A bronze figure of a Jewish widow, Judith, with sword in hand, by Emile Coriolan Hippolyte Guillemin, sold for $27,025 at a Continental Fine & Decorative Arts Auction held July 31 by Cowan’s Auctions Inc., in Cincinnati. Also, an oil on canvas painting by Frederick Soulacroix (1858-1953), titled Portrait of Woman, also realized $27,025; a 16th-century Spanish Vargueno chest achieved $17,625; and a Japanese-made rickshaw with a velvet seat, footrest and spring suspension hit $7,637. Prices include a 17.5 percent buyer’s premium.
‘The Bridge, Crowland’ by Sir James Guthrie (1859-1930), oil on canvas, 12 inches by 9 1/2 inches, on show at the Fleming Collection’s exhibition of works by the Glasgow Boys. Image courtesy The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation. London has never been the most bicycle-friendly city in Europe, with confrontations between cyclists and motorists often teetering on the brink of all-out warfare as they compete for territorial advantage in the ever-more congested streets. However, this summer all that looks set to change after London’s first city-wide bike-rental initiative came into service, largely thanks to the tireless efforts of London mayor — bicycle-loving Boris Johnson. Whether the plentiful new Barclays-sponsored bicycles — already dubbed “Boris Bikes” — will bring London into line with bike-friendly cities like Amsterdam remains to be seen. One thing is for sure, however: the bikes are a superb way to get around London’s museums and galleries, arguably the city’s most significant tourist draw. This year there is no shortage of superb exhibitions to pedal around.
Although the art market virtually closes down during the summer months of July and August, our national museums and public galleries are in full spate as tourists pour in. London is about to be awash with exhibitions devoted to The Glasgow Boys — the group of painters that gathered in Glasgow during the last quarter of the 19th century. The fulcrum for the current series of London shows is a major new exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts: Pioneering Painters: The Glasgow Boys 1880-1900 from Oct. 30 to Jan. 31. Other galleries have capitalized on that event and organised their own Glasgow School shows.
The Fleming Collection — widely acknowledged as the spiritual home of Scottish art in London — kicks off at its 13 Berkeley St. premises on Sept. 14 with The Glasgow Boys from the Fleming Collection, which continues until Dec. 18. The exhibition features important works from the Fleming Collection’s own holdings by key figures in the Glasgow movement, including Sir John Lavery, David Gauld, Sir James Guthrie, Edward Atkinson Hornel, Joseph Crawhall, George Henry and James Paterson.
This show offers a fine illustration of the shared sense of purpose and the commonality of technique and subject matter that united the young avant-garde painters in opposition to prevailing academic dogma in the 1880s.
Sir James Guthrie’s The Bridge, Crowland might stand as a visual manifesto for their aims and aspirations. Painted outdoors direct from the motif, or “en plein air” to use the correct French term, its naturalistic palette and broad, square, brush strokes reveal the influence of contemporary French painters such as Jules Bastien-Lepage on the Glasgow style. David Gauld’s A Breton Village, demonstrates the willingness of the Glasgow painters to travel abroad in order to expand their aesthetic repertoire and to paint the subjects so dear to their Continental counterparts, while the same artist’s Eve of Saint Agnes partakes of the prevailing European Symbolist movement and prefigures the Glaswegian strain of Art Nouveau developed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his followers.
David Gauld, (1865-1936), ‘A Breton Village,’ oil on canvas, 20 by 24 ins, on show at the Fleming Collection’s exhibition of works by the Glasgow Boys. Image courtesy The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation. ‘The Eve of St Agnes’ by David Gauld (1865-1936), circa 1890, colour sketch oil on canvas. 20 inches by 16 inches, at the Fleming Collection’s exhibition of works by the Glasgow Boys. Image courtesy The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation.
To coincide with the show, The Fleming Collection’s annual Friends’ Lecture on Nov. 23 will be given by Kenneth McConkey, a renowned authority on Scottish painting of the period.
Another London gallery seeking to benefit from swell of interest sure to be generated by the Royal Academy’s Glasgow exhibition is the Fine Art Society. Their next big event — Lavery and the Glasgow Boys — celebrates the contribution of Belfast-born painter Sir John Lavery (1856-1941) who became a pivotal figure in the evolution of the Glasgow school of painting. This is a traveling show that began at Bourne Fine Art in Edinburgh before proceeding to Belfast and it culminates at the Fine Art Society’s New Bond Street premises from Oct. 27 to Nov. 18.
Among the seminal works on display here will be Lavery’s luscious oil on canvas The Goose Girls, signed and dated 1855, showing two Breton girls guiding their geese down a riverside path, while Arthur Melville’s (1855-1904) The North Gate, Baghdad, signed and dated 1882, offers further evidence of how widely traveled were many of the Glasgow painters. George Henry’s (1858-1943) Through the Woods of 1891 demonstrates the rich and vibrant palette that marked the Glasgow Boys out from their contemporaries and which so shocked conventional taste.
Sir John Lavery, ‘The Goose Girls,’ signed and dated 1855, oil on canvas, 18 by 22 ins, on show at The Fine Society in New Bond Street from Oct. 27 to Nov. 18. Image courtesy The Fine Art Society. Arthur Melville, ‘The North Gate, Baghdad,’ signed and dated 1882, watercolour, 14 1/2 inches by 20 inches. Image courtesy The Fine Art Society. George Henry, ‘Through the Woods,’ signed and dated 1891, oil on canvas, 22 by 24 inches. Image courtesy The Fine Art Society.
Sir John Lavery always figures most prominently in Glasgow Boys exhibitions, chiefly because he was the most internationally successful of the Glasgow group. However, the Fine Art Society have also managed to anchor their exhibition around the publication of Kenneth McConkey’s updated and extended biography, John Lavery: A Painter and His World, which will be available from the Fine Art Society throughout the exhibition.
And so from young masters to Old Masters. The Wallace Collection, secreted away in Manchester Square, just north of Oxford Circus, is often considered London’s equivalent of the Frick Collection in New York. Its collection of French 18th-century and 19th-century paintings and furniture is one of the finest in Europe, to say nothing of its extensive collection of arms and armor from around the world. All this makes the Wallace Collection the perfect place to study the history of collecting.
The Wallace has been running a Masters course in the History of the Art Market and the History of Collecting for the past five years and so successful has it been that they have now added another course on the contemporary art market in partnership with the recently refurbished and extended Whitechapel Art Gallery.
The Wallace is a closed collection, which means it cannot be added to, and nor can its objects be loaned out to other museums. It is not, however, prohibited from borrowing works from other collections and thus is able to stage superb exhibitions of painting and sculpture. The next major event in its calendar is Poussin to Seurat: French Drawings from the National Gallery of Scotland, which will run from Sept. 23 to Jan. 3.
Sadly the discipline of drawing was long ago evicted from fine art colleges, most of which tend to see it as an unnecessary and anachronistic distraction for students focusing on careers as conceptual artists. However, exhibitions of drawings have been enjoying huge popularity among the general public. Thousands flocked to the British Museum’s recent exhibition of Italian Renaissance drawings from the Uffizi, and doubtless the Wallace’s new exhibition will also draw significant crowds, so rare is it to get a chance to see fine historical examples of an art form that displays genuine skill and mastery.
Among the broad range of works on display will be drawings by academic artists such as Claude and Poussin, through 18th-century masters Watteau and Boucher, to 19th-century Romantics such as Delaroche and Delacroix, and on to the classical exactitude of Ingres. The exhibition culminates in fine drawings by French Impressionist and post-Impressionist practitioners such as Pissarro and Seurat.
Regular visitors to the Wallace will be intrigued to see the only known preparatory drawing for the Wallace Collection’s own Poussin painting A Dance to the Music of Time, while other jewels in the show include Louis Roguin’s extraordinary A Jewish Lady from Algiers, French Mannerist painter Jacques Bellange’s, Madonna and Child, with Saint James the Great, Quenching the Fires of Hell, (circa 1600-1610), and Paul Delaroche’s masterly rendition of Les Girondins, showing members of the eponymous French Revolutionary political faction engaged in the sort of impassioned rhetoric that characterized their meetings.
Louis Roguin, A Jewish Lady from Algiers, on view at the Wallace Collection’s exhibition of French drawings from the National Gallery of Scotland from Sept. 23 to Jan. 3. Image courtesy of National Gallery of Scotland. Jacques Bellange, ‘Madonna and Child, with Saint James the Great, Quenching the Fires of Hell,’ at the Wallace Collection’s exhibition of French drawings from the National Gallery of Scotland from Sept. 23rd to Jan. 3. Image courtesy of National Gallery of Scotland. Paul Delaroche, ‘Les Girondins,’ 1846, on show at the Wallace Collection. Image courtesy of National Gallery of Scotland.
One other notable inclusion in this show is a remarkable drawing by the French Pointillist painter Georges Seurat, a study for his famous Une Baignade, Asnières (1883-4), formerly in the Tate Gallery and now in the National Gallery.
Georges Seurat, ‘Seated Nude: Study for ‘Une Baignade’,’ 1883. On view at the Wallace Collection’s exhibition of French drawings from the National Gallery of Scotland. Image courtesy of National Gallery of Scotland, purchased with the assistance of funds from The Art Fund 1980.
Happily, the Wallace Collection is just a short bicycle ride from the National Gallery.
Tom Flynn is a London-based writer and journalist. His monograph on British sculptor Sean Henry was published by Scala.
An original bronze of an Indian warrior on horseback is inscribed ‘C. Kauba’ (American/Austrian, 1865-1922). Mounted on a marble base, the bronze is expected to sell for $4,000-$6,000. Image courtesy of Bill Hood & Sons Arts & Antiques Auction.
DELRAY BEACH, Fla. – A collection of approximately 40 Oriental rugs will be among the fine furnishings from South Florida homes at Bill Hood & Sons Arts & Antiques Auctions’ sale Tuesday, Aug. 17. LiveAuctioneers will provide live Internet bidding. The auction will begin at 5 p.m. Eastern.
“The rugs are the collection from Palm Beach doctor’s estate,” said Chris Hood, noting sizes range from prayer rugs to runners and room-size carpets. Including are many tribal Turkoman rugs.
Another collection to sell is a nice group of original bronze sculptures. One of the nicest is a Grecian woman by Bessie Potter Vonnoh (American, 1872-1955). Standing 16 inches high, it has a $2,500-$3,000 estimate.
A 243-piece set of Georg Jensen Old Danish sterling silver flatware, service for eight plus 29 serving pieces, is expected to do well. “It could bring 10 grand,” said Hood, although the estimate is listed at $4,000-$7,000. Three additional sets of sterling silver will be sold.
“We also have some mid-century modern – several Eames chairs and two pair of Barcelona chairs,” said Hood.
Approximately 100 works of art will be sold including a large oil painting by 19th-century California artist Thomas Hill.
A large Alexander Calder original colored lithograph titled Composition is expected to reach $700-$1,000.
A large antique English tall-case clock having a replaced face carries a $1,200-$1,800 estimate.
Many porcelains and glass items, Victorian furniture, Chinese jade, ivory and porcelains, and gold and diamond jewelry will be sold.
For details call Bill Hood & Sons Arts & Antiques Auctions at 561-278-8996.
A boy fishes from the bank of a stream in this Thomas Hill (American, 1829-1908) painting. The oil on canvas measures 34 inches by 27 Inches and has a $15,000-$25,000 estimate. Image courtesy of Bill Hood & Sons Arts & Antiques Auction. One of about 40 rungs from a Palm Beach estate, this old Persian Sarouk, 9 feet by 12 feet, has a $400-$600 estimate. Image courtesy of Bill Hood & Sons Arts & Antiques Auction. ‘Composition’ is the title of this Alexander Calder original color lithograph. The pencil-signed and numbered work is 31 inches by 24 inches and has an estimate of $700-$1,000. Image courtesy of Bill Hood & Sons Arts & Antiques Auction. Bidders will have their pick of three Charles Eames by Herman Miller chair and ottoman sets. This one in black leather has a $500-$700 estimate. Image courtesy of Bill Hood & Sons Arts & Antiques Auction.
Herter Brothers made this 41-inch rosewood pedestal. It sold at a Cottone auction in Geneseo, N.Y., for $5,500. Statues and plants were important decorations in the large Victorian home. The designers of the day believed in filling all available space. Pedestals made of wood or ceramics were put in halls and in corners of living rooms and dining rooms. Live plants, especially ferns, were popular. Pedestals were often colorful and covered with decorations. Art pottery companies like Roseville and Rookwood made pedestals in their early years. The majolica potteries of England and Germany made elaborate pedestals with 3-D decorations of animals and birds. A few furniture firms made wooden pedestals. One of the most famous 19th-century decorating firms in New York City was Herter Brothers. It made furniture for the rich and famous, including President Ulysses S. Grant (for the White House) and William Vanderbilt. Herter furniture was made in a variety of styles, from Victorian to Japonisme. Today Victorian pedestals are difficult to find but sell for moderate prices. Pedestals by well-known makers, however, bring high prices. A Herter Brothers pedestal sold this year for $5,500.
Q: How do you spot a Shawnee Corn King fake? I recently purchased three Shawnee Corn King dishes at an antique mall. When I got home, I noticed that the items did not have “USA” stamped with the Shawnee logo on the bottom like the rest of my collection. Are these fakes? Did all original Shawnee Corn King dishes have the “USA” stamp?
A: The dishes you just bought are probably reproductions. Corn King pieces with bases too small to fit the words “Shawnee” and “USA” are marked simply “USA” or are not marked at all. Compare the style of the logo on the dishes you just bought with the style on your other pieces. And compare the quality of the pottery and the way the rows of kernels align. Reproductions tend not to be as heavy or well made as originals, and some have the corn rows on top of each other rather than staggered, as they are on originals. Shawnee Pottery was in business in Zanesville, Ohio, from 1937 to 1961. A Georgia wholesaler now owns rights to the Shawnee trademark and has been selling reproductions marked “Shawnee” (without “USA”) for a few years. Other copies, not marked at all, have been around for decades.
Q: After my father died, I went through his top dresser drawer and found an odd-looking 2-inch metal fastener marked “Washburne Pat’d Mar 27-94, Feb 4-96.” There’s a small clip at each end of the fastener that can be opened and locked closed. One clip is mounted perpendicular to the shank and the other is horizontal. What in the world was it used for? And would anyone be interested in buying it?
A: Your fastener is a Washburne “Bull-Dog Grip” cuff holder invented by James V. Washburne of Morrison, Ill. Washburne was a prolific inventor of clips, clasps and fasteners for clothing, key chains and paper. They were all marketed as “Washburne Fasteners.” The cuff holder was meant to hold a loose shirt cuff tight, with one end of the clip holding the top of the cuff in place and the other end attached to the sleeve-opening above the cuff. We have seen Washburne cuff holders offered online as a means to cheat at cards — apparently you can hide an “ace up your sleeve” using one end of the clip. That was not their intended use, at least according to the U.S. Patent Office. A pair of Washburne cuff holders might sell online for $15-$20.
Q: I own a single small shoe that was one of a pair that belonged to a Chinese woman with bound feet. I also have the documentation that accompanied the shoe when it was given to a U.S. Navy officer in 1920. The shoe has a curved wooden base that’s covered with hand-stitched needlework. What could the shoe be worth today?
A: The Han Chinese tradition of binding women’s feet lasted about 1,000 years, ending only early in the 20th century. Women whose feet were bound needed special shoes, and today those shoes, especially if they’re hand-embroidered, are valuable. They normally sell as pairs, however, so a single shoe probably would sell for less than half the price of a pair. Pairs can sell for $500 or more, depending on age, style and condition. If you no longer want the shoe and are having a hard time selling it, consider donating it to a Chinese-American museum.
Q: I can’t identify a kitchen utensil I found in my grandmother’s house. It has a metal loop handle that can be hung from a hook. Attached to the other end of the handle is a hotpad-size piece of chain mail — a series of small, nickel-plated iron rings linked together. What was it used for?
A: You have a pot scrubber, also called a pot chain. It was used in some parts of the country more than others. The end of the handle also could be handy for scrapping stubborn burnt food off the bottom of a frying pan. Pot scrubbers like yours were manufactured by several companies between the 1870s and 1930s. They sell for $30 and up if they’re in decent shape. But beware: similar new scrubbers made to be used have appeared on the market since the 1980s.
Tip: If a furniture piece is loose or falls off, put it in a plastic bag, label it and save it in an obvious place so you don’t lose it before you can make the repair. It may be possible to tape the piece to the bottom of a chair, for instance, or the inside of a drawer.
Terry Kovel answers as many questions as possible through the column. By sending a letter with a question, you give full permission for use in the column or any other Kovel forum. Names, addresses or e-mail addresses will not be published. We cannot guarantee the return of any photograph, but if a stamped envelope is included, we will try. The volume of mail makes personal answers or appraisals impossible. Write to Kovels, Auction Central News, King Features Syndicate, 300 W. 57th St., New York, NY 10019.
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CURRENT PRICES
Current prices are recorded from antiques shows, flea markets, sales and auctions throughout the United States. Prices vary in different locations because of local economic conditions.
“The Camel with the Wrinkled Knees” stuffed animal, blue, red bridle, Raggedy Ann character, Knickerbocker, 1970s, 12 inches, $70.
Monarch Teenie Weenie Toffies [sic] store bin, tin, Palmer Cox-type Brownie cartoon characters, yellow ground, 14 x 12 inches, $330.
Ship’s hurricane lantern, brass onion globe with wire guard, pierced dome & base, U.S.A., circa 1900, 11 1/2 x 6 inches, $410.
Hitchcock side chair, stenciled pheasant design, scrolled crest, vase-shaped splat, ring-turned stiles, caned seat, ball feet, circa 1840, 36 x 17 x 15 inches, $475.
Rookwood ginger jar, vertical blue and rose flowers, green leaves, turquoise ground, cover, Lorinda Epply, 1921, 10 1/2 inches, $940.
Coin silver hot water urn, engraved Rococo flowers and scrolling leaves, center burner, footed base, impressed “E.D. Kinsey,” Cincinnati, circa 1850, 9 inches, $2,235.
Occupational shaving mug, roofing contractor, image of man working on flat roof, pink reverse, 3 5/8 inches, $3,450.
Pairpoint reverse-painted table lamp, square shade with undulating top, two panels of pilgrims and sailing vessel, two of flowers, four-arm brass base, early 1900s, 24 inches, $3,525.
Redware pie plate, green-and-yellow wave and dot design, Pennsylvania, 19th century, 7 1/4 inches, $4,445.
New! The Kovels.com Premium Web site is up and running. In addition to 750,000 free prices for antiques and collectibles, many with photographs, premium subscribers will find a dictionary of marks for silver and another for ceramics, with pictured marks and company histories. Premium membership also includes a subscription to the digital edition of our newsletter, Kovels on Antiques and Collectibles, and its archives, where you’ll find articles about almost anything you might collect. Up-to-date information for the savvy collector. Go to Kovels.com and click on “Subscriptions” for more information.
War correspondent Ernie Pyle won the Pulitzer Prize in 1944. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. DANA, Ind. (AP) – A group fighting to preserve an Indiana museum dedicated to World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle says it sees the state’s decision to open the site for a local festival as a step in the right direction.
The Ernie Pyle State Historic Site will be open through Saturday as part of the Ernie Pyle Firemen’s Festival.
The state closed the site in December and has sought to have it deeded or sold to community groups or local government.
The nonprofit Friends of Ernie Pyle hopes to vote on a plan to take over the site in September.
President Cynthia Myers says the group plans a national fund-raiser to help pay operating costs. The group also hopes to open the museum during the Parke County Covered Bridge Festival in October.
Born on a farm near Dana, Pyle attended Indiana University before beginning his newspaper career. He became a national correspondent for the Scripps-Howard Alliance group in 1935.
As a war correspondent Pyle became as popular among GIs as with readers on the home front.
Pyle was killed by enemy machine-gun fire on April 18, 1945 on le Shima Island, Okinawa.
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Information from: Tribune-Star, http://www.tribstar.com
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The 344-foot-long USS Olympia dwarfs a pleasure craft on the Delaware River in Philadelphia. Image courtesy of Wikimedia commons PHILADELPHIA (AP) – A historic warship that served in the Spanish-American War and is now docked in Philadelphia will close this fall.
The USS Olympia, the world’s oldest steel warship still afloat, will close to the public on Nov. 22.
Officials with the Independence Seaport Museum say the ship will have to be dry-docked in hopes of getting much-needed repairs.
But the museum’s president, Capt. John Gazzola, said the ultimate fate of the ship is uncertain.
Gazzola said the ship will either be retained and repaired or gotten rid of. Repairs could cost as much as $2.5 million.
Launched at Union Iron Works in San Francisco on Nov. 5, 1892, the cruiser was the flagship of Commodore George Dewey during the Spanish-American War. The ship’s guns fired the first shots at the Battle of Manila Bay in 1898. It is the only vessel of the Navy’s Spanish-American War fleet still afloat.
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Information from: KYW-AM, http://www.kyw1060.com
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Fisk University also owns a painting by African American artist Henry O. Tanner, pictured in a portrait by his mentor Thomas Eakins. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – An attorney for Fisk University accused Tennessee’s attorney general of wanting to close the school during the first day of a trial to determine whether it can sell a share in its famous Stieglitz art collection.
At issue is whether Fisk can modify the conditions the late painter Georgia O’Keeffe placed upon her bequest of 101 works of art to the school. Fisk argues it is in such financial straits that it is in danger of shutting down and cannot maintain the collection as agreed.
The school is asking the Davidson County Chancery Court for permission to sell a 50 percent share to the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Ark., for $30 million. Under the agreement, the artworks would be displayed part of the time at Fisk and part of the time at Crystal Bridges.
Fisk President Hazel O’Leary testified Wednesday that the arrangement was ideal.
“I don’t know how we could have gotten a better deal,” she said. “We’re selling the collection, but keeping the collection.”
But Will Helou, a private attorney representing the state, argued the agreement will eventually result in the entire collection, valued in 2007 at $74 million, being ceded to Crystal Bridges because it requires Fisk to pay maintenance costs that it cannot afford.
Helou said the only questions for the judge, Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle, to decide are whether it is impossible for Fisk to comply with the conditions of the bequest, and, if so, what arrangement would most closely approximate O’Keeffe’s wishes for the collection.
Fisk had trouble maintaining the paintings while O’Keeffe was alive, Helou argued, but she never suggested selling the works. Rather, she asked then-Fisk President Charles Johnson to let her know if the school could not care for it so that she could find another place for it.
“Fisk only sees the collection as a private bank account,” he argued.
In his opening arguments, Fisk attorney John Branham accused state Attorney General Bob Cooper of intervening in the case for his own personal glory.
“If they can close Fisk down, the attorney general gets to pick the next place the art goes to,” he said. “That’s his motivation. That’s the reason they’ve spent over $200,000 of the state’s money to try to close Fisk down.”
Branham also downplayed the importance of the collection to the historically black university, displaying two large color reproductions of abstract paintings from the Stieglitz Collection and saying the works by “Caucasian” artists had “nothing to do with Fisk.”
He juxtaposed them with a more realistic religious painting by Henry Tanner called The Three Marys, saying, “This is a real prize. This is a prize by a black artist. This is a prize that really needs to be kept in Nashville, in the South, in this community.” Branham claimed the painting would be “auctioned off to pay for toilet paper” if Fisk were to shut down.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The 1933 double eagle was America’ last $20 coin. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. BOSTON (AP) – In an economic downturn, it might be tough to get your head around this: rare sheets of $100,000 bills, fabulous gold treasures dating back to the California Gold Rush era, rare coins including those tied to the first stirrings for America’s independence and federal government securities worth more than a billion dollars.
That’s the backdrop of the country’s premier money show, the World’s Fair of Money, which has brought about 1,000 coin dealers and hundreds of collectors to Boston, seeking to tap into the surprising resilience of the coin industry.
Held in a sprawling hall monitored by armed uniformed and undercover police officers, federal agents, private security contractors, electronic surveillance equipment and vigilant participants, the fair features seldom-seen gold treasurers brought from the Smithsonian Institution’s vaults including America’s first $20 gold coin – valued by independent experts at $15 million today – and its last $20 coin.
It also includes sheets of America’s largest denomination currency, the $100,000 bill, which is said to be worth about $1.6 million today. The gold certificate note, which bears President Woodrow Wilson’s portrait, was used only for official transactions between Federal Reserve Banks. It was not circulated among the general public and cannot be legally held by currency note collectors.
“The reaction from kids to grandparents is universally the same: ‘Wow, that’s a lot of money.’ So, they wouldn’t mind having it,” Kevin Brown, manager in the marketing division of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing, said while holding the $100,000 bills. “People like to see money.”
There even was some free money at the show after the Bureau of Engraving and Printing handed out $150 bills to some children as souvenirs – thoroughly shredded and packed into tiny plastic bags.
The show, which ends Saturday, includes a comprehensive collection of U.S. paper money that has never before been exhibited. It has coins from the Mexican War of Independence and Mexican Revolution that are being seen outside of Mexico for the first time since 1970. There also are rare coins worth several million dollars.
The SS Central America, which sank in an 1857 hurricane off the coast of North Carolina with more than 400 passengers and 30,000 pounds of gold from the California Gold Rush, made its inaugural appearance in Boston. The exhibit features more than $10 million in gold treasure recovered from the ship, also known as The Ship of Gold.
Other historic items include one of the few known surviving copies of the Declaration of Independence printed in Boston circa July 17, 1776, and silver spoons crafted by Paul Revere.
“It’s overwhelming. I mean, I have been to a couple of these other conventions and I’ve never seen this much, this many high-level items as you’re seeing here. Just the exhibits they’ve got in this whole museum area, incredible,” Jim Moorey of Northbridge, Mass., said while visiting the show with his 13-year-old son, Tyler.
More than 3,400 coins, paper money, medals, tokens and other numismatic items were being auctioned at the event, including a New England shilling struck in 1652, as sentiment for America’s independence grew.
Greg Rohan, president of Dallas-based Heritage Auction Galleries, said his company expects to raise $40 million dollars at its auction at the money fair. During the five-day show, more than $100 million will trade hands, he said.
“It’s people who’ve decided they’d rather have the round, metal coins that we sell than $40 million in cash that they have in the bank,” Rohan said.
There are an estimated 200,000 serious coin collectors in the United States and more than a million casual collectors who spend about $3 billion annually, he said.
“The economic conditions have not diminished the demand for material from the standpoint of collectors who seek and desire to own the rare and exquisite pieces,” said Larry Shepherd, president of the Colorado Springs, Colo.-based American Numismatic Association.
Demand also has been fed by rich people who are increasingly willing to store some of their wealth in rare coins with a proven history of gaining value after traditional investments vehicles, including real estate and the stock and bond markets, dipped to woeful levels during the economic crisis, Shepherd said.
“The very best coins, the very rarest coins, are worth as much today, if not more, than they were before September 2008,” Rohan said. “So if you had bought rare coins prior to 2008, you’ve got the same value, if not more, today.”
The rest of the coins have seen their fortunes range from gains of 10 percent to losses of up to 25 percent.
Still, that did not stop Brian Hendelson of Bridgewater, N.J.-based Classic Coin Company from offering to pay about $100,000 for a gold ingot salvaged from SS Central America.
“I’m 51, I’ve been doing this since I was 10 – collecting at 10 and trading coins at 14, 15 … it beats pushing a broom,” Hendelson said.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Marc Chagall signed ‘The Angel of Judgment’ lithograph printed by Mourlot in 1974. From an edition of 5,000, this near-mint poster, 30 inches by 20 1/2 inches, is estimated at $3,850-$4,375. Image courtesy of Universal Live.
NORTHBROOK, Ill. – Universal Live will sell an estate collection of more than 400 museum exhibition posters at their online auction Sunday, Aug. 15. LiveAuctioneers will provide Internet live bidding. The sale will begin at 1 p.m. Eastern.
“There’s a theme here: great art posters from the four major art printing houses,” said Martin Shape, auctioneer and co-owner of Universal Live.
From Mourlot Arte Paris, which closed in 1962, is an original Raoul Dufy lithograph titled Paddock at Deauville. The colorful poster is dated 1960 and is one of an edition of 5,000. The poster is in near mint condition and is expected to make $2,200-$2,625.
A Chagall lithograph, The Angel of Judgment, by Mourlot Imprimeur/Freres, which was printed for an exhibition held at the National Museum in Nice, is signed and dated 1975. In near-mint condition, this poster has a $3,850-$4,375 estimate.
Ediciones Poligrafa, Spain’s equivalent to Mourlot, is represented in the auction by several posters featuring works by Joan Miro.
From New York’s Brand X comes a Helen Frankenthaler serigraph poster for the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in 2003. The auction catalog notes that the poster is printed in the same way as the original limited edition, but with “Lincoln Center Salutes Beverly Sills” at the bottom. With an edition size of 500, the colorful poster carries a $275-$350 estimate – “an exceptional purchase at a great price,” noted Shape.
Other artists whose works are represented at the auction include Andy Warhol, Robert Indiana, Jim Dine, Cezanne, Lichtenstein, Koons, Calder, Matisse and many more.
Picasso’s 1963 ‘La Grande Maternite’ is a rare lithograph purchased directly from the printer, Mourlot. It carries an $8,250-9,375. Image courtesy of Universal Live. French artist Raoul Dufy died seven years before Mourlot printed this original lithograph of his ‘Paddock at Deauville’ in 1960. From an edition of 5,000, the litho has a $2,200-$2,625 estimate. Image courtesy of Universal Live. This 1970 lithograph poster was produced for the presentation of a book on Joan Miro’s works. Published by Ediciones Poligrafa, S.A., Barcelona, the 30-inch by 22-inch litho is from an edition of 2000 and has an estimate of $375-$525. Image courtesy of Universal Live. Helen Frankenthaler’s 2003 ‘Flirt’ serigraph was printed in the same was as the original limited edition, but with the text added at the bottom. It is estimated at $275-$350. Image courtesy of Universal Live.
The Drawing Center will remain on the ground floor of this historic building at 35 Wooster St. in New York’s SoHo district. Photo by Sheila as part of the Commons: Wikipedia Takes Manhattan project, April 4, 2008.
NEW YORK (AP) – An independent museum that at one time had hoped to relocate to ground zero has decided to remain in its current location, in New York’s SoHo district.
The Drawing Center says the economy has made it reevaluate a move. The museum is solely devoted to drawing.
The small museum had been searching for a new home in downtown Manhattan since 2005, after a plan faded for a performing arts center on the site of the former World Trade Center.
Since then, the SoHo area with its many art galleries has grown as a popular destination.
Director Brett Littman told The New York Times that it was a good time for the museum to reinvest in the neighborhood.
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Information from: The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com
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Tom Flynn is a London-based writer and journalist. His monograph on British sculptor Sean Henry was published by Scala.
