Panoramic view of the Hong Kong skyline taken from a path around Victoria Peak. Dec. 13, 2007 photo by David Iliff, licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, whose terms may be viewed online at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Free_Documentation_License. MIAMI (AP) – The company that owns Art Basel Miami Beach is expanding into Asia.
MCH Swiss Exhibition (Basel) Ltd. owns and organizes the annual Miami Beach art fair, as well as Art Basel Switzerland. The company announced Friday that it has signed a purchase agreement with the owners of ART HK – Hong Kong International Art Fair.
The Hong Kong show will keep its name for 2012, but it will move from late May to early February. That puts it between Art Basel’s June fair in Switzerland and its December fair in Miami Beach.
Organizers plan to eventually rename the Asia show Art Basel Hong Kong.
Art Basel Switzerland is considered the most prestigious contemporary art fair in the world. Its co-directors tell The Miami Herald they’re hoping to strengthen the Art Basel brand.
Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-05-07-11 1550GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Panoramic view of the Hong Kong skyline taken from a path around Victoria Peak. Dec. 13, 2007 photo by David Iliff, licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, whose terms may be viewed online at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Free_Documentation_License.
The 2007 book Beyeler Collection by Beyeler, Hohl, Kuster and Buttner. Image courtesy of Amazon.com
GENEVA (AFP) – Works by many of the world’s greatest modern and impressionist artists will be sold at auction in June with the closure of the gallery of late Swiss art trader Ernst Beyeler, auctioneers Christie’s said on Sunday.
The paintings, sculptures and sketches from Beyeler and his wife Hildy’s private gallery collection include works by Monet, Gauguin, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso, Matisse, Kokoschka, Klee, Leger, Dubuffet and Roy Lichtenstein, the auction house said.
Ernst Beyeler, who became renowned for building one of the most impressive international collections of 20th century art, died at the age of 88 in February 2010, less than two years after Hildy.
“Many generations of specialists and collectors have seen their taste forged by Beyeler’s eye,” said Jussi Pylkkaenen, president of Christie’s Europe, Middle East and Russia. “To buy from Ernst Beyeler was to buy great 20th century modernism, and to buy from Beyeler was to buy the best.”
During his lifetime, Beyeler had already donated much of his collection, more than 200 seminal works, to a foundation and its purpose-built museum next to his native city of Basel.
However, he still owned many cherished works through his small gallery in the city center.
The Swiss gallery announced late Friday that it was closing in keeping with the couple’s last wishes and that its funds would be used to raise money for the Fondation Beyeler.
“We look forward to a tremendous atmosphere in the saleroom and to raising a significant sum for the Fondation Beyeler, which remains the great legacy of Ernst Beyeler’s personal generosity and vision,” said Pylkkaenen.
The auction is to take place in London on June 21-22.
Three deities are represented in this bronze Hindu altar, which stands 6 inches high. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers Archive and Bill Hood & Sons Arts & Antiques Auctions. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – The altar on C.K. Hiranya Gowda’s kitchen counter is small but elegant.
There’s a small sandalwood sculpture of Sri Ganesha, the elephant-headed Hindu deity, along with other small sculptures of Hanuman and Devi, two other deities.
A small oil lamp burns near the altar. Fresh flowers and fruit are set out as offerings.
Every day Gowda, a retired ear, nose and throat doctor, starts his day with prayer and meditation in front of the altar. It’s a practice he learned from his parents while growing up in rural India. Every day his prayer is the same.
“I pray that God gives me the strength to do the best I can do,” Gowda said.
The Vishnu exhibit at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts is bringing attention to home shrines or altars. Gowda’s altar is one of five local Hindu home shrines featured, and it’s on display till the end of May. But Hindus aren’t alone in their practice: Buddhists, Catholics and even a Nashville Lutheran use them for worship.
The exhibit gives local Hindus a chance to give their neighbors a glimpse into the day-to-day practice of their religion, Gowda said.
“It’s a gift to everyone,” he said.
Ann Taylor, curator of interpretation at the Frist, helped organize the home shrine display. She has been impressed by how local Hindus make space for their faith despite the hectic pace of modern life.
“They don’t make worship a big deal,” she said. “It is part of their day-to-day life.”
Personal shrines aren’t limited to the home, said Bill Harman, professor of religion and philosophy at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga.
Harman said that shrines are often also set up at workplaces. He has seen them in restaurants and even in taxicabs. The shrines often include photos of spiritual teachers – Gowda’s altar, for example, includes a photo of Sathya Sai Baba, a guru from India who died last week.
The shrines provide a sense of identity for families, Harman said. Most families will begin the day with some kind of ritual at the altars. He said that at times in India’s past, worship at public temples was banned. But that didn’t stop worship at home.
“The home altar is really quite critical,” Harman said. “Over the centuries, it’s the home altar that kept Hinduism alive.”
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Lutheran uses one
Eric Ryniker, a member of First Lutheran Church in downtown Nashville, set up an altar in his home several years ago. At the time, Ryniker had just started practicing a pattern of regular daily prayers known as the Divine Office. His altar started simple – a table with some prayer books on it. Now he has icons of Jesus, the Virgin Mary and two saints, along with his Bible and a photo of his daughter.
He said that having an altar helps him take his mind off the worries and distractions of life and allows him to focus on his prayers.
“When I sit there before the icons and pray the ancient prayers of the church, not only am I free from the distractions and occupations of my daily life, but it is almost as though I am stepping outside of the world,” he said.
While home shrines are common among Catholics, Ryniker said that some of his fellow Protestants are uncomfortable with them because of the biblical injunction against graven images.
He said that he doesn’t worship the icons that are part of his shrine. And he points out that an early church gathering known as the 7th Ecumenical Council – held in the 8th century – approved of icons.
“Because of the incarnation, they said it was OK to have earthly things as a part of spiritual life,” he said.
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‘My silent space’
Lisa Ernst, who teaches Buddhist meditation in Nashville, also has a home altar, with a Buddha and an incense burner on it. For her, the altar is a reminder that mediation is an important part of her life.
“It is like I am honoring the practice by setting aside that space,” she said. “There is a pragmatic side to it: You are saying this is my silent space.”
Gowda credits his daily rituals and prayers for helping him keep an even keel during his career as a doctor. He specialized in treating cancer patients, which often involved long surgeries, requiring him to keep his focus for hours at a time.
Sometimes he’d include his patients in his daily prayers.
He also said the altar reminds him that spiritual peace matters more than material rewards. As a doctor, he said, he was often tempted to buy a bigger house or fancier cars as signs of his success. None of that matters when we die, he said.
“At the end, nobody can take anything with them,” he said. “God said, come along. If you bring anything with you, you are too heavy for me.”
Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-05-08-11 1607GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Three deities are represented in this bronze Hindu altar, which stands 6 inches high. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers Archive and Bill Hood & Sons Arts & Antiques Auctions.
Author Willa Cather’s childhood home is located in Red Cloud, Neb. Built circa 1878, it is on the National Register of Historic Places. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. RED CLOUD, Neb. (AP) – When Guide Rock’s International Order of Odd Fellows Opera House opened in 1905, it was indicative of the optimism spreading across Nebraska at that time.
“Guide Rock built their opera house in 1905, when the town had 419 people, and they built an opera house that had 400 seats in it,” said Jay Yost, president emeritus of the Willa Cather Foundation board of governors. “To me that was the height of optimism, because it’s not as if you’re going to get the same 400 people in town for four performances, so they thought the town would get much bigger. It just showed you what people thought would happen with their towns.”
That opera house in Guide Rock is just one of 63 from across Nebraska represented by the Yost/Leak collection of postcards and memorabilia displayed in the Red Cloud Opera House. The total collection includes more than 200 opera houses. The collection will return to the Red Cloud Opera House Aug. 15 and remain in the gallery until Sept. 10.
Yost, who grew up in Red Cloud, now is a New York City banker. He discussed the collection and the opera houses in “Social Networking 1890: Nebraska Opera Houses in their Heyday,” a presentation he made as part of the 56th annual Willa Cather Spring Conference.
“Now we have Twitter and Facebook and all those ways for people to connect,” he said during an interview.
“Back in the 1890s and 1910s, one of the major ways people were able to connect with other people was getting together at the opera house. That was for community plays or weddings or dances as well as performances by traveling troops or musical companies or opera companies. Things like that.”
Stephany Thompson, director of foundation programming, said the Yost/Leak collection provides a local context to the overall theme of the annual Willa Cather conference.
“I think it brings a sense of what the state of Nebraska’s history of popular culture was,” she said. “I think many of the topics discussed in the conference will be of an international theme. The fact that we have a collection of Nebraska postcards really brings it to back to this state, to this area.”
Yost began collecting artifacts relating to pre-World War I performance spaces in Nebraska and Kansas around 2000.
“I got on the Cather Board in the late ’90s,” he said. “We were in the process of raising money to do this restoration (of the Red Cloud Opera House), and eBay was just coming out then. I thought it would be cool to start collecting opera house memorabilia thinking someday we would want to do something like this.”
The Yost/Leak collection includes more than just postcards. In the Opera House gallery now there are souvenirs such as spoons from the Arapahoe Opera House.
“Again, it shows you how important the thing was when they were doing commemorative souvenirs of these places, because it was one of the places in town that somebody would want to remember,” Yost said. He said at one time there were 513 documented opera houses in Nebraska. A study in the late 1980s showed only about 25 percent of those opera houses remained by then and only about 25 percent of those hadn’t been significantly damaged.
“For me it’s just sad that so many small towns don’t have a place to come together now,” Yost said. “You might have a community hall, but there’s really no soul to it. You can’t put on a performance, or we have had the prom dinner here the last couple of years, so people are recreating those memories three generations down the road.”
All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-05-06-11 2248GMT
ADDITIONAL IAMGE OF NOTE
Author Willa Cather’s childhood home is located in Red Cloud, Neb. Built circa 1878, it is on the National Register of Historic Places. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
A milestone in Columbus, Ohio, marks the path of the National Road. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
CUMBERLAND, Md. (AP) – The city of Cumberland held a parade Saturday to mark the 200th birthday of the nation’s first federally funded interstate highway.
A National Road bicentennial parade was held Saturday. The event included a caravan of antique wagons and vehicles arriving from Vandalia, Ill.
The parade culminated in the groundbreaking for commemorative marker. On Sunday, a time capsule was sealed.
The National Road ran from Cumberland to Vandalia, Ill. along a route largely followed today by U.S. 40.
It connected in Cumberland to the National Pike, leading to Baltimore.
Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-05-07-11 0823GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
A milestone in Columbus, Ohio, marks the path of the National Road. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
A retrospective of Japanese ceramic shapes is pictured on this Satsuma lidded jar made about 1920. The 10-inch jar with a lid sold for $7,000 at a Leland Little auction in Hillsborough, N.C.
Gold is selling for very high prices today, but porcelain was more precious than gold in 17th-century Europe. Thin white porcelain was first made in China in the 10th century, but it wasn’t seen in Europe until 1260, when some pieces were brought back by Marco Polo. It was treasured as a rarity and valued like gold, but Europeans couldn’t figure out how it was made. In 1700 Augustus the Strong, the Elector of Saxony (Germany), heard that Johann Bottger, an 18-year-old German, was trying to make gold from base metals. Augustus kept Bottger a prisoner in Dresden to make gold. At the same time, another scientist with the long name Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus was working to discover the secret of the other treasure, porcelain. Tschirnhaus and Bottger were told to work together, and porcelain was finally created in 1713. Augustus was pleased and built a royal porcelain factory in the city of Meissen. But the secret of porcelain was out, and it soon was made in many countries. For centuries, Bottger was credited with the discovery of porcelain, but now research suggests it was really Tschirnhaus. Many types of ceramics – majolica, stoneware, bone china, ironstone and pottery – were soon being used in households for tasks like cooking and storing. Decorations included ceramic figurines and tiles. It is not surprising that artists sometimes pay homage to ceramics in the designs they create on ceramics. Well-known designs include a famous Chinese pattern picturing urns and vases, a Japanese Satsuma lidded jar picturing Asian ceramics from many different centuries, and English and American dinnerware sets decorated with examples of 1950s dishes.
Q: A few years ago, I bought a 27-inch round mahogany side table at a local antiques shop. It stands on four square tapered legs and has a fluted set of four drawers all around it. Only one of the drawers is real. The other three are false drawers. There’s a metal label inside the real drawer that reads “Kittinger Authentic Handmade.” Please tell me its history and value.
A: Kittinger Furniture Co. has been in business in Buffalo, N.Y., since 1866. It has a reputation for making high-quality furniture in traditional styles. If you bought your table “a few years ago,” it’s worth about 20 percent less than what you paid then. Prices for many vintage furniture pieces have not gone up in the last few years. We have seen tables like yours selling for $200 to $500. Older pieces in excellent condition sell for a little less.
Q: I would like information about a liquor decanter I was given about 20 years ago. It’s in the shape of a sailboat. The bottom of the decanter is marked “Famous Firsts, Edition No. 5, 1851 Yacht America, 1970, R.E.M. Originals.” Is it valuable?
A: Famous Firsts Ltd. of Port Chester, N.Y., made limited edition figural liquor decanters from 1968 until 1985. The initials on the bottom of your bottle are those of Richard E. Magid, the owner of Famous Firsts. The designs were based on “famous firsts,”like the first yacht race. In 1851, the yacht America won the first race between the United States and England in what became known as the America’s Cup. The name honors the winner of the first race. Other Famous Firsts decanters include famous cars, planes, ships, phonographs, sewing machines and telephones. Your decanter sold for $50 when it was new. The value of figural ceramic liquor bottles have plummeted, though, and it’s worth about $25 or less today.
Q: We have a porcelain plate, approximately 17 inches in diameter, that has a hand-painted scene of trees and of ducks swimming in a pond. The bottom is marked “LM & Cie Montereau.” The plate has been in our family for about 70 years. Can you tell us who made it?
A: The “LM & Cie” mark was used by Leboeuf, Milliet & Co. of Creil and Montereau, France. The company was founded in 1841 by Louis Martin Leboeuf (1792-1854) and Jean Baptiste Gratien Milliet (1797-1875) and was in business until 1895.
Q: I have a metal Coca-Cola sign that I’m curious about. It’s shaped like a bottle, 37 inches high and 11 1/2 inches wide. On the bottle are the words, “Trade Mark Registered, Bottle Pat’d Dec. 25, 1923.” On the bottom of the bottle it says “Made in U.S.A., American Art Works Inc., Coshocton, Ohio.”
A: The patent issued on Dec. 25, 1923, was for the contoured shape of the bottle. This was a renewal of a 1912 patent for the shape, which is sometimes called a “hobbleskirt” because it’s the shape of a woman in a hobbleskirt. Bottles with this patent are sometimes called “Christmas bottles.” American Art Works was in business in Coshocton from 1909 to 1950. The company made blotters, calendars, fans, signs, trays and other advertising items for various companies. The sign must have been used in the 1930s and ’40s.
Q: I have a Konwal lighter with “Operations Directorate” on the cap and a “Joint Chiefs of Staff” emblem on the body. It is 4 inches high. I would appreciate any information you can tell me about it.
A: Konwal is a company in Japan that made lighters with military insignia in the 1950s and ’60s. The insignias were glued on. Prices for Konwal lighters today range from $10 to $80. Lighters with etched military symbols were made by Zippo Manufacturing Co. Zippo made lighters exclusively for the military during World War II, and millions of lighters were issued to military personnel. Prices for Zippo military lighters start at $15 and go up from there.
Tip: Never store photographs with rubber bands or paper clips. Store photos in acid-free boxes or envelopes, available at specialty stores and through mail-order catalogs.
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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 email 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.
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.
Holly Hobbie Mother’s Day plate, “A Mother’s Love Blooms Forever,” Calico Girl with patchwork umbrella sitting on stool, 1976, 10 1/2 inches, $15.
Crinoline petticoat, pink net, two gathered layers of net, lace trim on hem, 1950s, 24-inch waist, $90.
Playpal Lori Martin doll, National Velvet outfit, blue sleep eyes, long brown hair, red plaid shirt, cowgirl boots and hat, Ideal, 30 inches, $175.
Lucite ice bucket, octagonal, lid pivots on post, circa 1970, 9 1/2 x 8 inches, $395.
Hooked rug, pudgy purple pony surrounded by stars and tulips, two large parrots, cotton and wool, black and cream ground, circa 1930, 40 x 24 inches, $410.
Louis XVI-style window bench, carved scrolled arms, caned side panels and seat, gilt and gold painted surface, fluted legs, 1900s, 31 x 40 x 16 inches, $745.
Herb grinder, cast-iron grinding wheel, trough in pine frame, grooved legs, floor model, American, 19th century, 19 1/2 x 26 inches, $1,410.
Spot great costume jewelry faster than anyone and get the buys of a lifetime. Kovels’ Buyers’ Guide to Costume Jewelry, Part One explains how to recognize mid-century costume jewelry, Mexican silver jewelry, modernist jewelry and other European and American pieces. Learn all the names you need to know, from Hobe and Sigi to Ed Wiener and Art Smith, from Coro and Trifari to Los Castillo and Spratling. And we explain how to recognize a good piece of genuine Bakelite. Our exclusive report, 8 1/2 by 5 1/2 inches, is filled with color photos, bios, background and more than 100 marks. It’s accurate and comprehensive and includes all of the information in our 2008 report on 20th-century costume jewelry. But it’s in a new, smaller and more convenient format. Available only from Kovels. Order by phone at 800-303-1996, online at Kovels.com, or send $25 plus $4.95 postage and handling to Kovels, Box 22900, Beachwood, OH 44122.
NEW YORK (AP) – A giant sculpture of a girl’s head by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa has landed in a New York City park.
The 44-foot (13.5-meter)-tall “Echo” was unveiled Thursday in Madison Square Park by the park’s conservancy.
The internationally renowned artist says the white fiberglass resin work was inspired by the Greek mythological nymph Echo. She could only utter other people’s thoughts but not her own.
The massive scale of the work also draws parallels to Echo’s origin as a mountain nymph.
It will remain in the park until Aug. 14.
The artist says the sculpture’s face is based on the 9-year-old daughter of a restaurant owner near his home in Barcelona.
Plensa is known for his monumental forms. Chicago’s Millennium Park is home to his 50-foot(15-meter)-high ‘Crown Fountain.”
Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Among the many important paintings in the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art’s collection is John Singer Sargent’s (American, 1856-1925) 1885 oil-on-canvas work titled ‘Robert Louis Stevenson and His Wife.’
BENTONVILLE, Ark. (AP) – A Bentonville museum has received $800 million in endowments from the Walton Family Foundation.
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art executive director Don Bacigalupi announced the gifts on Wednesday.
Officials say the largest endowment – $350 million – will go toward operating the museum; $325 million will be used for acquisitions and $125 million will be used for capital improvements.
Officials say they expect the endowments to be supplemented with other gifts and memberships, as well as earned income.
Walton Family Foundation board member Alice Walton said in the statement that by investing in the museum, her family had laid a foundation for the institution to grow as a resource for Bentonville, the state of Arkansas and the entire country.
Alice Walton is an heir to Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
# # #
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Among the many important paintings in the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art’s collection is John Singer Sargent’s (American, 1856-1925) 1885 oil-on-canvas work titled ‘Robert Louis Stevenson and His Wife.’
PHOENIX (AP) – The owner of a car auction business in Gilbert has been indicted for allegedly defrauding more than 50 customers since 2009.
Maricopa County prosecutors say a 101-count indictment charges Stanley Dean Torgerson of fraud and theft for allegedly selling vehicles for customers and failing to give them the proceeds.
Torgerson owns International Car Auction, which has been in business for about 20 years.
Authorities say Torgerson was arrested Tuesday morning by Gilbert police. He remains jailed on a $50,000 cash only bond. It’s unclear whether Torgerson has legal representation.
Prosecutors say Torgerson’s financial records show he spent the auction proceeds on family members, personal expenses and other businesses. They say Torgerson could get a life prison term if he’s convicted on all counts and sentenced to consecutive aggravated terms.
Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
A costumed and face-painted Frank Avruch, circa 1960s, one of many TV actors who portrayed Bozo the Clown. Photo appears with permission of GNU Free Documentation License.
CHICAGO (AP) – A Chicago marketing executive has paid $3,000 at auction to buy the electric organ used on the long-running Bozo’s Circus television show.
The Chicago Tribune reports that while David Plier grew up watching the show, he doesn’t plan on keeping the organ. The 43-year-old Plier says he will donate the organ to Chicago’s Museum of Broadcast Communications. Plier serves on the museum’s board.
The museum has other Bozo historic pieces, including a bass drum, costumes and the famous Grand Prize Game. Plier says the museum will create a Bozo exhibit in its new facility.
Plier says the organ needs some cosmetic and mechanical work before it can be displayed.
WGN-TV stopped broadcasting Bozo’s Circus in 2001.
