June 10, 2014 - Auction Central News

Sun and moon were stars of Breker technology auction

Early sea quadrant by royal instrument-maker George Adams the elder dated 1751. Price realized: 17,700 euros ($24,250). Auction Team Breker image.

COLOGNE, Germany – Auction Team Breker of Cologne held its Spring extravaganza on May 24, a 750-lot sale that ranged from typewriters to telegraphs and automata to chronometers, all under the heading of antique toys and technology. Each area attracted its own set of specialist collectors, with the instruments of surveying and navigation garnering especial interest.

LiveAuctioneers.com provided Internet live bidding.

The top lot in this section was an early sea quadrant by royal instrument-maker George Adams the elder dated 1751 (lot 118). Built for taking the altitude of the sun and the latitude at sea, the rosewood instrument had a signed boxwood scale, original box with maker’s label, retailer’s card and, most unusual of all, a telescope to align with the mica viewing window. The instrument’s rarity and fine original condition caused the bidding to sail to twice its presale estimate at 17,700 euros ($24,250).

Another early instrument that awoke interest was a brass octant by Jan Cornelius von Voer from the Frisian Island, Föhr, of circa 1760 (lot 124). The A-form frame, supporting pinhole sight and two shades, featured an unusual acanthus leaf decoration and central strut modelled as a flower girl. The instrument fetched 4,300 euros (US$ 5,900).

An unusually large tellurium by Jan Fekl of Prague (lot 167) was designed to demonstrate the orbit of the earth and moon around the sun (represented by a candle) in schools and universities of the 1890s. Measuring over 60 inches, bidding for this impressive piece rocketed to 8,600 euros ($12,000).

For land surveying were two complex late 19th century theodolites with their original lacquer, accessories and outfit cases (lots 192 and 195) by Hildebrand of Freiburg and Starke & Kammerer of Vienna that fetched 12,300 ($17,000) and 5,900 euros ($8,000) respectively.

Thomas Edison is most famous for being the first to record sound and developing the electric light bulb commercially, however he was also part of the race to patent a telephone. The result was the 1877 “Electromotograph” telephone receiver (lot 42), which contained a hand-cranked rotating chalk drum and, according to contemporary accounts, produced enough sound to fill a small hall. Playwright George Bernard Shaw wrote that Edison’s “much too ingenious invention … bellowed your most private communications all over the house instead of whispering them with some sort of discretion.” Despite its original shortcomings, this rare machine reached 29,500 euros ($40,000) at auction.

Anything but discrete was Edison’s invention. Not so the “Discret” typewriter of 1899 (lot 94) by Friedrich Rehmann of Karlsruhe, which fetched 8,100 euros ($11,000). The elegantly designed World model (the company produced a second version for “Geheimschrift” – cipher) incorporated a type-wheel and scale for regular writing. Another popular office antique was a well-preserved example of the 1892 North’s Typewriter (lot 92) for 9,200 euros ($13,000).

The almost 300 lots of self-playing musical instruments included musical boxes from an historic privately owned collection in America. Among them was the highest-selling lot of the day, a magnificent interchangeable orchestral musical desk by Heller (lot 435) for 30,360 euros ($42,000). With a repertoire of 72 titles transcribed onto 26-inch pinned brass cylinders and a reed organ, bells, snare drum and castanets as percussion, the instrument must have represented the very finest of “entertainment systems” of its era.

Equally impressive was a rare Swiss “station” musical box attributed to Henri Vidoudez of St. Croix from circa 1890 (lot 476). Such large coin-activated musical boxes, built as attractions in public places such as hotels, restaurants and station waiting rooms, incorporated eye-catching novelties such as dancing dolls and Mandarin bell-ringers. This example boasted an additional candy-dispenser (with candy) and fetched 27,800 euros ($38,000).

A third audio-visual musical box worth mentioning is the splendid “Pièce à Oiseaux” by Ami Rivenc (lot 421) for 17,200 euros ($24,000). Perched in his glazed bower to the fore of the musical box was a miniature automaton bird that accompanied the six operatic airs with a realistic trill. From one of the largest to the smallest, a fine early 19th century musical snuff box with micro-mosaic lid (lot 467) made 17,200 Euros ($24,000).

After mechanicallyoperated music came early devices for playing recorded sound. One of the most advanced of its day was the 1927 H.M.V. Model 203 gramophone (lot 403). With its mathematically exact exponential “re-entrant” horn and luxurious gold-plated fittings, the machine represented a then state-of-the art sound reproduction. The machine, still a joy to hear today, almost ninety years later, fetched 8,000 euros ($11,000).

Related to clocks and musical boxes by way of their spring-driven mechanisms are automata. One of the most famous in the 18th century was Wolfgang von Kempelen’s “Turk” that appeared able to play a human opponent at chess. Not an automaton in the true sense, but a mechanical illusion operated by a hidden chess master, its performances were documented by a spectator in a rare pamphlet published in 1783 (lot 241) that sold at the auction for 3,400 euros ($4,700).

Automata in the auction dated mainly from the late 19th and early 20th centuries and included a menagerie of mechanical animals, musicians, magicians and smokers. Top dog in the first category was a humorous “Cochon en Promenade,” a rare entry in the catalog of Parisian firm Decamps from circa 1912 (lot 547). Depicting a gentlemanly pig-person, the elegant figure in his original checked velvet jacket waved a courteous trotter, sniffed the air and twirled his umbrella in an unmistakably French fashion for 11,400 euros ($16,000). Another animal on parade was Decamps’ “Paon Marchant” (lot 567), whose ponderous progress propelled bidding to 5,600 euros ($7.700).

From the German toy-makers came a colorful clockwork airship carousel by Müller & Kadeder of Nuremberg (lot 663) for 5,400 euros ($7,400) while a full-size dappled carousel horse by Friedrich Heyn of Neustadt (lot 291) brought 12,300 euros ($17,000) and a trio of carved organ figures (lot 289) almost 7,400 euros ($10,000). Rounding off the sale, a selection of land transportation toys included a large Packard convertible by Japanese firm Alps (lot 696) for 8,200 euros ($11,000).

Auction Team Breker’s next sales are scheduled for Sept. 20 (Photographica & Film) and Nov. 15 (Science, Technology & Toys). Enquiries: auction@breker.com or telephone. + 49 (0) 2236 38 43 40.

Click here to view the fully illustrated catalog for this sale, complete with prices realized.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

Large tellurium by Jan Fekl of Prague, circa 1890s. Price realized: 8,600 euros ($12,000). Auction Team Breker image.

Complex late 19th century theodolite with accessories and outfit case by Hildebrand of Freiburg. Price realized: 12,300 euros ($17,000). Auction Team Breker image.

Well-preserved example of the 1892 North’s Typewriter. Price realized: 9,200 euros ($13,000). Auction Team Breker image.

H.M.V. Model 203 gramophone, 1927. Price realized: 8,000 euros ($11,000). Auction Team Breker image.

Interchangeable orchestral musical desk by Heller. Price realized: 30,360 euros ($42,000). Auction Team Breker image.

Clockwork airship carousel by Müller & Kadeder of Nuremberg. Price realized: 5,400 euros ($7,400). Auction Team Breker image.

Full-size dappled carousel horse by Friedrich Heyn of Neustadt. Price realized: 12,300 euros ($17,000). Auction Team Breker image.

Reading the Streets: East River piano an unsigned masterpiece

East River Piano, New York City, photo via severalseconds on Flickr, www.flickr.com/photos/severalseconds

NEW YORK – Near the Brooklyn Bridge, just north of the South Street Seaport, a piano sat alone, East River water lapping at its legs. The keys were rotten and broken, but against the backdrop of the Brooklyn Bridge, it was almost majestic, like it was climbing out of the water to declare its supremacy over the rest of us.

I snapped a picture and spent more time than I’d like to admit researching its origins, which remain elusive. Was it an art installation, and if so, who made it? Why did no one sign it or claim it, and was Banksy secretly resuming his New York residency from October 2013? Was the combination of an intense fog and a long week producing hallucinations?

There was something joyously child-like about the way that New Yorkers interacted with the piano, climbing on it like a jungle gym when the tide was low, or even tentatively tapping a key, looking behind them as if to ask an unseen parent for permission to touch it.

One woman even ignored a high tide, and the perils of questionable East River waters to film a video depicting her attempt to make the nonworking piano sing once again.

I continue to debate whether it was an intentional public art installation, whether someone had actually thrown a piano into the East River, but then realized, intentional or not, something about way all of the elements fit together: the river, the bridge, the gray sky, and the incongruous piano, made it just as worthy as anything I’ve covered that was funded, curated and claimed.

ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

East River Piano, New York City, photo by Ilana Novick.

Corsets to Wonderbras: FIT museum takes on lingerie

Warner’s Corselet, embroidered nylon net, elastic, circa 1960, Merry Widow line, USA. The Museum at FIT. Gift of Mrs. Sally Iselin

NEW YORK (AP) – From a 1770 corset to a 2014 bra-and-panty set in lacy stretch silk, the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology has put the focus on lingerie and ladies foundation garments in a new exhibition.

In about 70 pieces, “Exposed: A History of Lingerie” touches on the mechanics, marketing and cultural touchstones – hello Wonderbra! – that not only shape and adorn but also helped define culture around the globe.

The exhibition, which spans the 1760s to present day, opened June 3 and runs through Nov. 15. A companion book will be released by Yale University Press this summer.

THE CORSET’S RISE AND FALL

The corset’s profile was first upped in the late Renaissance and remained popular in many forms through the early 20th century.

“It was a pretty essential element of fashionable dress for about 400 years,” said assistant curator Colleen Hill, who organized the exhibit.

The corset, which originated within aristocratic court culture and gradually spread throughout society, was all about a slender waist, she said. By the mid-18th century, the desired silhouette was an inverted cone, lifting the breasts with the help of stays crafted out of silk, whalebone or wood.

Decorative center busks were carved, painted and adorned with text or years. They were key in thrusting a woman’s posture upright to make the most of the shape the corset was intended to achieve, Hill said.

By the early 19th century, the corset still included a center busk but lacked all-around stays for a more softly structured fit that still encased the body and kept a woman’s posture erect.

“It was important for women to have this correct posture,” Hill said. “It was essential for fitting into your clothes, for decorum and for modesty.”

At the dawn of the 20th century, some corset makers continued to promote their wares as “healthy style,” but the designs remained “extremely restricting,” she said. Certain designs made a woman appear rigidly straight in front while resulting in a severely arched back.

By 1920, the corset had essentially become a girdle.

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THE PEIGNOIR AND LOUNGEWEAR

One late 19th-century article discovered by Hill said American women wore loungewear with a corset underneath while doing morning household chores or preparing for their day.

The corset under a peignoir “is something French women did not do,” she said. “I thought that was very interesting because some of these garments were meant to essentially be a reprieve from these really constricting foundation garments like the corset.”

By the early 20th century, Hill said, loungewear served more functions. The tea gown developed from the peignoir or dressing gown and was worn during 5 o’clock tea.

“It was something that a woman could wear within her home but you would greet your guests at home for tea in this garment, so you still wanted something really fashionable, as luxurious as you could afford, but it was something that could be worn without a corset. We don’t see tea gowns today.”

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SEDUCTION AND EROTICISM

The British company Agent Provocateur, founded in 1994 by Joseph Corre, the son of Vivienne Westwood, and his now ex-wife, Serena Rees, represents a turning point in lingerie’s modern history, Hill said. They opened their first boutique in 1996.

“They were selling lingerie that was highly eroticized, things that were high end and beautifully made, so they’re classy yet they’re taking a cue from things like the old Frederick’s of Hollywood catalogs that are just really overtly erotic,” she said.

The evocative nature combined with high-end craftsmanship offered by Agent Provocateur led to a greater acceptance of eroticized undergarments and lingerie, Hill said. The company now operates boutiques around the world.

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THE WONDERBRA

Pre-Wonderbra, women looking for some help in the bust department relied on “gay deceivers,” an early 20th-century euphemism for falsies that could be placed inside bras, Hill said.

“Even some corsets from the 19th century have these kind of falsies built into them, so the idea of augmenting your natural breast size in some way is very old and probably impossible to trace all the way back,” she said.

Enter the Wonderbra, with its plunge, padding and pushup via underwire. According to some reports, the name was first trademarked in the U.S. in 1955 but came out of Canada in 1939 as developed by Moses Nadler, founder of a corset company. It wasn’t until the early 1990s that the Wonderbra really took off, Hill said.

Sales were driven by a 1994 ad campaign that featured smiling model Eva Herzigova looking down at her breasts in a Wonderbra with the tagline: “Hello Boys.” The popularity of the ad, including billboards, sent sales skyrocketing. At one point demand exceeded supplies, Hill said.

“There’s an urban legend that when people saw these billboards on the street they would literally cause traffic accidents,” she said.

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Follow Leanne Italie on Twitter at http://twitter.com/litalie

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Online:

http://www.fitnyc.edu/336.asp

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ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

Corset, wool, silk, cotton, steel, circa 1880, France. The Museum at FIT. Museum purchase.

CCC museum reopens at Ala. state park after 18 years

Bunker Tower atop of Cheaha Mountain, Alabama's highest point. Image by Ryan Cragun, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

DELTA, Ala. (AP) – Tammy Power tried her hardest not to cry as she greeted guests to the Civilian Conservation Corps museum for the first time in 18 years.

“This has been my dream,” said Power, the superintendent for Cheaha State Park, which on Saturday hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony for the long-closed museum dedicated to the workers who helped build the roads and buildings on top of Alabama’s highest point. “This was on my bucket list.”

As part of a statewide celebration of the 75th anniversary of Alabama’s state park system, Cheaha State Park welcomed visitors to see the beginnings of how the mountain came to be a destination for campers, hikers and tourists.

In the 1930s, hundreds of young men came to the mountain as part of the Civilian Conservation Corps project, a New Deal program that gave work to unemployed, single men ages 18 to 25 during the Depression. At Cheaha, the corps built campsites, lodges, roads and the observation tower, which now houses the museum dedicated to their history.

“I can’t help but wonder if those young men knew what they were building would still be around 75 years later,” said Rob Grant, assistant director for Alabama State Parks. “I think this is a great way to honor them.”

The museum, which includes tools used by the corps, as well as cots they slept in and blankets used at their camps, originally closed in 1996 for renovations. Power said the park needed a bigger room to hold the material they had. In the meantime, the park displayed other exhibits while working to finish the museum.

Another reason for the delay, Power said, was in honor of the corps. Everything in the museum, including the display cases, was built by hand by the park’s staff.

“We wanted to make sure everything was in-house, just like how this place was built,” Power said. “That was very important to us.”

Speakers at the event included Cleburne County Probate Judge Ryan Robertson and Alabama Sen. Gerald Dial. Everyone who spoke mentioned how important a role Cheaha had played in their lives.

Dial, a Lineville native, worked at a concession stand on the mountain during his summer breaks from school while in college, living in the lodge of the mountain for months at a time.

“I’m one of the most fortunate people alive because every morning when I sit at my breakfast table, from my window I can see the top of the mountain,” Dial said. “It reminds me of what a great country I live in.”

Many in attendance Saturday were related to the men who built the park. Ethan Branch, from Clay County, said his grandfather would like to tell stories about how tough it was to build the roads which led to the mountain. The personal touch adds something special to his own visits, he said.

“It’s special to see the legacy that he left behind here,” Branch said. “He worked hard to be to able support his family, and it was a tough job. I admire him.”

The celebration will continue next weekend when the park hosts the opening of a new campsite on Saturday. The new camping area was the same one used by the corps when they were building the park.

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Information from: The Anniston Star, http://www.annistonstar.com

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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

John Clement ‘Fireflies’ exhibition opens June 12 in NYC

From the De Buck Gallery exhibition of John Clement's work, opening June 12, 2014. Image courtesy De Buck Gallery

NEW YORK, NY – From June 12 through July 25, 2014, De Buck Gallery in Manhattan will host an exhibition by New York-based sculptor John Clement. Titled “Fireflies,” the show marks Clement’s first solo exhibition at the gallery. Clement will attend the opening reception on June 12, from 6-8 p.m.

John Clement’s artistic language, which entails a spirited geometry of curving forms and gaping voids, embodies an evolving interest in capturing and interacting with both viewers and the environment which has been a cornerstone of the artist’s work since the 1990s. For Fireflies, Clement has created a large-scale site-specific installation for De Buck Gallery, bringing what would typically be an outdoor, public work into the white cube of the gallery space. Juxtaposed with small and medium scale sculptures, the exhibition provides a compelling overview of the transformation of Clement’s vocabulary through size, scale, color and shape. Installed together, the effortless and endless variation of curves and negative space on multiple planes seen throughout Clement’s works implore further exploration on the part of the viewer. In the artist’s hands, the thick tubes of steel with which he works seem weightless and even mobile, molding the perception of the surrounding space.

Born in New York in 1969, John Clement discovered sculpture while working in the tool room at the School of Visual Arts after graduating with a BA from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. A student of prominent public sculptors Mark di Suvero and John Henry, Clement’s work has been exhibited and installed worldwide, including recent installations at the Garrison Art Center (Garrison, NY), Georgia Tech (Atlanta, GA), Elon University (Elon, NC), and the Frost Art Museum (Miami, FL). He is also represented in a number of permanent collections including the Heckscher Museum (Huntington, NY) and the public art collection of the city of Long Beach, CA. John Clement currently lives and works in New York City.

Learn more online at www.debuckgallery.com.

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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

St. Louis police to auction gangland-era Tommy guns

Thompson Model 1921 with Type C drum magazine. Image by Hmaag. This file is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.

ST. LOUIS (AP) – Thompson submachine guns are as much a legend as the bad – and good – guys who fired them.

With as many colorful nicknames as the gangsters whose rat-a-tat-tats roared through the 1920s, the weapon remains an icon of American criminal, military and pop culture history.

No matter what you call it – the “Chicago Typewriter,” the “trench broom,” the “chopper,” the “annihilator” – the Tommy gun is a vintage Hollywood favorite. It was used not only by desperados such as John Dillinger to rob banks and Al Capone’s mobsters in the infamous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, but also various lawmen and soldiers.

In 1939, Time Magazine declared it “the deadliest weapon, pound for pound, ever devised by man.”

St. Louis police took them out of service perhaps 60 years ago, but 29 are still stored in a basement bunker at the Police Academy downtown, with a 30th in the crime lab. Chief Sam Dotson and some collectors think it may be the biggest police-owned stock of Thompsons in the United States.

And it is about to go on sale.

With the police budget ever-stretched, Dotson said the department is planning to auction off what could approach $1 million worth of the guns in the next six months, and put the proceeds toward new sidearms for the whole force.

It’s necessary, the chief explained, since $1.4 million earmarked for new pistols was slashed from this year’s budget.

“That’s the fiscal reality,” Dotson said.

The sale, if a little bittersweet, is welcomed by the St. Louis Police Officers Association. It has long lobbied for larger and more powerful .40-caliber pistols to replace the 9mm Berettas that officers have carried for about two decades.

Choosing a new handgun has been part of contract talks with the police union in recent months.

Jeff Roorda, the union’s business manager, understands the lure of the Thompsons. “It’d be nice for nostalgia to have those in the police department forever,” he said. “But the more pressing need now is that officers have firepower that matches the firepower in the hands of the bad guys.”

The department plans to keep at least one of the Tommy guns as a historical piece.

The collection, which includes rare 1921 and 1927 Colts and a model made in 1942, was appraised by a local dealer in May 2012 at $770,000. Police and some collectors, however, think the stash could fetch far more. It is not clear how or when the department acquired the one newer Tommy gun.

The .45-caliber Thompson, classified as a submachine gun because it fires pistol ammunition, was designed by Gen. John T. Thompson, who served during the Spanish-American War and later helped develop weapons for the Army. It gained a reputation as a powerful and reliable weapon that could shoot 1,000 rounds or more per minute.

Thompson was looking for a lightweight weapon for advantage in World War I’s stalemated trench warfare. It became known as the “trench broom” even though it wasn’t ready for the market until the war had ended.

“The Tommy gun has a deep-seated connection to American history from the ’20s to today,” said Bill Troy, president of the Thompson Collectors Association, based in Ellicott City, Md. “It’s a work of art. Among collectors, it’s one of the Cadillac pieces – they’re expensive, they’re rare and they’re well-made.”

The number left in the world is unclear, but Troy said collectors generally believe there may be as few as 25,000 in the U.S.

Daniel Waugh, 36, a St. Louis author who has written two books on St. Louis gangsters and a third about a Detroit gang, said in an interview that police of the 1920s in many cities found themselves in an “arms race” against gangsters.

“St. Louis was one of the few cities in America where the cops beat the hoods to the punch” by getting Tommy guns, he said.

Police here bought at least 75 in the 1920s for use by the “Night Riders,” an overnight motor squad that targeted bank robbers and gangsters by raiding saloons and crime hangouts. It’s unclear what happened to 45 of the guns. Police say records of the original purchases were either not kept or disappeared.

Fifty Tommy guns arrived for the Night Riders in October 1921, according to the Post-Dispatch, which characterized the squad’s hunt for criminals during Prohibition as “red hot.” The department bought 25 more in 1927.

Whether the guns ever killed anyone – or if they were even used on duty – is a matter of debate. The guns have been used in training sessions over the years.

The department wants to make sure the guns don’t take any more souls. “We want to be selective and make sure these aren’t going into the wrong hands,” Tucker said.

High prices and federal restrictions should help see to that.

The cheapest of the collection, an Auto-Ordinance/Savage M1 from 1942, is appraised at $14,000. The stars are two 1921 Colts, each valued at $31,000. (The department also has two World War I-era Lewis machine guns, believed to have been lent by the FBI, which are not for sale.)

Private possession of a fully automatic weapon requires a federal license. Obtaining the permit can take up to year. An applicant must pass a background check, pay a $200 federal tax and obtain approval of the local police chief.

Despite the obstacles, St. Louis police are optimistic that collectors will respond to the opportunity.

“Like a Bel Air, or a Duesenberg, or a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, or any number of truly classic American machines, the Thompson is easy on the eye, familiar, and comfortable,” wrote Bill Yenne, author of Tommy Gun, How General Thompson’s Submachine Gun Wrote History. “Like these machines, it is part of our culture, part of our heritage, and an important part of our history.”

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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com

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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Last Post descendant to head Hillwood museum stepping down

Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens, located at 4155 Linnean Avenue, NW Washington, DC. The estate is the former home and garden of Marjorie Merriweather Post. The house, originally known as Arbremont, was designed by John Deibert in 1926. Image by Jllm06, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The story of Hillwood began with an end: the 1955 divorce of heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post from her third husband. Joseph Davies thought his wife, one of the richest women in the United States, would pay anything to stay in their Washington mansion and demanded a small fortune for his share.

“Being a good businesswoman, she thought that price was a little high, and she wanted some leverage,” explains her granddaughter, Ellen Charles. So Post started looking at other properties – more as a bargaining tactic than any real desire to move – and stumbled across a beautiful old house on 25 acres overlooking Rock Creek Park.

And just like that, the negotiating was over: Davies got the old house, which was later sold to the Washington International School. And Post, who inherited a fortune from her father’s cereal empire, bought Hillwood and turned it into one of Washington’s most beautiful attractions.

“I think it was meant to be,” says Charles, who is credited with taking the very fancy house full of very fancy stuff and turning it into a professional, world-class museum. Charles is stepping down after 25 years as board president and will be the last Post descendant to head Hillwood.

Charles was a 20-year-old bride when she first saw Hillwood, and it was dazzling. After two years of renovations and decorating, Post moved into the house in 1957 and filled it with her collection of Russian art and decorative objects, including two Faberge imperial Easter eggs, acquired when Davies was ambassador to Russia in the 1930s, along with 18th- and 19th-century French art.

“It had bling, no question about it,” Charles remembers. “She loved living with it. She was surrounded by beauty, and I loved that.” Her grandmother often gave friends tours of the 36-room house; one of her favorite spaces was the breakfast room overlooking the garden, with a green and crystal chandelier from Empress Catherine’s palace hanging over the table.

Charles, the down-to-earth daughter of Post’s oldest child, Adelaide, was both enthralled and intimidated by her flamboyant grandmother. “I was absolutely fascinated by her,” she says. “She was a little off-putting for me: She was so grand and she was a perfectionist. You were afraid you were going to stumble sometimes.”

When Charles was a young debutante, Post would try to jazz up her party outfits. “Dearie, you need some jewelry,” she told her, offering up diamonds or emeralds. At 17 years old, Charles says the thought of going to a ball wearing the stones “was horrifying. Not the cost of it, just the size of it.” She would pretend to consider the options and always select the most discreet piece – a three-strand pearl bracelet with a diamond clasp.

Post’s perfectionism and showmanship had a goal: After a decade throwing fabulous parties in the house, Post decided she wanted her collections to become a museum. She negotiated an agreement in 1968 for the Smithsonian Institution to take over Hillwood, although Post lived there until her death in 1973.

But three years later, the Smithsonian concluded that the $10 million endowment that was part of the deal – generating about $450,000 a year in income – wasn’t enough to operate the estate as a public museum. Charles believes her grandmother did that on purpose. “She said to me, ‘Now dear, that’s not going to be enough to run this property.’?” Post, who wanted her objects displayed as part of the country’s collection but still have some family control, thought the Smithsonian would ask for more money from Post’s larger trust, giving her descendants a say in the future of the museum.

Post’s plan backfired, and the house, which the Smithsonian had not yet launched as a museum, was transferred back to the family foundation.

So in 1977, with Charles’s mother at the helm, Hillwood quietly and reluctantly opened its doors. “There are a number of wealthy people who do not really want people to know they have money, and Mother falls into that rank,” says Charles. That meant operating Hillwood as an exclusive, well-kept secret for friends and other art lovers. The house was open four days a week by appointment only (requests required to be in writing) with no more than 25 people.

Charles took over for her mother in 1989, after her aunt, actress Dina Merrill, declined. She was treading into “delicate territory”: Hillwood had essentially been running like a little family boutique, not a traditional museum. The board met once a year; each one of the almost dozen members was compensated with $100,000 to donate to the charity of his or her choice. “It was a lovely board to be on,” Charles says with a grin.

She redirected the money to fix the leaky roof and take care of other deferred maintenance, projects that Charles intended to oversee and then step aside. “OK, Grandma,” she remembers telling herself. “I’m going to fix the roof, but then I’m outta here.”

Not so fast. Charles felt that she should uphold Post’s vision of sharing the collection and presenting it a professional way, and she quickly realized that Hillwood needed an experienced museum director, despite opposition from the board. Charles found Fred Fisher, working at a house museum in New York, and the two embarked on a two-decade mission to transform Hillwood.

Fisher, who came to serve as the museum’s executive director, argued that the estate housed “a big chunk of another nation’s heritage” and should not be treated as a hidden enclave or a roadside attraction. Curators were recruited to research and publish articles in respected art journals. In 1997, Hillwood closed for a three-year, $9 million renovation to bring the property up to the standards of other museums – including moving the boilers across the road so an explosion wouldn’t destroy the collections. While the museum was closed, more than 180 of its best pieces toured eight museums across the country.

The other big change? Fundraising to increase Hillwood’s profile and allow it to operate in the black every year, without dipping into its $200 million endowment. Four years ago, Kate Markert replaced Fisher and launched two tourist-friendly exhibitions each year, including one on Post’s weddings and another on her luxury entertaining. Attendance is up to about 70,000 visitors a year.

And now, it’s in good enough shape that Charles feels she can step aside.

“It’s a big change for Hillwood, and probably a good one,” Fisher said. “Institutions have to move along. Ellen has righted the ship, and it’s ready to sail.”

The last public hurrah for the board president is the opening of “Cartier: Marjorie Merriweather Post’s Dazzling Gems.” The exhibition, which opened June 7, features several of the jaw-dropping jewels she refused to wear as a debutante, along with pieces from other family members and some that Post donated to the Smithsonian.

Charles says she has been trying to resign for years and finally convinced the board that someone else could do the job. None of her three children, or any other family members, wanted to step in, so longtime board member Nancy Appleby will take over at the end of the year.

Why leave now? “Because I’m still at the top of my game,” she says with a laugh. Hillwood is doing just fine, thanks to a dedicated staff. And it’s better to go before they ask you to go, and besides, she says, it’s not healthy to have the same board president for 25 years. “You need new blood.”

She’ll keep busy with her dogs (champions shown at Westminster) and her thoroughbred horses. Charles will serve on the board, but now she doesn’t have to go to every committee meeting.

“I’ll do it because it interests me and I want to know what’s going on,” she says. “But if I have a dog show or a horse race to go to, I can do it. Just the illusion that you can is sometimes all you need.”

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Information from: The Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com

AP-WF-06-07-14 1339GMT

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Ancient artifacts, fossils donated to University of Oklahoma

A fossil of a typical crinoid, showing (from bottom to top) the stem, calyx, and arms with cirri. Released under the GNU Free Documentation License.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – Cultural artifacts and natural specimens collected during world travels have found a new home at the University of Oklahoma.

Ancient Roman pottery, North American stone ax heads from the Middle Ages and a three-tiered Chinese picnic box from the 1700s are among the objects in the vast George C. and Cecilia McGhee Collection.

George McGhee, a millionaire oilman and career diplomat, collected the many items during world travels with his wife, Cecilia. A sampling of the collection, brought to OU in February from the McGhee Foundation in Middleburg, Va., is on display at OU’s Western History Collections in Monnet Hall, the Oklahoman reported Sunday.

“It started as a preview for the university community, but transitioned into a public exhibit that will be on display into early fall,” said John Lovett, director of Special Collections and curator of the Western History Collections.

There are Byzantine crosses dating from 400 to 1100 and a Hebrew Bible with an ornate silver binding that depicts the 12 tribes of Israel and King David playing a harp. A turquoise-glazed Syrian bowl from the 1200s is nearly as colorful as the many rocks and minerals.

The complete donation – photographs, books, papers, art, artifacts, fossils – is still being researched and cataloged.

Elsbeth Dowd, registrar at OU’s Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, says the significant donation broadens the educational experience the university can offer students and the public.

Her favorite object is a 200-pound fossil of a Crinoid, a marine animal commonly called the “sea lily.” The creature appears to be a flower until closer inspection.

“It’s a remarkable example of a large invertebrate fossil,” Dowd said.

George McGhee graduated from OU with a degree in geology in 1933, earned a Rhodes scholarship and received a doctorate from Oxford University in 1937. During World War II, he enlisted in the Navy. He spent many years after the war working for the U.S. State Department.

“The family took great interest in the natural world, the cultural world and the history of the places they went,” Dowd said.

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Information from: The Oklahoman, http://www.newsok.com

AP-WF-06-08-14 1814GMT

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