PHILADELPHIA – Final preparations are under way for the National Liberty Museum’s annual Glass Now gala auction of art glass, with proceeds benefiting the museum’s mission to inspire heroes and defuse violence. The museum’s major fundraiser, Glass Now: Generation to Generation, will take place Sept. 20 at Philadelphia Marriott Downtown starting at 5:00 p.m. More than 300 works of glass sculpture, and a stellar array of fine art jewelry will be included in both live and silent auctions. The live portion will also feature real-time Internet bidding via the Internet. This year’s benefit auction includes works from art glass giants such as Harvey Littleton, Dale Chihuly, Paul Stankard, Therman Statom and Steve Tobin, as well as up-and-coming young visionaries.

The annual Glass Now auction was started in 2000 to support the crucial education programs of Philadelphia’s National Liberty Museum. The museum is the only institution in the world that uses art glass as a symbol for liberty: beautiful and strong, yet fragile.

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FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Wittlin & Serfer Auctioneers, based in Ft. Lauderdale, have announced details of their 2008 Fall Contemporary Art Auction, which will take place on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 20 and 21.

Highlights of the 605-lot auction include artworks by Andy Warhol, Tom Wesselmann, Keith Haring, Robert Rauschenberg, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró and Salvador Dalí.

The sale will also incorporate paintings by the most desirable of names from the new genre of artists, including the most prominent member of the collective dubbed the “Young British Artists,” Damien Hirst, and cutting-edge Japanese pop artist Takashi Murakami.

A Murakami signed and numbered 2006 lithograph titled 727-272 is estimated at $5,000-$6,000; while a second Murakami litho from 2006, titled And Then Golden DOB, carries a presale estimate of $2,500-$3,000.

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LONDON – At the end of June, Sandy Stagg closed the shutters and padlocked the doors of her famous Antique Clothing Shop in Portobello Road for the last time. Now collectors will be able to own an item of vintage fashion or accessories from the well-known shop when more than 350 lots are offered at Kerry Taylor Auctions’ A Life in Vintage sale, to be held Wednesday, Sept. 17. Absentee and live Internet bidding will be available in this auction (see link at bottom).

The store closure was a poignant moment, as Stagg has spent the best part of her life lovingly collecting and trading in vintage clothes. Indeed, she was one of the first to specialize in the field, opening her first vintage boutique – the gone but not forgotten shop called Amelia Earhart Clothing Shop – in 1970.

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FALLS CHURCH, Va. (ACNI) – Had People magazine been in business back in the early 17th century, it’s quite likely they would have chosen the love triangle centered around Pilgrim hottie Priscilla Mullins as a cover story. Mullins (b. circa 1602, d. circa 1680, sometimes spelled Mullens) was a Mayflower passenger and Plymouth Colony Pilgrim settler who won the affection of both Capt. Miles Standish and government official John Alden. As immortalized in the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem The Courtship of Myles Standish, Mullins married Alden in what was the third “Mayflower” wedding in the New World. Mullins subsequently bore anywhere from 10 to 15 children; historical accounts vary on that point.

The Mullins-Alden union is considered a highly significant one in America’s history, as several distinguished families can trace their lineage back to Priscilla and John. Antiques associated with Alden descendants carry an automatic pedigree, one of them being a hand-stitched sampler to be auctioned on Sept. 13 at Quinn’s Auction Galleries.

The alphabet sampler, dated July 27, 1805, was crafted by 8-year-old Betsy Shaw, believed to be a descendant of John Alden and Priscilla Mullins. Also stitched into the sampler is the maker’s name and the name of a now outer-Boston suburb, Abington. The sampler is estimated at $800-$1,200, but its possible provenance could inspire a much bigger payday at Quinn’s.

“It’s from a collection of 13 samplers consigned by a single collector in Williamsburg, Virginia,” said Quinn’s partner Matthew Quinn. “We spend a lot of time researching the Shaw sampler, and we believe collectors will see the value in it.”

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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – Not many people are familiar with the name Isaac Lefevers, but in pottery circles, he’s known as the James Dean of North Carolina pottery.

Like the actor known for Rebel Without a Cause, Lefevers was talented and died young. The Lincoln County potter also was his own kind of rebel, dying in 1864 at the age of 33 of an injury suffered in the Civil War. Because he died so young, few of his pots survive and even fewer are available for sale.

But on Sept. 28, a pot that Lefevers may have thrown will be one of about 200 pots auctioned at a benefit for the North Carolina Pottery Center in Seagrove, a museum that’s in the midst of a $100,000 fundraiser. Supporters believe the auction could raise as much as $20,000.

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LAMBERTVILLE, N.J. – On Saturday, Sept. 13 at 12 p.m. EST, the Rago Arts and Auction Center will host a sale of works by American and European artists, including a first-rate selection of American sculpture. 

“This is a sale of fine works acquired at a range of price points, almost entirely from private sellers. The Sotter night scene has never been to market.” says Meredith Hilferty, Director of Fine Arts at Rago’s, “It is absolutely a sale to see for anyone seeking a great American bronze.”

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MELBOURNE, Fla. – A Sept. 27-28 auction conducted by Matheson’s AA Auction will feature fine art and antiques from five estates including one from Miami and one from Palm Beach. Included in the inventory from one of the estates of a long deceased owner, where it sat undisturbed for decades, was a Teco vase designed in the early 20th century by Prairie School designer Frank Albert. According to auction owner Lloyd Matheson, only six examples of this vase are known to exist. The last one known to cross the auction block was on Sept. 11, 2005 at Treadway Toomey Gallery. The 18½-inch-tall vase with an organic-looking swirling base in the soft Teco green matte finish with three Teco marks on the base has a presale estimate of $40,000/$60,000.

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SEDONA, Ariz. – An important atlas of China with 42 maps, executed in Paris in 1737 by the renowned French cartographer Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville, is the anticipated top lot of an online auction (#125) planned for Sept. 10-24 by Old World Auctions. The atlas constitutes the first scientific mapping of China, for the Emperor Kang-Shi. It is expected to bring $14,000-$18,000.

The atlas – just one of hundreds of important maps, atlases and other items slated to change hands in the sale – was the principal cartographical authority on China for the rest of the 18th-century. It provides the first accurate depiction of the Pacific coastline and features the first map of Korea by a European cartographer. It also has detailed coverage of China and the first serious study of Tibet.

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BOSTON – On Sept. 16 Skinner will host a Fine Jewelry auction at its Boston gallery, with real-time Internet bidding through LiveAuctioneers.com. Almost 600 lots of Art Deco, Victorian, Art Nouveau and contemporary pieces are entered in the sale, and a free jewelry clinic will be an added attraction of the Sunday, Sept.14 preview.

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HATFIELD, Pa. – Alderfer Auction Center of the Sanford Alderfer Companies will present its Fall Fine and Decorative Arts Auction Sept. 10, 11 and 12.  The cataloged event will feature fine jewelry and more than 100 clocks in addition to the main categories of fine and decorative art.

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