Italian Micromosaic Mythical Plaque leads our five top auction results

Circa-1820 Italian micromosaic plaque depicting the mythical tale of the Rape of Europa, which hammered for $13,000 and sold for $16,250 with buyer’s premium at Millea Bros.

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BOONTON, N.J. – Estimated at $2,500-$3,500, this micromosaic plaque depicting the Rape of Europa hammered for $13,000 and sold for $16,250 with buyer’s premium as part of Millea Bros.‘ three-day sale on November 15-17.

Dated circa 1820, the central scene, depicting the Phoenician princess’s abduction by Zeus, is one based on Michelangelo Maestri’s influential series of gouache drawings of the frescoes of Pompeii. The painstaking and meticulous decoration is probably from the workshop of the virtuoso Antonio Aguatti. Considered the most talented mosaicist of his time, in 1810 his work was awarded a gold medal at the Capitoline exhibition of Roman Works of Art and Industry, held at the Campidoglio, and from 1832 until his death in 1846 he was professor of ‘mosaico in piccolo’ at the Vatican workshops. 

Aguatti based his distinctive palette of glass tesserae – bold reds, blues and yellows set against a contrasting white ground – on the frescoes uncovered at Herculaneum and Pompeii in the 18th century.

René Lalique Satyre Perfume Bottle, $15,000

GLENVIEW, Ill. – For René Lalique, glass-making represented a second career. He had already proved himself a superb artist-jeweler but, as the fashion for Art Nouveau peaked, Lalique changed mediums and began to produce bespoke glass bottles for a near neighbor on the Place Vendôme in Paris. The bottles he made for François Coty are some of the very first experiments in commercial perfume bottle manufacture.

Perfume bottles remained an important part of his range into the 1920 and 1930s. The sale at Meadow Lane Auctions on November 19 included several examples, among them Bouquet de Faunes bottle made circa 1925 for Guerlian. There are multiple versions of this bottle, including a later issue from the post-war era, but this was an early example and in splendid condition. It came sealed with the original paper label to the stopper and the original packaging still intact. Hard to find a better example, it hammered for $6,000 and sold for $7,500 with buyer’s premium against an estimate of $200-$500.

Estimated at $800-$1,200, hammered at $12,000 and sold for $15,000 with buyer’s premium was a rare bottle from the Lalique factory line. The Satyre, issued circa 1933, has an elongated stopper decorated as a mythological figure with a long beard and horns. Model No. 527 in the Felix Marcilhac’s Lalique catalogue raisonné, this is a bottle that has sold for close to $20,000 in previous auctions.

Dutch Baroque Engraved Mother-of-Pearl, Bone and Hardstone-Inlaid Slate Panel by Dirck Van Rijswijck, $65,000

Dutch Baroque engraved mother-of-pearl, bone and hardstone-inlaid slate panel by Dirck Van Rijswijck, which hammered for £40,000 and sold for £51,200 ($65,000) with buyer’s premium at Bonhams.
Dutch Baroque engraved mother-of-pearl, bone and hardstone-inlaid slate panel by Dirck Van Rijswijck, which hammered for £40,000 and sold for £51,200 ($65,000) with buyer’s premium at Bonhams.

LONDON – Although originally training as a goldsmith, Dirck Van Rijswijck (1596-1679) developed his own characteristic style using less rarefied material. While working in Antwerp, he perfected an idiosyncratic technique using engraved mother-of-pearl, bone and hardstone inlays to create floral still life subjects. The natural variations in the shell and stone were used to suggest the colors and surface textures of the various flowers.

These Baroque curiosities are rare at auction, but a fine example was offered by Bonhams as part of its November 21 sale of the single-owner collection of Cornelis Paulus van Pauwvliet. He collected for close to 50 years, furnishing an Amsterdam home just a stone’s throw from the Rijksmuseum, with English and Dutch works of art from the 17th century to the late 19th century.

Van Pauwvliet had bought this 6 by 4.5in (15 by 12cm) panel from London dealership Jeremy in the 1990s (it had previously sold at Sotheby’s in Monaco). Depicting a floral garland with a butterfly and a variegated stone tabletop with a dragonfly and a squirrel, it is signed and dated to the left-hand corner within a paper scroll reading Dirck Van Riswick, Invenit e Fecit, AD 1665.

One of many well-received items in the £2.86 million Pauwvliet sale, it was estimated at £12,000-£18,000, hammered for £40,000 and sold for £51,200 ($65,000) with buyer’s premium. As the item was brought into the U.K. from Holland for sale, import VAT (value-added tax) of 5% was due on the hammer price.

Unique Tiffany & Co. Silver and Mixed Metal Presentation Cup, $55,000

Unique circa-1885 Tiffany & Co. silver and mixed metal presentation cup, which hammered for $44,000 and sold for $55,000 with buyer’s premium at Revere Auctions.
Unique circa-1885 Tiffany & Co. silver and mixed metal presentation cup, which hammered for $44,000 and sold for $55,000 with buyer’s premium at Revere Auctions.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – This extraordinary Tiffany & Co. silver and mixed metal presentation cup has many of the characteristics of the firm’s chief designer and director of its silver works, Edward Chandler Moore (1827-1891). Similar pieces mixing a broad range of different decorative vocabularies were exhibited by Tiffany at international exhibitions in the last quarter of the 19th century. Moore was himself a great collector (he left his huge holdings to the Metropolitan Museum of Art) and he brought his deep knowledge of Islamic and Far Eastern design to bear on his work.

Dating from circa 1885, this 11in-tall and 83oz trophy combines the inlaying and patination techniques he had learned from Japanese metal-working with a form and geometric decoration borrowed from Pueblo pottery. The three naturalistic buffalo head and hoof legs decoration are a very much an addition characteristic of the Gilded Age.

To the gold-wash interior is the inscription Catharine Lorillard Wolfe To Clarence Cecil Pell Nov. 15th 1885 that documents its commission.

Catharine Wolfe (1828-1887), the daughter of a New York merchant and one of the heirs to the Lorillard Tobacco fortune, inherited $12 million (something close to $300 million in today’s money) in 1872. She combined art collecting with philanthropy and made two major bequests to the Met. Clarence Pell (1885-1964) of Newport, Rhode Island, who was evidently given this piece as a christening gift, was also a member of the Lorillard family, which sold cigarettes under the brand names Newport, Maverick, Old Gold, Kent, True, Satin, and Max.

The presentation cup appeared for sale in the capital of Minnesota on the first of two days of selling at Revere Auctions on November 14-15. With a clean bill of health – it had no dents, major scratches or signs of restoration – it was estimated at $5,000-$10,000, but found sufficient admirers to sell for $44,000 ($55,000 including buyer’s premium).

Unique circa-1885 Tiffany & Co. silver and mixed metal presentation cup, which hammered for $44,000 and sold for $55,000 with buyer’s premium at Revere Auctions.
Unique circa-1885 Tiffany & Co. silver and mixed metal presentation cup, which hammered for $44,000 and sold for $55,000 with buyer’s premium at Revere Auctions.

Grove’s Tasteless Chill Tonic Sign, $8,320

E. W. Grove advertising sign for Grove’s Tasteless Chill Tonic, which hammered for $6,500 and sold for $8,320 with buyer’s premium at New England Auction – Fred Giampietro.
E. W. Grove advertising sign for Grove’s Tasteless Chill Tonic, which hammered for $6,500 and sold for $8,320 with buyer’s premium at New England Auction – Fred Giampietro.

BRANFORD, Conn. – Malaria has been a plague on human populations for millennia, mostly transmitted through mosquito bites and resulting in terrible fevers, chills and occasionally death.

As a staunch prohibitionist, E. W. Grove was an unlikely patent medicine creator and salesman, as most so-called ‘cures’ of the day were largely alcoholic in nature. But his 1878 malarial treatment (and not ‘cure’), Grove’s Tasteless Chill Tonic, contained no alcohol, instead relying on a suspension of lemon-flavored syrup to mask the bitter taste of cinchonine, a derivative of quinine that involves alkaloids extracted from powered cinchona bark.

It was a huge seller and an internationally known product, and was even used by the British Army for malarial exposure in jungle climates. Grove’s advertising often relied on the anthropomorphic pig with a child’s head and the slogan “makes children & adults as fat as pigs,” perhaps in reference to the weight loss commonly suffered by malarial patients.

This early example of Grove advertising almost has a folk-art feel to it; later pig/child depictions are far more refined and standardized, dating this possibly to the late 1870s or early 1880s. Estimated at only $400-$800 at New England Auction – Fred Giampietro, floor and internet bidders battled all the way to a final hammer price of $6,500, or $8,320 with buyer’s premium, as part of the November 16 Collection of Peter Brams & Discovery Auction.

Apple Computer’s first trade sign at Alexander Historical Auctions, Jan. 27

Apple Computer trade sign, estimated at $100,000-$200,000. Image courtesy of Alexander Historical Auctions

Apple Computer trade sign, estimated at $100,000-$200,000. Image courtesy of Alexander Historical AuctionsCHESAPEAKE CITY, Md. – On Friday, January 27, on the final day of a three-day sale, Maryland auctioneers Alexander Historical Auctions will offer the first trade sign used by the world’s largest company, Apple, Inc., at trade shows and at its corporate offices in the company’s early years of operation in the mid-1970s. Absentee and Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers.

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Northern exposure: Miller & Miller to auction 11 Maud Lewis works, Oct. 8

Maud Lewis, ‘Winter Sleigh Ride,’ estimated at CA$20,000-$25,000
Maud Lewis, ‘Winter Sleigh Ride,’ estimated at CA$20,000-$25,000
Maud Lewis, ‘Winter Sleigh Ride,’ estimated at CA$20,000-$25,000

NEW HAMBURG, Canada – A painting by acclaimed Canadian folk artist Maud Lewis (1903-1980) titled Winter Sleigh Ride; an exquisite circa-1930 mixed media diorama by Adelard Brousseau of Quebec, titled Maple Sugar Time; and an acrylic on paper by Canadian Woodland artist Norval Morrisseau (1932-2007), titled Ancestral Visitors, are a few of the expected top lots in Miller & Miller Auctions’ online-only Canadiana & Folk Art auction on Saturday, October 8. All estimates quoted in this report are in Canadian dollars. Absentee and Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers.

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Antique soda fountain a sweet attraction at Morphy’s, Aug. 23-25

19th-century soda fountain front and backbar with lighted front fountain and Charles Lippincott 10-position marble soda dispenser; originally in a Helena, Arkansas café that opened in 1888. Size: 161¼in long by 130in high. Estimate $60,000-$100,000
19th-century soda fountain front and backbar with lighted front fountain and Charles Lippincott 10-position marble soda dispenser; originally in a Helena, Arkansas café that opened in 1888. Size: 161¼in long by 130in high. Estimate $60,000-$100,000
19th-century soda fountain front and backbar with lighted front fountain and Charles Lippincott 10-position marble soda dispenser; originally in a Helena, Arkansas cafe that opened in 1888. Size: 161¼in long by 130in high. Estimate $60,000-$100,000

DENVER, Pa. – Just as nightclubs are today’s social hubs, there was a time, more than a century ago, when the local soda fountain or soda shop was where people went for a light meal or wholesome refreshment in a cordial environment. Sometimes a soda fountain – named for the actual device that dispensed carbonated beverages – was found within a larger establishment, such as a drugstore or candy store. Soda fountain memorabilia is pure American nostalgia, and collectors revel in the opportunity to purchase such treasures from a source as esteemed as the Sharyn and Terry Brown collection, which highlights Morphy’s August 23-25 auction series.

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Trade signs on the menu at Route 32 auction, May 20-21

Fisher Dairy Milk & Cream sign, est. $50-$50,000

 

 

Fisher Dairy Milk & Cream sign, est. $50-$50,000
Fisher Dairy Milk & Cream sign, est. $50-$50,000

CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind. – Route 32 Auctions’ Country Store & More Auction, scheduled for Friday, May 20 and Saturday, May 21, will feature 500 lots each day reflecting an eclectic mix of country store collectibles, salesman’s sample oddities, advertising items and more. The auction starts at 10 am on both days. Absentee and Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers.

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Jasper52 presents Americana in its many forms, April 14

 

Circa-1880s shoofly quilt with cadet blue background, est. $600-$800
Circa-1880s shoofly quilt with cadet blue background, est. $600-$800

NEW YORK – A circa-1880s shoofly quilt, a Karl Adleff tramp art box with a secret opening, and a circa-1940s New England trade sign in the shape of a key could well earn top lot status at Jasper52’s New Hampshire Antiques Dealers: Americana auction, which will take place Thursday, April 14 at 6 pm Eastern time. Other offerings in the 361-lot sale include an applique picture of a cat; a pair of mocha ware covered urns, dating to circa 1800-1820; a wood carving of a Snow Bunting bird by Frank Finney; a circa-1810 needlework picture of Mount Vernon, George Washington’s estate; a white-glazed stoneware pineapple teapot; a limited-edition bronze of a moose diving into a swamp, sculpted by Dr. Jon Ruehle; a circa-1950, 37in New England copper weathervane shaped like a sperm whale; a folk art whiskey jug with the name “BEN” in red letters outlined in yellow on its shoulder; and original illustrations and artwork by Barbara Shermund. Absentee and Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers.

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Jasper52 offers Americana, Folk Art & Outsider Art, Dec. 23

Large copper apothecary trade sign, est. $1,500-$2,000
Large copper apothecary trade sign, est. $1,500-$2,000
Large copper apothecary trade sign, est. $1,500-$2,000

NEW YORK – On Thursday, December 23, starting at 6 pm Eastern time, Jasper52 will hold a sale of Americana, Folk Art & Outsider Art, numbering 589 lots in all. Included are a mid-18th-century Dutch delft tobacco jar; cast iron door stops; trade signs; Native American jewelry; a circa-1780 turned ash burl bowl; antique checkerboards; needlework samplers, quilts, and other textile arts; a mid-18th-century Connecticut cherry bonnet top chest; stoneware jars; a New England whale form copper weathervane dating to 1950; a Chemehuevi tribal community Native American basket; hand-colored engravings; a 45-star American flag; a mid-18th-century lady’s foot stool; a Victorian-style wicker doll buggy; and hundreds more. As always, the sale is curated by Clifford Wallach, an expert on tramp art, folk art, and Americana. Absentee and Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers.

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Paul Revere family artifacts arouse interest in Boston-area auction

This 19th-century trade sign, lettered ‘Joseph W. Revere’ in gold leaf and offered with other artifacts from the descendants of Revolutionary War hero Paul Revere, exceeded its $1,000-$2,000 estimate to sell for $20,000 plus the buyer’s premium at John McInnis Auctioneers on December 11, 2021. Image courtesy of John McInnis Auctioneers and LiveAuctioneers.
This 19th-century trade sign, lettered ‘Joseph W. Revere’ in gold leaf and offered with other artifacts from the descendants of Revolutionary War hero Paul Revere, exceeded its $1,000-$2,000 estimate to sell for $20,000 plus the buyer’s premium at John McInnis Auctioneers on December 11, 2021. Image courtesy of John McInnis Auctioneers and LiveAuctioneers.
This 19th-century trade sign, lettered ‘Joseph W. Revere’ in gold leaf and offered with other artifacts from the descendants of Revolutionary War hero Paul Revere, exceeded its $1,000-$2,000 estimate to sell for $20,000 plus the buyer’s premium at John McInnis Auctioneers on December 11, 2021. Image courtesy of John McInnis Auctioneers and LiveAuctioneers.

BOSTON (AP) – Artifacts once owned by Paul Revere’s family have been sold at auction for $20,000. The items were found in the attic of a home in Canton, Massachusetts, believed to have been owned by the family of the legendary Revolutionary War figure, The Boston Globe reports.

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McInnis to auction treasures from Greater Boston area, Dec. 10-11

Circa-1914 carousel outer rim chariot panel, est. $20,000-$30,000
Circa-1914 carousel outer rim chariot panel, est. $20,000-$30,000
Circa-1914 carousel outer rim chariot panel, est. $20,000-$30,000

AMESBURY, Mass. – John McInnis Auctioneers will present an important Two-Day Americana auction of more than 1,000 lots on Friday, December 10 and Saturday, December 11. The sale with feature early American formal and country furniture, folk art, paintings, carpets, textiles, samplers, pearlware, mochaware, decoys, photography, maritime material, delftware, miniatures, and also the whimsical and the unusual. Absentee and Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers.

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Jasper52 showcases choice Americana, advertising Sept. 9

Horse race gaming wheel with alternating black and white horses, 1950s. Estimate $750-$850

NEW YORK – On Thursday, September 9, starting at 6 pm Eastern time, Jasper52 will host a 375-lot Americana auction for the New Hampshire Antiques Dealers Association. As always, the sale is curated by Clifford Wallach, a noted expert in the realms of tramp art, folk art, and Americana. Absentee and Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers.

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