Late 19th-century French Egyptian Revival figural terracotta clock featuring a standing figure of Cleopatra flanked by tigers, 30 inches high x 27 inches long x 7 inches deep. Estimate: $3,000-$4,500. Image courtesy of Great Gatsby’s.
ATLANTA – Outstanding estates and fine private collections from around the world are the sources of Great Gatsby’s auction Saturday, Feb. 19. Bidding for the nearly 500 lots will get under way at 11 a.m. Eastern, with LiveAuctioneers providing the live Internet bidding.
The auction has many highlights, large and small, but mostly large in keeping with Great Gatsby’s grand style.
Timely with current headlines, a late 19th-century French Egyptian Revival figural clock depicting Cleopatra surrounded by tigers, all in terracotta, has a $3,000-$4,500 estimate. The clock measures 30 inches high x 27 inches long and 7 inches deep. The base features relief carved Egyptian figures.
Furniture ranges from a towering 19th-century American quartersawn golden oak huntboard attributed to Alexander Roux and estimated at $10,000-$15,000 to a fine 19th-century asymmetrical, lacquer-decorated English bamboo étagère estimated at $3,000-$6,000. The latter bears an ivory tag marked, “Harrod’s Stores Ltd., Oriental Dept., London S.W.” An oversized 19th-century Italian Renaissance Revival pierce-carved walnut tall-back settee, 61inches high by 77 inches wide, is estimated at $3,000-$5,000.
A finely detailed late 19th-century Italian carrara marble sculpture of a young boy wrapped in a sheepskin, 33 inches high by 18 inches wide carries an $8,000-$15,000 estimate.
Paintings includes a 19th-century oil on canvas titled Monkey Thief in the Barn, signed D. (David) Col & Henry Schouten, en verso signed and dated 1896. The painting, which measures 28 inches high by 40 inches wide, has a $10,000-$15,000 estimate.
For details visit the website www.greatgatsbys.com or call 770-457-1903.
Early 20th-century English majolica vase with handles in the form of cherubs, 23 inches high. Estimate: $1,200-$2,500. Image courtesy of Great Gatsby’s.Pair of monumental carved limestone Art Deco eagles, after the originals mounted on the Federal Reserve Building, Chicago, each 96 inches high x 75 inches wide x 45 inches deep. Estimate: $20,000-$30,000. Image courtesy of Great Gatsby’s.1974 Jaguar XKE V-12 roadster, four-speed, odometer showing 81,570 miles, Estimate: $35,000-$50,000. Image courtesy of Great Gatsby’s.Three-piece grouping of finely crafted of elk antlers, the table with solid oak top, the chairs with cushions of elk fur and suede. Estimate: $5,000-$8,000. Image courtesy of Great Gatsby’s.
The Keno brothers, Leslie (left) and Leigh (right).
HIGH POINT, N.C. (ACNI) – Antique furniture experts and TV celebrities Leigh and Leslie Keno have another hit on their hands. The identical twin brothers best known from their on-air appraisals on PBS Television’s Antiques Roadshow have been on the road, stumping their upscale new range of furniture produced in partnership with the North Carolina manufacturer Theodore Alexander.
“We are very excited to be partners in this venture,” Leigh said in an e-mail sent to Auction Central News while waiting to board a plane in Florida. “They have given us total freedom to stretch the boundaries of our imagination. The level of craftsmanship is tremendous.”
Technically, Leigh and Leslie Keno soft-launched their promotional tour of the Keno Bros. Collection™ at Selden’s Home Furnishings in Tacoma, Wash., on Nov. 4, 2010. Scott Selden, president of Selden’s, remarked that the brothers’ appearance was “one of the most successful private events” his company had ever hosted. “The draw of the Keno brothers was key to the event’s success and attendance,” he said. “Their presentation caused a flurry of sales that night immediately following the presentation…they really connected with the audience.”
The brothers’ grand tour is now in high gear. Last week Leigh and Leslie appeared at three sold-out events for Robb & Stucky furniture stores in Florida. “We had a great launch in Naples today and in Boca [Raton] yesterday! Great people and, happily, lots of excitement,” Leigh wrote in his e-mail.
The Kenos’ next confirmed engagements in connection with the new furniture line are:
March 3 ABC Carpet & Home, New York City
April 21 Louis Shanks, Houston
May 18 Gabberts, Edina, Minn. (suburb of Minneapolis-St. Paul)
Additional appearances are expected to be added in the coming weeks and months.
The Keno Bros. Collection™ is carried by luxury furniture retailers throughout North America, Europe and Asia. It consists of approximately 100 pieces, all hand made from sustainably sourced exotic woods, stone, glass and metals. Because Theodore Alexander has not only its own furniture factory but also its own foundry, even the hinges incorporated into the designs are custom designed and crafted for the collection.
Leigh and Leslie, who both have dealt in the highest of high-end American furniture, were insistent that the range of furniture bearing their name should be uncompromising. They weren’t disappointed. “The quality of craftsmanship is just tremendous,” Leigh told ACN.
Because they have such a thorough knowledge of furniture, the brothers were able to offer suggestions to Theodore Alexander craftsment that resulted in improved designs. An example would be their Slope Chair. The lines of the back, seat, arms and legs appear to have been hewn from a single piece of wood, with the arms terminating in a wonderfully smooth, tactile shape that Leigh describes as being like “holding hands with the chair.”
The Sampler Table is one of Leigh and Leslie’s favorites because it showcases 14 different wood species in a single cocktail-size table.
The twins’ love of vintage race cars even made its way into the furniture line. From fine racing vehicles from the mid-20th century, the brothers drew the inspiration to include hand-hammered metalwork on their Flying Buttress tables.
Their Fine Point I table is clearly inspired by classic 18th and 19th century French and English pieces. It is devoid of ornamentation, but the serpentine shapes and exotic African ofram veneer create great movement and interest. As the brothers describe it, “This table embodies the essence of the S-shaped line which the British artist and philosopher William Hogarth called the ‘line of beauty.’ This line is based on the curves of the human body. Multiple curves with their undulations, peaks, and dips lead the viewer’s eye on a chase.”
“We offer a fresh and bold new spin on the Rococo table form in two rich shades of ofram veneer,” the brothers continued. “When we saw the prototype in the design state, we loved the color of the ofram in its natural, unstained state. We had never seen anything quite like this in our careers. The dark striations contrasting with the lighter ‘canvas’ complement the curves of the table.”
Leigh and Leslie are hopeful that one day the pieces in their new range of furniture will be viewed as heirlooms. View the range online at www.theodorealexander.com. Click on “Locate a Dealer” to find your nearest retailer carrying the Keno line.
About Leigh and Leslie Keno:
The Keno brothers achieved celebrity status as appraisers on the highly rated PBS show Antiques Roadshow. In 2003-2004 they were hosts of the PBS show Find! Since 2008 they have also hosted the show Collect This! with the Keno Brothers on MSN. Aside from their television duties, Leigh owns and operates Keno Auctions in New York, while Leslie serves as senior vice president and director of American Furniture and Decorative Arts at Sotheby’s in New York. The brothers are also accomplished writers, authoring a book on antiques called Hidden Treasures: Searching for Masterpieces of American Furniture. They have written monthly furniture and design columns for House Beautiful and This Old House and are often featured in Traditional Home.
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ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
Chair known as The Slope, designed by the Keno Bros. Image courtesy of Theodore Alexander.The Sampler Table featuring 14 different wood species, designed by the Keno Bros. Image courtesy of Theodore Alexander.The Fine Point I Table, designed by the Keno Bros. Image courtesy of Theodore Alexander.The Flying Buttress Table, designed by the Keno Bros. Image courtesy of Theodore Alexander.
The most frequently asked question from youngsters touring the telephone museum is, ‘What’s that dial?’ Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers Archive and Clars Auction Gallery. LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – We love our phones. We love them small, smart and portable.
Wally Tubbs loves his phones, too. He loves this phone. And that phone. And those phones over there. He loves candlestick phones and princess phones, fiddleback phones and old-time silver dollar phone booths.
Tubbs knows phones, what makes them work, how they’ve evolved, which phones went over big (the Ericafone) which phones flopped (the camera phone).
The hundreds of phones at the Frank H. Woods Telephone Pioneer Museum don’t technically belong to the retired Lincoln Telephone Co. employee, although he is president of something called The Pioneer Association – a group of former and current telephone company employees that run the place.
And he does volunteer his time to lead tours here at 21st and M streets, where a portrait of Frank H. Woods hangs in a replica of his old office.
The museum is named for Frank H. Woods Sr. (1868-1952) who founded Lincoln Telephone Co. 1903. The company began serving 1,800 Lincoln customers in June 1904. Telephony, an industry publication, praised the new company as “the first large automatically operated telephone exchange west of Chicago.”
And where some pretty nifty mannequins – all women – man an impressive old-time switchboard.
And you can tell – listening to him – that even though texting isn’t yet his forte, Tubbs is committed to our favorite form of communication in all of its historical permutations.
And that he’s worried about this museum.
The valuable archive of telephone history – from Alexander Graham Bell to the BlackBerry – sits in the middle of the Antelope Valley (community revitalization) Project.
The low-slung white building is owned by Windstream Communications, and board members worry developers will gobble it up and give them the boot.
Not yet, say Windstream’s vice president of operations in Nebraska, Brad Hedrick, and the company’s PR man on speakerphone from Little Rock, Ark.
But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen.
The company provides the building rent-free to the museum. But if the land were sold, Windstream would not provide the museum a new home, Hedrick said.
Which is why Tubbs and his Pioneer Association board members are trying to let people know the museum exists and that it would like to continue to exist.
They don’t have a budget, Tubbs says. They don’t have a marketing arm.
Schoolchildren can tour the museum by appointment during the week. (Most common question: What’s that dial for?)
On Sunday afternoons from 1 to 4 p.m., anyone can walk in the door and see where their Droid got its start.
The museum has the phone world’s Lucy – the Gallows phone – and most of the models that followed.
This place is a well-kept secret, Tubbs said on a recent winter morning. At least locally.
It’s been on the radar of phonatics since it opened in 1996. Jim Carrey’s Yes Man gave it another boost when the museum was featured in a scene (filmed in California with memorabilia from Lincoln and a sign “Come to the Frank H. Woods Telephone Pioneer Museum Today” that doesn’t exist).
With an uncertain future, museum supporters would like more people to see what’s inside. And the effort it took to get it there – like needing a crane to remove an old switchboard intact from the eighth floor of the old Lincoln Telephone building. And phone company employees like Al Farmer scouring the countryside for phone memorabilia. He shows the place off with Tubbs – beautiful antique phones made of walnut and brass and oak. And vintage phones from the ’50s and ’60s, in every color of the rainbow.
Tubbs looks through the glass at the sleek lines of the “automatic electric AE34.”
“To me that’s a piece of art, not a phone.”
There is a lot of history in the museum on M Street – and in the building itself, constructed as a filling station in 1956.
Tubbs knows time brings change. And that Windstream’s Hedrick has been more than good to them.
But Windstream, with its headquarters in Arkansas, is a long way from Frank Woods and his Lincoln phone empire.
And landlines are going the way of the party line.
The double-walled phone booth no longer exists outside of museums and movie sets. It doesn’t take a room of switchboard operators to connect us.
The Antelope Valley Project is the big kid on the block.
But Tubbs also believes there is value in history. Hello? Can you hear him?
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Information from: Lincoln Journal Star,
http://www.journalstar.com
Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Tintype of Billy the Kid, who posed for the picture in a Fort Sumner, N.M., gambling hall in late 1879 or early 1880. The rare tintype, believed to be the only survivor of four that were created, will be auctioned on June 25 at Brian Lebel’s Old West Show and Auction.
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) – In late 1879 or early 1880, Billy the Kid posed for a picture at a Fort Sumner gambling hall. Wearing a crumpled dark hat, a sweater, a vest and boots, he stood with his hand resting on a Winchester rifle on one side and a Colt revolver holstered on the opposite hip.
The pose was captured on four 2-by-3-inch tintypes. Three are believed to have been lost or destroyed. The only one left – what some call the only authenticated image of the famous outlaw – comes up for auction this summer.
“This is it – the only one,” says Brian Lebel, who estimates the image should bring in between $300,000 and $400,000 on June 25 at his 22nd annual Old West Show and Auction at the Denver Merchandise Mart. “We’ve all seen this image of Billy countless times, but when you hold the actual three-dimensional tintype in your hands, it’s a whole different experience.”
After Billy the Kid died in 1881, one of his rustler partners, Dan Dedrick, kept the tintype. Dedrick passed it to his grand-nephew, Frank Upham, who willed it to his descendants, Stephen Upham of California and Art Upham of Arizona.
During the mid-1980s, Frank Upham loaned it to the Lincoln County Heritage Trust Museum in Lincoln. For about three years, that was the only time the tintype has been publicly displayed.
According to Beverly Hammond, a historical interpreter at the center for some 30 years, around 1986, the tintype was sent to the Eastman Kodak Co. in Rochester, N.Y., for analysis. When it was returned, it was “very, very dark. … You could see the hat and you could see gun and the boots, but other than that, it was just a blur.”
Lebel said that’s not true.
“It might be darker than it was, but it’s not a dark tintype,” he said. “It hasn’t been restored. They have not done anything to it since they took it back from the museum. All they’ve done is stored it in a nitrogen-filled envelope, which was recommended to them, and they’ve left it in a safe-deposit box. It’s still in a safe-deposit box. I took it out last week and showed three museum curators who all felt that it was a good, clear, sharp image.”
Bob McCubbin, a Santa Fe-based collector of Western photography, said he hasn’t seen the photograph since it was treated in Rochester. But, he said, “I was told by someone that I consider reliable that saw it after the damage … (that) it was virtually black, so I’ve been under that impression for some time.”
He said the story may have been exaggerated because the Upham family has not responded to inquiries about the tintype for two decades.
“I’ve not had the opportunity to see it myself, but a friend of mine did recently and said it looks pretty good,” McCubbin added.
Hammond agreed the tintype is the only known portrait of Billy the Kid, but she said he also appears in the background of a photograph of cowboys at the Chisum Ranch near Roswell. McCubbin said he thinks there might be a couple of portraits of Billy the Kid – also known as William H. Bonney, Henry Antrim and Henry McCarty -as a boy in Silver City.
McCubbin said the tintype is the only adult image that is indisputably authentic.
Study the image and Billy’s jaw line seems asymmetrical. Lebel said that’s because the Kid moved his head slightly or “made a face” during the long exposure time required. McCubbin said the distortion might result from low light the photographer tried to correct by using a reflective mirror, visible on the left side. He said engravings, used for early reproductions of the tintype, might have further exaggerated the facial distortion.
A long-held belief Billy the Kid was left-handed – enshrined by the 1958 movie The Left Handed Gun, starring Paul Newman – stems from the fact he appears to wear his holster on his left side.
But a tintype, made with an early form of photography that used metal plates, is a mirror image in which left and right are reversed. This was rediscovered by firearms experts who realized the loading chamber of the rifle in the photograph is on the wrong side.
Because of the many stories about the tintype, Lebel said he invites people to view it for themselves during the three-day Western show, June 24 to 26. He expects as many as 500 people to attend the June 25 live auction.
“The fun thing about the tintype is that everybody does have their own little story,” Lebel said. “Some people say he dressed in that hat, in that pose, only because he was clowning around. … I’ve been a fan of it since it appeared and when I first put my hands on it in person, my knees shook. It’s one of those things that’s going to be exciting to a lot of people.”
McCubbin said he knows two wealthy collectors who plan to bid in Denver – but they want it for their own collections, not for donation to the Museum of New Mexico. He figures it could sell for anywhere from $100,000 to $1 million.
“It’s going to be out of my price range,” he said. “It is one of a kind and, honestly, I’ve heard a lot of people, a lot of my friends, refer to it as the holy grail of photography. I cannot think of another photograph in the entire world that is as famous.”
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Information from: The Santa Fe New Mexican, http://www.sfnewmexican.com
Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WS-02-13-11 1428EST
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Tintype of Billy the Kid, who posed for the picture in a Fort Sumner, N.M., gambling hall in late 1879 or early 1880. The rare tintype, believed to be the only survivor of four that were created, will be uctioned on June 25 at Brian Lebel’s Old West Show and Auction.
14K white gold bracelet with 14.62 carats of sapphires and 5.28 carats of diamonds, to be auctioned Feb. 26, 2011. Estimate $8,000-$15,000. Morphy Auctions image.
DENVER, Pa. – A top-tier private collection of gold, platinum and precious-gem jewelry amassed over several decades will be featured in a single-session, no-reserve specialty auction at Morphy’s gallery on Feb. 26, 2011. Internet live bidding will be provided by LiveAuctioneers.com.
The collection – whose consignors previously owned fine jewelry stores in Florida – consists primarily of superior-quality estate jewelry selected “with a sophisticated eye over a number of years,” said Dr. John Morphy, director of Acquisitions & Appraisals for Morphy’s. “This is not retail stock; this was the consignors’ own collection, which they kept in a safe. Approximately half of it is vintage, and there are some truly spectacular pieces.” Around 80% of the collection is gold, 5% platinum and 5% sterling, Morphy said.
Literally hundreds of diamond rings and bracelets will be offered, with many of the rings featuring large solitaires of outstanding clarity and quality. “I would say anyone who is thinking about marriage would be wise to view this collection, which includes around 30 engagement rings. They’ll be able to choose from what is essentially a jeweler’s private reserve, at prices likely to be far more competitive than those at a jewelry store,” Morphy said.
One of the top rings in the sale is a 14K white gold Art Deco design with a 3.04-carat center diamond surrounded by an additional array of diamonds weighing 1.02 carats. Because the main diamond is an unusual champagne or pale yellow color, the attendant diamonds make it “pop,” Morphy said. “It has huge eye appeal.” The ring is accompanied by its original jeweler’s papers and is estimated at $15,000-$25,000.
Sapphires and diamonds have always been an especially compatible jewelry duo. The collection includes a 14K white gold ring boasting a 4.37-carat deep-blue oval sapphire with 0.36 carats of diamonds, estimate $4,000-$8,000; and an elegant 14K white gold link bracelet channel-set with 14.62 carats of sapphires and 5.28 carats of diamonds, estimate $8,000-$15,000.
The names Tiffany & Co., and David Yurman add quiet prestige to the sale roster, both in gold and silver interpretations. A Tiffany 14K gold bracelet of wide, alternating fluted and smooth links is dated 1946 and estimated at $2,000-$3,000.
The premier timepiece brand Rolex will be available both to men and women in the assortment of six wristwatches to be auctioned. “Some of the Rolexes are vintage, possibly from the 1960s or ’70s,” said Morphy. “We are in the process of obtaining additional information about them from Rolex.” An example from the grouping is a gentleman’s stainless steel and 18K gold mechanical Model No. 116233 with original Rolex box and paperwork. Estimate: $5,000-$8,000.
Ten exceptional pieces from an additional consignor will be included in the sale, as well. The consignment includes an exquisite double-strand Victorian 14K gold “slide” bracelet with approximately 20 hand-crafted and jeweled components, some incorporating movable characters, e.g., snake, little girl, etc. Also, the mini-collection includes a 14K gold mesh purse with original gold strap and double-sapphire clasp, total gold weight: 59.9 dwt (pennyweight). Both items date to around the turn of the 20th century and carry individual estimates of $2,000-$3,000.
The 400-lot sale also includes early 20th-century enameled-gold jewelry and a nice selection of gold charms, many of them mechanical. “These sorts of charms are quite desirable,” said Morphy. “For example, there’s a movable golfer, a typewriter, and an old woman in the shoe that opens to reveal the children inside.”
All items will be sold to the highest bidder, regardless of price. For additional information on any lot in the sale, call 717-335-3435 or e-mail dan@morphyauctions.com.
14K white gold bracelet with 14.62 carats of sapphires and 5.28 carats of diamonds, to be auctioned Feb. 26, 2011. Estimate $8,000-$15,000. Morphy Auctions image.
