Original 82-Inch diameter hero United Planets Cruiser C-57D flying saucer filming miniature from Forbidden Planet. $80,000 – $120,000. Image courtesy Profiles in History.
CALABASAS, Calif. – Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber from Star Wars and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is expected to capture $150,000-$180,000 as the top prop at a movie memorabilia auction to be held Dec. 11. More than 500 iconic pieces of Hollywood history are expected to total $3 million at Profiles in History’s 33rd Hollywood Auction.
Many of Hollywood’s greatest heroes will be represented.
Harrison Ford’s signature Indiana Jones fedora and whip from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom are expected to top $40,000-$60,000 each. The hero’s machete from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom carries a $80,000-$100,000 estimate.
This Chippendale-style mahogany highboy stands 87 inches high. Image courtesy Pook and Pook Inc.
DOWNINGTOWN, Pa. – More than 1,500 lots of furniture, art and accessories will cross the auction block as Pook & Pook Inc. conducts its largest-ever Variety Sale Dec. 4-5. Included in this expansive sale are 200 lots from the collection of Richard and Rosemarie Machmer.
The furniture up for auction includes an interesting mix of American, Continental and English pieces. This assortment is composed of sideboards, Dutch cupboards, corner cupboards, chests of drawers, sofas, chairs, beds, tea tables, candle stands, dining tables, tall case clocks, children’s furniture and various other furniture items.
SPEONK, N.Y. – A collection of iconic objects used during the taping of the CBS Television reality series Survivor is a featured attraction in Grey Flannel Auctions’ live sale of coin-ops, antique advertising, toys and entertainment memorabilia to be held Dec. 14 in Speonk, N.Y. Absentee and live Internet bidding through LiveAuctioneers.com will also be available.
The Survivor collection was started after the series’ third season, when producer Mark Burnett donated props from the show’s taping in Africa to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. The props were sent to auction, where the consignor bought the pieces that formed the core of his collection. He acquired additional items from later charity auctions containing donations of Survivor objects from Burnett, as well as private-treaty sales with people who worked on the show’s production crews.
Jackson’s International Auctioneers will open their Dec. 2-3 auction with this large painting by 19th century French artist Jacques Wagrez. The oil on canvas, 54 1/2 by 42 inches, is expected to sell for $18,000-$22,000. Image courtesy Jackson International Auctioneers.
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – Jackson’s International Auctioneers will host a two-day auction Dec. 2-3 featuring important European and American fine art together with significant Russian works. The sale includes items deaccessioned from the Grandview Trust of Pittsburgh together with property from collections and estates from across the nation. The 1,000-lot sale includes 12th century European works, paintings, bronzes, furnishings and Orientalia.
The auction will begin with an excellent offering of fine European paintings. Lot no.1, an oil on canvas by French artist Jacques C. Wagrez (1846-1908) depicting a gathering of beautiful young men and women around a storyteller in a meadow, measures 54 by 42 inches and carries an estimate of $18,000-$22,000. Next to sell will be a genre painting of an interior family scene by Danish artist Johann Julius Exner (1825-1910). The dated 1868 oil on canvas, 20 by 24 inches, is estimated at $10,000-$15,000.
Pastel-on-silk full-figure drawing by Elizabeth O’Neill Verner (S.C., 1883-1979), titled Jamie (est. $20,000-$30,000). Image courtesy Leland Little Auctions.
HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. – About 15 prominent estates and collections, featuring a dazzling array of fine and decorative arts plus other items, will be sold in a two-day, four-session sale planned for Dec. 6-7 by Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales, Ltd. The sale – a Historic Hillsborough Auction – will be held at the Leland Little showroom, with real-time Internet bidding available.
“Our end-of-year, holiday cataloged sale is always a blockbuster, and this one will be no exception,” said the auction company’s owner, Leland Little. “We are proud to be able to represent these fine estates and collections…about 1,000 lots will cross the block. The assortment and quality are second to none. It should be fun.”
Cadillac Records, the new film starring Adrien Brody and a stellar supporting cast that includes Beyoncé Knowles, chronicles the rise of Chess Records and its recording artists in 1950s Chicago. Co-produced by Sony Music Film, TriStar Pictures and Parkwood Pictures, Cadillac Records will premiere in Los Angeles on Nov. 24 and in New York City on Dec. 1 – and you’re invited!
Six VIP premiere packages are currently open for absentee bidding in an Internet-only auction through LiveAuctioneers.com, with all proceeds going to Phoenix House, a non-profit whose programs lend a helping hand to addicted adults and adolescents.
Three of the VIP auction lots are for the Nov. 24 premiere at the Egyptian Theater in LA; the other three lots are for the New York opening at the 19th Street East AMC Loew’s, on Dec. 1.
Unexpected Joy, an early 1900s Russian icon, is expected to sell for more than $22,500 at Auktionshaus Dr. Fischer on Nov. 29. Image courtesy Auktionshaus Dr. Fischer.
HEILBRONN, Germany – Auktionshaus Dr. Fischer will offer a rare and beloved icon at its sale of Russian Works of Art, Fabergé and Paintings on Nov. 29. Known as Unexpected Joy, the icon is estimated to sell for in excess of $22,500. Created in Moscow, circa 1908-1917, the icon was previously sold at Sotheby’s New York in 1974.
On May 14 the Eastern Orthodox Church venerates the icon of the Mother of God, the Unexpected Joy. In the writings of St. Dimitri of Rostov is a narrative about a habitual sinner who unexpectedly experienced the joy of repentance before an icon of the Mother of God. This event, in which the sinner had a vision of Christ and the Blessed Virgin and conversed with them, became so beloved by the Russian people that an icon was drawn depicting it. The polychrome icon, about 14 1/2 by 12 1/2 inches, shows the sinner praying before an icon of the Theotokos, the Blessed Virgin.
The expected top lot of the sale is this stunning Tiffany lamp in the Peony pattern, which is expected to sell for $100,000 to $150,000). Image courtesy Treadway Toomey.
OAK PARK, Ill. – An important Tiffany table lamp in the Peony pattern is expected to bring $100,000-$150,000 at the Arts and Crafts, Modern and Fine Art Sale slated for Sunday, Dec. 7, at the John Toomey Gallery. The lamp boasts a bronze base with sculpted and applied designs under a fine original patina supporting a leaded glass shade. Both base and shade are signed Tiffany Studios.
“This is an exceptional example of an iconic lamp, and it will probably be the top lot in a sale that’s stacked from top to bottom with quality merchandise,” said Don Treadway of Cincinnati. The firm holds sales at John Toomey Gallery in Illinois and Treadway Gallery in Cincinnati. “We expect the better items to do very well and the midrange items will hold their own.”
MT. PLEASANT, S.C. – On Dec. 7, Estate Roadshow Auctions will conduct the first in a series of sales to disperse the remarkable personal collection and early store stock of Connecticut antiques dealer Louise Mondani Graham, who died in August. The initial session will consist entirely of fine and costume jewelry, much of which was purchased in the 1950s and ’60s and stored away in boxes the owner never opened. According to Ann Valverde of Estate Roadshow’s Research & Appraisals department, going through the boxes was “like opening packages on Christmas morning and finding beautiful antique and vintage treasures. Mrs. Graham had exquisite taste and a cultured eye for Art Nouveau and Art Deco design.”
From the mid-1950s until 2005, Graham operated her old-school antiques business, Brass Bugle Antiques, from a well-patronized barn in Cornwall Bridge, Litchfield County, Connecticut. The building gained acclaim after it was chosen to be the subject of an artwork by Graham’s close friend, the noted New England painter Eric Sloane (1905-1985).
The Dec. 7 sale will include approximately 400-500 lots, with the headliner being a Victorian emerald-and-diamond ring often worn by Graham and considered one of her favorite pieces. Set in 18K yellow gold, the ring features a central emerald weighing in excess of 1 carat and accented by six old mine-cut diamonds, two flanking diamonds and fine black enamel around the stones. It has an appraised value of $5,700.
Oil-on-canvas portrait of George Washington, 19th century, American school, red jacket may have Masonic connection. Measures 29 inches by 25 inches. Estimate $12,000-$18,000. Image courtesy Morphy Auctions.
DENVER, Pa. – Morphy Auctions, a subsidiary of Geppi’s Entertainment, will take a sizable step forward into the field of American fine art and historical antiques with its Nov. 22 no-reserve sale of the Arthur Richmond Collection. Amassed over a 39-year period, the Arthur Richmond Collection is an extraordinary testament to history, from its early clocks, mirrors, needlework and blacksmith-forged ironware to its collection of American paintings, including an appealing selection of George Washington portraits.
“We’ve offered interesting examples of American furniture and art in many of our past sales, but this sale is very different,” said Morphy Auctions’ chief operating officer, Dan Morphy. “The entire auction inventory is from a single consignor who is an avid antiquarian and American history scholar. For the past 16 years Mr. Richmond has lived in an 18th-century house of great significance, in Loudoun County, Virginia, an area that has produced many important early American treasures.”
