A blander Warhol of Marilyn
Monroe brought $41,800 at artnet.com.
Recent
Internet Auctions Prove Image Is Everything
Warhol's Icons
Icon: An image, figure or representation. A word that comes to
mind when discussing Andy Warhol.
But never mind that those folks now would rather order Thai
take-out than open a can of their favorite childhood treat;
images of it are fetching record prices.
Warhol's portfolio of 10 screenprints, "Campbell's Soup I"
(1968), brought $64,750 at artnet.com's online Warhol auction
that closed August 31. The set, one of an edition of 250, went to
a bidder called "harrypotter" from New York. The previous high
price for this set was $62,084 at Sotheby's London in June 1989.
Since then, the most recent Soup I set sold for $43,700 at
Sotheby's New York last November. One other soup can image, the
single print "Green Pea" from a Campbell Soup I set, brought
$4,620, but the rest of the top 10 lots depicted human icons.
Two "Marilyn Monroe" color silkscreens drew widely disparate
prices. The difference? The dark, somber 36-by-36-inch 1967
print, one of an edition of 250, brought $41,800, while a
smaller, 12-by-12-inch, brighter (red background and eye shadow)
example cost buyer Gregory McNutt of California $6,930.
Twentieth Century Icons
For those interested in Twentieth Century icons in the decorative
arts category, the auction site icon20.com, which bills itself as
"a complete resource for Twentieth Century decorative arts," will
begin holding monthly online auctions in October with a glass
sale, says Director of Content Alan Rosenberg.
"We're starting a regular schedule of online auctions," he said,
in addition to the set-price items sold on the site and the
Icon20 Gallery at 515 W. 20th Street in New York.
The glass auction runs October 13 to 22, followed by mid-century
furniture November 3, Art Nouveau ceramics November 24 and
closing out 2000 with an all-Lalique sale.
Glass was chosen for the first auction for several reasons. "It's
something that I like and I put that particular auction
together," Rosenberg admits. "We had a collection available to us
- the core of the sale is from one owner and we built it up
around that."
Also at artnet.com, a bright Warhol image of Marilyn Monroe
sold for $6,930.
The sale will be "very strong on Italian and Scandinavian
mid-century glass," he says, noting that Italian pieces are more
"exuberant" than Scandinavian, but he cautions neophytes to avoid
"tourist" pieces that are "too exuberant."
In terms of interest, "it seems that glass is strong, but Italian
glass in particular has picked up in the past year. We have some
very good dealers. There happens to be a good supply of pretty
good things, and it's a good area for collectors who are just
starting out."
Also, for a site offering its first Internet auction, glass is a
good choice for several reasons: "It's easy to ship ... What's
difficult on the Internet is furniture and large things,"
Rosenberg says. Also, "It's a known commodity instead of an
obscure thing."
In addition to its online gallery and now auctions, icon20.com
offers a wealth of decorative arts learning resources such as a
museum directory, an encyclopedia and an online book store.
Musical Icons
What about an icon that symbolizes music for the masses? The
precursor to the radios and LPs that every middle-class family
gathered around in post-war America was the music box, the more
elaborate of which are becoming prized collectibles.
Two such pieces brought prices upward of $20,000 at ewolfs.com's
July music auction: A Wurlitzer in a "colorful case housing an
electric motor driving a seven-inch paper roll that controls
drums and a pipe organ, producing a playful sound" garnered
$25,300; and a Swiss "Langdroff Six-Tune Music Box with organ on
stand" brought $21,275.
The former, from an American maker, plays carnival-like music.
The latter, housed in an inlaid box, includes a storage drawer to
house three more of the paper rolls that contain the music.
"Any time you have extra cylinders and they come in and out and
you can switch the cylinders, that's really a top-of-the-line
model," says ewolfs' assistant director Bridget McWilliams,
noting that this type of box usually plays versions of Beethoven
or "popular tunes of the day." These two specimens, as well as
three made by the Regina Company of Ranway, N.J., were from the
collection of Bill Kap of Cleveland.
A Wurlitzer standing music box reached $25,300 at ewolfs.com.
Generally, such items were manufactured from 1880 to 1920. "The
earlier the box, the better the cylinder was, and that's
desirable," McWilliams says. "Also, the earlier boxes were less
adorned" and were better-constructed.
The Langdroff in particular generated some "nice activity" at the
end of the online bidding, notes ewolfs' Decorative Arts
Specialist, Mitch Sotka, who organized this music auction. The
couple who won the piece was "excited to see it on the Web site
and had made several calls about it," he says.
With its elaborate design, "It would have graced a very
impressive home" when first sold, Sotka adds. "Music boxes in
general are common, but the more elaborate music boxes are more
prized. Quality automatons [with moving figures] are even more
prized."
In addition to music boxes, quite a few violins and even a rare
German Bosendorfer baby grand piano were offered in this sale,
and many of the violins were snapped up for less than their
estimated prices. According to Sotka, ewolfs is just breaking
into the string instrument market, where the main competition
comes from London. He hopes the convenience of ewolfs' Cleveland
location will draw sellers to future music auctions, which the
auction house plans to hold biennially.
