December 22, 2014 - Auction Central News

Black Forest hall tree reaches $19,600 at S&S Auctions

Fine and rare antique Black Forest carved hall rack with life-size, 30-inch dog. Sold for $19,600. S & S Auctions Inc. image

REPAUPO, N.J. – An antique Black Forest hall rack, rare and highly collectible mainly for its finely carved, life-size dog, 30 inches tall, sold for $19,600 at an estates auction held Nov. 16-17 by S & S Auctions Inc. The hall tree was the top achiever of the 783 lots offered in an auction that grossed $857,500. LiveAuctioneers.com provide Internet live bidding.

Black Forest ware – 19th century Swiss carvings of forest animals, trees, branches and leaves – are highly coveted as collectibles. That this example featured a dog – a life-size dog at that – only increased its cache and market value, even taking into account some repaired seams. The hall tree, overall 84 inches tall and 32 inches wide, was magnificent and in very good condition.

“We were very pleased that this auction featured several large collections of a high quality caliber,” said Glenn Sweeney of S & S Auctions Inc. “We had great examples of French items, sculptures and furniture, among other categories. It was a successful and heavily attended sale, in person and online.” Internet bidding was provided by LiveAuctioneers.com and Invaluable.com.

The action kicked off on Sunday, Nov. 16, with 319 cataloged lots. Then, on Monday morning, a discovery sale featuring around 2,000 uncataloged lots was held, followed by the second session of the catalog auction at 1 p.m., with 464 lots. Headlining the sale was the estate of a prominent, deceased physician Ventnor, N.J., and items from a retired auctioneer from northern New Jersey.

Following are additional highlights from the auction. All prices quoted include a 22.5 percent buyer’s premium.

The biggest surprise of the sale (and the second top lot of the auction) was an Emile Galle etched art glass vase, just 3¼ inches tall and etched with a goddess riding a dolphin with two maidens. The vase was signed Emile Galle for Nancy and was clear glass with blue and green veins. Galle is desired as a collectible, but this example roared past its high estimate of $3,000 to hit $14,700.

An antique gilt carved center table with pietra dura top fetched $11,025. Pietra dura (Italian for “hardstone”) is a decorative technique in which precious or semi-precious stones are inlaid into the marble or other soft stone. Also, a 19th century French parquetry bureau-plat, a flat-top writing table with drawers to the frieze, having finely cast bronze mounts, in good condition, hit $4,900.

Items from France dominated the list of top lots. A French Chronos & Amour gilt and patinated figural bronze clock on a bronzed mounted marble base, 20½ inches tall and in good condition, went for $13,475; and a pair of 19th century French gilt bronze cherub candelabra with marble bases, rewired as lamps and having very fine casting, 37¼ inches tall, lit up the room for $6,738.

A pair of exceptionally fine, antique French bronze mounted stands with inlaid tops and bronze mounts, in very good condition except for some minor damage to one drawer, changed hands for $7,669. Also, a pair of antique 27-inch French gilt bronze mounted cobalt vases with finely cast gilt bronze mounts and porcelain inserts, 18½ inches tall and, in good condition, rose to $4,900.

A 19th century French gilt carved marble-top vitrine painted over gold gilt, mirror backed, with glass shelves, 58¼ inches tall, in very good condition, sold for $3,675; and a Baker Collector’s Edition Louis XV-style tooled leather-top bureau-plat desk with bronze mounts and feet, 30 inches tall and 66 inches wide, found a new owner for $3,369.

Bronze pieces did exceptionally well. A patinated and gilt bronze sculpture, signed “A. Mercie” and “F. Barbedienne,” 37 inches tall and with fine casting, garnered $11,638. A pair of French Empire-style gilt and patinated bronze classical masks and claw feet brought $3,062, and a pair of finely cast antique bronze showcases with glass tops, 39 inches tall, achieved $15,925.

Schmieg & Kotzian was a furniture maker that began in London in 1899 and relocated to New York City in 1907. Examples in the auction included a 20-foot banded top dining table with inlay and claw foot pedestals, which sold for $11,638; a set of 14 English-style Georgian mahogany dining chairs, $9,188; and a mahogany breakfront with bow glass center doors, 90½ inches tall, $5,512.

Rounding out some more of the sale’s top lots, an antique oak slot machine with cast metal art nouveau panels on the front, in working condition but in need of adjustment realized $7,962; and an antique 52 inch by 44½ inch Oriental rug, in fair condition with minor fraying, made $6,431.

S&S Auction Inc., established in 1972, is always accepting quality consignments. Call them at 856-467-3778, or send them an email at info@ssauction.com.

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

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

Rare Emile Galle etched art glass vase signed for Nancy, just 3¼ inches tall. Sold for $14,700. S & S Auctions Inc. image

Lovely antique gilt carved center table with pietra dura stone-inlaid marble top. Sold for $11,025. S & S Auctions Inc. image

Triple pedestal dining room table by Schmieg & Kotzian, with 20-foot-long banded top. Sold for $11,638. S & S Auctions Inc. image

Exceptional pair of finely cast bronze antique showcases with glass tops, 6 feet tall. Sold for $15,925. S & S Auctions Inc. image

French Chronos & Amour gilt and patinated figural bronze clock on a marble base ($13,475. S & S Auctions Inc. image

French patinated and gilt bronze sculpture, signed ‘A. Mercie’ and ‘F. Barbedienne.’ Sold for $11,638. S & S Auctions Inc. image

Antique slot machine with cast metal Art Nouveau panels on front, in working condition. Sold for $7,962. S & S Auctions Inc. image

Miscellaneana: Corkscrews

The record-breaking Charles Osborne patent corkscrew sold for £48,000. Photo Reeman Dansie

LONDON – So, you took advice from this column last week and have splashed out on a case of vintage wine to oil the wheels of Christmas lunch and subsequent festive fun. Next you’ll need a reliable corkscrew. After all, only supermarket plonk that has screw tops and no, the Swiss Army penknife Santa left in your stocking last year will not suffice.

The slight issue is that even though corkscrews have been around for 300 years or so no one has invented the perfect answer to removing a stubborn cork, but many have tried, particularly the ingenious Victorians. And that means a wealth of opportunity for today’s collectors.

Who invented the device is not known for certain but, naturally enough, they were an imbiber’s essential requirement once it was realized early in the 17th century that cork was perfect for sealing bottles. Come the 1800s and, like that army penknife with corkscrew attachment, no gentleman’s wardrobe or traveling case was complete without one. Or lady’s, come to that. Hers were tiny folding examples, often in silver, for removing the corks from her bottles of scent.

The age of inventiveness dawned in 1795 when, of all people, a London clergyman, the Rev. Samuel Henshall, took out a patent on a new, improved model and persuaded the Birmingham firm of Matthew Boulton to put it into production. Boulton’s factory was already well established and had been exporting corkscrews among a myriad of other things for 30 years.

A plethora of new patents followed: in 1802, Edward Thomason of Birmingham with a double-action mechanism incorporating a suggestively termed “hermaphrodite screw;” in 1838, Thomas Lund of London who added steel springs to his corkscrew with which to hold the bottle and in 1855, the same inventor came up with mechanisms called the London Rack and Lund’s Lever.

Another Birmingham firm James Heeley backed a winner with a device called the Tangent Lever, the patent for which was registered by Edwin Wolverston in 1873. Production continued unabated until the 1920s, at which time it retailed at three shillings and fourpence.

A few years ago, such corkscrews could be picked up relatively cheaply. Today, with an upsurge in interest among collectors, they command prices in the hundreds and sometimes thousands for real rarities.

These include such wonders as the Holborn Lever, patented in 1885 and now very scarce and Murray and Stalker’s 1894 patent two-lever corkscrew, only two of which are known to exist. In all, more than 350 designs were patented during the 19th century.

Manufacturing firms whose names often appear on their products include Weiss of London, Evans, Looker, Retton, Mapplebeck and Lowe, Lowcock and Samuel Cotterill and although British corkscrews ruled, there are plenty to search out from other countries, notably America and Germany. They also come somewhat cheaper.

From the U.S. in the early 1870s came an inexpensive wire device invented by William Rockwell Clough, while from Germany throughout the 19th century came amusing and sometimes ribald examples such as one to be carried in the pocket in the form of a lady’s shapely legs clad in lace-up boots, and blue and white striped enamel stockings.

It’s also worth looking out for corkscrews with bone or ivory handles and those fitted with a brush, intended for cleaning off the neck of bottles before uncorking. Any one of them would make a smashing gift for a father to use on the Christmas day bottle of cheer. You never know, he might become a helixophile, which is what corkscrew collectors call themselves.

The record price for a corkscrew sold by auction was shattered once and then again in the space of two days last month when two versions of a device invented by Charles Osborne saw prices spiral.

The first appeared on the eBay in France, which sold for the euro equivalent of £17,727 ($27,689). By markings on the frame which read “By Her Majesty’s Royal Letters” and “Soho Patent” (that’s Soho in Birmingham) it was believed to have been made by Matthew Boulton.

Similar markings appear on the corkscrews he made form the Rev. Henshall.

Next day in an unconnected sale at Colchester auctioneers Reeman Dansie, a second example appeared, lacking any patent markings but engraved “Made from the Iron Shoe that was taken from a pillar that was 656 Years in the Foundation of Old London Bridge”, together with the name J. Ovenston, 72 Gt Tichfield St., London.

Ovenston was apparently a cabinetmaker and upholsterer who sold relics made from oak and iron taken from the bridge when it was dismantled in 1831. The corkscrew was being sold by a descendant.

Collectors went crazy for it. Despite being faulty – the ratchet mechanism was not working – numerous bidders in the room competed with four telephones and countless Internet bidders, taking the price skywards.

To applause, it was knocked down to a European collector in the room for £40,000 ($62,480). With the auctioneer’s 20 per cent commission added, that’s a selling price of £48,000 ($74, 976) surely a figure that will take some beating.

Corkscrew manufacturer Charles Osborne lived at 11 Upper Temple St. in Birmingham and filed his patent in 1839. Sadly he drew no benefit from it. He died of consumption – pulmonary tuberculosis – just six months later, at just 28 years of age.

Until last month, it was believed only a single example of this particular pattern existed. The eBay example was not fitted with the ratchet mechanism but shared the bowed springs of the others, the tension from which causes the cork to be drawn out of the bottle.

The previous record for a corkscrew, prior to the two last month, was $35,000 (£22,335) in a specialist on-line auction. Don’t be downhearted though. If all you need is a tool to reach your favorite tipple, we saw one priced at £8.50 in an antiques fair last weekend.

ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

A pile of perfectly serviceable corkscrews we saw at an antiques fair last weekend. The one with the wooden handle, top left, is marked at £8.50. Photo Christopher Proudlove

An altogether more serious group of corkscrews of various patents, some with bone or ivory handles and brushes. Photo Christopher Proudlove

A Victorian bone corkscrew with royal coat of arms sold for £80. Photo Ewbank's Auctions — A Victorian bone corkscrew with royal coat of arms sold for £80. Photo Ewbank’s Auctions

A 19th century King’s pattern corkscrew by Edward Thomason sold for £55. Photo Ewbank's Auctions — A 19th century King’s pattern corkscrew by Edward Thomason sold for £55. Photo Ewbank’s Auctions

A 19th century cast-iron concertina corkscrew sold for £25. Photo Ewbank's Auctions — A 19th century cast-iron concertina corkscrew sold for £25. Photo Ewbank’s Auctions

A pair of 19th century James Heeley and Son, A-1 double lever corkscrews sold for £65. Photo Ewbank's Auctions — A pair of 19th century James Heeley and Son, A-1 double lever corkscrews sold for £65. Photo Ewbank’s Auctions

Guggenheim presents ‘On Kawara – Silence’ beginning Feb. 6

'On Kawara,' 'DEC. 29, 1977 Thursday,' From 'Today,'1966–2013, acrylic on canvas, 20.3 x 25.4 cm, pictured with artist-made cardboard storage boxes, 26.8 x 27.2 x 5 cm. Private collection. Photo: Courtesy David Zwirner

NEW YORK – From Feb. 6 to May 3, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum will present the first comprehensive exhibition of the work of On Kawara (1933–2014), the broadest representation to date of his practice since 1963. “On Kawara—Silence” invites the viewer to consider a body of work that engages the nature and experience of time and place.

Installed along the spiral ramps of the museum according to a framework of 12 sections, or “chapters,” devised by the artist, the exhibition features work from 1963 through 2013 and includes every category of On Kawara’s output, much of it produced during his travels across the globe.

Born in Kariya, Japan, Kawara achieved early recognition during the 1950s as a young member of the Tokyo avant-garde. The artist left Japan in 1959, moving first to Mexico City and then to Paris before settling in New York City. During that period of relocation, he abandoned his early surrealistic representations of the body. In 1966 his practice acquired the form it would take thereafter—the intermittent yet persistent production of paintings and other works, most of which serve to identify the time and place of the artist’s whereabouts on the day they were made.

Kawara’s work is often associated with the rise of Postminimal and Conceptual art. Yet in its complex wit and existential reach, it also stands well apart. At the heart of “On Kawara—Silence” are paintings from the “Today” series, created over the course of seven decades according to intensive protocols. With each painting, the date is inscribed in white acrylic against a monochromatic ground in variants of blue, red, or very dark gray, in the language of the place where the painting was made. The strict range of dimensions for the “Date Paintings” is preordained, and the process of making them is seemingly mechanical, although the paintings were, in fact, meticulously produced by hand. A painting was either finished in the course of a given day or destroyed. On some days, two, and, very occasionally, three, were made. The exhibition presents over 150 Date Paintings, many accompanied by the handmade storage boxes that Kawara often lined with cuttings from the daily press. Such cuttings, representing topics both historical and banal—politics, natural disaster, celebrity, space exploration, sports—place Kawara’s work in a context of current events, although any logic of selection is difficult to discern.

“I Got Up.” “I Went.” “I Read.” “I Met.” Much of Kawara’s work deploys such first-person declarations, which seem to designate little more—yet nothing less—than his very being in the world. More than 1,500 tourist postcards, addressed, stamped, and mailed to friends and acquaintances including artists, gallerists, collectors, critics, and curators such as John Baldessari, Germano Celant, Herman Daled, Kasper König, Sol LeWitt, Lucy Lippard, Toshiaki Minemura, and Adrian Piper bearing the message “I GOT UP AT,” followed by the precise time Kawara began his day, are featured in “On Kawara—Silence.” The exhibition also includes city maps upon which the artist traced his route in a single day, and more than 100 telegrams delivered between 1969–2000, each bearing the simple message “I AM STILL ALIVE.” These series, produced according to their own set of rules, record the basic activities of the artist’s life. Like the Date Paintings, they appear to be purely systematic. While close examination reveals the work’s unexpectedly personal qualities—not least the discipline and endurance implied by the artist’s relentless record keeping—indications of personal experience are elusive. Throughout his lifetime, the artist’s official biography consisted only of the number of days he had been alive. The schematic nature of his oeuvre means that, despite its subjective nature and focus on self-examination, it remained surprisingly abstract.

Kawara said very little about his art and preferred to leave much about it unexplained. He did, however, identify one central theme: human consciousness, an individual’s heightened awareness of his or her existence in the world. Kawara also said that a Date Painting represents a paradox—that each painting forever signifies the present by bearing the name and date of the day it was made, yet once the day is over, that present belongs only to the past.

Exhibition curator Jeffrey Weiss observes that Kawara’s work represents an expansive practice, a field of operations and activities that occur over time according to remarkably consistent terms: “The artist believed the best way for us to engage his work was by direct encounter, through which we can discover its relevance to our own lives.”

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Babe Ruth’s 1934 Japan tour baseball cap sells for $303,277

Babe Ruth cap game-used during the historic 1934 US All-Star Tour of Japan, $303,277. Grey Flannel Auctions image

WESTHAMPTON, N.Y. – A new chapter was added to the legend of Babe Ruth during the early morning hours of Dec. 18. Grey Flannel Auctions sold the baseball cap the immortal slugger wore during the historic 1934 US All-Star Tour of Japan for $303,277.

The game-used navy blue cap emblazoned “US” was acquired from the Ruth family more than 30 years ago and had remained in private hands from that day forward. It is the only known Ruth cap from the American team’s barnstorming tour of 18 Japanese cities.

“Nearly half a million Japanese fans lined the streets of Tokyo to view the team motorcade and welcome Babe Ruth, who rode through the Ginza district in an open-top limousine. The tour was a major news event and received press coverage worldwide,” said Richard E. Russek, president of Grey Flannel Auctions.

The Ruth cap opened for bidding in late November, at $50,000, but competition really heated up during the final 24 hours of the Dec. 17 absentee, phone and Internet auction. The winning bid of $303,277 was placed at 12:52 Eastern Time on the morning of Dec. 18 by a private collector who wishes to remain anonymous.

Another high-profile cap, game-worn by Joe DiMaggio, dated to around 1937, when the great Yankee Clipper was still a rookie. Rare and in beautiful, all-original condition, the cap opened for bidding at $25,000 and eventually reached $151,652.

From the same general era, a 1932 baseball signed by the New York Yankees – with 23 signatures, including those of Ruth, Lou Gehrig and seven other Hall of Famers – was a high flier at $115,242.

Other auction highlights included a 1950s Brooklyn Dodgers heavyweight satin jacket that was owned and worn by Roy Campanella, $71,554; and a circa-1980s Philadelphia 76ers road uniform game-worn by Julius “Dr. J” Erving, $44,428.

In total, Grey Flannel’s Holiday Auction 2014 grossed $2,051,073, inclusive of a 20 percent buyer’s premium.

Visit Grey Flannel Auctions online at www.greyflannelauctions.com. To contact Grey Flannel call 631-288-7800, ext. 223; or email info@greyflannelauctions.com.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

Baseball signed by 23 of the 1932 New York Yankees, including Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and other Hall of Famers, $115,242. Grey Flannel Auctions image

Circa 1980s Julius ‘Dr. J’ Erving Philadelphia 76ers game-worn uniform, $44,428. Grey Flannel Auctions image

1950s Los Angeles Dodgers satin jacket owned and worn by Roy Campanella, $71,554. Grey Flannel Auctions image

Joe DiMaggio game-used circa-1937 rookie-era Yankees cap with stitching inside sweatband that says ‘7 J. DiMaggio,’ $151,652. Grey Flannel Auctions image

Kovels Antiques & Collecting: Week of Dec. 22, 2014

This Santa is a bit thinner than usual so he can fit in his vintage tin car. It's a windup toy made in Japan before 1940. The toy sold for $37,760 – more than three times its presale estimate – at a 2013 Bertoia auction in Vineland, N.J.

BEACHWOOD, Ohio – Santa Claus traditionally arrives in his sleigh, but children born in the past 100 years or so have wondered why Santa doesn’t use faster, newer ways to make his Christmas Eve journey. Writers and toymakers have modernized the Christmas story in several ways – with a train to the North Pole, an airplane, an early car, modern cars and even Santa in a rocket or spaceship. Of course, some still wonder how he can go around the world in one night while stopping to deliver gifts. One rare toy made in prewar Japan has Santa in an open car that’s decorated with pictures of toys, children and a Christmas tree. Santa is seated with his bag of toys. The car has a clockwork drive wound with a key. It can zoom across the floor. The 7-inch-long toy sold for $37,760 at a 2013 Bertoia auction.

Q: Our family has complete collections of both Bing & Grondahl and Royal Copenhagen Christmas plates. We understand only a limited number of these plates have much value, but we would like to know the value of the collection as a whole. Is it greater than the sum of its parts?

A: Bing & Grondahl, a Danish porcelain factory, began making annual Christmas plates in 1895. The company became part of Royal Copenhagen in 1987. Royal Copenhagen, another Danish porcelain factory, had introduced its own series of Christmas plates in 1908. Many of the old plates can be found on the resale market. The first Bing & Grondahl Christmas plate, “Behind the Frozen Window, 1895,” sold at auction for $2,320 in 2012. The first Royal Copenhagen Christmas plate, “Madonna & Child, 1908,” sold for $2,722 in 2011. But most Christmas plates sell for about $20. Only the very earliest plates and those made during World War II are rare and sell for more. We have never seen a complete set of either company’s plates offered for sale.

Q: I have a Bols Ballerina liquor bottle with a figural windup ballerina inside. When it’s wound up, it plays music and the ballerina spins and moves her legs. A label on the bottom says “Le Bleu Danube” and “Bottle and Unit Made in France.” The liquor has evaporated a little, but the ballerina works perfectly. The label says “Sale Distributors for the USA, Brown Forman Import Company, New York 16, New York.” Does this bottle have any value?

A: Bols Ballerina bottles were made between 1957 and 1978. They came filled with different kinds of liquor made by Lucas Bols, a Dutch distillery. Two versions were made, with the ballerina wearing either a red skirt or a white skirt. The Bols family opened a distillery in Amsterdam in 1575, making Lucas Bols the world’s oldest distillery brand. There have been several changes in ownership, but the company is still in business. Brown-Forman offered the Bols Ballerina bottle as a Christmas item in 1959. It was produced in limited quantities at that time but proved so popular that thousands more were made. Collectors like unique bottles. A full bottle in its original box sells for the highest price. Your partly full bottle without the box is worth about $50.

Q: We inherited a bird’s-eye maple bedroom set that has been in the family for years. It consists of a bed, dresser, dressing table, rocking chair and straight-back chair. There is a sticker on the back of the dresser that reads, “The Upham Mfg. Co., Marshfield, Wisconsin, Manufacturers of Chamber Suits [sic] and Side Boards.” The drawers to the dresser have little locks and we have the keys. Can you tell us anything about this furniture?

A: William H. Upham and his brother, C.M. Upham, built a sawmill in Marshfield in 1879. In 1881 they opened a furniture factory and veneer mill. Upham Manufacturing Co. was incorporated in 1883. By 1890 the company included a flour mill, grain elevator, general store, railway, waterworks and electric light plant. The 1904 Furniture Journal said the company sold “cheap, medium and high grade chamber suits, odd dressers, chiffoniers, sideboards and buffets.” Upham Manufacturing was in business until 1927. Your furniture was probably made in the late 1890s or early 1900s.

Q: Are my old Budweiser Christmas steins worth anything?

A: Budweiser has issued an annual Christmas beer stein every year since 1980. The ceramic steins are made in Brazil. Today only the oldest, sold in 1980 and 1981, sell for more than $100. We have seen a 1980 stein listed for $130.

Tip: Coffee and tea stains can be removed from the inside of silver or porcelain pots or cups with warm water and a denture-cleaning tablet. Use a five-minute tablet in two cups of water, let it stand for 10 minutes, rinse and dry. If some loose residue remains, clean it with a wet brush.

Need prices for your antiques and collectibles? Find them at Kovels.com, our website for collectors. You can find more than 900,000 prices and more than 11,000 color photographs that help you determine the value of your collectibles. Study the prices. Go to the free Price Guide at Kovels.com. The website also lists publications, clubs, appraisers, auction houses, people who sell parts or repair antiques, show lists and more. Kovels.com adds to the information in this column.

Terry Kovel and Kim Kovel answer questions sent to the column. By sending a letter with a question, you give full permission for use in the column or any other Kovel forum. Names, addresses or email addresses will not be published. We cannot guarantee the return of photographs, but if a stamped envelope is included, we will try. The amount of mail makes personal answers or appraisals impossible. Write to Kovels, Auction Central News, King Features Syndicate, 300 W. 57th St., New York, NY 10019.

CURRENT PRICES

Current prices are recorded from antiques shows, flea markets, sales and auctions throughout the United States. Prices vary in different locations because of local economic conditions.

Depression glass salt and pepper, Doric, pink, $25.
Fireplace surround, cast iron, wreath, leaves, S. Thompson, c. 1880, 35 inches, $315.
Popeye bag-puncher figure, pipe in mouth, tin, windup, Chein, 7 inches, $480.
Keno goose game, mahogany balls, turned wood, supports, c. 1880, 22 1/2 inches, $540.
Enterprise coffee mill, No. 750, cast iron, countertop, 1 wheel, red, blue, gold, 21 inches, $560.
Santa Claus nodder, composition head, fur beard, wood body, Germany, 11 1/2 inches, $590.
Decoy, trumpeter swan, sleeping, carved, white, black paint, Chesapeake Bay, 32 inches, $1,140.
Chanel necklace, bronze, 12 plaques, 4 mounted stones, rhinestone surround, marked, box, 1997, 24 inches, $2,390.
Bookcase, L. & J.G. Stickley, oak, gallery top, paned glass doors, shelves, c. 1910, 55 x 49 inches, $3,200.
Cane, oak, turned, carved names of 55 men executed at Auburn Prison, 1890-1916, A. Lamb, 31 inches, $7,340.

Keep up with changes in the collectibles world. Send for a free sample issue of our 12-page, color-illustrated newsletter, “Kovels on Antiques and Collectibles,” filled with prices, news, information and photos, plus major articles and opinions about the world of collecting. An important tool for anyone who buys or sells antiques and collectibles. To subscribe at a bargain $27 for 12 issues, write Kovels, P.O. Box 8534, Big Sandy, TX 75755; call 800-829-9158; or subscribe online at KovelsOnlineStore.com.

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Neb. group wants to honor man behind Higgins boats

A Navy landing craft carrying Army troops, possibly as reinforcements at Okinawa in April 1945. US Navy photo, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

COLUMBUS, Neb. (AP) – A local committee is looking for funding to build a second Andrew Jackson Higgins monument, this one at the site of the D-Day landings in France.

The group needs about $250,000 to create and install a memorial honoring the Columbus native on Utah Beach, one of five sites where Allied Forces used Higgins boats to launch an invasion of France on June 6, 1944, that started an 81-day campaign to liberate Paris from Nazi Germany.

More than 1,000 Higgins boats, also known as LCVP landing craft, were used by the Allied Forces during the Normandy landings along the beaches of northern France, which led then-Gen. Dwight Eisenhower to refer to Higgins as the man who won World War II, the Columbus Telegram reported.

The proposed project would display statues of Allied soldiers and Higgins, as well as a replica of the landing craft and historical marker, on the sand outside the Utah Beach Museum in Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, France, where an original Higgins boat is housed. The monument would resemble the Andrew Jackson Higgins Memorial that opened in 2001 in Pawnee Park.

U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry and military historian Timothy Kilvert-Jones, a retired major in the United Kingdom Army who lives near the Normandy battlefield, got the ball rolling on the Higgins project in August, when they were in Columbus to give a presentation on the D-Day landings and Battle of Normandy at the American Legion Club.

“I think it would be a wonderful statement for this community to know that one of your proud sons is remembered in Normandy in perpetuity,” Kilvert-Jones said then.

Born in Columbus on Aug. 28, 1886, Higgins later moved to Omaha and built his first boat in the basement of his family’s home. He started Higgins Industries in New Orleans, eventually designing and building the landing craft used in World War II.

During his presentation, Kilvert-Jones said Higgins “made a major contribution” to Operation Overlord, which put 176,000 Allied troops supported by thousands of ships, combat aircraft and other vehicles and artillery on the ground in the first 24 hours after the D-Day landings.

The former major called for a project that places a replica of the local Higgins memorial on Utah Beach by the 70th anniversary of the end of the European Theater in May 2015.

Fortenberry, whose grandfather was killed in World War II, is currently working with French authorities to gain the necessary approval and facilitate infrastructure work needed for the project and a local volunteer committee has been tasked with raising the approximately $250,000 needed to re-create the statues and boat.

The congressman said the proposal received a positive response from the mayor of the French community that runs the Utah Beach Museum and other government officials.

“There are a lot of things that are going to have to converge quickly, but there’s excellent momentum,” said Fortenberry, whose office is coordinating a formal agreement between the museum and Columbus committee.

“It will be extraordinarily well received by the people of France,” he added.

Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce President K.C. Belitz, who is leading the nine-member local committee, said the goal is to complete the project ahead of the May anniversary date.

But, he added, this means the group likely will need to have the statue molds sent to the foundry well before the fundraising goal is reached. Committee members are working on a plan to complete the project while extending the fundraising time frame to cover the costs, he said.

“To put Columbus, Nebraska, and Mr. Higgins on the beaches of Normandy, that’s just a unique opportunity,” Belitz said.

___

Information from: Columbus Telegram, http://www.columbustelegram.com

AP-WF-12-20-14 1749GMT

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Edsel & Eleanor Ford House sells Cezanne painting for $100M

The Paul Cézanne oil painting at the Edsel & Eleanor Ford House before it was sold to a private buyer for $100 million. The Detroit Free Press reports it is one of the 15 most expensive works of art ever sold. Image courtesy Edsel & Eleanor Ford House.

DETROIT (AP) – The Edsel & Eleanor Ford House kept secret its 2013 sale of an oil painting by French post-impressionist Paul Cezanne to a private buyer for $100 million to help protect Detroit-owned artworks under threat due to the city’s bankruptcy.

The sale appeared on the nonprofit institution’s 2013 tax form and removes from the 1929 Grosse Pointe Shores mansion a painting that had been in the Ford family since the mid-20th century, the Detroit Free Press reported Friday.

Ford House president Kathleen Mullins confirmed to the newspaper the sale of La Montagne Sainte-Victoire vue du bosquet du Château Noir, which was painted around 1904. It depicts a mountain in southern France. The buyer’s name was not released.

Mullins said Ford House officials didn’t release news of the sale when it occurred for fear of causing problems for the Detroit Institute of Arts, which was the focus of debate over whether city-owned pieces of its collection should be sold as part of Detroit’s bankruptcy.

An $800 million promise from foundations, major corporations and the state to helped protect the DIA’s art from possible sale.

Detroit Institute of Arts Director Graham Beal, who was unaware of the Cezanne sale until recently, said the publicity and price would have emboldened creditors in their arguments against the museum’s absolutist stance against selling art.

“I am very glad the Ford House proceeded with such caution” in announcing the sale, Beal said.

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Online:

http://www.fordhouse.org

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Information from: Detroit Free Press, http://www.freep.com

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ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

The Edsel and Eleanor Ford House in Grosse Pointe Shores, Mich. Image by Andrew Jameson. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license.

Group backs plan to turn Astrodome into indoor park

Opened in 1965, the Astrodome was the world's first multipurpose, domed sports stadium. Image by EricEnfermero. This image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

HOUSTON (AP) – An idea to turn the iconic but shuttered Houston Astrodome into a massive indoor park and green space area holds great promise, a nonprofit research group focused on land use said Friday.

At a meeting within sign of the structure, Washington, D.C.-based Urban Land Institute presented a report, which detailed in broad strokes a plan to create a civic space. The proposal could include gardens, areas for festivals, running and biking trails and exhibition space. Pavilions and other green spaces around the Astrodome could also be created to link it with surrounding facilities, including the NFL Houston Texans’ stadium.

The future of the structure has been in limbo since voters in 2013 didn’t authorize $217 million in bonds to turn it into a multipurpose special events center. While the Astrodome is not in any immediate danger of being demolished, local officials have continued to struggle to find an alternative use. Over the years, some proposals – including a water park and a sports memorabilia museum – have not gained much traction, while others proposals have sought to demolish the stadium, which had become an eyesore in recent years but is now being cleaned up.

Tom Murphy, one of the members on the institute’s panel that visited Houston this week, urged residents to support the effort to save the Astrodome, but also criticized the lack of action over the years.

“Are you satisfied with this? … You ought to be embarrassed by it quite frankly,” said Murphy, who is a former mayor of Pittsburgh. “You are at an intersection of choices. You can act or you can procrastinate.”

Opened in 1965, the so-called Eighth Wonder of the World once housed MLB’s Astros and the NFL’s former Oilers, but hasn’t been home to a sports team since 1999 and has been closed to all events since 2009.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett – who first proposed the idea earlier this year – said the proposition has “almost a 100 percent chance of succeeding,” but added it wasn’t immediately known whether officials would have to ask voters to help fund it. The institute’s report, requested by local officials, did not offer a price tag.

The land institute said bringing the proposal to life would take a coalition from the private and public sectors as well as funding from a variety of sources, including local hotel tax revenues, historic tax credits and philanthropy.

The world’s first multipurpose domed stadium is also under consideration for a “state antiquities landmark” designation from the Texas Historical Commission that would make it more difficult to tear it down.

The stadium’s most prominent use in recent years was as a shelter for Louisiana residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The National Park Service has added the Astrodome to its National Register of Historic Places.

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Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter at https://twitter.com/juanlozano70

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Tremors have Florence concerned for Michelangelo’s ‘David’

Michelangelo's David, 1504, in situ at Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence, Italy. Photo by David Gaya, GNU Free Documentation License.

ROME (AFP) – More than 250 minor tremors have rattled the Florence region in recent days, sparking alarm in Italy over the safety of Michelangelo’s David statue.

According to the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, the two strongest shocks in the Chianti region between Florence and Siena Friday measured 3.8. and 4.1 on the Richter scale, though many others recorded early Saturday reached three to 3.5.

No one was hurt in the quakes, and firefighters reported only minor structural damage near the epicenter about 30 kilometres (18.6 miles) south of Florence.

Still, media reports said some 200 residents of the area preferred sleeping in campers, cars or tents in neighboring areas Friday night rather than shaking at home.

The multitude of shocks has raised concerns for Florence’s invaluable architectural and cultural patrimony.

On Saturday, Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini announced the state is investing 200,000 euros ($245,000) for an anti-seismic plinth for Michelangelo’s David, a tourist magnet in Florence.

Last spring a study revealed that the renaissance masterpiece – which was sculpted from a 5-ton marble bloc that was already fissured – was at risk of collapsing if “micro-fractures” within the legs expanded.

A platform to protect the statue from vibrations was ordered to address the problem but the recent quakes “make this project even more urgent,” Franceschini said in a statement.

“A masterpiece like David must not be left to any risk,” he said.

Angelo Tartuferi, director of Florence’s Accademia Gallery that houses the statue, told Italian news agency ANSA that with the financing provided, the platform should be ready for use within the year.

The last major earthquake in Italy was a 6.3-magnitude jolt that killed 309 people in the central town of L’Aquila in April 2009, and was preceded by several weeks of minor tremors.

The biggest seismic event in recent history in the Florence region dates back to 1895, when a quake with an estimated magnitude of 5.4 provoked considerable damage in the hills to the north of the city.

Guggenheim museum digs in after stabilizing Spanish city

Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Biscay, Spain. Image by Ardfern. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license.

BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) – Locals in Bilbao say an art museum helped save their Spanish city from decline. Now they are glad to know their savior, the Guggenheim, will be staying for some time.

With the initial lease set to expire, the U.S.-based Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation on Dec. 9 announced it was signing on to run its museum in the northern port city for another 20 years.

That was double the period previously envisaged for the new contract, and for those involved it was another sign that the museum satellite is a winning formula.

The northern Basque port was a run-down mess in the early 1990s before the contemporary art museum ensconced itself there in its scaly titanium building, local leaders say.

“It is a real miracle that the Guggenheim is in Bilbao. This was a junkyard before,” said the city’s mayor Ibon Areso.

The Rothkos and Warhols hung from the museum’s walls have helped give the city new life – and others across the world are following its example.

“This strategy was driven by globalization. It was very new at the time, but now it is being replicated,” said Lluis Bonet, a specialist in cultural management at Barcelona University.

Apart from their New York base, the Guggenheims had already opened a collection in Venice and are now planning a new museum in Abu Dhabi.

Numerous other big museums are planning their own satellites as well, including several in Spain, a country slowly recovering from recession.

The Louvre has branched out from Paris to Abu Dhabi and to the northern French town of Lens. Paris’s Pompidou Center is planning to open a venue in Malaga, southern Spain.

In Russia, St. Petersburg’s Hermitage museum has announced plans for a branch in Barcelona.

The banks of Bilbao’s Nervion river were grotty and dirty, dotted with abandoned factories before the project was launched that led to the Guggenheim opening in 1997.

“We were in a terrible state. There was high unemployment, industries had shut down, there were lots of drugs and the city hadn’t been cleaned up for many years,” said Inaki Esteban, author of a book, “The Guggenheim Effect.”

The $170-million (more than 130-million-euro) museum was part of a plan to transform the city and diversify its economy, but it was controversial at the time.

“People didn’t see how a museum could be an economic motor,” Esteban said.

Now the area is brightly lit with parks and bicycle lanes woven around the ship-shaped metallic museum building designed by Canadian-born U.S. architect Frank Gehry.

Seventeen million visitors have come through its doors and hotel stays in Bilbao have soared as foreigners have flocked to the city.

The Guggenheim directly or indirectly employs 5,000 people, and has brought in three and a half billion euros ($4.3 billion) in revenues to the region, officials say.

Bilbao had historically been one of Spain’s most prosperous cities, but it had declined along with its heavy industries and shipyards.

Within a year of the museum opening, it had generated 144 million euros ($186 million) for the Basque region, and its unemployment rate has decreased to one of the lowest in Spain.

“The Guggenheim was a great success but it was not an isolated initiative. It was part of wider urban regeneration. They improved the port and built an underground train system,” said Guillermo Dorronsoro, head of the business school at Bilbao’s Deusto University.

Other cities have since imitated the “Bilbao effect” though not all have succeeded, mayor Areso said.

“There is much more to it than just putting a museum there. Bilbao’s transformation would have been possible even without the Guggenheim. But we wouldn’t have become so well-known internationally.”

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