February 26, 2014 - Auction Central News

Finest toys, dolls, trains chosen for Bertoia auction March 28-29

Steiff golden mohair bear with shoebutton eyes, leather muzzle, 24in tall, est. $4,000-$6,000. Bertoia Auctions image.

VINELAND, N.J. – Wherever early character toys gather, collectors soon follow. The next destination for both is Bertoia Auctions’ Friday/Saturday March 28-29 auction of toys, dolls, and holiday antiques. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.

The 1,400-lot sale will open with 125 top-notch comic character toys, including many classics such as the Mickey and Minnie Hurdy Gurdy, all three variations of the Marx Merry Makers Band (standard, with violinist and with marquee), and a great selection of Popeye toys. The many clockwork depictions of the muscle-bound sailor to be auctioned – some of them boxed – include Popeye boxing, walking, flying a plane, playing basketball and working with a boxer’s punching bag. Also included are Disney’s Donald Duck, Jiminy Cricket and Pinocchio, and Warner Brothers’ Porky Pig.

Another 300 lots of tin toys include examples of the Butter and Egg Man, Red the Ice Man, and many walking toys, such as Tom Twist and Hey Hey Chicken Snatcher. A fine representation of Marx toys features all variations of the Big Parade, a series of war cars, and many other favorites by the company that was once the world’s most prolific toy maker. Japanese tin racecars lining up for their turn at the spotlight will include a Champion Racer, Jet Racer and Super Racer, all from the same consignor.

European toys include Lehmann’s ZigZag, Man-Da-Rin, Nanu and Vineta monorail; and several Martins, including a Piano Player and a boxed delivery boy with cart known as Le Petit Livreur. An array of approximately 50 penny toys offers a wide range of amusing and automotive-related subjects, some produced by the German firms Fischer and Meier.

A second helping of 125 mixed comic character toys will be up next. Following closely behind will be a European car and toy rally led by a bright and beautiful medium-size Gordon Bennett racer from the late Dr. Malcolm Kates’ collection.

The diverse offering of European windups includes scarce Gunthermann minstrels, clowns in various poses, musicians, dancers, and a scull with four oarsmen. Also included are a few European carousels and Ferris wheels, and a grouping of key-wind and hand-crank automata, some of them musical and some by Bing.

Teddy bears will join the lineup. Steiff entries include a large muzzled example with Vineland, New Jersey upbringing; and a scarce rod bear. Others in varies sizes will pose for approval during the two-day event.

Automata and dolls go hand in hand, and Bertoia’s will offer close to 150 desirable European dolls in the Friday session, ranging from diminutive 1-inch articulated bisque dolls to French and German beauties exceeding 20 inches in height. Categories include German bisque-heads, Kammer & Reinhardt character babies, Gebruder Heubach character dolls, Simon & Halbig dolls and others. Among the googly doll highlights is an appealing Schwab design with rare flirty eyes. Other noteworthy lots include a large Kestner doll, a Jules Steiner bebe and an earliest-period Jumeau portrait doll.

The Saturday session starts with more than 300 cast-iron automotive toys from the collection of the late Judge Glenn McDonald of Louisville, Kentucky, and other private collections. Autos, trucks, buses and taxis will be joined by a very nice selection of early horse-drawn transportation toys.

An interesting grouping of Schoenhuts reveals several scarce examples. Top pieces include a boxed clown, Happy Hooligan, Boob McNutt, and an attractive Fairmount Farms Milk delivery wagon. Many jewel-eyed and caged animals are in the mix, with two standouts being a miniature pig and poodle.

Next up will be early games, mostly McLoughlin productions including the Watermelon Patch Game and Game of Louisa. Right alongside them will be several McLoughlin picture puzzles with colorful, richly illustrated box lids.

The last 400 lots of the auction will be well worth waiting for, as they consist of Erzebirge, skittles and exceptional Christmas and holiday lots, many from the revered collection of the late Tom Fox. Dresdens, Father Christmas display figures and Santas in sleighs – one of loofah; the other of wicker – are expected to keep bidding paddles busy.

“Collectors will love the Christmas selection. When we sold part one of the Tom Fox collection in November, we made sure we set aside some exceptional pieces to sell in the March sale, as well,” said Bertoia Auctions’ owner, Jeanne Bertoia. “The cataloging was very time intensive. We called on the expertise of Betty Bell, a specialist in Dresdens and holiday antiques, to make sure we didn’t miss anything in our descriptions.”

Among the 10 animal-head candy containers in the Fox collection are an iridescent parrot, a Bacchus on a wine cask grasping a cluster of grapes, and three examples that double as Christmas crackers: a Victorian lady’s boot, a horse’s head and boar’s head that Bell said she had never seen before.

An array of pre-World War I Dresdens crosses many categories of interest. There are harlequins, a jaunty sailor, a turkey vulture on a branch, a helmeted knight’s head with a movable visor, and an iridescent monkey riding a horse. Perhaps most highly prized is a scale-model Bugatti with driver. An equestrian-theme sub-collection with pieces from both the Fox collection and other consignors consists of numerous jumpers, an unusual lady riding sidesaddle, a riding boot, hoof and small horse’s head.

Bertoia’s March 28-29, 2014 Toys & Holiday Auction will begin at 10 a.m. on both days. Preview 9 a.m.-5 p.m. any weekday during the week preceding the auction, and one hour prior to each of the two sessions.

To contact Bertoia Auctions call 856-692-1881 or email toys@bertoiaauctions.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

Mickey Mouse ‘Hurdy Gurdy,’ German, lithographed tin, est. $4,000-$5,000. Bertoia Auctions image.

Gunthermann ‘Gordon Bennet’ racer, German, 8¾in version, est. $6,000-$8,000. Bertoia Auctions image.

Maypole toy with three girl figures with bisque heads and composition bodies, German, crank action, circa 1900, est. $2,000-$2,750. Bertoia Auctions image.

Earliest-period Portrait Jumeau doll with bisque head incised ‘1,’ 16½ in tall, est. $3,000-$4,000. Bertoia Auctions image.

Hubley cast-iron sleigh with two Brownie figures, 16in long, est. $2,500-$3,500. Bertoia Auctions image.

Kenton cast-iron 1926 coupe with painted driver, 10in long, est. $2,000-$3,000. Bertoia Auctions image.

Hand-painted Noah’s Ark with extensive array of carved figures representing people and pairs of animals, 37in long, est. $12,000-$14,000. Bertoia Auctions image.

Clockwork reindeer nodder with Santa on sleigh, 30in overall, est. $6,000-$8,000. Bertoia Auctions image.

Dresden Christmas ornament depicting glass-eyed turkey vulture on branch. Provenance: Tom Fox estate collection. Est. $2,200-$2,500. Bertoia Auctions image.

Widow of media mogul donates 2 Picassos to Swedish museum

Pablo Picasso, 'Baigneuses au ballon,' 1928. Image courtesy of Moderna Musee.

STOCKHOLM (AFP) – Stockholm’s Museum of Modern Art said Wednesday it had received a donation including two Picasso paintings from the widow of a Swedish media tycoon.

The gift comprises eight artworks donated in the last will of Elisabeth Bonnier, whose husband Gerard Bonnier (1917-1987) was for more than 30 years the head of the Bonnier group, publisher of three of the six national newspapers in the country.

Gerard Bonnier was a prominent art collector and had himself donated 23 pieces to the same museum, which are “the backbone” of its collection of early modernism, the institution said in a statement.

Among the eight pieces donated by his widow is Picasso’s painting Baigneuses au ballon, part of a series the artist painted during a stay in Dinard, France in the summer of 1928.

The second work by the Spanish master is a gouache called Deux personnages, from 1939.

The other six pieces are a painting (Otage) and an untitled sculpture by French artist Jean Fautrier, a gouache (Will weg, muss weinen) and a painting (Der Wald) by German artist Paul Klee, an oil on canvas (La Chope) by Spaniard Juan Gris and a marble titled Torse de femme by Frenchman Henri Laurens, all created in the first half of the 20th century.

“Art like this is practically impossible to buy nowadays, and it is a great privilege to experience such generosity. The donation is fantastic news to all art lovers in Sweden,” said Daniel Birnbaum, director of Stockholm’s Museum of Modern Art.

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Major collection to be sold at Morphy doll auction March 22

Gebr. Heubach 5636 ‘Laughing’ doll, 17in, est. $1,200-$1,800. Morphy Auctions image.

DENVER, Pa. – Morphy Auctions’ March 22 Premier Doll Auction will showcase the multigenerational collection of the Foote family of Maryland. Doll collectors in the Washington, D.C., suburbs would be quite familiar with Iverna and Irving Foote, as they were active members of the Dollology Club and regular attendees at UFDC conventions and the Gaithersburg Doll Show.

LiveAuctioneers.com will facilitate Internet live bidding.

The Foote collection’s heritage traces back to Irving’s mother, Dorothy Budde Foote, who was from Medina, Ohio. She joined her first doll club in 1940, but her doll collecting started even earlier, with the acquisition of Oriental dolls she bought to use at her church Sunday School classes. Later, Dorothy’ became interested in antique dolls, after seeing a picture on the cover of Antiques magazine.

“Dorothy Foote was fortunate to be able to attend the first annual UFDC convention in 1950,” said Morphy Auctions’ doll consultant, Jan Foulke. “Her sister, Bertha Budde, took up doll dressing, so many of the dolls in the Foote collection were costumed by ‘Aunt Bea.’”

Dorothy Foote had five children. All of them shared in the dispersal of her collection when she died, but only two actively followed in her doll-collecting footsteps: her son, Irving, and her daughter, Dorothy Foote Mishler. Dorothy resides in Wooster, Ohio, and is still a member of UFDC.

Irving’s wife, Iverna, shared her husband’s interest in collecting. With the dolls Irving inherited as its foundation, Irving and Iverna built a remarkable and diverse collection with a strong emphasis on fine china dolls and wooden Schoenhut dolls and toys, but also including French bébés and fashion dolls; and early cloth, papier-mâché and parian dolls. The Footes often planned their vacations to include visits to doll and antique shops; auctions and conventions. Irving also enjoyed photography, and combined his two hobbies by photographing dolls and speaking to collector groups about how to take better pictures of their dolls.

The Foote family legacy has now entered its third generation through Irving and Iverna’s daughter, Mary Foote. An enthusiastic collector, Mary was initially encouraged by her grandmother, who gave her many dolls as gifts.

Irving Foote passed away in 2004, and at age 94, Iverna has now moved to an assisted-living facility where space to display her treasured dolls is very limited. Mary has chosen some of her parents’ dolls for her own collection, and other Foote family members have selected dolls as mementos. The remainder of the Foote collection will be offered to doll collectors around the world on March 22 at Morphy’s.

Complementing the Foote family dolls will be an extensive private collection from Europe that reflects the owner’s love of children. The grouping is highlighted by an impressive selection of Kathe Kruse dolls that represents the entire spectrum of Kruse’s career, including wistful Doll I models, smiling “Schlenkerchen,” sleeping and awake “Sand Babies,” and a boxed “Hampelchen.”

Saucy and mischievous googlies abound, representing such makers as Kestner, Heubach, Marseille, K & R, SFBJ and Hertel Schwab. Not to be overlooked is a wide variety of Gebr. Heubach characters that reveal a gamut of emotions, from pouting to laughing; and several elusive SFBJ 252 pouty toddlers. K & R characters are represented by no fewer than 12 different models – with many multiples – including desirable “pouties.” Happy toddlers and babies by various German factories add a touch of idealism to this group.

From Maryland, comes a group of antique dollhouses and miniatures, including a rare Tynietoy farmhouse and a lovely selection of Tynietoy furniture. Other consignments from around the United States bring the auction total to about 700 lots.

For additional information on any lot in the sale, contact Jan Foulke by emailing janfoulke@aol.com.

Morphy’s March 22 Premier Doll Auction will commence at 9 a.m. Eastern Time.

For details call Morphy’s at 717-335-3435.

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

Izannah Walker 18in cloth doll, pre-patent model, Central Falls, RI, circa 1850. Est. $9,000-$12,000. Morphy Auctions image.

Schoenhut (Philadelphia) ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ set, est. $700-$900. Morphy Auctions image.

17in Simon & Halbig IV doll, 17in. Est. $7,000-$10,000. Morphy Auctions image.

Bru Brevete doll, 13in., est. $12,000-$15,000. Morphy Auctions image.

Kathe Kruse ‘Hampelchen’ XIIH doll, est. $2,500-$3,500. Morphy Auctions image.

Jumeau triste bébé , 26in, with signed Jumeau shoes, est. $15,000-$20,000. Morphy Auctions image.

Papier-mâché lady with exposed ears and molded barrette, 20½ in, est. $1,200-$1,800. Morphy Auctions image.

JDK 221 googly doll, est. $3,000-$4,000. Morphy Auctions image.

‘Morning Glory’ china lady doll, 19in, est. $3,000-$4,000. Morphy Auctions image.

National Portrait Gallery launches ‘Great War in Portraits’

'Selbstbildnis als Soldat' (Self-portrait as a Soldier) by Ludwig Kirchner, 1915 © Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Ohio.

LONDON – The National Portrait Gallery stages the first national exhibition of the First World War centenary commemorations this week. “The Great War in Portraits,” which runs Feb. 27 through June 15, marks the start of a four-year public program at the gallery of displays and events, and workshops for young people.

The exhibition strikingly brings together for the first time German expressionist masterpieces by Lovis Corinth and Max Beckmann and Ludwig Kirchner’s painting Selbstbildnis als Soldat (Self-portrait as a Soldier) with Harold Gillies’ rarely shown photographs of facially injured soldiers from the Royal College of Surgeons.

Showing how World War I was depicted and reported with a degree of visual detail unprecedented in the history of conflict, the exhibition includes photography and film as well as formal portraits. Rather than presenting a military history of the war, the gallery aims to focus on its human aspect, concentrating on the way the Great War was represented through portraits of those involved, an approach never previously adopted.

“The Great War in Portraits” takes an international perspective. As well as iconic portraits of Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen and Winston Churchill, the exhibition reflects the war experience of those from all social classes who served from throughout the Commonwealth.

Highlights also include Jacob Epstein’s The Rock Drill, one of the great early modernist works related to the War; a contrasted pairing of British and German films devoted to the Battle of the Somme never previously seen together; and a rare photograph by Jules Gervais Courtellemont depicting a deserted, battle-scarred landscape. The only work in the exhibition not to depict people, this poignant image is, in effect, a portrait of absence.

Starting with the eve of war, the exhibition includes imposing formal portraits of the heads of state of the participating nations, evoking those countries that would be drawn into the conflict in 1914. Such grand images are brought into sharp contrast with an understated press photograph of a pathetic-looking Gavrilo Princip, the 19-year-old student whose opportunistic assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, on June 28, 1914 precipitated the war.

“The Great War in Portraits” shows how, following the declarations of war throughout Europe, power devolved from the heads of state to the military leaders of each country. Power-portraits of Haig, Blumer, Foch, Hindenburg and others, are contrasted with portraits of the “followers,” by Sickert, Orpen and other war artists.

In the central section titled “The Valiant and the Damned,” portraits of Victoria Cross holders, medal-winners, heroes and aces are shown juxtaposed with depictions of those whose lives were marked in different ways: casualties, those disfigured by wounds, prisoners of war, and those shot at dawn for cowardice. The idealized language of formal portraits, used as celebration and eulogy, is brought into violent discord with those images, such as notably a selection of Henry Tonks’s pastels of servicemen grotesquely disfigured by wounds, that reveal individual suffering and the human cost of war.

An installation of 40 photographs in a regular grid formation presents a range of protagonists from medal winners and heroes to the dead and the executed, interspersed with artists, poets, memoirists and images representing the roles played by women, the home front and the Commonwealth.

Key loans have been secured from Imperial War Museums, Tate, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau, Munich, Allen Memorial Art Museum, the Royal Airforce Museum, Hendon, Oberlin College, Ohio, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

The exhibition and the Gallery’s First World War activities are part of First World War Centenary, the national partnership of commemorative events www.1914.org .

ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

Wilfred Owen by John Gunston, 1916 © National Portrait Gallery, London.

St. Peter’s colonnade unveiled after 5-year restoration

St. Peter's Square colonnades. Image by MarkusMark. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

VATICAN CITY (AFP) – Scaffolding around the famous 17th-century marble colonnade on St. Peter’s Square designed by architect and sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini was taken down this week following a five-year restoration.

The columns around the Vatican square where Pope Francis addresses pilgrims have regained their original splendor – in time for the sainthood ceremony for late popes John Paul II and John XXIII in April.

“The restoration consisted of cleaning all the surfaces and reviewing and strengthening reliefs and above all statues, often detached, broken and in several cases threatening to fall,” said Antonio Paolucci, director of the Vatican Museums who has overseen the restoration.

“Various protective systems and anti-bird systems have also been put in place so as to guarantee the future conservation of the entire complex,” he was quoted as saying by the Vatican’s Osservatore Romano daily.

The colonnade consists of 284 columns and 140 statues.

The 787-foot-wide plaza was built using 44,000 cubic meters of travertine marble under Pope Alexander VII between 1656 and 1673.

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Ansel Adams exhibition at Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis

INDIANAPOLIS – Before he became known as the creator of some of the most influential photographs ever taken, Ansel Adams was a restless teenager with a simple Kodak camera. It was a 1916 family vacation in the Yosemite Valley that focused his inner lens, putting Ansel on the path that sealed his destiny. At Yosemite, he took snapshots of the majestic beauty of the landscape and found the inspiration that led him to introduce the world to photography as art. On March1, the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art will open “Ansel Adams” – a collection of more than 80 of this legendary photographer’s personally chosen photographs.

The photographs in “Ansel Adams” focus largely on the vast spaces of the American West, ranging from Yosemite to the Pacific Coast, the Southwest, Alaska, Hawaii and the Northwest. Referred to as The Museum Set, this lifetime portfolio includes many of Adams’ most famous and best-loved photographs, including architectural studies, portraits and magnificent landscapes. Film clips in the gallery will give perspective to the artist’s life, helping visitors understand how he worked and what inspired him. The images are joined by vintage prints from a private collection – including representations from Adams’ first published portfolios from the late 1920s.

“Ansel Adams” was drawn together by guest curator Jonathan Spaulding, Ph.D., whose 1995 book Ansel Adams and the American Landscape is considered the leading biography on the famed photographer and environmentalist. According to Spaulding, Adams legacy is more than a body of beautiful black-and-whites.

“Adams changed how we think and how we act,” writes Spaulding. “Across the arc of his life, one thing remained constant: to express through his art the forms and moods and ancient forces of our small planet, our only home in a vast universe.”

The museum will host documentaries, programs, intimate talk-backs with Adams’ family members, photography lessons and lectures focused on Adams and his place in the environmental movement.

“In our 25 years as a cultural cornerstone in Indianapolis, one of the shows I hear people ask about again and again is Ansel Adams,” said Eiteljorg President and CEO, John Vanausdall. “When we brought this exhibit here, back in 2001, the lines ran outside the door. We’re happy to answer the community’s call to bring back Ansel for five months instead of two.”

“Ansel Adams” will be featured in the Eiteljorg’s main exhibition hall until Sunday, Aug. 3. The Eiteljorg hopes this exhibit will leave a lasting impression with visitors, educating them about Ansel’s impact on their lives.

“From the family pictures in your album at home, to the selfies you post on Facebook and Instagram, the influence of photography is everywhere you look,” said Eiteljorg vice president and chief curatorial officer, James Nottage. “This exhibit could inspire the next Ansel Adams, just like Yosemite inspired a teenager to change the world of photography nearly 100 years ago.”

In addition to “Ansel Adams,” the Eiteljorg Museum is hosting another stunning exhibition of black-and-white photography: “Blake Little: Photographs from the Gay Rodeo.”

The Eiteljorg 25th anniversary is presented by Oxford Financial. “Ansel Adams” is co-presented by Capitol Group and Eli Lilly and Co.

Ansel Adams opening weekend schedule:

Friday, Feb. 28, 7 p.m., “Ansel Adams” preview party, $45 members, $55 nonmembers.

Saturday, March 1, 1:30 p.m., “A Conversation with Michael Adams.”

The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art is located in Downtown Indianapolis, White River State Park, at 500 W. Washington St. For general information about the museum and to learn more about exhibits and events, call 317-636-WEST (9378) or visit www.eiteljorg.org.

ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

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