Image courtesy of Midwest Auction Galleries. OXFORD, Mich. – On Oct. 5, Midwest Auction Galleries will be offering a large collection of Asian antiques from the collection of David Bell, an American collector who lived and worked in China for more than 10 years for an Italian steel company.
LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
Highlights include a finely cast pair of Chinese bronze censers and a Chinese carved tree in jade and amethyst. Bell was an avid snuff bottle collector and this sale offers a large variety including jadeite, porcelain and Peking glass.
The nearly 600-lot sale will start at 10 a.m. Eastern.
For details contact Midwest Auction Galleries toll-free 877-236-8181 or 248-236-8100 or email sales@midwestauctioninc.com.
Lot 3253 – 1791 Sierra Leone silver proof dollar. Estimate: £6,000-£8,000. Baldwin’s image.
LONDON – The last of the 2013 official Coinex auctions will see Baldwin’s hold the first auction of coins from the Arielle Collection, one of the most impressive British colonial coin collections to be sold by public auction. Part One will be sold Thursday, Sept. 26, at the CIPFA Conference Centre, and explores the coins of British West Africa and East Africa, extending across the continent to Rhodesia and to Mauritius and Zanzibar in the Indian Ocean. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
This collection offers the perfect introduction to British colonial coins in Africa, assembled at a time when the area was relatively unexplored by many numismatists. The pinnacle of the British West Africa pieces is lot 3202, a nickel-brass 1928 George V 2-shilling. This uncirculated piece is a rare survivor, as it is believed that as many as 22 million of these 2-shillings and shillings were melted down in 1929 following economic hardship. The rarity too of the 1928 date, and semi-proof-like condition, ensures that this is a very desirable coin and is sure to attract significant interest. The coin carries a presale estimate of £6000-£8000.
The collection is further strengthened by an almost complete run of dates in the British West Africa section, any dates absent from this run are largely made up for by the high volume and quality of proofs presented. Among those offered in this sale are several complete sets including lot 3220, a George V, 1913 Double Royal Mint proof set, in its original box, and lot 3483, a 1932 Southern Rhodesia uniface reverse proof set, of which there are only two known. These two lots are estimated to sell for £2,000-£2,500 and £3,000-£5,000 respectively.
Collectors of British colonial Africa have an array of proofs and rarities to choose from including lot 3270, an 1818 Gold Coast silver pattern 1/2-Ackey, of which only five examples are known. This stunning piece, in brilliant mint state, is excessively rare with only four or five other examples known. This pattern is distinctively different from the currency pieces. The planchet is thinner and wider at 26.6mm versus 25.3mm for the currency piece. The portrait is more in line with the English coins being produced at this time. Other differences include the placement of the denomination “1/2 TRADE ACKEY” under the bust. This lovely coin is estimated to sell for £2,000-£3,000.
The East Africa offering boasts lot 3663, a George V pattern silver florin, 1921, as well as lot 3534, a rare George V cupro-nickel cent of the same year, a date of cupro-nickel cent, which was never released for circulation. Lot, 3253, a 1791 Sierra Leone silver proof dollar is a standout piece from elsewhere on the continent. These three lovely lots are estimated at £3,000-£5,000, £3,000-£4,000 and £6,000-£8,000. Lot 3694 is rare and extremely fine AH 1299 gold 5-riyals from Zanzibar with an extremely fine estimate of £8,000-£10,000.
The second part of this collection will sold in London in May 2014.
The Coinex exhibition is organized by the British Numismatic Trade Association and more information can be found on their website at http://www.bnta.net/.
Lot 3253 – 1791 Sierra Leone silver proof dollar. Estimate: £6,000-£8,000. Baldwin’s image.
Tops among the British West Africa pieces is lot 3202, a Nickel-Brass 1928 George V 2-shilling. The coin carries a pre-sale estimate of £6,000-£8,000. Baldwin’s image.
Lot 3270 – 1818 Gold Coast silver pattern 1/2-ackey, of which only five examples are known. Estimate: £2,000-3,000. Baldwin’s image.
Lot 3534 – East Africa cupro-nickel cent, 1921, mint state, one of only two known. Estimate: £3,000-£4,000. Baldwin’s image.
Lot 3663 – East Africa, George V, trial/pattern silver florin, 1921, frosty uncirculated and excessively rare. Estimate: £3,000-£5,000. Baldwin’s image.
Lot 3694 – Zanzibar, Sultan Barghash ibn Sa’id, gold 5-riyals, AH 1299 (1882), good extremely fine and rare. Estimate: £8,000-£10,000. Baldwin’s image.
Wide selection of American pressed and blown glass and lighting. Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates image.
MT. CRAWFORD, Va. – The Sept. 28 auction of 18th and 19th century glass, including early American pattern glass, includes an enormous variety of fine historical and decorative glass objects. Highlights include rare blown three-mold glass, collections of whale oil and fluid lamps, as well as lacy salts, colored candlesticks, 18th century wine glasses, bottles and flasks. Internet live bidding will be provided by LiveAuctioneers.com.
Among the notable pressed glass offerings are items of flint EAPG including the Porter collection of Bellflower; nonflint EAPG including rare goblets and water pitchers, Holly Amber and other Greentown, and rare animal and historical. Victorian glass will include opalescent patterns, sugar shakers and toothpick holders.
The sale includes diverse properties from the collection of the late Hobart “Hobie” Porter of Glen Ellyn, Ill.; the collection of Jessie and the late Eugene Long of Broadway, Va.; rarities from the Rudolph Evers estate collection of Bridgewater, Va.; selections from the Betty Jane Renn estate collection of Sunbury, Pa.; as well as private collections from Vermont, New York, North Carolina and Washington state. The auction also includes the second half of the collection of the late Lillian “Lil” and Walter “Bud” Marchant and the stock of Lil-Bud Antiques of Cape Cod, Mass.
Several objects in the sale have distinctive provenances including items previously owned by William J. Elsholz, Frank Jedlicka, Don and Pam Levine, Paul and Gladys Richards, Judy Cronin and Maude Feld.
The week of the sale, the annual East Coast regional convention of the Early American Pattern Glass Society will be held in nearby Harrisonburg, Va., from Sept. 25-28. Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates will hold a special EAPG auction session Sept. 26, starting at 1 p.m. Eastern, of uncataloged tray and table lots of more than 1,000 pieces of EAPG.
For more information email info@jeffreysevans.com or call Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates at 540-434-3939.
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C., on Aug. 28, 1963. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration image, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. RIDGELAND, Miss. (AP) – The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s personal secretary is selling a collection from the early civil rights movement, including handwritten notes by King and a page from his “I Have a Dream” speech, an auction house says.
Maude Ballou worked as King’s secretary from 1955 to 1960, when King led the Montgomery Improvement Association and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Ballou, who turned 88 Friday, is selling the items Oct. 17 in New York through Texas-based Heritage Auctions. People can bid in person or online. Ballou and Heritage Auctions say a portion of the proceeds will be used to establish an education fund at Alabama State University.
In an exclusive interview Tuesday with The Associated Press, Ballou recalled times both rewarding and frightening in those turbulent years, including an especially poignant moment with King in the mid-1950s.
“He said, ‘Maude, I dreamed last night I died and nobody came to my funeral.’ And that was very touching,” Ballou said, her chin quivering. “And I said, ‘Oh Martin, that’s not going to happen. Nothing like that’s going to happen to you.’”
King was assassinated in 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee.
Some of the more than 100 items are unique, so it’s difficult to put a value on them, said Sandra Palomino, director of historical manuscripts for Heritage Auctions.
“We’re really relying on letting the market decide what the value is going to be,” Palomino said.
Items awaiting sale include a handwritten letter King sent to Ballou while touring India in 1959 to learn more about Mahatma Gandhi’s campaign of nonviolent resistance.
Another item is a typed final page of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, according to the auction house. The page was sent to Ballou on Jan. 31, 1968, several weeks before King was assassinated, by Lillie Hunter, bookkeeper for the SCLC and secretary to Ralph Abernathy.
Other items include King’s handwritten notes for a 1959 speech to inform his congregation that he would be leaving Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Alabama, where he served as pastor in the 1950s and was involved in the Montgomery bus boycott.
In the notecards, King said he was doing the work of five men by traveling for speeches, leading the church and the Montgomery Improvement Association and doing “endless work” with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. King later moved to Atlanta where he became co-pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church and continued his work with the SCLC and the struggle for equality.
Also for sale is a 1957 Alabama Department of Public Safety list of people and churches considered vulnerable to attacks. King is No. 1 on the list; Ballou is No. 21.
In 2011, King’s estate sued the secretary’s son, Howard Ballou, in a bid to take possession of the items, but the courts ruled against the estate.
Maude Ballou, who has a business degree from Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., was working for a radio station when King asked her to be his secretary. Her husband, the late Leonard Ballou, was a friend and fraternity brother of King.
After working for King, Maude and Leonard Ballou moved on to what is now Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina, where Leonard Ballou was an archivist. He apparently stored some of the material in the university’s basement, unbeknownst to anyone, until it was discovered in 2007 and returned to the Ballou family.
“I don’t like to get rid of anything. I like to keep it. But I know we must share. If it’s going to help, we have to share it,” Maude Ballou said.
Some keepsakes are staying with the family, including a copy of King’s book, Stride Toward Freedom with a handwritten note on the inner cover, “To my secretary Maude Ballou.”
“In appreciation for your good will, your devotion to your work, and your willingness to sacrifice beyond the call of duty in assisting me to achieve the ideals of freedom and human dignity for our people, (signed) Martin.”
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C., on Aug. 28, 1963. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration image, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
NEW YORK —Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, announced today that Leonard A. Lauder—after promising his collection of 78 Cubist works of art by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Juan Gris, and Fernand Léger to the Museum in April—has added another masterpiece, Léger’s The Village, to the collection. Mr. Lauder had been interested in the painting since he first saw it several years ago and provided funding to the Museum for its acquisition. It was placed on display in the first-floor galleries of the Lila Acheson Wallace Wing for Modern and Contemporary art this week, where it will remain on view through at least the end of the year.
Campbell said, in making the announcement, “Leonard Lauder is dedicated to creating the greatest collection of Cubist art in the world and to ensuring that these works will be accessible to the millions of people who visit the Met. Léger’s Village certainly demonstrates that unparalleled commitment. It is a rare and beautiful painting, in pristine condition. Most importantly, it represents a pivotal moment in the evolution of Cubism: using pyramids, cylinders, and spheres as building blocks, Léger creates a Cubist style that’s all his own.”
The Village was painted in 1914 by Léger (1881-1955) and depicts a church and neighboring buildings encircled by trees and possibly a town wall. (A second, identically sized version of the composition is in the collection of the Sprengel Museum, Hannover.) Unlike the city scenes for which Léger is better known, these two paintings are part of a rare series focusing on a country scene. The central part of the composition is painted in the colors of the French flag—blue, white, and red—a patriotic touch given that the work was created shortly before Léger was mobilized to fight in the First World War. The Village measures 31-1/2 x 39-3/8 inches (80 x 100 cm). It has been in private hands for nearly a century and is not known to have been exhibited publicly during that time.
Mr. Campbell announced on April 9, 2013, that Mr. Lauder has pledged to give the Metropolitan Museum his collection of 78 works by Picasso, Braque, Gris, and Léger, which stands as one of the foremost collections of Cubism in the world. The collection, distinguished by its quality, focus, and depth, includes 33 works by Picasso, 17 by Braque, 14 by Gris, and now 15 by Léger. Already unsurpassed in the number of masterpieces and iconic works critical to the development of Cubism, Mr. Lauder will continue to add to the collection. Mr. Campbell concurrently announced that, in coordination with the gift, the Metropolitan Museum is establishing the Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art at the Metropolitan, supported by a $22-million endowment funded by grants from Museum trustees and supporters, including Mr. Lauder. Further details are available here.
Exhibition of Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection in Fall 2014
The entire Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection will be on view at the Metropolitan Museum in an exhibition that will be open to the public from October 20, 2014, through February 16, 2015. Special Membership preview days will be held October 15-19, 2014.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue edited by Emily Braun, Curator of the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection and Professor of Art History at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and Rebecca Rabinow, the Leonard A. Lauder Curator of Modern Art and Curator in Charge of the Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art at the Metropolitan Museum. Essays by both scholars will be included in the catalogue, along with essays by Matthew Affron, Andrea Bayer, Harry Cooper, Elizabeth Cowling, Carol S. Eliel, Michael FitzGerald, Jack Flam, Christopher Green, Lewis Kachur, Pepe Karmel, Dorothy Kosinski, Christine Poggi, Kenneth Silver, Gary Tinterow, and Anne Umland.
The catalogue will be published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and distributed by Yale University Press.
Sue, the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton known, at the Field Museum in Chicago. Image by Shoffman11, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) – A T-rex named Sue is returning to South Dakota for a three-month visit.
The full-size traveling replica of the dinosaur unearthed from the Hell Creek Formation near Faith more than 20 years ago will appear at the Washington Pavilion’s Kirby Science Discovery starting Saturday. The real Sue remains at Chicago’s Field Museum, which purchased the 67-million-year-old fossil at auction for $8.4 million in 1997.
The 42-foot-long, 12-foot-high Sue was more than 90 percent complete when she was found, missing only a foot, one arm and a few ribs and vertebrae. She’s named after fossil hunter Sue Hendrickson, who was working in the area with the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research’s Peter Larson.
The model was created using casts of the original bones.
The exhibit runs through Jan. 5.
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Sue, the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton known, at the Field Museum in Chicago. Image by Shoffman11, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
The old United States Marine Hospital, restored and adapted for reuse by the Mobile County Health Department. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. MOBILE, Ala. (AP) –History peeks from behind colossal oak trees on Government Street, waiting to be recognized.
Many buildings endure prominently from the Port City’s past, while others stick around to decay.
But a new historic tax credit, approved by Gov. Robert Bentley in May, may help lift the lagging development into a new existence. The antidote could be the state’s $20 million worth of tax exemptions provided annually, some say, combined with federal tax exemptions.
Only time will tell.
Lawmakers approved the program for the next three years, enough time to test the public’s appetite.
“Some of the senators wanted to see what the impact would be,” said Elisabeth Sanders, president and chief executive officer for the Downtown Mobile Alliance.
“We believe that we will be able to show significant projects in that period of time.”
The Alliance partnered with another organization in Birmingham to persuade lawmakers to adopt the tax break three years ago. Both organizations hoped to spur interest in their cities’ old homes and buildings downtown.
“We sort of naively went up there with this package of incentive bills,” Sanders said.
The two groups’ argument was simple: Alabama was one of the only states in the region without such a program, Sanders said. Places with deep architectural roots like Charleston, S.C., Savannah, Ga. and New Orleans all provided the incentive.
In 2011, a new market tax credit was passed, which can be used for community development in areas mired with economic difficulty and blight. The historic tax credit was passed a year later.
The program has generated some excitement for downtown Mobile and surrounding neighborhoods.
“It could be a game changer,” said Tilmon Brown, a property developer and historic preservation advocate, “with one reserve caveat: We don’t have a whole lot of them left.”
Other than the Gayfers building on Dauphin Street and the Van Antwerp Building on Royal Street there aren’t many large properties, Brown said. The restoration of the Pizitz Building in Birmingham is already lined up to take as much as $5 million, the maximum allowed for a commercial project.
Mobile still has a lot to gain, said Brown, who has worked on historic restoration projects in the past. The scope of activity may be more modest.
As historic face-lifts go in Mobile, Larry Posner’s Fort Conde Village is one of the more prominent examples. Posner, at least in part, used the federal program that offers a 20 percent exemption.
Historic restoration conjures an image of grand renovations for property buyers. “They think doing a historic property costs more than doing it new,” Brown said.
“You don’t have to do a museum-quality project like at Monticello or Mount Vernon.”
A small cadre of Mobile residents and historic preservationists met recently for a forum on the new program. A five-member panel gave advice and discussed ways to take advantage of the new program.
“If you are going to apply you better know ahead of time whether you are going to qualify,” said John C. Williams, an architect who has worked on several projects in New Orleans.
Williams warned that the process can be complex, especially if it is done it alone. Changes like moving a staircase or replacing a window become crucial details when the property is evaluated.
“I’m trying to get educated on the commercial and the residential side (of the program),” said Jeremy Milling, owner of Milling Commercial Realty, who was also on the panel.
Milling holds the listing for the old Press-Register building on Government Street and the Buick Building on St. Louis Street.
In the months since the program was authorized, Milling said he has seen more interest from out-of-town buyers in certain historic properties. Many of them say outright that the new program piqued their interest in Mobile, he said. “The thing that has been exciting to me is the alternative uses they come up with.”
As downtown continues to change, Milling said, there may be an unmet need for things New Orleans has gravitated toward, like artists housing.
“The pitfall may be in saying that (New Orleans) is comparable apples-to-apples with Mobile,” Milling said. “I know there are a couple of projects that have been completed there that could be done here, but at a smaller scale.”
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
The old United States Marine Hospital, restored and adapted for reuse by the Mobile County Health Department. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Black rhinos in Tanzania. Image by Brocken Inaglory. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license.
NEW YORK (AP) – An Irishman used forged documents to sell horns from endangered black rhinos to a New York collector for $50,000, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Michael Slattery was arrested on Saturday at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport while boarding a flight to London.
A judge ordered Slattery held without bail during an appearance Wednesday in federal court in Brooklyn. Slattery’s attorney didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment.
A criminal complaint alleges that in 2010 Slattery traveled from London to Houston to try to buy two horns at a taxidermy auction house. Learning that he needed to be a resident of Texas to make the purchase, he recruited a day laborer to be a straw buyer, the complaint says.
Slattery—identified by U.S. prosecutors as a member of Ireland’s Gypsy minority, known there as travellers—and unidentified suspects gave the straw buyer $18,000 in $100 bills to complete the deal, the complaint says.
Later that year, Slattery met with a Chinese buyer in Queens and sold four horns using endangered-species bills of sale with fake Fish and Wildlife Service logos on them, the complaint says. It’s unclear where he got the additional two horns, it says.
Three of the five species of rhinoceros in Africa and South Asia have been hunted to the verge of extinction because their horns command exceptionally high prices for use in traditional Asian medicine chiefly in China and Vietnam, where the powdered horn is marketed as an aphrodisiac and even as a cure for cancer. The horns are made of keratin, a fibrous protein that is the building block for skin and hair, and has no documented medicinal value.
In 2011, Europol issued a warning that an Irish Gypsy criminal network based in the County Limerick village of Rathkeale was responsible for dozens of thefts of rhino horns across Europe. Europol said the thieves, called the Rathkeale Rovers, had already targeted museums, galleries, zoos, auction houses, antique dealers and private collections in Britain, continental Europe, the United States and South America.
Earlier this year, masked men stole stuffed rhinoceros heads containing eight valuable horns from the warehouse of Ireland’s National Museum in a heist being linked to the travellers.
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-09-19-13 0043GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Black rhinos in Tanzania. Image by Brocken Inaglory. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license.
