Auction News

Sotheby’s New York – Egyptian, Classical, and Western Asiatic Antiquities

October 17th, 2011 by

The December sale of Egyptian, Classical, and Western Asiatic Antiquities will include a selection of bronze, marble, other stone, and terracotta pieces representative of these cultures. We will offer these items in an evening session following the sale of the Collection of Dodie Rosekrans which will also feature some antiquities.

Our highlights include a marble figure of Leda and the Swan made around the 2nd century A.D. with provenance going back to the late 18th century and coming to us from Aske Hall and the collection of the Marquess of Zetland.

We are also pleased to be offering a Roman Imperial marble head of Zeus Ammon, made in Alexandria circa 120-160 A.D. from the collection of Dodie Rosekrans. This head, inspired by a type originating with the 5th century Greek artist Phidias, would have been inserted in a cult statue of the Greco-Egyptian god but remains imposing on its own.

Phillips de Pury London – Photographs

October 17th, 2011 by

Auction 3 November 2011 5PM
Howick Place, London, SW1P 1BB

Sotheby’s – Old Master and British Paintings Day Sale

October 14th, 2011 by

This December’s Old Master Paintings Day sale will include paintings from all major schools of European painting but it is particularly rich in those of Dutch origin.

A signed and 1652 dated flower still life by Jan van Kessel highlights the 17th century Flemish section, while a mesmerising example of Sassoferrato’s devotional depictions of the Virgin stands out amongst those of the Italian School.

The sale concludes with a strong and varied group of French and Italian view paintings.

Sotheby’s – 19th Century European Art

October 14th, 2011 by

Sotheby’s New York sale of 19th Century European Art on 4 November 2011 presents rare opportunities for collectors across diverse collecting categories. The sale is a showcase for the best of the eclectic artistic styles that flourished throughout the 19th century.

Alma-Tadema’s A Spring Festival (On the Road to the Temple of Ceres), from The Forbes Collection, and Education of the Children of Clovis (School of Vengeance, Training of Clotilde’s Sons), his most accomplished early work of a Merovingian subject, highlight the sale. Other masterpieces in the sale from the Victorian and Edwardian period include works by Edward Robert Hughes, John William Godward and Charles Burton Barber.

Sotheby’s – Western and Oriental Manuscripts

October 14th, 2011 by

The sale of Western manuscripts and miniatures on 6 December 2011 includes a number of remarkable items, including a lost miniature from a lavishly illuminated Book of Hours by the Master of Claude de France, produced in Tours in the early sixteenth-century.

It also features a monumental twelfth-century English copy of Isidore of Seville’s Etymologies; and a previously unrecorded English devotional compendium in Latin and Middle English from the mid-fifteenth century, with a large illustration of a soul being plucked from its body by two hairy devils.

To the best of our knowledge, these three items have never been offered in public auction before, and the latter two have almost certainly passed by descent since the Reformation.

Sotheby’s – The Library of an English Bibliophile, Part II

October 14th, 2011 by

The second highlights sale from the Library of an English Bibliophile features first editions of some of the greatest works of English and American Literature from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries, often in exceptionally fine condition. This includes the First Folio and third folio editions of Shakespeare (1623 and 1664), a spectacular association copy of James Joyce’s Ulysses (with an annotated leaf from the typescript), extremely rare editions in wrappers of Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales and The Raven, fine copies in cloth of major works by Samuel Clemens, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne and others, and rare examples of some of the great highlights of modern literature preserved in the original dust-jackets (titles including Dubliners, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, The Great Gatsby, Tender is the Night, The Sound and the Fury, Tarzan of the Apes and The Maltese Falcon).

Your Art World – A Documentary series Presented by Sotheby’s

October 14th, 2011 by
Uncover what drives the world’s most talented auctioneers when they step up to The Rostrum. Sotheby’s skilled masters of the gavel Tobias Meyer, Henry Wyndham, Lisa Hubbard and Chin Yeow Quek share their secrets as well as their insight into the psychological drama of bidding at an auction.

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Another Miracle at the Marburger Farm Antique Show in Round Top, Texas

October 10th, 2011 by

10.10.11 Round Top, TX— Marburger Farm has done it again. The twice yearly mega-show in Round Top, Texas has overcome hurricanes, wars, recessions and more. This Sept. 27–Oct. 1, the prospects included all of those, plus the tail end of the driest, hottest Texas summer in decades. But the not-so-little show that could pulled off a winner again.

 

After two hot days, about noon on Thursday, a clap of thunder sounded. “In our tent,” said Patrick Kenny of upstate NY’s South Porch Antiques, “with each clap of thunder, people clapped back. When the rain started to pour, they cheered and yehawed, as only Texans can yehaw. At Brimfield, we cried over rain. At Marburger Farm, they were cheering in the aisles.”

 

As the rain continued, someone turned up the volume on “Amazing Grace” and shoppers found that the 10 football field size tents and 12 historic buildings on Marburger’s 43 acre site provided perfect cover for shopping over 350 exhibitors from 38 states and several nations. Kenny sold gilded frames, a pair of nine-foot tall glass doors from an 1890 Pennsylvania building and a three foot wide mirrored ballroom ceiling disc from a 1920s Catskill resort. Like many antiques sold at Marburger Farm, that piece will travel further west to a Seattle shop.

 

West coast wholesale buyers dominated the opening days. ”In spite of the heat early on, the designers and store buyers were here,” said Julie Harris of Kansas City, MO. “The first two days were strong selling days for me.” Harris sold, antique trunks and silver sporting trophies, many of them going west.

 

Most exhibitors reported good to utterly outstanding sales, with many setting career records. “Our closing day on Saturday, was the highest we’ve ever had,” said Rhonda Holden of 2 Girl’s Stuff from Dallas. Holden sold six rugs, Spanish Colonial iron and antique bottles topped with industrial gauges for use as bookends and sculpture.

 

Another Texas dealer, Ray Veazey of San Antonio, had shoppers fighting over a French canopy bed and huge metal leaves from a 1980s Neiman Marcus display by Emilia Castillo. “Of the 29 Marburger shows that we have done,” said Veazey, “this was our top 3rd in gross sales. The shoppers who come to Marburger Farm are real troopers. I’m really thankful that they came.”

 

Studio F’s Kara Fogertey of St. Louis MO and Mike Whittemore of Punta Gorda, FL had their best show ever. They sold eight mirrors, eight pieces of upholstered furniture, an 18th c. carved English bookcase and every zinc-topped table they brought. “We save stuff for six months just for Marburger,” said Whittemore. “and then we price things right for the market. Instead of getting that extra 10-20%, we do it in volume at Marburger Farm.”

 

Danny Martin of L’Antiquario Antique Tiles from Miami Beach, FL reflected, “In spite of everything, it was one of the best shows we’ve ever had anywhere—really up there.” Martin sold a large trumeau fireplace surround with faux marbling, a French leather tri-fold door to be used as a headboard and thousands of reclaimed antique floor tiles from European buildings. Colleen Martin reported that “Some people were into architecturals because they are renovating and others because the building market is coming back. We have about 30 homes to follow up with antique tiles because of this show. Marburger Farm did not disappoint.”

 

First-time Marburger exhibitor John Tuttle of Atlanta’s ReWorks summed it up: “Everything I had ever heard about Marburger Farm was true. There is more great merchandise and more talent at Marburger Farm than at any show I have ever seen.” Tuttle brought talent in tow by creating 150 lamps from re-purposed antiques such as old boot forms, hubcaps, musical instruments and architectural fragments. “Just one store buyer bought 18, another bought 14, all going to NM, AZ, CA and other western states.”

 

“Marburger Farm has evolved into a national and international crossroads for antiques and for talent,” says show co-owner Rick McConn. “We had our highest international and national attendance. One shopper kept texting photos of merchandise at the show to a niece in Hope, AR. A text returned: ‘Where is the nearest airport?’ With a private plane and a local airport, she was here shopping that very afternoon. And she fit it all into the plane, except for two carved eagles that had to be shipped. Hope springs eternal.”

 

Co-owner Ashley Ferguson believes that one reason this show was so compelling for shoppers was the introduction of a special contract requiring all merchandise to be antique, vintage pre-1989 or re-purposed from antique pieces. “You don’t have to paw through piles of reproductions at Marburger Farm,” says Ferguson. “We had the show vetted by an appraiser from the “Antiques Roadshow” and he pronounced us ‘a clean show.’ Marburger dealers search all over the world for the antique, vintage and re-purposed pieces that bring authenticity into a home—and that makes a difference.”

 

The show also made a difference by hosting a benefit booth for the Houston affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, as well as for the Brookwood Community, a Texas non-profit group that empowers adults with special needs. Additionally, a portion of the show’s ticket proceeds benefited Susan G. Komen-Houston to help in the fight against breast cancer.

 

A similar survivor spirit is one reason that Marburger Farm thrives: Texas shoppers are resilient. Exhibitor Beverly Williams of Warren, TX sold a French cupboard to a woman from Bastrop, TX, scene of recent fires that destroyed over 400 homes. “With her,” reports Williams, “were two other women from Bastrop, all next-door neighbors and all had lost their homes in the fire. Here they were at Marburger Farm, shopping to rebuild and to replace antiques that had been handed down in their families. They bought all over the show and I sent them all home with gifts from my booth. It touched my heart to see their spirit.”

 

In that spirit, the Marburger Farm Antique Show invites you, wherever you live, to the April 3-7, 2012 show, deep in the heart of Texas— where the bluebonnets are pretty darn resilient too.

 

The Spring Marburger Farm Antique Show opens Tuesday April 3 for Early Buying Admission from 10 am until 2 pm. Regular admission begins at 2 pm until 5 pm that day. Admission is good all week and parking is free. Shopping continues on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 9 am until 5 pm and on Saturday, April 7, from 9 am until 4 pm. For maps, photos, the show blog and information on tickets, groups, the Marburger Café, on-site shipping and special events, see www.roundtop-marburger.com

Dan Ripley’s Antique Helper – Second Tuesday Express Auction

October 10th, 2011 by

Swann Galleries – Old Master Through Modern Prints and Antelier 17: Abstract Expressionism & The New York School

October 10th, 2011 by

Catalogues now online for both auctions