PHILADELPHIA – Against an expansive wall inside Kamelot Auctions a dozen men stand back to admire two gigantic antique rosewood sideboards that have just been installed side by side. Originally from a French chateau, the sideboards date to approximately 1875. Each one measures 12 feet high and more than 13 feet wide, adding up to a great, gleaming mass of richly polished bronze-studded wood that evokes a magnificent dining hall somewhere in the Loire Valley. Ornately carved superstructures of open shelving are crowned by large bronze central insignia bearing an embellished “A,” while drawers, cabinets and more open shelving define the lower sections, all of it punctuated at even intervals by large bronze rosettes and decorative bronze pulls.
Hundreds of antiques, including many large-scale architectural furnishings like these, from Edra Blixseth’s Monarch Designs Collection, have recently traveled across the United States to be sold at Kamelot Auctions in Philadelphia on Nov. 21. Internet live bidding will be provided by LiveAuctioneers.com.
Edra Blixseth and her former husband, Timothy Blixseth, are the founders of the Yellowstone Club, an ultra-exclusive ski resort in Montana. The 13,600-acre club south of Big Sky was sold out of bankruptcy in July.
In June a judge in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Montana rejected Edra Blixeth’s argument in favor of switching her Chapter 7 liquidation back to a Chapter 11 restructuring. The decision required Blixeth to turn over control of her estate to a trustee to begin selling it off to pay creditors.
At the peak of their success, the couple had amassed an empire of international real estate holdings referred to as Yellowstone Club World, a high-risk expansion of their original Montana development project. According to Forbes, in 2005 Timothy Blixseth’s net worth exceeded $1 billion. At that time, Edra Blixseth found herself with miles of rooms to arrange throughout her 30,000 square foot estate, in addition to the expansive common areas of the community buildings on site in Montana. Taking on the challenge as a self-fashioned professional designer and hospitality entrepreneur, Mrs. Blixseth created Monarch Designs, in whose name she spent lavishly on antiques, decorative arts, fine art and other furnishings, amassing a vast collection full of eccentricities and drama.
The Blixseths’ failing marriage, however, was perhaps the first in a chain of events that resulted in one of the most contentious and notorious bankruptcy cases of the decade. Divorce proceedings and the advent of a severe economic downturn heaped upon a colossal burden of debt, including a huge loan from Credit Suisse to build up Yellowstone World, ultimately dealt havoc on the couple’s venture.
Many of the pieces Blixseth collected were generously proportioned and elaborately crafted, reflecting her extravagant taste and her flair for grand gestures as the club’s self-appointed interior designer. One very good Victorian walnut china cabinet with stepped cornice and four beveled glass doors displays skillful carvings of griffins, scrollwork and fruit, and stands 93 inches high and 72 inches across. It is estimated to sell between $5,000 and $8,000.
An inlaid and ebonized antique credenza in the manner of Herter Brothers, notable for its striking, detailed design measures no less than 71 inches high and 62 inches wide. This item is being offered with estimates of $2,500-$4,500.
There is also a good antique inlaid center table in the Renaissance Revival style, circa 1870, also with excellent detail, estimated between $4,500 and $6,500; and an upholstered Italian walnut and gilt oversized chair, circa 1890, estimated between $700 and $900.
The architectural collection also includes several fireplace mantles like one in carved walnut with molded top, tapered columns and pilasters with lions’ heads, circa 1900, estimated between $3,000 and $5,000.
Full sets of furniture for bedrooms and dining rooms have been tagged and arranged in the auction company’s vintage industrial showroom. One particular set on prominent display includes 10 chairs, a table measuring 61 inches wide by 51 inches deep (plus two 20-inch leaves), a china cabinet, a server and a sideboard, all in walnut and so elaborately carved as to appear almost animated. The entire set will be offered with estimates in the range of $10,000 to $15,000.
Bold craftsmanship characterizes this sale, as evidenced by the likes of an artful, Yellin-style wrought-iron hanging light fixture with central Gothic style rectangular panel and three candelabra extending from each end. This unusual circa 1910 chandelier is modestly estimated at $800-$1,200 and could be one of the day’s best bargains
Exterior décor in a variety of styles will be available, as well, and buyers will find many lots in keeping with the grand scale of so many of the interior architectural pieces. Outside Kamelot’s main entrance, for example, a pair of life-size cast-bronze elk standing nearly 10 feet high is ready to welcome bidders, with estimates pegged between $3,000 and $6,000.
The sale will include plenty of antique iron, some cast and carved stone, exceptional stained glass windows and doors, and other highly decorative and interesting architectural elements like an antique copper building façade ornament in the form of a medieval-style face with verdigris finish, estimated between $1,000 and $1,500.
Exaggerated scale and lavish embellishments also permeate decorative and fine arts categories. Larger paintings to be presented include a pastoral European landscape with sheep signed “Armand deVillers,” and another painting with sheep, more moderate in size but more eccentric in subject matter, features a scene in oil from Cervantes’ Don Quixote, signed “Victor Adam” and dated 1892. A three-piece neoclassical style mantel clock incorporates rouge marble and bronze in a porcelain-faced clock box and matching candelabra.
The sale holds the promise of good entertainment and good deals on many curiosities, commercial fixtures and colorful collectible furnishings, too. Many rugs in a variety of styles and sizes are anticipated to sell at pleasing prices. There are wooden telephone booths, antique display cases, industrial tables and shelving, taxidermy and vintage sporting equipment, such as a coin-operated free-standing punching bag with strength meter estimated at $700-$900. A rare pair of carved and mirrored Victorian billiard cue racks and scoreboard are novel items, but also elegant and well-executed
“This sale will potentially offer some really great values on unusual items,” said Kamelot Auctions co-owner Jeff Kamal. “We’re excited to offer our customers such an unusual collection, all without reserves—it’s a rare opportunity.”
The sale begins at 10 a.m. Eastern on Nov. 21. For information on any lot in the sale, call 215-438-6990. View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet 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
