Breitling Bentley Flying B men’s watch. The Revolving Vault image.
HOUSTON – Revolving Vault Auction & Estate Services will be holding their third auction, “Exceptional February Finds from The Vault,” on Sunday, Feb. 10, at 4 p.m. CST, 2 p.m. Pacific. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
The Revolving Vault welcomes bidders to view and bid on an eclectic array of inventory from around the world. Almost all of the items are one of a kind, which are sure to tempt those searching for both the unique and the beautiful. This auction’s offerings will include more than 350 lots including fine art, jewelry, accessories, as well as a vast assortment of collectibles featuring militaria, sports memorabilia and pop culture sure to inspire and delight buyers.
The “Exceptional February Finds” auction will include an array of Fine Art including Abstract, Expressionism, Pop Art, Native-American, Realism, photography and animation from artists including Marianne Levy, Blake Ballard, Brody Neuenschwander and Bev Doolittle, and Jim Hudek, just to name a few. Hudek is an emerging mixed-media artist out of Houston who creates abstract compositions through the use of latex paint and mixed-media material like magazines and print material. Much of his work is inspired by jazz music. His piece Ebb and Flow (est. $4,000-$6,000) will be one of his pieces up for auction.
An expansive collection of Brody Neuenschwander work will also be present. He is an artist originally from Houston, who currently resides in Bruges, Belgium. A graduate of Princeton his background is in medieval manuscript lllumination, calligraphy, text art and installation art. One of his pieces The Eyes Have It has been featured in Le Jardin des Mots, an artist book printed in Paris featuring the works of calligraphy artists. This piece is a collage of rice paper with antique documents on Rives BFK printmaking paper, Chinese ink, gouache and applied doll’s eyes (est. $2,500-$3,500).
“We’re really excited for this auction as we’ve got a lot of unique pieces that have great stories behind them. We’ve got a lot of military items including war medals, weapons and trench art,” said Whitney Taylor from The Revolving Vault. “Many of these items have a mass appeal to bidders that have been collecting for years and those that are new to bidding and want to purchase something unique.”
The “Exceptional February Finds” session will include many military items. One of the highlights will be the Winchester Model 600-A signal cannon constructed out of cast iron (est. $1,000-$2,000). The cannon comes complete with ammunition box as well. In addition we also have a plethora of trench art including ashtrays, airplane sculptures and vases. Many knives will also be up for bid as well including Mongolian swords, Indian knives and Sheffield knives just to name a few. One of the featured items will be a Joan of Arc World War I propaganda poster (est. $1,500-$2,000).
Out of the vault will also be a stunning array of Asian artwork. Detailed bone carvings, high-quality jade, ivory and stone figures will be available for bidding. Among these items is a jade horse measuring a stunning 16 inches high (est. $1,250-$1,500).
Bidders doing some late Valentine’s Day shopping might want to take a look at the collection of jewelry, including a 89.10 carat weight genuine ruby and sapphire necklace, which includes platinum plating over silver mounting, measuring 14 1/2 inches long. The necklace includes full GLA appraisal at $42,358 (est. $7,500-$10,000). A vintage Chanel handbag with tassel and long strap is a fashion statement piece as well. (est. $1,750-$3,500). Men are not to be left out either with an assortment of timepieces and glasses including a Breitling Bentley Flying B watch (est. $12,000-$15,000) and Tag Heuer Kirium watch (est. $1,000-$1,500). Some of the most unique pieces are the collection of brass fishing reels that date back to the early 1900s from the United Kingdom. Among those are a P.D. Malloch Maker Perth 1 Model (est. $500-$1,000) and W. Garden Aberdeen brass fishing reel from Scotland (est. $500-$1,000).
The Revolving Vault accepts high-quality consignments and purchases estates year-round. For any questions or inquiries call at 731-636-9730 or email at info@revolvingvault.com.
View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
Top: Montblanc Soulmakers yellow gold limited edition 100 36685 Anniversary pen. Estimate: $16,000-$22,000. Middle: Montblanc Fourth of July limited editon 56 Skeleton fountain pen. Estimate: $25,000-$35,000. Bottom: Stars & Stripes limited edition 50 fountain pen. Estimate: $20,000-$30,000. Heritage Auctions images. DALLAS – More than 1,600 eclectic lots – from a limited edition Dunhill-Namiki Motorities Maki-E fountain pen (estimate $35,000-plus) to a motorized Bugatti model car (estimate $2,000-plus) to a collection dedicated to the history of ballooning – come together Feb. 23-24 in Heritage Auctions’ annual Estate Signature® Auction. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
The two-day treasure hunt event offers art and antiques across three sessions and all budgets, including Heritage’s second annual Gentleman Collector Auction and Part II of the Elton Hyder III Jr. Collection, which formerly decorated the University of Texas School of Law Library.
“Our annual estate auction is often the most fun auction we hold all year,” said Ed Beardsley, vice president for Fine and Decorative Arts at Heritage. “You never know what’s going to show up in it, which makes for a special opportunity for collectors and decorators to find unique pieces of all kinds offered together in one weekend.”
Session I kicks off Saturday, Feb. 23, with the estate auction, 1,700 lots of fine furniture, art and porcelains offered without reserve. This session will be led by a French walnut and gilt bronze porcelain coffee table, circa 1870, expected to bring $6,000-plus, in addition to an important selection of KPM porcelain plaques, Meissen and fine Continental porcelain. A circa 1700 German silvered metal tortoiseshell pewter and gilt bronze clock is expected to bring $3,000-plus.
Additional lots include a Richardson George II-style mahogany long-case clock expected to bring $3,000-plus and two large illustrated volumes of playing cards, expected to bring $800-plus.
More than 20 diverse lots of Tiffany Studio objects include a set of four, weighted silver candlesticks from 1907, a three piece French gilt bronze, onyx and enameled clock garniture set, a six-piece patinated bronze and slag glass desk set in the desirable pine needle pattern.
Session II starts at 5 p.m. the same day as Heritage hosts its second annual Gentleman Collector Auction, a collection specially curated for a gentleman’s library, den or the classic gentleman’s smoking room. The auction is led by a one of the finest single-owner collections of Montblanc fountain pens ever offered at auction.
More than 70 lots of art, antiques and collectibles dedicated to the history of hot air ballooning – from an important 1912 Gorham silver trophy celebrating a race in Colorado Springs, Colo., expected to bring $8,000-plus, to two important ballooning paintings attributed to Victor Philippe Lemoine-Benoit, expected to bring $6,000-plus each – take flight as part of the two-day event. A unique and historic silhouette commemorating Jean Pierre Blanchard’s first balloon ascent on Paris in 1784, expected to bring $3,000-plus, and a verre églomisé, or glass gilded painting, of a crowd enjoying a balloon ascent, expected to bring $2,000-plus. Perhaps the most unusual item is a rare French Empire gilt wood mirror with a balloon crest, which is expected to bring $5,000-plus.
An assortment of decorative desk objects, medals and ornaments round out the collection, a highlight of which is an exceedingly rare French Napoleonic-era ivory snuff box, expected to bring $2,000-plus.
“It’s no surprise L. Frank Baum immortalized a hot air balloon to bring Oz its Wizard,” said Nicholas Dawes, vice president of Special Collections at Heritage. “From its first appearance in 1872, hot air ballooning has captured the public’s imagination and this collection celebrates its history like none other.”
A number of works of art are included in the collection, including two paintings attributed to Victor Philippe Francois Lemoine-Benoit, the first being Hot Air Balloon and the second being Bidding Farewell in a Hot Air Balloon. Each is expected to bring $6,000-plus.
A French School oil on canvas, Peasants Admiring Hot Air Balloon in Ascent, is also expected to bring $6,000-plus. Sydney A. Court’s 1939 watercolor The Re-Opening of the Alexandra Palace, Easter Monday, is expected to bring $2,000-plus and a miniature painting of a mid-air ballooning accident is expected to bring $1,000. A selection of reverse-painted glass works, or verre églomisés, is led by a crowd enjoying a balloon ascent, expected to bring $2,000-plus, while a pair celebrating a balloon trip to the moon, is expected to bring $500.
Among the balloon-inspired decorative arts crossing the block are a circa 1880 French brass and wood pendulum clock, expected to bring $2,000-plus; an German ballooning alarm clock is expected to bring $500; and a rare American walnut shelf clock depicting a balloon in celebratory flight is expected to bring $300.
A lot of three Continental silver-cased pocket watches, all sporting ballooning motifs, is expected to bring $1,200 and an oversize French pocket watch with a painted ballooning dial may bring $800-plus.
A dramatic pair of French bronzed metal ballooning trophy ornaments on green marble bases and a number of steins, glass decanters and even a German bronze art deco cigar box round out the collection.
Likely to capture strong collector interest is a signed and inscribed photograph of a Maharaja Sayajirao Baroda in an Indian silver presentation frame, expected to bring $7,000-plus.
The auction features an important group of ship models including an English silver model of the historic clipper Cutty Sark from an East Coast collection, estimated to bring $8,000-plus.
A stunning array of automobilia and petroliana includes a motorized scale model of a 1933-36 Bugatti Type 59 race car, expected to bring $2,000-plus, an authentic motorized scale replica of a BMW 328 Roadster, expected to bring $1,500-plus, a scale model MG pedal car, and a set of two vintage enameled metal pedal cars featuring a tow car with a pedal racer on a custom trailer
Session III takes place Sunday, Feb. 24, and will feature Part II of the the Elton Hyder III Jr. Collection. It includes a captivating group of objets d’art, including a portrait of Philip IV, King of Spain, expected to bring $6,000-plus.
Meticulously assembled for the library to give students there a sense of history within the law, the Hyder family canvassed the United States and Great Britain seeking objects to document the evolution of law.
Part II features additional rarities, such as an extensive collection of fine English oak furniture dating from the 16th to the 19th centuries, including a mammoth English oak dining table, expected to bring $4,000, an exhaustive collection of 18th century legal engravings, Kilim tapestry-woven rugs and a fine collection of World War I propaganda posters, led by T. Paul Verrees’ 1917 lithograph.
Montblanc’s Sir Winston Churchill Limited Edition 53 fountain pen – featuring 18K pink gold, tortoiseshell bands and 53 diamonds – is expected to bring $25,000-plus as part of a special offering of fine writing instruments in Heritage’s Gentleman Collector Auction event, Feb. 23-24.
“Limited edition luxury pens are rapidly gaining a following, especially among modern coin and wine collectors, and rare examples are extremely hard to find,” said Dawes. “My favorite is the Churchill, but there’s something for all tastes and budgets. What makes many of these especially interesting is their edition numbers, carefully chosen by the original collector. Many have edition number 1, and others have number 8, which is hard to find.”
Virtually unheard of in a single auction, two of Montblanc’s most coveted patriotic limited edition fountain pens – honoring the Star Spangled Banner and America’s independence – will cross the block during the event. A Montblanc Limited Edition 56 Fourth of July fountain pen is expected to bring $25,000-plus and a Montblanc Stars-and Stripes Skeleton fountain pen – one of 50 handcrafted in white gold, diamonds and rubies – is expected to bring $20,000-plus.
The collection features 30 Montblanc pens and small issue rarities, such as a Montblanc Limited Edition 100 Yellow Soulmakers Number 88 fountain pen, expected to bring $16,000-plus.
“All of these superb instruments are in pristine, original condition,” added Dawes, “complete with presentation boxes and paperwork.”
View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
Attributed to Victor Philippe Lemoine-Benoit (French, 1831-1850), ‘Bidding Farewell in a Hot Air Balloon,’ oil on canvas. Estimate: $6,000-$8,000. Heritage Auctions image.
Motorized scale model of a 1933-1936 Bugatti Type 59. Estimate: $2,000-$4,000. Heritage Auctions image.
Rare French Empire gilt wood mirror with hot air balloon crest, early 19th century, 41 1/2 x 23 1/2 inches. Estimate: $5,000-$7,000. Heritage Auctions image.
Unique and historic ballooning silhouette miniature of Jean Pierre Blanchard, 1784, 3-1/2 by 2-3/4 inches, miniature painting on ivory commemorating his first balloon ascent in Paris on March 2, 1784. Estimate: $3,000-$5,000. Heritage Auctions image.
German silvered metal, tortoiseshell, pewter and gilt bronze clock, Teller Uhr form, circa 1700, 22 1/8 inches high. Estimate: $3,000-$5,000. Heritage Auctions image.
Eros depicted as an adult male, Attic red-figure bobbin, circa 470-450 B.C. Image by Jastrow, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
NEW YORK (AFP) – A plump, naughty-looking winged baby with a bow and arrow: Sounds like the illustration on a Valentine’s Day card, right?
Wrong: It’s a 2,000-year-old statue on show in New York.
A new exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Changing Image of Eros, Ancient Greek God of Love, from Antiquity to Renaissance,” demonstrates that love as we know it doesn’t just last forever – it’s been around forever too.
The centerpiece of the exhibit, which opened last week and runs through June 23, is a remarkable, life-size bronze sculpture of Eros shown as a sleeping baby.
His chubby legs are draped over a stone. One of his wings lies flat, the details of every feather visible, and the other is tucked up underneath.
Unusually for Greek art, the god’s eyes are shut. And in a touching nuance, the baby’s mouth rests open, while his left hand lies limp, having dropped his famous bow.
“He’s in the midst of his labors and he’s taking a nap,” curator Sean Hemingway told AFP.
Those labors, according to the Greek myth, were very much as doodling, love-sick teens might imagine them today: Eros firing arrows of love.
Less well known is that the Greek Eros had two arrows – “either tipped with gold or tipped with lead,” Hemingway said.
“The golden ones gave burning desire and the lead ones,” he added with a chuckle, “repelled people from burning desire.” The image of Eros captured in the statue, which is dated to the third-second centuries B.C. and comes from the island of Rhodes, spawned a remarkable dynasty of lookalikes, right from Roman art’s Cupid to the winged cherubs of Renaissance paintings, and into our popular culture today.
But Eros wasn’t always so cuddly. Until the period when winged babies came out with their darts of passion, the god was depicted in Archaic Greek poetry as a “powerful, often cruel and capricious being,” the exhibit explains.
The baby version meant love was “brought down to earth and disarmed.”
“The idea of love is a universal concept,” said Hemingway, an archaeologist and the grandson of the novelist Ernest Hemingway.
“For the Greeks, it was an important god and we continue to think of love, if not as a god, as important. Valentine’s Day is coming up, so it’s a good time to remember him.”
Hemingway called the piece a “great masterpiece” that has always “fascinated” him.
It certainly fascinated the Romans, who made copies in large quantities, followed by the Renaissance artists whose rediscovery of Classical art inspired Europe’s cultural explosion after the Middle Ages.
“He was rediscovered in the Renaissance early on,” Hemingway said.
Incidentally, there’s one more link between that ancient artwork and our modern cult of love: the statue’s presumed birthplace.
Rhodes, Hemingway pointed out, “means ‘rose’ in Greek.”
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Eros depicted as an adult male, Attic red-figure bobbin, circa 470-450 B.C. Image by Jastrow, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
The Lincoln Cottage in Washington, D.C. Image by Hij. This work has been released into the public domain by its author at the wikipedia project.
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Lincoln’s Cottage is keeping a rare, signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation on display for two more months.
Lincoln contemplated and drafted much of the document more than 150 years ago at the cottage in Washington where he spent much of his presidency. The display was supposed to end in February but has been extended through April 30.
The historic site says the extended exhibition coincides with the 151st anniversary of Lincoln’s lesser-known D.C. Emancipation Act on April 16, 1862.
The cottage is the first public venue to display this document that was purchased last year by businessman David Rubenstein. Rubenstein purchased the document at auction for $2.1 million.
Lincoln signed 48 copies of the Emancipation Proclamation to be sold to fund medical care for Union soldiers.
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-02-01-13 1156GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
The Lincoln Cottage in Washington, D.C. Image by Hij. This work has been released into the public domain by its author at the wikipedia project.
The vineyards of Chevalier-Montrachet, Montrachet and Batard-Montrachet in Puligny-Montrachet, Burgundy, France. Image by Joncaves, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
HONG KONG (AFP) – A former Hong Kong politician Tuesday said he will sell part of his multimillion dollar wine collection, after the discovery of an illegal cellar was partly blamed for his loss in last year’s leadership race.
The southern Chinese city’s former number two Henry Tang was set for the chief executive spot in 2012 until a series of gaffes, including the discovery of the unauthorized basement containing a wine cellar at his luxury home, made him deeply unpopular.
Tang, well-known as a wine connoisseur, abolished duties on wine imports to Hong Kong in 2008, helping to turn the city into a regional wine center.
Now the 60-year-old has decided to sell thousands of bottles of his Burgundy.
“I realized that I have far too much wine and I would never be able to consume it in a lifetime,” Tang said in a statement. “So I have decided to present a selection of wines from my collection at auction, and provide wine lovers around the world with the opportunity to purchase great bottles and enjoy the journey.
“After all, the best wines are those shared.”
Christie’s said the two-day auction will take place in Hong Kong in March.
The auction house said the 810 lots are expected to rake in up to HK$29 million ($3.74 million) – and only represented “a small portion” of Tang’s collection.
It did not specify where the wine was from, but in an interview with Tang on Tuesday the Wall Street Journal reported that none of the bottles in the sale were stored in the illegal cellar.
Among the wine to be auctioned are 12 bottles of 1978 DRC Montrachet estimated to be worth HK$400,000-600,000.
The auction house described the Burgundy as one of Tang’s “earliest and greatest loves” from a collection gathered over three decades, and said he had visited vineyards worldwide to search for the ideal bottle.
Tang, who as chief secretary was the government’s second-in-command until September 2011, was thought to be Beijing’s choice for Hong Kong’s top job in the run-up to the chief executive election in March last year.
But he began his campaign with a public admission of marital infidelity and suffered another blow with the discovery of the unauthorised basement, which reportedly also included a Japanese-style bath and a workout room.
His main rival Leung Chun-ying was subsequently handpicked for the post by a 1,200-strong election committee dominated by pro-Beijing elites, after China apparently switched sides.
Since his election Leung has also apologized for illegal structures built without planning permission at his own luxury Hong Kong home.
Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated cities in the world and authorities regularly prosecute residents for making illegal additions to their houses.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
The vineyards of Chevalier-Montrachet, Montrachet and Batard-Montrachet in Puligny-Montrachet, Burgundy, France. Image by Joncaves, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
