November 24, 2010 - Auction Central News

$80,000 jade censer heats up Dallas Auction Gallery

Carved with dragon handles with two free rings, this 5 1/2-inch jade lidded censer sold for $80,000. Image courtesy of Dallas Auction Gallery.

DALLAS – Asian antiques, Daum Nancy art glass and jewelry were the highlights at Dallas Auction Gallery’s Nov. 17 auction. The star attraction of the sale was a Chinese Qing carved white jade lidded censer, estimated at $8,000-$12,000, that sold for $80,000.

“We are pleased to see that Dallas Auction Gallery continues to bring strong prices by selling items that are fresh to the marketplace. The Asian market is continuing to explode, and we are pleased to have such a wonderful reputation in this market” said Scott Shuford, president of Dallas Auction Gallery. “We also sold a very large collection of Daum Nancy glass in the November sale, and the prices were outstanding.”

Bidding was available through liveauctioneers.com, dallasauctiongallery.com, in person and by phone.

Highlights from the sale included:

Chinese Qing carved white jade lidded censer, carved with dragon handles with two free rings. 5 1/2 inches high, circa 18th-19th century. Estimate: $8,000-$12,000. Price realized: $80,000.
Chinese Qing carved white jade snuff bottle, 2 1/2 inches high, circa 18th-19th century. Estimate: $6,000-$8,000. Price realized: $8,000.
Rare early Galle French two-handle vase, urn form with a internally decorated striated green foot graduating to an amber bulb waist and extending to a lemon yellow free form rim, decorated with heavy polychrome enameled stemmed flowers. The vase is additionally adorned with two undulating applied glass handles, signed, “Emile Galle.” Literature: for similar vases with free form handles seeGlass by Galle by Alastair Duncan pages: 35, 39, 46 and 51, 6 inches high. Estimate: $3,000-$5,000. Price realized: $9,500.
Daum Nancy diminutive French cameo vase, pillow form in mottled gray graduating to blue glass decorated with swan swimming by a tree covered shoreline, signed, “Daum Nancy,” 1 1/2 inches high x 2 inches wide, circa 1890-1925. Estimate: $1,000-$1,500. Price realized: $2,200.
Rare early Galle French two handled vase, urn form with a internally decorated striated green foot graduating to an amber bulb waist and extending to a lemon yellow free form rim, decorated with heavy polychrome enameled stemmed flowers, 6 inches. The vase is additionally adorned with two undulating applied glass handles, signed, “Emile Galle.” Literature: for similar vases with free form handles see Glass by Galle by Duncan pages: 35, 39, 46 and 51. Estimate: $3,000-$5,000. Price realized: $9,500.
Daum Nancy French cameo covered box, ovoid two handled form in orange mottled glass decorated with a winter scene of snow covered trees adorned with two side handles and comes with the rare lid, signed “Daum Nancy.” Note – The design in the lid and body line up perfectly. 1 3/4 inches high x 2 1/4 inches wide x 25 inches wide, circa 1890-1925. Estimate: $2,500-$3,500. Price Realized: $3,250.
Daum Nancy French cameo vase, flat cylindrical form with a cut top in blue and gray mottled glass decorated with a lake scene of a swimming white swan amongst green vitrified rushes and birch trees, signed “Daum Nancy.” Literature: for a vase with similar design see Glass of Art Nouveau collection of Kitazawa Museum Japan, pg. 257 plate 352. 4 7/8 inches high, circa 1890-1925. Estimate: $3,000-$4,500. Price realized: $4,250.
Rare Daum Nancy scenic French cameo vase, pillow form decorated front and back with a Swiss village nestled in a plush green forested hillside with the snow covered Alps, signed “Daum Nancy,” 3 3/4 inches high x 4 1/2 inches wide, circa 1890-1925. Estimate: $4,000-$6,000. Price realized: $4,750.
Edwardian Art Deco platinum and diamond bracelet having 15 Old European cut diamonds, 3.35 carats approximate total, G-H-I color, SI2 average clarity and 402 rose cut/table cut diamonds, 12.15 carats approximate total, G-H-I color, SI2 average clarity, 15.5 carats total diamond weight, five stones missing, 88.4 grams, 7 1/2 inches long x 1 1/2 inches wide, circa 1910. Estimate: $15,000-$25,000. Price realized: $20,000.

For details visit www.dallasauctiongallery.com or phone 214-653-3900.

Click here to view the fully illustrated catalog for this sale, complete with prices realized.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

Urn form early Galle vase decorated with heavy polychrome enameled stemmed flowers, 6 inches high, $9,500. Image courtesy of Dallas Auction Gallery.

Pillow form vase in mottled gray graduating to blue glass decorated with swan swimming by a tree covered shoreline, signed, ‘Daum Nancy,’ 1 1/2 inches high x 2 inches wide, $2,200. Image courtesy of Dallas Auction Gallery.

Signed Daum Nancy French cameo covered box, 1 3/4 inches high x 2 1/4 inches wide, $3,250. Image courtesy of Dallas Auction Gallery.

Edwardian Art Deco platinum and diamond bracelet, circa 1910, $20,000. Image courtesy of Dallas Auction Gallery.

Daum Nancy pillow form decorated front and back with a Swiss village and mountains, 3 3/4 inches high x 4 1/2 inches wide, $4,750. Image courtesy of Dallas Auction Gallery.

Julian Lennon photo exhibit planned in Miami, Dec. 1-5

Cover of the 1985 book titled Julian Lennon written by Yolande Flesch, with a cover photo of Lennon, who is now gaining wide acclaim for his work as a photographer. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Homestead Auctions.

MIAMI (AP) – Julian Lennon, son of late Beatles legend John Lennon, is showing off what he can do with a camera.

An exhibit called “Timeless” features about 30 of Lennon’s hand-signed portrait and landscape photographs and will run Dec. 1-5 at Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts.

Prints of his photographs will sell for about $3,500 each, with a portion of the proceeds to go to the White Feather Foundation that he launched to further environmental and humanitarian causes.

Lennon, 47, said Tuesday in a telephone interview from France that the exhibit will include photographs he took of the rock band U2, but those won’t be sold because those might be used for an upcoming U2 album. He said those taken in a photojournalism style show the reality of his subjects.

“I am not going to do anybody any favors by covering the truth, but also I am not here to make people look bad either,” he said.

He also said his exhibition includes works created in a painting-like style, including photographs of clouds that he called “a serious passion.”

He said many of those photographs bring him a sense of peace.

“For me it’s very much about finding a time and a place to feel a little at peace. It’s a Zen moment. It’s almost like meditation. It’s finding an image that makes me feel at peace and also close to Mother Nature and our surroundings,” he said.

Lennon said he has been taking photos for years, but it wasn’t until he went on tour with his younger brother Sean a few years ago and took some backstage photos of him that he “really fell in love with it.”

Some of Lennon’s photos also can be purchased at the SCOPE Miami Art Show, a satellite art fair running from Nov. 30 to Dec. 5.

Lennon’s first photo exhibit was in September and he is going to release a new album next year called Everything Changes.

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ONLINE:

White Feather Foundation: http://www.whitefeatherfoundation.com/site/index.html

SCOPE Miami Art Show: http://www.scope-art.com/index.php/miami

Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts: http://www.arshtcenter.org/

AP-CS-11-23-10 1607EST

Texaco porcelain sign posts $6,325 high mark at Matthews’ Auctions

Sinclair Opaline Motor Oil 1-gallon flat metal can with race car graphic, rated 8.5, $3,300. Image courtesy of Matthews Auctions LLC.

RAYMOND, Ill. – An outstanding Texaco Marine Lubricants single-sided porcelain sign, made in 1959 and rated 9.25 out of 10 for overall condition, sold for $6,325 at a two-day, three-session sale held Nov. 6-7 by Matthews Auctions LLC. The auction was held at the gallery of Gavin Pope Auction, with whom Matthews Auctions often partners.

The sign – measuring 15 inches by 30 inches and featuring a ships and speedboats graphic, with great gloss and color – was the top lot in an auction that saw 1,500-plus lots cross the block over the course of the three sessions and two days. And since many of the lots were sold in multiples, the final tally of items sold may actually have hit the 3,000 mark.

Headlining the event were the estates of Joe Srholez of Sussex, N.J., and Art Childers of Evansville, Ind., plus Part 2 of the sale of the oil bottle collection of Ron Throckmorton. The Nov. 6 session had 500 lots of petroliana and automobilia signs, gas pumps, globes, soda machines, oil and additive cans, and other items.

Nov. 7 was split into two sessions, each composed of around 500 lots. Session 1 featured a variety of oil and additive cans, original Packard artwork for magazine ads, several radiator mascots, Model A and other brand showroom posters, postcards and various automotive-related literature. Session 2, held later the same day, was dedicated almost entirely to toy cars.

These included nearly 50 lots of promotional toy cars, Metal Craft trucks, Steelcraft blimps and Mack pedal trucks. The session also featured over 100 lots of Japanese tin litho cars, trucks, airplanes and more (some new in the box), German toys (including Bing, Lehmann and others), an Arcade gas pump, toy gas stations and an original Scwhinn Black Phantom bicycle.

“This was a successful auction by any measure,” said Dan Matthews of Matthews Auctions, LLC, which is based in Nokomis, Ill. “Attendance was high both days, the phones were ringing and around 45 percent of the successful bids were either online or absentee.”

The Internet bidding, facilitated in part by LiveAuctioneers.com, attracted winning bids from Europe, Australia, Canada and the United States, Matthews said.

Following are additional highlights from the auction. All prices quoted include a 10 percent buyer’s premium.

Three lots from the Nov. 6, Session 1 (aside from the Texaco sign) topped the $4,000 mark. A Ford anniversary crest neon single-sided porcelain rolled edge die-cut sign, rated 8.9, made $4,950; a United Motor Service single-sided porcelain die-cut arrow sign with early touring car graphic rose to $4,950; and an Oilzum Motor Oil single-sided tin sign, framed, brought $4,510.

A Francisco Auto Heater “Summer Here All the Year” single-sided tin sign with great cutaway car graphics, framed and rated 9+, breezed to $3,410; a Genuine Ethyl gas globe with great graphic, a 9.5-rated 13-inch lens and a new Capco globe body gaveled for $3,300; and a Hoosier Pete 100 Regular Gasoline glass gas globe with 13 1/2-inch lens, rated 6.5, hit $3,310.

A Texaco Certified Lubrication die-cut cardboard sign, 37 inches by 24 inches, with Marfak cardboard easel back display, rated 8.9, topped out at $2,970; a Weed Chains “As Necessary As Gasoline” single-sided tin sign with wood back, rated 7.5, with price wheel, rose to $2,530; and a Gulf Gasoline and Supreme Auto Oil single-sided tin sign, rated 8, hit $2,420.

A “We Sell Socony Motor Gasoline” porcelain flange sign, 24 inches by 20 inches, both sides rated 9, garnered $2,310; a Michelin Bibendum, 11 inches tall, sitting on top of a small air compressor, in very good condition despite a broken dial, realized $1,430; and a Defiance Spark Plugs “Your Engine Knows” double-sided tin flange sign, both sides rated 9, went for $1,430.

The top lots of Session 2 (Nov. 7) were a Sinclair Opaline Motor Oil 1-gallon flat metal can with an early open wheel race car graphic, with good color; and a Manhattan Trop-Artic Oil half-gallon flat metal can with early sedan graphic, rated 9. Both pieces brought a respectable $3,300. Also, a 1910 print on oilcloth of an Oldsmobile Racing A Train commanded $2,475.

Also from Session 2, Nov. 7: A Standard Oil of Indiana Polarine Motor Oil 1-gallon flat metal can with early touring car summer-winter scene, rated 7/8, brought $1,980; an oil on canvas rendering of a Packard Phaeton Deluxe convertible car, for a magazine ad, coasted to $1,760; and a Standard Oil of New Jersey Polarine Gear Oil 1-gallon flat metal can hit $1,650.

A Wonder-Mist Cleanser and Polisher half-gallon flat metal can with limousine graphic, both sides rated 9, climbed to $1,072.50; a 1957 Chevrolet full-line showroom catalog filled with color plates, rated 9, fetched $770; and a 1922 framed print of a “Careful Crossing Campaign” showing a car about to be hit by a train at crossing, 30 inches by 36 inches, rose to $770.

The top lot of Session 3, Nov. 7 (all toys), was a West German-made Gama 300 Cadillac four-door sedan tin litho friction-power toy car, 12 inches long, rated 8.5 with good paint. It sold for $852.50. Runner-ups were an Arcade “Andy Gump” cast-iron car, rated 7 with paint wear, $770; and a Marx Sparkling Rocket fighter ship tin litho windup toy, 12 inches long, $715.

Other star lots from Session 3 included a Fontaine Fox Toonerville tin litho windup trolley by Dent, like-new in the box, 5 inches long, $632.50; a large 1957 Chevrolet Bel-Air 2-door Japanese tin litho friction car, 15 1/2 inches long and rated 8.5, with very light wear, $605; and a tin litho windup toy Vespa scooter with sidecar and riders, 6 inches long, rated 6.5, $935.

For details log on to MatthewsAuctions.com or call 877- 968-8880. Or e-mail them at danm@matthewsauctions.com.

Click here to view the fully illustrated catalog for this sale, complete with prices realized.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

Texaco Marine: The top lot of the sale was this Texaco Marine Lubricants single-sided porcelain sign, which sold for $6,325. Image courtesy of Matthews Auctions LLC. — Texaco Marine:The top lot of the sale was this Texaco Marine Lubricants single-sided porcelain sign, which sold for $6,325. Image courtesy of Matthews Auctions LLC.

Tin litho windup toy Vespa scooter with sidecar and riders, 6 inches long, rated 6.5. $935. Image courtesy of Matthews Auctions LLC.

Oilzum Motor Oil single-sided tin sign with logo, framed, 61 inches by 13 inches, $4,510. Image courtesy of Matthews Auctions LLC.

Manhattan Trop-Artic Auto half-gallon flat metal can with sedan graphic, rated 9+, $3,300. Image courtesy of Matthews Auctions LLC.

Ford Model A 2-door sedan tin litho car, with ‘the New Ford’ on the top, 7 inches, $990. Image courtesy of Matthews Auctions LLC.

Marx Sparkling Rocket fighter ship tin windup toy, new in the box, rated 9.75, $715. Image courtesy of Matthews Auctions LLC.

Metal hunters search for the fun of it, but treasures are a bonus

Metal detectors combing the ground where Civil War battles were fought often turn up small metal objects such as buttons, coins or bullets. This tunic button representing a Louisiana regiment was auctioned by William J. Jenack on March 27, 2010, for $40. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and William J. Jenack.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – Metal detecting enthusiasts’ feet are inches from pieces of history every day.

Consider Joe Barnett, a 55-year-old Clinton resident who had walked across his backyard “hundreds of times” before finding a .58 caliber Civil War-era bullet barely below the ground’s surface.

Welcome to the world of metal detecting, which is a lot like fishing and hunting. One never knows what will be found on a particular day, but the search is often as thrilling as the find.Well, almost.

“Finding something that hasn’t been touched for 150 years is really fascinating to me,” said James Fox, 52, of Ridgeland. “I’ve been collecting Civil War memorabilia since I was a kid. And I like to find stuff that a lot of people don’t think much about – a knife handle that somebody had scratched their initials in, a straight razor with a guy’s name and regiment on it.

“This stuff hasn’t seen the light of day since the last time the owners touched it. And I’ve found arrowheads that haven’t been touched for 1,000 years. Pretty neat.”

“Metal detecting is a fast-growing hobby worldwide. It has proven to be a valuable tool in criminal cases. Barnett, a logistics coordinator with Entergy, found the gun believed to have been used in the August shooting death of Jackson police officer Glen Agee in chest-high water in a rural Hinds County drainage ditch.

“There were other guys out there looking, too,” said Barnett, who worked with the Greenville Police Department in the late 1970s and early ’80s. “I just happened to be the one who walked over it.”

Barnett was equipped with a detector that can be used underwater, which is popular among many metal hunters.

Victor McGriff, 71, of Bovina has been metal detecting since 1965.

Around 1970, he stopped at a lake that had been drained.

“I found rings, some coins, a pocket knife,” he said. “I got to thinking, ‘There has to be a lot of stuff under the water. That’s where I need to go looking.'”

He took a scuba diving course in 1971, and since then ponds and lakes have been his favorite hunting areas. He stays in areas that are no more than 15 feet deep, and his wife, Mary, usually sits on the bank while he’s searching.

“I go where they have swimming areas,” he said, “and I’ve found just about anything you can think of – rings, watches, knives, guns.”

At a lake near Morton, McGriff found a Timex watch buried just beneath some sand.

“The cloth band on it had deteriorated, but when I got it out and wound it up, it started working again,” he said, laughing. “I guess what they say is true – Timex watches really can take a lickin’ and keep on tickin’.”

Dan Patterson, 47, of Madison, bought his first metal detector in 1984. “Looking at relics in local museums and running into several old diggers sparked my interest,” he said.

Now, he has his own collection of “finds” that have been displayed in 35 magazines, including an Andrew Jackson button and two Confederate officer buttons, a Union officer stencil and a Bowie knife.

He’s also used his detector for those in need.

“Several years ago, a family from Carey had their house burn down. All their keepsakes from many years of marriage were in the house. I went through the rubble and ash and debris and found a box full of special family keepsakes. It’s all they have left from their marriage. It’s always good to help out.”

Metal detectors range from $150 to more than $2,000 and weigh between 2 and 5 pounds. Many models give the hunter an idea of what he or she has run across.

“It will give you a sound and a display,” Barnett said. “If you go over a nail, it’ll make a chatter sound. Solid pieces of metal give off a deep solid sound. Aluminum objects, such as a Coke can, give off a sharp, high tone. After you use them a while, you’re able to tell when it’s time to ignore it and when it’s time to stop and dig.”

One of the toughest obstacles is finding good land that hasn’t been gone over several times by previous hunters.

“Private land is the best,” Barnett said, “but it’s hard walking up to somebody you don’t know and getting permission. Two, maybe three, out of 10 will say yes.”

Metal detecting is a hobby for the curious, but don’t expect to get rich.

“If you get into it to find a stash of gold and make a lot of money, you’re going to be disappointed,” Fox said. “But if you enjoy something to get you out of the house and away from everything and are satisfied with finding some interesting things, then it can be a lot of fun.”

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Information from: The Clarion-Ledger, http://www.clarionledger.com

AP-CS-11-19-10 0400EST

Cleveland airport celebrating holidays with Superman Christmas tree

Superman's first appearance was in the June 1938 issue of Action Comics. Image courtesy of Geppi's Entertainment Museum at Camden Yards, Baltimore.

CLEVELAND (AP) – The Christmas trimmings at Cleveland’s main airport will include a celebration of the city’s connection to Superman.

A group promoting Cleveland as the Man of Steel’s birthplace will put up a Christmas tree decorated with Superman action figures and other memorabilia at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.

The Siegel and Shuster Society also has a design firm working on a permanent Superman display to greet travelers at Hopkins. The Plain Dealer reports one idea is for a huge Superman statue at the airport.

High school classmates Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster first came up with the idea for the superhero at the Siegel family’s Cleveland home in 1933.

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Information from: The Plain Dealer, http://www.cleveland.com

AP-CS-11-19-10 0751EST

Colorado artifacts dealer expected to take plea deal

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – A Southwest antiquities dealer who was forced to surrender five truckloads of American Indian relics is expected to settle charges of digging up a grave and plundering artifacts from federal lands.

The U.S. attorney’s office says Vern Crites is due to take a plea deal Tuesday at federal court in Salt Lake City.

Crites’s attorney revealed in court papers months ago that a deal was in the works.

The 75-year-old dealer was described in government affidavits as a “price setter” for antiquities because of his influence over the market.

Federal agents say he had an astonishing collection confiscated from his Durango home in January.

Crites was charged in a government sting operation that spanned Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.

AP-WS-11-23-10 0630EST

Planned Red Skelton museum gets $1 million boost

Movie poster for the 1947 MGM production Merton of the Movies, starring Red Skelton. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and The Last Moving Picture Co.

VINCENNES, Ind. (AP) – An Illinois businessman has given $1 million toward building a museum honoring comedian Red Skelton in his southwestern Indiana hometown.

The donation announced Monday puts the Red Skelton Museum Foundation $1.3 million away from its $4 million fundraising goal for building the museum at the Vincennes University performing arts center named for him.

Frank Ladner of nearby Lawrenceville, Ill., said he was proud of the university’s work and that the donation “was the natural thing to do.” The Vincennes Sun-Commercial reports Ladner and his wife also gave $1.5 million for a high-tech training center that the school opened in October.

Plans are for the Skelton museum to feature memorabilia and displays about his influence on early television and comedy. A theater also will show a series of Skelton’s movies.

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Information from: Vincennes Sun-Commercial, http://www.vincennes.com

AP-CS-11-23-10 1103EST

Michaan’s: one of the best auctions in the gallery’s history Dec. 6

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, ‘Portrait of a Stateman,’ watercolor on paper, 1834. Estimate: $75,000-$100,000. Image courtesy of Michaan’s Auctions.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Michaan’s Dec. 6 auction offers one of the finest collections of art, furniture, porcelain, silver and jewelry in the gallery’s history. LiveAuctioneers will provide Internet live bidding.

The sale begins at 10 a.m. Pacific with Californian, American and European paintings, drawings and prints spanning the 16th through the 21st centuries. Highlights include a colorful 1920 oil by the Sausalito born E. Charlton Fortune – one of the few female Impressionists – and a fine 1854 watercolor of Russian Prince Peter Dmetrievich Gorchakov by the French portraitist Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. Other favorites are a William Coulter oil of a ship passing through the Golden Gate, a lovely view of Mount Tamalpais by Thaddeus Welch, 16th-century Flemish genre scenes and a challenging German mixed media collage.

The furniture and decorative arts portion of this sale has an outstanding selection of fine porcelain including forty KPM and Meissen porcelain plaques with religious, mythological, genre and portrait studies; a pair of Meissen botanical plaques; 70 pieces of Royal Copenhagen Flora Danica porcelain, a Meissen monkey band and figures of Aeolus, Bacchus and Cupid.

There will be a strong English and American silver section with highlights being a Henry Chawner ivory mounted sterling hot water pot; a 1819 Samuel Hennell flatware service; pair of Hester Bateman pedestal tureens; an extensive William Gale Gothic tea service; an Aesthetic Wood & Hughes centerpiece; a Tiffany & Co. sterling tea service; a group of Chinese and Japanese export silver and a special Cartier black lacquer tea caddy.

Bronzes includes a Renaissance Revival gilt bronze mounted covered horn (ex Vincent Price), L’Hirondelle, a bronze figural group by Alfred Boucher and a Georges L. Repaire Rigot ivory and mixed metal figure of an Art Deco woman.

A fine selection of art glass includes more than 25 Galle, Daum and Le Verre Francais/Schneider vases and an early Lalique punch set as well as a small grouping of Tiffany Favrile glass. The sale also has four sets of Aesthetic Movement four panel stained glass windows.

The 20th century has strong representation in the sale with a sale off with a Paul Frankl console table; a set of 14 Mies Van Der Rohe Brno chairs, a set of six Hans Wenger sculpted chairs; a superb 1930s Visalia Saddle Co. silver mounted show saddle and several pieces of 1940s Margot de Taxco enameled sterling jewelry.

The sale closes with 135 lots of the finest jewelry Michaan’s has ever assembled. Connoisseurs will vie for an exquisite collection of untreated natural jade necklaces and rings; incredible Art Deco bracelets, rings and pins; Georgian and Edwardian diamond and colored stone rings and pins; and rare golden quartz chatelaine and natural nugget cufflinks. Fine timepieces in the sale include an important Patek Philipe wristwatch, an

IWC wristwatch, a platinum and diamond wristwatch as well as gold pocket watches.

A full-color catalog accompanies the 555-lot sale. Previews are Friday, Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Monday beginning at 9 a.m.

For details visit www.michaans.com or phone 510-740-0220.

For live and absentee Internet bidding, go to LiveAuctioneers at ww.liveauctioneers.com.

View the fully illustrated catalog and register to bid absentee or live via the Internet as the sale is taking place by logging on to www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

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