Colonial Williamsburg’s historic buildings, including the 1722 Virginia royal governor’s residence, escaped major damage in the storm. Copyright 2011 The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) – Cleanup is under way at Colonial Williamsburg following Hurricane Irene.
Officials say the historic area, its museums and merchants square escaped major damage from the storm.
Crews cleared downed trees and debris, but continued to deal with the challenges of widespread power outages.
Selected sites at the historic area were set to re-open Monday, but the museums will remain closed because they don’t have electricity. The area’s lodge and restaurant are open and receiving guests.
Officials expect to resume full operations on Tuesday, depending on the availability of power.
The preserved 18th-century site that serves as an educational and tourist venue is operated and maintained by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-08-29-11 1239GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Colonial Williamsburg’s historic buildings, including the 1722 Virginia royal governor’s residence, escaped major damage in the storm. Copyright 2011 The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – Kansas Citizens for the Arts plans to have a Statehouse news conference to demand that legislators and Gov. Sam Brownback reinstate state funding for the arts next year.
Tuesday’s event will include comments from Kansas House Minority Leader Paul Davis, a Lawrence Democrat.
The Republican governor pushed this year to abolish the Kansas Arts Commission and have arts programs rely more on private funding. Legislators rejected the idea, but Brownback vetoed the $689,000 lawmakers set aside for the Arts Commission and its authority to retain its small staff.
Those moves didn’t eliminate the commission, and Brownback has replaced seven of its 12 members.
The decision led the federal government and a regional arts alliance to deny Kansas funding, a loss of about $1.3 million.
Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Morphy Auctions sold a scarce 1928 Doraldina fortune-teller machine in May 2010 for $12,500. Unlike the Mills Gypsy in Montana, Doraldina told fortunes on printed cards. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers Archive and Morphy Auctions. VIRGINIA CITY, Mont. (AP) – The Gypsy sat for decades in a restaurant amid the Old West kitsch that fills this former gold rush town, her unblinking gaze greeting the tourists who shuffled in from the creaking wooden sidewalk outside.
Some mistook her for Zoltar, the fortune-telling machine featured in the Tom Hanks movie Big. Others took one look at those piercing eyes and got the heebie-jeebies so bad they couldn’t get away fast enough.
But until a few years ago, nobody, not even her owner, knew the nonfunctioning machine gathering dust in Bob’s Place was an undiscovered treasure sitting in plain sight in this ghost town-turned-themed tourist attraction.
The 100-year-old fortune-teller was an extremely rare find. Instead of dispensing a card like Zoltar, the Gypsy would actually speak your fortune from a hidden record player. When you dropped a nickel in the slot, her eyes would flash, her teeth would chatter and her voice would come floating from a tube extending out of the 8-foot-tall box.
Word got out when the Montana Heritage Commission began restoring the Gypsy more than five years ago, and collectors realized the machine was one of two or three “verbal” fortune-tellers left in the world.
One of those collectors, magician David Copperfield, said he thinks she is even rarer than that.
“I think it’s only one of one,” Copperfield said in a recent telephone interview with The Associated Press.
Copperfield wanted the Gypsy to be the crown jewel in his collection of turn-of the century penny arcade games. It would occupy a place of pride among the magician’s mechanized Yacht Race, Temple of Mystery and various machines that tested a person’s strength.
Copperfield acknowledged approaching the curators about buying the Gypsy a few years ago but declined to say what he offered. Janna Norby, the Montana Heritage Commission curator who received the call from Copperfield’s assistant, said it was in the ballpark of $2 million, along with a proposal to replace it with another fortune-telling machine. On top of that, he pledged to promote Virginia City in advertisements.
But Heritage commission curators, representing the Gypsy’s owner—the state of Montana—rejected the idea, saying cashing in on this piece of history would be akin to selling their soul.
“If we start selling our collection for money, what do we have?” said Norby, the commission’s former curator of collections.
The commission’s acting director, Marilyn Ross echoed Norby’s sentiments: “That is not something we would ever consider, selling off these antiques.”
That dismissal has set collectors grumbling. Theo Holstein, a California collector and renovator of such machines, said he thinks the Gypsy is wasted in Virginia City and should be placed in a private collection for proper care. He said he is trying to gather investors to make a $3 million bid that would top Copperfield’s offer.
“They don’t have any idea what they have. It’s like they have the world’s best diamond and they just pulled it out of their mineshaft,” Holstein said. “It’s good that it’s there and it survived, but now it really needs to be part of the world.”
Holstein said he wouldn’t be surprised in the machine ultimately sold for $10 million or more. Copperfield also said he is still interested in purchasing it.
That could put pressure on the state, which, like the rest of the nation, is facing hard fiscal times. Montana’s budget is in the black, but keeping the effects of the recession at arm’s length has meant deep budget cuts.
Those cuts have hit the Montana Heritage Commission particularly hard. Just weeks after Norby spoke to the AP, her position and three others were eliminated as part of a larger reorganization to cut $400,000 from the commission’s budget, Ross said.
The state agency that oversees the commission, meanwhile, is not so quick to reject the idea of selling the Gypsy. Department of Commerce deputy director Andrew Poole said he has not seen any offers in writing, and if one were made, it would go through a bid process that includes the scrutiny of the commission and input from the public.
The state inherited the Gypsy in 1998 when it paid $6.5 million to buy nearly 250 buildings and their contents in Virginia City and nearby Nevada City from the son of Charles Bovey. The Montana collector spent years buying up the buildings to preserve the two crumbling ghost towns and he stocked them with his ever-growing collection of antique games, music machines and oddities.
Bill Peterson, the heritage commission’s former curator of interpretation, said the collection includes hundreds of thousands of items, so many that curators are still discovering them.
The Gypsy was made sometime around 1906 by the Mills Novelty Co. In restoring her, the curators either replaced or repaired frayed, worn or broken parts with exact replicas. When they couldn’t find replicas or period materials, they didn’t replace the parts.
“We don’t want to make her anything that she wasn’t,” Norby said.
In 2008, they installed the Gypsy as the centerpiece of the Gypsy Arcade amid the ancient wooden buildings of Virginia City’s main street. Calliope music spills out into the street, beckoning the tens of thousands of visitors to enter and view the stereoscopes, shock tests, tests of strength, fortune-telling machines and love letter machines. The Gypsy presides over the menagerie in the rear, ropes keeping visitors at a distance.
All of that care in restoring, preserving and displaying the Gypsy causes state curators to reject Holstein’s argument that the machine should be removed from Virginia City and placed in a private collection.
“A lot of these collectors, they come and say the same thing: `Why is this out in the public? Why don’t you just take the money and have a collector restore it the way it should be restored and have it in his private collection?’ Well, nobody would ever see it,” said Peterson, whose position also was eliminated in the cutbacks.
Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) – Authorities in Annapolis say burglars stole $68,000 worth of Confederate memorabilia from a man’s home last week.
The Capital newspaper of Annapolis reported Sunday that the victim told officers he left home Tuesday and found his house had been burglarized when he returned Wednesday.
The war artifacts include $52,000 worth of Confederate certificates and $16,000 worth of other memorabilia such as tin-type photographs, belt buckles and buttons.
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Information from: The Capital of Annapolis, Md., http://www.hometownannapolis.com/
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Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed
Camillo Mandelli di Calco violin, 1929, having original case and bow, bearing label: ‘Camillo Mandelli, Fidibus Anno 1929.’ Estimate: $10,000-$15,000. Image courtesy of Roland Auctions. NEW YORK – The Camillo Mandelli di Calco violin and collection of 16 electric guitars going under the hammer at Roland Auctions on Sept. 17 may make for strange bedfellows, but that, according to Roland Auction’s president, is both the beauty and opportunity of a well-curated general estates auction.
Bill Roland, whose fledgling auction house in Greenwich Village is the new place for great bargains, stated that modern designer furniture and lighting are strong too. Underpinning the big items are several collections of boxes in tortoiseshell, silver, lacquer and wood plus a fine collection of antique portrait miniatures and silhouettes.
LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
The day’s marquee item is a powerful professional instrument crafted in 1929 by the famous Italian luthier Camillo Mandelli. Mandelli, who studied under both Bisiach and Antoniazzi, lived in Italy and Argentina. The violin (Lot 249) was most likely made in Milan. Ensuite with bow and recital programs, the Mandelli violin’s auction value is expected to exceed $12,000.
On a different note, a collection of 16 electric guitars going off around noon Eastern will have professional musicians and garage bands waking up in time to bid on LiveAuctioneers.com.
The collection kicks off with a fiesta red Pino Palidiono signature Fender Precision bass (Lot 250) followed by an ivory, gold-top Gibson Les Paul signed by Les Paul (Lot 258). It continues with offerings of the most sought after of guitar brands. For instance, there are two Gibson Firebirds, a Fender Dreadnaught, a 1959 Fender bass, and a Rickenbacker with fireglo finish, to name a few. The complete electric guitar collection can be seen at https://www.liveauctioneers.com/catalog/26144/page1.
Fans of mid-century furniture will marvel at a Brutalist-style mirror of welded concave steel and rough cut edges. Designed in the manner of Curtis Jere, it is moderately estimated at $300-$400. Meanwhile, a Trienele floor lamp, circa 1950, designed by Gino Sarfatti marries chrome and marble with three adjustable conical shades for a sculptural effect. There are at least three more architectural mid-century floor lamps, including a pair of attenuated lamps composed of white Lucite panels and blackened steel. Another is a stunning Italian chrome pillar just 8 inches wide and more than 5 feet tall.
Among the seating, Milan’s own contemporary designer Paolo Rizzatto is represented by a classic pair of tubular steel chairs with cantilevered seats and leather upholstery. They could easily be paired with a modernist drop-leaf glass and chrome dining table at Lot 158 or complemented by a two-tier corner with mosaic inlay.
Industrial designer Paul McCobb, who came to prominence in the late 1940s and continued to hold influence until his death in 1969, is also represented. The first item is a lush mahogany sideboard on bronze base created for the Irwin Collection. It has six paneled doors that open to reveal a fitted interior and a travertine marble top. The second McCobb item is a mahogany headboard of four sections framed in bronze, also designed for the Irwin Collection.
For details on these and the collections of boxes and portrait miniatures, please visit http:rolandantiques.com
Roland Auctions will hold the fall opener on Sept. 17, beginning at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Previews are Thursday, Sept. 15 and Sept. 16, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Guitarists wishing to check out the electric guitars are reminded to bring a portable amp.
Roland Auctions is located at 80 E. 11th St. Buyers may bid live in the gallery, on the phone, by absentee bid or on the Internet at LiveAuctioneers.com. For condition reports, call Roland Auctions at 212-260-2000.
Signed Les Paul Gibson ivory electric guitar, dated ‘2-92.’ Estimate: $2,500-$3,500. Image courtesy of Roland Auctions.Trienale floor lamp designed by Gino Sarfatti, circa 1950, 71 inches by 41 1/2 inches. Estimate: $1,200-$1,800. Image courtesy of Roland Auctions.Fender, 1959 Precision Bass Relic, manufactured 2007 with a fiesta red finish. Pino Paladino signature model. Estimate: $3,000-$5,000. Image courtesy of Roland Auctions.
A Chinese bronze standing Buddha, with traces of gilt and dark red paint, standing on a lotus flower, sold for $102,000 at a first-ever Asian Auction held by Aug. 26-27 by Cowan’s Auctions Inc., in Cincinnati, Ohio. Also, a Chinese Republic Period ivory wrist rest with polychrome insects realized $47,000; a group of Chinese white jade pendants went for $49,938; a Sino-Tibetan bronze Buddha rose to $54,000; and a finely carved Chinese carved jade duck seated on a transparent lotus flower coasted to $46,800. Prices include a 17.5 percent buyer’s premium.
Zion Gate is one of eight gates in the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. Image by Berthold Werner. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license. JERUSALEM (AP) – Israeli experts are nearing completion of an ambitious restoration of the five-century-old walls of Jerusalem, the holy city’s dominant architectural feature and a unique record of its eventful and troubled history.
The $5 million undertaking, which began in 2007, is set to be complete by the end of this year. The first restoration of the walls in nearly a century, it has required decisions about which of the walls’ many idiosyncrasies—the falcon nests, for example, the hundreds of machine-gun bullets, the botched restorations of years past—are flaws to be corrected, and which have earned a place in Jerusalem’s story and are thus worth preserving.
Jerusalem’s stone walls are 2 1/2 miles in length. They include seven gates.
“On these walls you see the whole history of this city,” said Avi Mashiah, the Israel Antiquities Authority architect in charge of the project. “They are like a mirror, reflecting all of the periods that the city experienced, and there are many. There are no other cities like this one.”
A disintegrating protective barrier of cinderblocks erected on top of the existing wall by Jordanian troops about 50 years ago, for example, was dismantled. Then it was recreated to serve as a reminder of the divided city that existed before Jordan lost east Jerusalem to Israel in the 1967 Mideast War.
Bullets pancaked into the stones at Zion Gate—remnants of fierce fighting there in 1948, when Israeli forces lost the Jewish Quarter to the Jordanians—were left in place.
Hundreds of almond trees that grow inside the walls, however, were removed. Their roots, extending between the Ottoman stones, damage the wall.
Israeli archaeology and other work in east Jerusalem has often been contentious, because it implicitly asserts Israel’s ownership over a part of the city where Palestinian leaders hope to establish a capital. But there has been little opposition to this restoration, and at Damascus Gate merchants seemed pleased that centuries of grime had been removed and the gate restored to something of its former glory.
“It was old, and they renewed it all,” said Asad Asmar, who runs a stand outside the gate. “Up there,” he said, pointing to Suleiman’s ornate battlements, which had gone from a dirty gray to a light beige that caught the light, “everything is new. It’s very, very good.”
The Old City walls, completed by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in 1541, are a monument to Ottoman engineering and to centuries of Islamic rule over Jerusalem.
Suleiman, it seems, was moved to construct the walls in part because he feared a new Christian Crusade to wrest the city from Islamic control.
For convenience, he based his walls in large part on existing ancient fortifications, including some from Roman times. His engineers constructed 35 watchtowers, firing slits for archers and grates from which burning oil could be poured on invaders rushing the gates.
His workers often reused stones that they found around the city. One, still visible near Jaffa Gate, bears part of a worn inscription reading “LEG X”—a remnant of an encampment of the 10th Legion, the Roman unit that put down a Jewish revolt and destroyed the temple in Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
The carved lions that gave Lions Gate its name were leftovers from the 13th-century Mamluk warrior Sultan Baibars. The ornamental carvings set in an outer wall near Jaffa Gate were the work of Crusader masons.
The new crusade that Suleiman feared did not materialize, and Christian conquerors only arrived nearly four centuries later in the form of the British general Edmund Allenby. Entering Suleiman’s walls after receiving the Turkish surrender in 1917, Allenby famously dismounted and strode through Jaffa Gate on foot in a gesture of humility.
The walls were unharmed, and went on to survive the Arab-Israeli wars of 1948 and 1967.
The new restoration began after several stones fell into the yard of a Catholic school adjacent to the wall in 2006. The Israeli government allocated funding and work began the following year.
At the grandest of the Old City’s seven entrances, Damascus Gate, crews worked for 10 months repairing and cleaning the stones. Inside the gate, Palestinian vendors change money and sell watches and colorful dresses hung on the massive Turkish iron doors, and much of the work was carried out at night so as not to interfere with business.
Inside the gate, one blackened stone on which no detail had been visible turned out to have a geometric inscription in block-like Arabic letters reading, “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is Allah’s messenger.”
The workers recreated the gate’s “crown,” the teeth-like battlements jutting upward above the entrance, which had been shot to pieces during the fighting in 1967. Its restoration was completed last week.
Ornamental stone spikes of the wrong shape placed atop the battlements by the British during the last restoration, in 1920, were removed. They were replaced with handmade copies of the original Ottoman stones, made by a Palestinian stonemason from a West Bank village.
During the project, a team also scanned the entire length of the walls with 3-D laser equipment, mapping every stone and locating dangerous bulges.
The crew noted the places where caper bushes and almond trees were growing between the stones, as well as the dozens of falcons and common swifts that nested in the walls.
The crevices were left untouched to avoid disturbing the birds.
Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Natural History Museum at Tring. Image by Rob Farrow. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. LONDON (AFP) – Two rhinoceros horns were stolen from a British museum on Saturday—only the horns were fake and worthless.
The horns were removed from a stuffed Indian rhino and a White rhino specimen at the Natural History Museum’s site in Tring, northwest of London.
However, due to a recent spate of such thefts across Europe, the museum had replaced the horns with replicas.
Rhinos are often poached for their horns, made of keratin and sold on the black market for ornamental or medicinal purposes, particularly in Asia.
Horns fetch around $100,000 per kilogramme.
“The theft occurred around 4 a.m. this morning, following a failed attempt at midnight,” a Natural History Museum spokeswoman, Chloe Kembery, told AFP.
“The horns were replaced with replicas about three months ago and each horn weighs about two kilos.”
A rising number of science museums in Europe are being targeted for the horns.
Europol, the European Union’s criminal intelligence agency, suspects an Irish organized crime group is behind the spate of robberies that has also hit zoos, auction houses, antique dealers and private collectors across the continent.
The Tring museum was closed Saturday while the building and the displays were repaired following the break-in.
“The police have been notified of the incident and a thorough investigation of the matter is now under way,” the spokeswoman said.
Earlier this month, robbers made off with two rhino horns from a Belgian museum, the third such heist in the country in less than two months.
Trade in rhino horns is banned under the CITES international agreement, the 1975 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
The hinged metal lid forms the hat on this comic beer stein. Image courtesy of Kovels Antiques and Collecting.
Beer steins have long been popular. Today’s stein is a beer container with a hinged lid and a handle. The lid was the result of health regulations.
The bubonic plague of the 1300s, which killed more than 25 million Europeans, and an influx of flies in Europe in the 1400s led to laws that required foods to be kept in covered containers. A hinged lid was added to a mug to make a stein.
Most beer steins collected today date from after 1800 and are made of pottery. One famous German company that used the mark “Gerz” opened in 1857 and remained in business until the 1990s. (A new company with the same name was recently established in Germany and is using the old Gerz triangle mark.)
Gerz made steins using glass or pottery. Its figural 3-D character steins that look like animal or human heads, usually comic, are especially popular.
A Smiling Face pottery stein marked “Gerz” sold for $529 at an auction in June.
Q: I have a Hoosier-style Sellers one-piece cabinet that my mother purchased secondhand in the 1950s. I’ve been unable to figure out how old the cabinet is. The cabinet was a mint-green color originally, and still has the original flour sifter. Can you help?
A: Hoosier cabinets were first made by Hoosier Manufacturing Co. of New Castle, Ind., about 1900. The freestanding kitchen cabinets had a work surface and shelves and drawers fitted with a flour sifter, coffee and tea canisters, cracker jars and other kitchen items. Soon all similar cabinets by other makers were called “Hoosiers.” The G.I. Sellers Co. was the second-largest manufacturer of Hoosier-style cabinets. The company was founded by George Sellers in Kokomo, Ind., in 1888 and moved to Elwood, Ind., in 1905. It closed in 1950. Hoosier-style cabinets were made until the 1930s, when built-in kitchen cabinets became popular.
Q: I have a set of dishes that are green and white and have a scene of the interior of what looks like a log cabin. The dishes are marked “Colonial Homestead by Royal.” The scene on the plates includes a table, chairs, grandfather clock, large fireplace with hanging cookpots and an old-fashioned gun over the fireplace. This set was left to me by my great-uncle. It includes service for six people and includes plates, small bowls, cups and saucers, a platter and a vegetable bowl. I’d like to know how old these are and what they might be worth.
A: The Royal China Co. was in business in Sebring, Ohio, from 1934 to 1986. The company made dinnerware, cookware and advertising premiums. The Colonial Homestead pattern, which includes scenes from a Colonial home, was designed by Gordon Parker. It was introduced about 1951 and was sold by Sears, Roebuck & Co. through the 1960s. The dishes sell for very low prices today.
Q: I have an old ticket that was my great-grandfather’s. It’s for a “Mexican Bull Fight” held in the Cripple Creek district of Colorado in August 1895. I understand this was the only bullfight held in the United States. Any idea what the ticket might be worth?
A: The Mexican bullfight held in Gillett, Colo., on Aug. 24-25, 1895, was billed by its promoter as “the first bullfight held in the United States.” Two professional bullfighters from Mexico were hired, but the bulls, whether imported or homegrown, were unenthusiastic participants — so, according to most accounts, the event was a fiasco. A planned third day was canceled, area humane societies protested, and those who attended wanted their money back. The Denver Public Library has a ticket like yours in its collection, and other historical societies around Cripple Creek (south of Denver) probably would like to own one. You might consider donating yours. If you decide to sell, contact an “Old West” auction, where you would probably get the most money (it’s impossible to predict how much). Gillett, by the way, was a Gold Rush town that’s now a ghost town. Bullfighting was banned in the United States in 1957 — although so-called bloodless bullfights are held in some U.S. communities.
Q: We found a Civil War discharge paper for Jasper Noon in my mother-in-law’s estate and are wondering whether it has any value.
A: Interest in Civil War items is expected to increase this year during the 150th anniversary of the start of the war. Civil War discharge papers sell for $60 to $80.
Current prices
Prices are recorded from antiques shows, flea markets, sales and auctions throughout the nation.
MasterWare cake carrier, chrome, square, holds a 12-inch cake or pie, Buffalo, 1960s, $40.
Stork Club bud vase, stork wearing top hat, painted wood with glass tube, 7 1/2 inches by 4 inches, $385.
Dave Clark Five figures, rooted black hair, jointed at neck, embossed “Dave,” “Rick,” “Dennis,” “Mike” and “Larry” on shirts, Remco Toys, 1964, set of five, 4 3/4 inches, $395.
Vogue Jennie Southern Belle Make-Up Doll, blond hair in curls with bangs, pink flower-print bonnet, dress and petticoat, carrying purse with cosmetics, 1940s, 19 inches, $550.
Cast-iron Cat and Mouse mechanical bank, clock with cat face, press lever and mouse sitting on top spins to reveal cat with mouse and ball, J.&E. Stevens, 9 inches, $645.
Ayer’s Pills poster, stone lithograph, girl with white bonnet holding a box, “Ayer’s Pills Are Sugar Coated, Will You Have One?” J.C. Ayer & Co., circa 1905, 283/4 inches by 41 inches, $1,150.
Terry Kovel, an authority on collectibles, writes for King Features Syndicate. Write to her in care Auction Central News, King Features Syndicate, 300 W. 57th St., New York, NY 10019. The volume of mail makes personal answers impossible. She can’t guarantee the return of any photograph but will try if a self-addressed, stamped envelope is included. Visit her at www. kovels.com.
Collection of eight cultured pearl, citrine glass, 14K and 19K yellow gold stickpins. Estimate: $150-$250. Image courtesy of Michaan’s Auctions. ALAMEDA, Calif. –Michaan’s Auctions will present its first offering of stickpins at their Sept. 4 estate sale, which will begin at 10 a.m. Pacific. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
Michaan’s Jewelry Department has procured stickpins from the extensive collection of Jack Taylor (lot 036, $250-350; lot 037, $150-250; lot 038, $200-300; lot 039, $200-300). After years of working in the watch and jewelry businesses, Taylor began to take notice of stickpins that would show up in his jewelry store. Instead of disassembling the retro pins and converting them into more modern jewelry items, Taylor saved them from obscurity and began a stickpin collection.
The affinity for stickpins that began in the late 1940s continued to grow up until his recent death, with the collection reaching numbering more than 400 pins. The pins are compromised of gold, gold-filled, silver, gemstone and pearl pieces in floral, novelty, Masonic, monogram and cameo motifs, to name a few. Due to the large quantity the Taylor Collection will be offered for months to come, with the September estate sale giving the first glimpse into what is undoubtedly a jewelry treasure.
Stately decorative items dominate the Asian Department’s September offerings with wonderfully unique items at the forefront of the sale. A few such intriguing pieces are a stone pig foot (lot 261, $800-$1,200), a porcelain wall vase (lot 214, $250-$350) and a porcelain pillow (lot 217, $700-$900). Special in its own right is a Dehua-style porcelain Guanyin (lot 223, $700-$900). The seated figure is shown with a Buddhistic lion to her right and a scroll in her left hand representing the Guanyin or “Goddess of Mercy,” worshipped by those seeking salvation from misery and woe. These figures are fired in Dehua kilns, which are located in central Fujian where creation of various white-bodied wares from the Song Dynasty (960-1279) to the modern period have been produced.
Conveying a touch of Old World Italy is lot 470, an Italian Della Robia-style ceramic tondo ($500-$700). Measuring 31 1/2 inches in diameter, the piece centers a serene, gently colored Madonna and Child. The effect plays quite well against the vibrant blue background surrounding the figures as well as to the border of summer fruits and foliage encircling the piece. A perfect item for garden or outdoor decorating, the Italian Renaissance styling and use of color make it an appealing addition to any decorative collection. The tondo will be offered among silver, period furniture and a multitude of decorative items.
Renowned California plein air painter Edgar Payne’s Sailboats in Harbor (lot 660, $10,000-15,000) highlights the Fine Art Department’s contributions to the sale. Throughout his career Payne had an appreciation for natural locales of raw, rare beauty. This source of inspiration took him through the Southwest, the Canadian Rockies in British Columbia and Alberta.
Undoubtedly, the picturesque seaside was one of the factors that lead him to Laguna Beach, where he founded and became the first president of the Laguna Beach Art Association and the Gallery of Laguna Beach. It was during this time in the 1920s that he began painting sailboats. Sailboats in Harbor is a prime example of his technique and sense of composition. Striking is the use of bold color used in the sails that contrasts beautifully with the soft, muted tones of the surrounding sky and water. The angular lines of the sail masts provide visual drama and spatial separation, pulling the eye nicely about the composition as well.
Previews will be Sept. 2-4 during business hours and by appointment.
For a full listing of upcoming auctions or to view a complete catalog, visit www.michaans.com.
Carved stone pig’s foot. Estimate: $800-$1,200. Image courtesy of Michaan’s Auctions.Enameled porcelain wall vase marked ‘Liu Yucen.’ Estimate: $250-$350. Image courtesy of Michaan’s Auctions.Enamel-decorated porcelain pillow. Estimate: $700-$900. Image courtesy of Michaan’s Auctions.Italian Della Robia-style ceramic tondo Madonna and Child. Estimate: $500-$700. Image courtesy of Michaan’s Auctions.Attributed to Edgar Payne (American 1883-1947), ‘Sailboats in Harbor,’ oil on canvas. Estimate: $10,000-$15,000. Image courtesy of Michaan’s Auctions.
