MADRID (AFP) – A Spanish judge Saturday ordered a Chinese businessman and art dealer be kept in jail on suspicion of leading a gang that laundered hundreds of thousands of euros, a judicial source said.
Gao Ping, 45, was remanded in custody pending an ongoing investigation into the alleged money-laundering racket involving Chinese businesses in Spain, in which more than 80 people have so far been arrested.
Of the 82 suspects questioned by judge Fernando Andreu so far, 47 have been remanded in custody including Gao and his wife, 23 have been freed on bail and 12 have been released, said the source, who asked not to be named.
Gao, reportedly from Zheijiang province in northeastern China, was a high-flying member of Spain’s large Chinese immigrant community, owning businesses including art galleries in Madrid and Beijing.
Over 500 police took part in “Operation Emperor,” the probe that yielded last week’s arrests. They said they seized 10 million euros ($13 million) in cash as well as 200 vehicles, guns, jewels and works of art.
Top anti-corruption prosecutor Antonio Salinas said the network laundered up to 300,000 euros a year, dodging taxes, bribing officials and forging documents.
Among other high-profile suspects to have gone before the judge in the case is Nacho Vidal, an international porn star who says he is innocent of involvement in the racket.
Gao was the last of a batch of 11 suspects, described by the judicial source as the hard core of the network’s leadership, who were questioned in preliminary hearings by the judge on Saturday.
Police and judicial authorities said Gao was suspected of being the leader of the network. Judges will rule later at an unspecified date whether he will go on trial.
In its efforts to fix its public finances, the Spanish government has announced measures to recover tax revenues which included an amnesty for some back taxes owed on big fortunes.
Chinese lacquer sewing table, chinoiserie, 19th century, lot 2532. Image courtesy Kunsthaus Schnürpel. BEELITZ, Germany – The auction house Kunsthaus Schnürpel will present its first auction through LiveAuctioneers.com on Oct. 27. After many years in the antiques and gallery business, in 2011 Frank Schnürpel made his dream of having his own auction house a reality. Now almost two years later, the company is about to present its 10th auction and celebrate it as its anniversary event.
The auction will begin Saturday, Oct. 27 at 11 a.m. German Time (5 a.m. EDT, 2 a.m. Pacific).
Having outgrown the old gallery, Kunsthaus Schnürpel will conduct Saturday’s sale at its new location at Treuenbrietzener Strasse 17, which has more than 700 square meters of display space for previews.
Over 1,000 lots in 21 categories are offered in this auction, including Asian works of art vintage clocks, collectors’ coins, antique furniture, jewelry, fine porcelain, silverware, paintings and sculptures.
Many objects to be auctioned have an interesting provenance. One remarkable artwork is Lot 3572, a painting attributed to Wilhelm von Kügelgen, a portrait of a family from around 1830. The painting survived the allied bombings of Dresden in 1945 and comes from the estate of a family from Dresden.
Other highlights include a splendid circa-1900 Meissen cup, a 19th-century Chinese sewing table, a painting by Walter Leistikow (Pomerania 1865-1908) and a Klaus Fussmann (b. 1938) watercolor dated 1986.
LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding. For additional information and details on any item in the sale, e-mail info@kunsthaus-schnuerpel.de.
Examples from a hoard of 159 Late Roman gold coins discovered near St. Albans, England. Image courtesy of St. Albans City & District Council.
ST. ALBANS, England — A large batch of 4th-century Roman gold coins found by an amateur treasure hunter will go on display in the English city near where they were discovered.
Staff at St. Albans’ Verulamium Musem showed off the 159 coins for TV cameras last week. The coins are examples of the solidus, high-value coins that would been used for major transactions such as buying land or ship cargo, said David Thorold, a curator at the museum.
Officials say the coins were found on private land north of St. Albans, but have not identified the site. The town, which is 22 miles (35 kilometers) north of London, also boasts a Roman theater and ruins of ancient walls. Brick salvaged from the Roman city can also be seen in parts of the city’s medieval cathedral.
The solidus coin, plural solidi, dates to the closing years of the fourth century and was issued under the Emperors Gratian, Valentinian, Theodosius, Arcadius and Honorius.
Thorold said coins typically were buried as a sacrifice to gods when the owner was going on a journey or in times of war.
“Gold solidi were extremely valuable coins and were not traded or exchanged on a regular basis. They would have been used for large transactions such as buying land or goods by the shipload,” he said.
Officials said it appeared that the hoard was disturbed in recent times by quarrying or plowing.
A date has not yet been set for the public to have a look, said Claire Wainwright, the city’s communications and marketing officer.
Such finds come under the Treasure Act 1996. The next stage is for the British Museum’s panel of independent experts to examine the coins and make their report to the Coroner who will determine whether they are to be considered as ‘treasure’ under the Act. The value of the gold coins is not yet known.
While the find is significant, it is not as large as the hoard of nearly 15,000 coins plus 200 other pieces of gold and silver jewelry and tableware found by an amateur treasure hunter near Hoxne, England in 1992. That find included 569 solidus coins.
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Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Examples from a hoard of 159 Late Roman gold coins discovered near St. Albans, England. Image courtesy of St. Albans City & District Council.
This CGC-certified 9.0 copy of ‘Action Comics’ #1, the highest-graded specimen featuring the first appearance of Superman, was sold by ComicConnect.com on Nov. 30, 2011 for $2,161,000, the top price ever paid for a comic book. Image courtesy of ComicConnect.com.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — DC Comics will retain its rights to Superman after a judge ruled Wednesday that the heirs of one of the superhero’s co-creators signed away their ability to reclaim copyrights to the Man of Steel roughly 20 years ago.
The ruling means that DC Comics and its owner Warner Bros. will retain all rights to continue using the character in books, films, television and other mediums, including a the film reboot planned for next year.
DC Comics sued the heirs of artist Joe Shuster in 2010, seeking a ruling that they lost their ability to try to reclaim the superhero’s copyrights in 1992. U.S. District Court Judge Otis Wright II agreed, stating that Shuster’s sister and brother relinquished any chance to reclaim Superman copyrights in exchange for annual pension payments from DC Comics.
Shuster and writer Jerry Siegel created Superman, who made his comic book debut in 1938 in Action Comics 1. Both men battled for increased compensation for the superhero throughout their lives and Siegel’s heirs have also fought DC for a stake in copyrights to Superman.
Shuster’s heirs had argued that the copyright agreements could be terminated under provisions that allowed creators of works made before 1978 a mechanism to reclaim their rights. Wright ruled that the decision by Shuster’s sister to accept higher annual payments created a new agreement and the pre-1978 rights no longer applied.
“We respectfully disagree with its factual and legal conclusions, and it is surprising given that the judge appeared to emphatically agree with our position at the summary judgment hearing,” the Shusters’ attorney Marc Toberoff wrote in a statement. He declined further comment, and Warner Bros. and its attorney Daniel Petrocelli also declined comment on the ruling.
Toberoff had argued that an agreement altering copyright interests would have been much longer than the one-page 1992 agreement between DC Comics and Shuster’s sister, Joan Shuster Peavy, and his brother, Frank.
The latest Superman film, “Man of Steel.” is scheduled to land in theaters in 2013. Director Zach Snyder told fans earlier this year at Comic-Con that his film would make the superhero more relatable than previous depictions that showed him as “a big blue Boy Scout up on the throne and you can’t really touch him.”
In April, the $412 check that DC Comics wrote to acquire Superman and other creative works by Shuster and Siegel sold for $160,000 in an online auction.
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Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
This CGC-certified 9.0 copy of ‘Action Comics’ #1, the highest-graded specimen featuring the first appearance of Superman, was sold by ComicConnect.com on Nov. 30, 2011 for $2,161,000, the top price ever paid for a comic book. Image courtesy of ComicConnect.com.
Vincent van Gogh, ‘ Self-Portrait with Straw Hat.’ 1887, oil on canvas, 16 1/8 x 13 inches (41 x 33 cm); Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation); F: 469, JH: 1310.
DENVER (AP) – Before Vincent van Gogh painted Sunflowers or The Starry Night, he worked as a teacher and hoped to become a minister. After he was told he didn’t have the skills to be a preacher, he turned to art.
The story of how one of the most popular postimpressionist painters developed his signature style is told in an exhibit that the Denver Art Museum assembled using more than 70 van Gogh works from dozens of museums and collections around the world. The exhibit also includes artists who influenced him and from fellow postimpressionists.
“Becoming Van Gogh” opened Sunday and runs through Jan. 20 at the Denver Art Museum.
“We’re showing an earlier part of his career, his mentors,” said Timothy Standring, the Denver Art Museum painting and sculpture curator who curated the exhibition with Louis van Tilborgh of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
“We’re showing his self-taught moments when he learned how to draw. We’re showing all those phases that people don’t really know about. It’s not just Sunflowers and Starry Night. It’s a richer, complicated story, and everybody’s going to be thrilled when they leave this exhibition and say, ‘I know this guy much more.’”
The exhibit doesn’t include those two paintings or any versions of The Bedroom but does have three of van Gogh’s self-portraits as well as paintings from the last year of his life. It also includes lesser-known early works, from before the Dutch painter joined his brother Theo in Paris.
“We’re telling another component about his career,” Standring said. “I mean, imagine if we had Hemingway and we only had A Movable Feast, and we didn’t have For Whom the Bell Tolls.”
The museum doesn’t disclose its budget for exhibits, but it decided if it was going to show van Gogh, it was going to go big. General admission prices to the exhibit are even more than tickets earlier this year for “Yves Saint Laurent: The Retrospective,” which also was a U.S. exclusive for Denver.
Standring said he worked about seven years to put together the show. He estimates that work included traveling about 100,000 miles a year for close to four years to see the loaned pieces – and persuade institutions to lend them to better tell van Gogh’s history.
“Well, I can sell sand in the desert and icicles on the North Pole,” Standring quipped. “No, it was the merits of the story that encouraged people to take the risk to loan their works of art to come to Colorado.”
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-10-20-12 2206GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Vincent van Gogh, ‘ Self-Portrait with Straw Hat.’ 1887, oil on canvas, 16 1/8 x 13 inches (41 x 33 cm); Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation); F: 469, JH: 1310.
Big Tex at the State Fair of Texas in Dallas, 2008. Image by Andreas Praefcke. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
DALLAS – The man who provides the voice for Big Tex, the giant cowboy at the State Fair of Texas, was greeting people with his usual “Howdy, folks!” in a slow drawl Friday when someone rushed into his trailer to tell him the towering fair icon was on fire.
“It moved quickly,” Bill Bragg said of the fire that engulfed the 52-foot-tall structure, leaving not much more than its charred metal frame behind. “It was a quick end.”
This year’s fair was supposed to be a celebration for Big Tex, marking his 60th birthday. Instead, the beloved cowboy was hauled from the grounds on a flatbed truck two days before the end of the fair in a procession resembling a funeral.
“It’s sad to see this happen, but it’s lucky no one was injured or killed,” said Mike Blucher of Dallas, who was at the fair with his wife, Linda.
The fire brought a temporary end to a piece of Texas culture.
The cowboy with the 75-gallon hat and 50-pound belt buckle always was easy to spot and served as a popular meeting place for people coming to the fair or attending the annual Texas-Oklahoma football game at the nearby Cotton Bowl. But all that remained by noon Friday were hands and shirt leaves on a burned skeleton.
“Big Tex is a symbol of everything the state fair stands for,” fair spokeswoman Sue Gooding said. “Big Tex is where my parents told me, ‘If you get lost, meet at Big Tex.'”
Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesman Joel Lavender said Friday afternoon that the cause of the blaze had not been determined.
Some dispatchers took a playful approach to reporting the blaze. “Got a rather tall cowboy with all his clothes burned off,” one said.
“Howdy, folks, it’s hot,” another said.
Fair officials and city leaders quickly called for the return of Big Tex, vowing to rebuild the structure. Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings tweeted that the cowboy would become “bigger and better for the 21st Century.”
Big Tex’s hands, boots and face were made of Fiberglas, Gooding said. The clothing that burned had been provided last year by a Fort Worth company, she said.
Gooding speculated that the fire could have started in mechanical workings at the base of the structure and that the metal skeleton ‘served as a chimney.” The skeleton will be evaluated, and a new one will be built if necessary, she said.
Stanley Hill, who supervises a food stand that has been located near the structure for 18 years, said he noticed smoke coming from Big Tex’s neck. That quickly turned into a blaze that engulfed the structure’s fabric covering.
The structure was removed Friday in essentially the same way workers put it up every year – with a crane that slowly lowers it. Only this time, the steel skeleton was covered with a tarp.
Big Tex was actually built in 1949 as a giant Santa Claus for a Christmas celebration in Kerens, 60 miles south of Dallas. Intrigued by the idea of a towering cowboy, the State Fair paid $750 for the structure, which debuted as Big Tex in 1952.
Big Tex is inextricably linked to the State Fair.
The State Fair website is www.bigtex.com, and visitors to the site see their cursor turn into an image of Big Tex’s head, clad in a cowboy hat. The fair’s Twitter account features the cowboy’s image as well.
“You know somebody’s a true Texan if you say ‘Big Tex’ and they don’t look at you like you’re weird,” Gooding said.
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Big Tex at the State Fair of Texas in Dallas, 2008. Image by Andreas Praefcke. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
A Spitfire VB of 222 Squadron in England in 1942. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons. YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – As many as 140 World War II Spitfire fighter planes – three to four times the number of airworthy models known to exist – are believed to be buried in near-pristine condition in Myanmar. A British-Myanmar partnership says it will begin digging them up by the end of the month.
The go-ahead for excavation came earlier this week when the Myanmar government signed an agreement with British aviation enthusiast David J. Cundall and his local partner. Cundall, a farmer and businessman, earlier this year announced he had located 20 of the planes, best known for helping the Royal Air Force win mastery of the skies during the Battle of Britain.
On Thursday, however, a retired Myanmar geology professor who has assisted in the recovery operation since 1999 said there are about 140 Spitfires buried in various places around the Southeast Asian country, which until 1948 was a British colony called Burma. He did not explain the discrepancy in estimates.
Soe Thein said the British brought crates of Spitfires to Myanmar in the closing stages of the war, but never used them when the Japanese surrendered in 1945. The single-seat version of the fighter plane was 30 feet long with a 37-foot wingspan.
The U.S. Army was in charge of burying the planes after British forces decided to dispose of them that way, he said, adding Cundall interviewed at least 1,000 war veterans, mostly American, to gather information about the aircrafts’ fate.
He said a ground search was started in 1999 using magnetometers and ground radar, but faced difficulties. Only in recent years did technology become advanced enough to be more certain of the finds, he said.
Each plane was kept in a crate about 40 feet long, 11 feet high and 9 feet wide, said Soe Thein.
The plans under a two-year contract are to recover 60 planes in the first phase: 36 planes in Mingaladon, near Yangon’s current air base and international airport; 18 in Myitkyina in Kachin state in the north; and six in Meikthila in central Myanmar. Others are to be recovered in a second phase.
The Myanmar government will get one plane for display at a museum, as well as half of the remaining total. DJC, a private company headed by Cundall, will get 30 percent of the total and the Myanmar partner company, Shwe Taung Paw, 20 percent.
British Prime Minister David Cameron eased the way to an agreement when he visited Myanmar President Thein Sein in April.
Cundall has said his quest to find the planes involved 12 trips to Myanmar and cost more than 130,000 pounds ($210,000), not including the planned excavation expenses.
Spitfires in working shape are rare and popular with collectors. In 2009, a restored and airworthy Spitfire was sold by British auction house Bonhams for 1,739,500 pounds ($2,544,130).
The excavation agreement was signed Tuesday by Civil Aviation Director-Gen. Tin Naing Tun, Cundall on behalf of DJC, and Htoo Htoo Zaw, managing director of Shwe Taung Paw.
“It took 16 years for Mr. David Cundall to locate the planes buried in crates. We estimate that there are at least 60 Spitfires buried and they are in good condition,” Htoo Htoo Zaw said Wednesday. “We want to let people see these historic fighters, and the excavation of these fighter planes will further strengthen relations between Myanmar and Britain.”
The British Embassy on Wednesday described the agreement as a chance to work with Myanmar’s new reformist government to restore and display the planes.
“We hope that many of them will be gracing the skies of Britain and as discussed, some will be displayed here in Burma,” said an embassy spokesman, who spoke anonymously because he was not directly involved in the excavation agreement.
Myanmar from 1962 until last year was under the rule of the military, which changed the country’s name from Burma in 1989. Thein Sein’s reformist government has turned away from the repression of the military government and patched up relations with Western nations that had previously shunned it.
The state-owned Myanma Ahlin daily on Wednesday cited Transport Minister Nyan Tun Aung as saying the Spitfire agreement amounts to the British government’s recognition of the democratic reforms.
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-10-19-12 0123GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
A Spitfire VB of 222 Squadron in England in 1942. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – A suburban Portland man has been sentenced to more than two years in prison for selling fake Beatles and sports memorabilia on Craigslist.
The Oregonian reports that 41-year-old Chad Richard Baldwin of Gresham altered letters of authenticity from legitimate companies to deceive buyers.
Prosecutor Michael Wu says one Portland-area resident paid $700 for Beatles albums supposedly signed by the artists.
A Vancouver, Wash., man paid $300 for a baseball supposedly signed by Roger Maris.
Baldwin was convicted on two counts of identity theft in a plea agreement. In addition to his prison time, he was ordered to repay the two victims.
Information from: The Oregonian, http://www.oregonlive.com
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
These two tall, narrow pieces of mahogany furniture are bookshelves. They would almost touch the ceiling in a traditional house today. Unusual furniture is sometimes hard to sell, but this pair sold at a Neal Auction in New Orleans for close to $3,000.
Most furniture is made to fit in almost any room, but sometimes furniture is made to fit the room – to look as if it’s built into a wall. Today we install built-in kitchen cupboards, bookshelves and perhaps a niche for ornaments. In the 18th and 19th centuries, corner cupboards, dressers and other large storage pieces may not have been “built-in,” but they were made for just one spot in the house. Two matching mahogany, fitted pedestal bookcases sold in 2012 were each 7 feet 7 inches tall and 17 inches wide. The shelves were only 13 inches deep, the depth of most bookshelves today. The tall and thin column-like bookcases have glass doors and a carved ornament at the top. The pair was probably made to be placed on either side of a doorway. They mimic the doorframe trim popular in expensive houses at the beginning of the 1900s, the English Edwardian period. The shape is uncommon, so this pair was probably a special order. The pair sold at a Neal Auction in New Orleans for $2,988.
Q: I bought a Lady figurine from Lady and the Tramp for 99 cents. It’s porcelain, about 4 inches tall and marked “Disney, Japan” with a copyright symbol. Did I pay too much?
A: Lady and the Tramp, Disney’s animated romance about a purebred cocker spaniel and a mutt, was released in 1955 – the same year Disneyland opened in Southern California. The opening of the theme park ignited even more demand for Disney figurines. At about this time, Disney started to have some figures made in Japan. Lady figurines like yours sell for about $10 online, so you paid a bargain price.
Q: Back in the 1970s, my mother’s friend gave her a desk with a pull-down door that serves as a writing surface. The desk appears to be made of different types of wood and has a lot of carving, inlay and appliqued designs. There’s a metal plaque on the back that says “Furniture of Lasting Elegance and Worth, Detroit Furniture Shops, Detroit, Michigan.” I can’t find any reference to this maker online or in reference books. Can you help?
A: Detroit Furniture Shops is listed in a 1922 Detroit directory as a store that buys and sells furniture, not as a furniture manufacturer. It was located on Riopelle Street in the Forest Park neighborhood.
Q: When my mother died, I was left the figural chef cookie jar she received as a wedding present in 1941. The chef’s outfit is dark yellow, and his hair and shoes are brown. The jar’s bottom is stamped “Red Wing Pottery, Hand Painted.” I need some history and an estimate of its value.
A: Your “Pierre the Chef” cookie jar was one of the most popular ever made by Red Wing Potteries of Red Wing, Minn. It was first made in 1941 and remained in production until about 1956. It was also made in light green and light blue. We have seen your jar selling online for $155.
Q: My shiny hammered aluminum platter is 16 1/2 inches in diameter and looks like it is made of silver. It has four egg-shaped indentations that could hold a small ostrich egg. The bowl-like center is set with multicolored tiles held in place by rivets. On the bottom is a triangular mark made up of the words “Cellini Craft, Argental, Handwrought.” In the center of the triangle are the letters “MW.” How old is it and what was it used for? Some auctions describe similar dishes as “trays,” but I think there must be a reason for the tiles and the indentations.
A: Cellini Craft made aluminum serving pieces from 1934 to 1966. Argental translates to “silver-like.” The aluminum was hand-hammered. We have looked at hundreds of aluminum trays and have found no catalog that explains a platter like yours. It is listed in catalogs as either a tray or an undertray. An undertray held a glass or covered aluminum bowl that could have served soup, stew or some other juicy food. The indentations may have been designed to catch drippings. Only one or two other aluminum manufacturers made trays that included a ceramic piece in the center. It may have kept the tray from getting too hot or it may just have been a decoration. Aluminum regained popularity for a brief time in the 1990s. Prices went up as collectors searched for wares from the 1950s and ’60s. Trays the size of yours with a tile insert retail for $150 to $350, even though most hammered aluminum has dropped in price during the past 15 years.
Q: Years ago I bought a large oak picture frame that has bars on it like a cage. There is a painting of a tiger behind the bars. The front of the frame is bowed out slightly and it looks like the tiger’s eyes are following you when you walk past it. There is a label on the back of the frame that says “Chicago Mission Furniture Co.” It also says that it is “fumed.” I’d like to know what that means and if this is of any value.
A: The Chicago Mission Furniture Co. was in business from 1904 until the 1920s. It was founded by four men who had worked at another furniture company but left to form their own company when employees went on strike. “Fumed” oak is oak that has been exposed to ammonia fumes, which darken the color of the wood. The longer it is exposed, the darker the wood gets. This type of “moving” picture used to be popular, but they don’t sell for much more than an ordinary picture frame now. Value today: about $150 to $200.
Tip: Almost all Grueby pottery is expensive today, but some pieces have rare features that add to the price. Applied handles or added tendrils increase value. So does extra color added to the floral design on a vase.
Take advantage of a free listing for your group to announce events, or use our calendar to find antique shows and other events. Go to Kovels.com/calendar to find and plan your antiquing trips.
Terry Kovel answers as many questions as possible through the column. By sending a letter with a question, you give full permission for use in the column or any other Kovel forum. Names, addresses or email addresses will not be published. We cannot guarantee the return of any photograph, but if a stamped envelope is included, we will try. The volume of mail makes personal answers or appraisals impossible. Write to Kovels, Auction Central News, King Features Syndicate, 300 W. 57th St., New York, NY 10019.
CURRENT PRICES
Current prices are recorded from antiques shows, flea markets, sales and auctions throughout the United States. Prices vary in different locations because of local economic conditions.
Home Nut Cracker, cast iron, insert nut and rotate handle 180 degrees, table clamp, patent date Aug. 24, 1915, 6 1/2 x 4 inches, $15.
Watkins Pure Fruit Pectin box, housewife on front, recipes for jellies, jams and marmalades, contains 4 1-oz. packets, unopened, 1920s, 3 3/8 x 5 1/8 inches, $45.
Donald Duck & Mickey Mouse Crayons box, tin, hinged lid, Walt Disney Productions, 1950 copyright, 4 1/2 x 5 inches, $65.
Jasperware shaving mug, matte green, raised white design of man being shaved by a woman and young boy cutting man’s hair, unmarked, 1800s, 3 3/4 x 3 1/2 inches, $70.
Effanbee Little Lady doll, brown yarn hair, brown eyes, blue gown with red plaid trim, bra and panties, circa 1944, $200.
Piano shawl, dusty rose silk, colorful floral embroidery, fringe, square, 1920s, 60 inches, $305.
Champion motorcycle toy, cast iron, attached policeman rider, navy blue suit, gold badge on cap, 1930s, 5 x 3 inches, $415.
Toy stove, cast iron, six burners, large side warmer, oven door marked “Marvel,” flashed with copper oxide finish, 20 x 16 1/2 inches, $460.
Arts & Crafts china cabinet, oak, rectangular top with back rail, single door with 12 glass panels, hammered brass ring pull, four glass side panels, square legs, circa 1912, 62 inches, $1,185.
Daum glass decanter, mushrooms in reds, brown and green, mottled amber ground, marked, Nancy, France, 6 1/2 inches, $5,165.
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These two tall, narrow pieces of mahogany furniture are bookshelves. They would almost touch the ceiling in a traditional house today. Unusual furniture is sometimes hard to sell, but this pair sold at a Neal Auction in New Orleans for close to $3,000.
