Shelves well stocked with ceramics, sculpture and books, and walls hung to the ceilings with paintings, drawings, prints and photographs, testify to the many interests of Peter Warren — traveler, collector and antiques dealer. Jeremy L. Banta, an important and much-loved collector of American folk art and folk pottery, died October 31 after a prolonged and heroic struggle with cancer.
Jean B. Hertan was a pioneer who helped develop the internationally known and respected Brimfield Antique Shows. Wearing her signature hats, she was known as “The Lady in the White Hat." Frank C. Jensen, 71, an antique furniture restoration and woodworking expert, died October 28 at his home here after a battle with cancer. He was a longtime resident of Woodbury, Conn., before moving to Corea in 2000. Long regarded as a repository for prime American antiques, The Fall Hartford Antiques Show proved once again to be true to its nature. Marking 31 years in this small farming center, with antiques shows every week and extravaganzas three times each year, Renningers conducted its Antiques Extravaganza most recently on September 28–30. There were several major changes this year concerning the Bedford Historical Society Antiques Show, but, “We were pleasantly surprised with everything,” Lynn Ryan, executive director said. On a fine September day, there was only place to be for the biggest Shaker dealers in the country. They could either be found in Jon Lee’s upstate auction house or on the phone to the gallery, bidding on a number of special Shaker pieces. Weschler’s Jewelry, Coins and Watches auction started the fall season on a high note when a silver and rock crystal demiparure arrived on the auction block.
A hotly contested Berks County dower chest with “black unicorn” decoration brought out buyers of Pennsylvania German material at Skinner on Sunday, November 5. Together with its single-owner sale of the Tracey collection on November 4, the Boston auction house grossed $4,010,238, its second highest tally for an Americana sale. Americana Week promoters have begun releasing their rosters for the 2007 shows, which get underway on Tuesday, January 16, and continue through Sunday, January 28. Vintage fashions, traditional trees, family celebrations and Christmas wrapping customs will delight visitors to “Yuletide at Winterthur: Wrapped in Holiday Style” on view from November 18 to January 7 at Winterthur Museum & Country Estate.
A good assortment of fresh-to-the-market Americana consigned from numerous local homes and estates captured the attention of collectors and dealers from throughout the country at Nadeau’s annual Fall Auction.
“We became one of several victims in a most unusual chain of circumstances,” stated Gene Shannon of Shannon’s Fine Art Auctioneers, in regard to a Henri Fantin-Latour painting that was sold by the auction house and ultimately turned out to be stolen. The “lost Mackey decoys,” a selection of top-shelf decoys and shorebirds that were cherry-picked from the Mackey collection by a relative prior to the collection being sold by Richard Bourne more than three decades ago, created quite a stir and established record prices during Guyette and Schmidt’s November 8 and 9 auction.
Manhattan is perennially short of venues for antiques shows, let alone venues with plenty of foot traffic. So when several of his regular dealers asked Beverly Hills, Calif.-based promoter Marty Ellis to consider creating a New York City event, he obliged. Like swing and modern jazz, Twentieth Century design is hot again. And that is music to the ears of the 86 international dealers lucky enough to find themselves in The Modern Show that ran from October 13 to 15.
Atlantique City, “The Big One,” as it is known, is still big. With more than 500 dealers set up on the ten acres of floor space at the Atlantic City Convention Center October 13–15, buyers come from far and wide to shop the show that truly “has it all.” The fourth year of B&D Johnson?s Greenwich Fall Antiques Show at the Greenwich Civic Center ? in promoter Derek Johnson?s words, ?the best looking show ever? ? was wrapped around a halcyon fall foliage weekend, October 14 and 15.
Celebrating the first year in his stylish new location on the main drag of this charming and lively antiques and art oriented town, Colin Stair, of Stair Galleries, conducted what the auctioneer termed his “best auction ever.” Stanton Auction’s October 14 sale featuring early American furniture, fine art and folk art was strong in many areas, but none more so than with a selection of important weathervanes. On September 16–17, Craftsman Auctions offered a comprehensive 1,100 lot auction of Arts and Crafts furniture, pottery, tile, lamps, art and accessories. The sale yielded $3.25 million from approximately 300 registered bidders and 500 on eBay. The New-York Historical Society (N-YHS) will open “New York Divided: Slavery and the Civil War,” the final exhibition in its groundbreaking series on slavery and its impact on the people, landscape, institutions and economy of New York, on November 17.
Clars Auction Gallery ended its 2005-06 season on a golden note with the sale of a gold quartz and gold knobbed ebony walking cane, dated 1871, that set a new record at $49,725. Beginning Saturday, November 18, the Stamford Museum & Nature Center (SM&NC) will present the exhibition “Teresa Barkley: A Life in Quilts,” showcasing a series from the artist’s more than 100 one-of-a kind creations executed over the past 35 years. The folk artist Mose Tolliver, whose self-portraits and vivid images of nature, people, animals and the female form were done with humble house paint and made him one of the leaders of the modern-day outsider art movement, died here on October 30. He was in his 80s. The Center for Photography at Woodstock is presenting two gallery exhibitions, “Passionate Attitudes” and “German Herrera: Between Here & Now,” through December 23.
The Nineteenth Century was the age of self-invention. Versatile Americans of exceptional ambition and intellect sought their fortunes wherever they could, the country’s vast frontier providing fertile opportunity. On November 3–4 Jim Burk and Barry Cohen combined their antiques dealers into one show under one roof and were encouraged by a 45 percent increase in the gate over November 2005. The week was about as hot as Texas gets in October but buyers came to the Marburger Farm Antiques Show and hauled off the booty. The Manhattan Vintage Show has been a tradition at the Metropolitan Pavilion for the past 17 years. For the past four years this tri-annual event has seen each show outdo the last and this October 13 and 14 saw the attendance up 20 percent from a year ago. The playful children and their cart are returning to the Toledo Museum of Art.
Responsibility for the Seventh Regiment Armory was formally transferred to the Seventh Regiment Conservancy on November 14, clearing the way for long delayed and much needed repairs to the Tiffany-decorated landmark at Park Avenue and 66th Street. Based on the more than 400 people who gathered in the ballroom of the Inn at Reading September 30 and October 1, it seemed nearly everyone who was anyone in the doll business turned out to bid in Noel Barrett and Andy Ourant’s auction of antiques from the Mary Merritt Doll & Toy Museum. Knowledgeable bidders sat up straighter in their seats when a selection of Chinese jade from the collection that had been gathered by the Berwind family came up for auction at Skinner’s October 21 Asian arts sale, the auction house’s best Asian arts sale ever. Tradewinds Antiques held its semiannual all-cane live auction at the Salem Waterfront Hotel on September 30. From November 24 to March 4, the Van Gogh Museum will present “Vincent van Gogh and Expressionism,” jointly organized with the Neue Galerie in New York City. This is the first show to highlight the impact of van Gogh (1853–1890) on German and Austrian Expressionists.
Sigmund R. Balka has gifted the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) with an encyclopedic survey of the major European and American Jewish artist and themes in Jewish art during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. James D. Julia’s October 9–11 firearms auction grossed $8.3 million with auctioneer James D. Julia attributing the success to several factors: pedigree, diversity, quality and rarity. When construction and ship sailing schedules conspired to complicated show dates for Stella Mgmt Co’s fall Triple Pier Antiques Show — a mammoth event that requires two weekends and 150,000 square feet to accommodate more than 1,000 exhibitors — Pier 94 threw out a lifeline. A Boston or Salem Federal candlestand with stunning form and ablaze with sunburst inlay was the choice of the choice when it sold for $166,750 at CRN Auctions’ November 19 sale. A coveted Halloween Girl doorstop set a new world’s record of $72,800 at Bertoia Auctions’ November 17–19 sale, casting no doubt to its unprecedented condition or apparent rarity. On November 17, David Rago Auctions established a new world record price of $216,000 for a Lalique perfume bottle, or any perfume presentation. Reflections — it has been over a year ago or so and I have finally found time to reflect about a legend in his own time. With merchandise as enchanting and intriguing as are the images conjured up by the name of this unique show, Treasures From the Silk Road to The Santa Fe Trail, a Caskey-Lees event, opened to a receptive crowd with a gala preview on Thursday evening, October 26. If you happened to be in the market for an antique tall case clock, then you should have been in Wilmington for the 43rd annual Delaware Antiques Show that previewed Thursday evening, November 9, and continued for the next three days.
Anchoring the popular New York Fine Art Print Week in and around Manhattan between October 30 and November 5, is the highly revered Print Fair, a show that is made up of the cream-of-the-crop dealers belonging to the International Fine Print Dealers Association.
Of Brian and Anna Haughton’s five shows in New York and London, it is their flagship fair, the International Fine Art and Antique Dealers Show in New York, that hews most closely to the couple’s mission of creating unsurpassed showcases for the world’s most exceptional objects. Buyers found the offerings appealing at Shannon’s October 26 auction of Fine American and European Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture. The sale achieved $4.3 million. More than 1,000 lots of Majolica, Minton, Wedgwood and Palissy wares drew buyers from around the country to Michael Strawser’s Majolica Auction at the Alderfer Auction Company facility over the weekend of October 27 and 28. An eBay Live computer system crash that lasted for four hours on October 21 stymied online bidders competing in 30+ auctions around the world, leaving several auctioneers with a bad taste in their mouth for online bidding. The RISD Museum of Art will present “Urban America, 1930–1970,” an exhibition of works that reflect cultural shifts in urban centers, Friday, December 1, to February 25. Opening December 2, “New Acquisitions 2006” highlights works of art acquired by the Portland Museum of Art since late 2005, celebrating the gifts, purchases and bequests that have enriched the museum’s collection during that time. “Athens-Sparta: From the 8th to the 5th Centuries BC,” an exhibition of rare archeological artifacts and works of art from Athens and Sparta, Greece, will open at the Onassis Cultural Center on December 6. The exhibition will be on view through May 12. While the merchandise was not exactly falling out of the sky, as it appeared to be on the witty cover of Millea Bros Fall Estates Auction catalog, there were plenty of great items that landed in the exhibition area for their two-day sale October 27 and 29. |
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