Unlike nature, craftsmen are forced to contend with a limited time here on Earth. An apt example of this came when Arts and Crafts furniture designer John Scott Bradstreet noticed a special kind of timber used by Japanese craftsmen in the formation of temples. Known as “jindai-sugi,” or “cedar of God’s age,” these cedar timbers were blackened, softened and weathered after being submerged in water for hundreds of years. Bradstreet didn’t have a suitable forest or that sort of time in his home state of Minnesota, so he developed a technique he dubbed “jin-di-sugi,” where he seared the wood surface and scrubbed it with a wire brush, then hand carved and finished with a stain or paint. He applied this technique to the most important commissions of his career, in addition to creating a line of furniture called Lotus. Only ten Lotus tables are known to exist, and a fine example approaches the block at Cowan’s Auctions. It joins other top lots from around the United States in this week’s picks.
COWAN’S
Sale Date: October 20-21, 2017
Lot 171
John Scott Bradstreet, Jin-di-sugi Lotus Table
A rare and important jin-di-sugi Lotus table, Model no. 96, circa 1905, cypress; 27 inches high.
Estimate: $50/75,000
NADEAU’S
Sale Date: October 21, 2017
Lot 200
Sunflower Chest
Lift top chest over sunflower carved panels flanked by turned, applied ornaments over two long drawers with molded fronts and applied ornaments, all set on plain legs, oak and hard pin, attributed to Peter Blinn, Wethersfield, Conn., circa 1703/04 written under top; 38¾ inches high.
Estimate: $30/50,000
DuMOUCHELLES
Sale Date: October 20-22, 2017
Lot 102070
Martin Lewis (American, 1881–1962), Drypoint Etching
“Day’s End,” an urban scene by Martin Lewis, circa 1937. Matted and framed, 10 by 13¾ inches.
Estimate: $5/7,000
Poster Auctions International
Sale Date: October 22, 2017
Lot 46
Edward McKnight Kauffer (1890–1954)
Circa 1934, one of the most eye-catching and effective designs Kauffer created for Shell, this depiction of a sleight of hand trick brings geometric rhyme to a surprisingly bold and simple composition; 44-5/8 by 28 inches.
Estimate: $5/6,000
RAGO
Sale Date: October 21–22, 2017
Lot 142
The Frog Prince
A one-of-a kind private commission, terracotta with a fine polychrome, leathery glaze, German, Nineteenth Century, 14¾ inches high.
Estimate: $9/12,000
SHAPIRO
Sale Date: October 18, 2017
Lot 331
A Vari-Color Gold And Enamel Ring Mounted With A Portrait Miniature
Nineteenth Century, the sides with gold foliage on a blue enamel ground, mounted with a hinged enameled portrait miniature of Alexander I opening to reveal a small compartment under the miniature with engraved emblem of the emperor.
Estimate: $13/17,000
D.L. STRAIGHT
Sale Date: October 17, 2017
Lot 127
Antique Native American Weathervane
Circa 1920–40, flattened full body form, fine verdigris surfaces, mounted on stand, 27 by 18 inches.
Estimate: $1/1,500
SWANN
Sale Date: October 17, 2017
Lot 260
Thomas Salusbury, Translator, Mathematical Collections And Translations
Volume 1 (of 2). Two parts in one volume. Folio, Nineteenth Century, London: William Leybourn, 1661. In Salusbury’s compilation, important writings by Archimedes, Descartes, Galileo, Kepler, Tartaglia, Torricelli and others appeared for the first time in English. The first volume contains translations of Galileo’s 1632 Dialogo … sopra i Due Massimi Sistemi del Mondo, proving the validity of the Copernican heliocentric theory, and his 1615 letter to the Grand Duchess Christina of Tuscany, published in 1636 asserting the independence of science from religious authority.
Estimate: $10/15,000
JENACK
Sale Date: October 22, 2017
Lot 340
Tim Burton (American, b. 1958)
Ink on paper, “Jack Skellington,” signed, 8 by 6 inches sheet.
Estimate: $600/900
