‘Dracula’ (Universal, re-release 1947) three sheet, 31 1/4 inches x 79 1/2 inches. Estimate: $40,000-$80,000. Heritage Auctions image. DALLAS – The only known copy of an almost 7-foot-tall movie poster for the 1947 reissue of Dracula could sell for $40,000 when it crosses the block March 22-23 in Heritage Auctions’ Vintage Movie Poster Signature Auction in Dallas. The fearsome three-sheet poster showing a lecherous Bela Lugosi ready to strike his next victim highlights more than 1,200 lots of movie monsters, stunning heroines, and a cache of rare silent movie posters discovered in Ohio.
“This auction has mystery, intrigue, and hidden treasure – and we’re not talking about the movies,” said Grey Smith, director of movie posters at Heritage. “Many of the posters offered are appearing at auction for the first time and some were just recently discovered in an attic above a garage in Ohio.”
A king-size French double grande for RKO’s 1933 classic King Kong vibrantly depicts the hulking super-ape attempting to roll a band of intrepid explorers off a moss-covered log. Fresh, bright colors immortalize one of the film’s iconic scenes on a poster that spans more than 5 feet high by more than 7 feet wide and which is expected to sell for more than $40,000. It is one of two Kong posters in the auction, the other being a Style B French grande poster, cast in Rene Peron’s signature Art Deco style, which may sell for more than $15,000.
A rare one sheet for Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy’s 1930 signature short Another Fine Mess is considered one of the finest known to exist and is expected to sell for $25,000-plus. “One sheets for short subjects are as scarce as hens’ teeth,” Smith said. “Most theaters didn’t want to spend the money to promote a short that was basically tacked on to a full feature so the one sheets that do exist are extremely scarce and desirable.”
A one sheet for Cimarron, RKO’s 1931 big-budget Western comes to auction with provenance from the Berwick Discovery of Lost Movie Posters, a trove of posters discovered in an attic in Berwick, Pa. in early 2012. The Cimarron poster features glorious art by Frederic C. Madan and is expected to sell for $20,000, as the previous copy sold for more than $100,000.
A collection of rare posters that was discovered earlier this year hidden above a garage in Troy, Ohio, are expected to bring more than $12,000. The posters were produced by the Strobridge Litho Co. for a variety of silent films and events between 1895 and 1918. The stash includes two rare one sheets for His Birthright and The Temple of Dusk, both starring Sessue Hayakawa, the first Japanese American actor to find stardom in the United States and Europe. Also in the trove are four 1890s Barnum and Bailey circus posters, including a rare German language poster, and a crisp promotional poster of boxer James J. Corbett, aka “Gentleman Jim,” valued at $1,500.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
‘Dracula’ (Universal, re-release 1947) three sheet, 31 1/4 inches x 79 1/2 inches. Estimate: $40,000-$80,000. Heritage Auctions image.
1923-24 Cuban baseball card for Oscar Charleston, outfielder for the Santa Clara Base Ball Club. From a complete collection of 84 SGC-graded baseball cards issued by Tomas Gutierrez, a Cuban tobacco company that manufactured Diaz brand cigarettes. To be auctioned by Hake’s on March 18, 2014. Hake’s image.YORK, Pa. – A rare treasure of both Cuban and baseball history will soon be crossing the auction block. Hake’s Americana & Collectibles has announced that on March 18 they will sell the only complete collection of Cuban baseball cards issued in 1923-24 by Tomas Gutierrez, manufacturers of Diaz brand cigarettes, ever to cross the auction block.
There are 84 SGC-graded cards in the set, numbering 1 through 83, plus #85. To Hake’s knowledge, no card #84 is known.
“To give you an idea of how valuable this set is to collectors, we sold eight cards from the same series (from the late Richard Merkin’s collection) for $30,000. The cards in this set are in higher grade, and there are 84 of them,” said Hake’s General Manager Alex Winter.
The set spans a who’s who of Cuban baseball talent of the 1920s. The players featured in this set include not only members of the Cuban and Negro League Halls of Fame, but also five players inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The estimate on the set is $75,000-$100,000. Bidding is already at $50,000.
The auction also contains early Cuban baseball memorabilia from the fabled Richard Merkin collection, including news service photos of teams and players; a few signed documents, a broadside, scorecards and other rare ephemera.
Cuba’s Place in Baseball History:
Cuba has been a hotbed of baseball talent for far longer than most people might imagine. The Habana Base Ball Club was founded in 1868. Ten years later, the Cuban League was established. After the Spanish-American War, Cuban teams had greater opportunities to compete against their U.S. counterparts, which led to a number of white Cuban players migrating to American teams. At around the same time, Negro League stars found a sunny haven and hospitable welcome in Cuba, where they added muscle to Cuba’s formidable integrated teams.
Early Cuban baseball cards and photos document the superstars of an important era and remind collectors that the island nation 90 miles from Key West was light years ahead of the USA when it came to assessing players on their ability and not their race.
Four examples from an 84-card collection of Cuban baseball cards issued 1923-24 by Tomas Gutierrez, manufacturers of Diaz brand cigarettes, SGC graded; set numbered 1-83 plus 85. Estimate $75,000-$100,000. Image: Hake’s Americana & Collectibles.
This signed oil-on-linen painted by Guy Rose during his years in France is offered at John Moran Auctioneers’ March 25 auction with an estimate of $30,000-$40,000. John Moran Auctioneers image.
PASADENA, Calif. – John Moran Auctioneers will present the first of its two 2014 California and American Fine Art Auctions on Tuesday, March 25, offering nearly 200 carefully selected works resplendent with the vivid color and light beloved of early 20th century American impressionists and Western artists. Estimates ranging from $700 to $80,000 ensure opportunities for buyers at all levels to bolster their collections with top-notch works, including stellar examples by several of the best-known California painters.
LiveAuctioneers.com will facilitate Internet live bidding.
The auction will include a painting by that most sought-after of California impressionists, Guy Rose (1867-1925, San Gabriel). The signed oil-on-linen measuring 13 inches by 13 inches is one of Rose’s more ethereal, loosely structured works. It depicts a French countryside scene with a bridge arching over a stream amid lush green grass using feathery brushwork, dissolving solid forms in hazy light and color much in the manner of Claude Monet, Rose’s friend and mentor during his long stay in Giverny. The work is estimated to realize $30,000-$40,000
One of the top lots by value, assigned an estimate of $60,000-$80,000, is a landscape by Hanson Puthuff (1875-1972, Corona Del Mar) that exemplifies the California impressionists’ taste for timeless scenes celebrating the grandeur of nature, devoid of people and all reminders of civilization. The 40-by-60-inch oil-on-canvas portrays an expansive and serene foothill scene in soft colors and textures, the foreground populated by nothing more than venerable oak trees.
Positively vibrating with energy, on the other hand, is Mount San Jacinto by John Frost (1890-1937, Pasadena). A tumult of strongly contrasting, bright purples, greens and oranges laid down in a complex network of highly textured, varied brushstrokes topped with flecks of yellow portrays dappled light filtering through tree leaves and reflected on water, with the distant mountain in the background. This superb work is estimated to bring $50,000-$70,000. Another work by Frost, illustrating his versatility as a colorist, is Eaton Canyon, showing the mountain slopes above Pasadena bathed in warm autumnal light. Subtler and more subdued than Mount San Jacinto, rendered in muted oranges and lavenders with deep blue shadows in a softly blended mosaic of short, blunt daubs, the 30-by-36-inch canvas is also offered for $50,000-$70,000.
William Wendt (1865-1946, Laguna Beach) and Edgar Payne (1883-1947, Hollywood) are also well represented. Wendt’s large oil titled Sycamores, a lively study of the strong shadows cast on flat, grassy ground by a group of tree trunks with thickly textured bark, beyond which can be glimpsed lavender mountains, is estimated to bring $40,000-$60,000. Payne’s view of the San Gabriel range near Sierra Madre, Calif., portrays the solemn silence and stillness of a rapidly falling dusk draping the steep slopes in richly saturated purples and pinks, watched from the valley floor by dark trees in deep green shadow (estimate: $30,000-$50,000).
Other California landscapes of note include a majestic cloud study by Paul Grimm (1891-1974 Palm Springs), composed of a wide swathe of sky filled with dramatically slanting, backlit clouds anchored by the solid forms of a narrow strip of hilly landscape stretching along the bottom edge of the canvas. The large work could easily surpass its estimate of $7,000-$9,000. A more sheltered scene is Harvest Time by William Alexander Griffith (1866-1940, Laguna Beach), a nostalgic homage to agrarian life depicting figures bailing hay, nestled in the embrace of the golden hills of Laguna Canyon. Yet another superb depiction of the sparkling white light specific to California, it is estimated to realize $15,000-$20,000.
While examples of California landscape predominate at Moran’s sale, buyers will find many other subjects, such as a marvelous daytime street scene brimming with figures set in San Francisco’s Chinatown by Jules Pages (1867-1946, San Francisco) (estimate: $10,000-$15,000). Moran’s is also pleased to offer a rare opportunity to acquire a work by Anna Katharine Skeele (1896-1963, Pasadena). Estimated at $10,000-$15,000, Aspen Dance depicts Native Americans performing a ritual dance in an adobe courtyard, the simplified, flattened forms of the figures and buildings boldly colored and outlined in black (estimate: $10,000-$15,000). The painting displays Skeele’s great sensitivity toward Southwest Native American subjects, developed during numerous trips to New Mexico and Arizona, as well as her talent for manipulating space and reducing complicated forms to a stylized pattern.
Among the artists from outside California represented in Moran’s sale are Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1943 New York), whose Arab Encampment is offered for $2,500-$3,500; John Marin (1870-1953, New York), whose two charming pencil sketches of the Brooklyn Bridge are estimated to bring $3,000-$5,000; and Karl Albert Buehr (1866-1952, Chicago), whose Fishing Pool carries an estimate of $6,000-$8,000.
This signed oil-on-linen painted by Guy Rose during his years in France is offered at John Moran Auctioneers’ March 25 auction with an estimate of $30,000-$40,000. John Moran Auctioneers image.
Hanson Puthuff’s foothill landscape measures an impressive 40 inches x 60 inches and is expected to fetch $60,000-$80,000. John Moran Auctioneers image.
‘Mount San Jacinto’ is one of two works in the sale by John Frost, each expected to sell for $50,000-$70,000. John Moran Auctioneers image.
This cloud study by Paul Grimm could easily surpass its conservative estimate of $7,000-$9,000. John Moran Auctioneers image.
Yet another stunning California landscape is this oil by William Alexander Griffith, which Moran anticipates will fetch $15,000-$20,000. John Moran Auctioneers image.
Katharine Skeele’s ‘Aspen Dance’ is a rare offering sure to attract multiple bidders. It’s estimated at $10,000-$15,000. John Moran Auctioneers image.
Lot 119: Mario Joseph Korbel (Czech/American, 1882-1954), bronze sculpture of a draped nude, 1920, $6,000-$8,000. Rago Arts and Auction Center image. LAMBERTVILLE, N.J. – The Rago Arts and Auction Center will hold a Great Estates auction on Saturday, March 22, with 700 lots of 18th, 19th and early 20th century furnishings, decorative and fine arts including bronzes, paintings, Asian art and antiques, ethnographic, Native American, glass and porcelain, autographs, books, coins including a collection of ancient coins, clocks, lighting, rugs, canes and silver.
LiveAuctioneers.com will facilitate Internet live bidding.
“This is a classic estate auction – furnishings, rugs, silver, and art intermixed with beautiful, unexpected finds from homes and collections across the country,” said Miriam Tucker, partner at Rago. “There is a grand selection of fine art, period furnishings, Asian collectibles, autographed memorabilia, and extraordinary ancient coins dating as far back as 480 B.C.”
Rago’s Great Estates auction consists of American period furniture from New York, Philadelphia, New England and Bucks county, Pa.; Chippendale and Queen Anne furnishings; George III, Louis XVI and Edwardian furnishings; chandeliers and lighting; mantel, wall and grandfather clocks; fine art including landscapes, portraits, collectible posters, prints and lithographs; bronze sculptures; Asian decorative arts, ceramics and furnishings; rugs and tapestries; porcelain plaques and collectibles, including a Russian imperial glass and plate, magnificent covered urns and Amphora vases; Native American woven baskets, pottery and turquoise and silver jewelry; ethnographic/tribal masks and carvings; unique carved and figural walking sticks; silver candelabras, tea services, flatware and napkin rings; glass by Thomas Webb, Lalique, Daum and Tiffany; memorabilia signed by John Lennon and John F. Kennedy, a presidential autograph album, signed first editions and autographed sports memorabilia; ancient coins, ranging from 480 B.C. to circa A.D. 249-251; collectible coins including Buffalo nickels, U.S. proof or mint sets, silver dollars, U.S. gold coins, and Walking Liberty coins; miscellaneous items including a Victorian game wheel, telescope, field surgeon’s kit, a ship’s wheel, weather vane, floor scale, a French birdcage, steamer trunk and desk accessories; phonographs; music boxes, pianos and a harp.
The auction will begin at 10 a.m. Eastern.
For details call 609-397-9374 or email info@ragoarts.com.
Courtesy Cambi, Genova. GENOVA, Italia – Il 12 marzo va all’asta da Cambi a Genova parte della collezione dei celebri antiquari Bartolozzi, attivi a Firenze da quattro generazioni. Si tratta di più di 150 lotti con stime che vanno da €200-250 per una specchiera dorata del XIX sec. fino a €150.000-180.000 per due dipinti a olio tondi di Giovan Battista Gaulli detto il Baciccio, artista del Barocco. Un’altra parte della collezione è già stata dispersa da Christie’s a Londra lo scorso ottobre con un risultato totale di £825.875 e percentuali di vendita pari al 51% per lotto e 54% per valore.
La storia della galleria risale al 1877, quando Guido Bartolozzi aprì il suo negozio in un’epoca in cui Firenze era la capitale dell’antiquariato. Oltre alla storica sede al numero 18 di via Maggio, già allora nota per gli antiquari prestigiosi, Bartolozzi acquistò nel 1920 il rinascimentale Palazzo Michelozzi, da allora sede della famiglia.
Nel corso dei decenni l’offerta della galleria è stata tra le più elevate a livello nazionale e internazionale, spaziando tra oggetti, opere, arredi e dipinti di vario genere dal XV al XIX secolo. Pur seguendo l’evoluzione del gusto, ha sempre puntato alla qualità e all’originalità. La galleria ha partecipato alle più importanti mostre di settore, tra cui il Gotha a Parma e la Biennale degli Antiquari di Firenze, a cui Bartolozzi ha partecipato dall’anno della fondazione della fiera, il 1959, fino ad oggi senza saltare nessuna edizione. Il nipote del fondatore della galleria, anche lui chiamato Guido Bartolozzi, ne è stato anche vice-presidente e segretario generale dal 1985 al 2001.
Adesso, colti i mutamenti del gusto e del mercato dell’arte, l’erede della galleria e attuale proprietario Massimo Bartolozzi ha deciso di chiudere il negozio di via Maggio 18 per continuare la sua attività nei prestigiosi spazi di Palazzo Michelozzi esclusivamente su appuntamento. Selezionerà ulteriormente l’offerta per rispondere ad un collezionismo che cerca l’oggetto eccezionale e non più solo per arredamento, e si concentrerà sulla fascia alta del mercato.
Per la casa d’asta Cambi è un onore offrire questa vendita visti anche i rapporti professionali e personali che i fondatori hanno avuto con la galleria Bartolozzi.
“Sono passati quasi vent’anni dal giorno che mi trovai a fianco di Massimo nella conduzione di un’asta”, racconta Matteo Cambi, “all’epoca curavo per la casa d’aste Rubinacci i cataloghi delle vendite di Arte Marinara e lui ne era il banditore. Ricordo nitidamente come la sala fosse colma di partecipanti, le mani che si alzavano in simultanea, le offerte che correvano veloci, e lui riusciva con sapienza a condurre la vendita verso risultati sempre gratificanti. Per me è stato un maestro, la sala non sapeva resistergli (…) È anche per merito di quelle giornate passate assieme che qualche tempo dopo abbiamo deciso di aprire la Cambi Casa d’Aste”.
Il catalogo della vendita include una grande varietà di opere, dalle sculture, all’ebanisteria, ai mobili rifiniti con pietre semipreziose, alle console intagliate e dorate.
Tra i pezzi più importanti, oltre ai dipinti già nominati del Baciccio (lotto 56), ci saranno una coppia di cassettoni Luigi XVI nello stile di Maggiolini (lotto 80, stima €40.000-50.000), una coppia di mori laccati e dorati del XVIII secolo (lotto 115, stima €30.000-40.000), un tavolino da gioco con incastonate scene in pietre dure (lotto 76, stima €15.000-18.000), una piccola scrivania Impero attribuita a Giovanni Socci (lotto 62, stima €15.000-18.000), tre deliziose pergamene (lotto 116, €4.000-4.500), una brocca in maiolica veneziana del XVII secolo (lotto 108, stima €1.000-1.500), sei poltrone in legno intagliato, laccato e dorato, di manifattura siciliana del 1830-1840 (lotto 60, stima €15.000-20.000), una commode francese di Mathieu Criaerd (1698-1776) laccata a cineserie con bronzi dorati (lotto 90, stima €30.000-40.000) e due rari sgabelli girevoli del XVIII secolo (lotto 100, €2.000-2.500).
Il lotto al quale Massimo Bartolozzi tiene di più? Una coppia di antiche gambe di un fratino del XVI secolo (lotto 3, stima €500-600). “Sono originali, le ho da una vita, quasi mi dispiace venderle”.
Image courtesy Cambi Genoa. GENOA, Italy – On March 12, part of the collection of the famous antique dealers Bartolozzi, active in Florence for four generations, will go up for auction at Cambi in Genoa. More than 150 lots will be offered with estimates ranging from €200-250 for a golden mirror from the 19th century, up to €150,000-180,000 for two round oil paintings by Baroque artist Giovanni Battista Gaulli called Baciccio. Another part of the collection was dispersed at Christie’s in London in October. The total result was £825,875 with sold rates of 51 percent by lot and 54 percent by value.
The gallery dates to 1877, when Guido Bartolozzi opened his antiques shop in an era in which Florence was the capital of the antiquities market. In addition to the historic location at 18 Via Maggio, which was already known for its prestigious antique dealers, Bartolozzi bought the Renaissance Palazzo Michelozzi in 1920, since then home of the family.
Over the decades the gallery’s offer has been among the highest at the national and international level, ranging between various kinds of objects, artworks, furniture and paintings from the 15th to the 19th century. While following the evolution of taste, the gallery has always focused on quality and originality. The gallery has participated in the most important exhibitions of the field, including the Gotha in Parma and the Biennale of Antiquaries of Florence, where Bartolozzi has always participated since the foundation of the fair in 1959. The grandson of the founder of the gallery, also called Guido Bartolozzi, was also vice-president and general secretary of the fair from 1985 to 2001.
Now, after considering the changes of taste and of the art market, the gallery’s heir and current owner, Massimo Bartolozzi, has decided to close the shop on Via Maggio to continue his activity in the prestigious premises of Palazzo Michelozzi, by appointment only. Massimo Bartolozzi intends to cater to collectors who seek objects that are not just for decoration but are exceptional, and he will focus on the high end of the market.
For Cambi it is an honor to offer this sale, also in consideration of the professional and personal relationship that the auction house founders have with Bartolozzi.
“It has been almost 20 years since the day I found myself with Massimo to run an auction,” Matteo Cambi recalls. “At the time I took care of maritime art catalogs for the auction house Rubinacci and he was the auctioneer. I vividly remember how the room was full of participants, the hands that rose simultaneously, the deals that were running fast, and he always managed to lead the sales toward rewarding results. For me he was a teacher, the room could not resist … It is also because of those days spent together that after some time we decided to open Cambi Auction House.”
The sale catalog includes a great variety of objects, from sculpture to cabinetry, to furniture refined with semiprecious stones, to carved and gilded consoles.
Among the most important pieces, in addition to the already mentioned paintings by Baciccio (lot 56), there will be a couple of Louis XVI Maggiolini-style drawers (lot 80, estimate €40,000-50,000), a pair of lacquered and gilt 18th-century Moors (lot 115, estimate €30,000-40,000), a game table set with semiprecious stones scenes (lot 76, estimate €15,000-18,000), a small Empire desk ascribed to Giovanni Socci (lot 62, estimate €15,000-18,000); three wonderful scrolls (lot 116, €4,000-4,500), a Venetian majolica bowl from the 17th century (lot 108, estimate €1,000-1,500), six lacquered and gilt armchairs of Sicilian manufacture from 1830-1840 (lot 60, estimate €15,000-20,000), a French commode by Mathieu Criaerd (1698-1776) lacquered with chinoiseries and with gilt bronzes (lot 90, estimate €30,000-40,000), and two rare swivel stools from the 18th century (lot 100, €2,000-2,500).
Which is Massimo Bartolozzi’s favorite lot? A pair of legs of an ancient refectory table from the 16th century (lot 3, estimate €500-600). “They are original, I have had them for years, and I almost regret selling them.”
An autumn view of the Great Smoky Mountains from Heintooga Ridge Road near Asheville, N.C. National Park Service image. TOWNSEND, Tenn. (AP) – Federal officials have announced that construction will begin this summer on a $4.3 million archive of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
The Mountain Press reports U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and acting park Superintendent Pedro Ramos made the announcement Monday, saying that the project is expected to be completed by the fall of 2015.
The Joint Curatorial Collections Facility near the Townsend entrance to the park will house nearly 900,000 historical artifacts and archival records about the park and region, including photos, operating records, clothing and weapons.
“It is really important not just to have these artifacts, but to take care of them, because they won’t be around for generations to come if we don’t take good care of them,” Jewell said. “The National Park Service is in the business of taking care of these assets forever.”
The facility is being funded with $2 million in federal money and $2.3 million from private.
“This facility is a home for the things that were in the homes of the people who lived in the park; it’s a way to celebrate the way of life that was here and continues to be in this region of our United States,” Alexander said. “This is a great day for anyone who loves the Great Smoky Mountains, and there are millions of people who do.”
Other federal parks will also be able to use the new facility, including the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, Cumberland Gap National Historic Park and the Obed Wild and Scenic River.
‘On the Shore of the Seine.’ an 1879 oil painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
BALTIMORE (AP) – A Renoir painting stolen from the Baltimore Museum of Art more than 60 years ago will return to public view later this month.
The museum announced Tuesday that Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s painting On the Shore of the Seine from about 1879 will be the centerpiece of a special exhibition March 30 through July 20. It’s being reunited with 20 artworks from the collection of Saidie May, who had owned the painting and donated many other works to the museum.
The small Renoir piece became the subject of a dramatic legal dispute after a Virginia woman, Marcia “Martha” Fuqua, said she bought the painting at a flea market for $7. Others, including her brother, disputed the story.
A judge awarded ownership to the museum, citing evidence the painting was stolen in 1951.
Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-03-04-14 2052GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
‘On the Shore of the Seine.’ an 1879 oil painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Costumes from ‘Downton Abbey’ on display at Winterthur. Nick Briggs, Carnival Film and Television Limited, 2010. WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) – A new exhibit of costumes from the hit British television drama Downton Abbey at the Winterthur Museum could turn out to be the most popular in the history of the former du Pont family country estate.
The exhibit, which opened Saturday and runs through January 2015, will offer visitors a firsthand look at the design and creation of the period fashions that are a focal point of the television show, in the context of comparing country house life in Britain and the United States.
Museum director David Roselle said Wednesday that advance ticket sales are strong, and 11,000 tickets have been reserved for bus tours alone.
“I believe it will be the largest attendance for an exhibit in Winterthur’s history,” said Roselle, who came up with idea for the exhibit, seeing an opportunity to seize upon the popularity of the television show while giving visitors a comparative look at life at the fictional British estate and at its real-life American counterpart.
Winterthur officials worked tirelessly to turn Roselle’s idea into reality, taking advantage of an indirect connection between Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes and Winterthur director of museum affairs Tom Savage. Savage knew a former associate of Fellowes and was able to connect with Fellowes in New York City last year. Fellowes, in turn, worked with the show’s production company, Carnival Films, to help bring the exhibit to Winterthur, which will be its sole venue.
“Julian Fellowes’ advocacy for this exhibit has been a great help,” said Chris Strand, Winterthur’s director of garden and estate.
Winterthur is renting 40 Downton Abbey costumes, most of which are owned by Cosprop Ltd. in London, one of the world’s largest theatrical costumers. Carnival Films also is providing some of the costumes, including the infamous harem pants worn by Lady Sybil, the engagement dress worn by Lady Mary, and Lady Edith’s wedding dress.
“Getting the costumes was the easiest part,” said co-curator Amy Marks Delaney, who found that securing the rights to intellectual property, including photos and script excerpts that serve as backdrops to the costumes, far more difficult. Sculpting museum-quality mannequins to properly fit the costumes also required time-consuming work by Winterthur staff.
In conjunction with the exhibit, Winterthur is offering a series of lectures, workshops and other events, including afternoon teas and English brunches. Those interested in a truly behind-the-scenes look at post-Edwardian fashion can take in a May 15 lunchtime lecture on “Downton Undressed: Underwear and the Fashionable Ideal in the Teens and Twenties.”
The exhibit is organized chronologically, with visitors moving from morning to night, and provides a look at life both upstairs and downstairs at a British country estate.
“There was a true regime about what was worn at different times of day,” said Jeff Groff, director of public programs for Winterthur.
The exhibit opens with three servant costumes displayed in front of a working re-creation of the wall of brass bells used to summon help at the Yorkshire estate and concludes with examples of the evening finery worn by the Earl and Countess of Grantham and other members of the fictional Crawley family. In between are a host of other fashion statements, including garden dresses, cricket uniforms, walking and hunting tweeds, and housemaids’ aprons.
To complement the Downton Abbey costumes, Winterthur brought out several holdings from its own collection, including a well-worn dinner jacket that Winterthur founder Henry Francis du Pont bought from his favorite Savile Row tailor, Henry Poole & Co., and his wife’s custom-made leather travel case.
Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-02-26-14 2321GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
Costumes from ‘Downton Abbey’ on display at Winterthur. Nick Briggs, Carnival Film and Television Limited, 2010.Costumes from ‘Downton Abbey’ on display at Winterthur. Nick Briggs, Carnival Film and Television Limited, 2010.
A park ranger gazes upward at ancient coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) on the Berry Glen Trail. Image courtesy of Redwood National Park. CRESCENT CITY, Calif. – Authorities say unemployment and drug addiction have spurred an increase in the destructive practice of cutting off the knobby growths at the base of ancient redwood trees to make decorative pieces like lacey-grained coffee tables and wall clocks.
The practice – known as burl poaching – has become so prevalent along the Northern California coast that Redwood National and State Parks on Saturday started closing the popular Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway at night in a desperate attempt to deter thieves.
Law enforcement Ranger Laura Denny said Tuesday that poachers have been stalking the remote reaches of the park with their chain saws and ATVs for decades, but lately the size and frequency of thefts have been on the rise.
“When I interview suspects, that is the (reason) they say: their addiction to drugs and they can’t find jobs,” she said.
Her husband, park district interpretation supervisor Jeff Denny, said it is comparable to poor people poaching rare rhinos in Africa to sell their horns. Jobs are hard to come by since the timber and commercial fishing industries went into decline.
“Originally there were 2 million acres of old growth forest that spanned the coast of Northern California from Oregon to Monterey,” he said. “Over the past 150 years, 95 percent of that original forest has been cut. The only remaining old growth forest in existence now is almost entirely within the Redwood national park” and some state parks.
A redwood tree can survive the practice, but the legacy of the organism that could be 1,000 years old is threatened, because the burl is where it sprouts a clone before dying. Sprouting from burls is the prevalent method of redwood propagation, and the source of the Latin name for coast redwood, Sequoia semper vierens, or forever living, he added.
Lorin Sandberg is a burl dealer in Scio, Ore. He occasionally goes to Northern California to buy burl, but it is tough to find any more, with almost all of the old growth that makes the best burls protected on public land. The good stuff with a lacey grain full of eyes will go for $2 to $3 a pound, unseasoned.
Finished dining room tables are being offered for $1,300 on eBay.
“I don’t buy them unless they have proof of where they got it,” he said. “I’ve got to have a paper trial. If there’s not a paper trial, it can stay in their yard.”
With few law enforcement rangers – and 133,000 acres of park stretching south from the headquarters in Crescent City, Calif. – to patrol, arrests are rare, Laura Denny said. She can recall two or three over the past 12 years. While charges can be felonies carrying prison time, convictions usually end up as misdemeanors carrying fines.
She is currently chasing a bunch that cut a massive burl from a redwood just south of the mouth of the Klamath River that was discovered by a bear researcher tramping the woods in April. The cut left a scar measuring 8 feet by 10 feet.
Over the course of weeks, the thieves cut the burl into slabs weighing more than 100 pounds each that they dragged behind ATVs through the woods several hundred yards to a road.
She found the slabs in a burl dealer’s yard. After matching the wood to pieces left behind at the scarred tree, she seized the slabs. The dealer had paid $1,600 for eight slabs that he was going to sell for $700 apiece, for a total of $5,600.
“They are very difficult to catch because they move site to site,” operate in remote areas far from roads, and even the sound of a chain saw doesn’t travel far in the woods, she said of poachers.
She hopes that the road closure will raise awareness among park visitors so they question the source of slabs offered for sale at burl shops.
