Splashed with vibrantly colored glazes, on occasion decorated with unique molded motifs and sometimes fashioned into whimsical animal forms, the unmistakable Nineteenth Century redware and stoneware pottery produced in the Shenandoah Valley has long been near and dear to the hearts of collectors. While more than 300 potters are known to have produced pottery in this culturally diverse region from the late Eighteenth Century to the early Twentieth Century, one potting family stands out from the rest in terms of output and artistic merit. And from that family, one potter — namely, John Bell — stands tall among them. “The Bell Family Pottery,” an exhibition on view at the Washington County Museum of Fine Art in Hagerstown, Md., through November 2, explores the legacy of all of the different family members and the unique flair with which they created their wares. Featuring more than 100 examples of the best known examples of Bell pottery, the exhibition is curated by scholar, auction liaison, antiques dealer and pottery aficionado John C. Newcomer.
A group of rarely seen and unpublished Sixteenth through Eighteenth Century Italian drawings will be highlighted in “Drawn to Drama: Italian Works on Paper, 1500–1800,” an exhibition on view at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute October 12–January 4.
On September 17 and 18, Dawson & Nye had its first sale of the 2008-2009 season, offering two days worth of furniture, fine arts, decorative objects, jewelry, porcelain and more. Many lots soared well above estimate.
Nan Gurley’s Sturbridge Antiques Show on September 4 presented its usual outstanding selections of Americana. From furniture to early signage, from whimsical folk art to touch-me textiles, there were attractive things to look at — and buy — in every direction one ventured.
Five hundred people turned out for this debut of the newest Cord Shows event, the Putnam County Antiques Fair on September 21. Russian works topped Weschler’s American and European fine art auction on September 13, with strong international bidding pushing a couple works well above their presale estimates.
Anyone with even the slightest leaning toward "rustic" collecting should have been at Blue Mountain Lake over the September 20–21 weekend for the Adirondack Museum Antiques Show.
Rock Island Auction Company again surpassed its previous sales record at its September 6–8 auction. This premiere sale featured more than 2,700 lots of firearms, edged weapons, military artifacts and more, with total sales reaching $12.4 million.
Country Living produced its 3rd annual festival of antiques, crafts, design and food for thousands of visitors September 12–14 at the Ohio Historical Society’s Village.
The Yale Center for British Art will be the first and only US venue for a major retrospective of David Cox (1783–1859), marking the 150th anniversary of the artist’s death. The exhibit will be on view October 16–January 4.
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts will present the first major United States exhibition devoted to contemporary photography and video art by Indian artists. Opening October 26, “India: Public Places, Private Spaces — Contemporary Photography and Video Art” features more than 100 works from 28 artists exploring the lives of India’s people.
Barn Star Productions of Rhinebeck, N.Y., has changed the date for the autumn Hartford Antiques Show from September, as previously announced, to October 31–November 1, 2009.
A recently discovered jar by potter John Alexander Lowe set a record for Tennessee pottery at the September 27 Case Antiques’ auction.
Retired US Navy Commander Charles W. Clark, 71, died Saturday, September 20. He was the co-owner, with his wife Laurie, of Compass Rose Antiques in Stratham, N.H.
The Corning Museum of Glass will present an in-depth survey of the work of internationally acclaimed Czech artist František Vízner. Opening November 1, “Masters of Studio Glass: František Vízner” traces the evolution of the artist’s work over 40 years, from his early designs for commercial production to his studio explorations of the modern glass vessel.
On October 6 and 7, an assemblage of rare antique guns brought extraordinary results at James D. Julia Inc’s firearms auction. A Colt Walker pistol, made for use in the Mexican War, and considered to be one of the finest examples in existence, sold for $920,000. Nadeau’s Auction saw heavy presale attention for an Eighteenth Century Chippendale chair translate into a soaring auction performance this past Saturday, October 11. Painted and sculpted portraits have been around for a very long time, and they remained generally realistic and flattering through numerous stylistic and cultural changes. A major shift came early in the Twentieth Century with the onset of the avant-garde in Paris, with their new ideas about how art should be created. While traditional likenesses continued to be created in the French capital, bold, energetic modernists — Fauvists, Cubists, Dadaists, Surrealists, Expressionists — began to produce portraits the likes of which had never been seen before. The cult of personality that fueled the careers of Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Foujita and others required new forms of human portraiture. The avant-garde responded with an outpouring of modernist work that changed forever how we look at likenesses. This fascinating chapter in art history is documented in “Paris Portraits: Artists, Friends and Lovers,” on view at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Conn., through January 4. The first museum show of this “group portrait” of the Parisian avant-garde, it comprises some 50 works, some rarely seen.
Philip Zea, president of Historic Deerfield, always looks forward to the annual ADA Historic Deerfield Antiques Show, and this year it was extra special for him. It was announced on Sunday to the ADA members doing the show that Philip Zea was the winner of the organization’s Award of Merit that is presented annually during the run of the Philadelphia Antiques Show.
The Princeton Fine Antiques and Fine Arts Show boasted a fine gate from the get-go with a strong preview crowd September 26 and a “better than last year” attendance over the following two days.
Seascapes, ships and scenery by Vernon H. Coleman go on view at the Cape Cod Museum Of Art from October 18 to January 11. There will be a gallery talk with the artist’s son, Vernon E. Coleman, on Thursday, October 30, at 11 am.
The inaugural edition of what is anticipated to become a popular annual event, The Old York Antique Show, was conducted on a perfectly crisp autumn-like weekend, September 11–13.
Paul Madden, an antiques dealer who specialized in scrimshaw and maritime antiques, died on September 30, following a brief hospitalization in Boston. As Alderfer Auction began its sale on September 11, among the diverse group of buyers crowding the auction was a pair of gentlemen on a quest to complete a 50-year collection.
At this time of year, visitors to this small river town can bask in a kaleidoscope of color, ranging from bearing witness to the brilliant foliage covering the region’s mountainsides to the retrospective of prints by the eminent “Color Field” painter Jules Olitski (1922–2007) at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center.
Antique, art and jewelry collectors had the opportunity to bid on unique finds at Dallas Auction Gallery’s September 10 auction, and competitive bidding throughout the evening generated prices well above estimated highs, as well as some exciting moments.
The top lot at Direct Auction Galleries’ September 9 sale was a lively painting by Eugenio Zampighi that attained $57,500.
Two queens of France will return to Florence after centuries away. “Women in Power, Caterina and Maria de’ Medici” tells the story of one of the ways in which the two Medici queens of France used powerful images to legitimize their claims to rule over warring families and factions at a time when women in power were rare. The exhibit opens October 24 at the Palazzo Strozzi, where it will remain until February 8.
Buying and selling banks. So what’s new? It is being done frequently on a very large scale, and it was also done on Saturday, October 4, in Timonium, on a much smaller scale, say, 342 banks for $1.33 million at an RSL Auction event.
Attendance at the Springfield Antiques Show and Flea Market Extravaganza set a new record, according to Steve Jenkins, owner and president of Jenkins Show Management. Billed as the largest show in the country, more than 20,000 were admitted over the three days, September 19–21.
“Thirty country dealers featuring antiques in a country setting” is the motto for the Bromley Mountain Antiques Show taking place in the lodge at this popular ski area over the weekend of October 4. Living up to its slogan, promoters Jim and Elisabeth Dunn use every nook and cranny of this rambling facility as they pack the dealers into cozy confines. As the preview up the street at Okemo Mountain winds down, the focus of the crowds attending Vermont Antiques Week turns toward the Main Street of this small ski town. Ludlow’s Black River High School is located at the far end of Main Street and it houses the Ludlow Antiques Show, now running for the 44th year. The 24th showing of Antiques in Vermont filled Riley Rink with select merchandise and prospective customers for a one-day show Sunday, October 5. For the vast majority of Vermont Antiques Week shoppers, the popular Okemo Antiques Show, October 3, is the second stop on the circuit of the five shows presented over the weekend. For the past 50 years, the Weston Antiques Show has been charming its clientele, both the local supporters and those who travel from afar to attend the prestigious event. Winterthur Museum & Country Estate recently acquired a rare and exceptional four-part fraktur that is considered to be one of the finest examples of the colorful Pennsylvania German folk art form.
Of the seminal Arts and Crafts exhibitions of the past few decades, none more accurately reflects what it was like to have lived during the period than the recently opened exhibition “At Home with Gustav Stickley” at the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford, Conn. If there is a clue to be shed as to why, it is that the majority of the properties in the exhibit, which runs through January 4, 2009, are on loan from the “lived-in” collection of Stephen Gray and practically still warm from use. Gray has been building his collection since the mid-1970s, when he began furnishing an Eighteenth Century farmhouse in Columbia County, N.Y. Serendipitously, just about the time Gray believed the collection “had evolved to the epitome of where I wanted it to be,” two curators from the Wadsworth Athenaeum toured the house and saw the potential for exhibition in Gray’s collection. Fortunately, Gray was in a similar frame of mind.
Family has long been the single most significant element of the American social structure. From November 1 through December 31, the Bennington Museum examines the American family through historic art and artifacts that provide insight into how relatives were commemorated and remembered long ago.
Auction platform eBay is banning the sale of ivory products, including antique ivory. The policy will go into effect in December and will be enforced starting in January, eBay Inc said October 20.
The interested and the curious collectively held their breath prior to the two-day sale on October 4 and 5 at Grogan and Company where bidding was robust.
Around 40 exhibitors transformed the Park Avenue Armory into a dazzling global village of high-end art, antiques, jewelry, pottery and furnishings at Brian and Anna Haughton’s celebrated International Art + Design Fair when the show opened October 2.
Kaminski Auctions’ fall fine art and estates auction September 20–21 was a success with many items selling above estimate.
The Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art at St Petersburg College will host an exhibition of 70 color woodblock prints from the collection of Two Red Roses Foundation, opening November 2.
The once-thriving communities of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae, buried by a mammoth volcano eruption in 79 AD and since excavated to reveal much about the daily lives, occupations, pastimes and art tastes of their people, surely rank among the wonders of the world. Today, some 2.5 million visitors annually walk the long, narrow stone streets of Pompeii, lined with remains of temples, shops, taverns, markets, a forum, an amphitheater, bordellos and homes of the rich and humble. Capacious villas, open for inspection, reveal frescoes, mosaics and other decorative artwork in varying stages of preservation. Many of the best works are now in museums in Naples and elsewhere. Fruits of decades of excavation and research are displayed in a fascinating exhibition, “Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture Around the Bay of Naples,” on view at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., through March 22. Featured are 150 exquisite treasures; paintings, sculptures, mosaics and decorative arts, all rescued from the ruins of villas in Pompeii and neighboring communities.
Pook & Pook played to a full house on Friday and Saturday, October 24 and 25, selling the Americana collection of Richard and Rosemarie Machmer. “The good news is that we have the goods,” stated Gene Shannon 24 hours prior to the start of Shannon’s fine art auction on October 23. American art dominated throughout the $2.7 million evening sale, with a Jasper Cropsey luminous landscape leading the way. A dozen auction record prices were achieved for works of American art at Swann Galleries’ September auctions of works of art on paper.
From an ancient Roman snake bracelet to a ceremonial Chinese headdress to a Tiffany & Co. glittering necklace, “Bedazzled: 5,000 Years of Jewelry” highlights more than 200 pieces from the Walters Art Museum through January 4.
Rifle Hall Antiques Show, the first of all the antiques event in this small Texas village to debut in 1968, was again a success September 30 through October 4, under the direction of Ralph Willard, the owner since last October. For just one week twice each year this tiny Texas town’s population swells from 77 to tens of thousands as the Original Round Top Antiques Fair draws shoppers, collectors, dealers and decorators from throughout the country. The Marburger Farm Antiques Show was created as a tailgate to other activities in Round Top and adjoining towns but has become one of the largest single shows in the twice yearly festival for antiques lovers and sellers.
Shelby Antiques Show’s edition on October 1–4 at Harmony Hall, followed the same pattern it has had for 25 years now, making it one of the longest running shows in the Round Top Antiques Week. |
