Phillips de Pury – Design Masters
December 6th, 2011 by adminAuction 13 December 2011 4PM
450 Park Avenue, New York
Viewing 7 – 13 December
450 Park Avenue, New York
10am – 6pm Monday – Saturday
12pm – 6pm Sunday
20th Century Decorative Arts
Sotheby’s New York – Important 20th Century Design
November 27th, 2011 by adminThis December, Sotheby’s Important 20th Century Design auction will present a curated selection of decorative arts and design from the last 100 years. Commencing with masterworks of prewar design, the sale includes many rare offerings from the American Arts & Crafts and French Art Deco periods. The magnificent Coiffeuse and Chair shown here is just one of several masterworks on offer by designer Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann. The sale also presents collectors with a broad exploration of modern and contemporary design, highlighted by this exceedingly rare monumental sculpture of a Centaur by Francois-Xavier and Claude Lalanne.
New Jersey’s Sterling Associates enters auction arena with Dec. 3 Estates Sale
November 18th, 2011 by adminOld Masters, European bronzes, Asian art top a 450-lot fine and decorative art offering
Pair of 29¾-inch, bronze-mounted Capodimonte urns, est. $12,000-$15,000 pair. Sterling Associates image.
CLOSTER, N.J. – When Sterling Associates conducts its inaugural Fall Estates Sale on Dec. 3, bidders from around the world will have the chance to experience what may very well be the future of the auction business – a format that company owner Stephen D’Atri calls the “hybrid auction.”
“All of the bidding will be done absentee, over the phone or via the Internet, but we’re very much a permanent brick-and-mortar company where anyone can come in to inspect the goods,” said D’Atri. “It will be run exactly like a live auction, but without a live audience.”
D’Atri said the idea behind Sterling Associates developed organically, after many years of working with his family’s antique lighting business, followed by the establishment of a very successful business of his own. Over a 22-year period, D’Atri’s Sterling Restoration and Antique D’zynes grew from a one-man operation in a 1,000-sq.-ft. venue to a company with 15 employees headquartered in a 17,000-square-foot building.
Pietro Fragiacomo (Italian, 1856-1922) signed oil-on-canvas painting of women at shoreline, 20½ x 20 inches, est. $6,000-$8,000. Sterling Associates image.
As a major restorer of antiques and metalwork known to just about everyone in Bergen County’s antiques trade and well beyond, D’Atri had his finger on the pulse of what was happening in the marketplace. He felt something was missing in the region where he had lived all his life.
“I felt there was a void in my area for auction houses specializing in estates,” D’Atri said. “With the boomer generation coming into retirement age and needing to downsize, many retirees were discovering that auction houses available to them wanted only the highest-end merchandise. But it’s not all about van Goghs and Picassos; it’s also about everything else in a house. The same house where we found some wonderful Old Master paintings also had Danish Modern furniture. That’s how people live. Our goal is to be the friendly, diversified auction house that handles a variety of fresh to the market antiques.”
D’Atri’s hybrid-auction concept will become reality on Dec. 3 with a high-quality 450-lot sale of fine and decorative art, including Modern and Asian; furniture, French and Russian bronzes, and other antiques from estates throughout the Northeast.
Robert Rauschenberg (American, 1925-2008), ‘Ace, November, Venice USA, 1977,’ offset lithograph poster on wove paper, est. $2,000-$3,000. Sterling Associates image.
A nicely varied selection of artworks includes approximately 40 oil paintings and another 40 to 50 watercolors and lithographs. A beautiful Pietro Fragiacomo (Italian, 1856-1922) oil on canvas depicting two women at the shore is estimated at $6,000-$8,000; while a lively Nicholas Wassilievitch Orloff (Russian, 1863-?) winter landscape with troika is entered with a $2,000-$3,000 estimate. The sale also features a modern art section. A 1977 Robert Rauschenberg (American, 1925-2008) offset lithograph poster on wove paper is titled Ace, November, Venice USA. Its estimate is $2,000-$3,000.
Sculptures are led by a large Auguste Moreau (1834-1917) patinated bronze of a woman, est. $6,000-$8,000; and a 19th century bronze troika by Vasily Yakovlevich Grachev (Russian, 1831-1905). Described by Stephen D’Atri as “small but very fine,” the 10½-inch-long Grachev bronze is expected to make $4,000-$6,000. A Luca Madrassi (French, 1848-1919) dore and silvered bronze nymph on a conch shell stands 30 inches tall and carries a presale estimate of $4,000-$6,000.
A pair of exquisitely decorated 29¾-inch, bronze-mounted Capodimonte urns will be offered as one lot with a $12,000-$15,000 estimate, while an artist-signed 19th-century Sevres dore bronze mounted, covered vase is poised to make $3,000-$4,000.
Mid-19th-century Satsuma Gosu Blue pagoda-form candlestick, 20 inches tall, estimate $8,000-$12,000. Sterling Associates image.
Several exceptional pieces of Satsuma porcelain will be auctioned. The premier entry in this category is a mid-19th-century, 20-inch Gosu Blue candlestick created in the form of a pagoda. “Gosu Blue Satsuma wares were produced in very limited quantities in Kyoto and are highly desirable to collectors. This is a very impressive, extremely rare design,” said D’Atri.
Continuing in an Asian theme, another auction highlight comes in the form of an 18th-century Qianlong cloisonné censer with pierced kirin lid. The tripodal vessel stands 16 inches tall and retains remnants of gold on the lid. “This piece could be the star of the sale,” D’Atri observed.
Sterling Associates’ Dec. 3 auction debut represents a new way in which estate antiques and art may be brought to auction. It combines a live preview in an auction-house setting with absentee and remote forms of bidding that make the auction accessible to buyers in any location. With modern technology and the Internet working at one end, Sterling Associates strikes a balance on the traditional side by reviving services that people miss most about the auction business of 20 years ago.
Luca Madrassi (French, 1848-1919) dore and silvered bronze nymph on a conch shell, 30 inches tall, est. $4,000-$6,000. Sterling Associates image.
“Many estate auctioneers in this county have retired or gone out of business due to mismanagement. I kept hearing, ‘It’s a shame this guy is gone or that guy is gone, and there’s no one replacing them. I decided to be that someone,” D’Atri said.
“My family’s business – and later my own business – was tagged ‘high end,’ and I kind of enjoyed that tag, but it eliminated a lot of potential buyers who weren’t looking for that highest price point,” D’Atri explained. “I like the idea of having a full-service operation that can bring the best of a consignor’s pieces to auction and be of genuine help by also liquidating everything else in their estate through other appropriate venues.”
Sterling Associates’ inaugural Fall Estates Auction will be held on Saturday, Dec. 3, starting at 12 noon Eastern time. The preview is from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Nov. 29 through Dec. 2, and on the morning of the auction. The gallery is located at 70 Herbert Ave., Closter, NJ 07624.
Bidding methods include absentee, by phone or live via the Internet through www.LiveAuctioneers.com. To contact the gallery, call 201-768-1140 or e-mail info@antiquenj.com. Visit Sterling Associates online at www.antiquenj.com. View the fully illustrated catalog online at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
Millea Bros. – Fall Estates Auctions at the Morristown Armory
November 17th, 2011 by adminFriday – Meissen, Fine Porcelain, Asian Art
Saturday – American, English, Modern Art, Design
Sunday – European Antiques, Silver, Jewelry
Sotheby’s Paris – Un Intérieur Parisien des Années 30
November 4th, 2011 by adminThis 20th Century Design auction contains a series of pre-war masterpieces that have not appeared on the market — in recent times, or ever — showing the strength of this collecting area at Sotheby’s. An inventory of the sale reads like a celebration of the greatest names in this period: a unique bar by Eckart Muthesius, together with a rare black lacquer and brown leather Eileen Gray armchair, both created for the Maharaja of Indore, a copper and tubular metal occasional table given by Eileen Gray to the mother of the current owner, a Marcel Coard cabinet bought 30 years ago, a unique Eugène Printz dining table, and a whole room lacquered boiserie by Jean Dunand.
The post-war section is similarly important with many European movements represented, including pieces by Josef Hoffmann, Grete Jalk, Franco Albini, and Franz von Stuck. There is particular emphasis on the French decorative arts, with works by Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann, Guy de Rougemont, Jean Dunand, Maria Pergay, Line Vautrin, and Francois Xavier Lalanne.
Rago Arts and Auction Center – Call for Consignments – 20th C. Decorative Arts and Furnishings
October 27th, 2011 by adminConsignments invited for Rago’s February 25th – Arts and Crafts/Early20th c.and February 26th – Modern 20th/21st c. Auctions. Consignment deadline January 9th.
Phillips de Pury – The World of Muriel Brandolini
October 4th, 2011 by adminNew York– Phillips de Pury & Company announce ‘The World of Muriel Brandolini’, an interiors auction celebrating the life and work of decorator Muriel Brandolini. A blaze of color on the fall calendar, Brandolini’s sale will include works from her wide-ranging collection of decorative arts, contemporary design and fine art, as well as examples of her own signature line of furniture.
Sotheby’s New York – Fine English and European Decorative Arts
September 29th, 2011 by adminOn October 6th and 7th Sotheby’s will offer a sale of Fine English and European Decorative arts including furniture, silver, tapestries, carpets and ceramics with many pieces from distinguished private collections.
Highlights from this sale include a George II inlaid walnut desk and bookcase, circa 1730, a Bohemian Baroque mother-of-pearl-inlaid oak, carved walnut and marquetry Eger cabinet and the Ford Motor Company Centerpiece: An English Silver Presentation Centerpiece, Designed by Reginald H. Hill, C.J. Vander LTD, London, 1952.
Coconino Center for the Arts – Navajo Rug Auction
September 20th, 2011 by admin
Phillips de Pury & Company – Faye Toogood – Delicate Interference: Assemblage 3
September 15th, 2011 by adminLondon – British Designer, Faye Toogood, will launch her third furniture collection, Delicate Interference: Assemblage 3, exclusively with Phillips de Pury & Company during the 2011 London Design Festival.
The series examines iridescence as a natural optical force through new and re-contextualised works in bronze, aluminum, steel, glass and resin. By a touch of alchemy she uses man-made materials to create a natural phenomenon, mimicking nature’s ability to attract and protect through the refraction of light.
The entire series will be on show at Phillips de Pury’s, Brook Street space with Studio Toogood directing the exhibition design. All works in the collection will be available exclusively through Phillips de Pury.
