In the early Twentieth Century, Russia did not let any old curator archive the Russian jewels. It fell to what would now be known as the Ministry of Finance, then The People’s Commissariat of Finances, to document the crowns, rings and necklaces that rulers from the Sixteenth through Twentieth Centuries had acquired. That underlies a fact about high-priced royal jewelry: they are assets. So in 1925, Aleksander Evgenevich Fersman put together a four-part archive folio with text and images of some of the crown’s most precious jewels, including pieces from Catherine the Great and Romanov Emperor Alexander III. While the jewels inside are one of a kind, the folio itself is greatly numbered, with less than 20 known. It approaches the block at Nest Egg, joining other top lots from around the country in this week’s picks.
NEST EGG
Sale Date: December 29, 2018
Lot 211
Russia’s Treasure Of Diamonds And Precious Stones
By editor Aleksander Evgenevich Fersman, Moscow: The People’s Commissariat of Finances, 1925. In four parts with 100 collotype photos with tissue overlays, each part with accompanying text.
Estimate: $10/20,000
WILLIAM J. JENACK
Sale Date: December 30, 2018
Lot 114
Lot (3) Antique Leather Pommel Horses
Circa 1900, 25 inches high.
Estimate: $500-800
NADEAU’S
Sale Date: January 1, 2019
Lot 400
Paul de Lamerie (1688–1751) Important Silver Tankard
Having finial with lizard on punch work grape leaves and grapes over scrolling foliage and snail under thumbpiece, handle has shell over grapes and leaves, all on ribbed body on round-footed base with coat of arms. Circa 1744, 11 inches high, 52.5 ozt. A deaccession by the Yale University Art Gallery to benefit future acquisitions.
Estimate: $40/60,000
COPAKE
Sale Date: January 1, 2019
Lot 109
Folk Art Native American With Dog Trade Sign
Painted wood with iron surround. Similar to example in Lititz, Penn., Historical Society, 55 by 42 by 3 inches.
Estimate: $3/4,000
SOULIS AUCTIONS
Sale Date: December 28, 2018
Lot 10
Large Amphora Bear and Bull Battle Grouping
The naturalistic plinth-like base with bas-relief scenes of forest view and stalking Native American, the depiction of an archaic blood sport between bear and bull played out in the gold and cream glazed figures, impressed marks of Amphora, Austria, Crown and numerals 1445 on the underside of the base. Measures 20 by 15½ by 8 inches.
Estimate: $500-1,000
THOS CORNELL
Sale Date: January 1, 2019
Lot 8
“Lucky Lipshitz” Wood Bi-Plane
Estimate: $200-400
SCHMIDT’S ANTIQUES INC
Sale Date: January 1, 2019
Lot 31
Alexander Calder, “Cartes”
Gouache on Canson paper, signed and dated, 1971, Property of a Franklin, Mich., collector, originally purchased from Eugene Schuster, The London Fine Arts Group, Detroit, in the 1970s.
Estimate: $8/12,000
IROQUOIS AUCTIONS
Sale Date: January 1, 2019
Lot 149
Barbara Stickley Archive
Early 1900s, more than 1,500 letters from Barbara Stickley, Gustave Stickley’s daughter, to and from Judge Ben Wiles of Skaneateles, N.Y.
Estimate: $500-1,000
MID-HUDSON AUCTION GALLERIES
Sale Date: January 1, 2019
Lot 82
Nineteenth Century Portuguese Filigreed Box
Sterling silver, with work at top, bottom and sides, 2 by 5 by 5 inches.
Estimate: $400-600
