Qing Period hexagonal vase, six-character Qianlong mark, 28 inches high (70 cm). Estimate: $40,000-60,000. Image courtesy 888 Auctions.
RICHMOND HILL, Ontario – 888 Auctions will launch its spring auction season by featuring a fine collection of Chinese arts with its Spring Chinese Estates sale Thursday, March 29. Composed of 444 lots, the auction will feature several standout pieces that boast exceptional provenance.
LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
With the prices achieves by the Zhang Daqian painting in 888 Auctions’ January auction, collectors will be pleased to find additional paintings fresh to the market and of high quality. Lot 51, a Xu Beihong (1895-1953) Chinese watercolor features a group of swan and a pair of perched birds, signed and inscribed with two seals. Interestingly, it also boasts a certificate signed by Liao Jingwen with pictures of Beihong’s wife inspecting the painting firsthand. It carries an estimate high of $60,000.
Lot 263, an 18th century Qianlong mark and of the period gilt bronze Amitayus figure will be the highlighted lot from the collection of metalware. Estimated at $12,000-$15,000, this finely casted figure with an eight-character Qianlong mark is expected to generate great interest on the basis of its sale history and provenance.
Blue and white porcelains continue to garner a significant amount of interest at 888 Auctions, and March’s auction may feature the most significant piece of blue and white porcelain at Lot 419. It is a Chinese Qianlong mark and Qing period hexagonal porcelain vase decorated with boughs of pomegranate, flowering branches of peony, lotus and chrysanthemum, and its spandrels painted as spiky lotus scrolls rising from the linked trefoils encircling the base and ruyi border around the angled shoulders. The cobalt blue simulates the heaping and piling effect typical of blue and white porcelains. It is estimated $40,000-$60,000
For details visit www.888auctions.com or call 905-763-7201.
The S.S. Badger getting under way in Manitowoc, Wis. The car ferry connects the eastern and western segments of U.S. Route 10. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic license. LUDINGTON, Mich. (AP) – On many a summer evening, Jim Fay joins dozens of onlookers on this tourist town’s waterfront, exchanging friendly waves with passengers and crew members as the S.S. Badger chugs into the harbor after a 60-mile voyage across Lake Michigan from Manitowoc, Wis.
It’s a cherished ritual in Ludington, and its days may be numbered.
The Badger, the nation’s last working coal-fired steamship, is under orders from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to stop dumping waste ash into the lake. Coal ash contains low concentrations of arsenic, mercury and other heavy metals, although it’s not classified as hazardous. The ferry discharges more than 500 tons during a typical season from May to October, and operators say there’s no quick fix.
If the standoff isn’t resolved, the Badger could be grounded—a disheartening prospect in its home port of Ludington, which takes pride in its maritime history as do many Great Lakes coastal towns. The ship is also important to the economy, employing about 200 during sailing season.
“It’s rooted deep in this community,” said Fay, 64, whose father, like those of his closest boyhood pals, was a ferry crewman. “The Badger is the last of its kind. I just hate the idea of losing it.”
Up and down the shorelines, relics of history draw tourists by evoking nostalgia for a simpler time. The clip-clop of horses pulling carriages is a familiar sound on car-free Mackinac Island. In Saugatuck, a hand-drawn chain ferry dating from shortly after Michigan gained statehood in 1837 still traverses the Kalamazoo River. The village of Leland has “Fishtown,” a tiny remnant of a commercial fishing village featuring weather-beaten shacks, smokehouses and charter boats.
The Badger, a stout vessel with a wide smokestack and an open-air bow popular with sunbathers, is all that remains of a ferry fleet that hauled railcars across the lake for more than a century. Most of the boats met a sad ending in scrap yards by the late 1980s. The Badger survived when an entrepreneur refurbished it for leisure travel.
The 410-foot ship now has dining areas and a movie lounge as well as many original features, including a mechanism that allows the captain to transmit orders to engineers below decks by moving brass levers on a dial. Rates vary, but a one-way trip for a family of four and their vehicle comes to about $200.
Many townspeople are relatives or friends of former crewmembers. Others have fond memories of riding the ferries with parents or grandparents.
“The Badger has always been part of their lives and their experience of being here in Ludington,” Mayor John Henderson said.
But it’s not always easy to keep one foot in the past while meeting modern standards.
Regulators four years ago gave Lake Michigan Carferry, which runs the Badger, until this December to change its ash disposal method or fuel type. The company says it’s working on a switch to natural gas but needs more time to retrofit the craft, which launched in 1953. Senior chief engineer Charles Cart says it could take up to five years.
Lake Michigan Carferry insists there’s little if any harm from the coal ash, which is mixed with water to form slurry and piped overboard. It says an EPA-certified lab found the material is hundreds of times below hazardous levels.
Tinka Hyde, water division chief with EPA’s Chicago regional office, said the agency has questions about the tests and will review the Badger’s application for an extension.
“If they want to continue to operate, they will need to be in compliance with the Clean Water Act,” Hyde said.
Environmentalists say the contaminants add up over time. And supporters of a rival company say the Badger shouldn’t expect special treatment. “They’re putting almost 8,000 pounds of ash a day into Lake Michigan,” said Steve Warmington, mayor of Muskegon, a city 60 miles south where a diesel-powered ferryboat called the Lake Express is based. “There’s no way in the world you can convince me that’s good for the lake.”
Badger backers say the Muskegon mayor wants to scuttle a competitor, which he denies.
In Ludington, businesses say grounding the Badger would be devastating. It hauls about 100,000 passengers and 30,000 vehicles a year, and many riders stay around long enough to shop, dine or stay overnight. A study by West Shore Community College near Ludington said the ferry pumps $35 million a year into the economy.
Motel owner David Bourgette figures he’d lose 25 percent of his customers without the Badger.
“I care about our lake. But the carferry isn’t doing that much damage,” he said. “If there was one dinosaur left, would we kill it off just because it wasn’t mixing in just right?”
A large, hand-painted Badger mural decorates the outside wall of Jerry and Sally Cole’s downtown antique shop, where ferry memorabilia are on display in glass cases—placemats, playing cards, matchbooks.
“There are a slew of people who collect these things,” Sally Cole said. “It shows how much the Badger means to the area.”
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-03-07-12 2218GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
The S.S. Badger getting under way in Manitowoc, Wis. The car ferry connects the eastern and western segments of U.S. Route 10. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic license.
Alvaar Aalto’s model 31 laminated armchair, circa 1935. Estimate: $2,500-$3,500. Image courtesy Fairfield Auction. MONROE, Conn. – Over 400 lots of antiques, fine art, jewelry, modernism and Americana will be sold March 18th at Fairfield Auction. Numerous Connecticut estates are represented, but many of the highlight items came from a Ridgefield couple downsizing to smaller quarters and a Stamford estate of European family who purchased many interesting objects over the generations.
The 20th century is well represented. A model 31 armchair by Alvar Aalto, found in a Stamford estate, and dating to the 1930s is expected to bring $2,500-$3,500. A pair of wall sconces by Jean Royere, a pair of John Stuart lounges, a Val-Kill Industries table and an early library table by Gustav Stickley will be sold. Lighting by Handel, Pairpoint and Wilkenson as well as a pair of Tiffany desk lamps should find bidders as well. Andy Warhol’s large “Cow” screenprint for the Whitney Museum 1971 is estimated at $2,000-$3,000 while a pair of original Charles Schulz Peanuts comic strip illustrations are each expected to attract bidders.
A large an impressive coastal scene by Aaron Draper Shattuck leads a strong selection of American works. Works by Walter Oddie, Clinton Loveridge, William Trost Richards, Frederick Schaffer, William Saterlee and C.P. Ream will also be sold. Other American paintings include works by Robert Atkinson Fox, Berney Lettick, Johanne Berthelsen, Robert Hogg Nisbet and a pair of pencil signed lithographs by Grant Wood.
Western art includes Native American portraits by Harley Brown and E.A. Burbank, a cowboy etching by Edward Borein and an estate found portfolio of 10 original signed Edward Curtis photographs.
European art includes a river landscape with young lovers in a boat by Hippolyte Camile Delpy as well as works by Meyer Deithelm, Andre Jeovov, Carl Moser, Karl Stuhlmuller, Carl Hand Wright, Louis Devedeaux, Gertrude Staats, Reinhold Nagele, Augustus Schenk and Lucien Moretti.
Of particular note is a large gouache of two nudes in Barbados by Evgeniy Agafonoff (Russian/American, 1879-1956). The artist traveled to Barbados in the 1930s perhaps mimicking Gauguin’s trip to Tahiti and certainly depicting the natives similarly. He lived the later part of his life in Connecticut.
Outsider artist Drossos Skyllas is represented by a pair of portraits, Pete and Katrina, estimated at $50,000-$75,000. Skyllas created only 35 known works and he is considered one of the masters of outsider art.
A selection of Americana includes an impressive Victorian carved walnut patriotic frame measuring 46 inches by 57 inches with three-dimensional renderings of drums, pistols, cannons, flags and an American eagle at the crest, possibly created for the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. Additionally a J.S. Ellsworth miniature portrait, a turn-of-the-century hooked rug with ice skaters, a John Swain lyre banjo clock and a carved eagle by the Artistic Carving Co. of Boston will be sold. American manuscripts include an Abraham Lincoln signed appointment, a pair of signed Harry Truman memoirs and a book signed by Robert Kennedy.
An exceptional Ridgefield, Conn., estate includes an impressive selection of fine jewelry. A platinum and diamond Art Deco bracelet is set with five lozenges, with three central diamonds of .80 carats each, and 26 carats total diamond weight. An engagement set purchased from Zimmer Brothers about 1925 includes a 3-carat solitaire set in platinum and is estimated at $18,000-$24,000. Also from the same estate are a pair of men’s Patek Phillipe wrist watches, a deep blue star sapphire ring, a platinum and diamond lavalier necklace, an Austrian carved gemstone floral pin from Oesterreicher of Vienna and a Tiffany platinum open face pocket watch circa 1930.
A selection of Chinese jades includes an impressive bowl in the “rice” pattern with dragon handles and possibly Ming dynasty. A large collection of Chinese scrolls and snuff bottles will also be sold. A collection of Chinese enameled silver will also be sold.
European decorative arts include a pair of Viennese enameled silver and rock crystal dishes. A large Royal Vienna painted tray, a group of three colored engravings by Georg Ehret, an 18th century French brass mounted trunk and five Besler botanical engravings.
Of particular interest is a matched pair of Spanish Miquolet pistols and a monumental 19th century Wedgwood jasparware plaque, measuring 23 inches by 16 inches.
The auction will take place Sunday, March 18, at 11 a.m. Eastern. Viewing is available auction week Thursday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and auction day 9 a.m.-11 a.m. The gallery is located at 707 Main St. in Monroe, Conn., and can be contacted at 203-880-5200 or online at www.fairfieldauction.com.
PEOTONE, Ill. – A die-cut cardboard countertop display for Edison Mazda, advertising headlight bulbs with the question, “Auto Lamps? We Have Them!” coasted to $3,410 at the Spring Petroliana & Advertising Auction held March 2 by Matthews Auctions LLC. The auction took place the day before the start of the Chicagoland Petroliana & Advertising Show, held twice a year in Peotone.
“What made this piece so special was the fact that it was cardboard and still ended up in the list of top lots,” said Dan Matthews of Matthews Auctions LLC, based in Nokomis, Ill. “It brought as much as it did because it had a crisp image of a car, and because it was in such great condition—graded 9 out of 10 for condition. Only minor edge wear kept it from realizing more.”
Matthews said the auction was one of the strongest he’s ever held. “Nothing was undersold,” he remarked. “In fact, the sale overall brought $50,000 more than I thought it would. I’ve never been that far off before. Petroliana is alive and well as a collectible. Signs in particular—especially at the high end—continue to do well. They haven’t been affected by the recession.”
Nearly 450 lots changed hands at the auction, which was attended by about 150 people. In addition, around 600 registered bidders participated online, via LiveAuctioneers.com. Following are additional highlights from the sale. All prices quoted include a 10 percent buyer’s premium.
The top lot of the day was a rare Penn-Empire gasoline sign, one of only a handful known, 30 inches in diameter. The double-sided porcelain sign with an ethyl logo, boasting good gloss and color, was rated 7.5 on both sides and went for $6,875. Also, an X-Ray Stove Polish single-sided porcelain sign, 11 inches by 11 inches, with a dancing devils graphic, made $2,420.
A Sentinel Motor Oil (“You’re Sure It’s Pure”) double-sided porcelain sign, with great gloss and color and a clean center, showing only minor crazing in a small area on the outer field and chips at the mounting holes, earned $6,325; and a Kelly Balloon Tires (“Keep Smiling With Kelly’s”) single-sided porcelain sign, with Lotta Miles waving through a tire, demanded $5,500.
A Johnson “Time Tells Gasoline” 15-inch single lens in a new metal globe body and with the lens rated an impressive 9, went for $4,675; and a Champlin Gasoline (“Use Champlin Oils”) double-sided porcelain sign with logo, 30 inches in diameter, rated 9 on one side and 8.75 on the other (and both sides having great gloss and color) commanded $2,420.
A scarce pair of small Ford Service Arrow single-sided porcelain die-cut neon signs, both sides rated 7, with no neon tubes and some rust staining, went for a respectable $5,500; and a Chevrolet Service double neon single-sided porcelain die-cut sign, 48 inches by 42 inches, with super gloss and color, marked Walker & Company (Detroit), with some minor chips, hit $5,390.
A pair of Farmoil Co-Operative of Ohio (with logo) 15-inch lenses in a new metal globe body, with both lenses rated 9, fetched $4,675; a Mobil Pegasus single-sided porcelain sign dated 1954, 71 inches by 108 inches and rated 8.5, knocked down at $4,180; and a Fox Head Lager Beer (“Brewed With Waukesha Water”) single-sided porcelain curved sign with logo hit $3,630.
A 1922 Automobile Blue Book Hotel (“Standard Road Guide of America”) double-sided porcelain shield-shaped sign, 21 inches by 19 inches, with super gloss, breezed to $3,300; a Freedom Oils & Gasoline porcelain flange sign, 24 inches by 18 inches, rated 7.75, rose to $3,850; and a Red Crown Gasoline double-sided porcelain die-cut paddle sign with California crown logo measuring 10 inches by 13 inches and with both sides rated 9.75, went for $2,860.
A pair of Gulf Marine (“Special For Marine Use”) white 13.5-inch lenses on a screw base glass globe body, with both lenses rated 9, hammered for $2,860; a USL Batteries single-sided porcelain self-framed porcelain sign (“Economical, Dependable”), rated 9+, garnered $2,640; and a Life Gasoline Barnett Oil Company single-sided tin sign with logo hammered for $2,530.
An Atlantic Ale-Beer (“Full of Good Cheer”) single-sided porcelain dome sign with great graphics and good gloss and color, rated 7.9, finished at $2,310; two Ashland Go-Mix Outboard Fuel 13-5 inch lenses in a new Capco globe body, with both lenses rated 9+, changed hands for $2,090; a Sunoco Gas-Oil double-sided porcelain die-cut sign, 28 inches by 42 inches, both sides rated 8.9, realized $1,870; and a Mallory Ignition heavy paper banner, rated 8.9, brought $1,007.
Matthews Auctions LLC has a full slate of auctions planned through 2012, but two in particular stand out. One is an auction of petroliana, automobilia and more, timed to coincided with the CTO Show in Dublin, Ohio, on June 23. The other is the lifetime collection of William Dagg (petroliana, country store and farm collectibles), planned for Sept. 16, in Ina, Ill.
Matthews Auctions LLC is always accepting quality consignments. To consign a single item, an estate or an entire collection, call toll-free at 877-968-8880, or you can send an email to Dan Matthews at danm@matthewsauctions.com.
Matthews has written a book about petroliana, titled The Fine Art of Collecting and Displaying Petroliana. For information on how to order a copy, please log on to the Matthews Auctions LLC website, www.matthewsauctions.com. The website contain more information about Matthews Auctions LLC and the firm’s calendar of sales
‘Relection (Self-portrait),’ 1985, Copyright: Private Collection, Ireland. The Lucian Freud Archive. Photo: The Lucian Freud Archive.
LONDON – Due to public demand the National Portrait Gallery has made available 7,000 extra tickets for “Lucian Freud Portraits” through extended opening hours. The exhibition will now open until 9 p.m. every Saturday from March 24 until May 26 in addition to its late-night openings on Thursdays and Fridays.
The extra tickets go on sale today, March 8, only (via Ticketmaster) at www.npg.org.uk/freud or by phone (0844 248 5033).
Since it opened on Feb. 9 “Lucian Freud Portraits” has been one of the Gallery’s most popular exhibitions attracting over 50,000 visitors. As well as the newly released allocation, tickets are still available for a number of timed entry slots (also on the Gallery’s website or by phone) for dates in April and May.
Advance tickets for admission throughout the run are also available in person from the ticket desk in the Gallery and at least 500 are available every day for on-the-day admission to walk-in visitors.
To avoid queuing, for just £45 visitors can become a Gallery Member which gives them free, immediate access to the exhibition and other benefits including free admission to all Gallery exhibitions for one year. (Visitors can also become members online, with their confirmation email entitling them to free entry to Lucian Freud Portraits when presented at the membership desk).
The Gallery recommends that visitors arrive early to avoid disappointment and strongly advises against buying tickets from unauthorised ticket sellers.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
‘Relection (Self-portrait),’ 1985, Copyright: Private Collection, Ireland. The Lucian Freud Archive. Photo: The Lucian Freud Archive.
Interior of the Illinois Capitol dome. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) – Oh, if these walls could talk.
No doubt the Illinois State Capitol could tell stories of political intrigue, deal-making, grand ideas—both the inspired and the incompetent—and, yes, corruption.
If there is one person alive who still can hear those stories, it’s Mark Sorensen.
Sorensen is retired from the Illinois State Archives, and during the preparations for the capitol’s 100th birthday in 1988, he pulled together information about the building and its history to make it more accessible to the public.
He retired in 2002 and lives in Decatur now, but they still know him around the statehouse. Even present-day tour guides defer to his expertise and stand aside when they walk into a room and find him already sharing stories about the building’s history.
In the late 1860s, other cities were trying to lure the highly coveted designation of state capital away from Springfield.
Springfield already had outfought Kaskaskia and Vandalia for the honor, but state government had outgrown the Old State Capitol and plans were being formulated to build a new statehouse.
“In 1867, Decatur tried to become the capital, and Springfield fought to keep it,” Sorensen says.
Even after construction started in 1868, other cities kept trying to wrest the state capital, with its power and government jobs, away from Springfield.
The building of the Capitol was fraught with delays, changes in building plans and funding shortfalls. Construction took a decade, and when the building finally opened in 1877, it wasn’t finished. The state didn’t have the money.
“The Constitution of 1870 was passed after they started construction here,” Sorensen says. “They kept having hearings (in 1878) over corruption and other problems, and the Constitution limited the amount of funds that could be spent in an attempt to limit any possible corruption.”
Two referenda to raise the money needed to finish the building failed. Finally, in 1884, a referendum passed to provide the necessary $531,712.
In the meantime, other cities kept circling.
“Chicago and Peoria tried to take the capital away while there was just the first concourse of stone up here,” he says. “The General Assembly went to Peoria for a couple of days on a drinking spree to tour facilities in Peoria and then rode the train back here.
“They were going to go to Chicago—they had gone up there for a couple of meetings in the past—but before they could meet in Chicago, Chicago burned down.”
After that, Peoria’s offer was turned down, and work continued on the building in Springfield.
The Capitol that opened in 1877 was much different than today’s ornate building.
The main floor was considered the basement then, with a grand staircase leading up to the second (or executive) floor.
Sorensen says the floor was wooden and the basement housed mundane storage and offices like weights and measures.
“The whole Capitol rotunda was naked because they didn’t finish it,” Sorensen says. “You could see all the way up to the outside cupola. There was no skylight or anything.”
In 1886, the stairs to the second floor were torn down and a balcony created outside the governor’s office. The former basement became the entrance.
At about that time, the building was decorated and the walls hand-painted.
Computer-generated wallpaper has replaced the wall paintings in wings of the building that already have been restored.
“The importance of the Capitol is it is a museum inside a working building, so you have these conflicts between preserving art and architecture and making this a functional building for offices and people who have jobs working in state government,” Sorensen says.
“When the building was built, it contained every aspect of state government—three museums, art galleries, the military arm of the government was centered here, the justice department—the Supreme Court, all the state officials,” he says.
“And since that time, just about every one of those officials have moved to offices outside of the Capitol, have their own buildings. The museums and libraries have moved to other facilities.”
Since the 1960s, the general assembly has taken over most of the space in the building.
The Capitol, with its large dome, rotunda and ornate decoration, draws visitors beyond those with official government business.
“Everybody that comes in for the first time is amazed,” Sorensen says. “You will see that as you stand off to the side as they walk in.
“You see their head immediately snap up and they will make some sort of noise—‘ooh,’ ‘ahh’ or ‘wow,’” he says. “I guess that’s the answer as to why people should come here.”
Talking with a tour group in the old Supreme Court Room at the Capitol, Sorensen tells the story behind a mural on the ceiling.
“Two artists from St. Louis executed this painting in the 1870s showing Goddess of Justice in front of the Illinois State Capitol, trampling on a cornucopia of gold coins because if you are from Illinois, you know justice cannot be bought.”
The anecdote brings laughter from the group.
___
Information from: The State Journal-Register, http://www.sj-r.com
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-03-07-12 1133GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Interior of the Illinois Capitol dome. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License.
A doorway and transom light on a 19th century home in New Orleans. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) – Decades of local history lie almost forgotten in a warm, musty basement downtown.
Doors that once swung open to show off new bungalows or even mansions are neatly stacked, waiting to be refurbished. Windows that looked out on Huntsville’s evolution from watercress to Wikipedia are piled high, ready to move back out in the sunshine.
At the bottom of a steep staircase, architectural doodads like doorknobs and light fixtures plus more than a century of history fill the dusty basement of Harrison Brothers Hardware on the Courthouse Square.
Access to these treasures was once limited, but now the Historic Huntsville Foundation Architectural Warehouse is open to the public. Warehouse hours are 10 a.m. to noon on the first and third Saturday of each month, other times by appointment.
It helps to descend into the basement with an appreciation of the past—but also some imagination.
Donna Castellano, a member of the Historic Huntsville Foundation board, saw an old solid-wood door not as a simple barrier between rooms but a quaint, quirky headboard for her Newman Avenue home.
In the kind of funky do-it-yourself project you’d see in decorating magazines, Castellano bought the door for $30 and had it refinished to hang horizontally on the wall over the bed.
Like most items in the warehouse, the door didn’t come with a written history. Castellano estimates it to be about 75 years old. She used other old doors from the warehouse, purchased for less than $50, during a renovation of her 1929 home.
Three curved pieces of walnut sparked another inspiration.
“I brought home these three legs, and my husband was like, ‘What are you doing?’ With the proper craftsman, it can become a table.”
And so it did, restyled by a local artisan with rich, new pieces of cherry and walnut.
“I paid lots more for that table than I would have at a store, but it’s a custom antique piece,”she reasoned.
Items in the warehouse have been accumulating since the 1970s, Castellano estimates. Volunteers often would go out and take architectural trim from homes being demolished or moved. “It’s been a while since they took apart a house,” she said.
The historic foundation, which owns and operates the warehouse, hopes the treasures will find new homes and uses.
“This was such wonderful material,” said Jim Marek, foundation chair. “Why limit it to the purist? They can either use it as a part of their home for the purpose it was intended, or some reuse.”
Marek said proceeds go to local preservation and education; the foundation owns the corner building next to Harrison Brothers. Their efforts are green, too.
“When you think about the materials required to make a new wood door—isn’t it a more effective use of our resources to find a way to use an old door from a tree that has already been harvested, with energy that has already been expended?” Marek asked.
When people step into the basement’s two rooms of reclaimed architectural items, they generally have two reactions, Castellano said. They’re surprised at the volume. Then their minds start to click with how to use it.
“You get over seeing this is a door or a window or a set of shutters,” she said. “You can see how those pieces can be reworked.”
Some items like doors—about $25 to $35—are marked with exact dimensions so homeowners can see if they will fit a particular entryway.
Other finds: glass panels/prisms for $4, spindles from one of the local fabric mills, transom windows for $7, furnace grates, newel banister posts, mantels, sinks, shutters, flooring, brass hardware, two shimmering mercury (silvered) glass lampshades with herringbone green glass for $50 each.
Warehouse volunteers are hearing that many pieces are not being reused in their traditional sense. A door becomes a table. A window becomes a frame or side table.
One person used 9-foot pocket doors as garage doors. Wide pieces of molding can be painted with chalkboard paint for an unusual message board. Old doorknobs can become hooks.
“You generally have to make two visits, to see what is there, go off and your mind starts percolating,” Castellano said.
To showcase how a door is not always a door, the foundation is planning a fundraiser in May that will exhibit what local artisans can do with some of the items. They can connect buyers with local craftspeople interested in repurposing the items.
“Some purists are looking to replace a lock on a home, others are renovating to their own demands,” said John Cline, chair of the foundation’s warehouse committee.
Pieces in the warehouse sell for $15 to $1,500, Cline said. That $1,500 item was a staircase. Last year sales generated more than $6,000 in six months.
Cline said people can bring in items for donation (preferably at least 50 years old) or call Harrison Brothers to arrange for pickup when possible. Items there now came from around North Alabama and southern Tennessee.
Occasionally, you’ll find a treasure with a pedigree. In a karmic twist, several things in the warehouse right now have labels saying they came from the White Street home of one of the Harrison brothers—real brothers who ran the circa-1897 hardware store upstairs.
In another example of history coming full circle, developers of the $11.5 million Belk Hudson Lofts on Washington Street are incorporating items they found in the Harrison Brothers warehouse. Two walls of the 1920s-era Belk store will remain as part of the new building.
Charlie and Sasha Sealy’s purchases at the store include a transom window, a Celluloid Starch wooden box for under $50 and iron covers to a wood-burning stove. They used pieces from the warehouse to decorate a Christmas tree display in Big Spring International Park. Modern construction codes prohibit using some of the items for their original purpose in the new development, but decorative things such as tiles will become part of a 75-apartment complex opening in September or October.
“For old antique doors and windows it’s a great place,” said Charlie, who likes the idea that their project “incorporates the new and the old.”
“Include a piece of Huntsville history in your own home,” Sasha said.
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-03-06-12 1826GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
A doorway and transom light on a 19th century home in New Orleans. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
‘It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown’ album cover original art by Dick Duerrstein (Charlie Brown Records, 1978). Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Heritage Auctions.
ROCK HILL, S.C. (AP) – Dozens of framed comic strip panels that line a York County museum wall prove that Snoopy frowns on pollution, Lucy van Pelt really thought snow came up from the ground and Charlie Brown once feared legal action by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Nestled in a room slightly larger than the museum’s lobby, Peanuts mementos, memorabilia and merchandise stand on wooden tables.
Snoopy and Woodstock puppets lie in wall-mounted cubbyholes, and a description etched on a wall explains that Peanuts creator Charles Schulz often used his characters to promote recycling and love for nature.
From March until September, the Museum of York County will host a new traveling exhibit, “Peanuts … Naturally,” which is inspired by Schulz’s iconic characters and their perspectives on the “web of nature”—or natural world—around them.
The exhibit landed in York County after representatives of the Charles Schulz Museum and Research Center in California presented plans for the Peanuts exhibit to different museums interested in temporarily housing the display, said Teresa Armour, exhibits manager for the Museum of York County.
The Museum of York County was one of the first to say yes, she said.
Renting the exhibit costs museums $10,000, not including each museum’s added costs for shipping, marketing, additional objects and other components, Armour said. An online itinerary shows that, as of 2011, York County was third on a list of 13 museums that booked the exhibit through 2016.
To make the exhibit even more visually appealing, Armour said museum leaders asked staff members to submit any Peanuts paraphernalia in their possession to include with the display.
Thus far, six to seven staff members have contributed, she said.
“It’s interesting to see what people have saved and what means most to them,” Armour said.
One of those people is Cate Crane, the museum’s education director, who said that she always enjoyed Peanuts as a little girl.
In fact, it was Crane who put York County on the list of museums interested in featuring the Peanuts exhibit, she said.
“I thought it’d be a perfect fit” for the museum, she said.
Keeping with the theme, the museum will incorporate Peanuts into its planetarium, summer camps, summer programs and annual Earth Day celebration, said James Wells, museum family programs director.
This year’s Earth Day Birthday will feature Charlotte illustrator Dave McDonald as part of an “It’s Earth Day, Charlie Brown” event, Wells said.
McDonald, who created the Hamster Sam comic book characters and frequents the museum with his grandson, will teach kids about his own drawing style, which he adapted from Schulz and Rock Hill’s Vernon Grant, he said.
Peanuts characters from Carowinds may also join the party, he added.
In the center of the exhibit at the museum, a makeshift greenhouse complete with gardening tools and fake dirt will teach children about gardening.
A few steps to the right, the “elements” station offers a design-your-own-snowflake kiosk. In the “universe” area, children can draw constellations on an interactive touch screen.
Over in the “Trees, Glorious Trees” area, children can learn about tree rings and trace their own leaf images atop carved palettes.
Children will be able to take a test on energy consumption that gauges how well they conserve water and electricity.
Soon, a Snoopy and Woodstock doghouse will be available for children to crawl through.
The exhibit will be open until Sept. 3.
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-03-07-12 0051GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
‘It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown’ album cover original art by Dick Duerrstein (Charlie Brown Records, 1978). Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Heritage Auctions.
In a recent antiques publication an author gave a master lesson in carving a 17th century “Sunflower” chest. In explaining the ins and outs of New England Colonial carving he highlighted the real world priorities of the period and the fact that decorating an otherwise perfectly fine plain chest was a luxury few could afford to buy or had the time to produce. But he then explained that since the Sunflower chests all had certain constants such as panel size, stile design and trim dimensions, it was actually possible for the turner and the joiner and the carver to stockpile basic elements of the chests for use when the demand arose.
While that is not exactly production line work, it is the beginning of an industrial mind-set that reached into deeper and firmer ground with its roots as the next two centuries rolled by in Colonial/Federal America. The urge to decorate plain surfaces appears to be a universal human trait that appeals to the “art” in all of us.
The replication of effort in difficult tasks in the cabinetmaker’s shop is what allowed large true sets of chairs to be turned out in the 18th century, and by the early 19th century entrepreneurs like Lambert Hitchcock really did produce furniture in an assembly-line manner with each worker performing the same task repetitively on endless lines of chairs. Even the decorations were “by the numbers” with stencils producing the same cornucopia thousands of times on the crest rails of thousands of chairs.
By mid century J.H. Belter had nearly a hundred German woodworkers and carvers in his factory located next to his rooming house in Manhattan, and the Meeks brothers had a new factory nearby and even had an outlet in New Orleans. But even with all the labor and all those tools and factories, it was still relatively expensive and time-consuming for Belter to turn out a parlor set in “Rosalie Without the Grapes” or for Meeks to order up a five-piece “Stanton Hall” set. But the desire for decoration was still there and as long as somebody could afford it.
By the turn of the century things had changed both in society and in the factory. Despite some ups and downs the decades after Civil War were prosperous and America’s population was growing both in numbers and in wealth. And those wealthier citizens were willing to pay for a little decoration in their lives—within reason.
The mail-order catalog phenomenon was in full swing and was the primary furniture distributor of the period and price was the key. How could Sears or Larkin produce decorative furniture to compete with the intricate carvings of the mid century? No one wanted to pay that much or wait that long.
They didn’t have to. In the very late 1800s along came a process that could produce elaborate designs on chair parts for a cost of next to nothing. It even had a lot of people thinking it was hand carved. The process? The steel die stamp. A design with sharp edges was etched into a metal plate. That plate was mounted on a roller and under great pressure was passed over a waiting chair crest rail that had been precut to shape and steam-bent to match the curve on the roller. The result was a perfect impression of the etching that was literally pressed into the wood giving the effect of a three-dimensional carving. Thus began the great era of the “press back” chair in American furniture.
In the simplest case a rather shallow design was pressed into the waiting crest and without further ado was mounted to a chair ready to be finished. That allowed a mail-order house like Sears to offer a dining chair in 1902 for $.63 that had “handsome carving” on the back. Other chairs were enthusiastically—and erroneously—described as having “rich hand carving,” “beautifully turned and carved back,” or simply a “richly carved back.” Maybe the catalog writers didn’t know about “the process.”
Here a few examples of press back chairs along with a few that are combinations of pressing and hand chasing and a few that are not press backs, but are from the same period.
Cheap – This chair has a shallow pattern that required single pass of the die on the birch crest. This was simply a decorative touch and made no real effort to look hand carved. This was a very inexpensive chair at the time.
Larkin – A design with a little more depth and texture but still a fairly simple look is shown in this Larkin chair that was offered in 1908 for $.25 and one Larkin certificate or in a set of four for five certificates with no cash payment.
HW – The Heywood Brothers and Wakefield Co. offered this chair around 1900 that showed a good, deep design with stiles topped by Victorian era “honey dipper” finials.
Face – The “face chair” movement was a prime beneficiary of the press back technology. Mythological creatures could now be instantly transferred to chair backs without all that tedious carving.
Dragons – Of course the other main movement of the period, the “creature feature,” worked its way into the press back theme book. These two dragons are about to mix it up.
Griffins – The two figures on this back are traditional winged griffins that have been pressed into service.
Hand chased – The Holy Land scene on an otherwise severely plain Mission-style chair was first pressed, then followed by hand chasing that removed background material and left visible tool marks to enhance the notion of hand carving.
Windmill – The outline of these happy cloggers may have been pressed but the main work was indeed hand carved.
Not pressed – This may appear to be a press back candidate but the bottlenose dolphins are true carvings applied over the quartersawn veneer.
Send your comments, questions and pictures to Fred Taylor at P.O. Box 215, Crystal River, FL 34423 or email them to him at info@furnituredetective.com.
Visit Fred’s website at www.furnituredetective.com. His book How To Be a Furniture Detective is available for $18.95 plus $3 shipping. Send check or money order for $21.95 to Fred Taylor, P.O. Box 215, Crystal River, FL 34423.
Fred and Gail Taylor’s DVD, Identification of Older & Antique Furniture ($17 + $3 S&H) is also available at the same address. For more information call 800-387-6377, fax 352-563-2916, or info@furnituredetective.com. All items are also available directly from his website.
Joseph Christian Leyendecker, ‘Easter,’ oil on canvas, circa 1918, 24 x 18 1/2 inches, original illustration for the March 23, 1918 cover of ‘The Saturday Evening Post.’ Image courtesy A.N. Abell Auction Co. LOS ANGELES – On Sunday, March 18 at 10 a.m. Pacific, A.N. Abell Auction Co. will present an important Fine Art and Antique Sale offering 500 lots of fine art, antiques, fine jewelry, silver and appointments from estates throughout California.
Live online bidding is available through Liveauctioneers.com.
The selection of antique furniture is highlighted by a pair of 18th century Louis XV painted cherubs on pedestals (est. $40,000-$60,000) and a Louis XV provincial carved fruitwood commode ($3,000-$4,000). In addition Abell is offering a pair of Italian Baroque gilt wood torcheres; Tuscan walnut consoles, chests and tables; a Georgian japanned lacquered chest of drawers; a mahogany serpentine chest; an Irish painted leather boot chest; and much more.
Joseph Leyendecker’s Easter (est. $20,000-$30,000) is the star of Abell’s American paintings. The original illustration for the March 23, 1918 cover of The Saturday Evening Post was discovered in a Beverly Hills estate. Other quality works include William Trost Richards’ The Coast of Cornwall ($20,000-$30,000) and Frank Coburn’s Pershing Square, Los Angeles ($18,000-$25,000). In addition, works by Elmer Wachtel, Thaddeus Welch, Herman Fueschel, Frank Henry Sharpleigh, William Keith, Guy Wiggins, and Millard Sheets will be sold.
The highlights of European Fine Art include Maurice Vlaminck’s La pecheur ($50,000-$70,000) and Jan Bogaerts’ Still Life, one of the artist’s largest works to be sold in years ($18,000-$25,000). Pablo Picasso’s etchings Sueno y mentira de Franco [2 works] ($8,000-$12,000) will draw international attention, as should lithographs by Marc Chagall, Robert Motherwell, Alexander Calder, John Baldessari, Ellen Gallagher and many more.
In addition Abell is pleased to offer pieces from the estate of David Wolper, the producer of Roots. These items include bronze sculptures inscribed by Joan Miro, Jacques Lipchitz (2), Pierre Auguste Renoir and a tapestry after Fernand Leger.
Fine silver includes an Edwardian 29-piece gilt silver and pink enamel man’s dresser set ($15,000-$20,000) and an Edwardian gilt silver 23-piece dresser set ($7,000-$10,000), each in a fitted cabinet; a George IV gilt silver wine cooler; and a Victorian silver ewer. Flatware services include Reed & Barton Lily, Allan Adler Modern Georgian, and Russian and Victorian flatware. Jewelry includes an18-karat gold and diamond pendant [2.07 carats, E-F, SI1] ($10,000-$15,000); a diamond and platinum line bracelet; and a fine collection of brooches, cocktail rings and earrings.
Other quality offerings include an American leaded glass cupola in the manner of Tiffany measuring 10 feet in diameter ($10,000-$15,000), a collection of Vienna bronzes, a Regency tortoise tea caddy, a Venetian gilt cranberry glass table service, Chinese and Continental ivories, a variety of clocks, carpets, a Chinese four-panel porcelain screen ($6,000-$8,000), a Chinese carved altar table, armchairs and a room divider, and Chinese carved coral figures and urn.
Previews are from Wednesday, March 14, through Saturday, March 17, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For a complete, fully illustrated catalog visit Abell’s website at www.abell.com. For any further information contact Joe Baratta at 800-404-2235.
Joseph Christian Leyendecker, ‘Easter,’ oil on canvas, circa 1918, 24 x 18 1/2 inches, original illustration for the March 23, 1918 cover of ‘The Saturday Evening Post.’ Image courtesy A.N. Abell Auction Co.
Pair of Louis XV carved and grisaille-painted cherubs, 18th century, each on a carved walnut pedestal, 35 inches high, 76 total inches high. Estimate: $30,000-$/50,000. Image courtesy A.N. Abell Auction Co.
French bronze and enameled sunburst clock in the Louis XV style with celestial orb face with emanating ray back, 26 inches high. Image courtesy A.N. Abell Auction Co.
Joan Miro, ‘Carota,’ circa 1978, Mourlot, 1148 lithograph in color, signed and numbered ’51/75′ in pencil, 35 1/2 x 25 1/2 inches. Provenance: Galerie Maeght, 1980 the estate of David Wolper. Image courtesy A.N. Abell Auction Co.
Jean Arp, ‘Seuil Configuration,’ bronze sculpture with dark brown patina stamped in casting, 6 1/2 x 6 1/4 inches. Estimate: $1,800-$2,500. Image courtesy A.N. Abell Auction Co.
Pair of Louis XV-style dore bronze girandole mirrors, the cartouche-shaped mirror back with four scrolled and foliate candle arms, 42 x 24 inches. Estimate: $8,000-$/12,000. Image courtesy A.N. Abell Auction Co.
