January 2012 - Page 5 of 21 - Auction Central News

Rare set of beautifully carved Chinese ivory figures representing the Eight Immortals, each finely detailed and carrying his or her own attributes, each approximately 13 to 14 inches high. Estimate: $25,000-$30,000. Image courtesy of I.M. Chait.

Carved Immortals grace I.M. Chait auction Jan. 29

January 25, 2012/in Upcoming Auctions/by Tom Hoepf

Rare set of beautifully carved Chinese ivory figures representing the Eight Immortals, each finely detailed and carrying his or her own attributes, each approximately 13 to 14 inches high. Estimate: $25,000-$30,000. Image courtesy of I.M. Chait.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – I.M. Chait will conduct an Asian & International Fine Arts Auction on Sunday, Jan. 29, beginning at 1 p.m. Pacific Time. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding for the 429-lot auction.

The sale will be highlighted by important Chinese carved jades, including nephrite and jadeite from San Diego and New York Collections.

An antique Chinese carved jadeite figure of an Immortal beauty with bright apple green on her face is one of the top items. Standing 10 3/4 inches high, it has a $20,000-$25,000 estimate.

A pair of openwork carved Chinese jadeite groups of phoenix, each perched above large blossoms of chrysanthemums and peonies, and with other birds, stands about 14 inches high. The apple green and lavender carvings on inlaid wood stands are expected to sell for $25,000-$30,000.

Fine large Chinese carved ivories and jewelry are from the Bel Air estate of Peter Wald and a West Los Angeles collection. Antique netsuke and Japanese ivories together with scholar’s objects and woodcarvings are from a Colorado estate. A carved ivory set of the Eight Immortals, each 13 to 14 inches high, has a $25,000-$30,000 estimate.

The auction will also feature antique Chinese porcelains including Ming and Qing dynasties, together with Buddhist bronzes and Song dynasty tea wares from a Southern California estate.

A large collection of art glass includes Tiffany, French cameo and R. Lalique, from the estate of Dr. E.F. Simpson of Los Angeles. The Tiffany highlight is an 18-light Lily lamp with signed Favrile shades, which carries a $25,000-$35,000 estimate.

For details on any item in the sale, call 310-285-0182.

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

Rare set of beautifully carved Chinese ivory figures representing the Eight Immortals, each finely detailed and carrying his or her own attributes, each approximately 13 to 14 inches high. Estimate: $25,000-$30,000. Image courtesy of I.M. Chait.

Nepalese gilt bronze figure of a seated deity with hands in mudra, 6 3/4 inches high on carved stepped lotus motif wood base. Estimate: $1,200-$1,500. Image courtesy of I.M. Chait.

Tiffany Studios bronze and Favrile glass 18-light Lily lamp with splayed base comprised of overlapping lily pads rising to long gathered stems 22 1/4 inches high, signed ‘Tiffany Studios New York 383,’ the shades signed ‘L.C.T.’ Estimate: $25,000-$35,000. Image courtesy of I.M. Chait.

Pair of magnificently openwork carved Chinese jadeite groups of phoenix, each approximately 14 inches high, wire inlaid wood stands. Estimate: $25,000-$30,000. Image courtesy of I.M. Chait.

Antique Chinese carved and openwork, green jadeite figure of an Immortal beauty with an attendant and crane beside her, 10 3/4 inches high. Estimate: $20,000-$25,000. Image courtesy of I.M. Chait.

Official White House portrait of John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), 35th President of the United States, painted posthumously (1970) by Aaron Shikler. White House Historical Association image.

JFK library releases last of President Kennedy’s secret tapes

January 25, 2012/in Antiquities, Cultures & Historical/by Catherine Saunders-Watson

Official White House portrait of John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), 35th President of the United States, painted posthumously (1970) by Aaron Shikler. White House Historical Association image.

BOSTON (AP) — Newly released final recordings President John F. Kennedy secretly made in the Oval Office include an eerie conversation about what would become the day of his funeral.

While trying to arrange his schedule, Kennedy remarked that Nov. 25 was shaping up to be a “tough day” after his return from Texas and time at Cape Cod.

“It’s a hell of a day, Mr. President,” a staffer agreed.

The exchange was among the last 45 hours of private recordings Kennedy made. The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum released the tapes Tuesday. They provide a window into the final months of the 35th American president’s life.

“Kennedy did not tape as systematically as Johnson or Nixon. But what he did tape was often very important discussions,” said David Coleman, the professor who chairs the Presidential Recordings Program at the University of Virginia. “…What you have is an unusually rich collection of decisions being made in real time.”

The tapes include discussions of conflict in Vietnam, Soviet relations and the race to space, plans for the 1964 Democratic Convention and re-election strategy. There also are moments with his children.

Kennedy kept the recordings a secret from his top aides. He made the last one two days before his death.

Kennedy library archivist Maura Porter said Monday that JFK may have been saving them for a memoir.

The latest batch of recordings captured meetings from the last three months of Kennedy’s administration. In a conversation with political advisers about young voters, Kennedy asks, “What is it we have to sell them?”

“We hope we have to sell them prosperity, but for the average guy the prosperity is nil,” he says. “He’s not unprosperous, but he’s not very prosperous. … And the people who really are well off hate our guts.”

Kennedy talks about a disconnect between the political machine and voters.

“We’ve got so mechanical an operation here in Washington that it doesn’t have much identity where these people are concerned,” he says.

On another recording, Kennedy questions conflicting reports military and diplomatic advisers bring back from Vietnam, asking the two men: “You both went to the same country?”

He also talks about trying to create films for the 1964 Democratic Convention in color instead of black and white.

“The color is so damn good,” he says. “If you do it right.”

Porter said the public first heard about the existence of the Kennedy recordings during the Watergate hearings.

In 1983, JFK Library and Museum officials started reviewing tapes without classified materials and releasing recordings to the public. Porter said officials were able to go through all the recordings by 1993, working with government agencies when it came to national security issues and what they could make public.

In all, she said, the JFK Library and Museum has put out about 40 recordings. She said officials excised about 5 to 10 minutes of this last group of recordings due to family discussions and about 30 minutes because of national security concerns.

Porter said Kennedy comes across as an intelligent man who had a knack for public relations and was very interested in his public image. But she said the tapes also reveal times when the president became bored or annoyed and moments when he used swear words.

The sound of the president’s children, Caroline and John Jr., playing outside the Oval Office is part of a recording on which he introduces them to Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko.

“Hello, hello,” Gromyko says as the children come in, telling their father, “They are very popular in our country.”

JFK tells the children, mentioning a dog Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev gifted the family: “His chief is the one who sent you Pushinka. You know that? You have the puppies.”

JFK Library spokeswoman Rachel Flor said the daughter of the late president has heard many of the recordings, but she wasn’t sure if she had heard this batch.

“He’d go from being a president to being a father,” Porter said of the recordings. “… And that was really cute.”

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Online:

www.jfklibrary.org

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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Official White House portrait of John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), 35th President of the United States, painted posthumously (1970) by Aaron Shikler. White House Historical Association image.

A roll of 20 brilliant uncirculated 1888 Morgan silver dollars. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales.

South Dakota House panel kills bill to tax coins, currency

January 25, 2012/in Collectibles & Pop Culture/by Catherine Saunders-Watson

A roll of 20 brilliant uncirculated 1888 Morgan silver dollars. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales.

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) – The owner of a rare coin shop in Rapid City said he’s relieved a South Dakota House Committee has killed a bill that would apply a sales tax to coins, currency and bullion.

“It would put me out of business,” said Louis Anagnostopulos while testifying against a House bill that would levy a 6 percent tax rate on sales of coins and metals at Thursday’s hearing of the Taxation Committee.

Would-be customers would either go online or buy from another state, he told the committee.

“If people brought gold in, it’s not fair to them,” Anagnostopulos said. “We would have to sell out of state because no one is paying 6 percent tax when there are no extra fees online.”

The bill would have repealed the July 2007 removal of state taxes on these collectibles.

Though a summer study committee recommended the repeal on tax exemptions, the house committee disagreed, voting 11-2 against it. The bill proposed a 2 percent city tax on top of the state’s 4 percent sales tax rate. Legislators couldn’t agree on whether the coins and currency should be considered collectibles, which are taxed, or commodities, which aren’t.

Wyoming, North Dakota, Iowa and Montana have no sales tax on rare coins and precious metals. Nebraska and Minnesota do.

Rep. Bernie Hunhoff (D-Yankton) said South Dakota’s sales and use tax is very broad based, and that the tax should apply to retail purchases of coins for investments or collections.

The Revenue Department also supported the bill, estimating the state would bring in about $32,000 a year from the tax.

“It’s nice to add something once in a while to revenue,” the department’s Jane Page said. She said collectibles should all be taxed. “A rare penny from the 1700s is valued at over $1 million — that’s what we’re talking about,” she said.

But Anagnostopulos said the 2007 exemption paved the way for him to open shop. He said gold and silver are commodities and shouldn’t be taxed the same way collectibles such as stamps, old guns and art are.

“A 6 percent tax is more than our margin on gold,” he said, adding that since 2007, four rare coins and precious metal shops have opened in Rapid City.

In February 2007, Bill 1151 passed, exempting coins, currency and bullion, which includes a bar, ingot or commemorative medallion of gold, silver, platinum or palladium, from taxation. The legislation went into effect that July.

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Follow Veronica Zaragovia on Twitter at http://twitter.com/verozaragovia.

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In this 1943 photo taken near Brolo, Sicily, Lt. Gen. George S. Patton (left) discusses the second daring amphibious landing behind enemy lines on Sicily's northern coast with Lt. Col. Lyle Bernard, who was Commanding Officer of the 30th Infantry Regiment. This U.S. Army Signal Corps photo is currently in the collection of the National Archives and Records Administration.

Small Patton exhibit at Chennault military museum

January 25, 2012/in Antiquities, Cultures & Historical/by Catherine Saunders-Watson

In this 1943 photo taken near Brolo, Sicily, Lt. Gen. George S. Patton (left) discusses the second daring amphibious landing behind enemy lines on Sicily’s northern coast with Lt. Col. Lyle Bernard, who was Commanding Officer of the 30th Infantry Regiment. This U.S. Army Signal Corps photo is currently in the collection of the National Archives and Records Administration.

MONROE, La. (AP) – An exhibit about Gen. George Patton — including the boots he was wearing in the wreck that killed him — will be on display through March 3 at Chennault Military and Aviation Museum.

The News Star reports that other memorabilia include a photograph of the wrecked car in which Patton was a passenger, a toy soldier he played with as a child and a photograph of Patton and his grandsons John and Pat Waters.

The items are on loan from Patton’s grandson, George Patton Waters, who spoke to a crowd of 200 museum supporters and military buffs at a recent Friends of Chennault Museum.

Museum director Nell Calloway says the exhibit is small, but the museum is “honored to be able to display historical items that belong to the family of an American hero.”

The museum is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday.

Patton died Dec. 21, 1945 — 12 days after the car in which he was riding hit a 2 1/2-ton Army truck.

The front of the 1938 Cadillac 75 was smashed, and Patton’s head hit the partition between the front and back seats. His neck was broken.

His chief of staff, in the rear seat next to him, was unhurt.

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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

In this 1943 photo taken near Brolo, Sicily, Lt. Gen. George S. Patton (left) discusses the second daring amphibious landing behind enemy lines on Sicily’s northern coast with Lt. Col. Lyle Bernard, who was Commanding Officer of the 30th Infantry Regiment. This U.S. Army Signal Corps photo is currently in the collection of the National Archives and Records Administration.

This Rembrandt self portrait from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., is included in the exhibition. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Rembrandt exhibit draws 150,000 to N.C. art museum

January 25, 2012/in Art, Design & Architecture/by Tom Hoepf

This Rembrandt self portrait from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., is included in the exhibition. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – The North Carolina Museum of Art says its three-month exhibit of Rembrandt paintings collected by Americans pulled a big crowd.

The News & Observer of Raleigh reports the show of works by the Dutch master and others once attributed to him drew more than 150,000 people to the Raleigh museum at $18 per adult ticket.

The museum says that ranks an all-time third behind shows highlighting French painter Claude Monet and sculptor Auguste Rodin with his Thinker. The Rembrandt exhibition of nearly 50 paintings beat earlier shows of works by Picasso and Norman Rockwell,

The exhibit gathered more than $1 billion worth of artwork loaned by private collections and other museums. It now moves to museums in Cleveland and Minneapolis.

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Information from: The News & Observer, http://www.newsobserver.com

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

This Rembrandt self portrait from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., is included in the exhibition. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Replicas of Christopher Columbus's ships sailed from Spain to the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Replica ships Nina and Pinta to visit Louisiana ports

January 25, 2012/in General Interest/by Tom Hoepf

Replicas of Christopher Columbus’s ships sailed from Spain to the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

HOUMA, La. (AP) – Replicas of two of the three ships that Christopher Columbus sailed to the New World will be displayed next month in Houma.

The Nina and Pinta will be open to the public Feb. 17-26 at the Downtown Marina, and will depart on Feb. 27.

A statement from the Columbus Foundation says the Nina was built by hand and without power tools. The Pinta is larger than the ship used by Columbus. It was built recently in Brazil to accompany the Nina.

The vessels tour together as a sailing museum, providing education to school children and maritime enthusiasts about caravels, the broad-bowed three-masted ships used by Columbus and many early explorers.

After Texas visits in March, the ships will be in Lake Charles, La., on April 27-May 8 for the Contraband Days celebration.

Self-guided tours cost $6 to $8. Group tours are $4 per person. A minimum of 15 people is required for group tours.

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Online:

http://www.thenina.com

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Replicas of Christopher Columbus’s ships sailed from Spain to the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

France A. Codova. Image courtesy of Purdue University.

Purdue President France Cordova to chair Smithsonian

January 25, 2012/in Museums/by Tom Hoepf

France A. Codova. Image courtesy of Purdue University.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Smithsonian Institution is having a change in leadership as Purdue University President France Cordova becomes chairwoman of the governing board for the world’s largest museum and research complex.

Cordova was elected in September and assumes the post Monday. She is an astrophysicist and has led the university in Lafayette, Ind., since 2007. Previously she held posts in the University of California system and was chief scientist at NASA. She has served on the Smithsonian Board of Regents since 2009.

Cordova succeeds Patty Stonesifer, a former Microsoft executive and former chief executive of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Stonesifer has served as chairwoman since 2009 and will become vice chair of the board.

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

France A. Codova. Image courtesy of Purdue University.

A map of the Underground Railroad compiled from 'The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom' by Willbur H. Siebert published by the Macmillan Company in 1898. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Underground Railroad art on display in Charleston

January 25, 2012/in Art, Design & Architecture/by Tom Hoepf

A map of the Underground Railroad compiled from ‘The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom’ by Willbur H. Siebert published by the Macmillan Company in 1898. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) – As the observance of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War continues, artwork depicting the Underground Railroad is going on display in the city where the war began.

The exhibit, entitled “Color in Freedom: Journey Along the Underground Railroad,” opens Saturday at the City Gallery at Charleston’s Waterfront Park.

The exhibit features drawings, paintings and etchings by artist Joseph Holston and was developed by the University of Maryland University College.

The Underground Railroad was a series of routes and safe houses that escaped slaves used to journey to freedom in the North.

The Civil War began with the Confederate bombardment on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor almost 151 years ago.

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

A map of the Underground Railroad compiled from ‘The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom’ by Willbur H. Siebert published by the Macmillan Company in 1898. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Nathaniel Currier's 1846 lithograph depicts the Boston Tea Party. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Boston Tea Party ship restored, ready for launch

January 25, 2012/in Antiquities, Cultures & Historical/by Tom Hoepf

Nathaniel Currier’s 1846 lithograph depicts the Boston Tea Party. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

GLOUCESTER, Mass. (AP) – The new Boston Tea Party Museum reaches a major milestone this week with the launch of a replica of one of the three tall ships involved in the 1773 event, which helped spark the American Revolution.

The Beaver is scheduled to be launched Monday in Gloucester after a major rebuilding effort that included new frames, hull planks, deck, bow and stern.

The other two ships, the Eleanor and the Dartmouth, are awaiting renovations.

The museum, including the ships, is scheduled to open in June in the Fort Point Channel in Boston, not far from Griffin’s Wharf. That’s the original site of the December 1773 tea party, when colonists dumped tea in the harbor to protest British taxes.

An earlier museum at the site burned in 2001 after a lightning strike.

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Nathaniel Currier’s 1846 lithograph depicts the Boston Tea Party. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

James Henry Lane, first senator of Kansas. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Portrait of Senator ‘Wild Jim’ Lane returns to Kansas

January 25, 2012/in Antiquities, Cultures & Historical/by Tom Hoepf

James Henry Lane, first senator of Kansas. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

LECOMPTON, Kan. (AP) – An 1890 painting of Kansas’ first senator, “Wild Jim Lane,” will be unveiled next month at the Lecompton Historical Society.

Lane’s descendants recently donated the portrait to Lecompton, where Lane lived during the Civil War.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that Lane was a celebrated orator who fought to keep Kansas a free state. He was known as “Wild Jim” because his political opponents successfully characterized him as a bit loony.

The portrait was donated by Lane’s direct descendent James Shaler, of Massachusetts. It will be unveiled as part of a “Bleeding Kansas” history lecture series on Feb. 5.

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Information from: Lawrence Journal-World, http://www.ljworld.com

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

James Henry Lane, first senator of Kansas. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.