Thieves haul away $1.6M in vintage wine

LONDON (AP) – Scotland Yard is searching for $1.6 million worth of vintage wine stolen from an east London warehouse.

Police said thieves disabled alarms and security cameras before breaking into the warehouse on Sunday and using a forklift to load up about 400 cases of the precious cargo.

Some of the stolen wine belonged to private investors, one of whom has offered a 5,000 pound reward for the return of the stolen stock.

The Metropolitan Police appealed to the public for information, saying the stolen wine is rare and valuable and could be sold to private collectors or auction houses.

Six men were seen with what police said they believe are the three getaway vehicles. Police said two men have been arrested in connection with the burglary.

Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-WF-05-25-11 1937GMT

 

 

 

Tim Burton show brings Gothic vision to LA

Tim Burton, Untitled (Romeo and Juliet) 1981–84, mixed media on paper, private collection, © 2011 Tim Burton. Image courtesy of LACMA.
Tim Burton, Untitled (Romeo and Juliet) 1981–84, mixed media on paper, private collection, © 2011 Tim Burton. Image courtesy of LACMA.
Tim Burton, Untitled (Romeo and Juliet) 1981–84, mixed media on paper, private collection, © 2011 Tim Burton. Image courtesy of LACMA.

LOS ANGELES  (AFP) – American filmmaker Tim Burton’s arresting visual style is well known from movies like “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “Alice in Wonderland” – but a new show titled “The Fantastical Worlds of Tim Burton” reveals the full scale of his Gothic vision.

Burton, partner of quirky British actress Helena Bonham-Carter, was an accomplished artist, and a Disney animator, before moving into directing Hollywood movies.

“This exhibition shows the full range of Tim Burton’s extraordinary creativity,” said Britt Salvesen, the exhibition’s organizer at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), which is presenting the show from May 29 to October 31.

“Most people have a good sense of his style, but seeing the show demonstrates how persistent his vision is and how evident it was from very early on, before he was even thinking about making full-scale feature films.”

Doris C. Adams, one of Burton’s art teachers when he was young, said: “He drew everything you can ever imagine, and all those little creatures,” adding that she “always encouraged him to go ahead…because he was very talented.”

The retrospective bring together more than 700 drawings, paintings, photographs, films and videos, storyboards, puppets, concept artworks, costumes and cinematic ephemera. LACMA said the film portion consists of 15 movies running at the center’s Bing Theater between May 27 to June 28.

The exhibition was organized by The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Los Angeles presentation was made possible in part by LACMA’s Wallis Annenberg Director’s Endowment Fund.

Learn more by visiting LACMA’s website at www.lacma.org.

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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE


Tim Burton, Untitled (Romeo and Juliet) 1981–84, mixed media on paper, private collection, © 2011 Tim Burton. Image courtesy of LACMA.
Tim Burton, Untitled (Romeo and Juliet) 1981–84, mixed media on paper, private collection, © 2011 Tim Burton. Image courtesy of LACMA.

Amateur archaeologists unearth Pensacola’s past

The empty bottles left and center are from Crystal Pharmacy in Pensacola and D'Alemberte's Pharmacy, Pensacola, respectively. The tall soda pop bottle is marked ‘Drink Try-Me’ and is from Northport, Ala. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers Archive and Flomaton Antique Auction.

The empty bottles left and center are from Crystal Pharmacy in Pensacola and D'Alemberte's Pharmacy, Pensacola, respectively. The tall soda pop bottle is marked ‘Drink Try-Me’ and is from Northport, Ala. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers Archive and Flomaton Antique Auction.
The empty bottles left and center are from Crystal Pharmacy in Pensacola and D’Alemberte’s Pharmacy, Pensacola, respectively. The tall soda pop bottle is marked ‘Drink Try-Me’ and is from Northport, Ala. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers Archive and Flomaton Antique Auction.
PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) – Chad Fitzgerald and Frank Phillips aren’t your typical treasure seekers.

Instead of dusty tombs or vine-covered temples, they explore their own yard. Armed with buckets and spades, they dig, unearthing bits and pieces of Pensacola’s past.

If one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, these amateur archaeologists are rich beyond measure.

Their story begins, as all good mysteries do, with a clue.

Fitzgerald and Phillips bought their home – in a modest, older neighborhood off Pace Boulevard – in 2005. The house had sat empty for three years; broken glass was strewn across the front yard.

“I thought, ‘What a shame, so much littering.’” Fitzgerald, 45, recalled. “But when we picked up the fragments, we could tell they were pretty old.”

The mysterious glass turned up again when Phillips, 60, tried to install fencing in the backyard.

“I couldn’t get any post holes dug, because I kept hitting bottles,” he said, shaking his head. “I felt bad about breaking them, but I really didn’t know what we were dealing with.”

Phillips couldn’t have guessed where those old bottles would lead them. Or how deep.

For the last 15 months, the couple has unearthed a staggering variety of objects on their property.

An enormous mound of colorful glass and pottery shards – an estimated three tons – dominates their backyard. Inside the house, vintage bottles – nearly 2,000 intact specimens have been found – line the walls. Cabinets and tables display curious collections of found objects including buttons, bullets, pipe stems, wooden toothbrush handles and crystal bottle stoppers.

There’s even a gun – a heavy, battered revolver.

“It’s kind of taken over,” Fitzgerald said, with an impish grin. “But we love it.”

And they love “fitting the puzzle pieces” almost as much as finding them.

According to local archaeologists, the digging duo’s neighborhood was most likely built on a former city dump site.

“They suspect it might have been part of the old W Street dump, which closed around 1940,” Fitzgerald said. “But we kind of question that, because we haven’t found anything ‘younger’ than 1915.”

The exact origins of the dump site may be murky, but probably not too unusual.

Elizabeth Benchley, the director of the Archaeology Institute at the University of West Florida, said her teams uncover dump sites at many of their local digs.

“Just about every house in downtown Pensacola had a trash heap in its backyard,” she said. “People threw it out back in a heap, or down old wells and outhouses.”

Many of Fitzgerald’s and Phillip’s finds date from the mid- to late 1800s to the early 1900s.

One of their most delicate treasures, a tiny gold medallion from a rosary, bears the date of 1850. Fitzgerald, who painstakingly unearthed and cleaned the object, handles it with reverence.

“It makes you wonder about the people who owned these objects,” he said. “Each piece has a story.”

But with so many pieces, the couple wants to share their good fortune. They are inviting the art community to make use of the glass and pottery shards – out back in the “Shard Yard” – for a mere $7 per pound.

“The possibilities are endless,” Fitzgerald said. “Stepping stones, mosaics, you name it.”

Bill Clover, a Pensacola State College professor of art and ceramics instructor, was an early customer.

He plans to make molds from some porcelain dolls that the couple found.

“They’re amazingly detailed,” Clover said. “I also bought some giant pottery shards to show my students. It’s an amazing hoard they’ve found.”

Shard sales will make room for more. With one 9-foot hole excavated, Phillips and Fitzgerald are carefully shoveling their way down another.

“We’ve learned a lot about safety since we started,” Phillips said. “Now, we have a system.”

Benchley, who has advised the men on their pet project, cautions other homeowners against amateur yard excavations.

“Digging in unstable earth is extremely dangerous,” she said. “And, if you’re living in downtown Pensacola, you could potentially dig through, and destroy, Colonial artifacts.”

Phillips and Fitzgerald are wary of their digging, but not weary. Not yet.

With the rest of their property to explore, they remain enamored of their earthy obsession. They believe they were fated to own the treasure-studded property.

“Frankie told me at the beginning, that people walk across their fortunes every day,” Fitzgerald said. “In our case, it isn’t about the money. But we feel very blessed.”

Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-WF-05-25-11 2046GMT

 


ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE


The empty bottles left and center are from Crystal Pharmacy in Pensacola and D'Alemberte's Pharmacy, Pensacola, respectively. The tall soda pop bottle is marked ‘Drink Try-Me’ and is from Northport, Ala. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers Archive and Flomaton Antique Auction.
The empty bottles left and center are from Crystal Pharmacy in Pensacola and D’Alemberte’s Pharmacy, Pensacola, respectively. The tall soda pop bottle is marked ‘Drink Try-Me’ and is from Northport, Ala. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers Archive and Flomaton Antique Auction.

S.B. & Co. to auction fresh estate antiques, art on June 5

American school folk art oil painting, early to mid 19th century, est. $3,000-$5,000. Image courtesy of S.B. & Co.

American school folk art oil painting, early to mid 19th century, est. $3,000-$5,000. Image courtesy of S.B. & Co.
American school folk art oil painting, early to mid 19th century, est. $3,000-$5,000. Image courtesy of S.B. & Co.
BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. – S.B. & Co. Auctioneers, the Vermont-based company owned and operated by Sharon Bocelli, will host a June 5 Spring Auction at their gallery, with Internet live bidding provided by LiveAuctioneers.com.

The 236-lot sale will commence at 12 noon Eastern time. The inventory consists of fresh to the market 18th and 19th century furnishings, mid-century pieces, artworks and country items. Additionally, the sale includes silver (including Russian and Georg Jensen), jewelry, porcelain, pottery, vintage cameras, rugs, lighting and more.

The mix is impressive, with several unexpected lots that are more than worthy of mention. Lot 133 is a Cavalier King Charles spaniel figure made by Ohio Sewer Tile Co. Made of white clay with a brown overglaze, it stands approximately 7 inches tall and is estimated at $300-$500.

Lot 154, a Pablo Picasso lithographed exhibition poster from the Alex Maguy Gallery, June 1962, is estimated at $100-$200.

An unusual 14K gold Moderne ring, entered as lot 117, is expected to make $200-$300.

For additional information on any lot in the sale, call 802-460-1190 or 617-413-4054.

View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

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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


Elisha Otis handpainted game board, signed and dated 1877. Provenance: Made by John Hall, inventor and engineer for Elisha Otis of Otis Elevator co., with descent through family. Est. $2,000-$3,000. Image courtesy of S.B. & Co.
Elisha Otis handpainted game board, signed and dated 1877. Provenance: Made by John Hall, inventor and engineer for Elisha Otis of Otis Elevator co., with descent through family. Est. $2,000-$3,000. Image courtesy of S.B. & Co.
Gorham sterling silver dinner service in chest, Chantilly pattern, est. $2,500-$5,000. Image courtesy of S.B. & Co.
Gorham sterling silver dinner service in chest, Chantilly pattern, est. $2,500-$5,000. Image courtesy of S.B. & Co.
Chippendale maple chest on chest, New England, est. $4,000-$6,000. Image courtesy of S.B. & Co.
Chippendale maple chest on chest, New England, est. $4,000-$6,000. Image courtesy of S.B. & Co.
Navajo rug, 6ft. 10 in. x 4 ft. 1 in., with multiple design elements, est. $2,000-$3,000. Image courtesy of S.B. & Co.
Navajo rug, 6ft. 10 in. x 4 ft. 1 in., with multiple design elements, est. $2,000-$3,000. Image courtesy of S.B. & Co.

Last cigar factory shuttered in Red Lion, Pa.

J.C. Winter & Co. of Red Lion, Pa., also manufactured chewing tobacco. This metal thermometer advertises the company’s Happy Jim brand. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers Archive and Morphy Auctions.

J.C. Winter & Co. of Red Lion, Pa., also manufactured chewing tobacco. This metal thermometer advertises the company’s Happy Jim brand. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers Archive and Morphy Auctions.
J.C. Winter & Co. of Red Lion, Pa., also manufactured chewing tobacco. This metal thermometer advertises the company’s Happy Jim brand. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers Archive and Morphy Auctions.
RED LION, Pa. (AP) – Joe Jacobs, now 63, can remember the smell of tobacco curing as he drove into Red Lion as a teen.

The town’s cigar factories employed most of its people, and they sold more than 10 percent of the cigars manufactured in the United States, according to local historian Shirley Keeports.

She said most current Red Lion residents can still say they know someone who once worked in a Red Lion cigar factory.

But unless they know Jacobs or his receptionist, they don’t know anyone who presently works in one.

Van Slyke & Horton Inc. was the last remaining factory from the industry that built the town – and it closed production about six weeks ago, said Jacobs, who manages the place.

He and his secretary are all that remain. After an auction of most of the manufacturer’s possessions, they’ll be gone, too.

“It certainly is the end of an era,” said Jacobs, whose father, Clark Jacobs, owns the factory. “There were a lot of people who lived a very good life because of it. The industry was responsible for Red Lion being such a flourishing community at that time, and there was a time when most men had a cigar in their mouth. We just always thought people would smoke.”

He said Van Slyke & Horton, 49 S. Pine St. in Red Lion, was also the last operational cigar factory in York County.

The Van Slyke building began manufacturing cigars in 1910 under then-owner J.C. Winters, Jacobs said.

It had about 60 employees in the height of cigar popularity and was producing millions of cigars per year.

Things had been “rolling downhill” for cigar manufacturers for decades, but the passage of a new tobacco tax a few years ago and the economic recession “pushed us over the cliff,” Jacobs said.

The factory made nearly a million cigars last year, selling them to locations all over the world. Workers would condition the loose tobacco and feed it into 20 machines that rolled cigars, and then they’d pack and ship them. But orders slowed and the handful of remaining employees were let go around two months ago, Jacobs said.

The machines were sold to an operation in Nicaragua and, on Thursday morning an auction was conducted to disperse decades worth of equipment and memorabilia, Jacobs said.

Items sold included labels and bands, antique hand-rolling items such as cutting boards and knives, cigar molds and 250-capacity trunks in which cigars were packed, he said.

The building is not for sale, and Jacobs said he’s not sure what will come of it.

The cigar industry was so strong in Red Lion by the 1920s that the town was the richest place, per-capita, in the nation, said Keeports, who directs the Red Lion Historical Society’s museum.

“I don’t think there were many households that didn’t do some kind of cigar manufacturing,” she said. “You could start stripping tobacco in your own home, and you were called a stripper. Most of the women were strippers, stripping the stem from the leaf.”

The town’s opera house and theater were built on cigar profits. So were the lives of the townspeople.

Workers wrote songs and poems about the factories, and they treasured their jobs enough to fight for them. In 1934, cigar workers afraid of losing work to machines went on strike. State police were called to control rioters. Women lay down in front of delivery trucks. One Red Lion man was blinded by tear gas, and, according to Keeports, had to make brooms for the rest of his life.

Keeports said she’s “greatly upset” by the last factory’s closure. She planned to attend the auction and use Historical Society funds to buy and preserve as much of the memorabilia as possible.

Things might be tight, she said, because she recently “spent a lot” at the closing of Loyer’s Pharmacy, another of the town’s institutions.

“It’s our history,” she said. “I don’t like to see these things leave the town.”

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Online:

http://bit.ly/iyD0EF

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Information from: The York Dispatch, http://www.yorkdispatch.com

Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-WF-05-25-11 1926GMT

 

Fortune cookie messages repurposed into public art

An opened fortune cookie. Photo by Lorax, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
An opened fortune cookie. Photo by Lorax, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
An opened fortune cookie. Photo by Lorax, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – For years Jonathan Brilliant has been collecting fortunes, the slivers of paper bearing wisdom that are wrapped into crisp cookies served at Chinese restaurants. Brilliant, a visual artist, began making scale models of outdoor art pieces using the fortunes.

He said the models looked like the work of Richard Serra, a sculptor known for working with sheet metal.

“I was just using the papers as a funny modeling thing,” Brilliant said. “And it took on a life of its own.”

He didn’t know whether he would get the opportunity to make the models come to life, but when the Columbia Design League held an open competition for its Play With Your City public art initiative, Brilliant thought he had the perfect idea.

Brilliant’s “Field of Good Fortune,” a site-specific installation featuring 12-foot-long fortunes made of mounted sign material, will open Friday in the green area at Main and Lady streets.

After three finalists were selected by the CDL, an affiliate group of the Columbia Museum of Art, Teri Tynes, a New York-based arts writer and blogger who has lived in Columbia, served as the deciding juror.

The CDL provided $3,000 for the project.

“It was a really great opportunity for me because this was a project I wanted to make,” Brilliant said. “This would not have happened if the Columbia Design League was not excited about it. It’s easy to make work, but it’s difficult to get it out to the public.”

Brilliant, a Charleston native who now lives in Columbia, is known for his site-responsive art. His recent work includes “Have Sticks Will Travel,” an exhibition that was installed, in varying forms, in 13 galleries in 18 months. “Sticks, Straws, Sleeves and Leaves,” an installation built with coffee stirrer sticks, opened at McMaster Gallery in January 2010.

As he presented his proposal to the Design League and Tynes, Brilliant was adamant that “Field of Good Fortune” would be temporary. He repeated the notion several times during his presentation in September.

‘With ideas like this, I think it’s easier to execute when it’s not permanent,” he said earlier this week. ‘I think people are more willing to accept something when they don’t have to live with it. When something is temporary, it enhances the experience.”

The fortunes that will be displayed are scanned images from actual fortunes Brilliant collected. He used a flatbed scanner, an optical device he referred to as the perfect camera because it reads texture.

“They look like paper, like stained fortune paper,” Brilliant said of the blown-up images, printed by Signs Now, that will be affixed to aluminum backs. “They look like giant pieces of paper. We made them like you’d make a giant sign.”

But how will it look in the grassy area owned by First Citizens Bank?

“I’m just augmenting the landscaping design that’s already there,” said Brilliant, who will have the fortunes mirroring the flow and curves of the space. “How they’re going to be arranged will mimic the pathway.”

Brilliant started with a list of 20 fortunes from his collection that were approved for the project. He narrowed the number to six that had content related to art or the artistic impression.

Here’s what one fortune reads: “You are original and creative.” There are smiley faces on both sides of the phrase.

Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE


An opened fortune cookie. Photo by Lorax, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
An opened fortune cookie. Photo by Lorax, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

No chump change seen at Morphy’s May 7 Coins & Currency sale

1889 $5 Liberty Half-Eagle NGC PF 65 cameo gold coin. Provenance: Amon Carter collection, $44,800. Morphy Auctions image.
1889 $5 Liberty Half-Eagle NGC PF 65 cameo gold coin. Provenance: Amon Carter collection, $44,800. Morphy Auctions image.
1889 $5 Liberty Half-Eagle NGC PF 65 cameo gold coin. Provenance: Amon Carter collection, $44,800. Morphy Auctions image.

DENVER, Pa. – Collectors rode the money train at Morphy’s on May 7th, snapping up gold, silver and paper rarities at the central Pennsylvania auction company’s $241,000 numismatics sale, with Internet live bidding through LiveAuctioneers.com. All prices quoted include an 18% buyer’s premium.

The top item among 201 lots offered was an 1889 $5 Liberty Half-Eagle NGC PF 65 cameo gold coin. With provenance from the renowned collection of Texas newspaper publisher Amon Carter (1879-1955), the treasured coin was entered in the sale with a $28,000-$35,000 estimate. Buoyed by aggressive bidders, it finished at an impressive $44,800.

Another gold piece, an 1854-D $2.50 gold Liberty Quarter-Eagle, AU-58, boasted provenance from the Ashland City (Tenn.) Collection of branch-mint gold coins. It surpassed its high estimate to sell for $23,600.

Among the silver coins offered, a 1799 Draped-Bust Heraldic silver dollar fared best. “It is rare to see this particular coin in extra-fine condition, as this one was,” said Morphy’s CEO, Dan Morphy. Edging out its high estimate, the coin concluded its bidding run at $4,100.

Due to an anomaly that occurred at the mint, a 1955 Lincoln Head penny was rendered the appearance of having been die-cut twice. Estimated at $2,000-$2,500, the humble copper coin drew a high rate of interest, finishing at $3,540.

The highest-priced bill in the paper money section was an 1896 $5 silver certificate. In very fine condition, the note was expected to make $1,600-$2,000 but instead was bid to $3,540.

Morphy said he was very pleased with both the gross – which more than met expectations – and the participation in the May 7 sale, which also included phone, absentee and Internet live bidding. “The current market for gold and silver coins is unprecedented, and numismatics will continue to be an area of special interest to us,” said Morphy.

View the fully illustrated catalog for the May 7 Coins & Currency auction, complete with prices realized, at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

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


ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE


1854-D $2.50 gold Liberty Quarter-Eagle, AU-58. Provenance: the Ashland City (Tenn.) Collection of branch mint gold coins, $23,600. Morphy Auctions image.
1854-D $2.50 gold Liberty Quarter-Eagle, AU-58. Provenance: the Ashland City (Tenn.) Collection of branch mint gold coins, $23,600. Morphy Auctions image.
1896 $5 silver certificate, $3,540. Morphy Auctions image.
1896 $5 silver certificate, $3,540. Morphy Auctions image.
1799 Draped-Bust Heraldic silver dollar, $4,100. Morphy Auctions image.
1799 Draped-Bust Heraldic silver dollar, $4,100. Morphy Auctions image.

Rare books, prints, at Adams Amsterdam auction May 28

Honoré Daumier, (1808-1879). Le gens de justice. (Paris), Aubert, (1845-48). Folio (ca. 34.6 x 26 cm). Contemporary half calf with gilt-stamped title 'Les Gens de Justice et Tout ce qu'on voudra' on front cover. Estimate: 2,000 euros - 3,000 euros. Image courtesy of Adams Amsterdam Auctions.

Honoré Daumier, (1808-1879). Le gens de justice. (Paris), Aubert, (1845-48). Folio (ca. 34.6 x 26 cm). Contemporary half calf with gilt-stamped title 'Les Gens de Justice et Tout ce qu'on voudra' on front cover. Estimate: 2,000 euros - 3,000 euros. Image courtesy of Adams Amsterdam Auctions.
Honoré Daumier, (1808-1879). Le gens de justice. (Paris), Aubert, (1845-48). Folio (ca. 34.6 x 26 cm). Contemporary half calf with gilt-stamped title ‘Les Gens de Justice et Tout ce qu’on voudra’ on front cover. Estimate: 2,000 euros – 3,000 euros. Image courtesy of Adams Amsterdam Auctions.
AMSTERDAM – Museums buy at auctions, but how about a museum that actually bought at an auction? This was the case with the star lot of Adams’ second sale in 2009, when a 17th-century canal mansion was sold as a work of art to be turned into a museum.

In 2010 the Amsterdam canals became UNESCO World Heritage, and since April 2011, Het Grachtenhuis (The Canal House), as the museum is called, tells the story of the origins and the power of this unique urban concept (www.hetgrachtenhuis.nl). Adams Amsterdam Auctions continues to sell from this masterpiece of Renaissance architecture and offers an important collection on the same subject: Amsterdam.

Adams Amsterdam Auctions’ next public sale of rare books, manuscripts, maps, prints, photographs and other artefacts will be held Saturday, May 28, at the company’s premises at Herengracht 386, with Internet live bidding through LiveAuctioneers.com.

Adams presents two catalogs, the fine and rare books and prints catalog contains subjects such as History and Travel, Atlases, Globes, Maps and Views, Art and Architecture, Science including Medicine and Natural History, Children’s Books and Games, Literature, Religion, Drawings, Watercolors and Paintings, Miscellanea and Photography. The other catalog contains the first part of the legendary Gert Jan Hemmink collection of works by Hugo Claus (1929-2008) himself and by Hugo Claus and others, such as Karel Appel, Alechinsky, Corneille, Dotremont and many more.

As mentioned above, Amsterdam plays a large role as well because more than 40 interesting items on the Dutch capital, of which a large part comes from the famous Lodewijk Houthakker collection, will come under the hammer. Wagenaar’s Amsterdam (1760-1788) is the most exciting work in this special chapter. The extra illustrated edition consists of 87 plates with portraits, including one finely colored by hand, and 258 with views, including a set by Fouquet that were originally published in his famous Atlas of 1775. This spectacular work gives a more than complete picture of Amsterdam in the second half of the 18th century (est. 50,000 euros – 75,000 euros).

Another highlight of the upcoming auction is Het groote tafereel der dwaasheid-, vertoonende de opkomst, voortgang en ondergang der actie, bubble en windnegotie, in Vrankrijk, Engeland, en de Nederlanden, gepleegt in den jaare MDCCXX. This work contains 76 engraved and etched plates with caricatures on the 1720 Bubble, including a map of the Mississippi (est. 2,000 euros – 3,000 euros).

More beautiful views are collected in Suite de quatre-vingt paysages, de différentes grandeurs, composés et gravés a l’eau forte par Ant. Waterloo, peintre hollandaise by Anthonie Waterloo (1618-1662). This fine suite contains 76 etchings with pastoral, Dutch and mountainous landscapes by the famous Dutch landscape painter. This album is in the rare Pierre-François Basan & Etienne Léon Poignant edition (circa 1784-6), only two copies found recorded (est. 6,000 euros – 8,000 euros).

One of the bestsellers of illustrated 17th-century travel literature is Joris van Spilbergens’ miroir Oost & West-Indical, auguel sont descriptes les deux dernieres navigations, faictes es années 1614, 1615, 1616, 1617 & 1618. This first and only edition of the French translation consists of 24 (out of 25) maps, plans, views and battle scenes, of which five are double page and one folding (est. 10,000 euros – 15,000 euros).

The complete Men of Law by Daumier is also one of the top items of Adams’ next sale. Daumier designed 39 plates for Le gens de justice. The plates depict all the worst aspects of French 19th-century legal affairs (est. 2,000 – 3,000 euros).

Within the subject of natural history one of the highlights is the first and only edition of a splendid series of hand-colored engravings of wood samples from trees and scrubs from all over the world. This work by Sepp & Houttuyn – Houtkunde, behelzende afbeeldingen van meest alle bekende, in- en uitlandsche houten die tot den huis- en scheepsbouw, tot schrynwerk, werktuigen en gereedschappen, tot verwstoffen en in de geneeskunde, worden gebruikt – was by far the most extensive display of wood samples published to that date, and can hardly be equaled by modern publications. Another highlight within the botanical literature is Carolus Linnaeus’ Hortus Cliffortianus, a catalog first published 1737. (est. 2,500 – 3,500).

Highlights of the Hugo Claus collection include the manuscript of Paal en Perk, containing 14 original drawings by Corneille; a copy of the rarissime Cinq lithographies en couleur by Karel Appel (est. 20,000 euros – 25,000 euros), the manuscript of Genesis, and De expert, maybe the only remaining COBRA painting by Hugo Claus.

 

For details go to www.adamsamsterdam.com or phone +31203201131.

 

(Euro 1 = $1.40)

 

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


Jan Wagenaar, Amsterdam, 1760-1788, four volumes, beautifully illustrated first edition. Estimate: 50,000 euros - 75,000 euros. Image courtesy of Adams Amsterdam Auctions.
Jan Wagenaar, Amsterdam, 1760-1788, four volumes, beautifully illustrated first edition. Estimate: 50,000 euros – 75,000 euros. Image courtesy of Adams Amsterdam Auctions.
Hugo Claus (1929-2008) - Karel APPEL, (1921-2006). [Parijs, 1954]. Vouwblad met vijf losse bladen met litho's in luxe overslagdoos (Phoenix). Estimate: 20,000 euros - 25,000 euros. Image courtesy of Adams Amsterdam Auctions.
Hugo Claus (1929-2008) – Karel APPEL, (1921-2006). [Parijs, 1954]. Vouwblad met vijf losse bladen met litho’s in luxe overslagdoos (Phoenix). Estimate: 20,000 euros – 25,000 euros. Image courtesy of Adams Amsterdam Auctions.
Joris van Spilbergen. Miroir Oost & West-Indical, Amsterdam, Johannes Janssonius, 1621. 4to oblong. Later vellum with gilt double line along the edges. With 24 (out of 25) maps, plans, views and battle-scenes. Estimate: 10,000 euros - 15,000 euros. Image courtesy of Adams Amsterdam Auctions.
Joris van Spilbergen. Miroir Oost & West-Indical, Amsterdam, Johannes Janssonius, 1621. 4to oblong. Later vellum with gilt double line along the edges. With 24 (out of 25) maps, plans, views and battle-scenes. Estimate: 10,000 euros – 15,000 euros. Image courtesy of Adams Amsterdam Auctions.
Anthonie Waterloo (1618-1662). Suite de quatre-vin. Paris, Basan Freres, (ca. 1784-1786). Sm. folio Letterpress title followed by 76 etchings signed by Waterloo on 45 (of 47 or 49) leaves, of which 24 large full-page etchings. Estimate:6,000 euros - 8,000 euros. Image courtesy of Adams Amsterdam Auctions.
Anthonie Waterloo (1618-1662). Suite de quatre-vin. Paris, Basan Freres, (ca. 1784-1786). Sm. folio Letterpress title followed by 76 etchings signed by Waterloo on 45 (of 47 or 49) leaves, of which 24 large full-page etchings. Estimate:6,000 euros – 8,000 euros. Image courtesy of Adams Amsterdam Auctions.
Groote Tafereel der Dwaasheid, Het-, Gedrukt tot waarschouwinge voor de nakomelingen, 1720 [ca. 1740]. Folio. Contemp. marbled, richly gold-tooled calf, spine ribbed and gilt. Title in red & black, with 76 engraved and etched plates. Estimate: 2,000 euros - 3,000 euros. Image courtesy of Adams Amsterdam Auctions.
Groote Tafereel der Dwaasheid, Het-, Gedrukt tot waarschouwinge voor de nakomelingen, 1720 [ca. 1740]. Folio. Contemp. marbled, richly gold-tooled calf, spine ribbed and gilt. Title in red & black, with 76 engraved and etched plates. Estimate: 2,000 euros – 3,000 euros. Image courtesy of Adams Amsterdam Auctions.

Britain contributes to Auschwitz preservation fund

View of the main gate at former Nazi death camp of Birkenau. August 2006 photo by Angelo Celedon, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.
View of the main gate at former Nazi death camp of Birkenau. August 2006 photo by Angelo Celedon, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.
View of the main gate at former Nazi death camp of Birkenau. August 2006 photo by Angelo Celedon, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.

WARSAW (AFP) – Britain will contribute 2.1 million pounds (2.4 million euros, 3.4 million dollars) to help preserve the site of Nazi German death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the British embassy in Poland said Thursday.

“I am determined that the government should take an active approach to preserving the memory of the Holocaust,” British Foreign Secretary William Hague was quoted as saying in an embassy statement. “Auschwitz-Birkenau is a searing reminder of the horrific consequences of intolerance and hatred. It should never been forgotten,” he added.

The camp was set up by Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. Over the decades since the conflict ended, 95 percent of the annual costs of preserving the site – now around five million euros – has met by the Polish state and revenues from publications and guided tours.

In 2009, Poland launched a 120-million-euro appeal, aiming to create an endowment that would ensure the site’s long-term future.

Auschwitz-Birkenau is the most notorious, and enduring, symbol of the Holocaust, Nazi Germany’s wartime campaign of genocide against Europe’s Jews.

A year after invading Poland in 1939, the Nazis opened what was to become a vast complex on the edge of the southern town of Oswiecim – “Auschwitz” in German. They later expanded it to the nearby village of Brzezinka, or Birkenau. Of the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust, one million were murdered at the site, mostly in its notorious gas chambers, along with tens of thousands of others including Poles and Soviet prisoners of war.

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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE


View of the main gate at former Nazi death camp of Birkenau. August 2006 photo by Angelo Celedon, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.
View of the main gate at former Nazi death camp of Birkenau. August 2006 photo by Angelo Celedon, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.

VIDEO: Facebook founder says Internet will further empower people

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg addresses the e-G8 gathering of Internet bosses in Paris. AFP image.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg addresses the e-G8 gathering of Internet bosses in Paris. AFP image.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg addresses the e-G8 gathering of Internet bosses in Paris. AFP image.

PARIS – Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg says social networking is “quite primitive” compared to the exciting possibilities that lie ahead. Zuckerberg told the e-G8 gathering of Internet bosses in Paris that his global social networking site cannot take credit for enabling the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, in which protestors coordinated their efforts online.

“Facebook was neither necessary nor sufficient for any of those things to happen,” the 27-year-old New Yorker said.

Video copyright AFP.


ADDITIONAL VIDEO OF NOTE