LONDON (AP) – A rare first edition of William Shakespeare’s plays is to go on display in the Bard’s spiritual home, just a few hundred yards from where it was printed in 1623.
Shakespeare’s Globe says a First Folio discovered last year in a library in Saint-Omer, France, will be displayed at the London theater for two months from July 2016.
Actor Mark Rylance said Monday that he’s delighted “my favorite book in the world” is coming to the recreated Elizabethan playhouse. The theater lies across the River Thames from the site of London’s 17th-century printing houses near St. Paul’s Cathedral.
About 750 copies of Shakespeare’s collected plays were printed seven years after the playwright died. Some 230 copies are known to survive, including the book found among belongings from a now-defunct Jesuit college in Saint-Omer, near Calais.
Saint-Omer librarian Remy Cordonnier identified the folio, which was missing its title page and had been misidentified as an 18th-century printing.
He said annotations suggest it was been used for student performances at the college – some of the bawdier jokes have been crossed out.
One First Folio sold at Christie’s auction house in 2006 for $6.8 million, and Saint-Omer mayor Francois Decoster said Cordonnier had told him of the discovery by saying, “I think we’ve found the second-most-precious book in the world.” He said the town already has a copy of the most valuable, the 15th-century Gutenberg Bible.
Rylance, a former Globe artistic director who is currently starring as Henry VIII’s adviser Thomas Cromwell in BBC television series Wolf Hall, said that 17 Shakespeare plays were not printed in the playwright’s lifetime. Without the First Folio they would have been lost.
“This one will return and live a few hundred yards from where it was originally created,” he said, looking out across the Thames from the Globe. “Magical.”
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LONDON – We met a dealer this week who used to deal only in high value, Royal Doulton and Beswick pottery figures. Oddly, all he’s selling now are modern reproductions of Art Nouveau and Art Deco bronzes. What had gone wrong?
Simple: Demand for his stock had fallen away to such a degree that he had decided to cut his losses and sell up. Quite possibly dozens of his customers up an down the country are wising they could do the same, their china cabinets bearing witness to purchases made for investment rather than love.
It’s never a good plan, particularly where antiques are concerned.
There was a time when Beswick was fetching astronomical prices. I recall witnessing the London sale of the contents of the Beswick Museum in 2003, following the factory’s closure. One lot in particular, Kruger the pit pony, set a world auction record.
Beswick made only four copies of Kruger to commemorate the opening by Princess Anne of Chatterley Whitfield Mining Museum, in Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, in 1987.
Kruger was the last pit pony to work at Chatterley, retiring in 1931, and when museum chiefs sought an image to represent the Spirit of Whitfield, which ceased as a working colliery in 1978, the little Welsh cob was the ideal choice.
The figure was modeled by Beswick chief designer Graham Tongue, but oddly – and unlike any other piece produced by the factory – was never given a shape number.
Today, one of the four remains in the Royal Collection; one can be seen in the mining museum, and the third was sold in an auction in 1994 for 2,750 pounds. I watched the fourth sell for a 11,352 pounds with buyer’s premium. What price now, I wonder?
Beswick is arguably best known for its highly detailed figure groups of wild and domestic animals and a range of racehorses including Red Rum, Nijinsky and even thoroughbreds owned by the Queen.
The move was the idea of Beswick chief modeller Arthur Gredington and later developed by decorating manager Jim Hayward. Between them they introduced more than 3,000 models during the former’s 35 years with the company.
They included cats and dogs, birds and fish, pets and wild animals, all of which rubbed shoulders with royal commemorative ware, Toby jugs and children’s characters, notably the popular Beatrix Potter figures.
Everything produced after 1936 was marked with model numbers, which simplified identification, and because of the quality of genuine pieces, reproductions are almost unheard of.
That, coupled with a host of seemingly scarce withdrawn pieces and closure meaning no new Beswick would ever be produced again created the perfect storm for rapid price spirals.
However, in this digitally connected world, trends that are viral one minute are spam the next. Beswick models or colour combinations that were once thought to be rare and valuable, proved to be quite the opposite. As word spread, more and more examples started appearing out of the ether, usually on online auction platforms where every collector can be his own auctioneer.
Such technology is also capable of helping buyers find “rare” pieces with little or no effort on their part. Type in a handful of keywords to an auction search engine and up pops examples of the objects proving, in some cases, that perhaps they are not so rare after all. The technology will even inform buyers when further pieces are posted for sale.
Rarities do continue to surface, though. North Yorkshire auctioneers Tennants uncovered a model of the Dartmoor pony called “Jentyl” Model No. 1642 in the previously unknown black colorway.
It turned out that the piece was made specially for a long-serving judge with the Dartmoor Pony Society and the owner of the last colt, produced by the mare. No other black-painted Jentyl is known – unless you know different – and the model sold for just shy of 1,000 pounds. The common brown version can be had for around 50 pounds.
An indication of how values have taken a hit is offered by prices achieved for Model No. 151, the Huntsman in the rare so-called “rocking horse gray” colorway. In 2010, a restored version sold for 3,450 pounds in a Tennants auction, while in 2012, a perfect example fetched 2,600 pounds. In 2013, another, also in perfect condition sold for 1,650 pounds.
Condition is of paramount importance. Broken legs, fins, feathers or ears, all of which are particularly vulnerable, can decimate values. Restoration, however good it might be, also kills prices, sometimes up to 90 percent off the market price, according to Tennants specialist Mark Littler.
The Charlton Standard Catalogue of Beswick Animals, now in its 10th edition is, is required reading. It lists all known models, styles, versions and variations with retail prices, although saleroom valuations are generally between a third and half lower.
The Beswick company was founded by James Wright Beswick and his son, John, in 1894 at the Baltimore Works in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent.
Initially the factory produced under-glaze printed dinner, tea and toilet wares as well as hospital wares and fancy goods, such as pots and pedestals, vases in the so-called “majolica” glazes, Toby jugs and old-English style figures.
Only later, in the 1930s, did it turn to animal modeling, notably the series of shire and famous racehorses and champion dogs.
J.W. Beswick died in 1921 and his son in 1936, whereupon the company passed into the control of grandsons John Ewart and Gilbert Beswick.
The Pottery Gazette, that bible of the industry, reported prophetically in 1961 that “No pottery formed in the last century is more likely to be of future interest to collectors than the House of Beswick.”
How right they were. Buying swept through the home market and later the U.S. and Canada, the lifelike and highly detailed and anatomically accurate modeling, meticulous hand-painting and stringent quality control ensuring a loyal following among collectors.
By then a limited company, Beswick subsequently became renowned as the finest manufacturer of animal groups and a range of whimsical figures of creatures with human expressions and in human poses.
However, with no heirs to pass the company on to, the family sold out to troubled Royal Doulton in 1969 for a reported 495,000 pounds.
Production ceased in Christmas 2002. Demand for rare and withdrawn figures spiraled out of control, collectors often pushed aside by investors who assumed they were on to surefire profits. They were, but not for long.
Pundits now rate Beswick as “a hold.”
A Beswick Hunt group. Collectors love to build complete sets like this. Photo Tennants Auctioneers
Mounted Indian, Model no. 1391 and Canadian Mounted Cowboy, Model no. 1377, both in gloss finish. Photo Tennants Auctioneers
Jentyl, Model no. 1642, finished in black, a figure believed to be unique. It was made specially for a Dartmoor Pony Society judge. Photo Tennants Auctioneers
FALLS CHURCH, Va. – On Thursday, March 12, Quinn’s Auction Galleries will offer to the highest bidder one of the most significant documents in US history – the letter President Lyndon Baines Johnson wrote to Coretta Scott King on April 5, 1968, the day after the assassination of her husband, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This auction was originally scheduled for March 5 but was postponed because of a winter storm.
In the hand-signed, typewritten letter on White House stationery, Johnson begins by saying: “My thoughts have been with you and your children throughout this long and anguished day. Tonight Mrs. Johnson and I pray again that God gives you the solace of His strength.”
Johnson goes on to say that he has been devoting himself to “honoring [Dr. King] in the manner he would most approve…by word, deed and official act – to unite this sorrowing and troubled nation against further and wider violence…We will overcome this calamity and continue the work of justice and love that is Martin Luther King’s legacy and trust to us.”
The six-paragraph letter concludes: “All of us ask God to comfort you now and restore your compassionate influence to us.”
The Presidential letter was kept by Mrs. King until 2003, when she gave it to singer Harry Belafonte, who had been active in the civil rights movement throughout his life and was a close confidante of the slain leader.
Belafonte later gifted the letter to his half-sister, Shirley, and her husband Stoney Cooks, who are the consignors to Quinn’s March 5 auction.
“It’s not at all surprising that Harry Belafonte, who is now 87 years of age, felt Shirley and Stoney Cooks were the right stewards for the letter,” said Matthew Quinn, vice president of Quinn’s Auction Galleries. “Both Shirley and Stoney have been lifelong civil rights activists. Shirley is an ex-chief of staff to three members of Congress and was a deputy assistant secretary in the State Department. Stoney, who was a staff member with Dr. King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, was at the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march. After the assassination, he was asked by Reverend A.D. King [MLK’s brother] to stay by the coffin and guard it during the public viewing and wake at Sisters Chapel at Spelman College. Stoney was definitely part of Dr. King’s trusted inner circle.” A newspaper photo shows Stoney Cooks dusting off the glass-covered casket during the service.
Cooks is a longtime collector of objects pertaining to the civil rights movement and has had a 20-year association with Quinn’s Auction Galleries, both as a buyer and seller.
“But we never expected to be given the privilege of selling such an important historical document,” said Quinn. “It’s an honor and a privilege just to be in the presence of this letter … it could very well end up in a museum or other institution where it might forever remain behind glass. That is what Shirley and Stoney Cooks hope will happen – that it will end up in a place where the public will be able to see it.”
The letter is accompanied by three relevant press releases: a Presidential Declaration ordering April 7, 1968 as a national day of mourning, a “Statement by the President,” and a “Statement of the President on the Death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. [in] The Fish Room.”
Entered in the auction as Lot 125, the letter and accompanying press releases are expected to sell as a group for $120,000-$180,000. “But there’s no way of knowing what its value is to historians, collectors or museums,” Quinn said. “The letter can’t be compared to anything else that has sold in the past. It’s unique.”
To contact Quinn’s, call 703-532-5632 or email info@quinnsauction.com.
View the fully illustrated catalog for Quinn’s March 12 auction and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
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NEW YORK – A major exhibition featuring extraordinary works created by Native American people of the Plains region will go on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art beginning March 9. Bringing together more than 150 iconic works from European and North American collections – many never before seen in a public exhibition in North America – “The Plains Indians: Artists of Earth and Sky” will explore the beauty, power and spiritual resonance of Plains Indian art.
Ranging from an ancient stone pipe and painted robes to drawings, paintings, collages, photographs and a contemporary video installation, the exhibition will reflect the significant place that Plains Indian culture holds in the heritage of North America and in European history. It will also convey the continuum of hundreds of years of artistic tradition, maintained against a backdrop of monumental cultural change. A selection of modern and contemporary works not seen at other venues of the exhibition will provide a compelling narrative about the ongoing vitality of Plains art.
“Through outstanding works of art from the Plains region, this ambitious exhibition demonstrates the long history of change and creative adaptation that characterizes Native American art. It is an important opportunity to highlight the artistic traditions that are indigenous to North America and to present them in the context of the Met’s global collections,” said Thomas P. Campbell, director and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum.
The exhibition was organized by the Musée du quai Branly, Paris, in collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and in partnership with the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City.
Drawn from 81 institutions and private collections in France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Canada and the United States, the exhibition will represent the art traditions of many Native Nations. The distinct Plains aesthetic will be revealed through an array of forms and media: sculptural works in stone, wood, antler, and shell; porcupine quill and glass-bead embroidery; feather work; painted robes; ornamented clothing; composite works; and ceremonial objects, works on paper, paintings and photography.
The 19th-century works in the exhibition will include key pieces long associated with westward expansion. Among them are calumets, the long and elaborate pipes shared and given as gifts in the systems of protocol that were developed to establish diplomacy and trade between Europeans and the inhabitants of the “New World” whom they encountered on the Plains.
The reintroduction of the horse to North America by the Spanish, beginning at the end of the 16th century, revolutionized Plains Indians cultures in many ways – particularly as a boon to the buffalo hunt. In the exhibition, there will be a section presenting some of the best examples of 19th-century horse gear, weapons, clothing, and shields associated with a florescence of culture in the area. One highlight among them is a Lakota horse effigy, believed to honor and memorialize a horse that died in battle as the result of multiple gunshot wounds.
The substantial changes brought on by reservation life, beginning in the 19th century, engendered various artistic responses, ranging from instances of assimilation to acts of resistance to confinement. They will be conveyed by several masterworks in the exhibition, including important regalia used for the practice of prophetic religions. Among them are an elaborate bead-embroidered Otoe-Missouria Faw Faw coat with symbols, associated with ceremonialism and the desire to restore balance in a world that had become untenable; and a richly painted Arapaho Ghost Dance dress with visionary symbols associated with ritual practices.
Record books, paper, pencils and ink were introduced on the Plains during the last quarter of the 19th century by settlers and traders. Among many fine examples of those included in the exhibition, the highlight will be The Maffet Ledger, a book consisting of 105 drawings, created by more than 20 Northern and Southern Cheyenne warrior artists to record their exploits in battle.
Modern and contemporary works of art will be exhibited near the end of the exhibition. Traditional-style works were still produced in the early 20th century for Wild West shows, agricultural fairs, and Fourth of July parades, and for the powwow, inter-tribal opportunities for the celebration of culture, dance and art. Watercolors and “easel paintings” grew from long-standing Plains graphic traditions and through dialogue with other Native North American regions by the mid-20th century. Many fine examples of paintings from the era will be presented in the exhibition. Brilliantly executed beaded works by such artists as Joyce and Juanita Growing Thunder Fogarty (b. 1950 and b. 1969, both Assiniboine-Sioux), Rhonda Holy Bear (b. 1959(?), Sans Arc, Two Kettle and Hunkpapa Lakota), and Jodi Gillette (b. 1959, Hunkpapa Lakota) will also be included in the exhibition.
“The Plains Indians: Artists of Earth and Sky” will remain on view through May 10.
PITTSBURGH – Andy Warhol’s great-niece, Abby Warhola, and fellow filmmaker Jesse Best are launching a Kickstarter campaign on March 3 to bankroll a documentary film project titled Uncle Andy: The Andy Warhol Family Film.
The film will portray Warhol from perspective of the people who knew him the best since the day he was born – his family.
In the documentary film project, Uncle Andy: The Andy Warhol Family Film, which is currently in production, the producers plan to highlight these rare, never-before-seen roots and perspectives.
The film will be produced by Warhola Films and largely funded through an upcoming, grassroots Kickstarter campaign. Warhola Films will launch the Kickstarter campaign for Uncle Andy on Tuesday, March 3, and it will run for 31 days with a goal of $175,000.
The film will provide the most personal look at Warhol’s life and legacy to date, all through the eyes of his immediate family, the Warholas – siblings, nieces, nephews and others. The filmmakers have been capturing rare footage, including from family members who have since died, for several years. When completed, this feature-length documentary will be the first time audiences will discover a side of Warhol that only his family knew. They witnessed firsthand his unprecedented transformation from humble son of a working-class Pittsburgh family into one of the most important and celebrated artists in history.
Eric Shiner, director of the Andy Warhol Museum, said: “Andy Warhol was a family man. Although he left Pittsburgh within weeks of graduating from Carnegie Tech, he stayed in close contact with his brothers and their children via weekly phone calls and their regular visits to see him in his new home of New York City. This film will expose a side of Warhol the very few people have ever seen, and I know it will shed new light on Uncle Andy.”
Warhola Films was created by photographer and filmmaker Abby Warhola and visual artist and filmmaker Jesse Best in 2013. They are also filming, directing and producing Uncle Andy so that it can be as personal and historically authentic as possible.
NEW YORK – In September, Christie’s Education New York will welcome its first class of students to the world capital of contemporary art for a unique new master’s degree program called “Global Contemporary Art,” designed to prepare students for careers in the constantly evolving contemporary art marketplace.
This 15-month Master of Arts program emphasizes hands-on experience with art, exposure to a wide variety of professional practitioners in the global art market, and an in-depth understanding of the cultural, socio-economic and market forces that shape today’s global art scene.
Through a series of integrated courses, field visits, and an internship, the program offers students direct engagement with the artistic methods and procedures used today as well as extensive individual contact with active art world professionals. Students learn about the global art market’s impact on and its relationship to the creative process, with special consideration of the shifting relationship between the consumer and producer and the changing dynamics between the artist and the collector.
The highly tailored program provides students with the competitive edge to become professionally involved in one of the fastest growing areas of the art world, with the practical and conceptual tools to understand the complexity of the global art market from 1980 to the present. Studies are organized thematically, rather than geographically, reflecting the cross-pollination of ideas and influences shaping today’s art world, with a major focus on non-Western contemporary art from South America, Asia and Africa and how it engages with and confronts contemporary art practices in the more-established arts scene. The courses emphasize the interface between institutional networks and commercial art markets, as well as recent digital technology and social platforms and their impact on contemporary artistic production on all continents. Within the 15-month program, students gain hands-on experience through a 45-day internship in the field of their choice.
Students from diverse backgrounds who have either a B.A. in art history or comparable professional experience in the art world are welcome to apply. Students enjoy a small student-teacher ratio, which gives them an opportunity to work closely with knowledgeable professors and highly regarded art experts, as well as with one another, to focus on mastering professional art world skills. Students not only gain a solid academic grounding, they also study contemporary exhibitions and art fairs, conservation and collection practices, and relevant legal and insurance issues. The program is ideal for anyone beginning or looking to advance a career in the ever-growing art market, including art fairs, galleries and auctions, and the emergence of new geographic and online markets.
Students who begin in September 2015 can graduate in December 2016.
Program Director is Robin Reisenfeld, Ph.D.
Tuition and fees total $53,439 ($1,190 per credit, plus fees; 44 credits required for graduation).
NEW YORK (AFP) – U.S. authorities Tuesday handed back to Italy an 18th century painting and ancient Etruscan bronze statuette at a ceremony in New York, decades after they were stolen.
The painting, The Holy Trinity Appearing to Saint Clement, is attributed to artist Giambattista Tiepolo and the bronze of Greek god Herakles dates from the sixth or fifth century B.C.
The Tiepolo was stolen from a private home in the Italian city of Turin in 1982, resurfacing at a New York auction in January 2014, when it was seized by the FBI.
The statuette was stolen from a museum in the Italian coastal town of Pesaro in 1964 and was eventually discovered when it was offered for sale by an auction house in Manhattan, where it was also seized by the FBI.
“Both the Tiepolo painting and the Etruscan sculpture represent Italy’s rich cultural history and today will be returned to their homeland,” said Manhattan deputy U.S. attorney Richard Zabel.
“For decades, two significant pieces of Italian heritage have been on the run … until today. We are proud to be able to return these key pieces of work back to the Italians,” said FBI assistant director Diego Rodriguez.
Last May, U.S. authorities handed back to Cambodian officials an ancient statue of a warrior that was stolen in 1972.
The 10th-century sandstone Duryodhana bondissant was snatched from a temple in Cambodia and first sold in London in 1975.
It was supposed to have been auctioned again at Sotheby’s in New York in 2011, but the sale was stopped after Cambodian authorities made an appeal through UNESCO.
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum is opening a new exhibit exploring the struggles and achievements of one slave family in Maryland before and after the Civil War.
A diary started in 1841 by Adam Francis, then the enslaved patriarch of the Plummer family, provides a firsthand account of the family’s struggle to stay together before, during and after the Civil War.
The exhibit, “Hand of Freedom: The Life and Legacy of the Plummer Family,” opened Monday. It includes artifacts from the family and a film about the diary’s discovery.
The Anacostia Community Museum also is featuring a new exhibit about “How the Civil War Changed Washington.” It focuses on the war’s impact on the evolution of the nation’s capital. The museum looks at Washington’s neighborhoods, workforce and demographics over time.
MESA, Ariz. – A large, beautiful and prehistoric Anasazi pottery jar and a circa 1900 Sioux dentalium and tradecloth dress are expected top lots at this year’s Big Spring Phoenix auction, March 7-8, an annual event held by Allard Auctions.
LiveAuctioneers.com will provide absentee and Internet live bidding.
This year’s Big Spring Phoenix will feature more than 900 lots of Native American and Western artifacts, art and related collectibles. “This sale will have everything imaginable, from beadwork to pottery, artwork to jewelry, some very nice baskets and much, much more,” said Steve Allard of Allard Auctions Inc, which is based on the Flathead Indian Reservation in St. Ignatius, Montana.
Offered will be a fantastic collection of Anasazi pottery, a private collection of Zuni bolo ties and concho belts, a private katsina doll collection, and fine baskets from California, the Southwest and the Northwest Coast. In addition to baskets, pottery, beadwork and jewelry, lots will feature Navajo rugs, original art, bronzes, many prehistoric items, antiques and other items.
The Anasazi pottery jar, with an estimate of $10,000-$20,000, is a black-on-white olla, or water jar, being offered in rare, as-found condition in Tularosa, a village in Otero Cty., New Mexico. The jar, 11 ¾ inches tall, has some stress cracks, but is intact and sturdy, in very good condition. Anasazi pottery is highly collectible and the jar in the sale is considered to be a superb example.
The Sioux dentalium (tooth shell) and trade cloth dress and yoke are in very good condition. Like the Anasazi jar, it carries an estimate of $10,000-$20,000. It is a rare old 12-row, fully covered and removable dentalium shell yoke with canvas, and the original selvedge tradecloth dress with ribbon and metallic sequin accents. A few shells are missing on the extra large outfit.
A Santa Clara pottery jar made in the mid-1900s by Margaret Tafoya (1904-2001), who was active in Mexico and New Mexico, should change hands for $6,000-$12,000. The gorgeous and large (13 inches by 14 inches) deep-carved blackware storage jar with an Avanyu-style band is in very good condition. Just one small abrasion area on one side is its only blemish.
A Navajo necklace, made around 1974 by Ben Nighthorse Campbell, is a rare early work done in sterling, with sea foam turquoise nuggets and bench-made beads. It was done in the Navajo style, despite the fact that Campbell was actually Northern Cheyenne. It is also the first piece he signed “Nighthorse.” The necklace, 44 inches in length, should fetch $5,000-$10,000.
A Navajo pottery jar, turned in the late 1900s by the award-winning, high-end potter Lucy Leuppe McKelvey, is estimated to bring $2,500-$5,000. The original design jar, titled Whirling Rainbow Goddess of the Windway Chant, shows amazing painted polychrome designs done on mottled clay. It measures 10 ¾ inches in height and 16 ½ inches in width and is in very good condition.
A pair of Navajo rugs or weavings done in the 1940s, are expected to sell for $2,000-$5,000 each. One is a large, vintage Ganado rug with elongated central lozenge and precise details. It is in very good condition and measures 48 inches by 88 inches. The other is a Crystal rug, nearly room-size at 75 inches by 128 inches. It boasts a striking geometric design in still vivid colors.
A gorgeous oil on canvas painting by Fred Fellows (b. 1934), titled A Working Mother, 12 inches by 18 inches (23 inches by 29 inches framed) has an estimate of $2,500-$5,000. The signed work was rendered around the 1980s. Fellows was born in Ponca City, Oklahoma, and now lives and works in Sonoita, Arizona. He is a painter and sculptor who works in the realist style.
Rounding out just a handful of the auction’s expected top lots are a matted and framed collection of original historic artworks pertaining to Asa Battles (b. 1923), including a rare first-edition copy of Fodor’s 1975 book Indian America, plus over 40 pen-and-ink illustrations (est. $2,500-$5,000); and a Shoshone woman’s outfit made circa the 1960s, a sinew sewn flat and lazy stitch beaded white buckskin outfit in very good condition, sized small/medium (est. $3,000-$6,000).
Lots 1-440 will be sold on Saturday, March 7; lots 501-850 will be sold on Sunday, March 8.
Allard Auctions, Inc. has been selling exclusively American Indian artifacts and art at auction since 1968. The firm is always accepting quality merchandise for future auctions. To inquire about consigning call them at 406-745-0500 or toll-free 888-314-0343 or send an email to info@allardauctions.com.
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Navajo Ganado rug or weaving, circa 1940s, 48 x 88 in. Estimate: $2,000-$4,000. Allard Auctions Inc. image.
Santa Clara blackware storage pottery jar by Margaret Tafoya (Ariz./N.M., 1904-2001), with Avanyu-style band. Estimate: $6,000-$12,000. Allard Auctions Inc. image.
Late 1900s Navajo original design pottery jar by Lucy Leuppe McKelvey with painted designs on mottled clay. Estimate: $2,500-$5,000. Allard Auctions Inc. image.
Circa 1974 Navajo necklace by Ben Nighthorse Campbell with sea foam turquoise nuggets and bench-made beads. Estimate: $5,000-$10,000. Allard Auctions Inc. image.
Original oil on canvas painting by Fred Fellows (b. 1934), titled ‘A Working Mother,’ artist signed. Estimate: $2,500-$5,000. Allard Auctions Inc. image.
Outstanding Shoshone woman’s sinew sewn flat and lazy stitch beaded white buckskin outfit, circa 1960s, small/medium. Estimate: $3,000-$6,000. Allard Auctions Inc. image.
Rare Sioux 12-row fully covered, removable shell yoke with canvas; a dentalium and trade cloth dress, circa 1900. Estimate: $10,000-$20,000. Allard Auctions Inc. image.
VINELAND, N.J. – In describing what awaits bidders on March 27-28 when Bertoia Auctions presents Part II of Washington attorney Max N. Berry’s antique toy and bank collection, gallery associate and auction coordinator Rich Bertoia offered an analogy from the motion-picture world.
“When they do a sequel in Hollywood, it’s never as good as the original, but the follow-up to Part I of Max’s collection, which we auctioned last November, will be a blockbuster,” he said.
The auction of just over 500 lots, with absentee and Internet live bidding through LiveAuctioneers, is devoted exclusively to selections from Berry’s extraordinary lifetime assemblage of rare mechanical banks, early American tin and horse-drawn toys, as well as bell toys and penny toys. Additionally, the lineup will be peppered with other toys that captured Berry’s fancy over the years, like hand-painted German tin toys, a Mickey Mouse Hurdy Gurdy and other comic character rarities. “If it appealed to Max, he bought it – but it had to be something really special for that to happen,” Bertoia said.
Almost 200 mechanical banks are entered in the March event, many come with provenance from legendary bank collections. Some are of a caliber so high, they don’t show up at auction more than once in a 20-year stretch, Bertoia said. “This will be one of those very unusual sales where even advanced collectors can find some of those near-apocryphal banks that have eluded them for so long,” he said.
A top highlight is a Stevens “Darky Kicking Watermelon” bank, one of only three known to either Bertoia’s or the experts who were called in to assess and catalog the collection (Oliver Clark, Russ Harrington and Mike Caffarella). The bank was formerly held in the Stan Sax collection and will be auctioned with a $200,000-$300,000 estimate.
Another high-profile bank is Berry’s Jerome Secor Freedman’s Bank, which has a rich trail of provenance, starting with its purchase in 1939 from dealers in Mexico. The buyer, who paid $8 for it, was a pioneer collector and banker from Fostoria, Ohio, named Andrew Emerine. From Emerine, the African-American-themed bank passed to another legendary collector, Mosler Safe Company president and CEO Edwin H. Mosler Jr. After Mosler, the bank’s next owner was Stanley P. Sax, whose collection was auctioned by Bertoia’s in 1998. It was at that auction that Max Berry acquired the bank, and it instantly became one of his most treasured possessions. It is cataloged in the March 27-28 auction with a presale estimate of $150,000-$200,000. All existing receipts and other written provenance will convey with the bank.
Other top-notch cast-iron banks set to cross the auction block include a Santa-themed Zig-Zag bank – a possibly unique survivor of cast-iron, tin and cloth that Bertoia described as having “a very clever action. You put a penny on top of Santa’s head, the coin zig-zags down, and a jack-in-the-box springs up. There should be hands up in the air all over the auction room for this bank. It’s a favorite with collectors.” Zig-Zag is estimated at $125,000-$175,000.
A red-version Mikado bank is expected to sell for upward of $75,000, while an Organ Grinder and Bear, possibly the only extant example with a movable arm on the grinder, is estimated at $10,000-$12,000.
Three extremely desirable banks made of lead are found in the Berry collection, including two designed by Charles A. Bailey: A Chinaman in Rowboat, estimate $80,000-$90,000; and a Cat and Mouse in beautiful condition. A third lead rarity, patented in 1905 but of unknown manufacture, is the Blacksmith bank. It will be offered together with a 1940 photo of its designer, Ohioan Fred Plattner, then age 80, seated and holding the bank.
An array of wonderful tin banks includes an Empire Cinema, $15,000-$20,000; a colorful, hand-painted William Weeden Ding Dong Bell, $60,000-$75,000; and two more Saalheimer & Strauss Mickey Mouse banks that complete the coveted four-bank series that was introduced during last November’s sale.
Horse-drawn cast-iron toys include several variations of Spyder Phaetons, by Hubley and Kenton, respectively, that typify luxury auto travel of the early 20th century. The selection also includes an elegant Pratt & Letchworth Barouche, $10,000-$12,000; a fleet of Hubley Circus wagons and bandwagons; a Kyser & Rex Cage Wagon with a bear, lion and other animal figures, $8,000-$10,000; and a very rare Kenton Uncle Sam nodder horse-drawn toy, $6,000-$8,000. A 28-inch-long Pratt & Letchworth Caisson drawn by four horses is the only example known to Bertoia’s. “It’s in jaw-dropping condition,” Rich Bertoia said. “We expect it to sell above $50,000.”
Max Berry’s fondness for American cast-iron bell toys was always common knowledge amongst collectors, said Bertoia. “His is one of the most complete collections of its type, and it includes a number of toys with amusing themes.” The collection’s early American hand-painted tin “pull” bell toys create a virtual menagerie of animals – horses, dogs, sheep, goats, elephants and more. Also, there are many that depict ladies riding horses.
American hybrid toys of hand-painted tin with cast-iron wheels include J & E Stevens velocipedes, Althof Bergmann goat-drawn wagons, and an especially nice figure of a girl pushing a suffragette on wire wheels. The latter toy could reach the $15,000 range.
Many years ago, Max Berry purchased a major collection of penny toys. He continued to build on to it, increasing not only its volume but also the breadth of subject matter depicted by the miniature tin artworks. Part II of Berry’s penny toy lineup includes two different styles of Bavarian Dancers, Girl in a Swing, Girl in a Gondola, Boy Catching Butterfly, a rare Rabbit Pushing a Basket, and a Roundabout amusement park ride.
In summarizing what lies in store on March 27-28 when Bertoia’s hosts the second exciting sale of Max Berry’s collection, auction company owner Jeanne Bertoia commented: “If you liked Part I, you’ll love Part II. And just as before, we’re making sure the auction is a fitting tribute to Max, who has done so much for the toy and bank-collecting hobby. Our gallery will be a hospitable setting where everyone can enjoy good food and conversation as they browse and preview one of the all-time great collections, which we are so honored to present at auction.”
To contact Bertoia’s about any item in the March 27-28, 2015 auction of the Max N. Berry collection, Part II, call 856-692-1881 or email toys@bertoiaauctions.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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Mary and Her Little Lamb bell toy, Gong Bell Mfg. Co., considered the finest known example, provenance: Covert Hegarty collection, est. $3,000-$3,500. Bertoia Auctions image
Zig-Zag mechanical bank, manufacturer unknown, patent applied for in 1889, extremely rare, provenance: Seaman’s Savings Bank, NY, Al Davidson and Stan Sax collections, est. $125,000-$175,000. Bertoia Auctions image
‘Darky Kicking Watermelon’ mechanical bank, J. & E. Stevens Co., designed by Charles A. Bailey, patented 1888, one of four known examples, provenance: Wally Tudor, F. H. Griffith, Leon Perelman and Stan Sax collections; est. $225,000-$300,000. Bertoia Auctions image
Cast-iron Woman at Sewing Machine, attributed to Sandt, rear lever activates head and hand motions when turned, provenance: Donal Markey Collection, est. $8,000-$12,000. Bertoia Auctions image
Pratt & Letchworth horse-drawn Flying Artillery, polychrome-painted cast iron, two mounted soldiers and four seated figures, 33½ inches long, provenance: Bill Bertoia collection, est. $30,000-$40,000. Bertoia Auctions image
Welker Crosby barouche with driver, drawn by two black horses sporting blue blankets, 17 inches long, provenance: Paul Dunigan collection, est. $12,000-$15,000. Bertoia Auctions image
Girl Pushing Hoop toy, manufactured by George Brown, circa 1890s, depicts William Goodwin girl in cloth dress ‘pushing’ a tin hoop toy, with Suffragette figure holding American Flag at center, est. $10,000-$12,000. Bertoia Auctions image
Clockwork hoop toy with cloth-cressed boy holding American Flag, George Brown, circa 1880, est. $8,000-$10,000. Bertoia Auctions imagen
Freedman’s Bank, mechanical, manufactured by Jerome B. Secor, Bridgeport, Conn., circa 1880, one of fewer than 10 known examples, inspired by the emancipation of slaves, provenance: Emerine, Mosler, and Stan Sax collections; est. $150,000-$200,000. Bertoia Auctions image
