Interior view of the Astrodome with seating configuration for football. Image by Jet Lowe. Historic American Engineering Record, Library of Congress HAER TX-108-11.
HOUSTON (AP) – Thousands of people lined up Saturday for the chance to take home a piece of the iconic, but dilapidated Houston Astrodome, once dubbed the “Eighth Wonder of the World.”
The “yard sale” and auction got underway in the morning at the Reliant Center, the convention center adjacent to the now-closed domed stadium. More than 4,000 people were inside or waiting to get in by about 10 a.m. Saturday, Reliant Park officials said, the line twisting through the center and out the door.
For those looking for a cheap memento, a 12-inch by 12-inch piece of AstroTurf cost $20. Seats were going for $200 a pair, and larger items, including autographed lockers and dugout benches, were being auctioned off. The first item up for auction, a set of 10 pretzel warmers from an old concession stand, went for $50.
Other items for sale included projectors, VCRs and turnstiles.
Marcos Escobar bought four squares of AstroTurf and two pairs of seats. He recalled fond memories of watching Houston Astros baseball games and Houston Oilers football games there with his father.
“I wanted to come out here and get something before they tear it down,” Escobar said.
Opened in 1965, the Astrodome was the world’s first multipurpose domed stadium. It was home to the Astros and the Oilers. But no professional sports team has played there since 1999 and the stadium has been closed to all events since 2009.
Voters will decide Tuesday whether to approve a referendum authorizing up to $217 million in bonds to turn the stadium into a giant convention center and exhibition space. Houston-area leaders have said that if the referendum fails, the Astrodome will probably be razed.
A poll conducted in mid-September by Rice University in Houston found 45 percent of likely voters supported the referendum, with 35 percent opposing it and nearly 20 percent still undecided.
With its fate still undecided, the Astrodome was awash in nostalgia Saturday. Some people showed up in the Astros’ famous orange-striped “rainbow” jerseys from the 1970s. Others wore old Oilers caps, commemorating a team that left Houston for Nashville to become the Tennessee Titans in the late 1990s after failing to get a new stadium.
Lorenzo Fuentes recalled paying $4 for tickets to games as he finished buying four squares of turf.
“I have a lot of big memories of the Astrodome,” Fuentes said. He added that his wife didn’t necessarily understand, and told him that anything he brought home from the stadium would have to stay in the garage.
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-11-02-13 1809GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Interior view of the Astrodome with seating configuration for football. Image by Jet Lowe. Historic American Engineering Record, Library of Congress HAER TX-108-11.
Detail of the decoration on the famous Euphronios Krater, which was once in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image by Jaime Ardiles-Arce. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. ROME (AP) – The Dallas Museum of Art has agreed to return six antiquities that were looted illegally from Italy.
In exchange, Italy is loaning the Dallas museum treasures from the Spina necropolis housed at the Ferrara archaeological museum.
Italy’s culture ministry announced the agreement Thursday. The objects being returned include Etruscan-era kraters—jars for mixing water with wine—and a pair of bronze shields.
The ministry’s press office said that unlike past negotiations with U.S. museums, which involved threatened or real legal action to recover looted antiquities, Dallas museum director Maxwell Anderson spontaneously offered to return the items after the museum couldn’t determine their provenance.
Italy launched an aggressive campaign a decade ago to retrieve looted artifacts. Its most famous recovery is the Euphronios Krater from New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-10-31-13 1626GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Detail of the decoration on the famous Euphronios Krater, which was once in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image by Jaime Ardiles-Arce. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
A view of Bellevue, Iowa, on the Mississippi River. Image by Dawikieditor96. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. BELLEVUE, Iowa (AP) – The contents of a century-old Bellevue marine engine-building shop will be an unusual addition to the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium in Dubuque.
The Iowa Marine Engine and Launch Works produced thousands of boat engines for about three decades starting in the late 1800s. After that, the well-equipped machine shop was used to build various pieces of equipment and to repair antique tractors and other items until the last of three generations of owners, William Brandt, died last year.
The Telegraph Herald reports the sturdy limestone building, at Chestnut and Second streets along the railroad tracks through Bellevue, was a hub of manufacturing activity in the river town. Its well-regarded engines powered boats across the country. The business patriarch, Joseph Brandt, also designed and built several famous racing boats in the early 20th century.
William Brandt enjoyed tinkering in his vast shop and at Brandt’s Garage, where he worked as a mechanic, and invited cronies to join him for tinkering and talking sessions. A handful of Bellevue men dropped in often to shoot the bull and help Brandt restore the old tractors. Bill Rieckens, who owns a similar old stone building across the street, was one.
“Bill was easygoing, and we’d talk about old times and just about everything else over a pop or two,” said Rieckens, a member of the board of directors of the Jackson County Historical Society. The organization was interested in acquiring the shop, and Brandt expressed a desire to leave it to the group.
“We wanted it pretty bad, and we could have made it work,” Rieckens said.
Jan Brinker, of Bellevue, Brandt’s cousin and closest relative, was his estate executor and contacted the river museum about donating the shop contents to the national facility. Brinker did not return calls from the TH for comment.
Museum staff and volunteers have been examining and cataloging thousands of items in the shop since July. The preliminary work has been funded by a grant from an Iowa Resources And Enhancement Program historical grant.
“Inside, it looks like it did 100 years ago, like the workers were there yesterday, walked out and never came back,” said Cristin Waterbury, director of curatorial services at the museum. “It’s in very good shape, and the machinery works like a charm.”
River museum president and CEO Jerry Enzler has known about the marine shop since the 1980s and marvels at its pristine condition.
“It’s rare indeed to find something like this so well preserved. It’s like a frozen moment in time,” he said.
The shop equipment will be carefully removed from the Bellevue building next year and the museum will build a separate exhibit, possibly a separate building, to display the shop works, Enzler said. It could be open to the public in 2015.
“This represents not just things but also people and their occupations—‘folk life,’” Enzler said. “We’re celebrating our 10th anniversary at the river museum, and this will be a key piece of our next five years.”
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-11-02-13 1442GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
A view of Bellevue, Iowa, on the Mississippi River. Image by Dawikieditor96. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Hildebrand Gurlitt became the first director of the König Albert museum in Zwickau in 1925. Image by Concord. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. BERLIN (AFP) – Nearly 1,500 priceless paintings including works by Picasso and Matisse that were stolen by the Nazis have been discovered in a flat in Munich, a news report said Sunday.
The German weekly Focus said police came upon the paintings during a 2011 search in an apartment belonging to the octogenarian son of art collector Hildebrand Gurlitt, who had bought them during the 1930s and 1940s.
The search was carried out because the son, Cornelius Gurlitt, was under suspicion for tax evasion, Focus said.
The report said the works were thought to be worth around 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion dollars) on today’s market.
The artworks lay hidden amid old jam jars and junk in darkened rooms in Gurlitt’s apartment in the southern city for more than half a century, the paper said.
Gurlitt, a recluse without a job, had sold a few over the course of the years, living off the proceeds, the paper reported.
His father, despite having a Jewish grandmother, had become indispensable to officials in the Third Reich because of his art expertise and his vast network of contacts.
Hitler’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels put Gurlitt in charge of exporting the art, which the Nazi party considered “degenerate.”
The collection included many of the great masters of the 20th century, among them the German painters Emil Nolde, Franz Marc, Max Beckmann and Max Liebermann.
Among the paintings discovered was one by Henri Matisse that had belonged to the Jewish collector Paul Rosenberg.
Rosenberg, who fled Paris leaving his collection behind, was the grandfather of Anne Sinclair, the former wife of the disgraced French politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
The prosecutor in the southern city of Augsburg, who is reportedly handling the affair, declined to comment on the story, according to German press agency DPA.
The paintings are stored safely in a customs warehouse outside Munich, Focus said.
The Nazis massively plundered artworks in Germany and across Europe before and during World War II, confiscating many from Jews or forcing them to sell their works at a low price.
Between 1940 and 1944, German forces seized an estimated 100,000 paintings, artworks, tapestries and antiques from the homes of Jews in France, stripped of their rights by the racial laws enforced by the collaborationist government.
Thousands of stolen artworks have since been returned to their owners or their descendants, but many more have never resurfaced.
In 2007 a German expert published a book on looted art, estimating that thousands of masterpieces and tens of thousands of lesser works had yet to be restored to their rightful owners.
Only last week, an investigation by Dutch museums revealed that 139 of their artworks, including a Matisse and two Kandinsky paintings, may have been stolen by the Nazis.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Hildebrand Gurlitt became the first director of the König Albert museum in Zwickau in 1925. Image by Concord. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
The two papier-mache and wood figures wrestling with the help of some strings depict 19th-century politicians who couldn’t agree on anything. The toy and original box sold for $180 at Jackson’s Auctions in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Most people today would not recognize the pair, Disraeli and Gladstone, as famous British politicians during the reign of Queen Victoria.
BEACHWOOD, Ohio – Political fights among politicians are not new. Today, the rivalries are ridiculed in political cartoons and on TV sitcoms. In the past, political differences were shown in Staffordshire figures, slogans and drawings.
The rivalry in Britain in the last half of the 19th century between the prime ministers Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) and William Gladstone (1810-1898) was notable. Both men were skilled politicians, but they hated each other. The two men came from very different backgrounds. Gladstone was a rich and deeply religious upper-middle-class man educated at Eton and Oxford. Disraeli never attended a university and was a wild youth who lived extravagantly. He wrote novels, accumulated debts and then married a rich widow. Gladstone, a liberal (Whig), and Disraeli, a conservative, disagreed on both social and international policies. They called each other names, opposed each other in numerous campaigns and were able to defeat each other at times. The repeal of the Corn Laws, which lowered tariffs, the purchase of stock in the Suez Canal, the favor of Queen Victoria, and other major problems were part of their battles. Political cartoons of the time often showed the two men fighting. There were even toys that pictured the men wrestling. Several versions of the toy have been sold through the years. In 2013, Jackson’s Auctions sold a pair of 8 1/2-inch-high Gladstone and Disraeli figures in their original box for $180.
Q: My maple armchair is marked “A Genuine Cushman Colonial Creation made in Bennington, Vt.” The words are printed in several typestyles inside an oval. How old is it?
A: H.T. Cushman (1844-1922) was an inventor who created things like the pencil eraser, ink eradicator and some early types of roller skates. He started a mail-order company and soon was making and selling things, including furniture. By 1899 he had incorporated his company and was making Mission furniture. Later he made smoking stands and maple breakfast-room sets. Your chair probably is from one of his breakfast-room sets. By the 1950s, the company was making birch furniture in the Colonial style. The company was later sold and finally closed in 1980.
Q: I have a red, white and blue metal sign that reads “Hudson, Service Station, Essex.” There’s a blue triangle on the sign that says “Hudson Super Six” and a red hexagon that reads “Essex Motor Cars.” The sign is 13 inches high and 27 1/2 inches wide. What is it worth?
A: Hudson Motor Car Co. was founded in 1909. Its Super Six engine was introduced in 1916. The Essex was a less expensive Hudson car introduced in 1919 and made until 1932. Hudson merged with Nash in 1954 and became American Motors Corp. Automobile-related advertising of all kinds is collected. Signs can sell for hundreds or even thousands of dollars, depending on age, rarity and condition. Your sign, from the 1920s, could sell for $500 or more.
Q: I have a McCoy cookie jar that belonged to my grandmother. It’s shaped like an apple and is yellow with red highlights. The lid has a stem and leaf on the top. I’d like to know how old it is and what it might be worth.
A: McCoy pottery was made in Roseville, Ohio. The company made cookie jars from about 1940 until the pottery closed in 1990. Its apple cookie jar was made from about 1950 to 1964. It was also made in turquoise, a rare color that sells for more. The value of your apple cookie jar is about $100.
Q: I have a late 19th-century bronzed spelter statue of Hernani. It’s just under 2 feet tall. He is holding a sword, dagger and horn, and is in excellent shape. Value?
A: Hernani was the title character in a play by Victor Hugo. It opened in Paris in 1830 and is set in the Spanish court of 1519. Bronzed spelter statues of Hugo’s fictional characters were popular in the late 19th century. One the size of yours sold for $140 earlier this year.
Q: I have a picture postcard showing the original photograph of President Franklin Roosevelt signing the Social Security Act on Aug. 14, 1935. It’s signed by James Roosevelt, FDR’s oldest son. Does it have any value?
A: Thousands of copies of this photograph were sent out by the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare in a mass mailing in 1985, the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Social Security Act into law. The committee was founded by James Roosevelt in 1982. It advocated raising Social Security benefits for the “notch” babies, a term coined by Ann Landers for those born between 1917 and 1921 who received lower benefits than people born between 1910 and 1916 because of a change in the way cost-of-living adjustments were determined. The committee still is in existence and works to prevent cuts to Social Security and Medicare. The mailing was part of a fundraising effort by the committee. The same photograph also was included in a 1990 mailing. So, your picture postcard is a common one and not of much interest to collectors.
Tip: Don’t leave anything inside old books – especially pressed flowers, paper clips, newspapers or sticky notes. They will cause stains, crease pages and do other damage.
Need prices for your antiques and collectibles? Find them at Kovels.com, our website for collectors. You can find more than 900,000 prices and more than 11,000 color photos that help you determine the value of your collectibles. Studying prices is free at Kovels.com/priceguide. Kovels.com also has lists of publications, clubs, appraisers, auction houses, people who sell parts or repair antiques, show lists and more. Kovels.com adds to the information in this column.
Terry Kovel and Kim Kovel answer questions sent to the column. By sending a letter with a question, you give full permission for use in the column or any other Kovel forum. Names, addresses and email addresses will not be published. We cannot guarantee the return of photographs, but if a stamped envelope is included, we will try. The amount of mail makes personal answers or appraisals impossible. Write to Kovels, Auction Central News, King Features Syndicate, 300 W. 57th St., New York, NY 10019.
CURRENT PRICES
Current prices are recorded from antiques shows, flea markets, sales and auctions throughout the United States. Prices vary in different locations because of local economic conditions.
Hair clip, bow, pearls, gem center, back comb, Yves Saint Laurent, $60.
Political souvenir plate, William Howard Taft and running mate James Sherman, border of past Republican presidential candidates, tin, 1908, 9 1/2 inches, $110.
Tramp art watch hutch, house shape, round opening, c. 1890, 15 inches, $120.
Santo monk figure, wood, white glass eyes, gilt rope sash, brown robe, hands raised, Spain, circa 1765, 17 x 9 inches, $275.
Pewter box, lid, oval, inset green stone, Liberty & Co., 3 1/2 x 2 inches, $315.
Bench, wood frame, black paint, rush seat, Italy, 1950s, 18 x 18 inches, pair, $500.
Quilt, appliqued, golden eagle on shield, stars, red, blue, white, c. 1950, 91 x 76 inches, $850.
Palmist and clairvoyant trade sign, black, white paint, 50 inches, $5,040.
New! The best book to own if you want to buy or sell or collect – and if you order now, you’ll receive a copy with the author’s autograph. The new “Kovels’ Antiques & Collectibles Price Guide, 2014,” 46th edition, is your most accurate source for current prices. This large-size paperback has more than 2,500 color photographs and more than 35,000 up-to-date prices for more than 700 categories of antiques and collectibles. You’ll also find hundreds of factory histories and marks, a report on the record prices of the year, plus helpful sidebars and tips about buying, selling, collecting and preserving your treasures. Available for $27.95 plus $4.95 postage, online at Kovelsonlinestore.com; by phone at 800-303-1996; at your local bookstore, or mail to Price Book, Box 22900, Beachwood, OH 44122.
The two papier-mache and wood figures wrestling with the help of some strings depict 19th-century politicians who couldn’t agree on anything. The toy and original box sold for $180 at Jackson’s Auctions in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Most people today would not recognize the pair, Disraeli and Gladstone, as famous British politicians during the reign of Queen Victoria.
Spectacular elephant cane, circa 1880, substantial ivory knob carved in fine and naturalistic detail as a full-bodied elephant on a tree trunk. It is on a rosewood shaft with silver collar and a stag horn ferrule. Estimate: $3,000-$4,000. Kimball M. Sterling Inc. image. JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – Kimball M. Sterling Inc. will present the Nashville Tennessee Cane Auction, partnering with Liveauctioneers.com on Saturday, Nov. 9, at the Marriott Airport Hotel in Music City. The auction, which will begin at 11 a.m. Central, will consist of over 225 antique canes and walking sticks from various collections throughout the world.
This sale will consist of both European and American canes including fine ivory, sword canes, objects of virtue, silver and gold, folk art and much more. A small of erotic collection will be offered from a private Saudi collection. Canes will be offered from $200 to $15,000.
Sterling prides himself in offering cane for the novice and the expert collector. In the cane field there is something for many different categories of collectors who have never bought a cane before. For instance, the selection of different types of dogs is wide in this sale. For those who prefer cats, the auction holds the largest group of feline-related canes Sterling has ever offered. For the advanced collector there’s a hard stone Tiffany spaniel cane. Fine dress and opera canes are also in the lineup.
Sterling has sold over 6,000 canes on LiveAuctioneers from various collections in the past. Kimball M. Sterling Inc. is considered by many to be the premier cane auction house in the entire world.
For details phone Kimball Sterling at 423-928-1471.
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.
Spectacular elephant cane, circa 1880, substantial ivory knob carved in fine and naturalistic detail as a full-bodied elephant on a tree trunk. It is on a rosewood shaft with silver collar and a stag horn ferrule. Estimate: $3,000-$4,000. Kimball M. Sterling Inc. image.Jade figural cane, late 19th or early 20th century, large mottled jade frog on a plinth handle, ruby cabochon eyes in gold framing, silver collar, rosewood shaft and a horn ferrule. This cane is in the taste of Carl Faberge and has possible Russian ties. Estimate: $4,000-$6,000. Kimball M. Sterling Inc. image.Sword cane, circa 1890, L-shape plain silver handle with 18K gold application on the nose and collar on a rosewood shaft with a horn ferrule. The jeweled and etched steel blade is signed ‘FTJ’ and ‘MAXIMUS.’ Estimate: $1,200-$1,800. Kimball M. Sterling Inc. image. European ivory nude cane, circa 1840, pristine carving of the female form done in great detail, original patina, ornate gold-filled collar, malacca shaft and a horn ferrule. Estimate: $4,000-$5,000. Kimball M. Sterling Inc. image. Hard stone figural cane, circa 1900, black onyx knob cut in the shape of a dog head with 18K yellow gold collar struck with the hallmarks ‘TIFFANY & Co M and 18Kt,’ malacca shaft with a horn ferrule. Estimate: $8,000-$10,000. Kimball M Sterling Inc. image.
The PAD marquee in Berkeley Square—The Pavilion of Art & Design during London’s Frieze week. Image: Auction Central News. LONDON – One or two events in London this October offered a telling indicator of how the art market here has changed almost beyond recognition in a very short space of time. The extent to which the enormous, sprawling Frieze art fair and its recent offshoot, Frieze Masters, now dominate the autumn London art calendar is perhaps not surprising given the inexorable growth of contemporary art as an alternative investment target for High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs). This year, Frieze deepened still further the seemingly irreversible marriage of culture and finance by adding fashion designer Alexander McQueen to its list of prestige sponsors that already includes Deutsche Bank.
So much for commerce, but rather more surprising is how the Frieze brand continues to bewitch the general public given the fairs’ staggeringly high entrance fees. The apparent willingness of the average punter to fork out the £50 fee to get access to both Frieze tents is surely evidence that the new “event-driven” art market is as much about entertainment and fantasy window-shopping as it is about the big-ticket art investments that only privileged HNWIs can afford. That said, the fact that in a single month London can absorb both the Frieze fairs plus the prestigious PAD (the Pavilion of Art and Design) in Berkeley Square, which hosted a further 50 high-end dealers, testifies to just how much wealth is now concentrated in the capital.
Not everyone sees the rise of Frieze as a positive development, however. British artist John Keane, the UK’s official Gulf War artist in 1994, complained that Frieze’s exclusivity hinders other artists’ opportunities. “While Frieze is going on it is hard for anyone else to be seen,” he told The Guardian newspaper. “All the newspapers cover the same shows and you tend to see the same artists’ names coming up at the Tate, Hayward and Whitechapel galleries.”
London Eye might take issue with that assessment, however. We patrolled the smaller “off-piste” London art galleries during Frieze week and found lots of shows brimming with activity and enthusiasm. The Josh Lilley Gallery in Riding House Street shows work by a carefully selected group of artists of a very high caliber. When we visited the gallery’s recent exhibition of work by Italian-born, Berlin-based artist Benedetto Pietromarchi there was an exciting buzz in the air A young gallery crowd assemble at the Josh Lilley Gallery in Fitzrovia for the exhibition of work by Benedetto Pietromarchi during Frieze week. Image: Auction Central News.. Unlike so many of the blue-chip contemporary artists one encounters at Frieze, Pietromarchi is classically trained and thus is an accomplished draughtsman, ceramicist and sculptor who makes all his own work. His exhibition comprised beautifully modeled ceramic birds of prey perched on pipes and cylinders, juxtaposed with handmade, polychrome-glazed ductwork fragments that might have been retrieved from the seabed, all encrusted with suggestions of marine flora and fauna. This was magical, hugely original work of the kind that can only emerge from a fertile imagination harnessed to exquisite craft skills.
Berlin-based artist Benedetto Pietromarchi at his exhibition at London’s Josh Lilley Gallery. Image: Auction Central News.A ceramic work by talented Italian sculptor Benedetto Pietromarchi at the up-and-coming Josh Lilley Gallery in London’s funky Fitzrovia district during Frieze week. Image: Auction Central News.
Directly opposite the Josh Lilley Gallery, the T.J. Boulting Gallery was showing an astonishing installation of life-size sculptures of cattle modeled in clay by British artist Stephanie Quayle. British artist Stephanie Quayle with her clay cattle installation at the T.J. Boulting Gallery during London’s Frieze week. Image: Auction Central News. Quayle, who lives on a farm on the Isle of Man, has an intimate knowledge of the livestock with which she spends her working days. This enables her to bring an extraordinary expressive realism to her figures. She had several tons of clay delivered to the gallery and modeled the cattle on site, the finished work having a robust surface texture alive with evidence of the artist’s hand. A detail of the life-size installation of clay cattle by Isle of Man-based sculptor Stephanie Quayle at the T.J. Boulting Gallery. Image: Auction Central News. In an adjoining room other works explored the deep primal connections between man and beast, giving rise to the exhibition’s title—“Lion Man.” The gallery was packed when we visited, proving that Frieze cannot suck all the air out of the city.
After seeing these thrilling, handmade shows in the funky heartland of Fitzrovia it was hard not to look with something of a jaundiced eye on “Candy,” a joint exhibition of work by Damien Hirst and Felix Gonzalez-Torres over at the Blain Southern Gallery just round the corner from Sotheby’s main saleroom. Piles of sweets by the late artist Feliz Gonzales-Torres share gallery space with abstract canvases by Damien Hirst at the ‘Candy’ show staged by London dealers Blain Southern to coincide with Frieze week in October. Image: Auction Central News. The show tried to promote some sort of correspondence between the late Cuban-born American sculptor and the erstwhile enfant terrible of British art. If anything it offered another emphatic reminder that Hirst can neither paint nor sculpt. All his most celebrated animal, spot and butterfly works were made by anonymous artists who were paid to fabricate the stuff on his behalf. Thus the juxtaposition at this recent London show of his infantile abstract canvases with Gonzales-Torres’s now famous heaps of wrapped candy came over not as an intellectually stimulating fusion of disparate creative practices but rather as a desperate attempt to capitalize on the fact that London during Frieze week is teeming with people with more money than critical sense.
The brains behind the Blain Southern “Candy” show—London dealers Harry Blain and Graham Southern—were once the founding proprietors of the Haunch of Venison contemporary art gallery just up the road in New Bond Street. That gallery grew out of a marriage of Blains and the celebrated Anthony d’Offay Gallery and became so successful that it was eventually acquired by Christie’s auction house, who saw it as an opportunity to grow their private treaty interests. The most recent example of the morphing of Christie’s into dealers also came during Frieze month when they launched their new Christie’s Mayfair private treaty business at what was originally the Haunch of Venison premises at 103 New Bond Street. ( Christie’s Mayfair—the auction house’s new private dealership gallery in London’s New Bond Street where the ‘When Britain Went Pop!’ exhibition was launched during Frieze week. Image: Auction Central News.
The inaugural exhibition—“When Britain Went Pop!”—was a collaboration between Christie’s and leading London dealers Waddington Custot Galleries. Waddington Gallery founder Leslie Waddington had been a pivotal figure in the promotion of Pop Art in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s and this exhibition grew out of his friendship and association with Christie’s director Hugues Joffre. Arguably one of the most comprehensive surveys of a movement which, despite many misconceptions, was actually born in Britain rather than in America, the show included numerous seminal works by David Hockney, Richard Hamilton, Eduardo Paolozzi, Peter Blake and many of their contemporaries.
Apart from the marvelous catalog, the most notable thing about the “When Britain Went Pop!” exhibition was the sheer number of works accumulated over the years by the dealers involved. We asked where the works came from and were told that many of the canvases and sculptures originate from Waddington Custot’s inventory and have not been seen in public for decades. A major downside, however, was the lack of precise information and the overcrowded hang. An interior view of the comprehensive survey exhibition of early British Pop Art launched at Christie’s Mayfair in conjunction with Waddington Custot Galleries. Image: Auction Central News.‘When Britain Went Pop!’—a major survey of early British Pop Art, created by Christie’s Mayfair in collaboration with Waddington Custot Galleries in London’s New Bond Street in October. Image: Auction Central News. The title labels had been stuck in random clusters to the extreme edges of the walls making it difficult to see which works they referred to. Nevertheless, it was remarkable to see such an important show assembled not by a public gallery like the Tate, but by the trade—auction houses and dealers working in collaboration.
If the dominance of art fairs and the transfiguration of auctioneers into dealers were not enough to make a case for a changing art world landscape, we could add the ever more prominent role of the emerging economies in the London scene. Barely a month passes without another show popping up to cater for the thousands of Chinese, Brazilian, Middle Eastern or Russian collectors either just visiting London or already domicile in the city. Increasingly many of the city’s major real estate projects are being bought up by overseas investors seeking a bricks-and-mortar foothold in one of the world’s leading centers of unbridled wealth generation. And they need works of art to hang in these homes and offices.
There are now estimated to be around 500,000 Russians living in London, a statistic that doubtless has not gone unnoticed by the Willow Gallery in Duke Street. They have teamed up with Amsterdam-based icon dealers Jan Morsink Ikonen to launch an exhibition of Russian icons to coincide with Russian art week in London, Nov. 23-29. This highly specialist field ought to chime with London’s wealthy Russian community since the Russian art market, like the Chinese art market, is driven by a combination of new money and a desire to regain their nation’s dispersed cultural heritage. The Willow Gallery exhibition includes some wonderful hieratic imagery such as the Christ Enthroned as a High PriestThis Russian icon titled ‘Mother of God Tichvinskaya,’ Moscow, dating from the second half of the 16th century, from the collection of Jan Morsink, Amsterdam, will be on display at the Willow Gallery, 40, Duke Street, for Russian Art Week, Nov. 23- 29. Image courtesy Willow Gallery and Jan Morsink. and the gentle Mother of God Tichvinskaya‘Christ Enthroned as High Priest,’ Russia, Kostroma region, mid-17th century, from the Jan Morsink collection, will be on view at the Willow Gallery from Nov. 23 to 29. Image courtesy Willow Gallery and Jan Morsink.
Roller, $3,000-$4,000; circa-1899 Steam Crane, $2,000-$3,000; Galloping Donkey, $1,200-$1,600. Old Toy Soldier Auctions image.PITTSBURGH – After a record-setting half-million-dollar June sale, Old Toy Soldier Auctions (OTSA) is gearing up for another blockbuster event. Their Nov. 22-24 auction, with Internet live bidding through LiveAuctioneers, will feature the premier Britains collection of the late Richard Appleby. Over a period of 35 years, Richard and his wife “Ginny” became known as discriminating collectors of toys, banks and early furniture.
“Over many years, the Applebys judiciously bought toys from major auction houses and from me, privately,” said OTSA owner Ray Haradin. “There can be no question that Richard’s soldier collection is one of the world’s finest.”
Until the early 1990s, the Appleby collection was quite diverse. But around that time, Richard changed course and decided to deaccession the more common soldiers and reset his focus on acquiring the first series of each set Britains ever produced. “Richard probably had examples of 90 percent of all first-version Britains. That is an unheard of,” said Haradin.
The Saturday, November 23 session will open with choice selections from the Appleby collection, which boasts approximately 30 first-version sets. Among the top sets to be auctioned is Britains Set 2, the Royal Horse Guards, produced in 1895. One of Britains’ most popular sets for more than a century, it has been re-released 17 or 18 times, but to encounter an original-series version in fine condition is “unusual, as this set had a very short production run,” Haradin said. The Appleby set is in undisputedly beautiful condition and estimated at $1,200-$1,800.
A pristine example of Britains’ circa-1896 Set 25, Soldiers That Shoot, features soldiers that can “fire” their spring-loaded guns when a rod is inserted into the muzzle. “The soldiers in Set 25 were among the first figures produced as working toys,” Haradin noted. Complete with partitioned box, the set is expected to make $3,000-$5,000.
The headlining collection includes examples of Britains Set 1317, the Salvation Army Band, in both red and blue versions. Each of the two sets was made in 1934. The red set is entered with a $6,000-$8,000 estimate, and the blue set, which shows signs of wear, is estimated at $1,200-$1,800. Haradin opines that, in total, there may be only 15 to 20 red-version Salvation Army bands in existence in “complete, nice condition.”
Another star from the collection is Britains circa-1907 Boer War C.I.V. English Supply Wagon Column, a 20-piece unboxed set valued at $6,000-$8,000. The set represents, in miniature, troops that fought in the Boer Wars, which pitted the British against Dutch settlers in the Boer republics of South Africa.
The Saturday session also includes several elusive Britains road and construction items from the 1880s. Among the top pieces are a circa-1899 Steam Crane, one of only two known examples of the large, steam-operated version of this toy, est. $2,000-$3,000; and an extremely rare, boxed Miniature London Road Roller, est. $3,000-$4,000.
Yet another distinctive toy from Britain’s early period is a Galloping Donkey, estimated at $1,200-$1,600. It represents a diversion for the English toymaker, as it was constructed of part lead, part composition. “Very few Britains figures incorporated composition,” Haradin observed.
Also a scarce production, a St. John’s Ambulance Brigade & Medical Encampment depicting a World War I British medical corps with figures of personnel and six Red Cross tents, was produced by Britains but marketed under the Centando brand. “Centando distributed toys and solders under their own private label, in the same manner as Hamley’s toy store in London,” Haradin explained. The Medical Encampment is offered with its original box, which has one of the most beautiful toy-box labels of its era. Its presale estimate is $3,000-$5,000.
Handsomely complementing the Appleby soldiers are two original watercolors by Don Troiani, an accomplished American artist who is also one of the foremost authorities on early military uniforms. Each of the artworks in OTSA’s auction is estimated at $2,000-$3,000.
The 500-lot Saturday lineup – which is dominated by pre- and postwar Britains as well as a strong selection of civilian figures – also features selections from the George O. Gillespie collection. One of the highlights is a Buck Rogers space figures set in very nice condition. This particular set, which is coveted both by collectors of figures and those who collect robots and space toys, is expected to reach $1,600-$2,000 at auction.
In keeping with OTSA tradition, the opening session on Friday, November 22nd, will be devoted to newer soldiers and figures. There will be a huge assortment of King & Country productions, German composition figures from multiple collections, and some exceptional personality figures by Lineol and Elastolin. Additionally, the 600-lot Friday session will include a wealth of figures by other popular manufacturers, such as Imperial, Marlborough, Edmunds and Mignot.
The Sunday, November 24 offering is by far the most diverse of the entire three-day sale. Within the approximately 600 lots to be presented in the closing session are figures from virtually all of the better manufacturers, including Courtenay, Vertunni and Stadden.
Old Toy Soldier’s November 22-24, 2013 auction is an absentee, phone and Internet live bidding event and will commence at 1 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, November 22, and 10 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 23-24. Absentee bids, including those placed online via www.LiveAuctioneers.com, must be made no later than 24 hours prior to the sale in order to be accepted.
For additional information, call Ray Haradin at 412-343-8733 (tollfree: 800-349-8009) or e-mail raytoys@aol.com.
View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
Roller, $3,000-$4,000; circa-1899 Steam Crane, $2,000-$3,000; Galloping Donkey, $1,200-$1,600. Old Toy Soldier Auctions image.Britains Set 25, Soldiers That Shoot, with spring-loaded guns, among the first figures produced as working toys. Est. $3,000-$5,000. Old Toy Soldier Auctions image.Near-mint Britains Set 1317 Salvation Army Band set in red tunics. Est. $6,000-$8,000. Old Toy Soldier Auctions image.Extremely rare Britains Roundabout Set 1439 in original box. Est. $6,000-$9,000. Old Toy Soldier Auctions image.Boer War C.I.V. Supply Column with Escort. Est. $6,000-$8,000. Old Toy Soldier Auctions image.St. John’s Ambulance Brigade & Medical Encampment set, made by Britains and marketed under the Centando brand. Old Toy Soldier Auctions image.Courtenay and Courtenay-Greenhill knights. Est. $300-$500. Old Toy Soldier Auctions image.One of two original watercolors by artist Don Troiani, a renowned expert on early military uniforms. Old Toy Soldier Auctions image.
Anders Leonard Zorn (Swedish, 1860-1920) ‘Little Girl in Traditional Dress,’ 1883, watercolor on paper laid on board, 22 3/4 x 15 inches, signed, dated and inscribed lower right: ‘Dalecarlia-83 / (Sweden) / Zorn.’ Estimate: $50,000-$70,000. Heritage Auctions image. DALLAS – Entering the Cellar by Anders Zorn, a major work and a singular example of his unique perspective and direct stroke impressionist technique, could sell for more than $400,000 in Heritage Auctions’ European Art Signature® Auction Nov. 8.
LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
Spending at least the last 40 years in private collections, Entering the Cellar resonates with Zorn’s most popular themes of portraiture, rural life and an unconventional frame of reference. Entering the Cellar and Little Girl in Traditional Dress, a second work by Zorn and expected to bring $50,000-plus, both appear at auction to benefit Southern Methodist University and Bishop Lynch High School in Dallas.
In fact, many of the top works in the sale come to auction predominately from private collections found in Texas, said Brian Roughton, director of American and European art at Heritage.
“This auction reflects the sophistication of Texas collectors who sought excellent examples of European impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces for generations,” Roughton said. “Many of these excellent outstanding examples of paintings, sculpture and prints are fresh to market and underscore the quality of work behind each artist.”
Highlights include a reduction of August Rodin’s The Kiss, standing 15-3/4 inches high, which was discovered in a private collection in Amarillo, Texas, and is expected to sell for more than $250,000. Ranking alongside The Thinker as one of Rodin’s most recognizable works, Le Baiser, third reduction, was designed in 1886 with the cast executed between 1905 and 1910, according to Jérôme Le Blay, who has added the work to an upcoming catalog critique de l’oeuvre based on the artist’s life work.
Two featured works by Henri Martin, found in an important private collection in San Antonio—Petit bassin près de la tonnelle sud de Marquayrol (Jardin de l’Artiste) or Small Pond near the south arbor Marquayrol (Garden of the Artist), and Charmille—are each estimated to sell for $150,000-plus. The Nov. 8 auction marks the first time the two works have been available for purchase since the 1960s.
Already generating extensive preauction buzz are two paintings by French Impressionist Pierre-Eugene Montézin from the esteemed collection of former Dallas mayor Starke Taylor and his wife, Carolyn. Les Paons, a lush work depicting a male and a female peacock on the banks of pond, could sell for $30,000-plus, and Le Casino, a lively landscape of Cannes, could bring $25,000-plus.
Several works from non-Texas collections include Polishing Silver by Thomas Frederick Mason Sheard, which may realize $25,000-plus, and two works by Maurice Utrillo—Rue Lepic à Montmartre, an example of the artist’s coveted post-impressionist technique, which is estimated to hammer for $60,000-plus, and Rue Saint-Vincent, which could sell for $50,000-plus.
Additional highlights include:
Paysage d’Hiver à Chaponval by Gustave Loiseau. Estimate: $50,000-plus;
The Proposal by Pio Ricci. Estimate: $25,000-plus;
Portrait of a Young Girl with a Mandolin and Cats by Franz Rumpler. Estimate: $12,000-plus.
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.
Anders Leonard Zorn (Swedish, 1860-1920) ‘Little Girl in Traditional Dress,’ 1883, watercolor on paper laid on board, 22 3/4 x 15 inches, signed, dated and inscribed lower right: ‘Dalecarlia-83 / (Sweden) / Zorn.’ Estimate: $50,000-$70,000. Heritage Auctions image.Anders Leonard Zorn (Swedish, 1860-1920) ‘Entering the Cellar,’ 1916, oil on canvas, 38 1/2 x 29 inches, signed and dated lower right: ‘Zorn / 1916.’ Estimate: $400,000-$600,000. Heritage Auctions image.Auguste Rodin (French, 1840-1917) ‘Le Baiser, 3ème réduction,’ designed in 1886, the reduced version conceived in 1901, and this cast executed between 1905 and 1910, bronze with brown patina, 15 3/4 x 9 3/4 x 10-1/2 inches. Estimate: $250,000-$350,000. Heritage Auctions image.Henri Jean Guillaume Martin (French, 1860-1943) ‘Petit bassin près de la tonnelle sud de Marquayrol (Jardin de l’Artiste),’ circa 1920, oil on canvas, 28 7/8 x 33 7/8 inches, signed lower right: ‘Henri Martin.’ Estimate: $150,000-$200,000. Heritage Auctions image.Pierre Eugène Montézin (French, 1874-1946), ‘Le Casino,’ oil on canvas, 24 x 28 3/4 inches, signed lower left: ‘Montezin.’ Estimate: 25,000-$35,000. Heritage Auctions image.
KPM hand-painted porcelain plaque with gilt wood carved frame, 9 inches x 5 3/4 inches. Estimate: $400-$500. T A C Estate Auctions Inc. image. WAKEFIELD, Mass. – A large selection of jewelry and decorative arts highlight a fall estate auction to be conducted by Tonya A. Cameron’s TAC Auctions on Wednesday, Nov. 6, beginning at 6:15 p.m. Eastern. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
An example of the fine estate jewelry to be offered is a 2-carat platinum diamond ladies’ ring with a pear-shape brilliant cut diamond, two tapered baguettes and a Finger Mate shank. The ring has a $2,200-$2,700 estimate.
Another highlight is a pair of 19-century French Sevres porcelain and ormolu urns decorated with classical scenes. In very good condition, the 20-inch-tall urns have an estimate of $4,000-$6,000.
Additional items of interest in the 216-lot auction are sterling silver items, cut crystal, silver overlay Limoges dinner sets, Venetian glass, Orientalia, historical documents, Civil War items, pocket watches, a wine cellaret, a $5 gold coin, a Polly Portable Phonograph, tintypes and daguerreotypes, sterling and Ivory walking sticks, and high-quality furniture.
Collectibles include advertising ephemera, barbershop items, political bottoms, postcards, posters, first day covers, sewing notions and vintage movie star photos.
Baseball fans savoring the Boston’s victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series will be interested in a lot containing 1940s-1970s Red Sox programs.
For details contact Tonya Cameron at 781-233-0006 or email her at info@tacauctioneers.com.
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.
Ladies’ 2-carat platinum diamond ring. Estimate: $2,200-$2,700. T A C Estate Auctions Inc. image.Grueby pottery vase matte green, 6 inches high, unsigned. Estimate: $400-$600. T A C Estate Auctions Inc. image.Pair of 19th century French Sevres urns. Estimate: $4,000-$6,000. T A C Estate Auctions Inc. image.Set of six Venetian wine stems, swirl design with blown center having animal figures in center, 7 inches x 4 inches. Estimate: $300-$600. T A C Estate Auctions Inc. image.
