August 2013 - Page 19 of 19 - Auction Central News

Aug. 26 auction features designer picks from Hampton Showhouse

Brian del Toro Buddha, 30in tall, opening bid $450. Photo by William A. Boyd Jr.

BRIDGEHAMPTON, N.Y. (LAPRS) – Home to movie stars and millionaires, the Hamptons on Long Island’s East End are synonymous with stylish homes and luxurious living. But only rarely have furnishings and decorative objects from an uber-chic Hamptons home been made available to purchase at auction online – and until now, never on such a large scale. Through a collaborative effort undertaken by LiveAuctioneers, Hampton Designer Showhouse, Traditional Home magazine and several of America’s top interior designers, more than 300 pieces from the actual rooms and outdoor living spaces of the 2013 Hampton Designer Showhouse will be auctioned online on Monday, Aug. 26th.

The LiveAuctioneers online-only auction exclusively features furnishings and design elements on view through Sept. 2 at the Showhouse in Bridgehampton. A portion of the auction proceeds will benefit Southampton Hospital in nearby Southampton, New York.

Each year, thousands of visitors flock to the Showhouse to view interior-design trends in rooms created by design luminaries.

“This year’s event is special because each designer has personally selected furniture and decorative objects from the Showhouse rooms to be sold through LiveAuctioneers, with part of the proceeds benefiting Southampton Hospital. Being a resident of the Hamptons, I know how important Southampton Hospital is to our area,” said LiveAuctioneers CEO Julian R. Ellison. “It’s exciting to work jointly with internationally acclaimed designers and respected media partners like Traditional Home to achieve a common goal: raising as much money as possible for the hospital,” he added.

Among the many noted designers represented in the Showhouse is Brian del Toro, who, prior to establishing his own successful firm, worked for the legendary Parish Hadley Associates, Connie Beale Inc., and Bunny Williams Inc. The pieces del Toro chose for inclusion in the Hampton Designer Showhouse auction include a super pair of Chinese turquoise vase lamps of his own design, estimated at $10,000-$20,000; and a pair of 1950s Italian open-arm red velvet chairs with an opening bid of $2,500.

Colorado-based Worth Interiors brings understated lines and high style to the Showhouse’s recreation room and wine cellar. They chose for the auction a James De Wulf pool table constructed of concrete with black felt top, estimated at $12,000-$24,000. Dramatically accenting the rec room is a John Pomp sculpted-glass pendant chandelier, estimated at $10,800-$21,600. A modest estimate of $465-$930 belies the high-end vibe imparted by a porcelain with gold Lladro Canvas Tree Rings vase.

From Baltimore Design Group’s Showhouse bedroom comes a selection of auction pieces that reflect company owner Keith Baltimore’s anthropologically influenced modern design vision. His 72-inch-tall sculpture of a pair of faceless, stark-white male and female figures, known jointly as “Rendezvous,” is entered in the auction with a $30,000-$60,000 estimate. In situ at the Showhouse, the sculptural artwork stands beside a rose linen upholstered sectional sofa that has a starting bid of $4,000.

Celerie Kemble of Kemble Interiors chose for the Showhouse two fantastic rugs from her own Celerie Kemble Collection for Merida. One is a striking circular “Catalyst” rug with irregular herringbone pattern, estimate $2,500-$5,000; the other is a 100 percent sisal “Nasturtium” rug woven in Belgium, estimate $3,000-$6,000.

Other must-see furnishings and design elements within the 300+ auction lots come directly from the porch areas created by Bryant Keller Interiors, Kim E. Courtney Interiors & Design, and Ken Gemes Interiors; Brady Design’s guest suite, and Bradley Stephens’ master sitting room, among other Showhouse areas.

There are price points to please every pocketbook in the Aug. 26 sale. Bids on some lots start as low as $40.

“Everyone wishes they could afford to hire a world-class interior designer. This auction presents a rare opportunity to bid on furniture, decorative art and accessories that have been handpicked by a prestigious team of design experts. This is an opportunity not to be missed,” said Ellison.

For additional information on the 2013 Hampton Designer Showhouse or to purchase tickets, please visit www.hamptondesignershowhouse.com.

Absentee bidding has already begun. Live online bidding will commence at 12 noon Eastern time on Monday, August 26th. View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid now or live online on auction day at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

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About LiveAuctioneers:

Manhattan-based LiveAuctioneers revolutionized the auction industry when it launched its live-auction technology in conjunction with eBay in 2002. The company now provides Internet live-bidding services to more than 1,800 auction houses in 40+ countries and is the Web’s leading auction-related site. In 2009, LiveAuctioneers introduced its iPhone and Android apps, which opened up a new mobile pipeline to bid in auctions anytime, from anywhere, with complete anonymity.

About Hampton Designer Showhouse:

The Hampton Designer Showhouse is produced by Hampton Designer Showhouse Foundation, Inc. (HDSF, Inc.). HDSF, Inc. is led and operated by a dynamic team of specialists from the worlds of marketing, public relations, fundraising and special events production. They have combined their talents to produce what is now recognized as one of the country’s most successful showhouses. Hampton Designer Showhouse Foundation Inc. is a 501(c)(3) corporation. For more information or to purchase tickets to visit the Showhouse, visit www.hamptondesignershowhouse.com.

About Traditional Home Magazine:

As the largest upscale shelter magazine in America, Traditional Home celebrates the union of timeless design with modern living, inspiring 5 million design lovers to reinterpret classic elegance in a thoroughly personal way. From home, garden, and green living to food, entertaining, and travel, the magazine is a tribute to quality, craftsmanship, authenticity, and family—a trusted resource that respects the past, lives in the present, and embraces products designed for the future. For more information, please visit www.traditionalhome.com. For more information regarding the magazine’s exciting online companion, TRADhome, visit www.tradhomemag.com.

About Southampton Hospital:

Since its establishment in 1909, Southampton Hospital has remained faithful to the vision of its founders in its dedication to providing the very best medical care to the East End community. An affiliate of Stony Brook Medicine and a member of East End Health Alliance, the nonprofit Hospital is fully accredited by the Joint Commission and offers a full continuum of ambulatory and inpatient services ranging from primary medical care to specialized surgical procedures. The only major medical facility on eastern Long Island’s South Fork, the Hospital offers primary, emergency and specialty healthcare, extended service hours and community outreach programs to Southampton, East Hampton and Shelter Island towns. For more information, visit www.southamptonhospital.org.

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

Sectional sofa by Pearson, chosen by designer Sherrill Canet, opening bid $2,250. Photo by William A. Boyd Jr.

Pool table by James De Wulf, concrete with black felt top, chosen by Worth Interiors, opening bid $6,000. Photo by William A. Boyd Jr.

Birch cocktail table designed by Keith Baltimore, opening bid $2,250. Photo by William A. Boyd Jr.

Custom upholstered queen-size bed in honeydew velvet designed by Barbara Page, opening bid $1,750. Photo by William A. Boyd Jr.

Celerie Kemble Collection for Merida custom ‘Catalyst’ rug, 11ft 6in circle, opening bid $1,250. Photo by William A. Boyd Jr.

Liza Sherman NY bubble light fixture of Moroccan hand-blown glass, chosen by designer Patrick Mele, opening bid $3,000. Photo by William A. Boyd Jr.

Pair of rosewood and handwoven cane plantation chairs from Cochin, India; Dutch, 1860, chosen by Bryant Keller, opening bid $4,000. Photo by William A. Boyd Jr.

Faux bamboo ottoman upholstered in turquoise canvas with melon piping, chosen by designer Ken Gemes, opening bid $400. Photo by William A. Boyd Jr.

Restored Star Trek ship Galileo arrives in Houston

HOUSTON (AP) – When the smoke cleared and the music died down, Candy Torres could no longer contain herself. Looking at the shiny, restored Star Trek Galileo shuttlecraft sitting in Houston in all its TV glory, she broke down.

“All of a sudden I was just crying. I was in tears. I couldn’t believe it,” Torres said, donning a brown tourist engineer hat and a NASA mission operations shirt. “It meant something.”

And Torres wasn’t alone. Trekkies of all stripes arrived in Houston Wednesday for the momentous unveiling of the shuttlecraft that crash-landed on a hostile planet in the 1967 “Star Trek” episode called “The Galileo Seven.” Some wore Scotty’s Repair Shop T-shirts, others full-blown spandex outfits worn by Mr. Spock and his peers in the famous TV show and movies that have garnered a following so large and so devoted it is almost cult-like.

Adam Schneider paid $61,000 for the battered shuttlecraft in an auction and spent about a year restoring the fiberglass ship and making it look nearly as it did on that episode. He flew in from New York to mark the unveiling at the Space Center Houston, where it will be permanently displayed not far from NASA’s Mission Control.

“Unbelievably proud,” he said, beaming alongside the white shuttle. “Like sending your kid to college and having them get a job to build a successful life, because this was under our care for a year and we grew very attached.

Jeff Langston, 45, drove more than 160 miles from Austin with his two sons to see the moment. He and his 12-year-old son, Pearce, wore matching red Scotty’s Repair Shop T-shirts. His 10-year-old son, Neo, couldn’t find his shirt, but that didn’t put a damper on the moment.

“It was very exciting,” Neo said, bouncing on his feet. “When they filmed Star Trek the Galileo was cool and now that they remade it, it’s cool to see a new version of the Galileo. And it’s beautiful.”

Richard Allen, the space center’s 63-year-old CEO and president, hopes that just as the Star Trek movies and others like it inspired Torres to pursue a career in science and engineering, that today’s generation will be similarly inspired when they see the Galileo.

“It’s fantastic,” he said of the shuttlecraft. “We’re all about exciting and educating … and I’m convinced that space is one of the best, if not the best, way of creating inquiry in young minds.”

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Plushnick-Masti can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/RamitMastiAP.

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1924 KKK photo loses Ohio blue ribbon after complaint

XENIA, Ohio (AP) – A photo taken at a 1924 Ku Klux Klan rally with burning crosses was stripped of its winning blue ribbon at a county fair after a complaint that it was offensive.

The photo, which won first place in an antique photo category at the Greene County Fair in Xenia, depicts robed and unrobed KKK members kneeling in a circle at a Dayton rally. Burning crosses are visible in the background of the white supremacist group’s gathering. On the photo is written “Dayton Klan 23 … Realm-of-Ohio … September 27, 1924.”

The photo was removed from the western Ohio fairgrounds Tuesday after someone complained to a fair board member about what it showed and said it shouldn’t have been rewarded by the fair, the Dayton Daily News reported.

Officials want to make clear that the fair in no way was endorsing what the photo depicted.

“We stripped the first-place placing and we have removed the photo from the fairgrounds,” said Jeff Barr, Greene County Agricultural Society director. “The photo was not something we support at all. … We’re here for everybody.”

He said judges in such contests are considering artistry and antiquity when awarding ribbons.

“It could have been the oldest antique there,” Barr said.

The photo was returned to its owner, who wasn’t identified by the fair.

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Information from: Dayton Daily News, http://www.daytondailynews.com

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Artist punches Mandela’s ‘freedom spirit’ onto Chinese wall

Nelson Mandela has inspired wall art all over the world. This graffiti painting by Thierry Ehrmann is displayed in the Abode of Chaos museum in France. Courtesy of Organ Museum, copyright 2011, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

SHANGHAI (AFP) – The portrait of Nelson Mandela is — like the man himself — forged from violence and endurance, created as the artist pounded the wall 27,000 times with a boxing glove which bore the Chinese character for “freedom”.

The resulting Mandela — a boxer and leader of armed struggle jailed for 27 years before becoming South Africa’s president and world-renowned peacemaker — smiles softly with twinkling eyes and a gentle, knowing gaze.

The mural dominates the Shanghai studio of Belgian artist Phil Akashi, 34, who spent late June and early July punching in the intense summer heat of the city where he has made his home, telling AFP: “I think I lost three to five kilos in five weeks”.

He began the work — which is six meters (20 feet) high — after hearing Mandela was battling for his life, entering hospital two months ago and turning 95 there in July.

Mandela’s health, said to be critical at times but lately showing improvement, has captured worldwide attention.

Akashi used cinnabar paste, which is associated with life and eternity in Chinese culture, and the color black to represent Mandela’s fight against his country’s institutionalized racism.

“I really consider Nelson Mandela an extraordinary artist of peace,” Akashi says. “He really represents a fantastic source of inspiration for the entire world.”

The “freedom” character was on a rubber Chinese-style seal mounted on the glove.

Mandela won the 1993 Nobel peace prize jointly with South Africa’s last white president Frederik de Klerk for his “long walk to freedom” and hard-fought reconciliation with South Africa’s minority government.

His release from prison in 1990 became one of the most powerful images of the time.

Elected the country’s first black president four years later, he worked to steer society from racial division to multiracial democracy. Yet Mandela began his struggle endorsing violence, as commander in chief of the armed underground wing of the African National Congress in 1961, before being arrested three years later.

Akashi believes Mandela, as an international symbol of unification, can inspire China’s younger generation even from his sickbed.

Mandela’s story might bring a “message of hope”, Akashi says, and “inspire some people to act or to fight for freedom.”

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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Antiques dealer’s van, goods stolen from hotel parking lot

An archival shot of a dealer's booth at the prestigious NHADA New Hampshire Antiques Show, showing the general type of merchandise Michael Whittemore sells, including Americana and weathervanes. Note: This image is for illustrative purposes only; the merchandise shown here is not from the actual heist. Photo by Catherine Saunders-Watson.

ORANGEBURG, S.C. – It has happened all too many times in the past – an antiques dealer traveling to a show hundreds of miles away spends the night in a hotel en route to their destination and awakens to find their vehicle and merchandise have been stolen. This time the victim is Michael Whittemore, an Americana dealer from Punta Gorda, Florida, who was headed north to the 56th Annual New Hampshire Antiques Show in Manchester, New Hampshire.

On the night of July 29th, Whittemore stayed at the Country Inn & Suites in Orangeburg, S.C., parking his Ford van and 16ft covered cargo trailer on the premises. Whittemore took pains to ensure the trailer’s contents were secured, but when he walked out into the parking lot on the morning of July 30th, he discovered his vehicle and trailerful of antiques were gone.

According to published reports, the value of Whittemore’s goods was somewhere in the vicinity of $300,000-$400,000. The contents consisted of folk art, New England furniture, paintings, architectural garden antiques and valuable weathervanes.

The stolen vehicle is a 2010 E-350 white Ford Club Wagon van. Based on hotel surveillance video, the thieves hot-wired the van and simply drove off with it, trailer in tow.

Whittemore told a reporter from WLTX-TV in Columbia, S.C., that the vehicle is not of primary importance to him. “All I want back is the stuff, vans are replaceable, trailers are replaceable, but these things are one of a kind,” he said.

Anyone with information regarding the theft is asked to contact the Orangeburg Sheriff’s Department by calling tollfree 1-888-CRIMESC (274-6372).

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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

LiveAuctioneers unveils new look, mobile use doubles in Q2

The redesign of LiveAuctioneers’ website creates a richly visual environment in which to browse and bid online. Photo: LiveAuctioneers

NEW YORK (LAPRS) – LiveAuctioneers, a Manhattan-based company that provides Internet live bidding services to more than 1,800 auction houses worldwide, entered its second decade of operation in Q1 2013 with a substantial increase in both international auction-house clients and new users outside the United States. During the second quarter, the firm unveiled a stylish redesign of its website that CEO Julian R. Ellison described as “smart and modern – right in step with our technology.”

The website’s new theme is spare and generously visual, with a homepage that offers visitors the option of viewing upcoming auctions in a grid-like format with four auctions displayed per horizontal line, or in the traditional LiveAuctioneers style that features one auction with five relevant highlight images per horizontal line. According to Ellison, this is just one example of the many changes LiveAuctioneers has implemented recently in direct response to feedback received from auctioneers and bidders.

“Our website redesign continues to evolve. We want to make LiveAuctioneers not only a place where bidders can enjoy browsing online catalogs and bidding live via the Internet but also a destination for useful information presented as they prefer to view it. That’s why we’ve placed such an emphasis on listening to input from those who rely on our services – the bidders and the auction houses,” Ellison said.

All bidder activities are now aggregated on a freshly designed bidder dashboard. At that location, a logged-in LiveAuctioneers user can check their inbox, view all saved items from future sales, manage their profile and auction alerts; and monitor approvals to bid online in upcoming auctions. They can also contact an auction house to pay for a recent auction purchase and even estimate shipping costs. Another valuable dashboard tool connects to an archive of past online purchases that the user can view chronologically with a single mouse click. The auction-purchase archive provides a valuable record of when the user made each of their purchases, for how much, and from which auction house.

LiveAuctioneers’ second quarter of 2013 was a period marked by significant growth in mobile and tablet use. As compared to Q2 2012, there was a 49.89% increase in mobile visits to LiveAuctioneers.com, while visits through tablets jumped more than 64%. The average mobile visitor remained on the site 6.49% longer than in the comparable quarter of 2012.

Statistics indicated steady growth in many other key areas during Q2. Page views were up 6.98% as compared to Q2 2012, rising from 77,240,751 to 82,631,295. The number of overall visits to the site grew by 2.68% to 8,991,156; and the number of unique visitors rose 1.40% to 4,836,332. The average time spent on the site per visit increased nearly 10% over the comparable quarter of 2012.

“As these figures show, LiveAuctioneers has maintained a solid pattern of growth that has not wavered since the company was launched more than 10 years ago. We’re expecting a very busy fall and winter auction season, which should bring with it a surge of new-bidder sign-ups,” said Ellison.

Click to view a video that shows an auction in progress through the LiveAuctioneers bidding platform: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD7aSvcHjxw

To contact LiveAuctioneers, email info@liveauctioneers.com.

Online: www.LiveAuctioneers.com

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ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

All bidder activity is aggregated within the newly designed dashboard, where users can check their inbox, view saved items from future sales, manage their profile and auction alerts; and perform many other useful auction-related functions. Photo: LiveAuctioneers

Museum acquires painting of Grand Rapids in 1830s

Aaron Turner's untitled oil painting depicting Grand Rapids, Michigan, as it looked in 1836 when he was a 13-year-old boy. Image courtesy of Grand Rapids Public Museum.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) – Grand Rapids Public Museum has acquired a 19th century painting offering a look at the city at the time of its founding.

It’s also a view of a hill that no longer exists, as seen from an island that’s only a memory today.

Though it was painted in the 1880s, artist Aaron Turner was an early pioneer who already was a teenager here when the village of Grand Rapids was organized in 1838.

The untitled oil painting, well preserved, now is on display at the museum in its Newcomers Exhibition.

“This painting, of great significance to the history of Grand Rapids, is essential to have in the collection of the Grand Rapids Public Museum,” Tom Dilley, chair of the museum’s collections committee, told The Grand Rapids Press. “We are fortunate to have such an early depiction of the city decades prior to the advent of photography.”

The ideated painting of two small cabins on the east bank of the Grand River, overlooking a narrow channel of water with a canoe on the bank, several trees on shore, and Prospect Hill in the distance, offers a view of what today is the heart of downtown Grand Rapids at the time of Turner’s arrival around 1836 when he was 13 years old.

It’s a view looking east from Island No. 1, one of two small islands in the Grand River that no longer exist.

Island No. 1, now occupied by the JW Marriott Hotel and its surroundings, began near the foot of Pearl Street. Turner’s landscape is a view of what today includes Amway Grand Plaza Hotel, McKay Tower and Rosa Parks Circle, as seen from the island.

Pioneer Charles Belknap, who arrived in Grand Rapids in 1854 as a boy, recalled years later that Island No. 1 mostly was a meadow, and cows would wade across the river to feed on its grass. Winds from the west would blow through wild plum and crabapple trees on the islands and carry the fruity scent into the village.

Prospect Hill, some 200 feet beyond the original east bank of the Grand River, began its steep climb at Monroe Center and continued north beyond Lyon Street, peaking some 60 to 70 feet above the water level.

Over time, Pearl and Lyon streets and Ottawa Avenue were cut through the wooded ridge of clay and gravel, and the excavated material was used to fill in the channels between Island Nos. 1 and 2 and the east bank.

By the 1890s, both islands and Prospect Hill had disappeared forever.

Privately owned for over 100 years, the painting was given last year to the Grand Rapids Public Museum by the estate of Harold Garter.

Turner later became a newspaper editor and Grand Rapids’ first city clerk. He designed the City of Grand Rapids Seal that still is in use today.

The colorful landscape is signed in the lower left corner “Renrut” or “Turner” reversed.

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Information from: The Grand Rapids Press, http://www.mlive.com/grand-rapids

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ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

Cityscape view of downtown Grand Rapids as it looks today. Image licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Indy police: Art in apartment not an original

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Indianapolis police responding to a dispute between roommates thought they might have a much bigger case when an officer recognized what looked like a painting by Henri Matisse.

The painting had a label saying it was from the Cincinnati Art Museum.

But Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Lt. Chris Bailey says authorities learned the painting wasn’t the original when they called the museum and were told the painting by the French artist was hanging where it belongs.

Bailey says officers still believe the artwork spotted in an apartment Thursday might be stolen, although not an original. He says one of the roommates reported they had been given the painting by a man now in prison.

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Items owned by late Duke heiress to be auctioned

Antiques and art from the estate of Duke tobacco heiress Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans. Image courtesy of Brunk Auctions.

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) – Antiques, art and other items owned by the late heiress to the Duke tobacco fortune are going up for sale.

The Herald-Sun of Durham reports the items from the family of Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans will be auctioned on Aug., 25.

Brunk Auctions spokesman Aaron Edwards said the family has kept several sentimental items, but would like the remainder to go to what he termed “good homes.”

According to Brunk Auctions, items to be auctioned include paintings by artists such as the American painter Thomas Anshutz, 18th and 19th century Chinese porcelains and jades, French antique furnishings and an inlaid art case Steinway grand piano. The items come from homes members of the Duke family lived in over the course of more than a century, according to a news release from the auction house.

The list features items from the mid-19th century-era Duke Homestead; a townhouse at 1009 Fifth Ave., N.Y., that was built in 1901; a former Durham home remembered as “Four Acres” on West Chapel Hill Street, and the residences known as “Pinecrest” and “Les Terrasses” in Durham’s Forest Hills neighborhood.

Edwards said Les Terrasses was Semans’ home from the late 1940s until she died. He also said it’s where her seven children grew up next door to their grandmother, Mary Duke Biddle, who lived at Pinecrest until her death in 1960.

Edwards said the company is still researching and cataloguing the items, so a pre-auction estimate of their total value is not yet available. Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers.com.

Semans was the great-granddaughter of Washington Duke, a Confederate soldier who returned home after the Civil War and planted a crop of tobacco. With his sons, Duke helped build the worldwide popularity of cigarettes. He also endowed a small Methodist college that would become Duke University.

Semans was a patron of the arts and charities, as well as a crusader for equal rights for women.

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Information from: The Herald-Sun, http://www.herald-sun.com

ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

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