BOCA RATON, Fla. – Carstens Galleries will present its Old Masters, Ivories and Antiques Auction on Thursday, March 14, commencing at 5 p.m. Eastern. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
This event will present a special collection of 18th and 19th century paintings from Clarence Roe, Francis Wheatley, Jean Capeinick, James Burrell Smith, Gertrude Cutts, Ignacio Gil y Sala, Francisco Ribera Gomez, Johan Zoffany, Cornelis Petrus T’Hoen, and oils on canvas from the Hudson River School and the Reynolds School among others.
For collectors of Oriental ivory sculptures, there will be excellent examples of old carvings and some very nice netsukes. Lot 371 is a unique and authentic mammoth tusk carved and signed by the Chinese master with about 70 individual figures of the young celebrating the company of the elders. This lot is a world rarity for its size and quality.
Other offerings among some 300 lots in this auction include a Bruno Zach sculpture, Johan Loetz vases, a Javier Marin sculpture and Famille Rose plates. Also present, a choice selection of old pocket watches and wristwatches by Rolex, Vacheron Constantin, Audemars Piguet and Longines. To complement the auction, offerings of sterling objects, Murano glass, Sevres porcelains and original Limoges hand-painted miniatures will surely be of interest to bidders.
As usual, Carstens Galleries as a service to its bidders, specifies in its catalogs the estimated shipping cost of almost all its lots, and for very heavy or large items, requests information about possible destination of a lot to provide the buyer with correct information and coordination of shipping by Carstens Galleries.
For additional information about any lot in this sale, call Claudio Calderon at Carstens Galleries 561-393-6067 or e-mail the auction company at carstensgalleries@yahoo.com.
View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
Yves Saint Laurent ‘Mondrian’ scarf, France, c. 1990s. Provenance: formerly property of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Estimate: $200-300. Skinner Inc. image. MARLBOROUGH, Mass. – Skinner Inc. will conduct a two-day Discovery auction March 13 and 14. The first day of the sale will feature a diverse collection of textiles that once belonged to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The sale also presents a fine selection of silver, estate jewelry and country Americana-style furnishings and decorative objects for the home. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
Skinner will offer textiles that formerly belonged to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The collection features printed, embroidered and woven garments from the 18th through 20th centuries including shawls, scarves, head coverings, wraps, and veils from cultures and regions around the world.
Multiple paisley and piano shawls will be offered, as well as a large assortment of lace. Highlights include an early embroidered silk apron panel (lot 590, estimated between $300 and $500), a 19th century polychrome pieced and appliquéd Kashmir shawl with allover embroidery (lot 575, $800 to $1,200), three multicolored woven silk sashes (lot 576, $300 to $500), and a 19th century American printed silk and wool scarf (lot 600, $200 to $300).
Rare designer pieces from the collection include a multicolored Sonia Delaunay-Terk shawl titled A Damiers, France, c. 1977 (lot 556, $600 to $800) and a multicolored Mondrian-style printed silk chiffon scarf by Yves Saint Laurent (lot 553, $200 to $300).
Estate silver includes a pair of Wallace sterling silver candlesticks (lot 74, $300 to $500), a George Gebelein Arts & Crafts hammered silver and copper footed center bowl (lot 66, $100 to $200), a Gorham sterling silver gold-washed pail (lot 61, $200 to $300), a Victorian sterling silver eggcup holder by George Fox (lot 111, $200 to $400), and an International “Wedgwood” sterling silver partial flatware service for 12 (lot 101, $2,000 to $3,000).
Notable jewelry lots include a blackened 14K gold, diamond, emerald, ruby, and seed pearl pin (lot 312, $200 to $300), a four-strand onyx and 14K gold bead necklace (lot 398, $200 to $400), and a pair of Georg Jensen sterling silver cufflinks (lot 381, $100 to $150). A pair of 14K gold and reverse-painted intaglio game bird earrings (lot 205, $250 to $350) and a sterling silver and bone bracelet and earclips (lot 348, $400 to $600) will also be offered.
From furniture to paintings and home décor, the March auction offers a fine assortment of antiques for Americana collectors. Highlights include a classical tiger maple wardrobe cabinet (lot 985, $800 to $1,200), a 19th century American school portrait of Angelina Pattison Kirkham and her baby (lot 610, $400 to $500), a late 19th century pieced and appliquéd cotton quilt with a floral wreath design (lot 645, $600 to $800), a carved and painted wooden duck drake decoy (lot 766, $600 to $800), and a white-painted rococo-style cast iron garden settee (lot 835, $400 to $600).
For details contact Cara Elmslie, director of Skinner Inc.’s Discovery auctions, phone 508-970-3290 or email celmslie@skinnerinc.com.
View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
Yves Saint Laurent ‘Mondrian’ scarf, France, c. 1990s. Provenance: formerly property of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Estimate: $200-300. Skinner Inc. image.
Early embroidered silk apron/panel, America, probably 18th century. Provenance: formerly property of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Estimate:$300-500. Skinner Inc. image.
Blackened 14K gold, diamond, emerald, ruby, and seed pearl pin. Estimate: $200-300. Skinner Inc. image.
Victorian sterling silver eggcup holder, London, marks possibly for 1872, by George Fox, Estimate: $200-400. Skinner Inc. image.
International ‘Wedgwood’ sterling silver partial flatware service for 12. Estimate: $2,000-3,000. Skinner Inc. image.
Pair of Georg Jensen sterling silver cuff links. Estimate: $100-150. Skinner Inc. image.
Classical tiger maple wardrobe cabinet with two paneled doors. Estimate: $800-1,200. Skinner Inc. image.
Nineteenth century American school oil on canvas portrait of Angelina Pattison Kirkham and baby. Estimate: $400-500. Skinner Inc. image.
Composer and pianist Franz Liszt in an 1858 photo by Franz Hanfstaengl. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
GENEVA (AFP) – A collection of 14 letters written by 19th-century Hungarian composer Franz Liszt go under the hammer in Switzerland next week, shedding light on his ties with his musical peers and his ire at cultural ignorance
The letters, put on public display Friday at Geneva’s Hotel des Ventes auction house, are to be sold on Wednesday.
In the manuscripts, Liszt wrote of his friendship with German counterpart Richard Wagner and Franco-Polish romantic icon Frederic Chopin, to whom he dedicated three musical scores.
He also criticizes certain sections of his era’s public for failing to appreciate his work.
Also up for sale is an eight-page, handwritten booklet of piano exercises composed by Liszt for his pupil Valerie Boissier in 1832.
The auctioneers’ estimated minimum value for the Liszt lots is 9,750 Swiss francs (7,900 euros, $10,300), with the booklet alone starting at 3,000 Swiss francs.
The lots are part of a broader sale of musicology items, including manuscripts, scores and photographs related to Bela Bartok, Paul Dukas, Nikita Magaloff, Igor Stravinsky, Joseph Szigeti, and Wagner.
The items up for sale are from two private collections.
One is from the family of Szigeti and Magaloff, who was his son-in-law, while the other was put together by Genevan musicologist Robert Bory.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Composer and pianist Franz Liszt in an 1858 photo by Franz Hanfstaengl. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
A 1933 edition of James Fenimore Cooper’s ‘The Last of the Mohicans,’ illustrated by N.C. Wyeth. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and William J. Jenack Auctioneers.
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. (AP) – Athletes in James Fenimore Cooper’s hometown will no longer take the field as the Redskins.
The school board in the upstate New York village of Cooperstown voted 6-to-1 Wednesday night to retire the nickname, which goes back to the 1920s. The vote was prompted by Cooperstown Central School students who found it offensive to American Indians.
Cooperstown is best known as the home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. But it was also the hometown of Cooper, who wrote The Last of the Mohicans and whose father settled the town.
The Daily Star of Oneonta reports (http://bit.ly/XY8AMe ) that the school has yet to choose a new nickname. Possible replacements include Deerslayers, Hawkeyes and Pathfinders – each a nod to Cooper’s works.
The Redskins nickname will be retired in June.
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-03-07-13 1524GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
A 1933 edition of James Fenimore Cooper’s ‘The Last of the Mohicans,’ illustrated by N.C. Wyeth. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and William J. Jenack Auctioneers.
Mary Cassatt (American, 1845-1926) ‘The Child’s Bath,’ 1893. Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago and Wikimedia Commons.
NEW YORK (AP) – The New York Public Library’s archive is so massive that some of the material has never been seen except on request.
Beginning Friday, the library presents a selection of those hidden gems, a group of works showcasing the extraordinary printmaking skills of American impressionist artist Mary Cassatt.
“Daring Methods: The Prints of Mary Cassatt” includes 88 prints donated to the library in 1900 by Samuel Putnam Avery, a Manhattan art dealer who developed a close working relationship with the artist.
It is the first time that the 30 color prints and 58 monochromes, created between 1878 and 1898, are being shown as a group at the New York Public Library.
Born to a wealthy Pennsylvania family, Cassatt was the lone woman and only American among the French impressionists in the late 1800s. Her paintings are celebrated for her tender depictions of mothers and children in domestic settings. She died in 1926, the last 11 years nearly in darkness as her eyesight failed.
Her prints are less sentimental and more incisive than her paintings, said Anne Higonnet, professor of art history at Barnard College and Columbia University and author on different aspects of impressionism.
Her print imagery still deals with childhood and motherhood but she also tackles subject matter not found in her paintings: woman performing their daily routines and toilettes. She even did some nudes, albeit in a discreet and modest manner, said Madeleine Viljoen, curator of the library’s print collection, which contains 200,000 original works of art on paper beginning with the 15th century.
Cassatt’s talents as a printmaker are well documented, but what makes this exhibition so compelling is the focus on the artist’s printmaking methods, beginning with her first tentative black-and-white attempts in 1878 and ending with her fully realized and dazzling color prints.
The show demonstrates how invested Cassatt was in the printmaking aesthetic, again and again reworking her copper printing plates, experimenting with different methods and making numerous iterations of the same composition with only slight changes to achieve the effect she desired.
“One of the things I wanted to show in this exhibition was not only her great successes but also some of her failures as a printmaker,” said Viljoen.
“Some of her early prints are disastrous,” she said. “It’s kind of wonderful as a result because you can really see her using this medium and not always finding what she wants, dropping it and then trying again.”
The Avery collection includes multiple trial proofs of the same print “so we can document how she worked on an individual print,” she added.
Cassatt was just as skillful a draftsman as Edgar Degas or Camille Pissarro, said Higonnet. But she was “better with color and more conceptually inquiring about East-West and ideas about authorship. She not only signed each single impression of the print, which declared each one as a work of art, she also signed some of the preliminary states of the prints, so she extended the notion of authorship in a way that’s still resonating with us today.”
Once Cassatt produced the number of images she desired from a single plate – usually no more than 25 – she would scratch the plate with a dry point needle so no one could pull any more impressions from it, said Viljoen. Occasionally, she’d make one final defaced impression from a canceled plate to show she was done with that image. The exhibition has six examples of impressions pulled from a canceled plate.
Printmaking became an integral part of her artistic repertoire after Degas, a brilliant printmaker, urged Cassatt to experiment with the medium. Her first attempts were executed in his studio.
“It was really through Degas that she became really invested in printmaking and started to make some of her more interesting prints,” Viljoen said. “He really was very important for her as she began using this medium.”
The exhibition includes an original Degas print of Cassatt with her sister at the Louvre. There are also a number of prints inscribed by Cassatt to Avery and compositions that never passed through her dealer’s hands.
In the Letter, a drypoint and aquatint color print, Cassatt used a desk from her own Paris apartment to create the image of a woman seated at her writing desk sealing an envelope. The subject is Western but the decorative background wallpaper is inspired by patterns in Japanese woodblock prints.
The exhibition runs through June 23.
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Online: www.nypl.org
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-03-05-13 1823GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Mary Cassatt (American, 1845-1926) ‘The Child’s Bath,’ 1893. Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago and Wikimedia Commons.
The west facade of the Prado Museum in Madrid. Image by Brian Snelson. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
MADRID – Spain’s top museums are raising entry prices, opening for longer hours and sending works abroad in touring exhibitions in a scramble for new revenue to offset steep government cuts to their budgets.
Spain’s conservative government has slashed spending on culture by nearly 20 percent this year to 722 million euros ($940 million) as part of the steepest budget cuts since the country returned to democracy following the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.
The cuts, aimed at reining in Spain’s public deficit, have prompted various survival strategies by state-funded museums such as the Thyssen-Bornemisza, which displays works by artists such as El Greco and Pablo Picasso in an 18th century palace in central Madrid.
“We have to maximize the museum’s capacity to generate revenue and therefore what we have to do is get more visitors and ensure consumption increases,” Evelio Acevedo, a former banking executive who was appointed a year ago as the museum’s managing director, told AFP.
The Prado, Spain’s leading art museum, will receive 30 percent less state funding this year. The Reina Sofia, home to Picasso’s 20th century masterpiece Guernica, will get 25 percent less and the Thyssen-Bornemisza 33 percent less.
The cuts, combined with the loss of the Thyssen-Bornemisza’s two main corporate sponsors last year, have put the museum “in a very complicated financial situation” but the success of its temporary visiting exhibitions last year helped it weather the storm, Acevedo said.
Lending paintings, borrowing jewels
A three-month exhibition of paintings by U.S. artist Edward Hopper drew 322,421 visitors to the Thyssen-Bornemisza, making it the most viewed temporary exhibition in the museum’s 20-year history.
The museum’s strategy is to stage shows by popular painters like Hopper that are sure to draw art lovers alongside shows that appeal to people who do not usually go to art museums, such as an exhibition of jewelry from the Cartier Collection that wrapped up last month.
Among the items on display were the jewels Princess Grace of Monaco wore for her official wedding photographs in 1956 and a ruby and diamond necklace that once belonged to film star Elizabeth Taylor.
Charlotte Casiraghi, Grace’s granddaughter, attended a star-studded gala dinner at the museum in October to inaugurate the exhibition, which drew widespread coverage in Spain’s glossy celebrity magazines, helping to attract visitors.
“It went really well. It has been an interesting experiment because it stepped out from the field of painting. This attracts visitors who traditionally don’t come,” said Acevedo.
The Cartier exhibition, which wrapped up on Feb. 17, drew 101,531 visitors, helping to boost the museum’s overall visitor numbers last year to a record 1.255 million.
In other efforts to keep the visitors coming, the museum will later this month launch a new cafe terrace that is open to nonvisitors.
It already rents out its lobby and other rooms after hours for receptions at a cost of up to 50,000 euros.
In January the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum started opening its doors to visitors on Mondays, following the example of the nearby Prado which in January 2012 also began opening seven days a week.
Last month the Prado – the home of masterpieces by Francisco Goya and Diego Velazquez that received some 2.8 million visitors last year, about the same number as in 2011 – raised its entry price by two euros to 14 euros, its third hike in less than two years.
Sending works abroad is another strategy for increasing revenue.
A 14-week exhibition of over 100 works from the Prado’s collection, which explores the evolution of Spanish painting from the 16th century will wrap up at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas on March 31.
The show “Portraits of Spain: Masterpieces from the Prado” received 112,000 visitors when it was staged for the first time last year at the Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane, Australia.
Prado director Miguel Zugaza said the institution would always be guided by cultural, not financial, criteria when loaning its works – a sensitive issue for museums charged with defending cultural heritage.
“In no case will we go to the market to offer exhibitions to the highest bidder,” he told reporters during a presentation of the Texas exhibition in Madrid in December.
Donors needed to revive museums
Museums have also stepped up their hunt for private donors.
The number of individual members of the Foundation of Friends of the Prado more than doubled to 22,831 last year from 9,132 in 2010.
Members receive free entry to the museum and access to private events in exchange for yearly donations of up to 3,000 euros.
The foundation provided the museum with just over 1 million euros last year.
“The foundation is important because it constitutes a wide base of support for the museum and we want it to become wider and wider,” said its spokeswoman Gemma Rosua.
The Reina Sofia museum inaugurated its own nonprofit foundation in November last year to help raise donations. Its patrons include several wealthy Latin American and Spanish entrepreneurs.
But since Spain does not have a longstanding tradition of private sponsorship of the arts and few tax incentives for donors like those that exist in Britain and the United States, raising money is not easy, said the Reina Sofia’s director Manuel Borja-Villel.
“It is another culture, there are other laws. It is another world,” he told AFP.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
The west facade of the Prado Museum in Madrid. Image by Brian Snelson. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
