Bronze by Gutzon Borglum, $13,000.

Persian Serapi carpet, $27,500.

Dargate Auction Gallery Estate Sale Sets Record Bids for icollector.com

NEW YORK CITY – icollector.com reported March 19 that its Dargate Auction Gallery Estate Sale on March 17 received more than 1,000 unique users who placed bids on approximately 85 percent of the rdf_Descriptions available, including a live successful Internet bid of $13,000 and another live Internet bid of $17,000, making the auction the biggest in icollector.com’s history.

The sum of $13,000 purchased a bronze sculpture by (John) Gutzon (De La Mothe) Borglum, (lot 5357, est $5/7,000). The aforementioned bid of $17,000 competed for an imported Persian Serapi carpet (lot 5210, est $20/30,000), circa 1890, and was the event’s highest Internet bid, but ultimately lost out to the floor for $27,500.

According to James Corsellis, deputy chairman of icollector.com, “When the bronze sculpture was sold to an Internet bidder for $13,000 the whole salesroom burst into applause. With the success that we have been having we see this as only the beginning of bigger and better things to come with our live Internet auctions.”

Featuring a selection of rdf_Descriptions ranging from Steinway pianos and silver goblets to animation cells and taxidermy, the Dargate auction, conducted in Pittsburgh, Pa., was accessible on the Internet through www.icollector.com and eBay, using new live auction capabilities, at ebayliveauctions.com.

Other highlights of the sale, featuring 599 lots, included a Steinway grand piano, circa 1918 (lot 5314, est $8/12,000), which sold for $4,500; a Steiff bear on wheels, circa 1910-20 (lot 5577, est $300/500), which sold for $1,000; a Century Majolica Palissy Ware Box by Fifteenth Century Renaissance potter Palissy (lot 5141, est $250/750), which sold for $1,700; and a field telescope gadget cane (lot 5361, est $200/400), which sold for $600.