Attendance was just under 3,000 and there was a good flow of sold objects leaving the park. "The gate was down," said Gould. Still, she said, some dealers did surprisingly well, and the sales were not in just one particular category. Record prices were established in numerous categories at Jackson's International Auctioneers during its August 13 sale of hand painted Nippon and Noritake, with total sales pushing $500,000. Rock Island Auction Company completed the second best auction in its history on August 27-29, with the three-day total of more than $5.2 million. Morphy Auctions chalked up a significant milestone over this past Labor Day weekend - its first $2 million sale. The top lot of the auction came as a large portrait of a woman, done in the style of John Singer Sargent, was offered. The life-size painting sold for $6,600. The Weaving Art Museum announces its eighth online exhibition: "The Wealth Of Kings-Masterpiece Persian Carpets" on view at weavingartmuseum.org. Some of the greatest drawings and paintings by Netherlandish artists will be in the exhibition "Rembrandt and His Time: Masterworks from the Albertina, Vienna." Hurricane Katrina hit at the beginning of the profitable fall convention season when doctors and software experts pour into town and spend generously. It wiped out what will surely be the entire fourth quarter. "Furniture seems to be selling quite well this year; lots of it is going out the front door," Marie Miller said from her vantage point near the entrance to the VADA Show. Howard Graff, who manages the show, agreed. A midweek email from M.S. Rau Antiques on Royal Street heralded the reopening of the store and a return to business as usual in the Big Easy. Cohen estimated that this year's attendance was about 30 percent better than last year, and noted that last year's attendance was also up by 30 percent from the previous year. Stair Galleries opened its new 549 Warren Street headquarters on September 14 for the preview of its English and Continental furniture and art auction. The two-day Asian arts, with gross sales of $1,005,008, accounted for nearly half of the week's sales. The top lot was a scroll painting in colored ink on paper by Qi Baishi (1864-1975), "Ch'i Pai-Shih," for $106,000. A new world record was set when Web Wilson's September Internet hardware auction sold a rare standing elk doorknob for $9,234. The top items of the day came as the vintage clothing was offered with seven lots bringing $13,420 from a New York City vintage clothing dealer. "Obsessive Drawing," currently on view at the American Folk Art Museum through March 19, explores the medium of drawing through the lines and markings made by five self-taught living artists. The presentation of "Memling's Portraits" from October 12 to December 31 provides the most comprehensive overview ever done of the artist's career in portraiture. Almost as if scripted, the rare "Norwalk" slipware plate that the Norwalk Historical Society (NHS) was unable to purchase after coming up a couple bids short at Skinner's August 14 Americana auction has finally come home. Amid colorful whirligigs fluttering in the breeze and an outdoor light show, the opening night for the Washington Connecticut Antiques Show was the place to be. Originally organized at London's Victoria and Albert Museum, the International Arts and Crafts exhibition is now stateside with a diverse collection of 300 objects as part of Indianapolis 2005, a citywide celebration. American Impressionism fared well at James D. Julia's recent Samoset auction in Coastal Maine, led by an oil on canvas summer scene by Abbott Fuller Graves that netted $201,250. New Russia's appetite for luxury combined with old Russia's deserved reputation for culture is luring the world's most enterprising dealers to participate in the second Moscow World Fine Art Fair from September 20 to 26. The Mount Bromley Antiques Show, a two-day affair, presented about 30 Americana dealers with a wide range of country antiques and decorative items. Expensive taste was the order of the day at Bonhams' recent wine auction in London with a world record price for a single bottle of champagne The Lyme Art Association in Old Lyme. Conn. will present a special exhibition, "A Place for Art: Charles A. Platt, Architect of the Lyme Art Association Gallery," October 28-December 3. At the Monaco Yacht Show attended by HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco, a charity auction of 34 wristwatches raised $2,327,000 to fund muscular dystrophy research. Though his gallery is a relatively new fixture in Manhattan, antiques dealer Charles Pollak has been tapped to exhibit at the City's 2006 Winter Antiques Show. Jenkins Show Management, has announced the dates for next year's Nashville Antiques Shows. The Tailgate Antiques Show at Fiddlers Inn and Music Valley Antiques Market will take place October 11-14. Christie's New York' October 14 auction of fine musical instruments resulted in a world record for a price for a guitar with no celebrity association, realizing $268,000. "The Imagery of Chess Revisited," on view at The Noguchi Museum reunites for the first time in 60 years some 40 works from a 1944 surrealist exhibition Apples aren't the only crop worth picking this time of year as proved at the Weston Antiques Show, which recently kicked off Vermont Antiques Week. A showcase for American country furniture, folk art and textiles, the Okemo Antiques Show brings visitors to the mountain not to ski but to shop. Stoneware was strong at the annual Ludlow, Vt. Antiques Show, featuring approximately 40 dealers with an eclectic assortment of antiques. Wrapping up Vermont Antiques Week, Manchester's antiques show offered antiques as well as dreams. The James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Penn. will present an exhibit Oct 29 devoted to Romare Bearden, who chronicled the American black experience Arts and Crafts along with an assortment of Modern and camp items were featured at a Garth's sale in Delaware, Ohio on September 9. Castle Halloween is not a haunted house serving up scares and thrills but a new museum in West Virginia that offers a rich and detailed look at this popular holiday. After a week of rain, a pent-up crowd of housebound shoppers flooded the Greenwich Antiques Show, resulting in a 20 percent increase in the gate over last year. The chief charm of the International Art + Design Fair, the wild child from the Haughton family of shows, is its unpredictability and an ongoing visual flux. Between 1896 and the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, about two million settlers poured into the Canadian prairies. This historical chapter is the focus of a new exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Civilization. The sacred art of J. Michael Walker will be on display at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music (Conn.) through November 30 before the exhibit continues on to New York. The first exhibition devoted to Andre Derain's extraordinary series of large-scale paintings of London circa 1906-1907 is on view at London's Courtauld Institute of Art.. For good design in the city October 14-16, The Modern Show in New York City was the place to be. The ADA/Historic Deerfield (Mass.) Antiques Show is steadily becoming a destination for collectors from around the country. An abstract metal sculpture by Harry Bertoia created a bidding battle at Alderfer Auction Company's September 14-15 sale before selling to the phone for $29,900. Another Rhinebeck season ended with the most recent Columbus Day weekend show at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds with good sales despite heavy rains. Clars Auction Gallery's September 11 auction was the largest of its 50-year history, bringing a record $1.6 million to the gallery. The star of the show at Nadeau's Americana auction Saturday, October 22, was a rare and stylish Wethersfield bonnet-top Queen Anne highboy. While not the top lot at Shannon's October 20 auction, a W. Herbert Dunton oil on canvas created the most interest prior to and the most conversation after the auction. Kamelot Auction's recent fall sale featured furniture by French cabinetmaker Jansen and an acquisition of 12 George Nakashima pieces. |
