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Now showing 4400-4500 of 9822 result(s)
(Auction)The Zaitz Collection
Christie's, New York City
Photos courtesy Christie's
The collection of Max and Betty Zaitz, sold at Christie's on January 22 in New York City, showed that the market for Americana has strength when the offerings are first-rate, but the market has dropped from its peak, giving collectors a great opportunity for bargains. ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Fine Art at Auction
Skinner, Inc., Boston
Photos courtesy Skinner
Twentieth-century art came to the fore at Skinner on January 22 in Boston. With a few anomalies, such as the 16th-century sketch estimated at $400/600 that sold for $19,680 (includes buyer's premium), the focus was directed to 20th-century lots. The auction house supplied, and bidders responded ... (Read More)
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(Show)The Winter Antiques Show 2016
New York City
It is true that the Winter Antiques Show in New York City, held January 21-31, was more international and more contemporary than ever before. Date cutoffs were removed, and there were works by living artists. It is true that there were fewer dealers in Americana. Among the 73 ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Chinese Export Art
Christie's, New York City
Photos courtesy Christie's
Christie's holds one big China trade sale a year, generally during Americana Week in January. This year it was on January 21, when dealers were setting up for the New York Ceramics & Glass Fair and the Winter Antiques Show and some collectors and dealers ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Exhibitions, February 2016
Maine Antique Digest includes, as space permits, brief announcements of exhibitions planned by galleries, museums, or other venues. We need all press materials at least six weeks in advance of opening. We need to know the hours and dates of the exhibit, admission charges, and phone number and website for ... (Read More)
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(Auction)The Schorsch Sale
Sotheby's, New York City
Photos courtesy Sotheby's
A generation ago when a vast collection of Americana needed to be sold to settle an estate, Sotheby's or Christie's held a house sale. Crowds came to Sotheby's Garbisch sale at Pokety Farms in Maryland in May 1980 and to the Sotheby's Wetzel sale in ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Sotheby's $50 Million Gutsy Gambit
Editorial
In early January, Sotheby's announced it had acquired Art Agency, Partners, a two-year-old art advisory firm managed by Allan Schwartzman, Amy Cappellazzo, and Adam Chinn, for an eye-popping $50 million. (The price could rise to $85 million if certain performance criteria are met.) The announcement came about two weeks after ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Fortuna Auctioneers: A Small Town Approach in the Big City
Antique Jewelry & Gemology
Photos courtesy Fortuna Auctioneers
Fortuna Auctioneers and Appraisers, owned and operated by partners in business and marriage Seth Holehouse and Anna Lin, GG, is a relative newcomer to the jewelry auction scene in New York City. The company held its fine jewelry sale on January 19.
Lin and Holehouse ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Park Avenue Armory Is a "No-Show"
A "no-show" disappoints. A "no-show" is expected but does not appear. A "no-show" inexplicably fails to keep an appointment. A "no-show" shirks duty. The Park Avenue Armory is a "no-show" in the minds of the Palm Beach Show Group, promoters of antiques shows in five American cities.
According to a Page ... (Read More)
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(Show)Lebanon Antique Show
Lebanon, Ohio
Bruce Metzger doesn't disagree that the Lebanon Antique Show is changing. As he sees it, that's one reason he was hired to manage the event a few years ago.
The most recent edition of the show, held January 16 and 17 on the Warren County Fairgrounds in Lebanon, Ohio, was ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Americana
Garth's Auctions, Delaware, Ohio
Photos courtesy Garth's
At Garth's Auctions on January 16, the company's first sale of 2016 gave some insight into the market. It was a "good, better, best" kind of thing. Starting at the low end, the good (or not so good, depending on one's point of view) was ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Pricey Pewter Peppers January Auction
Pook & Pook, Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Photos courtesy Pook & Pook
On the weekend before the great gathering for Americana Week in New York City began, Pook & Pook held a two-day auction in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, on January 15 and 16. At this junior varsity game before the big ones, there were a ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Advice for Winter Auctions in Maine: If It Snows, Go!
Andrews & Andrews, Northport, Maine
We're a tough breed of auction-goers here in Maine. Don't count on us to be scared off by a little weather. January 16 was one of those wintry days bedeviled by a blustery snowstorm. It was also the day that Dan and Elsie Andrews held their ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Harry Greenberger, HG Limited, Palenville, New York
In the Trade
Harry Greenberger sells hammered aluminum, the decorative giftware that flourished in the mid-20th century. But what Greenberger sells probably isn't your mother's hammered aluminum.
Harry Greenberger.
During the late 1940s and 1950s mass-produced hammered aluminum objects became all the rage. In fact, Greenberger said, during that period hammered aluminum trays, ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Dealer Pleads Guilty in Ivory Smuggling Case
Yiwei Zheng, a.k.a. Steve Zheng, 43, of St. Cloud, Minnesota, pleaded guilty in federal court on January 13 to smuggling elephant ivory and illegally exporting rhinoceros horns.
Zheng smuggled elephant ivory out of the United States on April 30, 2011, to a recipient in Shanghai, China. Zheng also exported two rhinoceros ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Ivory Education Institute Sues California State to Stop IvoryBan
California's new law banning the sale of nearly all objects made from or with ivory is being challenged in court. A lawsuit filed in California Superior Court by the Ivory Education Institute, a nonprofit association promoting better understanding of the importance of ivory, seeks an injunction to stop the law ... (Read More)
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(Show)The 44th Annual Hudson, Ohio, Antique Show
Hudson, Ohio
The annual Hudson, Ohio, Antique Show, held January 9 and 10, is obviously a staple in the Buckeye State. As with any show with such longevity, its managers and exhibitors are the key. Sue Hall and Lynne Dingus managed this show for 28 years, but three years ago, a ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Good Fellows: The Walpole Society
Part III of V
Photos courtesy the Walpole Society
"I am absolutely in favor of Tom Streeter for the Walpole Society and think that he would be an outstanding candidate. I did mention his name about two years ago and one of the old timers replied that he was only a book ... (Read More)
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(Show)Annapolis Antiques Show
Annapolis, Maryland
The fifth Annapolis Antiques Show under the direction of Dordy Fontinel was held on January 9 and 10 at the Byzantium Event Center in Annapolis, Maryland. The Annapolis Antiques Show has a 40-plus year history. Following the death of longtime promoter Bob Armacost, Dordy Fontinel Show Management took over ... (Read More)
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(Show)The Washington Winter Show 2016
Washington, D.C.
The Washington Winter Show of antiques and fine art celebrated its 61st year over the January 8-10 weekend. The longstanding event has settled comfortably into its location at the Katzen Arts Center on the campus of American University. This marks the sixth year that the show has been held ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Dealer Files Suit against Florida Auction House
On November 17, 2015, Crouching Dragon Antiques and dealer Yiwei Zheng filed a lawsuit in a federal court against Manatee Galleries of Bradenton, Florida, and Adrienne Falconer and Edward Goldsmith over a consignment of 31 antiques. Crouching Dragon Antiques of St. Cloud, Minnesota, is owned and operated by Zheng. Falconer ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Foster Rings in the New Year
Robert Foster, Newcastle, Maine
Robert Foster always packs in a huge crowd for his larger auctions in New-castle, Maine. I previewed the January 1 sale a day earlier, so by the time I arrived about an hour before the start on New Year's Day, I had a healthy walk from the ... (Read More)
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(Auction)New Year's Day Sale
Nadeau's Auction Gallery, Windsor, Connecticut
Photos courtesy Nadeau's Auction Gallery
Nadeau's Auction Gallery in Windsor, Connecticut, was selling to a packed house on January 1. Part of the reason could have been the Americana collection consigned to Nadeau from Credit Suisse. That massive collection included a full-length portrait of Thomas Alva Edison ... (Read More)
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(Auction)New Year's Day in Hardeeville
Gallery 95, Hardeeville, South Carolina
Photos courtesy Gallery 95
Hardeeville occupies a sweet spot in the South Carolina Lowcountry. Midway between the elegant mansions of Savannah, Georgia, and the tony condos of Hilton Head, South Carolina, it is the perfect spot for an auction house. That was the conclusion Maine natives Steve ... (Read More)
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(Computer Article)Image Search and Translation
Computer Column #325
John P. Reid, jreid@dca.net
Image searches and language translation will be discussed. But first, here is more on computer accessibility.
Accessibility Again
In the column for the July 2015 issue (see p. 38-C), computer accessibility for people with limited vision, hearing, or dexterity was discussed. Essential tremor or ET is the ... (Read More)
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(Book Review)Framing Fraktur
A Book Review
Framing Fraktur: Pennsylvania German Material Culture & Contemporary Art edited by Judith Tannenbaum, with essays by Janine Pollock, Lisa Minardi, Matthew F. Singer, and Judith Tannenbaum. Free Library of Philadelphia, distributed by University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015, 104 pages, hardbound, $39.95 plus S/H from the Free Library of ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)MidWeek in Manchester Returns to the Queen City, and the Pickers Market Show Is Revived
Frank Gaglio of Barn Star Productions made two announcements in late November: the MidWeek Antiques Show is moving back to Manchester, New Hampshire, in August 2016, and the Pickers Market show will be revived.
MidWeek will now be held at the JFK Memorial Coliseum at 303 Beech Street in Manchester, the ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Unraveling the Mystery of Thomas Cole's Final, Unfinished Series, "The Cross and the World"
There's a lot of excitement these days at Cedar Grove, the home of Thomas Cole (1801-1848), founder of the Hudson River school of landscape painting.1 Not only has the National Historic Site, located in Catskill, New York, discovered the remnants of murals previously unknown to Cole scholars, but a reconstruction ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Dealer Sentenced to Two Years in Prison for Smuggling Rhinoceros Libation Cups
Antiques dealer Linxun Liao was sentenced on November 12, 2015, in Manhattan federal court to two years in prison for his role in a wildlife trafficking scheme in which he purchased and smuggled 16 libation cups carved from rhinoceros horns (worth more than $1 million) from the United States to ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Eclectic Mix at Smith
William A. Smith, Inc., Plainfield, New Hampshire
Photos courtesy William A. Smith
The auction hall was nearly full for most of the 500-lot auction at the William A. Smith gallery in Plainfield, New Hampshire, on December 28, 2015. The sale consisted of an interesting and eclectic mixture of country Americana, American art, ... (Read More)
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(Book Review)Early Seating Upholstery
... (Read More)
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(Auction Law and Ethics)Around and Around
Auction Law & Ethics
We wrapped up 2015 with a list of consignment complaints sent to M.A.D. by a disgruntled reader. The woman had inherited an antiques collection from her parents and placed it with an auction house several states away for sale. She soon regretted that decision and described the ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Humbugged!
P. T. Barnum was known as "the Prince of Humbug" for the many fakes and frauds he perpetrated on the American public throughout most of the 19th century. The Fiji Mermaid; Joice Heth, the oldest woman in the world; General Tom Thumb, the smallest man alive; bearded ladies; fat ladies; ... (Read More)
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(Young Collectors)Another Pro-Choice Debate
The Young Collector
Once upon a time, we wrote about how corrosive the concept of convenience is, how we unwittingly give up important, often intangible things in exchange for tangible, often inconsequential things. Nowhere is this more apparent, at least to us this time of year, than holiday shopping. Hollie faces ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Senate Takes a Hard Look at Private Museums
Editorial
According to a story reported in the New York Times on November 29, 2015, Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and one of the most powerful figures in Congress, is taking a hard look at private museums, trying to determine if the museums deserve the ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Letter from London, January 2016
Ian McKay,
May I wish M.A.D. readers, one and all, a Happy Christmas and a Good New Year, and hopefully divert some of you with this month's selection. It includes some very, very expensive Chinese furniture; a very modern ceramic Alice and more than one mouse; a suffragette; Oscar Wilde ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Searching for Family Heirlooms
Users of the website JustaJoy.com (www.justajoy.com) are able to search for family heirlooms and receive notifications when objects matching their search criteria are posted.
Owner and developer Joy Shivar explained that the site is "the world's largest source of indexed identified items owned by antique dealers and others." Family researchers can ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Erie County, New York, Secondhand Dealers Law Exempts Antiques
On December 17, 2015, the Erie County (New York) Legislature unanimously approved a local law regulating pawnbrokers and secondhand dealers, but a provision in the law exempts antiques dealers under several conditions.
The law will make it unlawful for establishments to purchase any articles, jewelry, or precious metals from any person ... (Read More)
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(Auction)In with the Not So Old: American 20th-Century Design
Sotheby's, New York City, and Wright, Chicago
Photos courtesy Sotheby's and Wright
An article in the Economist on December 19, 2015, tried to explain why the bottom has dropped out of the antiques market. It claimed the cause is the fall in demand for 18th- and 19th-century furniture and decorations and suggested ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Swann's Best-Ever African American Fine Art Sale: $3.1 Million
Swann Galleries, New York City
Photos courtesy Swann Galleries
"Who says auctions can't be fun?" Swann Galleries' president and chief auctioneer Nicholas D. Lowry asked his audience after selling a circa 1958 painting by Norman Lewis for an applause-generating record-breaking $965,000 (including buyer's premium). The untitled and previously uncataloged abstraction in oil ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Wondrous Beasts, Feathered Fantasies: R.W. Martin & Brothers
Phillips, New York City
Photos courtesy Phillips
Martinware grotesques from the late 19th and early 20th century "were the Star Wars figures of that day," according to Alex Heminway, director of design sales at Phillips New York.
Twenty-three lots of R.W. Martin Bros. salt-glazed stoneware, from a collection started in the early 1990s ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Americana Week in New York City January 2016
Go to Calendar of Events
Landmark Americana sales are long remembered for marking turning points in the marketplace. The Bertram K. and Nina Fletcher Little sales in January and October 1994 at Sotheby's offered a wide-ranging collection of Americana, mostly of New England origin, and established a certain kind of folk ... (Read More)
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(Young Collectors)Gifts That Keep On Giving
The Young Collector
Ah, the season of gifting is upon us. Hooray, some of you are thinking. What fun. We're sorry. We'll try to make this as painless as possible, which is going to take some work because gift giving has, for many people, become a painful, protracted process that leaves ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Stolen Darwin Book Returned to Canada
A stolen first edition of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life byCharles Darwin has been returned to Canada. The book, published in 1859, had been stolen from Mount Saint Vincent University Library in Bedford, Nova ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)New Website for Painted Plaster Walls Center
A new website (www.wpcenter.org) for the Center for Painted Wall Preservation (PWP) has been created for use as a resource by owners of painted plaster walls in New England. The new site will also serve as a clearing house for artists, conservators, and preservationists to document their research into the ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)John and Lisa Hauenstein, Early Preservation, Charlotte, Vermont
In the Trade
Some people just make you feel inadequate. An afternoon I spent recently with John Hauenstein had that effect on me.
Hauenstein and his wife, Lisa, do business as Early Preservation and work out of what appears to be a perfectly restored early 19th-century Vermont farmhouse set among 15 acres ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Henry Sheldon Museum and Historic New England Team Up
The Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History in Middlebury, Vermont, and Historic New England have formed an alliance. The alliance between the two organizations, both devoted to historic preservation, history, art collections, and heritage interpretation, caps a multiyear collaborative partnership in exhibits. Historic New England's traveling exhibitions Take Me to ... (Read More)
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(Auction)North American Atlas Leads the Auction House's Highest-Grossing Rare Maps Sale
Swann Galleries, New York City
Photos courtesy Swann Galleries
The maps and atlases department of Swann Galleries had its first $1 million sale on December 8, 2015, in New York City. In fact, it didn't stop there. All told, the auction house took in $1,274,182 (including buyers' premiums) on an offering of ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Old York Receives Grant to Conserve Colonial Crewel Embroideries
The Old York Historical Society/Museums of Old York in York, Maine, has received a grant of $35,000 from the Coby Foundation, Ltd., New York City, to conserve the historic Bulman bed hangings for reinstallation in 2016.
Created by Mary Swett Bulman (1715-1791) of York, Maine, in the 1730s, the textiles are ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Good Fellows: The Walpole Society
Part II of V
Photos courtesy the Walpole Society
"He buys 'like a Prince' what he wants. He does not 'pussyfoot,' 'soft pedal,' or haggle. What he feels is beyond his reach or excessive in price is simply left alone, and he is so modest that he does not continually talk about ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Wallace Hall Show to Return
... (Read More)
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(Auction)Native American Art Auction
Bonhams, San Francisco, California
Photos courtesy Bonhams
Sales totaled $1.3 million (includes buyers' premiums) at Bonhams' Native American art auction in San Francisco on December 7, 2015.
Specialist Jim Haas said there was "a roomful of people" attending, something that he found "almost shocking" considering how many bidders bid on the phone and/or ... (Read More)
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(Auction)The December Auction
Grogan & Company, Boston, Massachusetts
Fine art and jewelry are frequently areas of blurred distinction. Both are mainstays at Grogan and Company's auction gallery in Boston, and neither disappointed at the December 6, 2015, sale where a fine 18" long silver necklace by Alexander Calder (1898-1976) brought $109,800 (includes buyer's premium). ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Freeman's American Art
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Photos courtesy Freeman's
A standing-room-only crowd, a dozen staffers on telephones, plus a fellow at a computer taking bids from online bidders filled the first-floor gallery at Freeman's in Philadelphia on Sunday, December 6, 2015, for an auction of more than 130 lots of American art and Pennsylvania Impressionism. Many ... (Read More)
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(Auction)December Sale Presents the Flatt Collection of Fine Art and Unusual Artifacts
New Orleans Auction Galleries, New Orleans, Louisiana
Nothing provides more panache for an auction than a glamorous collection with star lots, and the New Orleans Auction Galleries (NOAG) had an impressive biography to open its December 4-6, 2015, sale. Lloyd Cooper Flatt was a retired aerospace executive with homes in the ... (Read More)
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(Show)The Golden West Show
Glendale, California
The two-day Golden West Show, held December 5 and 6, 2015, at the Glendale (California) Civic Auditorium, is the hoped-for upgrade of the Golden California Antiques Show, held for 12 years at the same venue. The new owners are Terry Schurmeier, Victoria Wilson Roberts, and Eric Berg. Schurmeier called ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)VMFA Hangs Its West and Gets Major Donation
A portrait of young Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh (1776-1834), and his elder sister, Princess Sophia (1773-1844) of Gloucester, by American painter Benjamin West (1738-1820) was recently installed in the McGlothlin American Galleries at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) in Richmond. The portrait was acquired ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Ships, Clocks, and Stars: The Quest for Longitude
Mystic Seaport, Mystic, Connecticut
41 degrees, 21 minutes, 20 seconds North by 71 degrees, 57 minutes, 50 seconds West. This is the global "address" of Mystic, Connecticut. Many of us know, from reading Dava Sobel's 1995 best-selling book Longitude, that finding Mystic was not so easy for ship captains before John ... (Read More)
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(Auction)This Old Guitar Sold for $29,700
Mebane Antique Auction Gallery, Mebane, North Carolina
Photos courtesy Mebane
On December 4, 2015, Alfreda Evans met the man who bought her great-uncle's 1937 Gibson Nick Lucas guitar. The encounter represented an important closure for Evans. She had never met her Uncle Ben. The amateur guitarist was killed in a robbery at ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Two Elected to Board of Foundation for Appraisal Education
Allyson Bradley of Michaan's Auctions in Alameda, California, and Matthew S. Wilcox of Freeman's in Philadelphia have been elected to the board of directors of the Foundation for Appraisal Education (FAE), a Chicago-based organization founded in 2002 to raise scholarship funds for professionals seeking aid in the field of personal ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Grave Opinion
I question the morality of selling gravestones, as seen in a recent auction report in M.A.D. The gravestone sold was broken, yet it still held clues helpful to determining the identity of the person for whom it had been made. The name on the gravestone appeared to be either "Hannah" ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)The Wheel Keeps Spinning
Auction Law & Ethics
Sometimes all you can do is scratch your head and ask, "What the heck?"
Between September 2014 and September 2015, I wrote 13 columns covering the major aspects and issues of consigning to auction and offered numerous insights and tips for consignors. The same month that the 13th ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)South Florida Artist Sentenced to Five Years in $4 Million Counterfeit Currency Conspiracy
Artist Jean Phineas Losier, 41, of Wellington, Florida, was sentenced to five years in federal prison for conspiracy to deal in counterfeit Federal Reserve notes. A federal jury in Jacksonville convicted him in June 2015. Losier also faces counterfeit manufacturing charges in the Southern District of Florida.
According to court documents, ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Library Company's Madeira
In 1731, when Benjamin Franklin founded what is now America's oldest cultural institution, the Library Company of Philadelphia, Madeira was already the rage. In 1786, when Madeira importer Henry Hill built Hill-Physick, his house at 321 South 4th Street in Philadelphia, Madeira was the wine of choice. In 1895, when ... (Read More)
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(Auction)The 55th Annual Thanksgiving Americana Auction
Garth's Auctions, Delaware, Ohio
Photos courtesy Garth's Auctions
Paint played a pivotal role during the 55th annual Thanksgiving Americana sale held by Garth's Auctions on November 27, 2015, in Delaware, Ohio. Not that anyone was surprised. Garth's is known for great pieces in early paint, and on Black Friday color was king.
Topping ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Frick's Center for the History of Collecting Names Winner of Biennial Book Prize
The Frick Collection's Center for the History of Collecting has awarded its biennial $25,000 book prize for a distinguished publication on the history of collecting in America to The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, in association with Yale University Press, New ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Washington State Approves Initiative Measure 1401 in Landslide
It wasn't even close. On Tuesday, November 3, voters in Washington state approved Initiative Measure 1401, a bill to fight trafficking of animals, by a wide margin of 70.58% to 29.42%.
Initiative 1401 will affect the trade of any antiques that utilize any species of elephant, rhinoceros, tiger, lion, leopard, cheetah, ... (Read More)
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(Computer Article)Cataloging in the Cloud
Computer Column #324
John P. Reid,
Cloud-based collection cataloging services were reviewed in the August 2012 issue. They operate over the Internet and require little or no software on the user's computer except a conventional web browser. Many of these services have increased their features and scope. At least one has ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)New Pier Show during Americana Week
Americana Week 2016 will include something that hasn't been seen since 2013: an antiques show at the Piers. D'Amore Promotions will produce the NYC Big Flea Market on January 23 and 24, 2016, on Pier 90 in Manhattan. For more information, contact D'Amore at (917) 301-7708 or visit the website ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)George Eastman Museum Announces New Name
The George Eastman Museum is the new name of the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York. Founded in 1947, the institution is the world's oldest photography museum. Its collection includes more than 450,000 photographs and includes the estates of Lewis Wickes Hine, Edward Steichen, Alvin Langdon Coburn, and Nickolas ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Firsthand Evidence
Editorial
California Governor Jerry Brown recently signed into law AB 1182, narrowing the California Secondhand Dealer Act from covering all items to applying only to frequently stolen items. It's a big win for antiques dealers who faced burdensome regulations and a big win for CARRB, the California Association of Resellers, Reusers ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Maine Silver, Watches, and Jewelry: Makers and Dealers, 1760 to the Early 1900s
At more than 1300 pieces, the Maine State Museum's collection of Maine silver is the largest anywhere. Over several decades, current and past Maine State Museum staff members and volunteers have carried out research, focusing on the development of the first comprehensive list identifying Maine silversmiths, goldsmiths, jewelers, silver platers, ... (Read More)
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(Book Review)Books Received, December 2015
These are brief reviews of books recently sent to us. We have included ordering information for publishers that accept mail, phone, or online orders. For other publishers, your local bookstore or a mail-order house is the place to look.
Collecting Children's Books: Art, Memories, Values by Noah Fleisher and Lauren Zittle ... (Read More)
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(Auction)California Paintings Sale Brings $2,735,625
Bonhams, Los Angeles, California
Photos courtesy Bonhams
At Bonhams' November 23, 2015, auction of California and Western paintings and sculpture, sales totaled $2,735,625 (includes buyers' premiums). The auction was simulcast in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Scot Levitt, Bonhams' specialist for California and Western paintings, said, "We did well, I'm happy to ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Louisiana Purchase Auction Caps the Year with a Flourish
Neal Auction Company, New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans has been a magnet for artists and artisans since the 18th century. All that creativity adds up, and the beautiful results-paintings, furniture, silver, and decorative arts-are exactly the sort of material that the Neal Auction Company seeks out for its fall events. The ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Buyers' Market for Vintage Radios, Phonographs, and Related Equipment
Vintage Radio and Phonograph Society, Mesquite, Texas
The 41st annual Vintage Radio and Phonograph Society (VRPS) convention held in Mesquite, Texas, November 20-22, 2015, was the country's largest radio club auction of vintage radio, phonograph, and related equipment spanning the pre-World War I windup phonograph to the 1950s miniaturized transistor radio. ... (Read More)
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(Show)The Boston Home Decor Show
Boston, Massachusetts
The newest show in town is the Boston Home Decor Show, an innovative combination of fine traditional antiques and art with edgy contemporary art and design. At the inaugural event November 19-22, 2015, at the Cyclorama in Boston's South End, interior designers and architects rounded out the mix. The ... (Read More)
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(Auction)The Last Harry B. Hartman Sale
Conestoga Auction Company, Manheim, Pennsylvania
Photos courtesy Conestoga Auction Company
The Conestoga Auction Company, a division of the Hess Auction Group, sold the last of Harry Hartman's worldly goods on November 20 and 21, 2015, in Manheim, Pennsylvania. It took three two-day cataloged sales in May, August, and November to disperse the ... (Read More)
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(Show)Schedule Swapping Sparks Serendipitous Sales
Monroe Antique Show and Sale, Monroe, Washington
Those who hold the power of the scheduling strings have the ability to make life interesting for those in need of space, as Loretta Johnson has now twice discovered. Normally the Monroe Antique Show and Sale in Monroe, Washington, is held two weeks before ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Chandler Tall Clock Paces November Auction
Hap Moore, York, Maine
Several of the most salient lots in Hap Moore's November 21, 2015, auction in York, Maine, were pieces of local history from southern Maine and New Hampshire. A small handful of items edged over $3000, led by a New Hampshire tall clock in birch or maple stamped ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Variety as the Spice of Barrett's Toy and Train Auction
Noel Barrett Antiques & Auctions, New Hope, Pennsylvania
Photos courtesy Noel Barrett
Noel Barrett staged his fall antique auction on November 20 and 21, 2015, at the Eagle Fire Hall in New Hope, Pennsylvania. Barrett's eclectic array of nearly 1000 lots cut a wide swath with toys, trains, dolls, dollhouse miniatures, and ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Exhibitions, December 2015
Maine Antique Digest includes, as space permits, brief announcements of exhibitions planned by galleries, museums, or other venues. We need all press materials at least six weeks in advance of opening. We need to know the hours and dates of the exhibit, admission charges, and phone number and website for ... (Read More)
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(Auction)November American History Auction
Cowan's Auctions, Cincinnati, Ohio
Photos courtesy Cowan's Auctions
An original copy of Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the War took the top price during the American history sale held by Cowan's Auctions on November 20, 2015, in Cincinnati, Ohio. The two-volume set realized $84,000 (including buyer's premium) against an estimate of $100,000/150,000. ... (Read More)
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(Show)Palm Beach Show Group's Fall Show in New York City
New York Art, Antique & Jewelry Show, New York City
The Palm Beach Show Group's fall show opened in New York City the Friday before Thanksgiving. Eighty-five art, antiques, and jewelry dealers filled the Park Avenue Armory with their wares, hoping to take advantage of the beginning of the holiday season.
As ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Letter from London, December 2015
Ian McKay,
Antiquities, mostly Egyptian and Roman this time out, provide the principal focus of this month's selection. Also on the bill are the "Hope Spinel," Churchill's "Victory" watch, a golem, a lamp intended for use in card games, Lawrence of Arabia's dagger (along with earlier edged weapons from India), ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Pots, Paintings, Pewter, and LSD
Wooten & Wooten, Camden, South Carolina
Photos courtesy Wooten & Wooten
At the start of the second day of Wooten & Wooten's fall Americana sale held November 14 and 15, 2015, most of the pottery collectors and dealers could be found standing at the back of the long narrow gallery. It was ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Yankee Ingenuity-- Imagination and Invention
Historic Deerfield, Deerfield, Massachusetts
Rufus Porter painted hundreds of home wall murals and probably thousands of quick portraits, and he patented at least 24 practical mechanical inventions. Born in 1792 in West Boxford, Massachusetts, he founded Scientific American magazine in 1845, taught dancing and music, wrote books promoting art instruction and ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Traylor Tops Folk Art Auction
Slotin Folk Art Auction, Buford, Georgia
Photos courtesy Slotin Folk Art Auction
"You don't have to go to New York or Baltimore to find top-notch folk art. Anything you'll ever want will probably be seen here at Slotin," said one collector to another at the Slotin Folk Art auction on November 14 ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Tremont Auctions' Inaugural Sale
Tremont Auctions, Newton, Massachusetts
Tremont Auctions got itself off to a fine start at its inaugural sale on November 15, 2015, at the gallery in Newton, Massachusetts. Collectors and dealers crowded the spanking new gallery to look, compare, and buy. The crowd endured for much of the 375-lot sale, and prices ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Made in the Americas: The New World Discovers Asia
Photos courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
A dazzling show is on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA). It opened in August and will be up through February 15, 2016-an unusually long run for an exhibition at this museum. After that, the show travels to the Winterthur Museum, ... (Read More)
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(Show)The Greater York Antiques Show
York, Pennsylvania
Collectors and dealers are in the habit of going to the York Fairgrounds for antiques show four times a year. The dates have changed in recent years, but for the last 56 years, dedicated collectors and dealers have managed to put a trip to York, Pennsylvania, in red letters ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Evans Conducts Americana Marathon
Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates, Inc., Mt. Crawford, Virginia
Photos courtesy of Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates
Jeffrey Evans is used to record-setting auctions. We have witnessed and reported on several over the years. On November 14, 2015, Evans's 29th semiannual Americana sale set a record that everyone hopes will never be ... (Read More)
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(Auction)American Paintings Week
Sotheby's, Christie's, Bonhams, Heritage, The American Art Fair, and Just Off Madison, New York City
Twice a year collectors and dealers from all over the country come to New York City in search of American 19th- and 20th-century landscapes, portraits, and still lifes, Modernist paintings, and sculpture. In November and again ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Tremont Auctions Opens
A new auction house has landed in the Boston constellation. Tremont Auctions has opened its doors in Newton, Massachusetts. While the auction house is new and the paint is still wet, the principals are old hands in the antiques business. Tremont Auctions is a collaboration between Brett A. Downer and ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Canadian "Beaver" Fruit Jar Sells for $16,240
An antique half-gallon "Beaver" fruit jar sold for $16,240 (includes buyer's premium) when an auction conducted by Maple Leaf Auctions closed on November 14, 2015. (All prices in Canadian funds.)
Auction organizer Scott Wallace of Carleton Place, Ontario, commented on the sale. "To collectors of fruit jars, this piece was important ... (Read More)
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(Show)The Pier Antique Show 2015
New York City
The Pier Antique Show opened Saturday, November 14, 2015, on the morning after the terrorist attack in Paris, and ran through Sunday. There was a stillness to the show, but the event served to take showgoers' minds off the horror that had occurred 12 hours before.
The show opened ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Custer Leads the Charge
Thomaston Place Auction Galleries, Thomaston, Maine
It was a weekend of highs and lows at the Thomaston Place Auction Galleries sale on November 14 and 15, 2015, in Thomaston, Maine. The high was a Howard Pyle-type advertising panel of General Custer in extremis at the Little Bighorn, which moved out for ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Bertoia's "Holiday Surprises" Lives Up to Its Name at $1.867 Million
Vineland, New Jersey
Photos courtesy Bertoia Auctions
With an eye-popping inundation of treasures, Bertoia Auctions lived up to its pre-Thanksgiving theme of "Holiday Surprises." The three-day, 2239-lot event, November 13-15, 2015, was a rip-snorter. No toy category was left behind as banks, trains, doorstops, vintage windups, a well-curated batch of biscuit tins, ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Texas Dealer Pleads Guilty in Antiques Investment Case
A William Spratling banquet set once owned by country singer Marty Robbins and pink diamond jewelry once owned by an alleged mob boss were enticing antiques to investors. Several ponied up money to invest in the objects in the ... (Read More)
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(Book Review)Books Received, November 2015
These are brief reviews of books recently sent to us. We have included ordering information for publishers that accept mail, phone, or online orders. For other publishers, your local bookstore or a mail-order house is the place to look.
Magnificent 19th Century Furniture: Historicism in Germany and Central Europe by Rainer ... (Read More)
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