August 11, 2011 - Auction Central News

West Palm Beach show dodges Tropical Storm Emily

A very rare scene by Highwayman artist Sam Newton. Image courtesy of the West Palm Beach Antiques Festival.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – West Palm Beach Antiques Festival owners Kay and Bill Puchstein were sweating out the imminent approach of Tropical Storm Emily to the South Florida area the week before the August 6-7 event. The facility for the show at the South Florida Fairgrounds is used as an emergency Red Cross center during hurricanes, and it was feared that the festival might have to be cancelled. At the last minute, the storm played itself out over the mountains of Haiti, and all concerns were allayed. Kay Puchstein attributed their luck to her “guardian angel” who blew the storm out to sea.

After storm fears subsided, the entire weekend turned out to be very nice, with no rain or wind as anticipated. Both Saturday’s and Sunday’s attendance was the largest ever for a summer show at West Palm Beach. Lots of very unusual and high quality items were brought to the show and many of them went home with new owners.

Among the unusual items was an extremely rare Highwayman painting by Sam Newton of a boat – 36 x 24inch oil on original upson board with fancy frame from the 1970s offered by Janice Peters Zephyrhills, Fla. None of the dealers specializing in Highwaymen art had ever seen a painting like this one. It was the talk of the show. Also on display was seldom seen 1962 Gretsch hollow-body electric guitar, the Chet Atkins Tennessean model offered by Steve Paruta, Palm City, Fla., with an asking price of $2,500 and an early iron tricycle in very good condition offered for $450 by Anthony Angione, Miami, Florida.

One place to see a very high concentration of unusual and high-quality items at the West Palm Beach Antiques Festival is the booth of R. C. Hassell. He just goes by “RC” so you get the drift of how easygoing he is. RC’s background is a little different from many dealers. He has degree in economics from the University of Florida and an MBA from University of South Florida obtained while in the management training program for GTE in Tampa, Fla. After that, he served a stint as an assistant professor of economics at Indian River State College before becoming the senior manufacturing engineer at Grumman Aerospace in Stuart. But during his entire professional career, RC was always interested in small, good-quality items and spent a great deal of time both as a visitor and as a dealer at flea markets in the area. He gradually picked up on antiques and the sense of value they possess, and while he admits it was steep learning curve, he eventually became quite accomplished in his field and has been a dealer for 15 years, now.

Operating under the business name of Clayton Antiques, RC is partial to American gold coins and sterling silver but carries a broad range of merchandise including unusual porcelain objects, fine crystal, exotic perfume bottles and small high-end furniture. His inventory is reasonably priced, and it’s all interesting to look at.

The format for the entire summer season will be the two-day affair, Saturday and Sunday, instead of the normal three-day event during the regular season. The remaining summer show dates will be September 3-4 and October 1-2, with a full day of setup for dealers on Friday 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.. The Puchsteins have lowered dealers’ booth rent for the summer season over the normal show fee. The popular “early buyer’s admission” feature will continue throughout the summer, starting at 9 a.m. on Saturday before the regular show opening time of 10 a.m.. Summer show early buyer’s admission has been reduced to $10 and is good for both days of the show. Adult daily admission $7, seniors $6 with a $1 discount coupon for adult admission available on the website. Anyone under 16 is admitted free. There is no charge for parking at the fairgrounds.

The West Palm Beach Antiques Festival is held at the South Florida Fairgrounds located off Southern Boulevard in West Palm Beach, Fla., 1.5 miles west of the Florida Turnpike and 1 mile east of 441/SR7. For more information contact the West Palm Beach Antiques Festival at 941-697-7475, email info@wpbaf.com or visit the website at www.wpbaf.com.

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ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

A few of the items available in R.C. Hassell’s booth. Image courtesy of the West Palm Beach Antiques Festival.

This rare 1962 Gretsch hollow-body electric guitar known as the Chet Atkins Tennessean model was offered for $2,500. Image courtesy of the West Palm Beach Antiques Festival.

Exquisite Chinese and Asian art, Aug. 18-20 at Kaminski’s

Blue and white porcelain plate, China, Yongzheng Period (1723-1735), in a custom silk-lined box. Estimate: $20,000-$30,000. Image courtesy of Kaminski Auctions.

BEVERLY, Mass. – Kaminski Auctions of Beverly, Mass., will host its Summer Asian Art auction on Aug. 18, 19 and 20, with a 6 p.m. (Eastern) start for the Thursday session and a 9 a.m. start on Friday and Saturday. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide the Internet live bidding on all three days of the sale.

Ben Wang, head of Kaminski’s Arts of Asia Department, has put together an exciting collection of Chinese porcelain, paintings, jade, cloisonné and furniture for this sale. Also included are numerous Japanese, Indian and Tibetan works of art.

A Chinese 18th century famille rose jar from the Qianlong period (1735- 1796) decorated with lotus scrolls on a turquoise ground, with a six character Qianlong mark on the base is the top valued lot in the sale with an estimate of $25,000-$50,000.

One of the most exciting lots in the sale is sure to be a 20th-century painting by Qi Baishi (1863-1957) of a crane, that is ink and color on paper and mounted on silk. Its provenance includes the collection of Alice Boney, the prominent American Asian art dealer and noted advisor to museums and collectors of Chinese and Japanese art. A portfolio of sketches by the Chinese artist Wu Guanzhong, that was dedicated to Alice Boney, sold for over $240,000 in Kaminski’s April 2011 Asian auction.

Another Wu Guanzhong (1919-2010) painting of fish, that is ink on paper and signed by the artist in the lower right, will feature prominently in this sale as well, with an estimate of $20,000-$30,000.

There is an important collection of handmade carved wooden stands, consigned by a private collector and originally purchased by the well-known Asian dealer C.T. Loo, after World War II. C.T. Loo ran a shop at 41 East 57th Street in New York City for many years. These rare and exquisitely carved stands were handmade to display prized pieces of porcelain, jade, and bronze works of art.

Many wonderful pieces in the sale come from the estate of Charles Rose Thompson of Westfield, New Jersey. Thompson, a graduate of Phillips Academy and Princeton University, was a decorator who ran an import business of Oriental rugs from China in the 1940s and 50s. During his extensive travels throughout Asia for Bollentin & Thompson Oriental Rugs of New York City, Thompson amassed an extraordinary collection of rare porcelain, bronze and jade, which he loaned for many years to the Princeton Museum.

There is also an exquisite pair of cloisonné candlesticks from the 19th century, decorated with prancing deer-form bodies and lotus scrolls on a turquoise ground, estimated at $9,000-$10,000. Also included is an important Song Dynasty Ding Yao-ware bowl decorated with two phoenixes flanked by floral scrolls surrounding a central floral medallion, all carved in shallow relief and estimated at $5,000-$6,000.

A Chinese 19th-century Huanghuali folding screen with inlaid mother-of -pearl flowers and birds representing the four seasons estimated at $3,000-$5,000 is sure to bring substantial interest.

Chinese and Asian auctions will feature prominently in Kaminski’s auction calendar going forward. Asian expert Ben Wang has been traveling extensively in China this month, promoting this sale and another to follow at the beginning of December.

For additional information on any item in the upcoming auction, call Kaminski Auction Gallery at 978-927-2223 or e-mail auctions@kaminskiauctions.com.

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

Pair of Famille Rose candle holders, China, 19th century, possibly of Jaiqing Period (1735-1820. Estimate: $12,000-$18,000. Image courtesy of Kaminski Auctions.

Chinese 18th-century yellow glazed bowl, Yongzheng Period (1723-1735), in original silk-covered box set inside a carved wood box. Estimate: $40,000-$60,000. Image courtesy of Kaminski Auctions.

Famille Rose jar, Qianlong period (1735-1796), decorated with lotus scrolls, 4 1/4 inches high x 3 7/8 inches diameter, in custom felt-lined box. Estimate: $25,000-$50,000. Image courtesy of Kaminski Auctions.

Pair of Huanghuali Chairs, China, late 19th/early 20th century, with carved roundel of a dragon on the back splat. Estimate: $10,000-$20,000. Image courtesy of Kaminski Auctions.

Painting of many fish by Wu Guanzhong (1919-2010), China, 20th century, signed lower right, 15 1/2 x 21 inches (sight). Estimate: $20,000-$30,000. Image courtesy of Kaminski Auctions.

Wucai porcelain bell, China, 17th /18th century, decorated with mythical animals on a blue wave-patterned ground, dragon-form handle and scalloped bottom edge, 7 inches high x 5 inches diameter. Estimate $6,000-$9,000. Image courtesy of Kaminski Auctions.

Ivory figure of Bi Gan (civil god of wealth), China, 19th century, 30 inches. Estimate: $20,000-$30,000. Image courtesy of Kaminski Auctions.

Clars records best August results in its history

This Patek Philippe gentleman’s Perpetual Calendar “Complicated” wristwatch in 18K closed at $40,000. Clars image.

OAKLAND, Calif. – The performance of Clars monthly fine art and antiques auctions continues to be record breaking for the San Francisco Bay Area firm. Their Aug. 6-7 event resulted in the largest August gross in their history, totaling more than $730,000 and with overall year-to-date sales tracking at 44 percent over last year at this time. Their fiscal year closes on Sept. 30, and Clars’ president Redge Martin is confident the firm will realize $12 to $13 million in sales for the year, which would be a new record for the firm.

Fueling August’s strong results were exceptional investment-quality offerings across the board, with jewelry, fine art, Asian and automobiles earning top dollar.

The Sunday sale kicked off with a special classic car auction that was the follow-on to their July12th sale. Crossing the finish line as the winner in this special sale was a 1934 Ford Roadster with a Corvette engine that sold for $32,500. Taking second place was a 1975 Corvette L-48 that sold for $8,888.

Jewelry was the next category that performed exceptionally well. Patek Philippe is always sought after for investment and the gentleman’s Perpetual Calendar “Complicated” wristwatch in 18K gold earned its reputation, selling for $40,000. A stunning necklace set with 119 diamonds weighing 20.78 carats and measuring 17.5 inches in length sold for $17, 775. Another strong seller was the gentleman’s Daniel Roth No. 12 calendar wristwatch that earned $10,000.

Moving to the fine art category, Afternoon Shadows, an oil on board by Paul Lauritz (Californian, 1899-1975) sold within estimate for $7,110, followed by Landscape by William Henry Clapp (Californian, 1879-1954), which brought $5,925.

In the ever-astonishing Asian category, a framed Chinese painting sold for 50 times its estimate. Expected to make $200-$400, this ink and color on silk titled Scholars Meeting at Bridge Amid Mountains, after Wen Jia (Chinese, 1501-1583), sold for $10,073. Selling for a mere 15 times its estimate was a small Chinese jade plaque mounted as a pendant on a chain. This necklace brought $6,518.

Surprises were also seen in other categories. A framed manuscript prayer leaf, possibly 16th century, a deaccession by the America Friends-Israel Museum in New York, was estimated to bring $400 to $600 but sold for $3,250.

During the Saturday session, an extensive collection of John Wayne memorabilia offered in 45+ lots was offered. The highlight of this special offering was the bronze sculpture John Wayne, An American Legend by Robert Summers (American, b. 1940-) which sold for $1,500. Proceeds from the sale of the John Wayne collection are being donated to the University of California in his honor.

Clars’ final sale of their 2010-2011 season will be held on Sept. 10-11, with Internet live bidding through LiveAuctioneers.com. The September sale is typically their most important, and this year’s event finds exceptional Modern and Contemporary art from artists including Matisse, Dubuffet, Golub and Cathelin. An impressive selection of silver prints will also be offered from names such as Weston, Siskind and Clerque. A very special Amelia Earhart collection will be offered, and the decorative furnishings category will feature fine pieces from Dirk Van Erp and Tiffany Studios, among others.

For additional information, call Clars tollfree at 888-339-7600 or email: info@clars.com. Clars Auction Gallery is located at 5644 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland, CA 94609.

View the fully illustrated catalog from Clars’ Aug. 6-7 auction sessions, complete with prices realized, at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

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

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

Crossing the finish line as the winner in Clars special classic car auction was this 1934 Ford Roadster that sold for $32,500. Clars image.

'Afternoon Shadows' by Paul Lauritz (California, 1899-1975) sold for $7,110. Clars image. — ‘Afternoon Shadows’ by Paul Lauritz (California, 1899-1975) sold for $7,110. Clars image.

This framed Chinese ink and color on silk painting titled 'Scholars Meeting at Bridge Amid Mountains,' after Wen Jia (Chinese, 1501-1583) sold for $10,073 - 50 times its estimate. Clars image. — This framed Chinese ink and color on silk painting titled ‘Scholars Meeting at Bridge Amid Mountains,’ after Wen Jia (Chinese, 1501-1583) sold for $10,073 – 50 times its estimate. Clars image.

The Hermitage offering after-hours tours in August

Andrew Jackson's Home, The Hermitage, near Nashville, Tennessee. Photo by Jim Bowen, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Visitors to The Hermitage will have a chance to view the historic home of President Andrew Jackson in a more intimate way during a series of after-hours tours in August.

The Hermitage is offering the hour-long tours to people who purchase tickets online at www.thehermitage.com.

They take place every Thursday in August beginning at 6:30 p.m., according to a news release from The Hermitage.

Each tour will have only 15 guests and will offer a behind-the-scenes look at Jackson’s Nashville home.

The Hermitage is a 1,120-acre National Historic Landmark. It is a Smithsonian Institution Affiliate Museum with some 180,000 visitors annually.

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Pakistani Buddhist art defies odds to show in NY

Standing Bodhisattva Maitreya, Pakistan, 3rd–4th century, grey schist. H. 39 3/8 x W. 15 3/16 x D. 5 1/2 in. (100 x 38.5 x 14 cm). Central Museum, Lahore, G-131. Image courtesy of Asia Society.

NEW YORK (AFP) – A remarkable trove from Pakistan’s little-known Buddhist past has gone on show in New York in an art exhibition that defied floods, riots and explosive US-Pakistani relations before finally crossing the world.

The against-the-odds exhibition, “The Buddhist Heritage of Pakistan: Art of Gandhara,” features sculptures that have mostly never before been seen in the United States.

Unveiled this week at the Asia Society, the works trace the dizzyingly complex pre-Islamic history of the Gandhara region located in the northwest of modern-day Pakistan. The area includes the Swat Valley, synonymous today with Taliban-linked guerrilla groups and extremist revolts against Pakistan’s government.

But as the exhibition makes clear, Gandhara once was a cradle of culture and art, as well as the target of an endless stream of empires, in a flourishing period that ran from the first century BC through the fifth century AD.

“Despite images of Pakistan as a place of violent extremism, the region has an ancient tradition of tolerance and pluralism,” said Asia Society Museum director Melissa Chiu.

The stone carvings and works in gold and bronze mirror influences from as far apart as ancient Greece and Rome, India, Persia and, increasingly over time, Buddhism.

The Buddha figures, including one of just three so-called “emaciated Buddhas” in the world, and the other pieces have survived more than a millennium and a half intact, their mixed styles testifying to cultural fusion and experimentation.

But the tale of how they traveled from museums in Lahore and Karachi to Manhattan is hardly less remarkable than their passage through the ages.

Chiu told AFP the Asia Society had been working nearly two years to bring the approximately 70 objects to New York.

With nine or 10 layers of bureaucratic approval required, it was always going to be difficult, and then negotiations became sidelined in the emergency caused by catastrophic flooding last year.

Next, with acres of paperwork already sorted, the country’s government dissolved its culture ministry as part of a shake-up. “We’d had an agreement with the ministry of culture,” Chiu recalled ruefully.

An opening for March was planned and abandoned – an unusual move in the international art world – as tensions, in part linked to a CIA operative’s shooting of two Pakistanis, grew between Pakistan and the United States. The killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan during a May raid by US Special Operations Forces made the hoped-for deal even more tenuous.

Finally, agreement was reached. But even as work began to pack and ship the precious artifacts, the exhibit’s fate hung in the balance.

“In Karachi, they had all these riots the week this was being packed,” Chiu said. Terrified packers refused to leave their houses and, in the end, “museum staff went around to the houses to collect them.”

Chiu called the exhibit “a once in a lifetime opportunity,” saying the difficulties in pulling it off should inspire optimism.

“What’s interesting is there were so many people in Pakistan who helped, who put their necks on the line to make this happen – to show Americans another side of Pakistan, its long cultural heritage,” she said.

Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations in New York talked with Chiu every day for months. “Then, he called the president and other ministers to get help.”

Among the highlights of the show, which opened Tuesday and runs through October 30, is the extraordinarily carving “Vision of Buddha Paradise.” The stele features a crowded scene not only in relief but carved out, so that multiple details stand almost free of the background from which they have been cut.

Although Pakistan is now overwhelmingly Muslim, the artworks are carefully guarded and revered in their home museums. There’s another echo that lives on, Chiu noted with a mischievous smile: the twirly mustaches sported by many in the sculptures.

In Pakistan today, “everyone has a mustache. It’s de rigeur for men.”

Online: www.asiasociety.org .

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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Getty Museum acquires important photos by Herb Ritts

Herb Ritts (American, 1952 - 2002), Richard Gere, San Bernardino, 1977, Gelatin silver print, Dimensions: Image: 50.8 x 40.6 cm (20 x 16 in.), Framed: 76.2 x 63.5 cm (30 x 25 in.), Accession No. 2011.18.20, Copyright: © Herb Ritts Foundation, Credit: The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Gift of Herb Ritts Foundation.

LOS ANGELES – The Getty Museum has announced the acquisition of 69 photographs by famed fashion and celebrity photographer Herb Ritts. Consisting of photographs of nudes, portraits, and images made for high-fashion ad campaigns, this acquisition is the most significant body of the artist’s work on the West Coast. The majority of the acquisition comes in the form of a generous gift from the Herb Ritts Foundation.

“We are happy to have this opportunity to acquire an important selection of prints by Herb Ritts, whose work in fashion blurred the lines between art and commerce,” says Judith Keller, senior curator of photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum. “This acquisition not only helps build our collection of fashion photography, but also fulfills our commitment to collect bodies of works by Los Angeles-based artists.”

Other artists in the Getty’s collection who established a reputation for their fashion photographs include Richard Avedon, Cecil Beaton, Horst P. Horst, William Klein, Robert Mapplethorpe, Man Ray, and Louise Dahl Wolfe. Significant Los Angeles-based photographers include, Uta Barth, Jo Ann Callis, John Divola, Lauren Greenfield, Robert Heinecken, Catherine Opie, Paul Outerbridge, and Edward Weston.

“Herb Ritts embraced his life in Los Angeles in every aspect and that is evident in his photographs. You can feel the Southern California light and warmth in his work and, without question, it influenced his pictures,” says Mark McKenna, director of the Herb Ritts Foundation. “It is an honor knowing that Herb Ritts’s prints will be included in the Getty Museum’s prestigious collection and at the same time find a home here in the city that he adored.”

Highlights from the acquisition include Richard Gere, San Bernardino (1977), a portrait that presents the budding actor as a new American hero; Greg Louganis, Hollywood (1985), a portrait of the American Olympic diver; Wrapped Torso, Los Angeles (1988), which shows off a dress by Japanese designer Issey Mikaye; Stephanie, Cindy, Christy, Tatjana, Naomi, Hollywood (1989), an iconic image that has come to define the era of the Supermodel; Veiled Dress, El Mirage (1990), a photograph first used in Versace’s couture catalogue; and a suite of photographs of the internationally recognized choreographer and dancer Bill T. Jones. A number of the photographs in the acquisition have not been reproduced, exhibited, or seen outside of the Foundation’s archive.

“It’s exciting to have so many of Ritts’s best photographs become part of our collection,” adds Paul Martineau, associate curator in the Department of Photographs. “We are looking forward to displaying them in our galleries next spring for what will be the first significant exhibition on Ritts in over a decade.”

Selections from this acquisition will be featured in an upcoming exhibition and a related publication, opening at the Getty Center in April 2012.

About Herb Ritts:

Herb Ritts (American, 1952-2002) was a Los Angeles-based photographer and director of music videos who established an international reputation for his photographs of fashion models, nudes, and celebrity portraits. During the 1980s and 1990s, Ritts was sought out by leading fashion designers and magazine editors working for GQ, Harper’s Bazaar, Interview, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, and Vogue, among others. His career spanned various media. He created ad campaigns for many of the prestigious fashion houses in the United States and Europe and he produced award-winning music videos for artists such as Janet Jackson and Chris Isaak, along with nearly 50 television commercials. Ritts’s work has been the subject of international exhibitions and his photographs are represented in significant public and private collections. Ritts developed his own distinctive style which embodied facets of life in and around Los Angeles. An L.A. native, he often made use of the bright Southern California sunlight to produce bold contrasts, and his preference for outdoor locations—such as the beach and desert—helped to separate his work from his New York-based peers. His intimate sense of portraiture and his modern, yet classical, treatment of the nude, places his work within an American tradition of fashion and fine art photography, along with Richard Avedon and Irving Penn.

Ritts’ ability to create photographs that successfully bridged the gap between art and commerce is not only a testament to the power of his imagination and technical skill, but also marks the synergistic union between art, popular culture, and business that followed in the wake of the Pop Art movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

Herb Ritts (American, 1952 - 2002), Cindy Crawford - Ferre 3, Malibu, 1994, Gelatin silver print, Dimensions: Image: 35.6 x 27.9 cm (14 x 11 in.), Framed: 55.9 x 45.7 cm (22 x 18 in.), Accession No. 2011.18.6, Copyright: © Herb Ritts Foundation. Credit: The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Gift of Herb Ritts Foundation. — Herb Ritts (American, 1952 – 2002), Cindy Crawford – Ferre 3, Malibu, 1994, Gelatin silver print, Dimensions: Image: 35.6 x 27.9 cm (14 x 11 in.), Framed: 55.9 x 45.7 cm (22 x 18 in.), Accession No. 2011.18.6, Copyright: © Herb Ritts Foundation. Credit: The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Gift of Herb Ritts Foundation.

Herb Ritts (American, 1952 - 2002), Djimon Three-Quarter Nude (Back View), Hollywood, 1989, Platinum print, Dimensions: Image: 71.1 x 55.9 cm (28 x 22 in.), Framed: 76.2 x 86.4 cm (30 x 34 in.), Accession No. 2011.19.18, Copyright: © Herb Ritts Foundation, Credit: The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, © Herb Ritts Foundation. — Herb Ritts (American, 1952 – 2002), Djimon Three-Quarter Nude (Back View), Hollywood, 1989, Platinum print, Dimensions: Image: 71.1 x 55.9 cm (28 x 22 in.), Framed: 76.2 x 86.4 cm (30 x 34 in.), Accession No. 2011.19.18, Copyright: © Herb Ritts Foundation, Credit: The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, © Herb Ritts Foundation.

Noah’s Ark museum project gets property tax break

Artist's conception of how Ark Encounter will look when finished. Image courtesy of Ark Encounter.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Ky. (AP) – A Kentucky city has agreed to give a huge property tax break to a biblical theme park that will include a wooden replica of Noah’s Ark.

The Grant County city of Williamstown has offered a 75 percent property tax discount to The Ark Encounter over the next 30 years. The theme park is being built by a group that includes Answers in Genesis, the founders of the biblically-based Creation Museum in Boone County.

The property tax agreement means the Ark Encounter would pay 25 percent of the local taxes due on 800 acres of property where the $150 million theme park will be built.

Mayor Rick Skinner told the Lexington Herald-Leader the reduced property taxes will generate far more revenue than unoccupied land. The project is expected to break ground in the next few months.

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Information from: Lexington Herald-Leader, http://www.kentucky.com

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