ALAMEDA, Calif. – Michaan’s Auctions will offer wonderful works by artists from California and Taos among the many fine art highlights on July 25. The Asian Art department offers important 20th century Chinese paintings. The selection of estate jewelry and timepieces includes treasures from the world’s top design houses. Vintage modern furniture and fine musical instruments also await bidders. Absentee and Internet live bidding is available through LiveAuctioneers.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Meyers settled in Taos, New Mexico, in 1909. He was a successful trader, working with the people of the Taos Pueblo to market their creations and in the process becoming an advocate for preserving Native American cultural traditions. His lifelong dream was to become a painter, and he held a position of esteem in the famous Taos art colony. Meyers produced a relatively small body of fine paintings, which makes the sale of his work at auction exciting for collectors. On July 25, Michaan’s will offer Meyers’s oil, Indian Summer (above), which has a $7,000-$9,000 estimate.
California’s majestic scenery, legendary natural light and creative communities have attracted fine artists for many generations. Michaan’s is a leading resource for works by California artists. July’s Gallery Auction features landscapes by Manuel Valencia, Richard Schloss and Gordon Coutts. A native of Scotland, Coutts was a world traveler who settled in the East Bay Hills and belonged to the Bohemian Club. His landscapes, glowing with vibrant colors, include Forest Stream, offered by Michaan’s at $1,000-$1,500. Manuel Valencia’s Grazing Cattle in Marin (below) is a fine tonalist landscape estimated at $2,000-$4,000. It bears the label of Maxwell Galleries, prominent in the California art community since its founding in 1940.
A top luminary in the auction is Gustave Baumann, whose Cherry Blossom woodcut is offered at $4,000-$6,000. Baumann, a leading American printmaker of the 20th century, produced brilliantly colored woodcuts and paintings while residing in the important art colonies at Taos and in Brown County, Indiana.
Dora Maar (1907-1997), well known to art lovers as a muse of Picasso and the Surrealists, was a brilliant intellectual, photographer and painter in her own right. Maar’s oil painting Composition in Teal is one of Michaan’s intriguing July highlights, estimated at $1,000-$2,000. Other European artists in the auction include Miro and Rouault, and the iconic poster artist Leonetto Cappiello. A great find for collectors of poster art, in addition to Cappiello’s Helène Chauvin ($1,500-$2,500), is the 1976 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival poster by the Louisiana folk artist Maria Laredo ($2,000-$4,000). Portraying Fats Houston, the grand marshal of the Eureka marching jazz band, this exuberant poster is increasingly rare and valuable since many copies were lost to Hurricane Katrina.
Fine Chinese scroll paintings draw many bidders to Michaan’s Auctions. Offered in the July Gallery Auction is Scholar in Landscape after Zhang Daqian (1899-1983). Zhang’s signature splashed-ink painting style made him one of the best-loved and most internationally renowned Chinese artists, and sales of his works have set and broken auction records many times. Scholar in Landscape is a mounted scroll estimated at $40,000-$60,000. For details, please contact Jessica Liang (jessica@michaans.com) or Asian art specialist Annie Zeng (annie@michaans. com).
A special highlight of the Gallery Auction is the bolt of late Qing Dynasty silk brocade. The green and gold silk features a woven pattern of double fish, Buddha’s hand and other fruits, bats, cloud scroll and other auspicious motifs. This rare find is estimated at $3,500-$4,500; the uncut bolt measures approximately 27 feet long by 30 inches wide.
Fine Chinese porcelains offered include the large blue and white hexagonal vase, over 18 inches tall and beautifully painted with floral sprays, fruit tree branches and elegant borders ($4,000-$6,000).
Nearly 140 lots of fine estate jewelry are offered in Michaan’s July 25 Gallery Auction. The selection offers great diversity and superb quality. There are many special finds for collectors, such as the gold link charm bracelet ($3,000-$5,000) featuring six U.S. gold coins from the early 20th century, including Indian Head and Lady Liberty coins.
Fine diamonds are abundant. A substantial men’s diamond ring, of 14K yellow gold, centers an old European-cut diamond of 1.72 carats ($3,000-$5,000).
Luxury brands lend panache to Michaan’s July Gallery Auction, where sustainability and great value go hand in hand. A Tiffany & Co. 18K white gold open link bracelet, the ultimate in refinement and good taste, is offered at $1,500-$2,500. Timepieces include the Cartier tank watch ($2,500-$3,500), an 18K gold two-tone Rolex Cellini with leather band ($2,000-$3,000) and a Master Control wristwatch by Jaeger le Coultre ($4,000-$6,000).
In each monthly auction, Michaan’s offers fine estate furniture and decorations from many periods. Featured in July is the pair of split-back beechwood chairs by Pierre Gautier-Delaye. The tripod chairs, circa 1970, have the simple, earthy appeal of today’s most desired furniture styles ($500-$800). Also offered is the 1950s desk by Milo Baughman for Drexel Perspective. Baughman’s roomy, floating-top desk is an iconic original midcentury modern gem, estimated at just $400-$600. For more information about these fine furniture lots, contact Gabe Herzog (gabe@michaans.com).
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