NORTHBROOK, Ill. – Universal Live’s Nov. 19 auction will feature the coins, currency, medals and stamps of more than 30 countries. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide the Internet live bidding for the 189-lot event.
Martin Shape, the company’s auctioneer, ran down the list of nations represented in the afternoon sale. “It’s a broad selection. You’ll see lots from France, England, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Scotland, as well as a number of Asian nations, including Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines and Macau. We have entries from African countries, as well, like Egypt, Gambia, Rwanda, Ivory Coast and Liberia.” Shape said it’s the most comprehensive assortment Universal Live has ever presented.
“There will also be some wonderful U.S. coins and paper money,” Shape said. An 1879-CC Morgan silver dollar, an uncirculated 2-cent coin and an uncirculated Shield nickel are among the highlights. “We expect a great deal of activity in this sale,” Shape added.
For additional information on any item in the sale, call Marty Shape at Universal Live Auctions at 847-412-1802, or e-mail sales@universallive.com.
View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
A California gold quartz walking stick with a gold knob and an original piece of gold mounted on the top sold for $21,600 at an auction of Americana (the Collection of Alex Schwed) held Oct. 21 by PBA Galleries in San Francisco. Also, a Clipper Ship sailing card (issued in the 1850s-1860s to advertise clipper ships that were loading cargo for San Francisco) for the Young America sold for $5,100; and an 1851 manuscript California Gold Rush diary from the Northern Mines District in Nevada City, Nev., fetched $10,800. Prices include a 20 percent buyer’s premium.
MARLBOROUGH, Mass. – Skinner, Inc. will host its annual auction of Science, Technology & Clocks on Nov. 20 in its Marlborough gallery, located at 274 Cedar Hill St. The sale, which starts at 10 a.m., includes an impressive collection of rare clocks and timepieces, a strong offering of militaria including Revolutionary and Civil War material, and an array of scientific instruments. Nearly 700 lots will be up for bid.
LiveAuctioneers will provide Internet live bidding.
Of the many timepieces being offered, an important regulator by the Bond Shop leads the pack. The Regulator No. 396 has an amazing Boston history tied to it. It was one of three made; No. 394 was developed for the Harvard Observatory, No. 395 for an observatory in Liverpool, England, and No. 396 for the personal use of Bond in his chronometer shop. As the director of the Harvard Observatory, Bond was one of the first to work toward establishing standard time. Descended from the Bond shop Regulator No. 396 is estimated at $300,000-$500,000. A video of the inner workings of the clock in motion can be viewed on the Science, Technology & Clocks department page at Skinner’s website.
Other clock highlights include a Newport tall clock, circa 1725 by William Claggett of Newport, R.I., which is the earliest American clock being offered in the sale. The clock is estimated at $60,000-$80,000. The sale also sports a number of Willard clocks. According to Robert Cheney, director of the Science, Technology & Clocks department at Skinner Inc., “While there is nothing rare about early American clocks, what is extraordinary are American clocks that survive in pristine condition. We have numerous clocks with this level of condition, and it’s what collectors are calling for.”
A fine collection of early sundials will be up for bid, including a fairly important silver pocket sundial by Butterfield, estimated at $2,500-$3,500. Early surveying equipment, navigational equipment including chronometers, sextants and octants will be offered as well as an impressive collection of telescopes. One highlight within the science offerings is a pair of globes by J. & W. Cary of London. The globes possibly the largest that J. & W. Cary made, have survived in near perfect condition since 1815 and are estimated at $80,000-$100,000.
The sale features a strong offering of militaria. The C. Keith Wilbur collection boasts more than 150 lots of American Revolutionary War material. The 50-year-old collection established by Dr. Wilbur features firearms, swords, canteens, as well as a Revolutionary War discharge document signed by George Washington, estimated at $6,000-$8,000. Much of the collections’ material hasn’t been on the market in decades.
From another collection comes the Civil War campaign chest of 2nd Lt. John Davis Edgell. The remarkable collection includes Edgell’s uniform, sashes, a cap, and photographs of his wife, which he took to war. The entire lot provides a unique opportunity for a collector to own a representation of a soldier’s history. Edgell was born in Gardner, Mass., and worked for 50 years for the Gardner Savings Bank, where he was president. The contents of the campaign chest are estimated at $30,000-$40,000.
Previews for the auction will be held on Thursday, Nov. 18, from noon to 5 p.m., Friday, Nov. 19, from noon to 7 p.m., and Saturday, Nov. 20, from 8 to 9:30 a.m. Illustrated catalog #2527M is available by mail for $35 ($42 for foreign requests) from the subscription department at 508-970-3240. It is also available at the gallery for $32. Prices realized will be available at www.skinnerinc.com during and after the sale. For details 508-970-3000.
A gallery walk and reception will be held in conjunction with a preview of Skinner’s Nov. 20 auction of Science, Technology & Clocks on Friday, Nov. 19, at 7 p.m. RSVP at 508-970-3000.
CAIRO (AP) – Egypt’s antiquities department says archaeologists have unearthed 12 more Sphinx statues along the ancient avenue connecting Luxor and Karnak temples.
The discovery was made in a newly excavated section of the Avenue of the Sphinxes, most of which is buried beneath the modern city of Luxor in southern Egypt.
The sandstone section of road dates back to the reign of Pharaoh Nectanebo I, from 380-362 B.C., and was used in religious processions.
Egypt is working to excavate the entire sphinx-lined avenue. It was heavily damaged during the Roman period by the construction of roads and houses over it and by the reuse of some of the Sphinxes in other building projects.
The antiquities department said Monday that a Roman-era oil press and pottery were also found at the site.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
SAN CARLOS, Calif. (AP) – Fire officials say a fire at a warehouse that stored memorabilia belonging to Neil Young started in a vintage car the singer had converted into a hybrid vehicle.
Belmont-San Carlos Fire Marshal Jim Palisi told the San Mateo County Times the Nov. 9 fire began in Young’s 1959 Lincoln Continental and spread to the nearby warehouse in the San Francisco Bay area. Young had converted the car to run on batteries and a biodiesel-powered generator as part of his LincVolt project to create the world’s most efficient full-size vehicle.
Young says workers hope the car’s computer will shed light on what caused the vehicle to go up in flames.
Fire crews were able to save about 70 percent of the warehouse’s contents, including other cars and music equipment belonging to Young.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
INDIANA, Pa. (AP) – After seeing the Jimmy Stewart statue, the solid-oak front door that once graced the actor’s home, his military memorabilia, priceless film posters and costumes, and even a red leather booth from a favorite Beverly Hills haunt, the Wisconsin couple signed the guest book at the museum.
“This fulfills a bucket list dream … Thank you so much!”
The Jimmy Stewart Museum, a modest but meaningful salute to a wonderful life that started nearby, could use more patrons with bucket lists or soft spots for Shenandoah or Vertigo or The Philadelphia Story.
No one’s murmuring prayers as in the opening of Stewart’s holiday classic, but the museum is in need of a few angels with open or deep pockets.
A boost in attendance and publicity related to a recent appearance by Patrick Wayne, who accepted the museum’s Harvey Award on his behalf and that of his late father, John Wayne, obviously won’t last.
“Until we have an endowment, it’s touch and go,” says Timothy Harley, executive director of the museum.
Museums aren’t forever, as some recent shutdowns proved.
The Liberace Museum, dedicated to the flamboyant entertainer, closed in October in Las Vegas after 31 years. A museum celebrating Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, last located in Branson, Mo., shut its doors in December.
The Jimmy Stewart Museum’s problems include a drop in attendance from 6,500 in 2009 to nearly 5,000 this year to date; a cut from $5,500 to $1,400 (and soon, nothing) from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission; an inability to squeeze into increasingly narrow foundation guidelines; and the sad reality that some fans are aging out of bus tours that keep museums humming.
“The most dramatic evidence of that came this fall. We have always had, in both May and June and September and October, very strong charter bookings, primarily of seniors, who have been the consistent supporters of the museum,” Harley said.
They are the patrons who knew Stewart firsthand as an actor, whom he called his “partners” and who made him famous. Stewart, after all, was born in 1908 and was 89 when he died in July 1997.
“September and October, when we usually see 10 to 15 charter bookings per month, we did not have a total of five between the two months,” the executive director noted. Spring 2011 also looks thin for motor coaches so the museum is trying to entice more individuals through the doors.
Even then, the attraction might have a couple of flat years before the baby boomers step up to visit the hometown of the actor they know primarily from It’s a Wonderful Life and Harvey.
Unlike, say, the Andy Griffith Museum in Mount Airy, N.C., or the Lucy-Desi Museum in Jamestown, N.Y., the Jimmy Stewart Museum is dedicated to a film star, not a TV performer kept alive by cable and reruns. The Griffith attraction drew 54,295 in its debut year, which just ended, five times the 10,000 attendance of the Stewart museum in its inaugural year.
Harley has considered what could happen if prospects plummet – a reduction in hours, temporary cutbacks during the winter or even a shift to weekends only.
Oct. 23 events with Wayne and donations generated by a story in the Indiana Gazette about the museum’s finances led Harley to say, “We’re OK for the moment. This museum is so accustomed to living on a very narrow margin…
“We need to have an endowment that will help us over the lean months and the lean years and that, ideally, comes from a principally restricted gift that remains intact and only permits us to use the interest or earnings.”
Such a benefactor could be an individual or a group of community leaders “who see the value of this and begin committing funds to a restricted account.”
By Harley’s reckoning, the museum contributed an estimated $407,000 to the local economy in 2009 alone. The Indiana County (Pa.) Tourist Bureau says it’s among the top five draws, behind outdoor trails and other recreational attractions that benefit from repeat trips.
The museum, which has received annual $25,000 gifts from the Stewart family since it opened in May 1995, typically has an operating budget of roughly $140,000 and relies mainly on volunteers.
Harley is the only full-time paid employee, and there’s a part-time bookkeeper and part-time guide.
The borough of Indiana provides free space for the museum on the third and fourth floors of a building also housing a public library at Philadelphia and Ninth streets. Impressionist Rich Little and his late wife, Marie, donated a $20,000 entrance canopy in 2008, and an earlier federal grant paid for a $500,000 elevator tower.
The museum was never meant to be underwritten by the Stewart family and the actor specified that it be an understated undertaking that would boost the downtown.
“His condition was that the museum not be a Taj Mahal, be in an existing building and be within the borough, so we very much want to continue to operate within the parameters that he set forth,” the executive director said.
That means keeping the collection and Harvey Award dinner in Indiana, rather than, say, Pittsburgh.
“If things became more pressing, it might be something we would consider, but I think part of the delight that our guests have is being in Stewart’s hometown, being able to walk around the block and see the substantial home that he grew up in, walk across the street and see the site of the hardware store” his father operated.
It now is home to a bank but after Stewart won his Oscar for The Philadelphia Story, he sent the golden statuette to his father, who placed it in the hardware store case that had once displayed kitchen knives.
Harley said he understands agencies of all types are experiencing financial challenges, “but to have such a singular opportunity in Stewart and a gentleman who is so easily and comfortably promoted, I mean he was not only a film icon who had international acclaim but he was really a military hero.”
He flew successful combat missions, stayed in the Air Force Reserve after World War II and donated his military pension back to the government.
To try to make sure that the museum appears on the radar of tourists near and far, the Indiana Tourist Bureau promotes it and its events at every opportunity, executive director Penny Perman said.
For the first time, it’s offering a Christmas Tree Getaway Package which includes an overnight stay and breakfast, admission to the museum along with a DVD of It’s a Wonderful Life, entrance to the Festival of Lights at Blue Spruce Park, welcome bag and voucher toward the purchase of a tree at Fleming’s Christmas Tree Farms.
The package also includes a $5 donation to Trees for Troops, which ships trees to military service members and their families stateside and overseas.
The tourism agency also ties stops at nearby antique shops with a museum visit or suggests pairing a tour with a side trip to Smicksburg for an Amish wedding-style feast. “It’s a perfect combination – Hollywood glamour and Amish simplicity,” Perman said with a laugh.
It turns out that the museum celebrating the man who brought George Bailey to life isn’t alone in pinching pennies.
“We just came out with our annual report, the Philanthropy 400, which focuses on the 400 largest charities in the country, and this year we saw, among those groups, the biggest drop we’ve seen in the 20 years we’ve been doing this,” said Michael Solomon, a spokesman for the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
On average, donations were down 11 percent. Even endowments may not bring salvation if they’re subject to the vagaries of the stock market.
In the meantime, the museum plans to exhibit a collection of themed trees around Thanksgiving and will participate in Indiana’s It’s a Wonderful Life festival, parade and tree lighting on Friday.
As for the challenge of keeping the museum buzzing with visitors, Perman said, “We’re doing whatever we can to help the museum because when you have something that unique that you know isn’t anywhere else, you have to keep it. You have to keep it.”
___
Information from: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,
http://www.post-gazette.com
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.