Considered rare, this 10-inch signed L.C. Tiffany Favrile trumpet vase has a green heart vine motif.
ST. CHARLES, Mo. – Hundreds of high-end items in an array of categories will be offered at a multi-estate auction slated for Saturday, Oct. 25, at the St. Charles Convention Center. Lots will include more than 2,000 silver spoons, John Rogers statuary groups, vintage clocks and art glass, including five Tiffany vases.
“This will be an exciting sale because there is so much here and the merchandise is so diverse,” said Jason Woody of Woody Auction, based in Douglass, Kan, which will conduct the sale. “These are high-end, highly collectible, fresh-to-the-market items, from several important estates. It isn’t every day we get this much quality merchandise all at once, but this will be such an event. Mark your calendars.”
George Washington telescope, est: $10,000. Image courtesy Leslie Hindman.
CHICAGO – A telescope believed to have belonged to George Washington, and last offered as such in 1920, will be sold at a Fine Furniture & Decorative Arts Auction scheduled for Oct. 5-6 by Leslie Hindman Auctioneers. It is expected to fetch $10,000 or more. The spyglass has been consigned by the renowned Illinois Institute of Technology.
George Washington owned many telescopes during his lifetime, having eleven in his collection at the time of his death in December 1799. Several of these are now housed in the Smithsonian, Mount Vernon and other esteemed institutions.
Charles and Ray Eames DCWs, pair Herman Miller USA, 1946/c. 1950 19 w x 20 d x 29 h inches Estimate: $5,000–7,000
CHICAGO – Wright’s Oct. 7 Modern Design auction will feature select works from such 20th-century legends as Harry Bertoia, Charles and Ray Eames, Gio Ponti, George Nakashima and George Nelson, as well as many others. In keeping with current buying trends, the 517-lot Wright sale will also include designs from fast-rising stars in the Contemporary field, like Marc Newson, Tom Dixon, Martin Szekely and Tjep.
Among the event’s top lots are two important works by Shiro Kuramata. Lot 264, a curiosity cabinet of multicolored acrylic, numbered 13 of 40 and accompanied by a certificate of authenticity, is expected to make $70,000-$90,000. Lot 265, a Kuramata Glass Chair, number 15 of 40, may realize $40,000-$60,000.
James Turrell, Roden Crater: Complete Site Plan, 2008 30 w x 40 h inches Inkjet on paper Estimate: $6,000 – $8,000
PITTSBURGH – The Mattress Factory – a museum of contemporary installation art known worldwide for presenting exhibitions that push artistic boundaries – will hold a benefit art auction on Saturday, Oct. 18, beginning at 8 p.m. EST. Nearly 100 works will be offered, live and online, by noted artists such as James Turrell, Kiki Smith, John Waters and others.
On the day of sale, the auction will go live worldwide, via a partnership with LiveAuctioneers.com. Contemporary art lovers from around the globe will be able to compete with bidders on the auction room floor for collectible one-of-a-kinds by internationally recognized artists.
Since its founding in 1977, the Mattress Factory has served as a launch pad for over 300 name artists, such as Damien Hirst and Greer Lankton. Every five years, artists who have exhibited work there during the past three decades come together to help support the museum’s mission through a live auction of donated work. All proceeds help fund the Mattress Factory’s exhibitions, programs and operations.
OXFORD, Mich. – On Oct. 4 and 5, Midwest Auction Galleries Inc. will conduct a 1,000-lot Fine Arts and Antiques auction featuring the estate of Mr. and Mrs. John McHugh, of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
The McHugh collection includes 14 important artworks by Louis Icart, as well as an exceptional 19th-century carved mantel adorned by full-size maidens.
Many oil paintings will be offered, including works by Anton Otto Fischer, Charles Fazzino, Sidney Richard Percy, Louis Van der pol, George Thompson Pritchard, Salvador Dali and Louis Apol. Additionally, a selection of 19th-century etchings is consigned.
Always popular with bidders, paintings on porcelain consigned to the sale include examples by KPM and Limoges.
LONDON (AP) – Several letters that Princess Diana wrote to her former nanny, including one comparing her own dancing skills to those of an elephant, will be auctioned in London next week, and they are expected to sell for thousands of dollars.
Diana once famously danced with actor John Travolta at the White House. But as a teenager, she wrote in a 1978 letter to her former nanny that she loved dancing but that, “Watching me dance is like watching an elephant, so no one does!”
James Grinter, an auctioneer with Reeman Dansie, the house selling the four letters and two cards next week, said Tuesday he expects them to go for up to $18,000.
One of two made, an 18½-inch-tall artist’s proof of a pulled-feather luster epergne hand blown by master glass artist Richard Golding of Okra Studios, Stourbridge, England.
CHARLESTON, S.C. – One of the world’s great private collections of antique and studio glass – the Andy and Rob Collection – will be auctioned in its entirety on Oct. 5 in Charleston. Estate Road Show Auctioneers will produce the sale of more than 275 pieces of superior glass designs.
Andy Stone and Rob Brunton built their collection over a 10-year period, traveling extensively to obtain the finest, most-elusive examples while also consulting with world-renowned glass authorities and conducting their own independent research. The Phoenix residents were mentored by such UK-based notables of the art-glass world as Charles Hajdamach and Raymond Slack, an acclaimed expert on pressed glass. In the United States, Andy and Rob gained invaluable insight from Steuben authority/author Tom Dimitroff , glass author/historian Jim Measell of the Fenton Art Glass Co., and Dave Peterson, author and widely respected Vaseline/uranium glass authority.
Rare circa-1700 English Geo. I secretary with mirrored doors, est. $38,000-$45,000.
HOUSTON – Lewis & Maese Auction Company, specialists in fine arts and furnishings, will present a special 2-day Fall auction on Wednesday and Thursday, Sept. 24 and 25, featuring fine art, furniture and decorative objects from two of Houston’s leading citizens: Lynn Wyatt and the late Ambassador Kenneth Franzheim II.
One aspect of the sale focuses on furnishings from the peach-colored River Oaks mansion of Houston socialite, philanthropist and patron of the arts, Lynn Wyatt. An international fashion icon who has appeared in the pages of Vogue and W, Wyatt’s impeccable taste extends to the interior décor and gardens of her home, located in Houston’s most exclusive neighborhood. In years past, Wyatt hosted many distinguished guests in her home, including Princess Grace of Monaco, Mick Jagger, and fashion designer Bill Blass. Wyatt’s discerning eye and insistence on quality are reflected in the articles consigned to Lewis & Maese’s sale.
The late Ambassador Kenneth Franzheim was a Houston businessman and philanthropist. His collection of Georgian period furniture, Spanish antiques, and paintings by Joshua Reynolds, Benjamin West, Diego Rivera and Picasso are everything that could be expected from a man of the world who sat on the Sphinx in Egypt and was special guest of honor for years at the King of Tonga’s birthday party.
Baum, L. Frank (1856-1919). Oliver Morosco’s Fairyland Extravaganza The Tik-Tok Man of Oz. Estimate $7000-$10,000. Image courtesy Bloomsbury Auctions.
NEW YORK – Bloomsbury Auctions New York will open the 2008 fall season with its largest sale to date Sept. 17-18. The two-day Bibliophile sale will consist of Americana, maps, literature , fine bindings, original art and art books, and the remarkable Fred M. Meyer collection of L. Frank Baum and related Oziana.
The sale commences with the Meyer material, which is especially well regarded among Oz collectors since Meyer is executive secretary of the International Wizard of Oz Club Inc. Over a period of more than 40 years, Fred Meyer amassed a wealth of first editions, manuscripts, printer’s proofs, rare toys and games, and drawings by W. W. Denslow, John R. Neill and others.
Day one continues with a fine group of original artworks and art-related books. Highlights from this section include a rare, full series of La Gazette du Bon Ton in original wrappers estimated at $50,000 – $70,000. This groundbreaking Parisian fashion periodical contains hundreds of pochoir plates by George Barbier, Raoul Dufy, George Lepape, Umberto Brunelleschi, A. E. Marty, Paul Iribe and many other masters of the Art Deco age of elegance. The day concludes with the sale of literature and fine bindings.
Rare 19th-century redware jar, only known intact piece by Tennessee potter John A. Lowe.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn.-A major Tennessee pottery discovery, a rare complete Audubon octavo set, fine art and numerous Southern antiques are among the highlights of Case Antiques’ Sept. 27 Fall Auction. Among more than 300 cataloged lots is an extensive offering of Southern and European furniture, silver, samplers, paintings, and exceptional engravings.
One of the star lots of the sale is expected to be a rare 19th century Greene County, Tenn., redware jar stamped “J.A. Lowe” (John Alexander Lowe, 1833-1902). A pottery site attributed to Lowe was located and excavated near the Harmon Cemetery near Blue Springs in the 1990s, with thousands of shards recovered. “What makes this piece so exciting is it’s the first and only known intact piece of his pottery ever to surface,” said company president John Case.
“There’s also the interesting story of Lowe himself, who joined the Confederate army two days after his fellow potter, Christopher A. Haun, was hung for his role in the burning of the Lick Creek railroad bridge,” Case continued. “In a letter to his wife written hours before his death, Haun urged his wife to have ‘Bohanan, Hinshaw or Low’ finish off some of his wares. It’s a fascinating connection.”
Case specializes in Great Road Pottery, which includes most of the early pottery of Tennessee, and holds the current auction record for a piece of Great Tennessee pottery. In 2008 the company sold a redware pitcher attributed to the Cain Pottery of Sullivan County, Tenn., for $22,550.
