BERLIN (AP) – A rare stamp portraying movie star Audrey Hepburn smoking sold for euro67,000 ($93,800) at an auction held in Germany on Tuesday.
The Schlegel auction house declined to identify the buyer, who was represented by an agent.
A minimum bid of euro30,000 was set for the stamp, of which only five copies are known to exist.
Auctioneer Elisabeth Schlegel announced that the stamp – which escaped being incinerated by the German government – had sold for euro53,500. After adding commission and sales tax, the total came to euro67,000. Continue reading
MACKWORTH, DERBYSHIRE, ENGLAND (ACNI) – Looking more like a three-dimensional pop-art design Andy Warhol might have created, a circa-1765/1766 American creamware teapot protesting the Mother Country’s dreaded Stamp Act set off auction-room fireworks on April 15 at the Mackworth Hotel, Derbyshire. In a sale conducted by Hansons Auctioneers of Derby, England, the Colonial-era teapot brashly emblazoned with the messages “No Stamp Act” and “Success to Trade in America” steamed up a winning bid of £79,350 (US $126,032, inclusive of 15 percent buyer’s premium).
Charles Hanson, manager of Hansons and an appraiser on BBC1 Television’s Bargain Hunt, called the selling price for the pot – which had been discovered in a boxful of Roya Crown Derby china and other general items – “quite remarkable.” Describing the saleroom action, Hanson said, “It became a theater as bidding slowly moved up. After £20,000, the bidding became a blur, rising in £1,000 increments.” Continue reading
Monumental Victorian-style cast-iron, wrought-iron and tubular-steel gazebo measuring 18 feet wide by 12 feet 1 inch by 17 feet 4 inches. Sold through LiveAuctioneers.com for $11,685 against an estimate of $4,000-$6,000. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers Archive/Kamelot Auctions.
PHILADELPHIA – It has been said that when William Penn first created an urban plan for Philadelphia, he envisioned a city within a vast expanse of parkland, rife with private gardens. It seems only fitting, then, that one of the nation’s premier auctions of garden and architectural antiques should take place in the historic city.
Every April, Kamelot Auctions hosts its popular specialty event on the heels of the acclaimed Philadelphia Flower Show. It’s a natural fit, since the Kamelot sale is a “neighborhood” source for antique planters, statuary, hand-wrought iron and carved stone accent pieces, and garden bronzes. Gardening enthusiasts can purchase their exotic specimens at the flower show, then match them with beautiful antique containers in Kamelot’s Architectural Antiques & Garden Auction. Continue reading
A 12-inch vase, purchased by the consignor at a yard sale seven years ago, hammered $1,236,250, making it Brunk’s first million-dollar lot. Photo courtesy LiveAuctioneers Archive/Brunk Auctions.ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Asheville residents headed straight for their cupboards after a Chinese porcelain vase thought to be a modern copy ended up selling for $1.2 million at Brunk’s May 9-10 auction. The 12-inch vase, which had been purchased at a yard sale, was expected to bring no more than $800. In the end, it hammered a breathtaking $1,236,250 – a substantial contribution to the two-day auction total of $2,598,781 (all prices quoted inclusive of 15% buyer’s premium).
The woman who consigned the top-selling famille rose vase on pale yellow ground had acquired the attractive vessel at a yard sale in Florida about seven years ago. It appeared to be a 20th-century copy of a Qianlong dynasty (1736-1795) ceramic.
“It is probably Imperial porcelain,” said Ruby McCall, Brunk Auctions’ specialist on Asian art, after the sale. “That means it was made in the Imperial kilns where court commissioned pieces were fired. Anything not meeting Imperial standards was destroyed. It is a very high-quality piece.” Continue reading
From 1952, the earliest known Mickey Mantle game-used New York Yankees home jersey finished at the top of prices realized, earning $188,318.40.WESTHAMPTON BEACH, N.Y. – Fierce competition for unique and iconic professional sports memorabilia in Grey Flannel’s April 29 Summer Games auction kept phone lines and the Internet buzzing till the final bid was lodged around 5 a.m. the following day. “We were swamped,” said Grey Flannel president Richard E. Russek. “We knew we were going to have a good sale three days before it closed, because of all the inquiries and signups, and of course because there were some fantastic items offered.”
The final tally for the 854-lot auction was $1,418,046 (all prices quoted are inclusive of 20 percent buyer’s premium). As predicted, the two most highly publicized lots finished at the top of prices realized.
The earliest known Mickey Mantle game-used autographed home jersey, worn by the young Oklahoma phenom in his first years with the Yankees, took the blue ribbon with a closing bid of $188,318.40. Not far behind was a Babe Ruth bat from the 1926-1929 period, into which the legendary slugger had carved 11 notches to represent 11 home runs. Babe Ruth’s bat from the 1926-1929 period, into which he carved with 11notches to represent 11 home runs, slammed in a winning bid of $155,628.Accompanied by painstakingly researched provenance, the bat crossed home plate at $155,628. Both the Mantle jersey and Ruth bat sold to private collectors.
A great surprise, said Russek, was the number of underbidders who had never before participated in a Grey Flannel auction. “There were many extremely important items in this sale, and they drew the true collectors out of the woodwork.” Continue reading
LONDON (AP and ACNI) – A medal awarded to a hero dog who sniffed out scores of survivors in the rubble following the London Blitz was sold at auction Friday for 24,250 pounds ($35,700.)
The sale price was 10,000 pounds ($14,720) higher than the estimate. Auctioneers said the buyer chose to remain anonymous.
The Dickin Medal, Britain’s highest honor for animals, was awarded in 1945 to a dog named Rip, who was credited with finding more than 100 people trapped by German bomb damage in World War II.
Rip had been found abandoned in an air raid shelter and was adopted by E. King, an Air Raid Precaution Warden.
The dog had no rescue training, said the award’s sponsor, the animal charity PDSA, which has provided care for sick and injured animals of people in need for 91 years.
With Jeanne Bertoia looking on, Philadelphia’s Fox 29 TV affiliate interviews Don Kaufman for its news cast. Photo by Phil Dutton, courtesy Bertoia Auctions.
VINELAND, N.J. (ACNI) – Long lamented as a bygone era, the days of toy collector kinship were revived with an electrifying spark as a global contingent of buyers convened at Bertoia Auctions on March 19-21 for the debut of the Donald Kaufman auction series.
Built over a period of nearly 59 years, the internationally renowned Kaufman collection’s initial outing rang the register at $4.2 million, setting a house record for Bertoia’s and sending a message of confidence about the toy-collecting hobby that was obvious to all in attendance. Real-time Internet bidding through LiveAuctioneers.com added $341,858.81 to the three-day gross.
“The return of the toy camaraderie we remembered so fondly from 15 or 20 years ago was an inspiring thing to see,” said Bertoia Auctions’ owner, Jeanne Bertoia. “What I heard from all the old-timers was, ‘It’s back.'”
The gallery’s stylishly modern décor, enhanced by vases of fresh orchids, lent a new sense of chic to the auction preview process. Thursday evening previewers sipped wine and noshed on gourmet hors d’oeuvres as they inspected the deluxe toys through floor-length wall-to-wall glass showcases and chatted animatedly in German, French or English with their soon-to-be auction competitors.
DALLAS (AP) – A Georgia man’s collection of more than 10,000 Abraham Lincoln stamps has sold at auction in New York City for nearly $2 million.
Dallas-based Spink Shreves Galleries on Friday auctioned off the Lincoln-focused collection that took 67-year-old William J. Ainsworth of Roswell more than 30 years to amass. Officials said bids came from around the world.
The presale estimate for the collection was more than $2 million.
Among the collection’s highlights was a proof of a block of eight mint-condition 90-cent stamps of Lincoln with his image accidentally printed upside-down. The block is one of only two known and sold for $149,600.
A 90-cent vertical block of six Lincoln stamps from 1869 sold for $86,250.
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The top lot of the sale was this colored pencil on paper rendering by Adolf Wolfli ($40,480).
BUFORD, Ga. – A colored pencil on paper arwork created in 1917 by Swiss self-taught artist Adolf Wolfli (1864-1930) sold for $40,480 at a folk art auction held March 28 by Slotin Auction. The framed piece, titled Blatt Aus Heft #15 and inscribed throughout, measured 11¼ inches by 16¼ inches and was in excellent condition. It was the top earner of the sale.
“This was one of only a few Wolfli pieces we’ve ever offered at auction, and it made a very strong showing, probably stronger than a gallery sale,” said Amy Slotin who, along with her husband Steve, oversees what has become the premier folk art auction firm in the country. Twice a year, collectors mark their calendars and pour in from around the world to attend their sales.
The March 28 event was fairly typical, in that nearly 1,000 lots crossed the block. Not so typical, however, was the turnout. “Usually we start a sale with more staff than bidders,” Amy remarked, “but this time it was standing room only from the start, with every one of the 200 chairs filled. The room was overflowing. I had to double up on my orders for lunch and dinner.”
She continued, “People really did want to be part of this auction, despite the dismal economy. I did notice that where people used to bid on 30 to 40 items in the past, this time they were much more focused on their selections. But I really appreciate the fact that they are still in the game and enthusiastic about the genre.”
German silver and ivory tankard, late 17th or early 18th century, $11,163. Image courtesy Aberdeen Auction Galleries.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Aberdeen Auction Galleries had 118 registered bidders with LiveAuctioneers.com and another 45 registered inhouse for its online/absentee/phone sale of March 14. Auction house owner Alex Turchack had assembled 388 lots of excellent European art, antiques and money to offer to bidders.
The top lot of the sale was a 19½ by 24 inch oil on canvas signed by Alexei Petrovich Bogolubov (Russian, 1824-1896) and titled Night Seascape.
The artist’s history is a fascinating one. After joining the Russian navy, Bogolubov attended the St. Petersburg Academy of Art and became a noted landscape painter by the mid-19th century. He traveled widely in Europe, settling in Paris in 1873. When he died in 1896, he left his entire fortune, around US$6 million, to the Russian Museum and its painting school in St. Petersburg. The school was then named in his honor. This seascape, estimated at $5,000-$8,000, sold for $12,330 to a Massachusetts collector bidding through LiveAuctioneers.com. All prices quoted are inclusive of a 17.5 percent buyer’s premium.
Another oil on canvas, a winter scene with skaters by Morel Jan Evert Sr. the Elder (Dutch 1766-1808), sold for $2,360. The 6 by 8 inch canvas was enclosed in an ornate 14 by 16 inch frame.
