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Medieval books give collector glimpse of antiquity

The Golden Psalter, first edition, in the collection of St. Petri-Dom Museum, Bremen, Germany. Photo by Jurgen Howaldt, taken in 2008. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany license.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – He found it, of all places, in a small antique shop right here in Charleston. “It was serendipity, just happenstance,” he said. “I was looking for something else.”

It was an ancient Psalter, a book of psalms painstakingly handwritten in Latin by hermit monks in the Netherlands nearly 800 years ago.

Imagine.

“It’s my newest and most exciting acquisition. It’s not just rare. It’s unique. There is literally only one. It was quite a find for me.”

He wasn’t surprised that it hadn’t attracted a buyer. “There would be no market for it in Charleston. It’s mainly of interest to nuts like me.”

Frank Martin collects medieval books. “Some men like fancy motor cars, I’ll pay a fortune for a good book. It’s a hobby and also a kind of passion. It enriches your understanding of history.”

An Alabama native who practiced law in Washington, D.C., Martin splits his time in retirement between Alabama and Charleston. “My daughter, Jessica Lane, lives here and we like the city,” he said in a noticeable Alabama drawl. “We could live anywhere. We live in Charleston by choice.”

His hobby started in 1987 with a visit to an old bookshop in Alexandria, Va. A student of Latin since high school, he spotted a crudely bound Venetian Bible printed in 1497 and “negotiated” a purchase.

“It was a beautiful book. And that’s when I fell in love.”

Along with its craftsmanship and age, he discovered a significant distinction. “This book was the first printed book ever to have a title page.”

He started shopping for old books in earnest, both in Alexandria and on the Internet. “If you’re interested,” he said, “things kind of pop up.”

The second step, his favorite part, is research. “It doesn’t take me long to buy a book. It takes a long time to figure out what it is. Nobody knows about this book,” he said, picking up one of his finds. “There is no date in it. You have to analyze the contents. It’s a tedious thing. But I’m mainly into that part of it, not the acquisition or possession.”

He had access to a rare book room at a seminary near his Virginia home. When working in Washington, he made frequent trips to the Library of Congress.

He searches for handwritten manuscripts and incunabula, a Latin word for “in the cradle” or “in swaddling clothes.” It refers to the infancy of printing, books printed before 1501. Gutenberg, the first to print a book with movable type, introduced printing in Germany in the 1450s.

“Any book printed in the first 50 years of movable type is valuable,” Martin said. “It was so long ago and there are so few of them. Through fire, water and war, so many were destroyed.”

Early printing methods could prove challenging. “Look at the print on this book. It’s microscopic by our standards. Imagine setting that type. You could only set maybe eight pages. Then you would break it up to set the next eight.”

His most valuable book is a New Testament volume printed in 1481, one generation after the invention of movable type. He found it at a book sale. “It belonged to a wealthy woman in California, Estelle Duhaney, who gave so much money to the Catholic Church that the pope made her a countess.”

In New York, inside a cigar box, he found a small square Bible five inches thick, an octavo. “You fold a sheet of paper to form eight leaves and you get the octovo,” he explained. “This one was all black and unbound. They didn’t know what they had.”

He had the book rebound in Magnolia Springs, Ala.

He discovered through research that the book was printed by a woman in 1549. “Experts for hundreds of years thought it was an incanubulum printed before 1500, but I found it was printed 50 years later by a woman in Paris, the widow of a famous printer.”

Bibles are the cheapest books for collectors to buy, he said, because there were so many of them. “Before we had books, we had scrolls. As long as people have written holy writ, there have been more Bibles because there is more demand. There are more Bibles printed every year than any other book.”

His collection includes a handwritten Ethiopian Psalm book. “You can’t read it. It’s all in the ancient language of Ethiopia. They didn’t develop printing until very late. They were doing liturgical manuscripts into the 18th century. This book isn’t so old, but it has these beautiful icons.”

All hand-painted on sheepskin, icons include the Ethiopian version of “The Madonna, Mary and Her Beloved Son,” with angels Michael and Gabriel standing watch on either side.

“And these are saints,” he said, carefully turning from one page to the next. “This fellow grew a beard so long he made clothes out of it. That’s an Ethiopian saint we don’t know anything about. And here’s a fellow who prayed so long his foot fell off. So God made him three sets of wings. An Ethiopian scholar told me that.”

The meticulous penmanship required of scribes hand-lettering liturgical tomes amazes him. “Think of the number of man-hours invested in a book. I don’t know how long it took. How many pages can a man do in a day? Two or three? They had one man who read from the original text and another man wrote it down.

“Then the Vikings would come and destroy all the books, and they had to start over again. That happened two or three times.

“A book used to be worth what a house was worth,” he said, “and now we just throw them away.”

Martin gives his ancient books extra special attention. He handles them gently, reverently. “And they go in a lockbox in the bank.”

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Information from: The Charleston Gazette, http://www.wvgazette.com

AP-ES-11-29-10 0000EST

Metal hunters search for the fun of it, but treasures are a bonus

Metal detectors combing the ground where Civil War battles were fought often turn up small metal objects such as buttons, coins or bullets. This tunic button representing a Louisiana regiment was auctioned by William J. Jenack on March 27, 2010, for $40. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and William J. Jenack.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – Metal detecting enthusiasts’ feet are inches from pieces of history every day.

Consider Joe Barnett, a 55-year-old Clinton resident who had walked across his backyard “hundreds of times” before finding a .58 caliber Civil War-era bullet barely below the ground’s surface.

Welcome to the world of metal detecting, which is a lot like fishing and hunting. One never knows what will be found on a particular day, but the search is often as thrilling as the find.Well, almost.

“Finding something that hasn’t been touched for 150 years is really fascinating to me,” said James Fox, 52, of Ridgeland. “I’ve been collecting Civil War memorabilia since I was a kid. And I like to find stuff that a lot of people don’t think much about – a knife handle that somebody had scratched their initials in, a straight razor with a guy’s name and regiment on it.

“This stuff hasn’t seen the light of day since the last time the owners touched it. And I’ve found arrowheads that haven’t been touched for 1,000 years. Pretty neat.”

“Metal detecting is a fast-growing hobby worldwide. It has proven to be a valuable tool in criminal cases. Barnett, a logistics coordinator with Entergy, found the gun believed to have been used in the August shooting death of Jackson police officer Glen Agee in chest-high water in a rural Hinds County drainage ditch.

“There were other guys out there looking, too,” said Barnett, who worked with the Greenville Police Department in the late 1970s and early ’80s. “I just happened to be the one who walked over it.”

Barnett was equipped with a detector that can be used underwater, which is popular among many metal hunters.

Victor McGriff, 71, of Bovina has been metal detecting since 1965.

Around 1970, he stopped at a lake that had been drained.

“I found rings, some coins, a pocket knife,” he said. “I got to thinking, ‘There has to be a lot of stuff under the water. That’s where I need to go looking.'”

He took a scuba diving course in 1971, and since then ponds and lakes have been his favorite hunting areas. He stays in areas that are no more than 15 feet deep, and his wife, Mary, usually sits on the bank while he’s searching.

“I go where they have swimming areas,” he said, “and I’ve found just about anything you can think of – rings, watches, knives, guns.”

At a lake near Morton, McGriff found a Timex watch buried just beneath some sand.

“The cloth band on it had deteriorated, but when I got it out and wound it up, it started working again,” he said, laughing. “I guess what they say is true – Timex watches really can take a lickin’ and keep on tickin’.”

Dan Patterson, 47, of Madison, bought his first metal detector in 1984. “Looking at relics in local museums and running into several old diggers sparked my interest,” he said.

Now, he has his own collection of “finds” that have been displayed in 35 magazines, including an Andrew Jackson button and two Confederate officer buttons, a Union officer stencil and a Bowie knife.

He’s also used his detector for those in need.

“Several years ago, a family from Carey had their house burn down. All their keepsakes from many years of marriage were in the house. I went through the rubble and ash and debris and found a box full of special family keepsakes. It’s all they have left from their marriage. It’s always good to help out.”

Metal detectors range from $150 to more than $2,000 and weigh between 2 and 5 pounds. Many models give the hunter an idea of what he or she has run across.

“It will give you a sound and a display,” Barnett said. “If you go over a nail, it’ll make a chatter sound. Solid pieces of metal give off a deep solid sound. Aluminum objects, such as a Coke can, give off a sharp, high tone. After you use them a while, you’re able to tell when it’s time to ignore it and when it’s time to stop and dig.”

One of the toughest obstacles is finding good land that hasn’t been gone over several times by previous hunters.

“Private land is the best,” Barnett said, “but it’s hard walking up to somebody you don’t know and getting permission. Two, maybe three, out of 10 will say yes.”

Metal detecting is a hobby for the curious, but don’t expect to get rich.

“If you get into it to find a stash of gold and make a lot of money, you’re going to be disappointed,” Fox said. “But if you enjoy something to get you out of the house and away from everything and are satisfied with finding some interesting things, then it can be a lot of fun.”

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Information from: The Clarion-Ledger, http://www.clarionledger.com

AP-CS-11-19-10 0400EST

Big Audubon prints soar to a market high

Perfect for New Orleans, the Louisiana Heron was top Audubon lot at the Neal Auction sale in September. The spectacular shorebird was purchased by a local collector for $137,425, a new record for that image. Image courtesy of Neal Auction Co., New Orleans.

In a year when prices have declined for some Americana categories, values for mid-19th century Audubon bird prints have soared to new levels. In September, Neal Auction Co. in New Orleans set 18 new world records when it sold a large collection of Audubon examples consigned by well-known print dealer W. Graham Arader.

Neal has established its reputation as an important outlet for Audubons through sales figures that have surpassed even the major auction houses of New York and London. This is appropriate, since the Southern city held a special place in the artist’s heart. Born to French parents on the island of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), John James Audubon (1785-1851) later adopted New Orleans as his “natal city.”

After Audubon’s father returned to France, he sent his son to America at the age of 18 to avoid conscription in the Napoleonic Wars. There, the young man married and began a family, while trying many careers without much success. At an important turning point, he decided to combine his interest in ornithology with his talent as an artist.

In Audubon Art Prints: A Collector’s Guide to Every Edition (University of South Carolina Press 2003), Bill Steiner stresses the immensity of the artist’s undertaking: “He committed himself to paint every bird in North America. All of them including eagles, swans, herons, and cranes, were to be painted life-sized.”

Audubon hired engravers, principally Robert Havell in England, to turn his bird paintings into plates that could be printed and bound into a volume. The costs would be supported by selling subscriptions for the massive completed work to interested scholars and collectors.

“The project was finally completed in 1839,” continues Steiner. “The Birds of America was made up of 435 hand-colored prints bound in four huge volumes. The ‘Great Work,’ as Audubon called it, was produced by printing etched copper plates onto double elephant folio paper measuring 28 by 39.”

Although there were later printings of the Audubon birds, collectors prize these large Havell edition prints above all. The prints are usually sold individually, but rare intact sets surface on the market occasionally.

On Dec. 7, Sotheby’s in London will offer a complete Birds of America in a sale of books from the collection of Frederick, 2nd Lord Hesketh. This lot, described as “the most expensive book in the world,” is expected to attract as much interest as the complete copy sold at Christie’s in 2000 for $8.8 million. It is estimated to sell for 4 million pounds to 6 million pounds ($6.39 million-$9.58 million).

When it comes to purchasing individual examples of the prints, suitable for exhibition at home, all birds are not created equal. Large birds that completely fill the double elephant folio page, shall we say, rule the roost.

Marc Fagan, print expert at Neal’s who oversaw the September sale, says, “I think the Audubons are broken up into different tiers, where tier one is big birds. They really have to be posed in a certain way so that they can fit in that format. They’re life-sized so he had to have them bending or leaning, and their necks bent in odd shapes. I just think they are a more exciting package than the smaller birds.”

The big bird category includes many of the beautiful wading fowl found in the Southern United States. Top lot of the September sale was the Louisiana Heron, which sold for a record $137,425. This far surpassed the $89,625 paid for the view in the previous benchmark auction, Christie’s famous 2004 sale of Audubons from the ducal house of Saxe-Meiningen in Thuringia. In order to fit the rectangular format, the heron turns its head back to preen its wings.

Other successful waders at Neal’s were the Purple Heron and the Great White Heron, both bringing $83,650, second only to the Sachsen-Meiningen prices. A male and female Scarlet Ibis found a buyer at $20,315.

Also firmly in the big bird category were two other world record prints: the Great American Cock Male, Wild Turkey sold for $131,450, and the Wild Turkey, Female and Young, sold for $65,725. The Golden Eagle with prey in its talons brought $13,145.

“This sale was interesting because I saw the whole gamut from true collectors who have maybe 10 or 20 prints to people who always wanted one and this was their first purchase,” said Fagan.

When assessing Audubon prints, he points out, “They were all in good to excellent condition, so that always helps. For the true collectors, the condition is all-important. They’re looking mainly for color. Any kind of foxing, even small tears, that can be remedied and not affect the value. But if an example has been faded, you can’t do anything about it – that’s gone.”

In Audubon Art Prints, Steiner says this of the painstaking coloring process: “After the ink had dried, the prints were given to a small army of watercolorists (Havell employed 50). In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, hundreds of books with color prints were produced using hand-coloring methods, and many major cities had watercolorist guilds with apprentices, journeymen, and masters.

“In general, the birds themselves appear to be much more carefully painted than the backgrounds, which probably indicates that the more experienced painters did the birds and the apprentices colored the branches, leaves and landscapes.”

Color – pink, to be precise – plays a major role in values for two of the most popular Audubon prints, the American Flamingo and the Roseate Spoonbill. Both long-necked waders are shown with head bent in a feeding position to fit the format. Prices for the two desirables at Christie’s in 2004 were $197,900 and $175,500 respectively.

Neal Auction Co. offered another example of the latter in their Nov. 20-21 Louisiana Purchase Auction, estimate $60,000-$90,000. “The Roseate Spoonbill is one of the top tier birds, and it has everything going for it,” said Fagan.

“It’s a large shore bird and it has an unusual pink color. The color is absolutely spectacular. It was in a collection and displayed in a dark hallway for over 30 years. That accounts for its nearly perfect condition. I’m touting it as the greatest Roseate Spoonbill since that Sachsen-Meiningen sale.”

ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

The brightly colored Roseate Spoonbill is one of the most sought-after prints from the Havell edition of Audubon’s ‘The Birds of America.’ In exceptionally good condition, this example from an Alabama estate sold for $95,325 at the Neal Auction. Image courtesy of Neal Auction Co., New Orleans.

Too expensive for the Thanksgiving table, these Wild Turkeys brought record prices at auction in September. The tom turkey with bamboo background sold for $131,450, the hen and her young for $65,725. Image courtesy of Neal Auction Co., New Orleans.

Multiple Mockingbirds fearlessly attacking a rattlesnake in the nest are used to fill the large double elephant folio page format of the Havell Edition. The print brought $21,960 in September. Image courtesy of Neal Auction Co., New Orleans.

An alert male and female Hooded Merganser, perched at water’s edge, sold for $14,340 in Neal’s September auction. Image courtesy of Neal Auction Co., New Orleans.

Son drawn to late father’s fountain pen passion

The marked ‘Waterman’s Ideal Fountain Pen’ bears a Sept. 25, 1905 patent date. The 14K gold Art Nouveau pen sold the $2,300 in January 2008. Image courtesy of Cowan’s Auctions Inc. and LiveAuctioneers archive.

JONESBORO, Ark. (AP) – Aslam Haydar of Jonesboro is looking for a few good pen pals – more specifically, friends who share his passion for fountain pens.

To find those passionate pen pals, Haydar hosted the Jonesboro Pen Show and featured the Haydar Collection, which belonged to his late father Dr. Afak Haydar, a longtime Arkansas State University administrator.

The show’s proceeds will benefit the Haydar-Richmond Scholarship Fund.

“This is the first time his collection will be shown to anybody,” Haydar said.

Afak Haydar, originally from India, migrated to Pakistan and relocated to the United States in 1960, Haydar said. Because he had a Fulbright Scholarship, the Haydar family moved to Arkansas and settled in Jonesboro in 1970. He said his father was a professor of public administration and political science.

Dr. Mossie Richmond, Afak Haydar’s boss and friend, was the dean of the College of Education and vice president of University College. They worked hand in hand to make ASU an international community, Haydar said. As part of that initiative, Afak traveled to such countries as Pakistan, Malaysia and Japan to recruit students. When he was abroad, he bought fountain pens.

Many of the 1,500 fountain pens Afak Haydar collected during his travels were displayed. Collectors from the Arkansas Pen Club of Little Rock displayed pens from their collections, offered expertise on repair and collectibles and, in some cases, sold their items, Haydar said.

Afak Haydar died in 2007, and the younger Haydar inherited the collection.

“I’m still learning. That’s the fun part. I look things up on the Internet and find out more,” he said.

The earliest fountain pen in the collection dates to 1904. He’s purchased one for 99 cents and seen one sell for $1,000. He can describe the ringtops, usually a small ladies’ pen worn on a gold chain around the neck for easy access. He can discuss nibs, their size, angle and shape. He can talk about the American-made Parker and Sheaffer fountain and ballpoint pens.

Haydar can go into detail about filling the pens with ink, a lost art in today’s electronic age. Fountain pens use cartridges, pump bladders or snorkels, he said.

“Each has a different way of filling the reservoir of ink,” Haydar said.

Some of the pens are made for women, particularly slimmer models designed for smaller hands. Often, pens were sold in sets –one fountain, one ballpoint.

The sad part of Haydar’s story is that, like so many other children, they do not necessarily appreciate the things their parents do until it’s too late. He recalled that after evening meals, his father would take a box of pens out, look at a pen, study it and clean it.

“I would look at it and walk away. I’d say, ‘I don’t know why he’s doing this,’” Haydar said.

But Haydar might have gotten a bit more from his father than he thinks. He recalled a story his father told him. On a trip to Washington, D.C., Afak Haydar attended a pen show. He was looking at a showcase of pens, and the vendor said there were only 12 pens in the world like the one Afak Haydar was examining.

“Make that 13,” Afak Haydar said – he had one exactly like it. However, the younger Haydar does not know which of the pens it was, or even if it’s still in the collection.

Afak Haydar bought pens at flea markets, pen shows and wherever else he found them, but he rarely sold or traded them. On occasion, he would give one to “a dear friend,” Haydar said.

Over the past three years, Haydar said he’s learned to appreciate the elegance and the sophistication of fountain pens. Some are fine, delicate and inlaid with designs, some look marbleized, and others are plain. But, all of them are special because they make up his late father’s collection.

And what kind of a pen does Haydar use these days? A Sheaffer Targa from 1974. It’s a Barley design, and Haydar uses it regularly.

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Information from: The Jonesboro Sun, http://www.jonesborosun.com

AP-CS-10-30-10 0102EDT

Typography hits the right key in home decor

Large letters from signs are desirable decorative pieces. These three, which are 60 inches high, are acrylic and aluminum. They sold in January for $10,000. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers Archive and Rago Arts and Auction Center.

Numbers and letters are hot off the press this season in decorative items, dishware and soft furnishings.

Typographic decor spans a variety of styles, from vintage – in the form of letterpress or old correspondence imagery – to clean-lined modern graphics, often using bold text or individual symbols.

Before designing dinnerware, Christopher Jagmin was a graphic designer. “I love and appreciate the art of typography,” he says. “We’re all surrounded by it every day. We type on computers, we’re aware of it on advertising, billboards, magazines and on television.”

His numbered plates are creating a lot of buzz – there’s something really artsy about these symbols on a crisp white ceramic plate. Jagmin agrees: “I think that breaking down words to the simplicity of a letter or a number, we see the true beauty and art of a font, and its basic elements.”

San Francisco designer Rae Dunn stamps clay cups and plaques with the sparest of phrases; the result is both charming and evocative. “Tres Bien” and “Oui,” say sweet little cups. “C’est la vie,” shrugs a plate. And the homespun phrase “Home Sweet Home” becomes something special when pressed into creamy clay and embellished with a little bee.

Textual decor can add a touch of drama. John Derian was given an envelope of correspondence between two former lovers; throughout the letters, written in 1919, a young lady is trying to recover some personal items. She becomes more impatient with each missive: “Sorry to appear insistent. But I must have my trinkets back.”

Derian has decoupaged several of the letters onto beautiful glass trays for a collection he calls “Relationships.”

Samuel Ho, Nathan Tremblay and Ian Campana comprise the Calgary, Alberta, design firm Palette Industries. Their limited edition Dharma lounge chair has a seat formed of the laser-cut words “Stand, Forget, Breathe, Acknowledge and Observe,” atop sleek chrome legs. Their Camus floor lamp has a veneer shade laser-cut with Albert Camus’ quote, “You cannot create experience, you must undergo it.”

Walls can support a variety of strong graphics, and are a perfect place to play with numbers and letters. Cafe Press has the simple yet striking Helvetica wall clock. Ikea’s Olunda Typeface wall art depicts the alphabet in bold black, white and red.

Flamboyant, innovative fashion designers Chris Brooke and Bruno Basso have ventured successfully into wall coverings with “Alphabet,” a lacy, intricate pattern of Greek letters in a palette of sophisticated tone-on-tone and softly contrasting hues.

Inspired by layers of advertising on New York City billboards, Megan Meagher created collages of fonts on two canvases; find them at Crate & Barrel.

The retailer also has a kicky collection of cocktail-oriented serveware with chatty, multi-font words forming drink pitcher and martini glass shapes on slivers of white porcelain.

For the floor, consider Peacock Park Design’s wildly popular Tattoo mat, an antiquarian-style set of inky fonts printed on bamboo. CB2’s Club Red rug is a plush and punchy rendition of a London club poster.

Ikea’s Vitaminer Siffra duvet set is a peppy pop of colors and numbers.

And finally, Donna Wilson plays with the whole concept by scripting “Blah Blah” across a soft, cozy blanket. Well said, Ms. Wilson.

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Sourcebook:

www.ikea.com – Vitaminer Siffra bedding set, $14.99; Olunda wall art, $39.99

www.cb2.com – Club Red rug, $229

www.crateandbarrel.com – Chill plate, $3.95; Megan Meagher’s “Neutral Type” prints I & II, $199 each

www.etsy.com – Rae Dunn’s “Home Sweet Home” plaque, $42; “Oui,” “Tres Bien” cups, $36; “C’est la Vie” plate, $42

www.christopherjagmin.com – Numbered dinner plates, some sold in sets of four, various configurations of single and multiple numbers on porcelain – check website for stocklists

www.cafepress.com – Helvetica clock, $15

www.donnawilson.com – “Blah Blah” lambswool blanket and pillow – check website for U.S. stocklists or order from her British site

www.paletteindustries.com – Dharma lounge chair, Camus floor lamp – contact for order information

www.johnderian.com – antique correspondence placemats, $55; Things I Like tray, $88; Trinkets tray, $165

www.grahambrown.com – “Alphabet” wall covering by Basso & Brown – 32.8-foot roll, $60

AP-ES-09-28-10 1233EDT

Luminous pearls light up the jewelry market

These antique platinum brooches are set two large pearls, each over 9 mm, surrounded by diamonds. The dazzling pair sold in Skinner’s Sept. 14 Fine Jewelry sale for $13,035. Image courtesy of Skinner Inc.

Lustrous in appearance and smooth to the touch, pearls top collectors’ wish lists because they are perfect for any occasion. Gloria Lieberman, head of Skinner’s jewelry department, sums it up: “Pearls are always correct. When you don’t know what to put on, you put on pearls.”

Pearls transcend politics as well. Both Michelle Obama and Cindy McCain wore pearls when they accompanied their husbands on the 2008 campaign trail. In the past two years, Mrs. Obama has made them a favorite fashion accessory in the first lady’s wardrobe.

Over 500 years ago, pearls were an important part of the treasure found in the Americas by the first explorers. Christopher Columbus discovered an abundant source off the coast of Venezuela in 1498.

From England to Russia, European royalty had a voracious appetite for the seaborne gems. News of an American pearl supply was greeted with enthusiasm back home, in part because it freed jewelers from their previous dependence on imports from Asia.

The most famous American pearls received special titles. “La Peregrina” – discovered off the coast of Panama or Venezuela in the mid-1500s – ended up in the Spanish royal treasury. A suitable match was found and the two pearls were made into earrings for the queen.

This tale is only one of the fascinating historical vignettes related in Tiffany Pearls (Abrams 2006), an excellent reference by John Loring, now design director emeritus of the famous jewelry firm. One illustration is the famous circa 1588 portrait of Elizabeth I of England. Large pearls outline her famous red hair, decorate the royal robes, and hang in multiple ropes around her neck.

In an interview before his retirement, Loring said, “When people see those historic portraits in museums of women covered with pearls, they think they are Oriental pearls, but they’re not – they’re American. Pearls enjoyed enormous popularity with painters because they were really the only gem that a painter could render accurately.”

He continued, “Pearls through much of their history were more highly prized than diamonds, so people took remarkable care of them. Queen Elizabeth II still wears some of the Hanoverian pearls from time to time. The Pope gave them to Catherine de’ Medici when she married the Dauphin who became Henry II, and she then gave them to Mary Queen of Scotts, who sold them to Elizabeth I.”

Leslie Field devotes an entire chapter to England’s royal pearls in her 1987 book on The Queen’s Jewels: The Personal Collection of Elizabeth II. The young Princess Elizabeth wore a pearl necklace – a gift from her father King George VI – when she married Prince Philip in 1947. The monarch has continued to favor pearl jewelry throughout her long reign.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, American women were particularly fond of jewelry set with hundreds of tiny seed pearls. The Peabody family pearls, now in the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts, include a floral necklace, earrings, and multiple brooches made in 1845.

In an 1861 photograph by Matthew Brady, Mary Todd Lincoln is wearing a set of seed pearl jewelry purchased by Abraham Lincoln from Tiffany’s. This image and many others appear in the pearl chapter of Martha Gandy Fales’s definitive reference Jewelry in America, 1600-1900.

“Pearls traditionally were associated with purity and love,” she writes, and then continues, “Sets of seed-pearl jewelry, imported from England or made in America, became fashionable as wedding gifts to brides.”

This country’s fascination with pearls continued into the 20th century. Certainly no grand dame’s outfit was complete without waist-length strands of natural pearls. In 1902, Tiffany sold oil and railroad magnate Henry Morrison Flagler a notable pearl necklace for the then unheard-of price of $2 million, about $40 million in today’s dollars.

Pearls changing hands still make headlines. Designer Calvin Klein purchased pearls for his wife, Kelly, at the 1987 sale of jewels owned by the Duchess of Windsor. Twenty years later the Klein pearl collection sold at Sotheby’s New York for almost $5 million.

The pearls of Anna Thomson Dodge, who married into the auto family, were sold at Bonham’s in December 2008 for $600,000. Created by Cartier circa 1920, the three-strand necklace was composed of 224 pearls.

In March of this year, Skinner’s sold a double strand necklace of 154 semi-baroque pearls with a diamond clasp for $88,875 and a single strand for $71,100. Gloria Lieberman pointed out, “We had some very pretty natural pearls from old families, and the market is very heated for those things. Anything that’s a natural pearl just flies. The value depends on the quality, the size and the luster – how beautiful they are, how they reflect light. A beautiful natural pearl reflects light differently; it has a lot of depth.”

She continued, “One of the things we shouldn’t forget, in the first decades of the 20th century, we begin to see some wonderful cultured pearls. We just had a double strand in a sale we sent off to GIA [Gemological Institute of America] to have them tested to see if they were natural or not, we couldn’t tell. They were really that lovely.”

The perfection of the cultured pearl process is often credited to Japanese entrepreneur Kokochi Mikimoto. Pearls are created when the oyster coats a foreign irritant with layers of lustrous nacre. Pearl production can be encouraged by introducing irritants into the oyster’s insides. Lieberman added, “And of course the longer they left the pearls in the oyster, the thicker the nacre and the more lustrous the pearl.”

Whether natural or cultured, pearl quality and size determine the value. Lieberman says, “We see a lot of natural pearls that are small graduated strands from 3 mm to 7 mm. Once you get into a 4 mm to 9 mm, the price jumps.”

Lieberman has no trouble picking a favorite pearl lot in past auctions. In March 2000, Skinner sold a late 19th-century Tiffany brooch for $60,500 with buyer’s premium. The piece was designed by one of the firm’s most famous artists, Paulding Farnham, who enjoyed mixing pearls and gems of various shades.

“The brooch was made in the Indian style, very maharajah looking. There was a hot pink sapphire in the center, and it had natural colored pearls in different shades and colored diamonds. Paulding designed using nature’s palette,” she said.

Although Tiffany had many of the designer’s drawings for jewelry, the whereabouts of this particular brooch were unknown until it surfaced in the Skinner sale. Tiffany purchased the rediscovered work, and it appeared as the back cover image on the reference Paulding Farnham: Tiffany’s Lost Genius by John Loring (2000).

ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

Found in varying shades of pink, conch pearls are formed naturally in the shell of the queen conch, which is found in the Florida Keys and Bahamas. A necklace, featuring 19 graduated conch pearls spaced with diamonds, sold in March for $51,000. Image courtesy of Skinner Inc.

Designed by Salvador Dali and executed by jeweler Henry Kaston, this 18-karat gold 'Lips' brooch sold for $13,035 earlier this year. Noting that poets dream about ruby lips and teeth like pearls, Dali turned the fantasy into reality. Image courtesy of Skinner Inc. — Designed by Salvador Dali and executed by jeweler Henry Kaston, this 18-karat gold ‘Lips’ brooch sold for $13,035 earlier this year. Noting that poets dream about ruby lips and teeth like pearls, Dali turned the fantasy into reality. Image courtesy of Skinner Inc.

This antique double-strand natural pearl necklace with diamond clasp came from noted jeweler Black, Starr & Frost and sold in March for $88,875. Image courtesy of Skinner Inc.

American Arts & Crafts metalworker Edward Oakes often used pearls in his jewelry designs. This gold cross by set with vivid green tourmalines and pearls brought a strong $34,075 in 2007. Image courtesy of Skinner Inc.

Once known only from the artist’s drawings, this Tiffany brooch designed by Paulding Farnham in the late 19th century is set with colored pearls and gemstones. Skinner sold the work back to the Tiffany archives in 2000 for $63,000. Image courtesy of Skinner Inc.

It’s hard to keep rustic furniture out in the country

Bears are a common motif on Black Forest carved wood furniture made in Europe during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Cubs frolic on the back of this lively bench, which brought $5,760 at auction in 2008. Image courtesy of Kamelot Auctions.

The ancient Romans invented the word. After creating big cities, they found they needed a quiet country retreat, away from all the bustle and noise. The Latin adjective rusticus means belonging in the country, and we still use “rustic” to describe a lodge or cabin environment.

In the days of total climate control, it may be hard to imagine hot days in the city long ago, when no houses, theaters, or public buildings offered respite. High temperatures brought not only discomfort but unpleasant smells and even contagious diseases to the narrow streets.

City dwellers fled to the mountains or seashores for relief. The wealthy had country villas, more modest folk built simple cabins. A new type of furniture was required, often made from natural materials – bent wood, twigs, cane and wicker. The best examples were light, airy and easily moved to catch the breeze.

Vintage rustic furniture ranges from whimsical one-of-a kind chairs to large porch sets manufactured in a factory setting. Jamie Shearer, one of the Americana specialists at Pook & Pook in Downington, Pa., said, “We sold a big suite of rustic furniture in October 2009 that did very well.”

The five-piece set, which sold for $8,109, included a settee, two armchairs, a rocker and table manufactured by the Old Hickory Chair Co. in Martinsville, Ind. “That seems to be the company everybody gravitates to. They were one of the few companies that did label things, and people like to collect things they can identify,” Shearer said.

“A lot of it was referred to as camp furniture,” he continued. “They had it in their weekend getaway houses. I’m always amused because – in Lancaster – they might have gone north to Mount Gretna. Today it’s just 30 minutes up the road, but by horse and buggy it took longer to get there.”

As pointed out above, rustic pieces could also be homemade, one-off creations. Shearer pointed out the “neat form” of an armchair sold at the auction house several years ago for $556. The piece is constructed of irregular branches incised with spiral turnings and the handholds on the arms are formed from polished roots.

Shearer emphasizes that condition is important when buying any sort of vintage outdoor furniture or decorative accessories: “Since these pieces were basically porch furniture, condition depends on whether they brought them inside for the winter or if 6 inches of snow fell on them. Structurally the frame is always sturdy; the problem is the seats didn’t always take the beating well.”

“Typically the rush seats are damaged. The frame itself holds up great – they were very well made – but the seats do not. That was one of the reasons we did so well with that set sold last year – the condition was so nice.” Look for the next the firm’s Americana sale on Oct. 1, at www.pookandpook.com.

Pieces used in a conservatory or a covered porch survive in far better shape than seating exposed to rain and sun in a garden. If some pieces seem a bit twiggy for comfort, remember that most were enhanced with custom-made padding and pillows in colorful fabrics.

One distinctive outdoor style flourished in the Adirondack region of upstate New York, where wealthy families like the Vanderbilt and Whitneys had family vacation compounds or “camps” on a grand scale. A classic turn-of-the-century wooden Adirondack chair has a slanted back and wide arms.

Focused on the history of the region, the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake is open from May 28 until Oct. 18. An antiques show held there each year in mid-August brings together dealers specializing in Adirondack and rustic furniture.

Kamelot Auctions in Philadelphia has done so well with outdoor antiques that they have an annual garden sale each April. President Jeff Kamal said, “There’s no one else in the industry that’s doing it. We felt there was a need for an auction house that specialized in garden. The first couple of garden auctions we had were a mix of garden and other things; the last two have been pretty much exclusively garden.”

Kamelot carries only antique and vintage pieces, not the newer reproductions that often show up at shows and sales. The auction head regrets that some collectors fail to distinguish the new from the old: “Retail buyers at times are more interested in the condition of items and how well-made they are and a little less concerned than they used to be regarding the age of the item.”

Kamal has been pleased with the variety of consignments they have offered in their garden auctions. “Since we’re only player doing this and we advertise nationally, we get calls from all over the country. In fact, we just did a pickup of about 25 garden lots in Michigan,” he said. Lots in the sales typically include everything from rustic furniture to wrought iron gazebos and decorative statuary.

“What comes to mind when I think of rustic furniture is something naturalistic, primitive, hand-made, rather than machine-made,” said Kamal. “Anything that looks like it took time to make. And I think the craftsman really enjoyed making it, it was meaningful to the maker.”

Looking over the results of past auctions, he noted, “Patina is important as well. People want that old surface and are willing to pay more for that kind of silvery patina on outdoor pieces.” Last April, a rustic wooden bench with great patina brought $1,320 in Kamelot’s garden sale.

Auctions coming up at Kamelot include a Sept. 25 general estate sale with decorative items, lighting, paintings, and Asian antiques, and a Nov. 20 event with architectural antiques, popular industrials and Victoriana. Information: www.kamelotauctions.com.

Looking for more information? Gibbs Smith publishes a selection of informative illustrated books on rustic style for cabins, camps and lodges. Collectors can find references such as Hickory Furniture and Rustic Elegance, both by Ralph Kylloe, at www.gibbs-smith.com.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

A whimsical early 20th-century Adirondack chair features spiral turnings and chunky root arms. The folk art seating brought $556 at a 2007 Pook & Pook auction sale. Image courtesy of Pook & Pook Inc.

The Old Hickory Chair Co. manufactured rustic furniture for resorts and private homes. At a Pook & Pook auction last fall, this marked set sold for a healthy $8,109. Image courtesy of Pook & Pook Inc.

The cast stone faux bois bench features a seat inlaid with colorful tiles. The lot brought $570 in June. Image courtesy of Kamelot Auctions.

Perfect end tables for summer use, each has a natural log top and aluminum twig-style base – price only $240. Image courtesy of Kamelot Auctions.

The rustic look in a more durable material, this cast-iron "twig" bench is perfect for an all-weather setting. The example brought $2,640 at auction in April. Image courtesy of Kamelot Auctions.

A charming wooden bench with silvery patina brought $1,320 in Kamelot’s April garden antiques sale. Image courtesy of Kamelot Auctions.

Right at home: Old World styling for fall

This attractive crewel-upholstered French-style chair with ottoman has an opening bid of only $70 in Ivy Auctions' Aug. 28 sale. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com and Ivy Auctions.

CORTE MADERA, Calif. – English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote, “There is a harmony in autumn, a luster to its sky.” This fall, that’s especially true in home decor. Rich, interesting hues, textiles and materials work in concert to welcome the season when we all move back indoors.

As Gary Friedman, CEO of Restoration Hardware, says, “We’re coming out of a very modern, minimalist moment in design into a period where people are responding to a mix of historic periods and classical references.”

Designers and retailers are offering furnishings inspired by late 19th- and early 20th-century Europe and America. You’ll find warm colors like plum, mustard, persimmon, teal and charcoal. The newest wood finishes are often hand-turned, hand-rubbed to a lustrous glow. There are details such as tufts, nail heads and evidence of artisanal handiwork.

Linens are high weave, with patterns that reflect tapestry and embroidery.

And in tabletop, we’re seeing lots of painted ceramics, vintage industrial objets d’art and basketry.

New wall art includes reproduction antique merchant signage, folk art and bracketed shelves for collectibles. This trend is all about feathering the autumnal nest with more traditional things, which evoke the past and spark conversation.

Restoration Hardware’s collection draws from elegant salons, old factories and the rustic countryside. From Belgian brick palettes to architectural elements to distillery floorboards, the pieces have an authentic look.

Along with wood corbels and reproduction archival city maps, there’s a copy of a 19th century Italian gas streetlight, and a glass orb pendant inspired by one found in a Victorian hotel.

Look too for tables and mirrors crafted of salvaged wood from 100-year-old British mills and distilleries; pieces like the muscular Balustrade coffee table and ornate Entablature mirror make strong statements. Bow-and-arrow shelf brackets resemble ironwork in the grand old European train stations.

A French Empire bed is a regal piece; with toned-down accoutrements in the rest of the room – perhaps some simple linen drapery, softly hued bedding and a few well-loved mementos – this would be a most inviting sanctuary.

Rowe Furniture’s new Robin Bruce sofa group features several tufted, voluptuous pieces that suggest a luxe Paris apartment, circa 1920s.

Crate & Barrel’s Scarlet chaise is a show-stopping swoop of luxe velvet comfort, and the Dylan wing chair in buttery, pewter-toned leather just needs a book and a blanket to be the perfect curl-up spot.

If the notion of a farmhouse in Tuscany or the Loire appeals to your inner decorator, you’ll find lots to work with this season. At Pottery Barn, painted linen pillowcases look like plump Van Goghs. Wrought iron candelabra, lamps and horse-head hooks have a rustic charm, as does a roughhewn dining table and bench. Hammered copper vessels have great texture. And a collection of heirloom quilts from the crafters at Gee’s Bend, Ala., among other artisans, brings America into this relaxed, rural style mix. Crewelwork lampshades and pillows have a nice folk art look; find more at Homegoods, too.

Boston-based Nikki Dalrymple’s Acquire design studio and store has a great industrial lamp made of shesham, glass and nickel that holds a vintage style Edison bulb. It hits the antiquarian chic trend square on, and would complement any of fall’s new decor.

To achieve the ultimate Old World look, mix new with old. Your best source for authentic antiques, fine art and original decorative accessories is LiveAuctioneers.com, which connects the online visitor with auction catalogs posted by more than 960 auction houses worldwide. The free Search function in an invaluable aid in tracking down remarkable treasures to mix into any home décor, all of which are available through Internet live bidding.

“What is most surprising about purchasing the genuine article through LiveAuctioneers’ online catalogs is that often the old and authentic pieces can be purchased less expensively than the newer copies,” said Catherine Saunders-Watson, editor-in-chief of Auction Central News.

___

Sourcebook:

www.LiveAuctioneers.com – Antiques, fine art, decorative accessories and vintage collectibles in addition to the best in contemporary and Modern art and design.

www.restorationhardware.com – Balustrade salvaged wood coffee table, $1,495-$1,795; French Empire bed, $2,495 plus; wood corbel, $115; antiqued book bundles, $29; bow and arrow brackets, $49-$69; vintage Paris map, $1,795; Italian streetlight, $2,495; Victorian-era glass pendant, $1,295 plus; neoclassical mirror, $2,695-$3,295;

www.potterybarn.com painted linen pillow covers, $35; Sienna wrought iron lamps, $80-$170; horse-head hook, $19; heirloom style quilts, $159-$599; Toscana dining table/bench, $399-$1,299; copperware, $49-$99;

www.acquireboutique.com – industrial lamp, $150, and Edison bulb, $15;

www.rowefurniture.com – 92-inch Fleetwood sofa, $1,499;

www.crateandbarrel.com – Dylan wing chair in Tiburon Stone leather, $1,999; Scarlet velvet chaise, $1,999

AP-ES-08-04-10 0942EDT

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

It's all in the details, and this pair of English brass tiebacks with ornate scroll design could add a touch of Old World luxury to even the simplest pair of drapes. The opening bid on the pair is $150 in Cowan's Auctions' Aug. 14 Decor sale. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com and Cowan's Auctions. — It’s all in the details, and this pair of English brass tiebacks with ornate scroll design could add a touch of Old World luxury to even the simplest pair of drapes. The opening bid on the pair is $150 in Cowan’s Auctions’ Aug. 14 Decor sale. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com and Cowan’s Auctions.

Mirrors are classic pieces that reflect light and create the illusion of a larger space. DuMouchelles auction house is offering a gilt wood and gesso framed wall mirror in its Aug. 13 auction, with an opening bid of $70. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com and DuMouchelles.

Master blacksmith Philip Simmons (Charleston, S.C.) created this wrought-iron gate around the 1950s. Today, it could serve as a striking decorative wall element in any home - it could even cross over into Modern decor. The opening bid in Ivy Auctions' Aug. 28 sale is $8,000. — Master blacksmith Philip Simmons (Charleston, S.C.) created this wrought-iron gate around the 1950s. Today, it could serve as a striking decorative wall element in any home – it could even cross over into Modern decor. The opening bid in Ivy Auctions’ Aug. 28 sale is $8,000.

Postmark collectors celebrate their hobby

The postmark on this 1969 space-flown Apollo 11 commemorative postcard makes it especially desirable to collectors, as the Webster, Texas post office is the one that handles NASA's mail. Auctioned for $17,000 on Nov. 9, 2004. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Swann Auction Galleries.

NEW LONDON, Conn. (AP) – The first thing you should know about postmark collectors is this: They are people just like us.

Well, maybe not just like us.

“One time somebody compiled a list of 10 reasons to collect postmarks,” says Andy Mitchell. “And one of the reasons was ‘Nobody ever asks you twice what your hobby is.’

“Postmarks, of course, are those little black circles – containing the name of the town and the date – with the wavy lines that the post office puts on stamps to ‘kill’ or cancel them.”

Mitchell, of Bloomfield, organized this week’s 49th annual convention of the Post Mark Collectors Club in New London.

Mitchell estimated about 100 of the 400-plus members of the national organization were expected to talk about postmarks, trade postmarks, buy and sell postmarks and paw through the boxes of old postcards and envelopes stacked on the tables of the Radisson conference room to look for postmarks to add to their collections.

“For a fairly esoteric pursuit,” he says, “I think that’s a pretty good response.”

They also planned to take the ferry out to Block Island Friday to drink in the sights and – yes – collect a Block Island, R.I., postmark.

So what is it that gets someone into this hobby?

“In my case, it was when I was a kid,” says Mitchell, 60. “When I was in the fourth grade, a classmate of mine said, ‘Hey, I’ve got this fun hobby that I heard about, where you just go through your family’s mail, and each piece of mail has this little circle on it saying where it came from.’ So you could accumulate a collection for free. So that was better than stamp collecting, because you had to pay for stamps.”

Mitchell fondly remembers that “when I was a kid and we’d go on vacation, I’d always be pestering my parents to stop at every post office so I could mail myself a postcard. That was fun.”

And, as it turns out, it is a hobby that attracts women as well as men, though the women, Mitchell says, approach it a little differently.

“The guys like me tend to be ‘completists,’ like I’ve got to get all of Connecticut,” he says. “Some people do it differently. They narrow it down. Like they get special pictorial cancellations like this.”

He holds up an envelope with a special cancellation from Groton marking the 50th anniversary of the Nautilus going under the North Pole.

“Some people do thematic, like post offices with water in their names, like Lakeville, Lake City or Valley Stream or whatever,” he says. “So there’s a lot of creativity involved here, coming up with different ways of collecting.”

Sitting at one of the tables paging through postcards is Diane DelGrosso, from Nevada, who says she knows a woman who’s trying to collect postmarks for every date in the 1930s.

“It’s amazing,” she says.

DelGrosso is with her husband, Mike, and has been attending the annual conventions for years. She well remembers the first one.

“When my husband suggested that we go on our first trip to Sarasota to a postmark convention, I said, ‘You mean other people collect these?”’

These days, they travel, taking pictures of old post offices, which they share with The Post Mark Collectors Club Museum in Bellevue, Ohio.

“I’ve always been interested in place names, but now I’m more interested in the history, and I’ve been taking pictures of the smaller post offices that are fading away rather quickly,” Mike DelGrosso says.

Gary Hendren of St. Louis, Mo., also has a fascination with what’s been and gone.

He explains that St. Louis “was the first town in the country to offer street car mail, mail was sorted and stamped right on the street car.

“And I happen to have the earliest known St. Louis cancel, which makes it the earliest known cancel on a street car anywhere,” he said. “You can’t go out and buy that if you had a million dollars, because there’s only one. So that’s the thrill of things.”

But if there’s one thing that’s obvious from looking around the room, it’s that the younger generation doesn’t get that thrill.

Hendren is 71; Mike DelGrosso says he’s “68, I guess,” and Diane DelGrosso says, “I’m 39 and holding, but I’ve been holding a long time.”

And so it may be that the postmark collectors are going the way of the postmarks they seek.

“It’s an aging group,” Mitchell admits. “This kind of hobby, I think, is losing out to flashier pursuits for younger people.”

AP-ES-07-25-10 0000EDT

Chinese Jade: The great Asian buy-back

A complex carving of precious white jade soared to $334,000 in May at a New Orleans Auction Galleries sale. The 18th century pi disk is topped by a carved dragon; twelve symbols are carved in the tablet on the reverse. Courtesy New Orleans Auction Galleries

Jade carving is a strong artistic thread that runs through the history of China. Jade artifacts are unearthed at prehistoric sites, powerful Emperors valued the material above gold, and modern collectors are avidly bidding on fine antique examples in auctions around the world.

In his survey Art in China, British art historian Craig Clunas states, “Jade, or more precisely nephrite, was first used by one of the cultures of the Chinese neolithic between 6,000 and 5,000 B.C.E. A mineral of extreme hardness, it cannot be carved with a metal blade, but must be worked with abrasive sand in a procedure of slicing and drilling which involves great expenditure of time and skill. Therefore, at a very early period, it became associated with power: temporal power, in the sense of control over resources, and by extension with spiritual power.”

Major museum collections contain precious jade plaques, pi disks, and ritual vessels from the Shang, Zhou, and Han dynasties of the second and first millennia B.C. In a late 2^nd century B.C. burial site found not far from Beijing, a prince and princess were laid to rest in suits of jade.

Two types of compressed metamorphic rock are commonly called jade. The mineral nephrite, ranging in color from white to various shade of green, was available at sites in China and acquired from sources on the Silk Road trade route. Jadeite in bright emerald green and other colors, found in Burma, was imported into China after 1800 A.D.

Most jade offered for sale today was carved in the 18^th and 19^th centuries of the modern era. Highly prized are pieces made in a period of intense artistic creativity during the long reign of the Qianlong Emperor (1736-1795 A.D.) of the Qing Dynasty. Still on view at the Palace Museum in Beijing is the largest jade carving in existence. The monumental boulder of mottled nephrite (over 7 feet high) is covered with exquisitely carved landscapes completed in 1787.

Inspired by such masterworks, serious collectors in Asia are searching the world for new acquisitions. Internet access to American auctions has produced a lively West to East trade in antique jade. Like many other firms, New Orleans Auction Galleries now offers a significant number of Asian lots in their general sales. Last October a large collection of jade produced some noteworthy prices, including a carved mountain scene that brought $16,800.

After the sale, president Jean Vidos said, “Over the past several years, the international market has just blossomed. The Internet has leveled the playing field when we’re competing for dollars against the big boys. Not a whole lot of stuff is slipping through the cracks any more.”

“We had Asian buyers bidding on Asian stuff in New Orleans, and that’s a great change from 10 or 15 years ago. Even during the recession, the Chinese have been vigorously bidding on stuff. Although the downturn has affected the economy worldwide, the Chinese have apparently figured out a way to buy. They’re really aggressive buyers and this sale happened to be really heavy duty with Asian.”

NOAG’s Asian specialist Rick Rhodes explained the appeal of the simple mountain carving: “It goes back to the tradition where officials and civil servants always wanted to retire to nature. They wanted to get away from the bustle of the court. So they would have these mountain scenes carved in jade that they could put on their desk and contemplate. They would feel like they were in the countryside. Because these carvings were sought after by the literati, many Chinese collectors of today go after that sort of thing because it’s still a way to escape from the pressures of modern society.”

Success in the jade marketplace brought out more consignments, and a masterpiece emerged from a private collection in central Louisiana in May of this year. The complex 18^th-century white jade carving featured a pi disk surmounted by a dragon on the front and a spirit tablet with symbols on the reverse. The lot had a modest estimate of $3,500-5,000 but determined bidding took the carving to a stunning $334,000.

“When selling things at auction, bidding always involves emotion,” said Rhodes. “There were two bidders on this particular piece, one was from mainland China, who had comes all the way over here and spent a whole day looking at the piece, and the winning bidder was from London. Two different sides of the world. You reach literally the entire world. Anyone who has a computer can access the auction and bid live from their computer.”

Rhodes said, “There seems to be a very, very strong market right now for really good quality jade. The Chinese are very discriminating buyers. We have done really well with jade. That May sale also included a beautiful group of a mother monkey with two smaller monkeys. It went for a great deal of money for what it was, $34,440.”

“The monkey group was made from a piece of nephrite with two colors – a dark olive green and a lighter green. The carver was very skillful, the mother is the dark color and the baby on her shoulder is a lighter color – it has a nice contrast to it.”

“Buying jade is a very personal thing,” Rhodes concluded. “A lot of it has to do with your perception of the stone and your experience in handling it.”

Other regional auction house have had similar good results. In response to market demand, Leslie Hindman Auctioneers in Chicago is gathering consignments for their first dedicated Asian sale on October 26. Hindman said, “We’ve done very well, and we’re offering this fall sale because of the interest. She confirms that much of the bidding is coming directly from China, adding, “And some of it’s coming from New York but they’re bidding for people in China.”

Andrew Lick, the firm’s specialist in the field, explained, “We’ve always included Asian pieces in furniture and decorative arts auctions, but we’ve seen enough interest that it would be beneficial to have a sale for Asian works of art. We’ve had good collections of Chinese textiles, beautiful lacquer work, archaic bronzes, netsuke, jade – they’re all coming from private consignors and they’re new to the market.”

“The money flowing into the jade market is coming from mainland China. (Dealers in New York and London interested in the pieces but a lot of competition from China.) I think the Chinese are more comfortable buying pieces that are in the U.S., because there so many reproductions coming out of China right now. If they can purchase something that has been in an American collection for decades, it gives them a greater sense of comfort.”

In February 2009, Hindman’s sold a beautifully carved Qing Dynasty nephrite vase or brush pot for $96,400. Lick explained, “The piece had been purchased by New York collectors at Spink & Son in London in 1977, and we had the paperwork for it. That was a good example of having the provenance on a piece.”

“We have bidders that fly in from Shanghai for our sales and stay in Chicago,” he said. “They know what they want, but they’re looking at what everyone else in the room is bidding on too. They’re observing other Asian bidders and seeing what’s going where. When they see the excitement of the room go up on a major piece, sometimes they’ll jump into the bidding.”

Lick pointed out, “The white jade and other pale colors are the most desirable right now. I think that was the reason that yellow-jade lidded vase did well. But as in any other medium, it’s the quality and the age. If you have a very well-carved spinach jade piece, it can be worth just as much.”

Dallas Auction Gallery is another regional firm that has responded to the strength of the Asian market. Following their successful sale of Asian Antiques and Fine Art on March 10, they have scheduled another specialized sale for October 6, 2010, which will feature furniture, ivory, jade, and other decorative arts.

From the earliest human settlements in China to bustling 21^st-century society, carved jade continues to fascinate collectors. Admire it, touch it, own it – the material’s mystical appeal is hard to resist.

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ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

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