Jeweled gold and silver owl French dress cane, est. $3,500-$4,500. Kimball M. Sterling image.
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – Kimball M Sterling will present its late spring antique cane auction on June 22nd, with Internet live bidding through LiveAuctioneers.com. The selection of more than 250 canes includes rarities from both European and American collections. Estimates range from $200 to $10,000, allowing collectors from all levels to participate.
There will be a large selection of ivory examples from a New York collection, including erotic and nude canes. Nautical canes are strong with a whalebone selection. A very rare Remington .22-caliber gun cane is another highlight.
Many carved animals will be offered, including cats, African animals and horses. Gold and silver canes are nicely represented in the selection. Also, a very rare Mike Orion folk-art cane will also be auctioned, along with a group of other folk items from an Indiana collection.
The auction will begin at 11 a.m. Eastern time. For information on any lot in the sale, call Kimball Sterling at 423-928-1471.
Kimball M Sterling, Inc is the world’s largest auction house specializing in canes. It is a family-owned business with more than 30 years’ experience and has sold over 4,800 canes through LiveAuctioneers.
Sterling conducts five to six auctions per year. Consignments are accepted on an ongoing basis.
Eighteenth century Qing Dynasty cloisonné plaque. Kaminski Auctions image. BEVERLY, Mass. – Kaminski Auction’s upcoming Fine Asian Arts and Antiques Auction on Saturday, June 22, will feature a stunning variety of objects from China, including robes, cloisonne plaques, pearls and huanghuali furniture. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
The 600-lot auction will begin at 10 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
A Chinese kesi robe is positioned to be the top lot of the sale. This particular blue silk robe is an excellent example of the traditional kesi, or “cut silk,” technique, in which the method of weaving leaves what appear to be sharp slices in the fabric where two colors meet. Kesi silk designs are famed for their intricacy, and the example to be offered at Kaminski is no different. It features elaborate roundels of auspicious motifs surrounded by a wave border. The beautiful blue robe lined with yellow imperial silk is estimated at $4,000 to $6,000.
An embroidered dragon robe will also be offered alongside the Kesi robe at the same estimated price. The yellow silk of the robe brilliantly offsets the multiple embroidered dragons emblazoned above a wave border hem.
A rare cloisonné plaque from the 18th century Qing Dynasty is sure to be one of the most interesting items of the sale. The incredible plaque depicts a landscape picked out in the delicately detailed lines of cloisonne. Rippling lines form mountains that back a tranquil scene of lush trees and a river that flows past a small house with a single occupant. The high quality artistry of this piece is obvious, and is sure to attract many bidders with a starting estimate of only $3,000 to $5,000.
Also sure to attract bidding attention is an elaborate pearl necklace from later 19th century China. The necklace contains 108 pearls in total, strung alongside carved purple quartz, turquoise, lapis and red coral beads. At the center is a gilt silver pendant with carved agate bats. The 60-inch-long necklace is predicted to sell for between $3,000 to $5,000.
Kaminski’s sale will also feature a selection of fine porcelain. Among the ceramic highlights are a red glazed vase estimated at $3,000 to $5,000 with a bamboo shaped neck and bulbous body that carries a Qing Qianlong mark on its base, as well as a pair of export famille rose jars, detailed with family scenes on an orange ground and estimated at $2,000 to $3,000. Also included in the top lots are a plaque signed Wang Xiliang depicting a female flutist with an estimate of $2,000 to $3,000, and a blue and white vase from the later Ming Dynasty or early Qing Dynasty, estimated at $1,500 to $2,500.
The sale will additionally include a number of bronze pieces, one of the most interesting of which is a seated Buddha. The Buddha, offered as lot 2048, sits on a double lotus vase and holds a jar. This approximately 8 1/2-inch-tall figure is estimated at $2,000 to $3,000.
In addition to these fine silk, pearl, ceramic and bronze pieces, Kaminski’s June Asian Art and Antiques Auction will offer a selection of fine Chinese furniture. Among the excellent furniture lots up for sale is a pair of huanghuali wood rose chairs, estimated at $1,000 to $2,000. The chairs are decorated with a carved gourd and vine pattern and have the characteristic straight spindle arms and backs that define the rose chair form.
The furniture selection will also include a large huanghuali bed frame with dragon and cloud carvings, estimated at $2,000 to $3,000, as well as a zitan wood eight-panel screen. The screen features a different bird and botanical motif in the center of each panel and inscribed characters, archaic scroll patterns and small dragons on the reverse. It stands an impressive 69 inches tall and is predicted to fetch between $3,000 and $5,000.
View of Frankfurt skyline at night from a photographic collage by Alphasinus. Image published with permission, under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2.
FRANKFURT (AFP) – German police said Thursday they have broken up a multi-million-euro international art forgery gang and arrested the suspected ringleaders.
The federal criminal police office or BKA said in a statement that two men, aged 41 and 67, were arrested after a large number of apartments, offices, warehouses and galleries were raided in the cities of Wiesbaden, Mainz, Stuttgart, Munich, Hamburg and Cologne.
More than 1,000 objects, including suspected forged paintings and sale documentation, were seized.
Searches were also carried out in Switzerland and Israel.
The men are believed to be the ringleaders of a gang of six counterfeiters who specialise in forging paintings by Russian avant-garde artists including Wassily Kandinsky and Alexej Jawlensky.
The suspected counterfeiters are of Russian, Israeli and German-Tunisian nationality who are believed to have sold more than 400 forged paintings for sums ranging from the thousands to millions since 2005.
The two men arrested are suspected of having sold forged paintings for more than two million euros ($2.6 million) alone to customers in Germany and Spain between 2011 and 2013.
# # #
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
View of Frankfurt skyline at night from a photographic collage by Alphasinus. Image published with permission, under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2.
DALLAS – A gun belt belonging to legendary outlaw Jesse James—one of just two the gunslinger was known to have had at the time of his death at the hands of Robert Ford—is expected to bring more than $10,000 as the centerpiece of Heritage Auctions’ June 22 Legends of the Wild West event. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
The auction will feature more than 140 “outlaw” artifacts from the collection to the late Wilbur Zink, a resident of Springfield, Mo.,—ideally situated not far from the James Farm, the homestead of Frank and Jesse—and one of the most renowned collectors of such material. The Wilbur Zink Collection will be presented as a separate catalog within the auction.
“Authentic outlaw material is genuinely rare,” said Tom Slater, director of historical and Americana auctions at Heritage. “We’ve always considered ourselves fortunate to offer even a few items at auction. A grouping like this, with material that has never been offered, is a very special thing—we hope people can appreciate the magnitude of its being presented all at once. This is a once-in-a-generation auction.”
One of the most fascinating and interesting pieces in the Zink Collection stems from one of the most notorious episodes of the James and Younger Gang’s duration: the failed 1876 bank robbery in Northfield, Minn., where a member of the gang famously shot bank employee Joseph Lee Heywood for refusing to open the bank’s safe.
“Heywood was shot and killed by the frustrated would-be robbers,” said Slater. “For years it was held that Jesse had pulled the trigger, but, at the end of his life, Cole Younger admitted that it had, in fact, been Frank who shot Heywood.”
The James brothers escaped, but Cole, Jim and Bob Younger were shot up by a posse, arrested and sentenced to long terms in the state penitentiary at Stillwater, Minn., where they were afforded celebrity status. In 1898 the warden at Stillwater allowed the men to throw a Christmas party at his own home, with Cole Younger playing Santa Claus. Among those in attendance was Cora McNeill, the brothers’ unofficial corresponding secretary while they were in prison, and her 9-year-old daughter Edwynne. At the party “Uncle Jim” Younger presented the young girl with his prized violin, artfully and charmingly painted with a redbird, which she treasured for more than 70 years before entrusting it to Zink for his collection. It is expected to bring $10,000-plus.
“A romantic attachment between Jim Younger and Cora McNeill has long been rumored,” said Slater. “It’s a marvelous artifact made even more evocative by the circumstances in which it was given.”
Wilbur Zink lived in Springfield, Mo., and frequently interacted with the descendants of the James and Younger families, who all played prominent roles in polishing the legend of their famous forebears. This made him into not only a discerning collector of James and Younger Gang artifacts, but also a true scholar with a deep understanding of the historical context for the objects he accumulated.
“One of Zink’s great coups was the purchase in the early 1980s of more than a third of the famed Harry Hoffman Collection,” said Slater. “Hoffman was a neighbor and friend of the James family, and grew up with Jesse, Jr., who remained a lifelong friend. As an adult he also became a close friend of Cole Younger and, along with Jesse Jr., attended Cole at his deathbed.”
Among the Hoffman items which later found their way into the Zink collection and which feature prominently in the Heritage event are:
A large Cole Younger autographed photo, given to Hoffman by Younger himself: Estimate $5,000-plus.
Important James and Younger photos which came from the family: Estimate $2,000-plus.
A rare cabinet-sized photo of Jesse James: Estimate $2,500-plus.
The June 22 Heritage Legends of the Wild West auction will also feature such diverse items as important George Armstrong Custer relics with family provenance, a superb engraved model 1895 Winchester rifle presented by Theodore Roosevelt, important artifacts of Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, a rare twice-signed document by Alamo hero William Barret Travis and a large selection of early Western and Native American photographs from the estate of late noted Las Vegas collector Al Mueller.
LONDON (AFP) – A man was arrested at London’s Westminster Abbey on Thursday for defacing a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II commissioned to mark her 60 years on the throne.
“In an incident at lunchtime today, a visitor to the abbey sprayed paint on the Ralph Heimans portrait of the queen, presently on display in the Chapter House,” a spokeswoman for the abbey said.
“Until work can be done to remedy the damage it will — very regrettably — not be possible to have the painting on public view.”
Scotland Yard said officers had been called to the abbey, where security guards had detained a 41-year-old man for defacing a painting.
“He was arrested by police on suspicion of criminal damage and taken to a central London police station where he is in custody,” it said in a statement.
The oil painting by Heimans, a Sydney-born artist based in London, is titled “The Coronation Theatre” and was commissioned for the queen’s diamond jubilee last year.
Measuring nine feet by 11 feet (about 2.7 metres by 3.4 metres), it depicts the monarch in the state dress she wore to her coronation in 1953 and taking an imagined moment of solitary reflection in the sacrarium of Westminster Abbey.
The painting was first shown at the National Portrait Gallery of Australia, and now forms part of the permanent collection of the abbey in London.
It was put on public display on May 23 as part of a special exhibition marking 60 years since the coronation, and was due to stay up until September 27.
A Willys MB, better known as a jeep, at a military vehicle show in Virginia in 2006. Image by Mytwocents. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) – After spending the last seven decades in Italy, a World War II-era jeep returned home to Toledo last week, 70 years to the day after it rolled off the production line.
Vittorio Argento, an Italian radio journalist and military vehicle enthusiast, shipped the carefully restored vehicle across the Atlantic Ocean, then drove it from New Jersey to Toledo, where he parked in the shadow of a Willys-Overland smokestack—the only remaining part of the factory complex that built about 650,000 of the famous military vehicles during World War II.
The exact military service of Argento’s jeep is lost to time, though he said it was shipped to Europe in 1943 and could have been used by American troops during the Allied invasion of Sicily in July, 1943. Though it can’t be proven, he believes it saw combat duty.
When the GIs came home from Italy, the jeep stayed behind. It was drafted into the service of the Italian army and later found its way to civilian life when a geologist purchased it as army surplus. Argento has owned it since 1984.
Through the years, he has restored it as closely as possible to its original condition. Argento guessed 95 percent of the parts on the jeep are original. The canvas top and thin cushions that pad the hard metal seats are reproductions, but he has the originals safely packed away.
The idea for a homecoming hit Argento a couple of years ago. While working on the vehicle, he noticed the date stamped into the Willys data plate affixed to the dash: 6-3-43. Realizing the jeep was nearing its 70th birthday, he thought, “Why not?”
Why not return to where it was built?
“‘Why not?’ became ‘yes,’” he said with a chuckle. “That’s all.”
It took about three weeks to ship the jeep from Florence, Italy, to Newark. From there, Argento put in five days of driving to reach Toledo.
Though the jeep is capable of topping out at about 60 miles per hour, Argento gives an amused head shake that says “absolutely not” to the prospect of going that fast. He said about 45 miles per hour is a good speed. All for the best, he joked, as it stops when it wants to, not when you hit the brakes.
“It’s better off road,” he said. “I’ll show you what I mean.”
Though the original factory was razed in 2006, the reclaimed industrial ground—rutted, rocky, and muddy–is perfect to quickly show off the jeep’s abilities.
As Argento eased his foot off the clutch, the jeep crawled forward. It squeaked and rattled. Its gears whined loudly. The engine ran smoothly but sounded far more like a farm tractor than a car. And Argento couldn’t have look happier as he guided the jeep across the uneven terrain.
In Italy, and across Europe, many people still remember the jeep as a vehicle that helped bring an end to the war.
Argento relayed a story told to him years ago by a man who worked as a mechanic before World War II. During the war, he lived in the mountains south of Florence. One day the man heard a roar outside his home. Along with other onlookers, he saw a strange car coming up the steep slope.
“If they can invent a car able to come up from that slope, for sure they will win the war,” Argento remembered the man saying.
The jeep—officially known as the Willys MB—was like nothing anyone had ever seen. The other tools of war—tanks, cannons, rifles, and soldiers—were common sights. But the jeep was new and made a lasting impression. Even today, many people call any four-wheel drive, off-road ready vehicle a jeep, he said.
“Everybody recalls the jeep with pleasure, regardless that the jeep was linked to something bad like war,” he said.
Argento was met in Toledo by media, representatives from the city, and the Lucas County Port Authority, which owns the old Jeep site. He accepted small gifts of appreciation from Toledo Mayor Mike Bell and from Jim Tuschman, representing the Port Authority board of directors.
The Port Authority recently announced both the first new tenant for the 111-acre site, as well as groundbreaking on a new road.
“This marks the beginning of what we hope will be a fantastic economic development project for Toledo that will take place right here,” Tuschman said. “Keep an eye on this site, you’re going to see some very exciting things happen as the Overland project will take its place in Toledo’s history as a rebirth of an economic development asset for the community.”
Like any collectible, a restored jeep is worth what someone’s willing to pay. But Argento said a model like his typically would sell in the range of $15,000 to $20,000.
His will return to Italy, though he’s not driving it back. A truck will pick up the vehicle and transport it back to New Jersey for the trip home.
Argento will drive something else back: A Toledo-built Jeep Wrangler.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-06-10-13 1812GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
A Willys MB, better known as a jeep, at a military vehicle show in Virginia in 2006. Image by Mytwocents. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.A postcard pictures the Willys-Overland Co. factory in Toledo, Ohio, circa 1915. Army jeeps were built there. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
