Metals were major in this week’s auction round-up. Bidders were vying for metals of all varieties from a found iron skeleton that achieved $4,600 for Public Sale to a Towle sterling silver flatware set earning $3,680 for Tom Hall to a gilt coin cuff bracelet bringing $2,596 at MCS. For these stories and more, keep reading!
Cat Plus Spider Equals World Record For Heritage
DALLAS — Al Milgrom’s original art for the cover of The Amazing Spider-Man No. 194, the issue that introduced Black Cat, sold for $1,020,000. The result led Heritage’s Comics & Comic Art Signature Auction January 9-12 and set a record for the most valuable Spider-Man cover sold at auction. Not only is this cover a striking piece of artwork and an important milestone in Spider-Man history, but it also offers a rare opportunity to appreciate the illustration like never before — including a rarely seen glimpse at Milgrom’s impressive and stunning detail work. For information, www.ha.com or 214-528-3500.
Aubusson Tapestry Is At Home At Doyle
NEW YORK CITY — Leading the January 8 Doyle At Home auction was a Nineteenth Century French Aubusson tapestry that depicted a wooded landscape with two birds in a pond and structures and hills in the distance. Measuring 6 feet 7 inches by 8 feet 1 inch, the example had been estimated at $2/3,000 but interest pushed it to $10,889. It was the highest price in the 380-lot sale. For information, www.doyle.com or 212-427-2730.
Eldred Sets Record For Nixon Still Life
EAST DENNIS, MASS. — Approximately 750 lots were on offer in Eldred’s Cabin Fever auction that took place over three days, January 8-10. Among the highlights was Kathleen Irene Nixon’s (British, 1895-1988) “Magpies and Hydrangeas,” a watercolor and gouache on paper composition that Eldred’s Cheryl Stewart called a “staff favorite,” which realized $3,200 and a price they believed to be a record price for the artist. Consigned to sale through the firm’s Mystic, Conn., office, the 20½-by-20½-inch work saw competition from several online and phone bidders and an absentee bidder. In the end, an online bidder from Massachusetts emerged victorious. For information, 508-385-3116 or www.eldreds.com.
Towle Flatware Sets Pretty Table At Tom Hall
SCHNECKSVILLE, PENN. — Tom Hall Auctions’ evening auction on January 9 headlined magnificent bronzes, elegant lamps, vintage slot machines, exquisite artwork by Peter Max and Fernand Léger, authentic Japanese kimonos and Asian and African décor. Bringing the most of the 213 lots on offer at $3,680 was a 106-piece sterling silver flatware service that had been made in 1963, in the Charlamagne pattern, by Towle. For information, 610-799-0808 or www.tomhallauctions.com.
Francois Linke Steinway Plays A Tune To Top At Roland
GLEN COVE, N.Y. — On January 11, Roland NY offered 715 lots in its January 2025 Estates Sale, the firm’s first sale of the new year. The top lot was a Francois Linke Steinway & Sons gilt bronze baby grand piano, which played to $54,400. Accompanied by its matching stool, the 1917 piano was a rosewood and mahogany veneered bombé shaped example, labeled as “important” by the auction catalog. With provenance to an old Westbury, Long Island, collection, the piano sold for just within its $50/80,000 estimate. For information, 212-260-2000 or www.rolandauctions.com.
Chanel Overlapping Coin Bracelet Cuffs Win At MCS
ISLAND PARK, N.Y. — MCS Antique and Estate Buyers rang in the new year with its 156-lot Vintage Givenchy Fashion Pics, Couture Jewels sale on January 2. In addition to designer bags and jewelry by Chanel, Dior and Yves Saint Laurent, the sale featured a collection of original illustrations the collector received from Hubert de Givenchy in Paris in the 1980s. Leading the sale at a lustrous $2,596, was a 1993 Chanel Cruise overlapping coin wide cuff bracelet. The piece had an “amazing gilt finish and details” and was “very, very heavy,” weighing in at 4 ounces, according to catalog notes. For information, 516-205-4545 or www.mcsestatebuyers.com.
Outsider Art Skeleton Rattles Estimates At Public Sale
HUDSON, N.Y. — A large metal outsider folk art skeleton sculpture stood tall above its $250/500 estimate in Public Sale’s 578-lot January 11 Black & White Ball auction. The skeleton, made from found and cut iron, was painted white and measured 83 inches high by 96 inches wide with its limbs fully extended. In good condition throughout with some minor rust adding texture, the hotly contested sculpture finally rested at $4,600 — more than nine times its high estimate. For information, www.publicsale.com or 518-966-7253.
Aboriginal Portfolio Lithograph Stars At Trillium
FRANKLIN, TENN. — Trillium Rare Prints’ January 4 auction of antique prints and rare books featured 150 lots and was led at $4,494 by an original hand-colored lithograph by James Otto Lewis (1799-1858) that depicted the Great Treaty held at Prairie du Chien, in September 1825. The 10¾-by-17-1/8-inch sheet was from one of Lewis’s rarest works, The Aboriginal Portfolio, which was published by George Lehman & Peter S. Duval in Philadelphia between 1835 and 1836. This was the first collection of portraits of Native Americans, preceding works by both Edward Catlin and Thomas McKenney & James Hall. For information, 615-330-7949 or www.trilliumrareprints.com.
Liberty Cane Leads Kimball Sterling’s Historic Cane Collection
JOHNSON CITY, TENN. — On December 12, Kimball Sterling brandished just a dozen historical canes in an auction that was led at $5,170 by an American Revolution-era sword cane ($1/2,000). The 34-inch-long example was engraved “Liberty, 1781” on a metal cartouche on the wood shaft, with other inscriptions reading “NGM” (possibly for National Guard Massachusetts) and “Join or Die.” For information, 423-773-4073 or www.auctionauction.com.
