CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – One of the original signed prints of Albert Einstein sticking his tongue out at photographers has been sold by a New Hampshire auction house for $74,324.

“Every kid has it in their dorm room on the wall,” Bobby Livingston of RRAuction.com in Amherst said Saturday. “It’s such an iconic display of freedom of speech.”

The picture was taken in 1951 by UPI photographer Arthur Sasse after a 72nd birthday celebration for the physicist. As Sasse tried to coax a smile for the camera, Einstein stuck out his tongue.

Two years later, at the height of the McCarthy anti-Communist hearings, Einstein signed the photo and gave it to broadcaster Howard K. Smith as a gesture of his admiration of Smith’s work.

Translated from German, the inscription says: “This gesture you will like, because it is aimed at all of humanity. A civilian can afford to do what no diplomat would dare. Your loyal and grateful listener, A. Einstein ’53.”

By 1953, Einstein had begun speaking out against McCarthyism.

“Einstein, escaping Nazi Germany, fully understood what was happening in this country and was commenting on it,” Livingston said. “That’s what makes it so special, he wrote on it and explained his intentions.”

David Waxman of Great Neck, N.Y., is the new owner. He is a specialist in important scientific books and autographs.

Waxman said the image probably is the best-known picture of Einstein, appearing on T-shirts and even currently on a New York City billboard.

He said Einstein’s inscription makes it even more valuable.

“It’s one of a kind, highly important, speaks to the culture, speaks to anybody who looks at it and thinks about it a bit,” Waxman said. “It’s a message of intelligent nonconformity.”

Waxman intends to put the photo up for sale, perhaps with other photos of famous scientists.
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Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-ES-06-20-09 1511EDT

PARIS (AP) – A Paris auction of art belonging to Japanese fashion designer Kenzo Takada has netted $2.63 million.

Auctioneer Claude Aguttes said Wednesday that 75 percent of the sale’s 1,100 items were sold.

Kenzo decided to part with the collection, acquired over the past two decades, when he sold his Paris mansion to move into a smaller Left Bank apartment.

The collection included a rich variety of Eastern and Western art, from bronze Buddhas to Hopi Kachina dolls from the American southwest. An 8th-century Buddha sculpture from Burma sold for $88,575, while the Kachinas fetched $14,115.

Some of the auction’s lots didn’t sell, however, including a set of 16th-century red lacquerwear from a Japanese monastery.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-CS-06-17-09 1544EDT

NEW YORK (AP) – A rare Abraham Lincoln stamp that was stolen from Indiana in 1967 and surfaced 39 years later in Chicago has sold at auction for more than $400,000.

The stamped envelope was offered at auction by order of the Dorothy Jean Baker Revocable Trust and was sold on Saturday, June 13, 2009 at Manhattan’s Robert A. Siegel galleries.

The buyer is Arthur K.M. Woo, a doctor who would reveal nothing more about himself.

Dr. Woo paid $431,250 (inclusive of 15 percent buyer’s premium) for the 90-cent stamp. It had been entered in the sale with an estimate of $300,000 to $400,000.

The so-called Ice House Cover with Lincoln’s likeness is on an envelope mailed from Boston to an ice house in India in 1873.

The stamp vanished from its owner’s safe in Indianapolis and turned up in 2006 at a home in Chicago. A collector notified police.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-CS-06-14-09 0048EDT

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ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

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DENVER, Pa. (ACNI) – While the finest examples in each category brought predictably high prices, it was the reawakening of the middle range that spurred the most discussion at Dan Morphy Auctions’ $1.3 million Spring Sale. The May 28-30 event showed strength at all levels, said auction company owner Dan Morphy, even in areas that had cooled in recent months.

“I was talking to our antique advertising specialist Gary Metz, and with Don Heim, who’s an extremely knowledgeable dealer/collector, and we all agreed that a lot of the middle to high-range material brought very good prices,” said Morphy. “Some of the hand-painted German tin toys were only graded 6.5, but they had a fantastic following and sold for excellent prices. There was a collection of toy snails that contained a Lehmann production that a lot of German collectors wanted. It sold for $3,700 (15% buyer’s premium included), which was just amazing.”

European bidders were especially active in the sale via the Internet, Morphy said. “Virtually all of the German bidders for the toys were online. In all, we had more than 1,000 registered Internet bidders.” A total of 401 lots sold through LiveAuctioneers.

Pressed-steel toys, which seemed to have slowed down in the marketplace, showed plenty of muscle in the sale’s Friday session. “Some collectors had said that there was too much pressed steel on the market and that it had gone soft, but that’s not what we saw. We had more than 100 people in the audience for the pressed-steel and pedal-car portion of the sale,” Morphy said. “Some of them had driven long distances, from Wisconsin and Missouri, and some pulled up with trailers. The person who bought the most pressed steel was still packing up his purchases on Saturday morning.”

The top pedal-car lot among the 175 examples offered from a single-owner collection was a slick 1930s Cadillac tandem model made by American National of Toledo, Ohio. Sporting a rumble seat for additional passenger, the impeccably restored 40-inch-long luxury car breezed past its $1,000-$1,200 estimate to apply the brakes at $9,360.

Toys with an animal theme proved very popular. In addition to the aforementioned snails, the single-owner collection included turtles, fish, snakes and frogs. A papier-mache ball-toss amusement game comprised of a 19-inch-tall open-mouthed frog on a wheeled platform, complete with painted-wood balls, easily surpassed its $2,000-$4,000 estimate to settle at $6,300.

Kyser & Rex was the brand of choice in the cast-iron banks category. A still bank shaped like an apple on a branch, in near-mint-plus condition, took a bite out of its $1,500-$2,000 estimate, closing at $3,200 – a record auction price for the form. An Internet bidder prevailed on the Kyser & Rex Organ Grinder and Bear mechanical bank, which sold together with its original box for an above-estimate price of $4,800.

The acclaimed antique paper doll collection of the late Phyllis Grindle drew collector attention from all corners of the United States and Europe. Leading the approximately 200 lots in this specialty grouping was an extremely rare circa-1850s boxed set known as “The Boy & His Horse.” With four reversible mounts and six interchangeable riders, the coveted set in near-mint condition realized $4,600 against an estimate of $2,500-$3,000. In the doll section, a Schmitt et Fils 12-inch bébé with closed mouth and blue paperweight eyes fared best, also making $4,600.

Antique advertising put in a powerful performance, with an extremely rare Dilling’s Old Fashioned Butter Scotch penny vending machine topping the group. Featuring bright red and yellow advertising on its front and porcelain sides, and marked with an 1899 patent, the machine produced the goods at $15,500 against hopes of $6,000-$9,000.

Bidding on an extremely colorful, oak-framed cardboard Union Leader Cut Plug Tobacco sign issued in 1899 was competitive to the end. “We had five phone bidders after the piece,” said Morphy. The winner paid $4,600.

A pre-1900 reverse-on-glass oval corner sign advertising beer, porter and ale from America’s oldest brewery, Yuengling’s of Pottsville, Pa., included its original fluted metal framework, trim and wood corner bracket. It sold to a LiveAuctioneers bidder for $6,600. Other important lots that sold through LiveAuctioneers included an antique Kyser & Rex mechanical bank known as Organ Grinder with Bear, $4,800; and a framed emblem from an iconic caped suit worn by actor George Reeves in the 1950s TV series Superman, $5,100.

Halloween collectors entered the advertising arena to vie for a particularly appealing None Such Mincemeat lantern. Decorated with images of a jack-o-lantern, American Flag and the None Such Soup Lady, it retained its original insert that can be turned to reflect light. Estimated at $2,000-$3,000, it was a treat without the tricks at $5,200.

A special highlight of the sale was the 60-piece Bob Miller occupational shaving mug collection. The highest-achieving entry was the boxing-themed personal shaving mug of Charles Hitte, a celebrated turn of the 20th century pugilist from Albany, N.Y., who died tragically in 1905 after becoming involved in an argument outside a hotel. The Hitte shaving mug sold within its estimate range for a solid $7,500.

Dan Morphy Auctions will conduct its Summer Sale at the Adamstown Antique Gallery in Denver (Adamstown), Pa., Aug. 13-15, 2009. Watch for the fully illustrated catalog online and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet through www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

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ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

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