ALAMEDA, Calif. – An Ed Wiener gold pendant brooch adorned with gemstones is one of the most unusual and colorful pieces in Michaan’s Auctions monthly estates auction on Jan. 3 beginning at noon Pacific. LiveAuctioneers will provide Internet live bidding.
A native New Yorker, Wiener began his career in artists’ circles in post-Bauhaus Provincetown, Mass., and Greenwich Village, in the early days of the Abstract Expressionist movement of the late 1940s. The two movements were joined in his jewelry designs.
Wiener was largely self-taught and learned to make jewelry with common tools most often used by plumbers and carpenters.
The New York Times reported that Wiener worked largely in silver until the late 1950s when he branched out into new settings in gold and precious jewels, moving, as one critic put it, from craft into art. Over the years he had studios on 53rd Street and on Fifth Avenue and continued to work at his Fifth Avenue gallery, by appointment, until his death in July 1991 at the age of 73.
Among his clients were Louise Nevelson, the sculptor, and Martha Graham, the dancer.
“His jewelry of the period has unusual clarity in contrast to the baroque exuberance and surrealistic fantasy of some of his contemporaries,” wrote Dr. Milton W. Brown, an art historian.
The Wiener brooch in Michaan’s auction is 18K yellow gold and features seven rectangular-cut tourmalines, four rectangular-cut garnets, one rectangular citrine, one cushion-cut peridot, two emerald-cut amethysts and one emerald-cut blue topaz. It measures 1.88 inches by 1.76 inches. The estimate is $4,500-$6,000.
A sampling of the fine art in sale is a lithograph titled Head of a Man by Nathan Oliveira (American, b. 1928. It is signed and dated: “N Oliveira 57” and numbered “1/10.” The estimate is $450-$650. An oil on canvas still life by Emile Siervert Weinberg (California, 1882-1958) of a large metal bowl and two pieces of fruit has a $500-$700 estimate.
Coins will include a lot of three U.S. Morgan silver dollars: 1895S-O, 1892-S XF, and 1893-P (estimate: $600-$900).
Heading the toys is a scarce Hubley American airplane. The cast-iron aircraft is 24 inches long and carries a $1,000-$1,500 estimate.
A Pablo Picasso Madoura Edition art pottery pitcher, 11 5/8 inches high, has a $4,000-$5,000 estimate. It is numbered “40/500” and dated “9.1.69.”
Ceramics include a 10-piece set of light blue Wedgwood jasperware miniatures. The coffeepot, rhw largest piece, stands less than 3 inches high. The grouping has a $200-$300 estimate.
Chinese antiques include a 19th-century finely carved soapstone mountain scene with three scholars standing on a bridge. The mushroom-shaped mountain (estimate: $400-$600) is only 4 1/2 inches high.
Furniture includes a Classical Revival flame mahogany drop-leaf pedestal table with lion paw feet (estimate: $1,000-$1,500). It measures 30 inches high by 40 inches wide by 53 1/2 inches long, fully extended.
For details phone 510-740-0220.
To view the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet during the sale at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
View the fully illustrated catalog and register to bid absentee or live via the Internet as the sale is taking place by logging on to www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE
