Pierre Paulin for Artfort Ribbon Chair and Ottoman. Estimate: $1,500-$2,500. Image courtesy Rago Arts & Auction Center.
LAMBERTVILLE, N.J. – The Rago Arts and Auction Center will hold a no reserve Discovery Auction on Friday, April 20, to kick-off a three-day auction marathon that weekend. The 1,100-lot Friday sale is followed by a 750-lot Estate Auction on Saturday, April 21, and a 450-lot no reserve Jewelry, Silver and Couture Auction on Sunday, April 22.
LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding all three days.
“The Discovery Auction’s popularity has resulted in a huge sale for Friday and an extra day dedicated to good jewelry, silver, couture and coins on Sunday. Saturday’s Estate Auction includes everything a really good Estate sale should: furnishings, decorative and fine art, rugs, silver, coins and currency, estate goods, fresh-to-the market collections priced to sell,” said Miriam Tucker, the Rago partner in charge of these sales. “There are bound to be some sleepers all three days.”
The Discovery Auction will begin April 20 at 9 a.m. Eastern. The Estate Auction will begin April 21 at 10 a.m. The no reserve Jewelry, Silver and Couture Auction will begin April 22 at noon. The exhibition/preview will be Saturday, April 14, through Tuesday, April 17, from noon to 5 p.m., Wednesday, April 18, and Thursday, April 19, noon to 7 p.m., and by appointment. Doors open Friday at 7:30 a.m. and on Saturday and Sunday at 9 a.m.
Rago Arts and Auction Center will host an open house Wednesday, April 18 at 6 p.m., which will feature a talk Philip Zimmerman, a museum and decorative arts consultant and former director of the Museum Collections Division at Winterthur, executive director of the Historical Society of York County, and curator of the Currier Gallery of Art. RSVP to raac@ragoarts.com or 609-397-9374 ext. 119. All are welcome.
All of the lots in the Discovery Auction are unreserved—the high bid wins the lot no matter the amount. The wide variety of chic and useful property from traditional through the 21st century, includes furnishings, decorative arts, lighting, fine art, Asian, art pottery, art glass, folk art, toys, country and traditional furnishings, Native American, rugs and more.
Many from famous makers and designers are represented. Modern design by makers including Arne Jacobsen, Fritz Hansen, Arne Vodder, Charles and Ray Eames and George Nelson for Herman Miller, Charles Pollack for Knoll Associates, Dakota Jackson, Donald Deskey, Edward Wormley for Dunbar, Eero Aarino, Eero Saarinen for Knoll Associates, Florence Knoll, Frank Lloyd Wright, Fritz Hansen, George Nakashima, Hans Webner, Harry Bertoia, Harvey Probber, Heywood Wakefield, Isamu Noguchi for Herman Miller, Jacques Adnet, James Mont, Jens Risom, Le Corbusier for Cassina, Maitland Smith, Milo Baugman for Thayer Coggin, Mira Nakashima, Paul Frankl, Paul McCobb, Pierre Paulin, Richard Schultz, Roger Sprunger, T.H. Robsjohn Gibbings for Widdicomb, Thayer Coggin, Thonet, Tommi Parzinger, Verner Panton, Vladimir Kagan, Warren McArthur and more.
Fine Art in the Discovery Auction includes mixed media, oils, watercolors, prints, photography, drawings, sculpture and works on paper by artists such as: Andy Warhol, Alexander Calder, Jasper Johns, Keith Haring, Marc Chagall, Roy Lichtenstein, Shepard Fairey, Sol LeWitt, Alice Sotter, Arthur Wesley Dow, Elaine DeKooning, Frederick James Brown, George Petty, Irving B. Haynes, Victor Vasarely, William Douglas McGee, Marcel Breuer, Wolfgang Roth, Eugene Laurent, Dorothy Alden Morang, Kenneth Nunamaker, Alice Kent Soddard, and two prints by Pierre-Auguste Renior.
Arts & Crafts design includes ceramicists such as Rookwood, Clewell, Fulper, Ohr, Weller, Legras, Loetz, North Dakota School of Mines, Roseville, Marblehead, Moorcroft, Royal Doulton, Van Briggle and Zsolnay.
The Estates Auction features over 750 lots of traditional furnishings, Asian artifacts, fine art, porcelains and pottery, glass, coins and currency, noteworthy collectibles including autographs, Native American items, and much more. Americana includes U.S. flags, powder horns, carousel horses, textiles, quilts and needlework. Famous names in glass in the auction are Lalique, Tiffany, Loetz, Steuben and Galle. There are silver and hollowware from makers such as Grosjean & Woodward, Tiffany & Co., Gorham, Mauser Manuf & Co.; Reed & Barton and Wallace. Other items include pottery and porcelain, bronzes, Chinese and Japanese artifacts, textiles, Native American tribal items, cigar store statues, posters, rugs, rifles, Lionel trains, medals and folk art. There are Georgian, Edwardian, Federal, English and French traditional/Continental furnishings, including several lots of custom mahogany pieces by Henkel Harris for Virginia Galleries. There is also a Philadelphia Chippendale card table. There are several lots of ephemera from the family of Franklin Murphy, Civil War veteran and 31st governor of New Jersey, who was related to Archbishop Doane, William Burnet Kinney and other prominent New Jersey families.
Kicking-off the Estate Auction will be more than 45 lots of coins/currency, in an array of values and genre, featuring several exceptional and highly sought after examples. From a local collector, this group represents some of the most beautiful and rarest examples known. They are of extremely high grade with population reports from major grading services, cumulatively under 20. Also featured are gold coins, Buffalo nickels, commemorative sets, Carson City silver dollars, Lambertville, N.J., national currency, U.S. half dollars, silver dollars, Franklin half dollars, gold bullion, Morgan Dollars and Peace Dollars.
This 450-lot unreserved sale contains fine jewelry, silver and couture, and coins and currency. Jewelry from antique to contemporary, precious and semiprecious gems, gold, silver and platinum, and select costume pieces, many by famous makers such as David Andersen, Georg Jensen, David Webb, Tiffany & Co., David Yurman, Judith Ripka, Limoges, Paul Von Ringelheim, Marci Zelmanoff and Mikimoto. Silver and silver-plate tea sets, compotes, candlestands, flatware, and other useful and decorative items by makers such as Gorham, Tiffany & Co., Wallace, Towle, International, S. Kirk & Sons, Reed and Barton, Georg Jensen and other Danish, American Arts & Crafts, Cartier, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, novelties and smoking accessories, Continental, hollowware, flatware and ladies vanity items. Couture includes handbags, belts and clothing from Chanel, Hermes, Judith Leiber, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Picasso, Dior and Armani. The sale contains men’s watches and accessories, mineral specimens, modernist jewelry, Art Deco and Art Nouveau jewelry, Native American jewelry (Mexican, Navajo, Zuni, Asian, Hopi, Indo-Persian tribal), Victorian, Victorian style and rococo revival jewelry pieces include ornate and delicate works in gold and platinum, with diamonds, sapphires and other gems, carved coral pieces, lockets, cameos and a mourning brooch, Asian jewelry including jade, ivory, coral, Buddhist motifs, etc. The sale concludes with approximately 40 lots of foreign and American coins, currency, proof sets, mint sets, tokens and metals.
ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE
Pierre Paulin for Artfort Ribbon Chair and Ottoman. Estimate: $1,500-$2,500. Image courtesy Rago Arts & Auction Center. Eero Saarinen for Knoll Associates Grasshopper Chair. Estimate: $800-1,200. Rago Arts & Auction Center. Gustav Stickley drop-front desk. Estimate: $1,000-$1,500. Rago Arts & Auction Center. Jacques Sicard for Weller tall vase with nasturtium. Estimate: $1,000-$1,500. Rago Arts & Auction Center. Philadelphia Chippendale card table. Estimate: $4,000-$6,000. Rago Arts & Auction Center. John Hagny (American, 1833-1876), oil on canvas, ‘Twin Lights with Shrewsbury River from Sandy Hook-Highland Beach,’ 1873. Estimate: $15,000-$20,000. Rago Arts & Auction Center. Mary Smith Perkins Taylor (American, 1875-1931), hooked rug of equestrian scene. Estimate: $3,000-5,000. Rago Arts & Auction Center. Schuler-McTeigue jeweled gold and platinum hummingbird ornament. Estimate: $800-$1,200. Rago Arts & Auction Center.
