March 5, 2013 - Auction Central News

Noguchi ‘Rudder’ stools, table total $124,200 at Moran sale

The stars of the evening at Moran’s Feb. 5 Decorative Art Auction were these Isamu Noguchi ‘Rudder’ Model IN-22 stools and Model IN-20 table, which collectively realized $124,200. John Moran Auctioneers image.

PASADENA, Calif. – John Moran Auctioneers’ Decorative and Fine Art Auction on Feb. 5 was an exciting spectacle for collectors of mid-century modern design and Native American artifacts. The saleroom was energized by a crowd of motivated bidders attracted by the high quality property consigned from private collections and estates.

LiveAuctioneers.com provided Internet live bidding.

The large room at the Pasadena Convention Center was filled with hundreds of floor bidders, joined by more than 600 other prospective buyers bidding online and via telephone. The sale achieved a 90 percent sell-through rate for the 446 lots.

Much of the electricity in the highly charged atmosphere was generated by an exceptional group of furnishings by renowned mid-century modern designers. They were led by a dining set designed by Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988) for Herman Miller in 1944, comprising four “Rudder’’ Model IN-22 stools and a Model IN-20 table. The discovery of the group, in the sewing room of the former owner, was a bonanza. Even a single Rudder stool is an exceptionally rare sighting. The Rudder stool, which is constructed of a shaped wooden seat mounted to a single parabolic wooden leg and two straight metal legs, was manufactured for only a short time, and the production line model was normally made with either a natural birch finish or an ebonized finish to the wood, with the metal legs in a chrome finish. The examples offered at Moran’s were unsigned, and exhibited certain idiosyncrasies, such as an unusual tobacco-brown stain on the wooden parts and a black finish on the metal legs, as well as tool marks to the hardware and other signs of handiwork not typical of production line pieces.

Offered singly in four lots, each carried a conservative presale estimate of $3,000–$5,000. Moran’s expectations for prices well above this level grew steadily in the days leading up to the sale, as inquiries poured in and interest from well-known dealers and modern design experts grew intensely keen. While the experts’ opinions varied, some of those who previewed the stools speculated that they were possibly prototypes made in Noguchi’s studio.

The bidding for each lot showed the same pattern, starting off tumultuously, the bids flying fast and furious with auctioneer and president John Moran expertly controlling the melee, then winding down to a tussle between three floor bidders. Each stool ultimately went to the same buyer, individually realizing $24,000, $22,800, $36,000 and $30,000. Combined with the price of $11,400 achieved for the table, the group realized a collective $124,200. (All prices quoted include the buyer’s premium of 20 percent for cash payment or 22.5 percent for credit card payment.)

Other highlights from the modern design category included:

– Seven lots of verdigris bronze tubular patio furniture designed by Walter Lamb for Brown-Jordan, including tables, chairs, rockers, chaise lounges and a settee, for a total of 19 pieces, collectively realized $20,880.

– A circa-1960 example of the Arredoluce “Triennale’’ three-arm floor lamp, an Italian classic that is still in production (estimate $1,500–$2,500) found a buyer at $3,368.75.

– A color lithograph titled Dog Barking at Moon by Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo (1899–1991) achieved $5,819 (estimate: $1,500–$2,500).

Three lots of art glass by contemporary American master Dale Chihuly (b. 1941), each consigned from a private collection in Seattle: a flamboyantly colored “Macchia” basket (estimate: $2,000–$4,000) realized $5,400, another “Macchia” featuring a speckled cobalt body and red lip wrap (estimate: $2,000–$3,000) that also realized $5,400, and a two-piece “Seaform” set in striated pink with black lip wraps (estimate: $2,000–$3,000) sold for $5,206.

Arts and Crafts objects were also well represented in Moran’s 20th century design selections, with 28 lots led by a large collection of art pottery as well as Gustav Stickley oak furniture, lighting and metalware by Tiffany Studios and Dirk van Erp. Copper and mica lamps by West Coast craftsman Albert Berry (1878–1967) are a rare and much sought-after find, and the one offered at Moran’s was gracefully designed with a gently flaring bell-shaped shade. Offered for $2,000–$3,000, it realized $11,400.

Based in Southern California, Moran’s is well known for its success in selling Native American objects, and since their record sale in June 2012 of a Navajo First-Phase chief’s blanket for $1.8 million, Moran’s has attracted a deluge of consignments in the category. The house achieved yet more success with Navajo textiles on Feb. 5, selling a 1920s pictorial rug woven in red, cream and black wool with cow figures in each of the four corners (estimate: $1,000–$1,500) for $5,100, and a Second Phase woman’s wearing blanket for $5,100, well above the estimate of $2,000–$4,000. A Southern Plains beaded umbilical fetish also far surpassed expectations, realizing $2,280 (estimate $800–$1,200).

For more information contact the offices of John Moran Auctioneers at 626-793-1833 or info@johnmoran.com.

View the fully illustrated catalog for John Moran Auctioneer’s sale Feb. 5, complete with prices realized, at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

Click here to view the fully illustrated catalog for this sale, complete with prices realized.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

‘Dog Barking at Moon’ by Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo generated considerable interest, attracting numerous bidders who raised the lithograph to a final selling price of $5,819. John Moran Auctioneers image.

Moran’s sold this Navajo pictorial rug dating from the 1920s for $5,100, well over the $1,000–$1,500 estimate, continuing a slew of successful sales for the house in this collecting area. John Moran Auctioneers image.

This Southern Plains beaded umbilical fetish in excellent condition sold for $2,280 on an estimate of $800–$1,200 at Moran’s Feb. 5 sale. John Moran Auctioneers image.

American makers get their due at Stevens sale Feb. 15-16

The sofa of a four-piece Meeks laminated rosewood rococo parlor suite, which sold for $24,150. Stevens Auction Co. image.

ABERDEEN, Miss. – A gorgeous four-piece laminated rosewood rococo parlor suite by renowned 19th century American furniture maker J. & J.W. Meeks, in the desirable Hawkins pattern, sold for $24,150 at a massive two-day estates sale held Feb.15-16 by Stevens Auction Co. LiveAuctioneers.com provide Internet live bidding.

The parlor suite, beautifully crafted around 1855, consisted of a sofa (66 inches long by 45 inches high), an armchair and two side chairs. It was the top achiever of the more than 600 lots sold.

Headlining the event was the lifetime clock collection of Mr. and Mrs. Steve Johnson, merchandise pulled from a New Jersey mansion, and items from three other prominent estates. “If it’s true that quality merchandise brings top dollar at auction, then this sale was a success because the better items saw high prices realized,” said Dwight Stevens of Stevens Auction Co., adding, “The economy is definitely improving. People see that the clock is ticking on their lives and, especially now that the election’s over, they’ve gone back to buying.”

Around 200 people attended the auction in person, while another 450 approved registered bidders participated online, via LiveAuctioneers.com. About 400 combined phone and absentee bids were also recorded. “This was the highest concentration of quality lots we’ve sold in years,” Stevens said. “It was a great start for the new year and we have more big auctions in store.”

Following are additional highlights from the sale. All prices quoted include a 15 percent buyer’s premium.

A stunning pair of recamiers got paddles waving. A laminated rosewood recamier by John H. Belter in the Fountain Elms pattern and in mint condition, circa 1850, 6 feet long by 4 feet tall and considered rare, soared to $18,400; and a nice laminated rosewood rococo recamier by J. & J.W. Meeks in the Stanton Hall pattern went for $9,775.

Two antique desks, both circa 1855 and both attributed to Meeks, also got the crowd excited. One was a fine rosewood rococo secretary desk with a pierce carved crown and carving on the doors, 9 feet 2 inches tall by 42 inches wide, which sold for $17,250. The other was a rosewood rococo rolltop desk with round front drawers and gallery top, 53 inches tall by 48 inches wide, which sold for $9,775.

A pair of tables, each one executed around 1855 by Alexander Roux, found new owners. The first was a rococo banquet dining table, heavily carved, with claw feet and capable of stretching to 14 feet 6 inches, which brought $17,250. The second was a monumental rosewood rococo marble center table with detail carved fruit basket and carving all over, 62 inches in length, which realized $10,350.

Chairs were offered in abundance and bidders responded with enthusiasm. A set of eight walnut Victorian dining room chairs made circa 1855 by Alexander Roux, in mint condition with heavily carved backs and boasting red silk upholstery, hammered for $16,100, and a rosewood laminated rococo arm parlor chair by Meeks in the Stanton Hall pattern, circa 1855, hit $5,750.

A large walnut Victorian office desk chair with padded arms, carved crown and black leather upholstery, made circa 1870, reached $4,830 and a lovely pair of rosewood laminated pierce carved side parlor chairs with green seats, circa 1855, made $2,300.

Two furniture lots need to be singled out not just for their high dollars realized but for their sheer beauty. One was a museum-quality period Empire sideboard with original gold stenciling, cut glass doors and acanthus carving on the sides, attributed to Anthony Quervelle and made in 1830, which sold for $13,800. The other was a three-piece oak parlor suite by R.J. Horner, circa 1890. Heavily carved, with lions’ heads on the arms and burgundy leather upholstery, the set achieved $9,775.

Fine and decorative arts featured an oil on canvas portrait of a young Victorian girl in a green dress, signed J. Van Keirsbilck, framed with an overall size of 6 feet tall by 58 inches wide, which sold for $8,050; a fine Louis XIV-style silver plate and carved trestle base trolley, circa 1890, $5,175; and a dore bronze centerpiece of cupids climbing a tree base with glass bowl, $3,565.

Antique lamps and lighting included a 19th century astral gasolier with original gold gilding, which sold for $13,800, and matching set of six astral gas wall sconces for $10,350. A rare circa 1920 metal Art Nouveau landing light of a lady with grapes, having a black marble base, hit $10,925; a walnut Victorian pedestal with gas light fixture, gilt bronze, with the original shades, circa 1870, $10,350; and an ornate brass onyx piano lamp with molded floral Art Nouveau shade, $4,370.

Rounding out just some of the two-day auction’s list of top lots, a scarce 19th century Sevres clock in urn form, hand-painted and artist-signed, 26 inches tall by 15 inches wide, rose to $9,200, and a gold Victorian pier mirror with white marble base and cupids in the crown and base, monumental at 12 feet tall and made circa 1850, went for $6,900.

Stevens Auction Co. is always accepting quality consignments. To consign a single item, an estate or a collection call them at 662-369-2200 or, email them at stevensauction@bellsouth.net.

View the fully illustrated catalog for Stevens Auction Co.’s Feb. 15-16 auction, complete with prices realized, at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

Click here to view the fully illustrated catalog for this sale, complete with prices realized.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

Period Empire Quervelle sideboard with original gold stenciling and cut glass doors. Price realized: $13,800. Stevens Auction Co. image.

Oil on canvas portrait of a Victorian girl, signed J. Van Keirsbilck and framed. Price realized: $8,050. Stevens Auction Co. image.

Nineteenth century astral gasolier with original gold gilding. Price realized: ($13,800). Six matching wall sconces fetched $10,350. Stevens Auction Co. image.

Circa 1920 metal Art Nouveau landing light of a lady with grapes, marble base. Price realized: $10,925. Stevens Auction Co. image.

Gorgeous, rare 19th century Sevres clock in urn form, hand-painted and artist-signed. Price realized: $9,200. Stevens Auction Co. image.

Reopened gallery boasts world’s most precious saltcellar

Director General Sabine Haag positions the 'Saliera' saltcellar. © Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien.

VIENNA (AFP) – Vienna’s Kunstkammer gallery opened Friday after a 10-year restoration with an exhibition featuring a golden sculpture thought to be the world’s most precious saltcellar.

Crowds flocked to see the over 2,000 treasures from the Hapsburg collections, from tapestries and bronze statuettes to intricate works of gold, silver and ivory, and exotic objects including the alleged horn of a unicorn.

The highlight of the exhibition however, is the 16th-century “Saliera,” a sumptuous gold and enamel creation representing the god Neptune and goddess Tellus and created by Italian artist Benvenuto Cellini for King Francis I of France.

The “Saliera,” worth over 50 million euros ($65 million), made headlines when it was snatched in 2003 from Vienna’s Art History Museum only to be found three years later, in a box buried in a forest northwest of Vienna.

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King Richard I’s embalmed heart has turned to dust

Tomb of Richard I of England at Rouen Cathedral, France. Image by AYArtos, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

PARIS (AP) – King Richard I, the 12th-century warrior whose bravery during the Third Crusade gained him the moniker Lionheart, ended up with a heart full of daisies, as well as myrtle, mint and frankincense.

Those were among the findings of a French study, announced Thursday, which analyzed the embalmed heart of the English king more than 810 years after he died.

The biomedical analysis also uncovered less flowery and spicy elements like creosote, mercury and perhaps lime in the heart, which has been in the western French city of Rouen since his death in 1199.

Despite the embalming ingredients, the heart turned to powder long ago, doubtless because the lead box cradling it wasn’t airtight. It’s so unsightly now that it’s kept from public view.

The study’s leader, Philippe Charlier, suggests the flowers and spices were to give the king the “odor of sanctity.” The study came out less than a month after a team of British archeologists uncovered the long-lost remains of 15th-century King Richard III – a relative but not a direct descendant of Richard I – under a parking lot in Leicester, England.

Unlike that ignominious ending, Richard the Lionheart, leader of the Third Crusade, was ceremoniously laid to rest in three places.

His entrails were interred in the central French town of Chalus, where he died in a skirmish with a rebellious baron; his body reposes at the Fontevraud Abbey, beside his father Henry II and later his mother Eleanor of Aquitaine; and his heart, wrapped in linen, pickled for posterity and placed in a lead box, was sent on to the Cathedral of Rouen.

In 1838, the heart, already turned to powder, was rediscovered, transferred to a glass box and placed in Rouen’s Departmental Museum of Antiquities.

Charlier, a forensic medical examiner, and his 11-member team used the latest biomedical techniques to decipher the composition of The Lionheart’s heart, the most symbolic of human organs. Charlier claims it is the oldest embalmed heart ever studied and, belonging to a king, certainly the most prestigious.

The study was published in Scientific Reports, part of the Nature Publishing Group.

While the team used barely two grams of the brownish white powder that the heart had become, they found an array of flowers and spices used to embalm it, aimed at both conserving the heart and, Charlier theorizes, giving it a fragrant smell.

The aim of the study was essentially to figure out “how to embalm a heart in the 12th century,” Charlier said in a telephone interview.

The mix of spices and sweets also reflects what is known of the first embalmers in the West – they were cooks, the study says.

Charlier conceded that because the heart had turned to powder, likely because the lead box was not hermetically sealed, it was not possible to learn how the organ was opened to introduce the various elements, nor whether the stew of fillers was applied in powder or liquid form.

The presence of incense in the potpourri was the most striking because, Charlier said, it had not been found in previous embalmings, even in corpses dating from the Middle Ages.

Charlier speculates that the incense, among the gifts offered to the infant Jesus by the three kings and reportedly used on the outside of his body at death, was meant to give The Lionheart a direct line to God.

British historian Dan Jones, author of The Plantagenets: The Kings Who Made England, said the French analysis of Richard I’s heart does not appear groundbreaking, “but it’s an interesting curiosity all the same … to see exactly what ingredients were used.”

Placing Richard l’s heart in a reliquary in Rouen, capital of the duchy of Normandy, “was obviously a powerful symbol,” Jones said. At the time of The Lionheart’s death, “Normandy was under threat from the kings of France … It was supposed to have propaganda value in keeping his memory alive and reminding the people of Normandy of their allegiance – i.e. to the kings of England, not of France.”

So what went into trying to preserve, and apparently perfume, the heart?

Microscopic analysis showed pollen grains from daisy, myrtle and mint. Also found were pine, oak, poplar, plantain and bellflower, likely airborne contaminants. Poplar and bellflower were blooming at the time of death, the study says. Molecular analysis turned up frankincense, the white matter in the powder.

There were large amounts of lead – said to be contamination from the box cradling the heart – and traces of copper and mercury, or quicksilver – commonly used at the time. There is also a suggestion that lime may have been used as a disinfectant.

How bodies were preserved back then “is a field of much speculation and, thus, such a study provides some decent evidence,” said Frank Ruhli, a professor at the University of Zurich’s Center for Evolutionary Medicine. However, he said in an email that the study has limited impact because of its focus on a single organ and on only one, if well-known, person.

The curator at the Rouen museum says the heart will remain hidden from public view. “Visually, it is not something very pretty to present,” said Caroline Dorion-Peyronnet. “It’s dust, it looks like nothing.”

AP-WF-02-28-13 1719GMT

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Police say they’ve found suitcase used in Dutch art heist

'Charing Cross Bridge, London' by Claude Monet (1901) is one of the stolen paintings. Rotterdam Police image, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

BUCHAREST (AFP) – Romanian investigators have found a suitcase allegedly used to hide seven masterpieces by artists such as Gauguin, Monet and Picasso stolen in October from a Dutch museum, judicial sources said Tuesday.

“An empty suitcase allegedly belonging to one of the Romanian suspects, Radu Dogaru, was found during a search in Romania,” a police source told AFP.

Judicial sources cited by the Mediafax news agency said “the paintings were apparently stored in the suitcase” that was found buried in a yard in the remote village of Carcaliu in eastern Romania.

Several searches were conducted Tuesday in the eastern department of Tulcea, home to Dogaru and two other Romanian suspects arrested over the heist. Police targeted among others the house of a young Romanian woman arrested Monday in Rotterdam, Mediafax said.

The 19-year-old woman, Natasa Timofei, Dogaru’s girlfriend, is suspected of being involved in the handling of the seven stolen paintings.

Police said it appeared the paintings had been taken to a home in Rotterdam immediately after being stolen. They were then apparently removed from the frames and later taken to Romania.

The heist gripped the Netherlands and the art world as police apparently struggled to piece the crime together, despite putting 25 officers on the case.

The works stolen include Picasso’s Tete d’Arlequin, Monet’s Waterloo Bridge and Lucian Freud’s Woman with Eyes Closed.

Experts put the paintings’ value at between 100 and 200 million euros ($130 million to $260 million).

Nearly five month after the theft, the works’ whereabouts are still unknown.

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Video games zap their way into New York’s MoMA

Pac-Man video game, introduced in 1980. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers Archive and Premiere Props.

NEW YORK (AFP) – Pac-Man and other legends from the video game world have become the latest and perhaps most unlikely additions to the Museum of Modern Art’s illustrious collections in New York.

Fourteen games were displayed in the elegant contemporary design gallery on Friday as part of a wider exhibition called “Applied Design,” which celebrates trends in contemporary design.

Pac-Man (1980) and Tetris (1984) get the full treatment, mounted on small screens set into a dark wall. Each has an accompanying label that explains its history, while Pac-Man gets an additional display, called a distella map, of its original code.

A neighboring room featured Myst from 1993, Another World (1991) and Sims from 2000, the air filled with music from the games.

The rarified atmosphere of the MoMA makes an unusual place to satisfy nostalgia for these video relics, but visitors can do just that – the museum has provided controllers, although there are headphones to keep the noise down.

Games requiring multiple players are the only ones unavailable.

There’s also SimCity 2000 (1994), vib-ribbon (1999), Katamari Damacy (2004), EVE Online (2003), Dwarf Fortress (2006), Portal (2007), flOw (2006), Passage (2008) and Canabalt (2009), where the entire life of a couple plays out in under 5 minutes.

But is it art – particularly in such a prestigious institution as the MoMA?

Paola Antonelli, senior curator for the museum’s department of architecture and design, has no doubt.

“The whole world has always believed that they were a form of art,” she told AFP.

“Frankly, I am not interested at all in the discussion about video games or even chairs being art. I find design one of the highest form of human creative expression and when something has great design that is more than enough.”

That approach and the museum’s desire to expand its exhibits on interactive designs is what underlines the show, which took more than a year and a half to prepare and will be up until January 2014.

MoMA chose the games from a multitude of candidates, studying their cultural significance, their aesthetic quality, but also hard to quantify attributes like “the elegance of the code.”

“Definitely function is important,” Antonelli said. “It also has to have a certain attitude towards form, that is also a means of communication.”

A surefire way to decide on which to include is this, she added: “Would the world miss it if it didn’t exist?”

This is just the start for what MoMA hopes will be a 40-strong collection eventually. New arrivals being lined up are Space Invaders (1978), Asteroids (1979), Zork (1979), Tempest (1981), Yars’ Revenge (1982), Marble Madness (1984), Super Mario Bros. (1985), and The Legend of Zelda (1986).

But there is no rush, she said. “It is also our job as a museum to preserve whatever we acquire.”

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Museum’s sale of Chinese artifacts draws ire from donors’ family

The Tacoma Art Museum in Tacoma, Wash. Image by Joe Mabel. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) – The children of a couple who donated Chinese artifacts to the Tacoma Art Museum in the 1970s are upset now that the museum is selling off the robes and jewelry.

Al Young of Shoreline told KIRO-TV they believed the museum would keep the items in its permanent collection. They were told the whole collection was worth only $30,000. The 130 items were described as tourist keepsakes that were not museum-quality.

But when a third of the collection was auctioned in San Francisco those items netted $230,000.

The family has gone to court in an attempt to prevent the remainder of the collection from being auctioned.

The Tacoma Art Museum says the lawsuit has no merit.

The museum decided two years ago to focus on Northwest art.

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Information from: KIRO-TV, htthttp://www.kirotv.com/index.html

AP-WF-03-04-13 1328GMT

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Cosmosphere’s visitors to watch space-age restorations

Apollo 13 Command Module in Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, Hutchinson, Kan. Image by HrAtsuo. This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) – Visitors to the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson will soon have a chance to watch how the museum restores space artifacts and replicates space equipment

The Cosmosphere is building a glassed-in, air-conditioned viewing area to allow visitors to watch the museum’s SpaceWorks division.

In the past, Spaceworks employees have restored a Titan rocket, a World War II era German rocket and built replicas of space equipment for movies and other museums. But that work was done in private.

The Hutchinson News reports the viewing area will cost about $50,000 and is expected to be completed by March 21.

Cosmosphere CEO Dick Hollowell says SpaceWorks isn’t currently working on a major project but it has bids out on $4 million in projects.

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Information from: The Hutchinson (Kan.) News, http://www.hutchnews.com

AP-WF-03-04-13 1425GMT

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