Seventy-two extraordinary historic maps and an atlas of early America were selected for their rarity, historical importance and aesthetic beauty. Ursus Prints exhibits a collection of Nineteenth Century lithographs and engravings of St Petersburg, Russia, in honor of the city's 300th anniversary of its official founding this year. With a total of 22 works in the collection, the Milwaukee Art Museum is a leading repository for O'Keeffe's work, the fourth largest of its kind of any museum in the United States and the only dedicated O'Keeffe Gallery east of Santa Fe. Among the clients Hastings House has sold to over the years are Vladamir Horowitz, Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall, Mrs Henry C. Ford, Dustin Hoffman, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, Morley Safer, Mario Buatta, Andy Warhol, and Sister Parish and Albert Hadley. The Hamptons, home to entertainment personalities such as Steven Spielberg and Renee Zellweger, is also home to the very wealthy Wall Street types. And that is good news for antiques. In its fifth year, Summer Magic remains a significant entry in the calendar leading up to New Hampshire's early August frenzy, and is, by all accounts, a popular, well-attended event. John Pappas commented that as soon as the ads broke the phones started ringing, with calls coming in from all around the country requesting images and reserving phone lines. The rare and extremely well-executed work had been found in a closet in a North Shore home and, ironically, was left behind after another auction company had been through. The circa 1710-30 table from Salem, Mass., in a remarkable state of preservation, went to New York dealer Leigh Keno for $464,500 including premium. This year marks the centennial of the death of the American-born expatriate painter, printmaker, designer, wit, dandy, champion of aestheticism and forerunner of Modernism. The first American museum exhibit dedicated to the innovative work of Korean contemporary ceramic artist Yoon Kwang-cho will be on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. "The Course of Empire: Thomas Cole and the Hudson River School Landscape Tradition," featuring selections from the New-York Historical Society, opens at the New York State Museum on August 23. Colonial Williamsburg will display a selection of 16 bold objects of Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century American cast-iron - from stovetop figures to fire backs - at the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum. Attendance reached 401,000 for the exhibition, which was on view for a limited run of less than ten weeks. Nearly two-thirds of the visitors traveled from outside the five boroughs. Is there room for another show during Antiques Week in New Hampshire? If you ask that question of John and Tina Bruno, they will give you a very definite "yes." The company said, however, that revenues over the same period decreased only a fraction of that amount by $4.9 million, or four percent, primarily as a result of the buyer's premium rate increase that became effective in January 2003, as well as improved consignor commission rates. With six phone lines vying for ownership, bidding opened at $5,000. The competition quickly escalated to the selling price of $24,750. The successful buyer, in the gallery, was a collector/dealer from Lancaster County, Penn. Christie's New York's sale of maritime art offered 196 lots, of which 134 sold for a total of $1,091,095, including buyer's premium. In three nonstop days at the gavel, auctioneer Ron Bourgeault demonstrated once more that he could reach beyond his core audience of Americana collectors and dealers to generate top bids for objects as diverse as gold coins and glass paperweights. Baseball is recognized as the national pastime, but for some artists and collectors the game has become a driving passion as well. This year, the American Folk Art Museum steps up to the plate with a comprehensive exhibition of more than 100 pieces of folk art. Homewood House Museum will examine ceramics used by the historic house's founding family, the Carrolls, in an exhibition opening September 5. Ravens and black cats emerge from the shadows at The Baltimore Museum of Art through Illustrations by Manet, Matisse, Gauguin and others. The university's collection is among the most distinguished and yet least known in the United States. In an effort to share many of these gems with the public, an exhibition of 64 paintings and sculptures will be presented at the Fogg Art Museum through February 22. So you had four lousy years, Frank, but you certainly have made up for them in grand style. People would kill to be first in the door at the New Hampshire Antiques Show, and that is only a mild exaggeration. No longer the new kid on the block, the show's 111 exhibitors had plenty to celebrate. Linda Turner bills the show as a cornerstone of Antiques Week in New Hampshire and this year strengthened that position with the largest gate ever and some dealers with record sales. That is what it is all about. "We had just about the same gate as last year," Tina Bruno said, "and there really are people we call be-backers." We start off with our New Hampshire Antiques Week coverage with Nan Gurley, who can take credit for getting this entertaining and buying frenzy off to a grand start. An Iowa auction featuring the lifetime collection of postcards and ephemera from the estate of Abe Samuels drew 287 registered bidders representing 39 states and five countries. No items went unsold among more than 300 lots of Kennedy memorabilia at Hantman's - bidders from Ireland, France, Australia, Israel, Germany, Mexico and Malaysia participated. Bidding was lively, sparking from the telephone to the desk to the room, despite the humidity, with a sale total in the high estimate range of $802,348. Auctioneer Ron Bourgeault called the work "as fine as any marine painting by a Westerner of this [time]," and further stated that it is "considered to be one of the most important trade paintings of the period." In pursuit of his goal to be accepted as a "fine artist," around 1900 Remington began a series of deeply personal canvases that most interestingly explored the technical and aesthetic challenges of creating night scenes. Pieces from the Brown Brothers Harriman collection of furniture, ranging from early American and Federal to Hepplewhite, find a home among the important architectural details of the old Seaman's Bank Headquarters. Paul Davis, a Maine antiques show promoter best known for his Festival at Union for the last 20 years, has begun a limited number of upscale indoor shows. "After the unbearable heat last year we knew that the show would not survive if we did not do something, so we bit the bullet and ordered-up some air-conditioning," Trish McElroy told us. "Joseph Seigenthaler: Animated, Recent 3-D Computer Works" will be shown to October 4 at Carl Hammer Gallery. An exhibition of Chinese bronzes, which demonstrates why the Chinese are called the "masters of the mold," will run September 19 to November 1 at E&J Frankel, Ltd. The New Bedford Whaling Museum, a fascinating interpreter of the history of global whaling, is celebrating its centennial this year with a grand exhibition of the works of native son William Bradford. A Cahoon-like painting by Elizabeth Mumford of mermaids, "Mermaids Just Want to Have Fun," in a Woodman shellwork frame, fetched $9,200 from a Cape buyer. Also notable at Fontaine's was Tiffany lighting and the highly anticipated art glass collection of Greg Giampapa, from which many of the lots routinely tripled presale estimates. Called a "masterpiece" by Julia's American antiques specialist Bill Gage, the server was also described as "one of Roux's finest works." A grand exhibition, showcasing all facets of Beckmann's art, is currently on view at the Museum of Modern Art. |
