Ice Age Mammuthus primigenius (Mammoth) tusk, 93¼ in long as measured around the curve. Origin: Alaska. Estimate: $60,000-$70,000. I.M. Chait image

Saber-tooth cats cut to the chase in I.M. Chait’s July 26 auction

Ice Age Mammuthus primigenius (Mammoth) tusk, 93¼ in long as measured around the curve. Origin: Alaska. Estimate: $60,000-$70,000. I.M. Chait image

Ice Age Mammuthus primigenius (Mammoth) tusk, 93¼ in long as measured around the curve. Origin: Alaska. Estimate: $60,000-$70,000. I.M. Chait image

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – Many of the world’s premier natural history collections, both private and institutional, contain prized specimens that previously passed through the doors of I.M. Chait’s Beverly Hills auction gallery. Twice a year, the family-owned company conducts a sale of fossils, minerals, gemstones and prehistoric animal skeletons. Chait’s next natural history auction, slated for Saturday, July 26, 2014, will feature select pieces from all of those categories and more. Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers.

Several private collections are represented in the July offering, including the Estate Collection of Marina Louise Schreyer of Switzerland, which features minerals, spheres and other lapidary works; and a private East Coast collection of fossils and lapidary works that includes a complete dinosaur head, ammonites and a large amethyst geode mounted as a table.

The star of the show, which is featured on cover of the auction catalog, is a display of two fully articulated Dinictis feline (saber-toothed cats), locking in mortal combat with their fearsome jaws agape. The two skeletons were recovered in 1998 and 1999 from separate private ranches in South Dakota’s White River Badlands regions.

“No comparable display specimens of the same quality and originality exist in either private or museum collections,” said Jake Chait, director of I.M. Chait’s Natural History department.

The Dinictis is one of the earliest saber-toothed cats to appear in the fossil record, 38-34 million years ago. It was a member of the Nimravidae family – the “false” saber-toothed cats – which were similar but not related to the later Felidae (true cats).

Their hyper-developed canine teeth were essentially finely serrated knives, specialized for killing or feeding. Scientists believe that elongate sabers were specialized for severing either the windpipe or jugular of a prey animal after they were brought down, allowing the cat to administer a swift ‘coup de grace’ to immobilize its prey, Chait said.

The skeletons in the display are in outstanding condition, preserved and mounted to the very highest standards. By bone count, they are 50-60% and 70-80% complete, respectively. As top lot of the sale, the three-dimensional depiction of a prehistoric catfight is expected to make $200,000-$250,000.

Other fascinating zoological entries include a very large and well-preserved Mammuthus primigenius (“Mammoth”) tusk found in Alaska and dating to the Ice Age, estimate $60,000-$70,000; a superbly mounted “flying dinosaur” posed as though in flight, estimate $110,000-$140,000; and what may be the world’s longest known example of dinosaur coprolite (fossilized dung). Measuring 3 feet 4 inches long, it could sell for $8,000-$10,000. Additionally, the sale features lapidary works of art, various investment-grade fossils, minerals and gemstones; and petrified wood from multiple American estates.

Mummy parts are intriguing and extremely hard to come by. The July 26 auction offers collectors a rare opportunity in the form of an Egyptian mummified female hand. “The hand was purchased from a museum many years ago and has since remained in a private collection,” Chait noted. Estimate: $3,000-$4,000.

Now that the United States has terminated its manned space shuttle program, auction prices on geological specimens from the moon and beyond have shot through the stratosphere. I.M. Chait’s sale includes a vial of Martian dust – not from a NASA Mars mission, since astronauts have yet to set foot on the Red Planet, but from a Martian meteorite that hit the earth millions of years ago. The meteorite was discovered in the Sahara Desert in 2009. The 1¼-inch vial is expected to reach $550-$700 at auction.

Recovered in southern Morocco in early 2012, a meteorite believed to be from the planet Mercury – the first of its kind to be identified as such – has an approximate age of 4.56 billion years. Its composition is consistent with Mercury data obtained by the Messenger spacecraft, which has been orbiting the planet closest to the sun since early 2011. “This is the type of specimen that ends up in a connoisseur’s collection,” said Chait. “It’s rare and historically very significant.” Estimate: $42,500-$46,000.

An exciting selection of meteorites and other extraterrestrial material (from the moon and Mars); and quality space memorabilia from a private Los Angeles collector add to the variety available to bidders in the 360-lot sale.

I.M. Chait’s Important Natural History Auction will take place at the Chait gallery on Saturday, July 26, 2014, commencing at 1 p.m. Pacific Time (4 p.m. Eastern). The gallery is located at 9330 Civic Center Dr., Beverly Hills, CA 90210. For additional information on any item in the auction, call 1-800-775-5020 or 310-285-0182; or e-mail jake@chait.com.

View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

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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


Ice Age Mammuthus primigenius (Mammoth) tusk, 93¼ in long as measured around the curve. Origin: Alaska. Estimate: $60,000-$70,000. I.M. Chait image

Ice Age Mammuthus primigenius (Mammoth) tusk, 93¼ in long as measured around the curve. Origin: Alaska. Estimate: $60,000-$70,000. I.M. Chait image

Mounted display of two fully articulated Dinictis felina, or saber-toothed cats, engaged in combat. Origin: White River Badlands, South Dakota. Estimate: $200,000-$250,000. I.M. Chait image

Mounted display of two fully articulated Dinictis felina, or saber-toothed cats, engaged in combat. Origin: White River Badlands, South Dakota. Estimate: $200,000-$250,000. I.M. Chait image

Mummified female hand, Ptolemaic period. Origin: Valley of the Queens, Thebes, Egypt. Estimate: $3,000-$4,000. I.M. Chait image

Mummified female hand, Ptolemaic period. Origin: Valley of the Queens, Thebes, Egypt. Estimate: $3,000-$4,000. I.M. Chait image

Measuring 40 inches, possibly the longest known example of fossilized dinosaur dung, also known as a coprolite. Origin: Wilkes Formation, Toledo, Lewis County, Washington. Estimate: $8,000-$10,000. I.M. Chait image

Measuring 40 inches, possibly the longest known example of fossilized dinosaur dung, also known as a coprolite. Origin: Wilkes Formation, Toledo, Lewis County, Washington. Estimate: $8,000-$10,000. I.M. Chait image

Vial containing particles of the Martian meteorite NWA 5790, discovered in 2009 in Mauritania, in the Sahara Desert. Estimate: $550-$700. I.M. Chait image

Vial containing particles of the Martian meteorite NWA 5790, discovered in 2009 in Mauritania, in the Sahara Desert. Estimate: $550-$700. I.M. Chait image

First meteorite believed to be from the planet Mercury, found in 2012 in southern Morocco. Estimate: $42,500-$46,000. I.M. Chait image

First meteorite believed to be from the planet Mercury, found in 2012 in southern Morocco. Estimate: $42,500-$46,000. I.M. Chait image

Viscount Linley (right) and his chief designer Michael Noah on the Linley stand at Masterpiece London. Image Auction Central News.

London Eye: June 2014

Viscount Linley (right) and his chief designer Michael Noah on the  Linley stand at Masterpiece London. Image Auction Central News.

Viscount Linley (right) and his chief designer Michael Noah on the Linley stand at Masterpiece London. Image Auction Central News.

LONDON – David Armstrong-Jones, better known as Viscount Linley, is no ordinary member of the British Royal Family. Chairman of auction house Christie’s, he is also a craftsman designer of distinction whose bespoke furniture is in keen demand among wealthy clients the world over. (Fig. 1)

Yet despite his international reputation and high-class client list, David Linley was never allowed to show his furniture at the Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair which, until it closed in 2009, was regarded as London’s most prestigious art fair. “I was banned from the Grosvenor House Fair,” Linley told invited visitors to his company’s stand at the Masterpiece London Fair in Chelsea this week. “The fact that we are welcomed here at Masterpiece reveals how much things have changed,” he added.

Masterpiece London, founded in 2010, was established not only to fill the art market vacuum created by the demise of the Grosvenor House event, but also to satisfy the booming demand among the world’s wealthiest individuals for a range of ‘conspicuous consumption’ goods such as Maserati motor cars, contemporary jewellery, and gold-plated sculptures of Kate Moss by the likes of Marc Quinn.

The gold-plated bronze sculpture of supermodel Kate Moss in  contorted pose by Marc Quinn, brought to Masterpiece London by Modern  British dealers Osborne Samuel. Image Auction Central News.

The gold-plated bronze sculpture of supermodel Kate Moss in contorted pose by Marc Quinn, brought to Masterpiece London by Modern British dealers Osborne Samuel. Image Auction Central News.

Masterpieces of hand-crafted furniture also fit comfortably within that broad mix. One of Linley’s specially-commissioned ‘tailor-made’ four-fold screens in dark oak with rose-gold inlaid details will set you back in the region of £100,000 ($170,365).

Michael Noah, chief designer at Linley, shows visitors a unique four- fold screen on the company’s stand at Masterpiece London. Price in the region  of £100,000 ($170,365). Image Auction Central News.

Michael Noah, chief designer at Linley, shows visitors a unique four- fold screen on the company’s stand at Masterpiece London. Price in the region of £100,000 ($170,365). Image Auction Central News.

Now in its fifth year, Masterpiece London is smaller and thus more manageable than the enormous European Fine Art Fair that takes place annually in Maastricht in March. The broad consensus among the Masterpiece exhibitors we spoke to was that the fair had matured and finally found its own level. It was also attracting its fair share of art world personalities. We spotted über-collector Charles Saatchi strolling the aisles

Collector Charles Saatchi stops to chat to friends at Masterpiece  London. Image Auction Central News.

Collector Charles Saatchi stops to chat to friends at Masterpiece London. Image Auction Central News.

Even White Cube boss Jay Jopling, normally more at home at uncompromisingly contemporary events such as Frieze or Art Basel, dropped by to take a look.
Contemporary art dealer Jay Jopling visits the Masterpiece London  art fair on June 26. Image Auction Central News.

Contemporary art dealer Jay Jopling visits the Masterpiece London art fair on June 26. Image Auction Central News.

Abby Hignell, long-serving manager at London’s Bowman Sculpture gallery, told Auction Central News that she sensed the fair had “come into its own,” adding that, “the atmosphere felt more positive and relaxed than in previous years.”

Abby Hignell of Bowman Sculpture with works by Helaine Blumenfeld  at Masterpiece London. Image Auction Central News.

Abby Hignell of Bowman Sculpture with works by Helaine Blumenfeld at Masterpiece London. Image Auction Central News.

Ms Hignell was encouraged by having successfully sold a very fine bronze cast of The Abduction of Hippodamie by leading French romantic sculptor Albert-Ernest Carrier Belleuse to the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. The work was modelled in 1871 when Auguste Rodin was in the employ of Carrier-Belleuse, making it all the more academically interesting.
An “exceptional cast” of ‘The Abduction of Hippodamie’, dated 1871,  modelled by Auguste Rodin while in the employ of Albert-Ernest Carrier  Belleuse. Sold by Bowman Sculpture to the Art Gallery of Ontario at  Masterpiece London. Image courtesy of Bowman Sculpture.

An “exceptional cast” of ‘The Abduction of Hippodamie’, dated 1871, modelled by Auguste Rodin while in the employ of Albert-Ernest Carrier Belleuse. Sold by Bowman Sculpture to the Art Gallery of Ontario at Masterpiece London. Image courtesy of Bowman Sculpture.

Robert Bowman is among the leading dealers in Rodin’s work and he and Ms Hignell have also helped organise an important symposium on the artist’s work to be held at the Victoria and Albert Museum on July 12, celebrating the centenary of Rodin’s significant gift of 18 works to the V&A in 1914.

Sculpture was generally well-represented at this year’s Masterpiece. With dramatic bravado Gerry Farrell, of Sladmore Gallery, transplanted the entire studio of sculptor Nic Fiddian-Green onto the Sladmore stand at Masterpiece.

Gerry Farrell of London’s Sladmore Gallery, who transplanted, in its  entirety, the studio of equine sculptor Nic Fiddian-Green into Masterpiece  London. They won the fair’s ‘Best Stand Award’. Image Auction Central News.

Gerry Farrell of London’s Sladmore Gallery, who transplanted, in its entirety, the studio of equine sculptor Nic Fiddian-Green into Masterpiece London. They won the fair’s ‘Best Stand Award’. Image Auction Central News.

The installation included every minuscule detail of the artist’s Surrey hill-top studio, including plaster dust, welding gear, maquettes and drawings…and even a crumpled Coca Cola can. “Nic’s work is all about the handmade, the craft of sculpture,” said Mr Farrell. “We wanted to communicate that approach and also do something authentic and different.” His efforts paid off, winning the Best Stand Award at this year’s fair.

Art fairs are steadily replacing the traditional bricks and mortar gallery-based way of doing business. When dealers like Sladmore take a risk with their stand it not only makes for good publicity, it also enhances the visitor experience for these sprawling marquee events can be exhausting things to attend. Thankfully there is often a sculpture park to relax in afterwards, weather permitting. This year’s outdoor display in Ranelagh Gardens in the Royal Hospital, Chelsea was devoted to the work of Philip King, the veteran British exponent of coloured sculpture, who celebrates his 80th birthday this year.

The work of veteran British sculptor Philip King on display in  Ranelagh Gardens adjacent to Masterpiece London, in cooperation with  Thomas Dane Gallery. Image Auction Central News.

The work of veteran British sculptor Philip King on display in Ranelagh Gardens adjacent to Masterpiece London, in cooperation with Thomas Dane Gallery. Image Auction Central News.

Needless to say, strolling aisle upon aisle of blue-chip luxury goods can be tough on the strongest of legs, so the Masterpiece organisers charitably provide golf buggies to ferry visitors from the Royal Hospital Garden gates to the fair marquee.

Masterpiece London kindly provided courtesy golf buggies to ferry  visitors from the gates of the Royal Hospital grounds to the fair marquee.  Image Auction Central News.

Masterpiece London kindly provided courtesy golf buggies to ferry visitors from the gates of the Royal Hospital grounds to the fair marquee. Image Auction Central News.

There is now an art fair of some kind in London most months of the year. Masterpiece arrived just a fortnight or so after Art Antiques London closed in Kensington Gardens. Quite how long art fairs can continue to proliferate before the market collapses from over-nourishment remains to be seen. Art Antiques London delivered a host of significant sales, however, so it seems that, for the present at least, the demand is there to meet the seemingly endless supply.

London ceramics dealers Bazaart sold this rare terracotta vase from  the Wonderland Pottery, Bombay School of Art, circa 1880, for £15,000  ($25,500) at Art Antiques London in mid-June. Image courtesy Bazaart and  Art Antiques London.

London ceramics dealers Bazaart sold this rare terracotta vase from the Wonderland Pottery, Bombay School of Art, circa 1880, for £15,000 ($25,500) at Art Antiques London in mid-June. Image courtesy Bazaart and Art Antiques London.

It perhaps goes without saying that art fairs like Art Antiques London and Masterpiece benefit significantly from the capital’s status as a leading financial centre. Middle-class Asian and Russian private investors are pumping the capital’s property boom, but they are also driving prices in the art market. The Financial Times recently quoted property group Jones Lang Lasalle predicting that, “Russian capital flight could quadruple year-on-year,” so the market seems likely to remain buoyant for the immediate future. This may also have been a factor in the success of specialist Russian art auction house MacDougall’s recent sale in London where a private collector secured Pavel Kuznetsov’s avant-garde masterpiece of 1912 entitled ‘Eastern City, Bukhara’, for a new auction record for the artist at £2,367,600 ($4,030,000).

Pavel Kuznetsov’s ‘Eastern City, Bukhara’, which set a new auction  record for the artist at £2,367,600 ($4,030,000) at MacDougall’s sale of  Russian art on 4 June. Image courtesy of MacDougall’s.

Pavel Kuznetsov’s ‘Eastern City, Bukhara’, which set a new auction record for the artist at £2,367,600 ($4,030,000) at MacDougall’s sale of Russian art on 4 June. Image courtesy of MacDougall’s.

Away from the fairs circuit, independent curators and art historians continue to excavate seams of creativity from earlier periods, offering a reminder that the current obsession with contemporary art is not the only show in town. The tiny Nunnery Gallery in Bow in the East End currently has an exhibition of work by the all too long-neglected East London Group of artists. One of the group’s claims to what little fame it enjoyed was that the great Walter Richard Sickert was among its visiting instructors. But this sparkling little gem of a show reveals that there was much more to the group than a famous teacher. Although by no means household names, the group’s members nevertheless had an unerring facility for capturing the very particular ambience of the East London urban scene. Some of the works have an appealing noir quality reminiscent of Edward Hopper: lonely buildings, deserted streets, decommissioned industrial structures — many of which have since been replaced by flyovers and other developments. All, however, are rendered with a touching intimacy. This is one of those rare, ‘must-see’ exhibitions that makes the trip out to the distant East End a most worthwhile safari.

‘Bow Bridge’ by Walter J. Steggles of the East London Group at  Nunnery Gallery in Bow. Image courtesy of the Nunnery Gallery.

‘Bow Bridge’ by Walter J. Steggles of the East London Group at Nunnery Gallery in Bow. Image courtesy of the Nunnery Gallery.

‘Demolition of Bow Brewery’ by Elwin Hawthorne, in East London  Group show at Nunnery Gallery, Bow. Image courtesy of Clive Boutle and  Nunnery Gallery, Bow.

‘Demolition of Bow Brewery’ by Elwin Hawthorne, in East London Group show at Nunnery Gallery, Bow. Image courtesy of Clive Boutle and Nunnery Gallery, Bow.

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Trevi Fountain in Rome. May 2007 photo by David Iliff. License: CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Fendi unveils suspended walkway over Rome’s Trevi fountain

Trevi Fountain in Rome. May 2007 photo by David Iliff. License: CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Trevi Fountain in Rome. May 2007 photo by David Iliff. License: CC-BY-SA 3.0.

ROME (AFP) – Fashion house Fendi kicked off the restoration of Rome’s famed Trevi Fountain Monday, unveiling a transparent suspended walkway which will give tourists a whole new vantage point of the historic monument.

Though the fountain has been drained for the renovation, a small basin has been set up at the rim so that visitors can continue the tradition of throwing a coin into the waters with their back turned — a custom which is said to bring good luck.

“The restoration works are invasive and will be disruptive for the thousands of tourists who come every day, but we thought the walkway would be the best way to show off the fountain,” Fendi’s CEO Pietro Beccari told AFP.

The plexiglass bridge “is a way to show people the fountain from a position no one has been in before,” he said.

While much of the elaborate Baroque facade is now hidden under scaffolding, tourists crossing the basin on the walkway will be able to get a close look at the restoration as it takes place.

The 2.18 million euro ($2.98 million) repairs on the nearly 300-year-old fountain will take 18 months, Beccari said.

While some tourists said they were curious to try out the bridge, others complained about finding one of the most iconic monuments in Italy under wraps.

“We were very surprised because we thought we were just going to throw a penny in the fountain. But I’m kind of excited to see what is going on here,” said American tourist Pat, while Coco from Hong Kong said he was “really quite disappointed” to find the basin empty of water.

There had been concern about the state of the Trevi Fountain, which is visited by millions of tourists every year, particularly after bits of its elaborate cornice began falling off in 2012 following a particularly harsh winter.

“Patronage is essential in maintaining and restoring our marvelous works of architecture, archaeology and art,” Rome’s mayor Ignazio Marino said, as he chucked a coin over his shoulder into the temporary basin.

Fendi, founded as a leather goods business in Rome in the 1920s and now part of French luxury giant LVMH, will also be funding the restoration of the Quattro Fontane, late Renaissance fountains which grace each corner of a busy intersection in the capital.

It is not the only fashion house to fund the renovation of the eternal city’s monuments: luxury jeweler Bulgari announced earlier this year that it would help clean up the city’s famous Spanish Steps, while shoemaker Tod’s is financing works at the Colosseum.

Under the deal with Rome city authorities, Fendi’s logo can be displayed on building site signs during the repairs and the company can hang a plaque near the monuments for four years after completion.

The Trevi Fountain, commissioned by Pope Clement XII in 1730, is the end point of one of the aqueducts that supplied ancient Rome with water.

It famously featured in a scene of Federico Fellini’s iconic film “La Dolce Vita” in which Marcello Mastroianni and co-star Anita Ekberg share a kiss while wading through its pristine waters.

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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE


Trevi Fountain in Rome. May 2007 photo by David Iliff. License: CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Trevi Fountain in Rome. May 2007 photo by David Iliff. License: CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Serving tray for Fred Sehring Brewing Co., Joliet, Ill., advertising 'Standard Pale and Muenchener bottle Beer.' Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers Archive and Victorian Casino Antiques

Expert relates little-known history of breweries in Joliet, Ill.

Serving tray for Fred Sehring Brewing Co., Joliet, Ill., advertising 'Standard Pale and Muenchener bottle Beer.' Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers Archive and Victorian Casino Antiques

Serving tray for Fred Sehring Brewing Co., Joliet, Ill., advertising ‘Standard Pale and Muenchener bottle Beer.’ Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers Archive and Victorian Casino Antiques

JOLIET, Ill. — Like many people in a 1970s, John Bittermann of Joliet collected splash cans.

But when a crony offering Bittermann a mop that a Fred Sehring Brewing Company in Joliet expelled in 1906, a dumbfounded Bittermann asked, “There were breweries in Joliet?”

Bittermann afterwards embarked on a decades-long mindfulness with Joliet’s brewery history, one that has constructed an endless collection of beer-related outfit and a extensive demeanour during an attention that helped figure Joliet, as good as a whole country, he said.

“Everyone can describe to beer. Unlike wine, it’s a common man’s drink, a operative man’s drink,” Bittermann said. “Adams was a brewer; Washington was a brewer; Jefferson was a brewer. It goes behind to a Mayflower; we can demeanour it adult – ‘our spread being many spent, generally a beere.’ The Pilgrims headed toward a seashore given they were out of food and beer.”

On Jul 17, Bittermann will conduct a presentation at the Joliet Area Historical Museum on “The Architectural History of Joliet Brewery Buildings.” Bittermann will plead a layouts and skeleton of a brewery buildings; a expansion of a brewery buildings via a years; when a breweries were built, by who, and during what cost; what happened to a brewery buildings after they closed; and what exists during a locations today.

Why was beer so appealing to Joliet residents of a 19th and early 20th? Generally fascinating as a beverage, it was also used to forestall disease and cholera, consequences of infested water, Bittermann said.

“It was served during cooking to children,” Bittermann said. “People had complicated stouts during breakfast to uphold them. Nursing mothers were speedy to splash it. Breweries were among a initial industries to be set up, not only in Joliet, though in a nation. Just about any place we had H2O and could grow grain, we could make beer.”

And in Joliet, people did. Porter’s ale, stouts and porters were favored by the Irish, Bittermann said, while Joliet’s German and Slavic populations were fans of Fred Sehring beer. Prohibition was indeed profitable to Joliet breweries.

“We were only distant adequate of out Chicago to be ignored,” Bittermann said, “but not so distant that we could send things and not be noticed.”

Most of Bittermann’s information about Joliet’s brewing story came from aged internal newspapers archived during a Joliet Public Library, he said.

“I would go there any Monday night for 3 to 4 hours, only scrolling by microfilm,” Bittermann said. “I have review by 70 percent of them.”

An 1862 announcement for Porter Ale promotes a thought that his batch ale – delivered in two, 3 and 5 gallon demijohns – is specifically for family use and guaranteed to be kept “fresh and nice.”

In a second announcement – from Aug. 30, 1862 – Porter betrothed to compensate a top cost for primary barley delivered to his Bluff Street Brewery. One poser brewer, famous as G. Simpson Phoenix, has no residence solely a Joliet P.O. box, Bittermann said.

Yet, Bittermann deduced, that association advertised home smoothness in a Joliet newspaper, so it apparently was a Joliet brewery. In a days before refrigeration and pasteurization, splash was a rarely perishable product, so many brewers were located within a few blocks of their business and delivered their splash uninformed any day, he said.

“All we know is a name, a P.O. box and a fact he done deliveries in Joliet,” Bittermann said. “The rest is mislaid to time.”

Like many of today’s businesses, Joliet brewers promoted their business by giveaway merchandise. Bittermann’s Joliet brewery collection is full with these items: mugs, eyeglasses with etched logos, calendars, signs, tappers, cigar cutters, change purses, matchboxes with grooves for distinguished matches, and timber cases that hold both pencils and combs. Bittermann also collects splash barrels, timber boxes for shipping beer.

“They’re cool, aged pieces that paint a time and an attention that is prolonged given gone,” Bittermann said.

When celebration beer, Bittermann prefers heavy, dim beer. With a assistance of friends, Bittermann has done splash as a home brewer. He attends beer-related uncover and events, as good as beer-tasting festivals.

Bittermann pronounced a vendors he meets during those events are a friendliest people in a world, peaceful to speak to anybody, anytime. Of course, Bittermann mostly is one of those vendors.

“I move things to sell,” Bittermann pronounced with a smile, “so we have income to buy some-more stuff.”

Source: The (Joliet) Herald-News

Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE


Serving tray for Fred Sehring Brewing Co., Joliet, Ill., advertising 'Standard Pale and Muenchener bottle Beer.' Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers Archive and Victorian Casino Antiques

Serving tray for Fred Sehring Brewing Co., Joliet, Ill., advertising ‘Standard Pale and Muenchener bottle Beer.’ Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers Archive and Victorian Casino Antiques

Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Lindholm Oil Company service station located at 202 Cloquet Ave., in Cloquet, Minnesota. It was built in 1958 and is still in use. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places. Library of Congress Image

Transportation museum builds Frank Lloyd Wright gas station

Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Lindholm Oil Company service station located at 202 Cloquet Ave., in Cloquet, Minnesota. It was built in 1958 and is still in use. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places. Library of Congress Image

Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Lindholm Oil Company service station located at 202 Cloquet Ave., in Cloquet, Minnesota. It was built in 1958 and is still in use. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places. Library of Congress Image

BUFFALO, New York (AP) – Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1927 vision of a proper gas station had two fireplaces, a second-floor observation room, eye-catching copper spires and separate restrooms for the comfort of travelers increasingly hitting the road rather than rails.

The architect never saw his idea leave the drawing board after demanding an architectural fee equal to the cost of building it.

But on Friday, the Buffalo Transportation/Pierce-Arrow Museum cut the ribbon on the Wright-designed station it built from the plans, with Wright’s own convertible parked out front.

“In 1927, you had a gas pump and an outhouse,” museum founder James Sandoro said, contrasting the filling stations of the times with the luxury version Wright designed for a nearby Buffalo intersection.

The non-working station was built inside an addition to the museum to protect it and its visitors from the elements.

In his writings, Wright called his station “an ornament to the pavement,” said Sandoro, who acquired the rights to build it 11 years ago from the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation in Arizona.

Eventually, Wright would design and help build one working gas station, in Minnesota. The station, opened in 1958 with a glass-walled observation lounge and copper canopy similar to what Wright envisioned 30 years earlier, remains open today.

Wright died in 1959.

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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE


Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Lindholm Oil Company service station located at 202 Cloquet Ave., in Cloquet, Minnesota. It was built in 1958 and is still in use. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places. Library of Congress Image

Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Lindholm Oil Company service station located at 202 Cloquet Ave., in Cloquet, Minnesota. It was built in 1958 and is still in use. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places. Library of Congress Image

This skull of an African Lion, a relative of the American Lion that has been found in Southeastern United States, is one of many fossils on display at the South Carolina Museum’s natural history exhibit, South Carolina Unearthed. Image courtesy of the museum.

Regional fossils now on display at S.C. State Museum

This skull of an African Lion, a relative of the American Lion that has been found in Southeastern United States, is one of many fossils on display at the South Carolina Museum’s natural history exhibit, South Carolina Unearthed. Image courtesy of the museum.

This skull of an African Lion, a relative of the American Lion that has been found in Southeastern United States, is one of many fossils on display at the South Carolina Museum’s natural history exhibit, South Carolina Unearthed. Image courtesy of the museum.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – A new exhibit at the South Carolina State Museum titled “South Carolina Unearthed” opened on Saturday in Columbia.

The exhibit features a number of specimens from the museum’s nationally known fossil collection.

The museum says the fossils will give visitors a glimpse of a time millions of years ago when ground sloths, long-horned buffalo and saber-toothed cats roamed what is now South Carolina. It was an era when whales swam and huge marine lizards lived in the ocean that covered the state form Dorchester to Darlington counties.

The state museum’s collection contains three major components: biology, geology and paleontology, and documents the history of life in South Carolina. The range of the collection includes strange arthropods that are more than 500 million years old, 70-million-year-old dinosaur bones, 40-million-year-old whales, 20-million-year-old shark teeth, 400,000-year-old bones from the Ice Age, and a host of taxidermy mounts of animals that currently inhabit the state.

The exhibit is free with mustum general admission or membership. The fossils will be on display through next Feb. 1.

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Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE


This skull of an African Lion, a relative of the American Lion that has been found in Southeastern United States, is one of many fossils on display at the South Carolina Museum’s natural history exhibit, South Carolina Unearthed. Image courtesy of the museum.

This skull of an African Lion, a relative of the American Lion that has been found in Southeastern United States, is one of many fossils on display at the South Carolina Museum’s natural history exhibit, South Carolina Unearthed. Image courtesy of the museum.

The Carolina Parakeet, an extinct bird that lived in Southeastern United States, is one of many specimens on display at the South Carolina Museum’s natural history exhibit, South Carolina Unearthed. Image courtesy of the museum.

The Carolina Parakeet, an extinct bird that lived in Southeastern United States, is one of many specimens on display at the South Carolina Museum’s natural history exhibit, South Carolina Unearthed. Image courtesy of the museum.

Image courtesy of RR Auction

Sinatra’s first license fetches $15K at auction

Image courtesy of RR Auction

Image courtesy of RR Auction

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) – Frank Sinatra’s first New Jersey driver’s license has sold for $15,757 at auction.

The yellowed, text-only 1934 license was issued, typo and all, to Francis Sintra, 841 Garden Street, Hoboken, New Jersey.

The license was signed by the then-19-year-old a year before Sinatra got his first big break in the music industry.

His eyes, of course, are recorded as blue. His weight was 130 pounds.

Boston-based RR Auction didn’t disclose the buyer.

The deal also included a 1940 letter to the state Commissioner of Motor Vehicles from the lawyer of a man who’d been involved in a car crash with Sinatra, insisting Sinatra’s driving privileges be revoked until he paid up.

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Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE


Image courtesy of RR Auction

Image courtesy of RR Auction

Image courtesy of RR Auction

Image courtesy of RR Auction

Image courtesy of RR Auction

Image courtesy of RR Auction

John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States. White House Press Office photo.

Stolen bronze bust of JFK restored at Arizona park

John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States. White House Press Office photo.

John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States. White House Press Office photo.

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) – A life-size bronze bust of John F. Kennedy that mysteriously disappeared from a downtown Tucson park is back.

The bust was restored Friday after a Tucson couple found it in a pot turned upside down in April while they were walking through a wash.

Officials said the bust that depicts the late president wearing a coat and tie was ripped clean off its granite base at Presidio Plaza in December.

No arrests have been made.

After it was found, the sculpture underwent refurbishment before its re-installation.

The bust originally was unveiled on Nov. 22, 1964, exactly one year after Kennedy’s assassination. It cost $1,000 and was paid for by the Pima County Democratic party.

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Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE


John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States. White House Press Office photo.

John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States. White House Press Office photo.

Baby, artist unknown, Mechanics Alley, New York City. Photo by Ilana Novick.

Reading the Streets: Mechanics Alley mystery baby

Baby, artist unknown, Mechanics Alley, New York City. Photo by Ilana Novick.

Baby, artist unknown, Mechanics Alley, New York City. Photo by Ilana Novick.

NEW YORK – Mechanics Alley sits quietly unmarked and unassuming behind the Manhattan Bridge, stretching between Madison Street to the south and Henry Street to the north, with the only street sign visible on Monroe Street. Ships were built and repaired on this street in the 19th century, but now it’s not even acknowledged by the almighty Google Maps. More than a source of art, I thought it was an invitation to a mugging. That is until a friend tipped me off to a mysterious, unsigned mural of a baby’s upper body, with a clenched fist, small but mighty.

The sense of wonder in the baby’s eyes, and its cherubic cheeks made it seem friendly and accepting at first, but there was always a new, unsettling detail that revealed itself after a closer look. Those cheeks only briefly lessened the blow of the baby’s paleness, especially against a plain black wall. It looked like an infant ghost than a human baby, initially sweet and huggable, but then mysterious and scary. Plus, it’s just a head. Where’s the rest of it? And what’s with the fist? Does the baby want to punch me?

So much of what I write about for this column is at least signed, if not hash-tagged, Google-mapped and press-released. With so many legal walls, and even real estate developers using street art as a marketing tool for new properties, it’s easier than ever to at least track the name of the artist, if not their biography. The only other similar piece I have seen was another baby face at graffiti mecca 190 Bowery, by artist Mactruk, but I don’t think the babies are the same. Much like the mysterious East River piano, however, this baby is destined to remain anonymous and peaceful, with a hint of sinister mystery, much like the alley where it resides.


ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE


Baby, artist unknown, Mechanics Alley, New York City. Photo by Ilana Novick.

Baby, artist unknown, Mechanics Alley, New York City. Photo by Ilana Novick.

Baby, artist unknown, Mechanics Alley, New York City. Photo by Ilana Novick.

Baby, artist unknown, Mechanics Alley, New York City. Photo by Ilana Novick.

Baby, Mactruk, 190 Bowery, New York City. Photo via globalgraphica.com.

Baby, Mactruk, 190 Bowery, New York City. Photo via globalgraphica.com.

Mechanics Alley, New York City. Photo by Kevin Walsh via forgotten-ny.com.

Mechanics Alley, New York City. Photo by Kevin Walsh via forgotten-ny.com.

Gem set clip brooch by Afro Basadella for Masenza, circa 1950. Estimate: £1,200-1,500. Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions image.

Watches, jewelry add sparkle to Dreweatts & Bloomsbury July 9 sale

Gem set clip brooch by Afro Basadella for Masenza, circa 1950. Estimate: £1,200-1,500. Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions image.

Gem set clip brooch by Afro Basadella for Masenza, circa 1950. Estimate: £1,200-1,500. Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions image.

LONDON – Innovative jewelry produced in the mid-20th century by artists in collaboration with Italian jeweler Mario Masenza will bring Roman charm to a sale of fine jewelry at Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions’ Donnington Priory saleroom on Wednesday, July 9. The auction of jewelry will be preceded by a comprehensive collection of privately sourced wristwatches from the finest watchmakers, alongside silver, pens and luxury accessories.

LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.

From UK and European collections the sale spans the late 18th century through Victorian, Edwardian and Art Deco periods to jewelry from the major ateliers of the 20th and 21st century.

Mario Masenza (1913-1985) came from an illustrious family of Italian jewelers. When he inherited their shop on the fashionable Via del Corso in Rome after the war, Masenza sought a new path for the family business that would prove to bring inspiration to and revolutionize the Italian jewelry market and its approach to design.

Throughout the mid-20th century Masenza collaborated with emerging young Italian artists to offer his elite client list, who included the Italian Royal Family, stunningly original jewelry.

Sicilian sculptor Franco Cannilla was approached by Masenza and together they produced revolutionary work until the late 1960s. An example of his impressive work is a clip brooch set with a cascade of emeralds, cabochon rubies and sapphires and brilliant cut diamond that will be offered in Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions’ sale of fine jewelry estimated at £1,500-2,000 ($2,550-3,400) [Lot 599].

Also joining productions in Masenza’s workshop was Italian painter Afro Basadella and his brother Mirko, his work included a clip brooch set with brilliant cut diamonds, square cut rubies and circular cut emeralds and sapphire, estimated in the sale at £1,200-1,500 [Lot 600].

Masenza’s gallery and workshops became the meeting place for artists and collectors, where painters and sculptors such as Franco Cannilla and the Basadella brothers could experiment with materials to create highly individualistic artists jewels, leading to many of their pieces being exhibited at international design exhibitions worldwide as works of art.

Elsewhere in the sale from Anglo-Italian doyen of modern British jewelry design, Andrew Grima (1921-2007), is a 1960s amethyst ring. Capturing the trends of the current jewelry market this ring is estimated at £700-1,000 [Lot 589].

Further highlights:

– A Victorian diamond brooch and cluster ear pendents, circa 1860, the floral foliate brooch with a central flower head set with cushion cut diamonds, the central diamond estimated to weigh 0.82 carats, approximately 1.76 carats total; together with a pair of diamond cluster ear pendents, the principal diamonds estimated to weigh 0.65 and 0.63 carats, within a surround of old cut diamonds, with an old cut diamond surmount, approximately 2.92 carats total, shepherds hook fittings, 2.5cm long. The brooch and ear pendents were given to Lady Rose Leveson-Gower (nee Bowes-Lyon) the Countess of Granville, sister of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, by her husband the 4th Earl Granville, William Leveson Gower, thence by decent to the current consignor [Lot 417]. Estimate: £3,000-5,000.

– A Victorian pink spinel and diamond brooch, circa 1880, the five-cushion cut spinels in claw settings with foliate diamond set spacers between, 6.6cm long. This brooch was given to Lady Rose Leveson-Gower (nee Bowes-Lyon) the Countess of Granville, sister of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, by her husband the 4th Earl Granville, William Leveson Gower [Lot 419]. Estimate: £1,500-2,000.

– A late 19th century Indian subcontinent gem set long chain, circa 1900, the chain with faceted gold links with rope twist detail with tumbled rubellite and emerald beads with pearl spacers between, 186cm long, with a pearl and emerald drop (formerly part of the chain). The pearls are untested and unwarranted as natural pearl. This chain was given to Lady Rose Leveson-Gower (nee Bowes-Lyon) the Countess of Granville, sister of Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, by her husband the 4th Earl Granville, William Leveson Gower [Lot 430]. Estimate: £1,500-2,000.

– A sapphire and diamond swirl clip brooch by Tiffany & Co., circa 1960, no 31028, the swirling brooch set throughout with graduated oval cabochon sapphires, with brilliant cut diamonds accents, signed Tiffany & Co. and stamped New York, 3.1cm diameter [Lot 511]. Estimate: £3,000-4,000.

Leading the sale of watches will be an Audemars Piguet, Royal Oak man’s 18K gold wristwatch. Inspired by brass divers helmets the collectible and iconic Audemars Piguet Royal Oak was a revolutionary timepiece that shook the watch industry when it was first introduced at Basel World in 1972.

Steeped in nautical and British history the state-of-the-art waterproof wristwatch was named after the eight battleships of the British Royal Navy, themselves budded from the tree within which King Charles II hid from the Roundheads following the Battle of Worcester in 1651. Widely regarded as one of Audemars Piguet most iconic watches this timepiece remains popular with collectors and is estimated at £6,000-8,000 [Lot 221].

Representing Breguet is a man’s 18K white gold Breguet Classique, circa 2007, ref. 5930, no. 1411AA. The elegant timepiece is offered within a Breguet traveling case with a spare strap, it is estimated at £3,000-5,000 [Lot 222].

Highlights for the Jager LeCoultre enthusiasts include a man’s stainless steel triple date wristwatch, circa 1945, ref. 348048, estimated at £2,000-3,000 [Lot 243] and the classic, Art Deco styled, gentleman’s 18K gold Reverso Grande GMT wristwatch, estimated at £5,000-8,000 [Lot 244].

Of note for the collectors is a J.W. Benson Blitz limited edition 18K gold rectangular wristwatch, circa 1990, ref. 81750, no. 024/100. The rare series used dials and movements that were found in a vault of a Benson factory that survived the German air raids during World War II. In a J.W. Benson box with a replacement movement, no. 25882, this collectible watch is estimated at £1,500-2,500 [Lot 242].

Further highlights:

– Cartier, a lady’s 18K white gold wristwatch, circa 1930, ref. 24318 05000, no. 3255, the two-piece screw-down case with back wind and set, the silvered dial with black Arabic numerals and blued steel hands, 17 European Watch & Clock Co. duo plan movement with eight adjustments, bimetallic balance and flat balance spring, the case 34mm including lugs, 10mm wide, on an integral bracelet with fold over clasp [Lot 210]. Estimate: £3,000-5,000.

– Patek Philippe, Ellipse, a man’s 18K gold wristwatch, circa 1970, ref. 3546, no. 2661727, the three-piece case with blue dial, baton numerals and hands, 18-jewel Patek Philippe movement adjusted to heat-cold isochronisms and five positions, cal. 23-300, no. 1146856, the case 34mm including lugs, 27mm wide, on a black strap with a fold over clasp, with a spare silvered dial [Lot 249]. Estimate: £2,500-3,500.

– Patek Philippe, Gondolo, a man’s platinum wristwatch, circa 1995, ref. 5014, no. 4026186, the two-piece screw-down case with black dial, raised Arabic numerals, baton hands and subsidiary seconds dial, 18-jewel Patek Philippe movement adjusted to heat-cold isochronisms and five positions, cal. 215, no. 1860436, the case 36mm including lugs, on a black strap, in a Patek Philippe leather box, with outer card packaging [Lot 250]. Estimate: £5,000-8,000

– Rolex, Daytona, a man’s stainless steel chronograph wristwatch, circa 1991, ref. 16520, no. X808458, the two-piece screw-down case with black dial, raised luminous baton numerals and hands, subsidiary dials running seconds, hours and minutes, 31-jewel Rolex automatic chronograph movement adjusted to five positions and temperature, cal. 4030, no. 71155 [Lot 259]. Estimate: £4,000-6,000.

– Rolex, Milgauss, a man’s stainless steel wristwatch, circa 2013, ref. 116400, unnumbered, the two-piece screw-down case with green glass, the black dial with raised luminous baton numerals and hands and lightning bolt center seconds hand, 31-jewel Rolex automatic movement with dust cover, adjusted to five positions and temperature, cal. 3131, no. 33082264, the case 49mm including lugs, the case 41mm, on a block link bracelet with fold-over clasp, in a Rolex box with outer card packaging, guarantee, card and two spare links [Lot 263]. Estimate: £2,000-3,000.

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


Gem set clip brooch by Afro Basadella for Masenza, circa 1950. Estimate: £1,200-1,500. Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions image.

Gem set clip brooch by Afro Basadella for Masenza, circa 1950. Estimate: £1,200-1,500. Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions image.

A 1960s amethyst ring by Andrew Grima (1921-2007). Estimate: £700-1,000. Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions image.

A 1960s amethyst ring by Andrew Grima (1921-2007). Estimate: £700-1,000. Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions image.

A 1950s gem set clip brooch by Franco Cannilla for Masenza. Estimate: £2,500-3,500. Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions image.

A 1950s gem set clip brooch by Franco Cannilla for Masenza. Estimate: £2,500-3,500. Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions image.

Audemars Piguet, Royal Oak, man's 18K gold wristwatch. Estimate: £6,000-8,000.  Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions image.

Audemars Piguet, Royal Oak, man’s 18K gold wristwatch. Estimate: £6,000-8,000. Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions image.

Jaeger LeCoultre, Reverso Grande GMT, man's 18K gold wristwatch, circa 2000. Estimate: £5,000-8,000. Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions image.

Jaeger LeCoultre, Reverso Grande GMT, man’s 18K gold wristwatch, circa 2000. Estimate: £5,000-8,000. Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions image.

J. W. Benson, Blitz, man's limited edition 18K gold rectangular wristwatch, circa 1990. Estimate: £1,500-2,500. Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions image.

J. W. Benson, Blitz, man’s limited edition 18K gold rectangular wristwatch, circa 1990. Estimate: £1,500-2,500. Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions image.