February 11, 2013 - Auction Central News

Kovels Antiques & Collecting: Week of Feb. 11, 2013

A portrait of a pair of blue eyes and eyebrows is in the center of this antique 'lover's eye' brooch. A gold snake is curled around the edge of the frame. The brooch sold for $2,280 at a Skinner auction in Boston.

Unfaithful spouses have been around since the beginning of time, and they’ve always been a source of gossip. Today there are all sorts of electronic ways to spread gossip, but an earlier method that’s very difficult for us to understand is 18th-century “lover’s eye” jewelry.

Adultery back then could lead to losing your right to be king. Less-prominent lovers might be faced with a duel and death. So why advertise an affair? Perhaps it was a way to brag – or perhaps some of the stories about this jewelry are myths. In 1785, future King George IV and an older Catholic widow with whom he was romantically involved were united in a secret mock marriage. They knew he could not become king with a Catholic wife. So the story goes that the “almost king” commissioned special jewelry – two gem-encrusted brooches, each with a portrait of the other’s eyes. The lovers were sure no one else could identify their eyes.

The brooches soon became stylish and many couples were wearing lover’s eye jewelry. Pins, rings, bracelets, pendants and necklaces were made. By the 1790s, special “mourning eye” jewelry was being made using portraits of the eyes of dead spouses or lovers. Eventually the pins were exchanged between mothers and daughters, sisters and close friends, but the fad was almost over by the 1830s. Antique eye jewelry sells for high prices today. A 1 3/8-inch brooch with a portrait of two blue eyes set in an oval frame edged with a coiled gold serpent sold for $2,280 at a December 2012 Skinner auction in Boston.

But beware. Many fakes have been made by removing the center of a brooch and inserting a new picture of an eye. Even old gems and original goldsmith-made mountings have been used to make fantasy pieces. Experts say you can detect a fake. Genuine antique lover’s eyes were painted on ivory and covered with a piece of crystal. The eye or eyes should be the proper size for the space. Look for details like an eyebrow and shadows near the eye that suggest a portrait made from life, not a quick copy.

Q: I found an interesting object at a local yard sale. It’s a miniature Empire State Building with a thermometer in the front. It’s 6 3/4 inches tall and is made of plated metal with a golden patina. I paid $1 for it. Is it worth more than that?

A: Lots of souvenirs have been made of the Empire State Building since it was built in 1931. It was the world’s tallest building for decades. Your souvenir thermometer was made in the mid-20th century. Souvenirs like yours usually sell online for $10 to $20, so you got a good deal.

Q: I have a ceramic vase that resembles some made by Canuck Pottery. It’s kind of freeform and rough looking. Someone told me it might be Beachcomber Ware. It’s marked “St. John, Canada.” Can you help me identify the maker?

A: It’s not possible to positively identify your vase without seeing it and the mark on the bottom. Canuck Pottery was located in St. John, New Brunswick, from 1938 until about 1964. The pottery moved to Labelle, Quebec, after a fire at the St. John site. Beachcomber Ware was made in about 1958. Canuck Pottery went out of business in the 1970s. Show it to a local antiques dealer.

Q: I have a pewter ice-cream mold in the shape of a ship. It’s marked “E and Co. N.Y. 1222” on the side. Is this valuable? Can I use it?

A: The mark was used by Eppelsheimer & Co. of New York City. The company was in business from 1880 to 1947. It was one of the major U.S. producers of pewter molds for ice cream and chocolate. Eppelsheimer sold molds to confectioners, ice-cream companies and other retailers. The number marked on the mold is its catalog number. When the company closed, the dies for the molds were sold. Another American company has been making tin molds from the old dies since the 1980s. Old pewter molds may contain lead and should only be used for display, since they might contaminate food. The value of pewter molds ranges from $50 to $100.

Q: We have an “invalid rolling cart” made by Colson Corp. of Elyria, Ohio. Our school was going to put it in a dumpster. Can you tell us how old it is and what it’s worth?

A: Colson started out as Fay Manufacturing, makers of the Fairy Tricycle, in 1885. There have been several changes in ownership and corporate name since then. By 1903, Fred Colson was one of the owners of the company, then called Worthington Manufacturing Co. The company made tricycles, wheelchairs, invalid chairs, carts and more. In 1917 it became Colson Co. and manufactured wheeled equipment for hospitals and industry. The company’s name was changed to the name on your cart, Colson Corp., in 1933. Colson was bought by Sentinel Capital Partners in 2012 and is still in business. Your cart, made after 1933, is not old enough to be antique, but it’s unusual. It would be hard to sell but might interest a historical society.

Tip: Wrapped wicker furniture should be repaired as soon as possible. Rewrap the wicker and glue the end with white glue.

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.

Toothpick holder, Hawaiian lei, clear, $25.
Bed warmer, brass, engraved, turned wood handle, 48 inches, $94.
Imari umbrella stand, flowers, orange, blue, white, Japan, c. 1900, 24 inches, $153.
Toy bus, Safety Coach, cast iron, blue paint, Arcade, c. 1930, 12 inches, $165.
Baccarat paperweight, flowers, blue ground, white honeycomb, signed, 1986, 3 1/4 inches, $325.
Roseville Columbine vase, pink handles, 7 x 17 inches, $335.
Coin-operated peanut vending machine, Smilin’ Sam, aluminum, red, 13 1/2 inches, $420.
Secretary, Empire style, mahogany, triangle crest, glass doors, roll top, fitted interior over glass doors, 79 x 46 inches, $1,375.
Popeye display, carved wood, by Keith Kaonis, 1960s, 64 inches, $1,650.
Sconce, bronze dore, neoclassical, figures, arms holding candle, 17 x 13 in., 4 pieces, $2,460.

Ralph and Terry Kovel, syndicated newspaper columnists, best-selling authors, avid collectors and national authorities on antiques, hosted the HGTV series “Flea Market Finds with the Kovels.” Enjoy the shows all over again and explore some of the most exciting flea markets in the U.S. In each episode, Ralph and Terry share their secrets about when and where to shop, what to look for at shops and flea markets, and how to make a good buy. These DVDs include the first season of the series. You’ll see rare marbles, antique quilts, European chests and boxes, Satsuma pottery, ceramic tobacco jars, Bakelite jewelry, vintage plastic dime store toys, Czechoslovakian glass, Big Little Books, can labels and seed packets, old prints and more. Available online at Kovelsonlinestore.com; by phone at 800-303-1996; or send $29.95 plus $4.95 postage to Kovels, Box 22900, Beachwood, OH 44122.

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3 estates form backbone of Jeffrey Evans auction Feb. 16

Samuel Yellin (1885-1940) Arts & Crafts wrought iron candlestick. Estimate: $800-$1,200. Courtesy of Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates Inc.

MT. CRAWFORD, Va. – Coming quickly off of the heels of their record-breaking 19th and 20th Century Glass Auction in January, Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates will be selling a wide selection of goods in their Feb. 16 variety auction. LiveAuctioneers will provide Internet live bidding.

Saturday’s sale, comprising more than 750 lots has an unusually deep and large selection of sterling silver souvenir spoons collected for decades; as well as a fun selection of advertising materials including Coca-Cola and tobacco memorabilia. In addition, there is a good collection of antique dolls and a wide panoply of objects and accessories for sale. As with most of Evans’s sales this auction is 100 percent unreserved.

The backbone of this auction is formed by material from the collections of the late Richard “Dick” and Mary Ann Krauss of Clyde, Ohio; the late Betty Jane Renn of Sunbury, Pa.; and the Veronica “Ronnie” Riefler Strathmann estate of Pittsburgh, Pa., as well as selections from a Connecticut private collector.

Metalware makes up a large section of the auction, including a massive collection of sterling silver souvenir spoons, as well as sterling hollow and flatware and Victorian figural napkin rings. Among the fine silver offerings are a Boston Arts & Crafts sterling silver serving plate with a wide, ornately pierced and punched border, hallmarked with knight on horseback and “K” within a shield for Mary C. Knight of Boston. The serving plate dates to the first quarter of the 20th Century, measures 10 3/4 inches and weighs 14.35 ounces. Its estimate is $800-$1,200.

The auction also includes a rare Samuel Yellin (1885-1940) Arts & Crafts wrought iron candlestick and other Arts & Crafts objects, Victorian and Chinese furniture and country accessories. The Yellin candlestick has an open-spiral shaft raised on a circular pan-like base and three five-toed pad feet. Stamped “SAMUEL YELLIN” under the base; it was made in Philadelphia and is estimated to sell for between $800-$1,200.

The Evans auction also includes vintage toys and dolls, marbles, fine Christmas and Easter decorations, collections of tobacciana, a collection of Maxfield Parrish prints, lady’s accoutrements and vintage clothing, fine and costume jewelry, collections of Royal Doulton Royal Doulton ceramics, art pottery, and Tiffin figural glass lamps. In the doll section of the sale, a, J.D. Kestner German bisque-head “Hilda” character doll, incised “Made in / Germany / 245 / J.D.K. Jr. / 1914 / Hilda,” with brown sleeping eyes, painted eyebrows and eyelashes, open mouth with upper teeth and tongue, and original fully-jointed composition body, in a vintage christening dress and cap, dating to the first quarter of the 20th century, 16 inches high is estimate to realize $500-$800.

There are a number of interesting ephemeral items and books of local interest in the auction, too, including an important Virginia confederate veterans manuscript records for the Stonewall Jackson Camp #25 of the Confederate Veterans, U.C.V. #469, Staunton, Va. The lot includes Camp Ledger #1 and #2, 1894-1934, and Treasure’s book 1908-1921. The ledgers contain 870 pages filled with extensive notes and records of member’s war services, resolutions, newspaper clippings, signed letters from Mrs. Jefferson Davis and Gen. Eppa Hunton, other letters and notes, membership rolls, etc. It is estimate at $500-$800.

In the advertising and tobacciana collection from a private Connecticut collection, a rare Bill Durham Smoking Tobacco advertising clock attributed to W.T. Blackwell and dating to the last quarter of the 19th century is a highlight. The clock has a windup mechanism, and takes the form of a tobacco pouch, made up of a wooden frame covered with printed muslin, with labels and a card-stock front panel, with dial and advertising, top drawstring and even has its original key. It is 12 1/4 inches high. The clock is estimated to realize $300-$500.

In addition to the Bull Durham clock, the auction includes several other vintage clocks, including a circa 1916 Chelsea Constitution model clock housed in a brass case with outstanding patina and a silvered dial lettered “Chelsea Clock Co./Boston, U.S.A.” and “Ship’s Bell,” serial #103469. It has its original key and certificate from Chelsea Clock Co. It is 7 1/4 high, 5 1/2 deep and is estimated at $500-$800.

For details email info@jeffreysevans.com or call 540-434-3939.

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.

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

Courtesy of Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates Inc.

Mount Vernon buys painting of the Washingtons at home

The watercolor by Benjamin Henry Latrobe is 17 1/2 inches high by 25 inches wide. Image courtesy of Mount Vernon Ladies' Association.

MOUNT VERNON, Va. (AP) – George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate will preserve a 1796 painting of the first president’s family entertaining on their patio overlooking the Potomac River.

The artwork, A View of Mount Vernon with the Washington Family, was painted by architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe. It was on loan to Mount Vernon since 2004 but was recently sent to auction. With help from an anonymous donor, Mount Vernon purchased the watercolor last month for $602,500.

Curator Susan Schoelwer tells The Washington Post they were heartbroken at the thought of losing the painting. It’s believed to be the only lifetime image of the first couple on their piazza at Mount Vernon.

It was displayed briefly in 2006, 2007 and 2008. It will go back on display next year.

The website Patch previously reported the purchase.

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Information from: The Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com

AP-WF-02-09-13 1725GMT

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Reading the Streets: Get on the bus for graffiti tour

Photo of a Banky work in Brick Lane, East End, in 2004. Image by Matt Whitby, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

LONDON (AFP) – Far from London’s beaten tourist track, a group of visitors is staring keenly at the graffiti-covered gates to an abandoned construction site.

Their guide, Karim Samuels, points out the black-and-white images of two young faces, and behind them, a piece of street art by Britain’s most famous and enigmatic street artist, Banksy.

Welcome to Shoreditch, an edgy district in the east of the capital where flocks of art lovers are ditching the National Gallery for an urban adventure.

Sadly, the Banksy of a rat wielding a knife and fork is too precious to stay public and has been hidden under boards to protect it from vandals and the weather, Samuels tells members of his Street Art London tour.

The owner plans to make a feature of the image when he opens a new restaurant at the site, capitalizing on a surge in popularity for Banksy’s work which saw one piece sell for more than Ł100,000 (115,000 euros, $160,000) in October.

“If you’re lucky enough to have a Banksy piece on the corner of your house, it will probably boost the value,” Samuels said, his beanie hat pulled down low against the freezing wind.

For Ł12 ($19, 14 euros) per person, Street Art London leads visitors through the maze of Shoreditch’s colorful streets, showing off the area’s most outstanding works.

The tours transform east London into a vast outdoor museum, where many of the works on show contain hidden messages – and quite a few of the artworks are illegal.

“Art is not inside the museums or the galleries. Art is everywhere you can imagine,” said 20-year-old Brazilian student Felipe Rama, donning 3D glasses to enjoy a psychedelic portrait daubed by Australian artist Jimmy Cochran on a cafe wall. Urban art needn’t be limited to spray-painted walls and shop shutters. It can take the form of mosaics, sculptures – or even painted blobs of discarded chewing gum, which might be trampled over without the help of a guide.

“Since 1998, Ben Wilson has painted between eight and 10 thousand of these,” said Samuels, bending over one of the tiny bits of street art stuck to the pavement.

“He got arrested, but the authorities came to the conclusion they could not charge him with criminal damage – because he’s not actually damaging anyone’s property.

“It’s a bit of chewing gum, it’s litter on the street,” he added, brushing away the snow to reveal a tiny piece of gum painted to look like a nearby crossroads.

He points out some miniature dancing figures at the foot of a nearby wall, painted by Mexican artist Pablo Delgado, and a giant bird on the side of a building.

“The artists see the city as a kind of playground,” Samuels said, adding: “Where there’s a wall, there’s a way.”

It’s a philosophy claimed by many street artists looking to conquer new territory.

Some graffiti is wiped clean by the government, but other works are destroyed by artists who are simply jealous or want to reuse a space.

Some also disappear during construction work and some rarer pieces are commissioned by a building’s owners.

“The street is a jungle,” said Samuels. “It’s like this huge war going on all the time between street artists, graffiti writers, the council, the police, advertisers.”

As a result of the neighborhood’s ever-shifting decor, the routes of Street Art London’s tours have changed constantly since their launch in 2011.

“There is art that is meant to last and there is the art that is not meant to last,” said Australian tourist Zac Kerr as he stood beneath a striking portrait by Portuguese artist Vhils carved into the wall.

“It’s meant to be a short-lived thing, so when you see it, you appreciate it while it’s there, before it gets changed by someone else or the government.”

Like New York or Paris, London has become an obligatory stop for graffiti artists from around the world.

Among these pilgrims is Christiaan Nagel, a South African living in London who has peppered the British capital with his sculptures of giant, brightly colored mushrooms.

Nagel said he started as a “traditional” artist, showing his work in gallery exhibitions, but found himself yearning for a wider audience.

“As an artist, you are exhibitionist by nature,” he told AFP. “I want my work to be seen everywhere. And the street is endless.”

The graffiti tours have certainly helped to showcase street artists’ work.

Nagel said he had received several orders as a result of the tours but these works will end up away from the streets, in private hands.

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Image of French ruler discovered in museum’s painting

The assassination of the Duke of Orleans on the rue Vieille du Temple in 1407. This image is in the public domain because its copyright has expired. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

MADRID (AFP) – Spain’s Prado art museum Monday unveiled a newly discovered jewel of French painting in which experts found a rare image of the historic French ruler Louis of Orleans.

When the Madrid museum received it from a private family in 2011, the 15th-century painting “Prayers in the Orchard” showed just Jesus and three apostles watched over by God in a starry blue sky.

But when experts scanned it and then removed layers of brown paint in the bottom left corner, they revealed a bald, red-haired nobleman in a red robe, accompanied by a female saint in green.

The insignia of golden nettle leaves on his sleeves identified the man as Louis of Orleans. The woman is Saint Agnes, a patron saint associated with his family.

It is one of only a handful of surviving pictures of the duke, and the only one painted on wood, said the museum, which called it “one of the most important finds in French primitive painting.”

Its fine quality and the rarity of works of its kind – many of which were destroyed in the French Revolution – make it “a little gem with great historical significance,” the Prado said in a statement.

“The great value of this work is that it is really unique,” said Maria Antonia Lopez de Asiain, who worked on restoring the painting for a year with a microsope and lancet.

“It is not often that a primitive work like this is so well preserved.”

The duke acted as regent around the turn of the 15th century, standing in for his indisposed brother Charles the Mad.

Louis was assassinated in 1407 on the orders of his cousin and rival for power, John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy.

The museum said that the king’s posture in the picture, according to painterly conventions, identified him or his family as the patron of the work.

He holds a scroll inscribed with a funeral prayer, suggesting the painting may have been ordered by his family shortly after his death.

Painted in tempera on wood, the picture measures only 56 cm by 42 cm (about 22 by 17 inches), suggesting it may have been used in a private shrine, the museum said.

The museum believes it to be the work of Colart de Laon, the duke’s personal painter and valet.

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Original Iwo Jima statue to be auctioned in New York

Sunset Parade at the Marine Corps War Memorial. Image by Ketone 16. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.

NEW YORK (AP) – A statue depicting soldiers raising the U.S. flag at Iwo Jima in 1945 is going on sale. The original smaller version of the iconic statue is expected to fetch up to $1.8 million at Bonhams auction house on Feb. 22 at an auction dedicated to World War II artifacts.

That such a statue even exists is news to all but the most ardent history buffs.

Most Americans are familiar with the 32-foot-tall Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Va. Felix de Weldon’s 1954 bronze depicts five Marines and a Navy Corpsman raising the flag on Iwo Jima’s Mount Suribachi as Allied forces struggled to capture the Japanese-held island.

Less well-known is the 12 1/2-foot-tall statue created soon after the event.

De Weldon, a young sculptor serving as an artist in the Navy, became instantly transfixed by an Associated Press image of the Feb. 23, 1945, flag planting, which would earn photographer Joe Rosenthal a Pulitzer Prize and resonate around the world.

“It’s an incredibly iconic image of bravery,” says Marci Reaven, vice president of historic exhibits at the New-York Historical Society. “It immediately captured Americans’ imaginations, their hopes for victory and their fears at a difficult time.”

De Weldon canceled a weekend leave to model a wax sculpture of the photo to present to the chiefs of staff. Congress soon called for construction of a large statue. But burdened with war debt, it could provide no financing and de Weldon agreed to fund it himself.

Completed in just three months, de Weldon’s cast stone monument was erected in Washington, D.C., in front of what is now the Federal Reserve Building on Constitution Avenue. It remained there until it was removed in 1947 to make room for a new building.

At about the same time, the government authorized a foundation for de Weldon to build a much larger flag-raising statue in bronze – the 32-foot Iwo Jima monument in Arlington.

The 12 1/2-foot version was returned to de Weldon, who covered it with a tarp behind his studio. It remained largely forgotten for more than four decades.

The story of how military historian and collector Rodney Hilton Brown came to own the statue is, like Rosenthal’s photograph, one for the history books.

In researching material for a biography on de Weldon, Brown learned about the old studio and amazingly found the monument still covered by the tarp. He purchased the 5-ton monument from de Weldon in 1990, paying with “a Stradivarius violin, a 1920s solid silver Newport yachting trophy and a lot of money.”

But years of neglect had taken their toll. The joints of the sculpture’s inner steel skeleton suffered extensive damage. Brown was told by a restoration house that it could build a brand-new monument for a quarter of the cost that it would take to restore it.

“They said, ‘You’re crazy.’ And I said, ‘You’re right, I’m crazy. I’m crazy for my Marine Corps. I’m crazy for my country,’” Brown says. “This is the original first Iwo Jima from the last year of WWII and it’s going to get restored.”

Brown unveiled the restored version of the statue in 1995 on the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York on the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima. It remained on the aircraft carrier until 2007 and was then moved to a storage facility in Connecticut.

Brown, 70, founder of the New York-based Virtual War Museum, said he wants to sell the statue now because “it doesn’t fit in my living room. I want to find it a good home so we can pass the flag onto somebody else.”

It will be brought out of storage for display in a sculpture garden adjacent to Bonhams auction house in Manhattan before the Feb. 22 sale.

The successful bidder will also get the tools de Weldon used to build the statue, plus the sculptor’s drawings, sketches and photos of the monument. Also included is the June 4, 1945, Orders for Rosenthal and de Weldon to report to the White House to present a model of the monument to President Harry S. Truman.

Among the other 186 lots at the auction is a copy of Rosenthal’s award-winning photograph that includes a handwritten inscription to de Weldon. The only known photograph autographed by the photographer to the sculptor, it’s expected to sell for $7,000 to $10,000, Brown said.

AP-WF-02-08-13 1628GMT

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