BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – A Tibetan bronze standing Lokeshwor is one of the top items in an Asian art, antiques and estates auction that I.M. Chait Gallery / Auctioneers will conduct on Sunday, March 8.
LiveAuctioneers.com will provide absentee and Internet live bidding.
The heavy polychrome bronze deity stands 27 1/4 inches high atop a lotus base with removable flaming mandorla behind. It has a $5,000-$7,000 estimate.
Also featured in the 557-lot auction are:
A collection of Chinese and Japanese porcelains from a Midwest collection, including blue and white and colored wares;
Numerous old and antique Chinese snuff bottles from a Chicago collection;
Sino-Tibetan gild bronzes together with Chinese blue and white porcelains from a Pasadena collection estate;
Numerous Chinese carved jades including nephrite and jadeite together with agates from a Midwest collection;
A collection of Sino Tibetan thankas together with antique furniture from a Beverly Hills estate;
A pair of antique Chinese famille rose porcelains together with antique Southeast Asian bronzes and Pre-Colombian from a Laguna Nigel, California collection;
Antique Chinese and Japanese bronzes together with antique porcelains from a La Habra, California estate;
A group of early Chinese ceramics including Ming, Tang and Han from a Beverly Hills estate.
The auction will begin at 11 a.m. Pacific Time. For details contact I.M. Chait Gallery / Auctioneers by phone at 310-285-0182 or via email at chait@chait.com.
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Four antique Southeast Asian carved wood Buddhas; all seated in half-lotus position with hands in ‘Earth Witness’ and serene expression. The tallest is 8 in. Estimate: $400-$600. I.M. Chait Gallery/Auctioneers image
Three Chinese paper scrolls: two ink and color, one depicting a falcon upon a perch, another a vulture on a ledge; together with ink and wash on paper depicting grazing donkeys, inscription and seal marks to each; 40 in. x 22 in. (largest). Estimate: $300-$400. I.M. Chait Gallery/Auctioneers image
Old Chinese saddlebag rug, depicting a deer looking at a bird, wear and flaws noted, 59 in. long. Estimate: $150-$200. I.M. Chait Gallery/Auctioneers image
PASADENA, Calif. – Presenting a catalog peppered with a number of pleasant surprises, Moran’s Feb. 17 decorative art auction proved attractive for collectors across a number of specialties, including modern decorative art enthusiasts, collectors of fine silver and those whose tastes run more toward traditional French furnishings, with sales running well over half a million dollars.
LiveAuctioneers.com facilitated Internet live bidding.
The 20,000-square-foot auction floor within the Pasadena Convention Center was packed to capacity with offerings. The cataloged session alone comprised 252 lots, with an uncataloged discovery auction offering an additional 200 pieces.
Modern and contemporary prints earned excellent sale prices, including a color pouchoir on paper by Henri Matisse (1869-1954 French) from his “Jazz Suite”, dated 1947. La Nageuse Dans L’Aquarium (The Swimmer in the Aquarium) carried an initial estimate of $10,000 to $15,000 and found a buyer at the high estimate. After competitive bidding via telephone with every available line reserved, Roy Lichtenstein’s (1923-1997, New York) Best Buddies, dated 1991, found a new home for $18,000, within the estimate range of $12,000 to $18,000. A private collector purchased both of the Mixographias by Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo (1899-1991) on offer in Tuesday’s auction, including Pajaro Liberado (Freed Bird), which was assigned an estimate of $3,000 to $5,000 and exceeded expectations with a final price of $7,500.
Moran’s received a collection of more than 50 photographs from a local Los Angeles collector, with subjects ranging from show business celebrities to American presidents. Two photographs by Helmut Newton (1920-2004 German) exceeded expectations. The first, a quirky portrait titled Maria Felix at home in Cuernavaca, was estimated to bring $800 to $1,200 and achieved an excellent selling price of $3,250. The second work, carrying the same estimate, was titled Vincent Price at the Magic Castle; that portrait found a buyer at $2,300.
Echoing John Moran’s successful February 2013 auction, a set of three Isamu Noguchi “Rudder” stools and one table, models IN-22 and IN-20 respectively, were offered in this catalog, and exceeded expectations. Hailing from a single-owner collection in Chicago, the set was purchased new directly from the Herman Miller showroom in the 1950s. Evidently, the consignor’s 1950s investment paid off, as the stools each earned between $25,000 and $27,500 hammer and the table brought a very respectable $17,000. The Noguchi lots earned a combined sum of over $110,000 including buyer’s premium.
Decorative highlights included art glass, silver and bronzes. One of the most notable examples was a Loetz iridescent art glass vase of unusual undulate form that sent collectors into a frenzy. Sent to the block early in the auction, the piece sold for an impressive $8,400 to a determined telephone bidder, well over the conservative $400 to $600 estimate.
A handsome Tiffany & Co. sterling silver table vase from a private Pasadena collection went to a private collector for $4,500 (estimate: $2,000 to $3,000). A two-piece lot of diminutive cold painted bronze female figures performed within expectation, ending up with an $1,800 price tag (estimate: $1,000 to $2,000). Finally, a charming gilt bronze and white metal-mounted Dutch tortoiseshell box accompanied by a letter certifying its purchase via a 1929 auction at the Danish palace was offered with a $1,000 to $1,500 estimate, selling online for $1,630.
Traditional Continental and French furniture and decorative arts were well represented in the sale. A Regence-style gilt bronze-mounted vitrine cabinet with an impressive central Vernis Martin door, found to have one mount faintly stamped “PS” and therefore possibly by maker Paul Sormani (1817-1887 Paris), surpassed the conservative initial estimate and delighted the Pasadena area consignor by earning $60,000 at the auction block. A pair of neoclassical torchieres with armor-clad figures supporting four-light standards garnered a fair amount of presale interest. Expected to find a buyer for between $3,000 to $5,000, the set earned $4,200. An impressive early 20th century Rococo-style carved giltwood marble-top table sold to a floor bidder for just over the estimated $2,500 to $3,500 range, bringing $4,200.
One of the most extraordinary lots offered in the sale was an intriguing Italian Renaissance automaton cabinet, informally named the Mystery Cabinet, offered for $6,000 to $8,000, which earned $9,600. Dubbed an “engine d’esbattement” by French Renaissance contemporaries, the piece is a rather mild iteration of automatons commissioned by European Renaissance-era aristocrats meant to tease, embarrass and/or delight their guests. This particular cabinet calls into question the character of a particular lady of the Rucellai family, who is revealed to be a devil when the viewer moves to expose her partially obscured portrait. Facing competition from multiple online bidders, a telephone buyer proved successful in taking the oddity home.
Additional highlights included a Bacon Banjo Co. tenor banjo, circa 1930, which incited a fervor of online interest and sold for $1,560 (estimate: $800 to $1,200). Shortly after, a Swiss-made Bolex H-16 REX-4 16mm film camera in excellent working condition realized $1,200 (estimate: $300 to $500).
Select works of fine art did quite well, with the majority of the higher-earning works from California artists. A work by Emil J. Kosa Jr. (1903-1968 Los Angeles) featuring a seated clown holding an accordion was one of a number of circus-themed artworks offered in Moran’s February auction. The offbeat portrait found a buyer for a respectable $3,500, well over the $1,000 to $2,000 estimate. A jewel-toned landscape by Carmel, Calif. painter Nell Walker Warner (1891-1970) from a Washington estate sold for $1,680, squarely within the $1,200 to $1,800 estimate. A large-scale oil on canvas by Los Angeles-born Frank Bowers (1905-1964) depicting buccaneers on a beach charmed quite a few bidders in attendance, one of whom was successful at $1,080. Capturing an unexpected vantage point from above Seattle’s iconic Space Needle, San Francisco watercolorist Jack Laycox’s (1921-1984) aptly titled composition Space Needle found a new home for $1,882 (estimate: $700 to $1,000).
John Moran is seeking consignments for the April 21 decorative art and May 5 fine jewelry auctions. Interested parties are invited to contact John Moran Auctioneers directly for more information regarding the consignment process. Friendly and knowledgeable specialists are readily available by phone: 626-793-1833 or via email: info@johnmoran.com.
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‘Best Buddies’ by Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997 New York), estimated to bring $12,000 to $18,000, attained $18,000 at John Moran’s Feb. 17 auction. John Moran Auctioneers image
This large Loetz iridescent art glass vase wildly exceeded expectations when it sold for $8,400, largely due to its unusual form. Its estimate was $400 to $600. John Moran Auctioneers image
With gilt bronze mounts very possibly by the celebrated French bronzier Paul Sormani (1817-1887), this elegant Regence style Vernis Martin vitrine cabinet sold for $60,000 (estimate: $5,000 to $7,000). John Moran Auctioneers image
This Italian Renaissance automaton cabinet was offered at Moran’s February Auction with an estimate of $6,000 to $8,000 and found a buyer for $9,600. John Moran Auctioneers image
One of the most popular lots in John Moran’s February auction was this ‘Eucalyptus’ landscape by Carmel, Calif., artist Nell Walker Warner, which earned $1,680 (estimate: $1,200 to $1,800). John Moran Auctioneers image
Collectively realizing over $110,000, this set of three Noguchi ‘Rudder’ stools and table was consigned by the original Chicago owner. John Moran Auctioneers image
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) – A 450-year-old German artifact that was used to tell time and to make astronomical calculations will be returned to a German museum from which it was likely stolen after World War II, according to the Toledo Museum of Art.
The device, called an astronomical compendium or astrolabe, disappeared from the Gotha Museum in Gotha, Germany, sometime in 1945.
“This was a one-of-a-kind scientific device,” said Brian Kennedy, president and director of the Toledo museum. “It’s sad to see it go, but it’s not ours.”
American troops occupied Gotha in eastern Germany in April 1945 near the end of World War II, but were replaced by Russian forces a few months later. Many of the museum’s collections were moved in 1945 to the former Soviet Union, and Gotha later became part of East Germany.
The astronomical device, though, was one of the few items from the museum that didn’t end up in the Soviet Union. Instead, it landed in the hands of a New York art dealer before it was sold for $6,500 in 1954.
The museum in 2013 received a letter from the director of the Gotha Museum, saying that it found out about the piece in Toledo and believed it was theirs.
Kennedy said they reviewed documentation, including photographs, from the Gotha Museum and determined that the piece on display in Toledo was “most likely one and the same.”
The two museums then reached an agreement to get the historically valuable piece back to its rightful owner, Kennedy said.
“We’ve recognized there’s been a cultural shift in how museums conduct themselves,” he said. “There’s much more scrutiny in how museums obtain their objects and transparency now.”
This is the fourth time since 2010 that the Toledo museum has returned art that belonged to someone else.
Last year, the museum announced that an 11th-century Indian statue was likely stolen from an Indian temple. The museum bought the small bronze statue from a New York dealer now charged in India.
The institution also returned a mermaid figure stolen during World War II to a German museum in 2011 and an illegally looted ancient water jug to Italy in 2013.
Copyright 2015 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
LINCOLN, Neb. – A new exhibition at the International Quilt Study Center and Museum will explore the role quilts had throughout history during wartime. “Covering the War: American Quilts in Times of Conflict” opens at UNL’s Quilt House, 1533 N. 33rd St., March 6 and will be on display through Nov. 21.
“Covering the War” features 10 quilts spanning 150 years of history, beginning with the Mexican-American War through Operation Iraqi Freedom. While other exhibitions have focused on quiltmaking during a single war, few have examined the similarities of quilts from multiple wars.
“These wars altered life on the home front significantly, and by looking at quilts from each war, we can see how personal these effects were to ordinary people,” said Jonathan Gregory, assistant curator of exhibitions. “The quilts in ‘Covering the War’ give glimpses into these stories, and how women’s patriotic and charitable work during the wars gave them expanded postwar opportunities.”
The exhibition will also showcase two recent acquisitions to the center’s collection. The first is an 1898 album quilt from the Spanish-American War. The quilt was donated by Bill Volckening, a rising quilt collector, and is inscribed with embroidered names of President William McKinley and other high-ranking political and military officials.
The second quilt, “Madison Township Memorial of the World War,” was made circa 1918. The piece features blue stars to honor soldiers serving in the war from Madison Township, Indiana, while gold stars remember those who died in the war. Red crosses on the quilt honor nurses who served in the war.
“Every time we get a significant quilt like this, it adds great value to our collection, because it’s a representation of history,” said Carolyn Ducey, the center’s curator of collections. “It’s a tangible link to an important part of our past.”
The museum also borrowed a rare U.S. Sanitary Commission quilt from the collection of the Barbara Knapp Trust for display. According to an inscription on the album quilt, it was “presented to the Soldiers (cq)” on behalf of the Sanitary Commission. Though commission volunteers made thousands of quilts during the Civil War, only a handful – including this one – are known to still exist bearing the commission’s stamp.
The museum is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. For more information, go to http://www.quiltstudy.org .
BERLIN (AFP) – U.S. and British heirs of Nazi-era Jewish art dealers have sued Germany for the return of a medieval art treasure worth $250-300 million (220-260 million euros), their lawyers said Tuesday.
At stake in the case filed Monday before a U.S. district court in Washington is the Guelph Treasure or “Welfenschatz” of more than 40 gold, silver and gem-studded church relics.
The suit, the latest twist in a legal tussle dating back to 2008, targets the German government and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which is exhibiting the collection in a Berlin museum.
The U.S. lawyers, presenting their case in Berlin Tuesday, said four Jewish collectors had to sell the artworks in a “sham transaction” far below their fair market price in 1935 under duress from the Nazis.
“The Jewish people who owned this art had their property squeezed out of them while their lives and the lives of their families were at risk,” said U.S. lawyer Nicholas O’Donnell.
The lawsuit argues that “such transactions in Nazi Germany were by definition coercive, voidable and should not be considered valid.”
Germany has argued the four dealers received a fair market price from the state of Prussia then led by Hermann Goering, the Gestapo secret police founder and air force chief.
In March last year Germany’s advisory body on cases of suspected Nazi-looted art, the Limbach Commission, said it saw no evidence of “a persecution-induced forced sale” and that the price was normal following the 1929 Wall Street crash.
The panel, whose rulings are nonbinding, argued that in 1935 all sides had voluntarily consented to the deal for the treasure, which was then being held out of the Nazis’ reach in Amsterdam.
The foundation said Tuesday it was “surprised and disappointed” by the lawsuit, saying it was unaware of any new evidence that would justify revisiting the commission’s recommendation.
The Guelph Treasure, now exhibited in Berlin’s Museum of Decorative Arts, originally numbered over 80 pieces dating from the 11th to 15th centuries.
The Duke of Brunswick sold off the collection in 1929, with many pieces bought by the Jewish consortium.
The city-state of Berlin said last week it had placed the Guelph Treasure, the largest publicly owned collection of German ecclesiastical art, under national heritage protection, meaning it may only leave the country with permission of the minister for culture.
WARREN, N.J., – An overwhelming majority of 445 respondents (83 percent) to a survey at the recent Winter Antiques Show in New York plan to increase (39 percent) or keep their spending on arts and antiques the same (44 percent) in 2015. The survey, which was conducted by the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, also found that only 7 percent plan to decrease their spend, and 10 percent do not intend to make an art or antique purchase this year.
“Buyers’ appetites are clearly not satiated – even after 2014, when 42 percent of survey respondents increased their spending on art and antiques,” said Melissa Lalka, vice president and worldwide fine art manager for Chubb Personal Insurance. “Increased buyer activity, coupled with record-setting sales reported by the leading auction houses, can significantly impact art values – and collectors should keep in mind that their art and antiques can become alarmingly underinsured.”
The survey also found that 32 percent of respondents believe they already have adequate coverage under their current homeowner’s or renter’s insurance policy for newly acquired works. Thirty-four percent would purchase new or additional coverage, and 21 percent said that they are unsure about their coverage and would need to check with their agent, broker or insurance company. Thirteen percent said they do not insure their art.
“It’s always a good idea to check with your agent and broker,” advised Lalka. “A standard homeowner’s policy provides relatively little coverage for art and antiques. Depending on the value of your purchases, there’s a good chance they should be itemized on your policy, or that you may need the broader coverage provided by a valuable articles policy.”
Lalka also suggested that collectors appraise their collections at least every three to five years and to have their agents or brokers adjust the level of coverage accordingly. For rapidly appreciating works, she suggested updating appraisals every one to two years to ensure they remain fully covered by insurance in the event of a loss.
The survey also asked collectors why they purchase art and antiques. Fifty-six percent said they do so out of passion, 3 percent for investment opportunity and 38 percent for both.
Chubb was the presenting sponsor of the 61st annual Winter Antiques Show, building on its 19-year affiliation with one of the top international fine art and antiques events. The 2015 show ran from Jan. 23 to Feb. 1 and featured 73 exhibitors of fine and decorative art.
Chubb is a leading provider of insurance for private collectors of art, antiques, jewelry and other valuable possessions. Chubb’s Masterpiece® Valuable Articles policy provides worldwide coverage for fine art and antiques, jewelry, furs, silverware, musical instruments, stamps, coins and other collectibles. The policy includes coverage for breakage, mysterious disappearance and newly acquired items, as well as inflation protection.
For more information regarding the Chubb Corporation, including a listing of the insurers in the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, visit www.chubb.com.
DENVER – “Joan Miró: Instinct & Imagination” will open at the Denver Art Museum on March 22 and run through June 28. The exhibition focuses on artworks the Spanish artist created during the last two decades of his career (1963-1981).
Miró’s imagination and creativity extended well into his old age. Later in life, he continued the inventive forms for which he is known and began exploring new materials, including bronze. This exhibition features bronze sculptures rarely seen outside of Europe.
An exhibition catalog published by the Seattle Art Museum in collaboration with the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and in association with Yale University Press, New Haven, and London will be available in the Shop at the Denver Art Museum.
“Joan Miró: Instinct & Imagination” is included in museum admission.
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) – An upcoming exhibition at Hagley Museum & Library is like no other in the history of the Greenville-area historic site.
There’s only one thing in it – a unique rug that, at 10 by 12 feet, is the largest hooked rug in the museum’s collection. Museum leaders also say it was the world’s first rug made of nylon.
“In this exhibition, guests will have the opportunity to slow down, focus, see and deeply understand many of the stories this one extraordinary object has to tell,” Director of Museum Services Joan Hoge-North said in a statement.
“Every object in our own lives represents a variety of stories about us and how we live our lives,” she said. “The same is true of all the objects in a museum collection.”
The experimental and unprecedented exhibition, called “Unraveling Stories,” will share four stories through examination of the rug. They are the stories of the artistic tradition from which it came, the narrative its images depict, the science behind experimental materials used to make it and the personal story of its artist.
The artist was Nancy du Pont Reynolds Cooch of Greenville, who died at home Jan. 21 at the age of 95. She was the wife of Edward W. Cooch Jr., who died in 2010.
She was a sculptor who pioneered Lucite carving, also working in bronze, with numerous one-artist shows and exhibited at such prestigious sites as the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
She created the crucifix statue at the du Pont Family Chapel in Greenville and her work is represented in numerous private collections as well as permanent collections of many museums and facilities.
Cooch – active in numerous art-, heritage- and garden-related groups, along with historic-restoration efforts – also was involved in textiles, having researched and designed more than 400 needlepoint kneelers for Christ Episcopal Church in Greenville and wrote a book called Needlepoint Kneelers on their religious symbolism.
She designed and created the rug in the late 1940s. A friend of hers in the DuPont Co.’s nylon department wanted to know if the breakthrough material would be good for carpets and rugs, Hagley spokeswoman Meg Marcozzi said.
“Mrs. Cooch had the nylon yarn dyed to her specifications and made this rug,” she said.
At the rug’s center, the artist – who was the daughter of the late Eugene Eleuthere and Catherine Dulcinea Moxham duPont – portrayed the American Eagle, the ship that brought the du Pont family from France to America in 1799-1800. She surrounded the ship with icons important to her family, also documenting Delaware history. They include the Brandywine, where the family used its water power for its industry, gunpowder mills that were their first American manufacturing product, the Eleutherian Mills Residence and barn, the first DuPont Co. office and Christ Church, which the family attended.
“In addition to displaying her family’s story, Mrs. Cooch included something of her own: her little dog, Huffy,” Marcozzi said.
She worked the rug in a technique that first became popular in the 1850s, Marcozzi said. Such rugs are made by hooking fabric loops such as yarn or cloth strips into fabric, she said. Their popularity boomed after the introduction of burlap, she said, “because its loose weave served as an ideal base.”
Leftover scraps of cloth or fabric from household textiles often were used, she said.
“Early hooked rug makers had to create the pattern and hook the rug,” Marcozzi said. “Interest in hooked rugs dwindled by the late 19th century, but popularity returned during the Colonial Revival period in the 1920s.”
Its exhibition opens March 20 and runs through July 26. The exhibition is included in admission, which is $14 for adults, $10 for seniors and students, $5 for children 6 to 14, and free for members and children 5 and younger. Exhibition-only admission is $6 for adults, seniors, and students; $2 for children 6-14; and free for members and children 5 and under.
For more information, call 302-658-2400 weekdays or visit hagley.org
___
If you go:
WHAT: “Unraveling Stories”
WHERE: Hagley Museum & Library, 200 Hagley Creek Road, Wilmington, Delaware
BEACHWOOD, Ohio – To enjoy the wine lifestyle, the accessories must be as great as the vintage wine. Today, the status symbol is a wine cellar with bottles of carefully selected wine stored in racks in a room kept at the proper temperature.
To go with that wine cellar a collector must also have the proper glasses, vintage corkscrews, aerators, bottle stoppers, tools and, of course, a decanter. But collectors of decanters are often not interested in wine, just in the many bottles and containers that are used to decant wine. Open a bottle, pour the contents into the decanter, let the sediment settle, then serve the wine.
For centuries decanters have been glass bottles with long necks, but by the end of the 19th century, figural glass or pottery decanters became popular. Recent auctions have sold glass decanters with silver tops that are shaped like Bacchus, early musicians, dogs, waiters and even a walrus. Glass decanters shaped like large fish have been made since the 1900s.
Royal Doulton made a decanter shaped like mysterious man in a clock for Sandeman products. And some modern liquor companies make figural decanters today for colleges and special events. Add to your enjoyment of wine with a decanter collection.
A walrus-shaped decanter with gilt brass trim sold recently at a Neal auction in New Orleans for $1,434.
Q: I inherited my great-grandmother’s Norwegian spinning wheel. The letters “TAD” are carved on the side and the date “1816” is painted on in black. The wheel is 22 inches in diameter and has 16 carved spokes. My great-grandparents brought it with them when they emigrated from Norway. Is it worth anything?
A: Spinning wheels date back to medieval times, but most found today are 100 to 200 years old. There are several different types. The most common is the Saxony Wheel, which has the wheel at one end and the flyer at the other end and usually has three legs. It’s the traditional wheel pictured in fairy tales. A Norwegian Wheel is a horizontal wheel similar to the Saxony. It may have three or four legs and is often ornately carved. The Castle Wheel is a vertical spinning wheel with the flyer above the wheel. The letters “TAD” could be the maker or the initials of the person it was made for. The date and provenance make your spinning wheel interesting. Most spinning wheels sell for $100 to $250. They often are bought to use.
Q: I’d like to know how to sell Hummel figurines. I inherited 24 figurines from my mother. Some still have the price stickers on them. Are they worth anything, and if so, how do I market them?
A: Hummel figurines aren’t as popular as they were years ago. As the older generation of collectors have died, large collections are coming on the market. Heirs are finding they are hard to sell and prices have dropped. Although some rare figurines still sell at auctions for high prices (one sold for over $900), most are sold in groups, with prices as low as $5 or $10 per figurine. The older figurines bring better prices. Age can be determined by the trademark on the bottom of the figurine.
Q: We have a Howdy Doody windup band made by Unique Art in 1950. Buffalo Bob moves back and forth at the piano and Howdy Doody is standing up and dancing. What is it worth?
A: The Howdy Doody windup band originally came in a box labeled “Doin’ the Howdy Doody.” Howdy Doody and Buffalo Bob were characters in a children’s TV series that originally ran from 1947 to 1960. The series became popular with college students in the late 1970s when Buffalo Bob began to lecture on campuses. The New Howdy Doody Show was produced from 1976 to 1977. This tin lithographed toy was made during the original series. The toy in good condition and in its original box sold for $741 at a recent auction. One without the box sold for $420.
Q: In 1954, my mother bought a new home and had furniture custom made. My bedroom dresser and desk was light wood with a white leather-like front and gold drawer handles. I had a Zenith tube radio that had a light wood case and a white front that matched the furniture. I don’t have the furniture any more, but I do have the radio (still works) and would like to sell it. I’m wondering where I could sell it and what it’s worth.
A: It’s too bad you don’t still have your furniture, because the fifties look is “in.” The blond wood and sleek lines of furniture and accessories made in the 1950 and ’60s are experiencing renewed popularity today, particularly with young collectors, and prices are up. Your Zenith High Fidelity tube radio fits in with the “look” and is worth $85 to $140.
Q: I have a Reed & Barton sterling silver butterfly whistle pendant and chain my mother gave me. It’s in a yellow felt pouch that reads “Butterfly whistle, Reed & Barton sterling” in red letters. I also have the original square white box. What is this worth?
A: Reed & Barton made this butterfly whistle-pendant in the early 1970s. The company also made an owl whistle-pendant and an Irish shamrock “good luck” whistle-pendant. Butterfly whistle-pendants without the packaging have sold online for about $30-$40, although sellers with the packaging ask, but don’t often get, up to $200.
Tip: Never touch the surface of a daguerreotype or an ambrotype. The perspiration will stain the image.
Take advantage of a free listing for your group to announce events or to find antique shows, national meetings and other events. Go to the Calendar at Kovels.com to find, publicize and plan your antiquing trips.
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.
Baseball pen and pencil, bat shape, faux signature, Johnny Mize and Joe DiMaggio, Hillerich & Bradsby Louisville Slugger logo, 1940s, 5 inches, two pieces, $30.
Trade stimulator, roulette wheel, official sweepstakes horse race, Rock-ola, 1 cent, circa 1933, $1,320.
Kovels’ A Diary: How to Settle a Collector’s Estate. Our new week-by-week record of the settlement of an estate, from your first days gathering legal papers to the last days when you’re dividing antiques among heirs and selling everything else – even the house. How to identify pottery, jewelry and other popular collectibles. Tips on where and how to sell furniture, jewelry, dishes, figurines, record albums, bikes and even clothes. We include lots of pictures and prices and explain the advantages of a house sale, auction, selling to a dealer or donating to a charity. Learn about how to handle the special problems of security and theft. Plus a free current supplement with useful websites, auctions lists and other current information. Available only from Kovels for $19.95 plus $4.95 postage and handling. Order by phone at 800-303-1996; online at Kovels.com; or write to Kovels, P.O. Box 22900, Beachwood, OH 4412
NEW YORK (AP) –The 1954 Les Paul Gibson guitar known as “Black Beauty” has sold at auction for $335,500.
LiveAuctioneers.com facilitated Internet live bidding.
Guernsey’s auction house says the six-string instrument with gold-plated hardware set the standard for other Les Paul Gibson guitars.
Paul was a jazz, country and blues guitarist. He made frequent modifications to his basic guitar over the years, refining the sound.
Paul, whose hit songs include How High the Moon, played his instruments in concerts, recordings and on the Les Paul and Mary Ford television show. He died in 2009.
There was no presale estimate for the “Black Beauty” guitar, and Guernsey’s could not provide the name of the buyer.
The auction record for a guitar belongs to the Fender Stratocaster that Bob Dylan played at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. It sold for $965,000 in 2013.
Paul collaborated on his original design with Gibson after the guitar maker approached him about making an electric guitar bearing his name.
The auctioneer calls it the most significant electric guitar ever made.
Years ago, Paul gave the instrument to his friend, guitar technician and builder Tom Doyle of Wantage, New Jersey.
Guernsey’s president, Arlan Ettinger, said the Les Paul guitar is considered a “Holy Grail” among musicians because it gave birth to thousands of instruments that bear his name.
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