Art highlight: Tom Wesselmann’s steel drawing ‘Monica Sitting Undressing’

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – On Saturday, June 15, 2013 Quinn & Farmer Auctioneers will host their monthly gallery auction, with Internet live bidding through LiveAuctioneers.com. A featured highlight of the 380-lot auction is a selection of items from the estate of saxophonist LeRoi Moore, who was a founding member of the Dave Matthews Band. The sale also includes items from the luxurious Boar’s Head Inn in Charlottesville, Va.; a collection of US Presidential memorabilia, Inuit sculpture and an exceptional Tom Wesselmann steel drawing titled “Monica Sitting Undressed.”

The LeRoi Moore articles include speakers, subwoofers, instruments, and other musical production equipment of the highest quality, as well as custom furniture by Jaeger & Ernst. A stellar lot is a pair of model 802 Diamond Bowers and Wilkins speakers that feature free-mounted diamond dome tweeters, Nautilus™ tube tweeter loadings, Quad magnet tweeter motors, Kevlar® brand fibre-cone FST™ mid-ranges, Sphere/tube midrange enclosures, Rohacell® cone basses, Dual magnet bass driver motors, and Matrix™ cabinets. The speakers have been estimated at $5,000-$15,000 the pair.

An array of fine prints, engravings, and paintings of portraiture and hunting scenes comes to auction from the Boar’s Head Inn. These highly sought-after pieces were displayed at the famous resort, which is owned by the local University of Virginia and has hosted many dignitaries and celebrities alike. Featured items include a hand-colored engraving by H. Alkin, Clark & Debourg; numerous hunt scenes, architectural accents and a large oil-on-canvas portrait of James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde. The portrait stands nearly 4ft tall and over 3ft wide, and its regal subject is dressed in fine 18th-century period attire.

Quinn & Farmer Auctions image.

Pop art will be well represented by Lot 271, Tom Wesselmann’s steel drawing titled “Monica Sitting Undressing.” The piece is number 5 of 25 steel cuttings created in 1986. The alkyd oil on cut-out steel drawing depicts the simple nude image of his wife Monica, one of his most prominent muses. Wesselmann’s signature “Tom Wesselmann 1986/98 Steel Drawing Edition/ Monica Sitting Undressing 5/25” appears on verso. Also included are photocopied directions that Tom Wesselmann hand-wrote regarding the piece’s preferred installation.

Quinn & Farmer’s June 15th gallery auction will begin at 10:00 a.m. Eastern. To contact the auction house for additional information, call 434-293-2904 or email info@quinnfarmer.com.

View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

Known as the “Baby Doe Tabor suite”, this set was purchased by U. S. Senator Horace “Silver Dollar” Tabor. Owning incredible silver mines in Colorado, he was also one of the wealthiest men in the world.  Known as the “Silver King”, he created quite the scandal when, while still married, he fell in love with Elizabeth McCourt, also known as Baby Doe, a beautiful woman many years his junior.  As the story goes, the Senator bought the suite during their Honeymoon in Philadelphia for his bride. It was brought back to Colorado (where Tabor lived) and installed in their house where family history had it that President Ulysses S. Grant slept in it.

Tabor was heavily leveraged and in 1890 when the Sherman Silver purchase act was passed, silver prices dropped and Tabor unfortunately lost all of his money. There are actually stories of him becoming a miner in his own mine in order to survive. Despite being broke, Horace and Baby Doe stayed together and were still very much in love in 1899 when Horace died. Numerous books, an Opera, as well as a MGM movie were done on her life as she was one of the most fascinating personages of her day.

The suite’s exceptional history did not stop with the Tabors. After Horace’s death, Baby Doe sold the set to the famed William Randolph Hearst. He kept it until approximately 1930 when he gave it to his publisher Dr. Barham for his Santa Ynez, New Mexico ranch, which he shared with Hearst.

The suite is primarily made of finally carved and burled walnut and was almost certainly crafted by the great Philadelphia cabinetmaker Daniel Pabst. It is one of two great sets he made, the other exhibited at the 1876 Philadelphia “World’s Fair” and now at Saganore Hill Museum, President Theodore Roosevelt’s Oyster Bay home. The bed, which will perfectly hold a modern queen size mattress, has upon its cornice nocturnal animals such as owls and bats. Its footboard holds hidden compartments and overall it is a stunning example of aesthetic art. It stands 104” high. The dresser, which is equally as impressive, displays hummingbirds and other daytime animals in its cornice. It also has drawers for jewelry as well as a unique pull out shelf to lay out the day’s accessories. It stands an impressive 115” high.

In all of our experience, we have never seen another suite equal to this one. It is not only extraordinary; but it also has one of the most interesting provenances of any object we have ever offered. I would love for you consider this masterpiece. Our toll free number is 1-800-544-9440. Can we tempt you?

Dresser: 62 3/4″ wide x 27″ deep x 107″ high
Bed: 65 3/8″ wide x 92 1/2″ deep x 104″ high

Sincerely,

Susan

Jacobean furniture dates all the way back to the year 1600. The revival of this style lasted for almost a century. The period represents the growth of foreign influence and the passing of the oak styles. The Jacobean style was made popular during the reign of James the first and was also popular under his son Charles the second.

The earliest Jacobean furniture was influenced mainly by Elizabethan (1603 -1688) styled furniture. During this time the furniture took on different styles. Early Jacobean furniture was somewhat inward looking, not fully embracing exotic influences that were more ornate. Colonial Americans copied the early styles of the furniture as best as they could since they did not have skilled furniture makers.

Commonwealth Style (1649-1660) marks the middle of the Jacobean Period, when the furniture was of simpler design and undecorated. The late Jacobean Period is that of the Carolean period, named for King Charles II. Charles the first was more cultured than his father and took much care and interest in the furnishings of his palaces and mansions and especially in the collection of great art and paintings. During Charles’s reign over England, he paid more attention to domestic comfort with much more use of padded upholstery, carpets instead of rush mats, and finer embroidery. The Latin name for James is Jacobus. The English style in vogue beginning with James I’s reign is referred to as “Jacobean”. The Jacobean, or Jacobethan, era was another phase of English Renaissance architecture, theatre, and decoration and formed a continuation, begun in the Elizabethan age, of the Renaissance’s penetration into England. In America, Jacobean style furniture is synonymous with Pilgrim style because the early English settlements in America took place during the Jacobean era.  Very little American furniture of the earlier part of the Jacobean period is still surviving; but later pieces, from about 1670, are more numerous. Most of the American primitive furniture was produced during this period by colonists to make do, because there were few skilled cabinetmakers in the colonies.

There were many different features in the Jacobean furniture style. Oak was the chief wood and Ash and maple were used for turning and whittling. Using pine wood was also a popular method. There were also a few different types of Jacobean furniture.  This included turned chairs, highly carved mirror frames, footstools, and gateleg tables. Upholstery was used to improve chairs. Upholstery is the work of providing furniture, especially seats, with padding, springs, webbing, and fabric covers. Materials such as silk, tapestries, crewelwork, linen, velvet, and even leather were used on various types of chairs. There were four different chair styles in the Jacobean era that included three-legged, carver, and Brewster. Almost all flat surfaces on chairs, chests, etc. are carved in low relief. Jacobean furniture was very sturdy, massive in size, notoriously uncomfortable, and made to last. The furniture pieces that were produced consisted mainly of chests, cupboards, trestle tables, wainscot chairs, and gate legged circular tables. Some veneering and inlay were used, and many pieces were painted. Spiral turning was also very popular. Tables were rectangular in shape, with small melon ball turning on the legs. As a rule, Jacobean furniture construction was simple. It was assembled with mortise and tendon joints, held together with pegs.

Jacobean period furniture can mainly be found in the auction houses of England. Being built to last, many pieces have not only survived, but are still in good condition. Understandably expensive, most “Jacobean antiques” available for sale are actually 19th century reproductions. Lines of furniture today have the same styles and will reference the Jacobean era.

“Brownrigg Interiors is one of the best antique shops outside London” according to the Tattler magazine. Brownrigg Interiors has been the subject of many press and magazine articles in Britain such as the The World of Interiors, The Times, The Telegraph, Homes and Gardens and many more.

Brownrigg Interiors and antiques shop is based at Tetbury in Gloucestershire, England with other showrooms in London and Petworth, West Sussex. At Brownrigg Interiors, they specialize in French antiques and French antique furniture and also offer a good range of other antiques from Europe. Their French antiques are sourced from all over France and England… be it cities like London, Paris, Limoges, Bristol, Rouen, Marseille, Tours and the Loire Valley region of France.

Antiques buyers in the UK are particularly keen on French antique tables of the refectory table shape. French farmhouse tables or French refectory tables of fruitwood and other woods are especially suited to the modern trend for abandoning the dining room in favour of larger dining areas in the kitchen where the large kitchen dining tables used in France (French Farm house tables) fit the requirement so perfectly. Types of wood used in French farm house tables varies between the general description of fruitwood to cherry, walnut, pine and even rosewood.

Complimentary to such large refectory tables are French breakfast tables, console tables and other French tables such as French marble top tables, round tables, sofa tables, antique console tables and even French dressing tables.

Another very popular item is the French Armoire. These are large antique wardrobes or cabinets, originally used for storing weapons but are now used as bedroom antique wardrobes and cupboards. Often these French Armoires are made from walnut and feature pleasing carvings.

Another interesting item under the French Antique banner is the commode. Originally, in French furniture, a commode introduced about 1700 meant a low cabinet, or chest of drawers at the height of the dado rail. A commode, gilt-bronze mounts, was a piece of case furniture much wider than it was high, raised on high or low legs, with or without enclosing drawers. This piece of furniture would be accompanied by a marble slab top selected to match the marble of the chimneypiece. A commode occupied a prominent position in the room for which it was intended: it stood against the pier between the windows in which case it would often be surmounted by a mirror glass. A pair of identical commodes would flank the chimneypiece or occupy the centre of each end wall. Before the mid-eighteenth century the commode had become such a necessary commodity that it might be made in menuiserie, of solid painted oak, or walnut or fruitwoods, with carved decoration, typical of French provincial furniture.

In the English-speaking world, commode passed into London cabinet-makers’ parlance by the mid-eighteenth century, to describe chests of drawers with gracefully curved fronts, and sometimes with shaped sides as well, perceived as being in the “French” taste. Thomas Chippendale employed the term “French Commode Tables,” to describe designs in The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Director (1753).

(Interestingly, the term “commode” is also a rurally used colloquial synonym for a toilet in the United States. This word was commonly heard in the 20th century but seems to be falling out of favour and has become uncommon to rare)

Other French antiques offered include chairs such as armchairs & French Fauteuil, French leather chairs, comfortable Louis XVI chairs and sofas. Their French antiques also include a variety of French cabinets and bookcases together with beautiful antique French mirrors and stunning antique lamps.

Brownrigg Interiors Antiques offers a comprehensive antiques search service. Contact them if you would like to search for a French Antique that you cannot find on their web site.

If you see an item you like on the web site please check it is at the correct showroom before visiting one of their three antiques showrooms. It is also possible to purchase online and they will ship anywhere in the world!

Check our web site for opening hours (Usually they are Monday to Saturday from 10.30 am – 5.30 pm).

Please contact Jorge Perez at the following email brownrigg@mac.com

For more details visit us at: http://www.brownrigg-interiors.co.uk/

The last day to consign for these auctions is May 9th

The history of the de La Tour d’Auvergne Lauraguais family is a long and distinguished one. Related by marriage to the noblest dynasties in France, it is one of only six families (alongside the houses of Savoie, Lorraine, Grimaldi, Rohan and La Tremoille) to be granted the rights and privileges accorded to foreign princes.

The collection of Prince and Princess Henry de La Tour d’Auvergne Lauraguais includes a breadth of items, from very fine Neo-classical and Empire furniture, headlined by a magnificent gilt-bronze mounted amaranth and tulipwood secrétaire by Joseph, circa 1770, to the finest collection of 18th century scagliola to appear at auction.

A selection of other items integral to the daily lives of this great aristocratic family include: porcelain, silver, glass, linen, jewellery, clocks, objets de vertu and paintings and in addition, medals, orders and Cardinal’s regalia.

Session Two presents the important collection of books, manuscripts and livres d’artistes, including books from the library at Château de Rochecotte of celebrated designer and architect Emilio Terry (1890- 1969), maternal uncle and mentor of Prince Henry.

Auction results online now at Sothebys.com