I.M. Chait Gallery / Auctioneers image. BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – I.M. Chait Gallery / Auctioneers will hold an Asian art, antiques and estates auction Sunday, Jan. 12, beginning at 11 a.m. Pacific. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding for the 543-lot auction.
Chinese antiques, ceramics, decorations and bronzes, together with snuff bottles, jadeite, carved ivories and various Chinese bead necklaces from Santa Monica Canyon and Palo Alto, Calif., residences will be offered.
The Asian contents of a Westwood, Calif., residence includes scrolls, ceramics (porcelain and early pottery), scholar’s table objects and jewelry.
Buddhist bronzes and objects including Sino-Tibetan, Chinese, Nepalese and Southeast Asian have been consigned from a San Diego estate.
East Coast collections have contributed numerous antique netsuke in ivory and wood, some of which have been illustrated in publications.
European antiques, drawings and lithographs, together with primitive art and furnishings from a Pasadena, Calif., estate will also cross the auction block.
For details phone 310-285-0182 or email chait@chait.com.
This Rolex Comex Submariner sold for £17,000 at a Fellows watch auction in October.
BIRMINGHAM, UK – Fellows is leading the way in online watch auctions by introducing 360-degree photographs to their watch descriptions, allowing watch buyers to scrutinize their potential purchases more clearly than ever before. This new functionality will be rolled out starting with Fellows’ specialist watch sale, Vintage & Modern Wrist Watches on Monday, Jan. 20..
LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
The 360-degree photographs will allow potential buyers to zoom in and spin the lot, examining the dial, crown and case back of all watches in an exceptional level of detail. All of this will add to the online user experience, giving buyers who cannot view in person more confidence in their bidding and reaffirming Fellows’ position as a pioneer in online auctions.
“Our continued investment in creating a rich online experience for our customers is really about giving the online buyer absolute confidence in what they are bidding on. They’ll be able to see every scratch and blemish no matter where they are in the world – such a tool is truly indispensable,” said Stephen Whittaker, Fellows’ managing director.
Fellows hopes to see 360-degree photography rolled out for all specialist auctions later in the year.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
This Rolex Comex Submariner sold for £17,000 at a Fellows watch auction in October.
Colt .45 caliber single-action Army 2nd generation Sheriff’s Model revolver. Estimate $8,000-$12,000. Morphy Auctions image. DENVER, Pa. – Firearms sales featuring both antique and modern guns, edged weapons, ammunition and militaria are among the most popular and heavily attended events on Morphy’s auction roster. On Saturday, January 11 starting at 9 a.m. Eastern Time, Morphy’s will conduct what CEO Dan Morphy predicts will be the company’s “best Firearms sale to date.” Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers.
The 633-lot auction, featuring a private collection amassed over a period of 35+ years, boasts more than 450 antique and modern firearms, with subcategories including rifles, shotguns, revolvers and pistols. A selection of more than 100 Colt firearms includes many fine, rare examples. Additionally, more than 50 Smith & Wessons will cross the auction block. Many entries come with letters of authentication (Colt, S & W, Winchester, etc.).
For those who collect earlier firearms, Morphy’s will offer a fine array of Kentucky rifles, English cannon barrel pistols, and 30+ lots of antique ammunition. Additionally, there will be 50+ lots of bayonets, swords and knives; and 50+ lots of miscellaneous military items. As always, there will be desirable firearms available at every price point, so every collector, whether a beginner or advanced collector, will have a chance to bid on something special for their collection.
A top highlight in the antiques portion of the sale is a Revolutionary War-era British blunderbuss dating to the 1750s or 1760s. Possibly the work of John Harvey, the gun’s brass barrel has engraved floral patterns at the breech and is marked “London.” According to Morphy’s firearms experts, the blunderbuss may have been a custom-made officer’s piece. It is estimated at $4,000-$7,000.
A prized Samuel Morrison Kentucky rifle was made in Milton, Pa., and is signed “S.M.” on the 39-inch full-octagonal, rifled barrel. The rifle is in the same state as when it was made and used, and is accompanied by its hunting bag, horn and full accessories. Estimate: $4,500-$7,500.
Two Colt revolvers stand out among those to be auctioned. A .45 caliber single-action Army 2nd generation, Howard Dove-engraved Sheriff’s Model in very good condition is entered in the sale with a Colt authentication letter. Its estimate is $8,000-$12,000. A reworked .44 caliber 3rd Model Dragoon pistol is estimated at $3,000-$10,000.
For additional information on any item in the sale, call 717-335-3435 or email serena@morphyauctions.com.
View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
Christo, ‘Wrapped Trees, Project for Avenue des Champs Elysees, Paris,’ color lithograph, signed and dated in pencil,
BEVERLY, Mass. – Kaminski Auctions will offer an outstanding Christo lithograph titled Wrapped Trees, Project for Avenue de Champs Elysees, Paris at a 20th century decorative arts and modern auction Sunday, Jan. 12, which begins at 10 a.m. Eastern. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
The beautiful artist’s proof lithograph is descended from Christo and Jean-Claude, prior to her death, as an outright donation benefiting Ovarian Cancer Research at the Massachusetts General Hospital Fundraising Auction in 2007.
The work of Christo & Jeanne-Claude has been widely followed, collected and critiqued throughout the last 40 years of the 20th century. The husband and wife team (born Christo Vladimirov Javacheff and Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon respectively) met in Paris in 1958 and quickly became inseparable. Shortly thereafter, they began actively working together to fashion outdoor sculptures and temporary large scale, environmental installations. Initially the team worked only under the collective name of “Christo,” until it was decided in 1994 that outdoor sculptures and installations should be retroactively referred to as that of “Christo and Jeanne-Claude.”
Preparatory drawings, lithographs and collages done only by Christo, which were routinely sold to finance ongoing endeavors, preceded each installation. The aforementioned lithograph is one such preparatory work, differing only in that the original proceeds were donated to charity. Similar preparatory works routinely sell well into the thousands on the secondary market. No project has ever been funded through sponsorship or donations and installations are facilitated through the assistance of hundreds of volunteers.
The finished projects consisted of “wrapping” well-known buildings, landmarks and landscapes such as the shoreline of an island with vast amounts of vibrantly colored fabric. The duo maintained their artistic intent was only to encourage viewers to consider familiar landscapes in new ways while promoting joy and beauty, denying any deeper meaning to their work.
This statement has and continues to incite controversy among art critics and collectors alike, particularly because Christo himself has classified the work as having “legendary character.” He attributes this characterization to the vanishing nature of the temporary installations.
One such example was The Gates: Central Park, New York City, which was unveiled on Feb. 12, 2005 after 26 years of preparatory work. Seventy-five hundred saffron colored fabric panels, or “gates” stretched across 23 miles of Central Park and remained for only 16 days, attracting approximately 4 million visitors from across the globe.
Born on the same exact date, June 13, 1935, the couple was close until Jeanne-Claude’s sudden death from a brain aneurysm in 2009.
Christo continues to create large-scale installations and exhibits preparatory work regularly in well-known galleries and museums throughout the world. Upcoming exhibits of preparatory, small-scale work can be found at the Albuquerque Museum of Art and Art History from Feb. 16 to May 4, and at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego La Jolla from Jan. 31 to April 6.
The auction will also feature an array of mid-century modern furniture, sculpture, and contemporary fine art, which predominantly spans the second half of the last century.
Early in the sale, bidders will find a stunning Danish Modern rosewood credenza by Axel Christiansen, design attributed to Gunni Omann, having four sliding doors with beautiful carved handles and signed with an applied foil label on the interior. This lot is preceded by a pair of Hans Wegner designer chairs of solid teak, with leather insets and manufactured by Johannes of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Perhaps among the most exciting of all furnishings are a gorgeous pair of Swedish “Onion” lamps of monumental size featuring a glaze in a sophisticated gray-green hue, original parchment shades and original matching ceramic finials. True design collectors will note additional names on view such as George Nelson for Herman Miller, Arne Norell, Knoll and Plycraft. Sculptural items of note include two bronze works by David Aronson.
Additionally, an obscure item to watch for is attributed to Alexander Calder and is thought to be an exact replica of Jeune Fille et sa Suite (Young Woman and Her Suitors), which Calder was commissioned to construct for the grounds outside the AT&T building located in Detroit during the early 1970s. The likely model, which clearly predates the countrywide transition to “Calder red,” is encased in an acrylic cube bearing an applied label on the exterior that reads “From Michigan Bell General Engineering Department.”
For more information call 978-927-2223.
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.
Similar vintage phone booths in London. Image courtesy of Aaron Logan. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic license. PRAGUE (AFP) – Two Czechs have breathed new life into telephone booths made obsolete in the cell phone age, converting them into mini libraries with the first installed at a Prague hospital on Thursday.
On the shelves of the red booth, patients of the IKEM hospital will find a plethora of genres, including works by U.S. crime writer John Grisham, Czech and Russian titles and biographer Andrew Morton’s “Diana: Her True Story”.
Library mastermind Monika Serbusova, 27, said she and a friend drew inspiration from a similar project in Britain.
They won backing from a local phone operator, then built the libraries with the help of colleagues and friends, painting the booths and installing wooden shelves.
“My cousin who studies at a technical school told us how to mount the booth, my grandma brought us a bagful of books from a scrap yard,” Serbusova told AFP.
She said they intend to set up other libraries at a shopping center and elsewhere. They currently have 700 books, but the selection will grow as people have promised to donate large collections.
“The plan is to install nine booths in Prague and then see how successful the project is,” Lucie Jungmannova, a spokeswoman for phone operator Telefonica Czech Republic, told AFP.
She said the company runs over 13,000 booths across the country, down by half from 10 years ago as people increasingly use cellphones.
Peeking into the new hospital library, IKEM radiologist Radomira Hnutova called it “a wonderful idea.”
“Patients can borrow a book and bring it back when they come for the next scan,” she said.
But Alena Ulcova, selling flowers down the corridor, voiced concern over the city’s high theft levels.
“I only hope people won’t steal them. It would be nice if some of the books stayed on the shelves,” she told AFP.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Similar vintage phone booths in London. Image courtesy of Aaron Logan. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic license.
Charles Frederick Worth, the father of haute couture in Paris, created this gown for the wife of Wisconsin Gov. Lucius Fairchild in 1880. Wisconsin Historical Society image.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – “Wisconsin fashion” often refers to cold-weather clothing rather than stylish designer wear from Paris and New York. Yet beginning in the late 19th century, there have been Wisconsin women with the means and interest to wear extraordinarily expensive and fashionable clothes.
The Wisconsin Historical Museum is showcasing the style of prominent Wisconsin women in an exhibit that opens Jan. 14 and runs through March 29.
“Wisconsin Women of Style” showcases significant pieces from the Mount Mary University Historic Costume Collection and the Wisconsin Historical Society. Visitors can explore these spectacular gowns and garments, and discover the stories of the remarkable Wisconsin women who wore them.
One of the fashion garments at the Madison museum includes a gown designed by Charles Frederick Worth, the father of haute couture in Paris. He created it for the wife of Civil War general and Wisconsin governor Lucius Fairchild in 1880.
Another gown was worn by Milwaukee socialite Lillian Sivyer to the 1937 coronation of King George VI in London.
Museum Curator Leslie Bellais says the dresses were worn to the grandest of occasions but they resonate with a lot of people because everyone can relate to clothing.
Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-01-08-14 0403GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
Charles Frederick Worth, the father of haute couture in Paris, created this gown for the wife of Wisconsin Gov. Lucius Fairchild in 1880. Wisconsin Historical Society image.Milwaukee socialite Lillian Sivyer wore this gown to the 1937 coronation of King George VI. Wisconsin Historical Society image.Mrs. Lucius Fairchild wearing the Worth-designed gown. Wisconsin Historical Society image.
These loose, BB-sized, hematite-rich spherules are embedded in this Martian rock like blueberries in a muffin and released over time by erosion. The Mars rover Opportunity found this cluster of them at its Eagle Crater landing site and analyzed their composition with its spectrometers. Hypotheses about their formation have contributed to the story of water on Mars. Image Number: WEB13448-2013. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University.
WASHINGTON (AP) – Ten years after NASA landed two rovers on Mars for a 90-day mission, one is still exploring, and the project has generated hundreds of thousands of images from the planet’s surface.
Now the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum is presenting more than 50 of the best photographs from the two rovers known as Spirit and Opportunity in an art exhibit curated by the scientists who have led the mission.
“Spirit and Opportunity: 10 Years Roving Across Mars” opens Thursday and includes many large-scale photographs of craters, hills, dunes, dust clouds, meteorites, rock formations and the Martian sunset. The Smithsonian’s first exhibit of art from the Martian rovers marks the 10th anniversary of the mission.
John Grant, a planetary geologist at the museum who is part of the rover mission team, organized the exhibit, in part as a travel log with images on one side from Sprit and images from Opportunity on the other. The rovers landed in January 2004 on opposite sides of Mars and began exploring volcanic deposits and plains, as well as meteorites and impact craters, so the exhibit also focuses on the science, Grant said.
“Every one of the images you see here tells a story of discovery that goes along with the story of beauty on Mars,” Grant said.
It’s a look at an alien planet through the rovers’ eyes, he said.
Uncovering signs of the past presence of water and a more habitable environment are among the rovers’ most important discoveries. Some were made by accident.
After about 800 days, one of Spirit’s front wheels stalled and stopped functioning. So the engineering team decided to continue driving it in reverse, dragging the broken wheel across the Martian surface. That dragging dug a trench behind the rover that soon uncovered a new material as white as snow. It turned out to be silica material that would normally be found in hot springs and hydrothermal systems – habitable environments.
“It was a total surprise,” said Steven Squyres, an astronomy professor at Cornell University who headed the Mars Exploration Rover mission. “It was just pure good luck. We wouldn’t have even seen that if we didn’t have the busted wheel.”
The rovers also found concretions and layered sedimentary rocks made of sulfate salt that showed water had once been on the planet’s surface.
While some panoramic images clearly show the red Martian landscape, other images focus on other colors that can be found in Mars’ rocks, soil and sky. One image of the Martian sunset shows a bluish color in the sky, which is usually pink in the daytime due to the reddish dust in the atmosphere. But it turns blue at sunset – the opposite of Earth, Squyres said.
Jim Green, NASA’s director of planetary science, said the rovers have made huge strides in learning about Mars to eventually send humans there. Another rover called Curiosity is also now exploring the surface, and NASA plans to send more rovers before humans.
Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-01-07-14 2004GMT
ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE
These loose, BB-sized, hematite-rich spherules are embedded in this Martian rock like blueberries in a muffin and released over time by erosion. The Mars rover Opportunity found this cluster of them at its Eagle Crater landing site and analyzed their composition with its spectrometers. Hypotheses about their formation have contributed to the story of water on Mars. Image Number: WEB13448-2013. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University.
A statue of Gen. ‘Mad’ Anthony Wayne stands in Freimann Square, downtown Fort Wayne, Ind. This work has been released into the public domain by its author, FTSKfan, at the wikipedia project. FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) – A century-old statue of Fort Wayne’s namesake, Gen. Anthony Wayne, may soon get a much-needed face-lift.
The News-Sentinel reports the city’s parks board is expected to hire a Chicago-area firm Thursday to restore and repair the statue under a proposed $66,000 contract.
The statue’s face-lift would be the first step in a privately funded effort to improve the iconic sculpture’s visibility that could cost $100,000 or more.
Mayor Tom Henry had proposed moving the 96-year-old sculpture from the city’s Freimann Square to the Courthouse Green, saying that doing so would improve its visibility.
But he dropped that proposal in August after members of the Courthouse Preservation Trust and others insisted the statue remain put. The trust has agreed to provide up to $100,000 to improve the statue’s present site.
Asian Civilizations Museum, Empress Place in Singapore. Taken by User:Sengkang of ENglish.Wikipedia. SINGAPORE (AFP) – A government-run Singapore museum said Thursday it was considering legal action against a prominent New York art gallery accused of selling stolen Asian artifacts.
The Asian Civilizations Museum said it was monitoring court proceedings against the gallery, Art of the Past, and was ready to return any items found to have been stolen.
ACM said it had been alerted that two artifacts the museum had purchased may have been “sold illicitly” by the gallery.
A bronze sculpture of a Hindu goddess that ACM acquired in 2007 for $650,000 may have been stolen from India, the Singapore museum said in a press statement.
It added that a second artifact, a Virgin Mary and Christ altar bought in 2009 for $135,000, may have had its provenance documents – which show the
item’s origins – forged by the dealer.
ACM, which is run by Singapore’s National Heritage Board, said it had bought 30 objects from Art of the Past between 1997 and 2010.
“ACM followed its acquisition procedures strictly and all possible checks were done on provenance at the point of purchase for the two artifacts,” the museum said.
“ACM believed at the point of purchase that they were legally and ethically acquired.”
It vowed to “take all necessary steps, in accordance with international laws and practice, to return any stolen or looted objects among the 30 artifacts” it purchased from the New York gallery.
It said the National Heritage Board was in touch with lawyers to recover the money used to buy the two works.
Art of the Past describes itself on its website as a “gallery specializing in fine art and antiquities from South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayas.”
The gallery said its customers include world-renowned museums, institutions and private collectors.
ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE
Asian Civilizations Museum, Empress Place in Singapore. Taken by User:Sengkang of ENglish.Wikipedia.
