Gallery Report: June 2018

ATLANTA – At the start of each month, ACN columnist Ken Hall gathers top auction highlights from around the United States and beyond. Here’s what made headlines since last month’s Gallery Report (prices include the buyer’s premium unless stated otherwise):

R.S. Prussia marked bowl, $15,000, Woody Auction

An R.S. Prussia marked fall season bowl, 9¾ inches in diameter with poppy highlights, sold for $15,000 at the Part 1 sale of the lifetime collection of R.S. Prussia antique porcelain from the late John and Lavaun Headlee, with nearly all the pieces rare cobalt blue, held May 26 by Woody Auction in Douglass, Kansas. Also, from the same set, the summer bowl fetched $11,000 and the winter bowl realized $7,000; also, an unmarked chocolate set, cobalt blue with a stylized carnation décor, hit $10,000. Prices quoted are hammer.

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Original copy of Declaration of Independence on view July 4

The opening section of the original printing of the Declaration, printed on July 4, 1776 under Jefferson's supervision. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

 

This idealized depiction of (left to right) Franklin, Adams, and Jefferson working on the Declaration of Independence was widely reprinted (by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, 1900). Public domain image

BOSTON (AP) – One of 14 original copies of the Declaration of Independence will again be on public display for the 4th of July on Boston.

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Guernsey’s to auction Rosa Parks, Michael Jackson items July 25-26

Rosa Parks’s reassembled home, which originally stood in Detroit. Guernsey’s image

NEW YORK – Michael Jackson’s first recording contract, Rosa Parks’ family home and Alex Haley’s manuscript for the Malcolm X biography are among the hundreds of extraordinary items being offered in Guernsey’s African American Historic & Cultural Treasures auction on July 25 and 26. Largely focusing on the Civil Rights Movement, African American movies and music, this auction will include items that are of huge cultural and historical importance. Absentee and Internet live bidding is available through LiveAuctioneers.

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Life of Abe Lincoln’s son in spotlight at Hildene in Vermont

Photograph of Hildene mansion on the former estate of Robert Todd Lincoln in Manchester, Vermont. Photo by Rolf Muller, permission by GDFL

MANCHESTER, Vt. (AP) _ The “Land of Lincoln” is the state slogan for Illinois, but there’s a Lincoln family outpost in the lush mountains of southern Vermont. Abraham Lincoln, who started his political career in Illinois, never made it to Vermont, but his son Robert Todd Lincoln built his stately summer home Hildene in the Green and Taconic mountains of Manchester.

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Colonial Williamsburg receives rare 18th C. Dering painting

Joyce Armistead Booth (Mrs. Mordecai Booth) by William Dering (active 1734/1735-1755), oil on canvas, Williamsburg, Virginia, ca. 1745. Gift of Julia Miles Brock, Edward Taliaferro Miles and Georginana Serpell Miles in memory of their mother, Alice Taliaferro Miles, 2018-165, A&B

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. —In the first half of the 18th century, William Dering was a well-connected dancing master and artist who lived and worked in Williamsburg, Virginia. Today, only six of Dering’s paintings are known to survive; four, including the artist’s only known signed and dated portrait, are in Colonial Williamsburg’s collection, the largest assemblage of his work. Now, through a generous gift from the sitter’s descendants, Joyce Armistead Booth (Mrs. Mordecai Booth), ca. 1745, a large-scale, oil on canvas, joins Dering’s other works at Colonial Williamsburg, including the well-known portrait of the subject’s son, George Booth. Until now, the painting of Mrs. Booth, which is in remarkable condition and survives in its original frame, has descended through the Booth family.

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PBA Galleries offers adventures in America and beyond, July 12

The first French edition of U.S. Constitution, 1792, which includes the constitutions of the 13 original states, was possibly published to aid the French in drafting their new constitution. PBA Galleries image

SAN FRANCISCO – On Thursday, July 12, PBA Galleries will host an auction of Fine Americana – Travel & Exploration – World History – Cartography with over 700 lots of rare and interesting material, ranging from Colonial America and the Revolution through to heady days of the Gold Rush, the tragedy of the Civil War, and the settling of the plains and mountain west, culminating in civil rights movements of the 20th century. Absentee and Internet live bidding is available through LiveAuctioneers.

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Julien’s to auction stars’ fashions by Bob Mackie, Nov. 17

From left: a gown worn by Carol Burnett, Cher’s show-worn ensemble and Raquel Welch’s ‘I’m a Woman’ performance gown, all designed by Bob Mackie. Julien’s Auctions image

LOS ANGELES – Julien’s Auctions will celebrate the timeless glamour and inimitable style and genius of a legendary fashion and costume designer in “Property from the Collection of Bob Mackie,” the auction house’s fashion event of the season on Saturday, Nov. 17.

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