is another sale highlight (lot 9, est. $12,000-$18,000). Detailed photos and condition reports for these guitars are available online or by request.
Other featured fretted instruments include mandolins from Gibson, Lyon & Healy, Vega and Martin and Guitars from Martin, Rickenbacker, and independent maker Bill Comins. Additionally, a very rare Gibson PT-6 banjo, circa 1928 with gold-plated hardware and a flat-head rim is being offered (lot 17, est. $8,000-$12,000).
Lot 16A (est. $4,000-$6,000) is a very rare offering of original design templates used in the production of some of Gibson’s most famous electric guitars. These were the actual templates used for guitars like the 1959 Les Paul, the Firebird, SG, Super 400, ES 335, and many others. A full inventory is available by request or online.
Classical Italian violins offered include a circa-1760 Gennaro Gagliano (lot 40, $70,000-100,000) and circa-1753 Lorenzo and Tommaso Carcassi of Florence (lot 49, est. $65,000-80,000). Modern Italian violins include examples by Gaetano Pollastri, Enrico Marchetti, Vincenzo Sannino, Giovanni Cavani, Giuseppe Pedrazzini, Luigi Galimberti, and Celestino Farotto. There is also a good selection of bows by French makers including Voirin, Martin, Henry, Fetique and Bazin, along with many good examples by Hill, Nurnberger, Pfretzschner, and Grunke.
Also featured are more than 300 items of raw materials for violin and bow making from the shop of Myers-Halvarson, of Nashville, Michigan. Anders Halvarson worked for William Lewis & Son in the mid-twenties, and later founded his own shop, obtaining choice logs of ebony and pernambuco wood for bow making, along with a large supply of first rate tonewood from Germany and Czechoslovakia dated 1910 through 1950. These materials all represent a quality that is extremely difficult to obtain today.
For additional information on any lot in the sale, call 508-970-3000.
Circa-1760 Italian violin, Gennaro Gagliano, Naples, estimate $70,000-$100,000. Image courtesy Skinner Inc. Gibson style PT-6 banjo, circa 1928, estimate $8,000-$12,000. Image courtesy Skinner Inc. Gibson 1957 Les Paul Goldtop guitar, $60,000-$80,000. Image courtesy Skinner Inc.
