PHILADELPHIA — In Freeman’s April 13 Asian Arts auction, competitive bidding across the board sent lots soaring past their pre-sale estimates. Top lot honors were decisively claimed by Lot 28, a pair of Chinese huanghuali armchairs; the handsome pair, exemplars of Chinese craftsmanship from the late Ming to Qing dynasty, achieved $948,000 against an estimate of $80,000-$120,000.
SPARTANBURG, S.C. (AP) – A unique gold medal celebrating a South Carolina battle victory that helped turn the tide in the American Revolution brought a world record $960,000 at auction. An anonymous buyer of the Daniel Morgan at Cowpens Medal won with a bid of $800,000 on April 4. With the 20% buyer’s premium, the final price was $960,000, according to Stack’s Bowers Galleries in Costa Mesa, California.
NEW YORK – Images by Ruth Orkin, Annie Leibovitz and Jean Dieuzaide will likely earn top lot status at Jasper52’s Vintage Photoengravings and Photolithographs sale, which will be conducted on Tuesday, April 26 at 4 pm Eastern time. Also represented in the sale lineup are works by other legendary artists, including Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Dorothea Lange, Man Ray, Walker Evans, George Platt Lynes, Horst P. Horst, Lucas Samaras, Lee Friedlander, John Everhard, Josef Pecsi, Diane Arbus, Robert Mapplethorpe, Helmut Newton, Terry Richardson, Linda McCartney, Jean-Francois Bauaret, Ralph Gibson, Margaret Bourke-White, Jim Marshall, Vasil Stanko, Jeanloup Sieff, Jean-Francois Jonvelle, Andre de Dienes, Bruce Davidson, Ruth Bernhard, Bruder Wagner, Heinz von Perckhammer, Rolf Tietgens, Wolfgang Suschitzky, Arthur Rothstein, Morris Rosenfield, Francois Robert, Wladyslaw Pawelec, Andre Ostier, Terry O’Neill, Nadar, Rudolf Muller-Schonhausen, Herve Lewis, Andreas Fux, J.H. Lartigue, Philippe Halsman, Alfred Gescheidt, Bill Emrich, Patrick DeMarchelier, Cecil Beaton, Bill Brandt and Berenice Abbott, among others. Absentee and Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers.
NEW YORK — Chocolate has been a delicacy for centuries, enjoyed around the world in a range of treats, from truffles to pudding to cookies and cakes. Its simplest and most enjoyable form is also its earliest: a hot drink. Fine dining demands all manner of specialized serving pieces, so, unsurprisingly, a canny silversmith designed the chocolate pot, a vessel exclusively for melting and serving chocolate.