February 14, 2014 - Auction Central News

Kamelot looks to mid-20th century for inspired design Feb. 22

James Mont-style three-panel folding screen. Kamelot Auctions image.

PHILA., Pa. – Kamelot Auction House will host its annual mid-century furniture and design sale on Saturday, Feb. 22. This focused sale has become a favorite among design industry professionals, furniture collectors, and craftsman as a source for stylish and trendy pieces suited to a variety of aesthetics. Internet live bidding will be facilitated by LiveAuctioneers.com.

The sale features a breadth of 20th century design including mid-century modern furniture in addition to Art Deco, Jansen, French, Italian and English designs. Prominent artisans are handsomely represented with pieces seen from masters such as Paul McCobb, Sergio Bustamante, James Mont, Karl Springer, Erik Höglund Boda and Milo Baughman among others. A very good Italian Gio Ponti-style curved front bar and matching back bar, circa 1960, (lot 352) is predicted to sell for $4,000-$6,000, while a rare and unusual mid-century modern Italian mahogany ”L”-form sideboard, circa 1960, is thought to fetch $3,000-$5,000 (lot 323). A large collection of Lucite furniture items is expected to earn significant interest with the most notable piece being a rare king-size Lucite poster bed (lot 258). Yet another great mid-century modern find is lot 1, a James Mont-style three-panel painted screen having distressed mirrored back panels, circa 1940 ($300-$600).

More than 70 lots comprised of chandeliers, sconces, lamps and other lighting fixtures will bring further enthusiasm to the sale. Among the mid-century modern offerings is an Erik Höglund Boda wrought iron and glass hanging light fixture presented with an estimate of $2,000-$3,000 (lot 439). Expected to spur sizable competition among bidders is a rare collection of 20 matching Murano glass shell-form sconces having gold fleck scroll decoration, circa 1970 (Lots 402, 403, 404, 405). Complementary pieces featured in that sale include a Murano chandelier (lot 279) and a pair of 20th century Murano table lamps (lot 459). A small but select group of mirrors also makes an appearance in the auction. Choice highlights include a French brass clad bistro mirror, circa 1900 (lot 15, $800-$1,200), and an antique Venetian mirror having ornate etched and applied multicolored glass decorations, circa 1910 (lot 3, $600-$900). Lot 22, a gilt wood circular form sunburst mirror with stylized flowers, circa 1950, holds a presale estimate of $600-$800 and is one of several decorative sunburst mirrors on offer in this auction.

Antique and 20th century French, Italian and English furniture in a variety of styles will be available, as well. Everything from a handsome ebonized directoire-style library desk (lot 168, $3,000-$5,000) to a beautiful Venetian mirrored server (lot 48) are in the mix. Lot 422 is a very good labeled “Maison Hurel, Paris” bentwood table having inset leather top and single drop side, circa 1910, expected to pique strong interest ($2,000-$3,000). Similarly is an interesting French burled walnut Rhulmann-inspired cabinet having a shaped marble top over four central drawers flanked by two doors, circa 1930 (lot, $6,800-$1,200).

Jansen collectors and enthusiasts will certainly be pleased with the selection featured in this sale. Highlights among these are lot 162, a Jansen chinoiserie decorated marble-top and bronze mounted commode in the Louis XVI-style, circa 1950 ($2,000-$4,000) and a good Jansen Regency-style ebonized bookcase and desk, circa 1940 (lot 196, $1,000-$1,800). Art Deco, a staple at Kamelot, is in no short supply either, with many fine pieces on offer. Lot 201, estimated at $800-$1,200 is a pair of oversized Art Deco club chairs with macassar veneer, circa 1930, and one of several Deco club chairs featured in the sell. Another exemplary Deco choice is lot 207, a pair of ebonized Art Deco console tables with mirrored tops should fetch between $2,000-$3,000.

Toward the end of the sale are a few lots of the more eccentric sort and will certainly garner attention from bidders. Lot 443 is an interesting welded metal sculpture of a life-size horse, purportedly created for an Hermes advertising campaign. It carries a $2,000-$3,000 estimate. Just as unique is a whimsical signed Sergio Bustamante papier-mache owl sculpture having two birds perching, all raised on plinth base, circa 1970 (Lot 424, $700-$ 1,000).

The auction will begin at 10 a.m. Eastern on Saturday. Doors will open at the Kamelot showroom at 8 a.m.

For details call 215-438-6990.

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.

View the fully illustrated catalog and register to bid absentee or live via the Internet as the sale is taking place by logging on to www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

Signed 'Sergio Bustamante' papier-mache owl sculpture. Kamelot Auctions image. — Signed ‘Sergio Bustamante’ papier-mache owl sculpture. Kamelot Auctions image.

Mid-century modern chest with parchment veneered drawers. Kamelot Auctions image.

Pair of Dunbar attributed cock fighting chairs. Kamelot Auctions image.

Venetian mirrored server. Kamelot Auctions image.

Pair of Martinelli Luce Pipistrello adjustable lamps. Kamelot Auctions image.

French burled walnut Ruhlmann-inspired cabinet. Kamelot Auctions image.

Rago auction features Hoffman ceramics collection March 1-2

Lot 435: Tiffany Studios, large Jack-in-the-Pulpit vase. Estimate: $50,000-$70,000. Rago Arts and Auction Center image.

LAMBERTVILLE, N.J. – On Saturday, March 1, and Sunday, March 2, Rago Arts and Auction Center will hold its auction of early 20th century decorative arts and modern design. LiveAuctioneers.com will facilitate Internet live bidding. The auction will begin at 11 a.m. Eastern both days.

Art Pottery, furniture, art glass, metalwork and prints comprise 450 lots. From the collection of Lillian Hoffman comes a special group of American and European ceramics, featuring Adelaide Robineau, University City, Taxile Doat, Martin Brothers, an outstanding reticulated vase by John Dee Wareham for Rookwood, and much more.

“The (Lillian) Hoffman collection is somewhat legendary in ceramic circles. Off the market for over three decades, the 100 lot collection includes important examples of both American and European art pottery, from Rookwood to Martin Ware,” said David Rago.

Following the Hoffman collection are early 20th century decorative arts, featuring ceramics by Teco, Charles Binns, Pewabic, George Ohr, Van Briggle, Riessner Stellmacher & Kessel, and Rookwood, plus several rare Newcomb College textiles and a Newcomb lamp with leaded glass shade. There are also exceptional examples by Marblehead, Grueby, Roseville and John Bennett.

Furniture by Gustav Stickley, Rose Valley, L. & J.G. Stickley, Stickley Brothers, Roycroft and Limbert, includes an early trapezoidal grandfather clock and rare server by the firm of Gustav Stickley and two fine pieces by Rose Valley. Lighting is provided by Handle, Duffner & Kimberly, Suess, and Tiffany Studios. Art glass offered in the sale is by Lalique, Loetz, and Tiffany Studios. The auction will also present hammered copper by Dirk Van Erp, Joseph Heinrichs, Alfred Daguet, and Gustav Stickley, and artwork by Gustave Baumann and Alphonse Mucha.

Modern ceramics – 132 lots – will sell Saturday immediately following the early 20th century category. Included are three unique pieces by Viktor Schreckengost. Also featured are works by Otto and Gertrud Natzler, Peter Voulkos, Lucie Rie, Alev Ebuzziya Siesbye, and an exceptional “Vince” charger by Robert Arneson. Studio pottery in the auction is by Karen Karnes, Nancee Meeker, Bennett Bean, Susanne Stephenson and Don Reitz.

Modern design will sell Sunday, 563 lots in all. Fine furniture includes East Indian laurel and rosewood pieces by George Nakashima, in addition to works by Paul Evans, Phil Powell, Vladimir Kagan, Wendell Castle, Warren Platner, Jean Prouve, T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings and Karl Springer. There are special tables by Philip and Kelvin LaVerne and Albert Paley. Scandinavian pieces designed by Finn Juhl, Nanna Ditzel, Hans Wegner, Arne Jacobsen, Greta Grossman and Borge Mogensen are also in the lineup.

Ceramics are by Pablo Picasso at Madoura, Paul Schreckengost for Gem Clay Forming Co. and Piero Fornasetti. Studio glass by Harvey Littleton, Lino Tagliapietra, Michael Pavlik, Paul Stankard, Richard Marquis, Tomas Hlavicka and Dale Chihuly will be sold. Lighting designed by Jacques Adnet, Lightolier, Carlo Scarpa, Venini, Fondica, Georges Jouve, Poul Henningsen, Agostini, Lacroix, Prouve and Maison Charles will also be availabe. There are tapestries by Jan Yoors, Alexander Calder and Edward Fields, sculpture by Steve Tobin Harry Bertoia, Feliciano Bejar, Stefan Knapp, David Savage, Ed and Phil Moulthrop, Harriet Bell and Leslie Hawk, and sterling silver by Georg Jensen, Raymond Loewy, Rudolf Feldmann for Bielefeld, and Donald Colflesh for Gorham.

For details contact Rago Arts and Auction Center by calling 609-397-9374 or emailing info@ragoarts.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.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

Lot 1: John Dee Wareham/Rookwood, reticulated Black Iris vase. Estimate: $20,000-$30,000. Rago Arts and Auction Center image.

Lot 100: Mary Sheerer/Newcomb College, rare oil lamp with leaded glass shade. Estimate: $45,000-$65,000. Rago Arts and Auction Center image.

Lot 201: Martin Brothers, large bird tobacco jar. Estimate: $50,000-$60,000. Rago Arts and Auction Center image.

Lot 502: Viktor Schreckengost, unique sculpture, ‘The Smithy.’ Estimate: $17,500-$22,500. Rago Arts and Auction Center image.

Lot 542: Robert Arneson, ‘Vince’ charger. Estimate: $25,000-$30,000. Rago Arts and Auction Center image.

Lot 833: Carlo Scarpa/Venini, Platelet chandelier. Estimate: $10,000-$15,000. Rago Arts and Auction Center image.

Lot 728: Wharton Esherick, rare sculpture, ‘Cat with Snake.’ Estimate: $20,000-$30,000. Rago Arts and Auction Center image.

Lab detectives turn to technology to expose art fakes

Tests of this painting by an unknown Italian forger of the 1920s revealed that the Virgin's robe was painted using Prussian Blue, a pigment not invented until the 18th century. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

PARIS (AFP) – In under two weeks, the art world has been rocked by cases of forgery in which paintings with a potential value of millions were unmasked as worthless fakes.

The two episodes, entailing a bogus Marc Chagall and a Ferdinand Leger, have shed light on the expanding role of forensic scientists in probing the authenticity of works attributed to masters.

“For years, scientists played only a marginal part in these assessments,” said Gerard Sousi, founder of the Art and Law Institute, a Paris-based organization that specializes on legal issues in art.

“Today, they are being called upon more and more.”

One of the biggest weapons in the scientific arsenal is chemical analysis of paint.

Just a fleck is enough for a spectrometer to get a signature of the compounds that comprise it – and in turn, this gives a good idea of when the paint, and thus the work, was made.

For instance, if someone offers you to sell you a Rembrandt with brushstrokes of Prussian Blue, you should always decline.

The dark blue pigment, explained Philippe Walter, director of the archaeology laboratory at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris, was discovered accidentally in 1704 – a whole 35 years after Rembrandt’s death.

In 2008, a paint called Titanium White helped expose one of the greatest art scams of all time.

Suddenly suspicious about Red Picture with Horses, supposedly painted in 1914 by expressionist Heinrich Campendonk, the owners of the work – who had shelled out 2.8 million euros ($3.8 million) two years earlier – called in forensic scientists in Munich.

Paint not old enough

They found a tiny trace – less than one percent – of Titanium White, a paint made in the 1920s.

The trail led to a prolific German forger, Wolfgang Beltracchi.

At least 13 other works, sold sometimes for millions, turned out to be Beltracchi fakes. They included a Max Ernst that had hung in a show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, another Ernst acquired by French media mogul Daniel Filipacchi and a bogus Campendonk bought by Hollywood star Steve Martin.

The forged Chagall, unwittingly bought by a British businessman and tested in a BBC documentary this month, was unmasked in part through the discovery that its blue and green pigments were too recent.

They were invented in the 1930s, whereas the portrait of the reclining nude was supposedly made in 1910.

Another scientific tool used in the discovery of fakes is a particle accelerator, which measures concentrations of the isotope carbon 14 to establish when the cotton used to make a canvas was grown.

A supposed work by Leger from 1913-14, Contraste de Formes, was one forgery exposed in this way.

It had been part if the prestigious Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, but was never shown given doubts about its authenticity.

The mystery was finally laid to rest thanks to a team at the Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics which announced last week they had found a spike in levels of carbon 14 in the canvas.

These showed that the cotton that made it was grown in the late 1950s, when concentrations of the isotope in the environment leapt because of atmospheric nuclear tests. Leger had died in 1955.

Impressive as all this may sound, science is not a substitute for art historians, who are not only familiar with the style and life history of an artist but also the context in which a work was made, said Walter.

He gave the example of jewelry from ancient Egypt.

Shown pieces of jewelry made of pure gold incrusted with semi-precious stones like turquoise or lapis lazuli, and others fabricated of a gold-and-silver alloy inlaid with colored glass, the novice is likely to mistake the latter for cheap knock-offs.

In fact, silver and glass at the time of the Pharaohs were far more rare and valuable, said Walter.

Even though scientists are more important in the field than ever, they are asked to investigate an artwork only when doubts exist, added Sousi.

“In the art market, transactions are often carried out swiftly, and in conditions lacking transparency, and due diligence can suffer,” he explained.

And, he observed, owners of a doubtful, but expensively bought, piece of work may be keener to hand it on rather than risk having it exposed as worthless.

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Biltmore Estate hid nation’s precious art during WW II

Priceless works of art were stored in the music room of the Biltmore Estate during World War II. Biltmore Co. image.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) – In the new World War II movie The Monuments Men, George Clooney and Matt Damon are army officers assigned to save historic artworks before they were plundered or destroyed by Hitler.

Asheville’s Biltmore Estate played a similar top-secret role when precious art was stashed at the big house during the war.

Famous works by Rembrandt, Raphael, Anthony van Dyck, – even Gilbert Stuart’s George Washington portrait – were whisked away from Washington’s National Gallery of Art by train and hidden at the estate to protect against attack.

“It was all done in secret,” said Darren Poupore, chief curator.

“They built in steel doors in the (music room) archways and steel bars on the windows,” he said. “They put curtains over the doors to conceal them.”

Armed guards stood watch around the clock to protect the art, he said.

The story began before World War II, when David Finley, the National Gallery of Art’s new director, fretted about the museum’s security from enemy attack.

“He was a friend of Edith Vanderbilt and had stayed at Biltmore in the 1920s. He remembered it as being fireproof, and Asheville being a remote location,” Poupore said.

When the war began, he asked Vanderbilt if the house could be used to secure some of the museum’s prized works, and she agreed. The music room was unfinished and chosen to hold the art. In all, 62 paintings and 17 sculptures were crated and delivered to Biltmore by train in a January 1942 snowstorm, Finley’s papers reveal.

And there they remained in steel racks until 1944, when the wartime threat was lessened, and the art was returned to the National Gallery.

Asheville was unified in World War II service, local historian Rob Neufeld said. The Grove Park Inn was used to house prisoners of war, “and there were much more sensitive government operations here” Neufeld said. Many local residents joined the war effort, through military or government service, so it was not unusual that Biltmore did its part, he said.

Keeping the art collection secret was easier in an era before the Internet, Poupore said. “People understood the seriousness of the war and national security concerns.”

While its arrival was hush-hush, the art left Asheville with “grand fanfare,” photographs and a motorcycle escorts with sirens blazing, Poupore said.

Biltmore reopened to the public in 1946 and has never been closed again, he said.

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Information from: The Asheville Citizen-Times, http://www.citizen-times.com

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ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

The Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C. Biltmore Co. image.

Workers move crated artworks into the Biltmore Estate in January 1942. National Museum of Art image.

Ancient baby DNA suggests tie to Native Americans

The Clovis culture inhabited the Americas during the final glacial episodes of the late Pleistocene period. Known as Paleo-Indians because of the appearance of their 'lithic flaked' stone tools, they were the earliest settlers in North America. This circa-1920 painting by Heinrich Harder (German, 1858-1935) depicts Paleo-Indians hunting a glyptodont. Image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright term of the life of the author plus 70 years has expired.

NEW YORK (AP) – The DNA of a baby boy who was buried in Montana 12,600 years ago has been recovered, and it provides new indications of the ancient roots of today’s American Indians and other native peoples of the Americas.

It’s the oldest genome ever recovered from the New World. Artifacts found with the body show the boy was part of the Clovis culture, which existed in North America from about 13,000 years ago to about 12,600 years ago and is named for an archaeological site near Clovis, N.M.

The boy’s genome showed his people were direct ancestors of many of today’s native peoples in the Americas, researchers said. He was more closely related to those in Central and South America than to those in Canada. The reason for that difference isn’t clear, scientists said.

The researchers said they had no Native American DNA from the United States available for comparison, but that they assume the results would be same, with some Native Americans being direct descendants and others also closely related.

The DNA also indicates the boy’s ancestors came from Asia, supporting the standard idea of ancient migration to the Americas by way of a land bridge that disappeared long ago.

The burial site, northeast of Livingston, Mont., is the only burial known from the Clovis culture. The boy was between 1 year and 18 months old when he died of an unknown cause.

He was buried with 125 artifacts, including spear points and elk antler tools. Some were evidently ritual objects or heirlooms. The artifacts and the skeleton were covered with powdered red ochre, a natural pigment, indicating a burial ceremony.

The skeleton was discovered in 1968 next to a rock cliff, but it’s only in recent years that scientists have been able to recover and analyze complete genomes from such ancient samples.

The DNA analysis was reported online Wednesday in the journal Nature by scientists including Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, Michael Waters of Texas A&M University and Shane Doyle of Montana State University in Bozeman. The burial site lies on the property of the parents of another author, Sarah Anzick of Livingston. It is known as the Anzick site.

Doyle, a member of the Crow tribe, said the indication of such ancient roots for American Indians fits with what many tribal people already believed. He also said plans are underway to rebury the boy’s remains at the site after the winter.

The boy “was not a chief or a great hunter,” but his burial showed love and respect, Doyle said at the Montana Historical Society in Helena on Wednesday.

Next will be a memorial at the site, he said, “Something small, so that the state of Montana, people around the world will know the importance of that place.”

In a telephone conference with reporters this week, the researchers said that once they discovered the link between the boy and today’s Native Americans, they sought out American Indian groups to discuss the results. Willerslev, an expert in deciphering ancient DNA, called for scientists to work closely with native peoples on such research.

On Wednesday, he noted there were Native American groups who said their oral history showed that they were descendants of the first people in the Americas.

“Well, they turned out to be right,” Willerslev said at the Montana museum, where artifacts from the site are on display.

The results are “going to raise a whole host of new ideas and hypotheses” about the early colonization of the Americas, said Dennis O’Rourke, an ancient DNA expert at the University of Utah who wasn’t involved in the work.

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Associated Press writer Matt Volz contributed to this report from Helena, Mont.

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Online:

Nature: http://www.nature.com.

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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

2 arrested in theft from estate of aviation pioneer R.H. Fleet

Army aviator Reuben H. Fleet. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

SAN DIEGO (AP) – San Diego County authorities have arrested two people accused of stealing military memorabilia, artwork and other items from a family estate of aviation pioneer Reuben H. Fleet.

The Sheriff’s department says 29-year-old Edward Peek and his girlfriend, 35-year-old Nicole Denny, were taken into custody Tuesday after they were found in possession of property belonging to the house in San Marcos.

They were booked on counts of grand theft.

Detectives searched Denny’s vehicle and Peek’s storage unit and recovered jewelry, antique furniture, oil paintings, and other property belonging to the Fleet family.

Fleet, who died in 1975, was an aviator in World War I. He brought Consolidated Aircraft, which later became Convair, to San Diego in the mid-1930s.

The Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park is named for him.

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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

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