LiveAuctioneers will provide Internet live bidding.
“If you want to see a lot of strong, wildly diverse material, with a minimum of condition issues, stop by,” said David Rago. “The modern glass and ceramics collections are exemplary. The selection of our specialty, American Organic Modern furniture, is the best it’s been in years, with a broad grouping of Esherick, Evans, Nakashima, and Powell, plus a raft of lesser known Studio designers like Blunk. The Aesthetic Movement collection is quite remarkable and the estimates are low, because it hasn’t been on anyone’s design radar in a while – too long, to my way of thinking. We’ll see if the market agrees. And we’ll see what the market thinks about the newly discovered furniture from Arden. That’s anyone’s guess,” he added.
The sale will begin Saturday, June 11, with Early 20th Century Arts and Crafts, a Century of Art Glass and Modern Ceramics. Sunday, June 12, will have Mid-20th-21st Century Modern Design, also starting at 11 a.m. at the Rago Arts and Auction Center on Main Street.
The sale opens with 87 lots of Aesthetic Movement decorative arts and furnishings from the collection of Suzanne & Adriano de Cardenas, including works of Hunzinger, Dresser, and Kimbel & Cabus.
Pottery designers in the sale include George Ohr, Rookwood, Grueby, University City, Merrimac, Dedham, Marblehead, Faience Manufacturing Co, J. & J.G. Low, Rhead, Arequipa, Teco, Van Briggle, Fulper, Roseville, Avon and Weller.
The sale includes 33 lots of pottery by George Ohr, notably lot 117, a large urn with two scroll handles, mottled raspberry and gun-metal glaze, estimated at $10,000-$15,000.
Lot 240 is an Isaac Broome for Ott & Brewer tinted porcelain Pastoral vase, recently discovered in a Trenton, N.J., basement, estimated at $10,000-$15,000. A notable lot is 133, an Esther H. Elliott for Newcomb College exceptional charger with cactus blossoms, 1904, estimated at $10,000-$12,500.
In 1900 (George) Frank Stephens and architect William Lightfoot Price co-founded Arden, a utopian colony on 162 acres in Delaware. (Price also founded the Arts and Crafts community Rose Valley in 1901.) Lots 397 and 397A are furniture made at Arden in the early 1900s and come to Rago from the estate of Stephens’ granddaughter, Caroline Stephens Holt. It represents the first furniture from Arden to come to market. Lot 397 is a unique set of six dining chairs, carved with three family crests, including Nicola and Owens, estimated at $9,000-$12,000; and lot 397A is a unique dining table with hammered copper “hinges,” complete with four 12-inch leaves, en suite with the preceding lot, estimated at $5,000-$7,000.
Other notable Arts and Crafts furniture lots include a Gustav Stickley rare and early Venetian pedestal, estimated at $5,000-$8,000; a Gustav Stickley director’s table, estimated at $9,000-$14,000; a Charles Rohlfs important and early drop-front desk, circa 1899, estimated at $35,000-$55,000; and a Roycroft single-door mahogany bookcase with leaded glass, estimated at $6,000-$9,000.
Important lighting includes lot 162, a Hylas table lamp by Elizabeth Burton. It features a patinated hammered copper and abalone shell shade and is estimated at $50,000-$70,000.
Art glass and modern ceramics will also be sold Saturday immediately following the Early 20th Century session.
Lots 500-630 represent a century of art glass and will showcase glass artists/designers Loetz, Galle, Lalique, Steuben, Tiffany Studios, Venini, Fontana Arte, Dino Martens for Aureliano Toso, Orrefors, Michael Glancy, Kenneth William Carder, Dale Chihuly, Dante Marioni, David Huchthausen, Miriam Difiore, Dominick Labino, Tom Patti, William Morris, John Lewis, Steven Weinberg, Jon Kuhn, Steve Tobin, Jose Chardiet, Joel Philips Meyers, Benjamin Moore, Frantisek Vizner, Clifford Rainey and more.
Featured lots include lot 520, Tiffany Studios eight-arm candelabrum, 1910, made of patinated bronze and Favrile glass, estimated at $10,000-$15,000; lot 568, Michael Glancy two-piece blown glass sculpture entitled, Term Sinkronosity, circa 1989, from the collection of Jean Heilbrunn, Habatat Galleries, Detroit, estimated at $10,000-$15,000; and 541, Tiffany Studios rare chandelier of bronze and gold Favrile glass, estimated at $25,000-$35,000.
Eighty-five lots of modern ceramics include works by Peter Voulkos, Harrison McIntosh, Stonelain, Henry Varnum Poor, Pillin, Scheier, Bruno Gambone, Axel Salto for Royal Copenhagen, Gustavsberg, Karen Karnes, Toshiko Takaezu, Glen Lukens, Natzler, Ruth Duckworth, Hui Ka Kwong, Robert Arneson, Rudy Autio,Viola Frey, Richard DeVore, Steven Montgomery, Richard Notkin and Claude Conover.
Scheier’s important three-piece earthenware totem, 1960s, is estimated at $20,000-$25,000.
Sunday’s Modern Design auction features almost 650 lots of furniture, lighting and decorative arts. Prominent Modern pieces by Herman Miller, Edward Wormley, George Nakashima, Tommi Parzinger, Paul Evans, Knoll, Gio Ponti, Phil Powell and Vladimir Kagan will be sold.
The sale features an important J.B. Blunk sculptural, cross-hatched, chiseled and honed American black walnut headboard, lot 1408, circa 1971, estimated at $30,000-$40,000.
The Modern decorative arts auction includes several George Nakashima pieces, most notably lot 1457, George Nakashima cross-legged desk in English and American walnut, estimated at $18,000-$24,000.
There are also several pieces by Wharton Esherick. Lot 1027 is a tackroom Wagon-Wheel table, circa 1932, which was made by the artist for a horse tack house. It carries an $80,000-110,000 estimate. Carved oak and cherry library steps are estimated at $25,000-$35,000 and an important sideboard in cherry, poplar and turquoise paint could reaach $100,000-$150,000.
As always, there are pieces by Paul Evans, notably lot 1007, a Directional faceted cabinet in chromed plated steel, maple burl, and gel coated fiberglass, estimated at $25,000-$35,000. Also exceptional is lot 1597, a Vladimir Kagan for Vladimir Kagan Designs Inc. rocking chair, estimated at $6,000-$9,000.
Modern lighting highlights include lot 1351, a Pierre Guariche rare Equilibrium floor lamp, estimated at $15,000-$20,000.
Fine art in the sale includes works by Bernard Brenner, Bob Womack, Christopher Hiltey, David Shaw Nicholls, Feliciano Bejar, Frank Lloyd Wright, Harry Bertoia, John Risley, Kay Bojesen, Klaus Ihlenfeld, Wharton Esherick and Alexander Calder.
The sale also has clocks, jewelry, mirrors, textiles and rugs.
For details go to the website at www.ragoarts.com or phone 609-397-9374.
ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE
