Auction: Dec 4th 2010

Catalogue available online for three auctions:

– Jewelry, Coins & Watches

– 20th Century Decorative Arts

– American & European Fine Art

Auction: Nov 9th 2010

To include miniature of all descriptions, furniture, animals, toys, dolls, Native American,  baskets, fine art, prints, curios, collectables, and many oddities, the rare and unusual items for which Frank is well known. Franks items will be sold in the front room beginning at 12 noon.

This sale will also include the usual variety of estate and downsizing material. In the back room beginning at 10 AM we have other dolls & toys, holiday items, household items, tools, books @ 3:30 PM, followed by furniture.

The front room will begin at 11 am  with OVER 120 bags of jewelry, we will then move into  silver, glass, china, and shelf lots;  we will also have full art walls that will be sold throughout the day and a nice selection of over 140 lots of furniture @ 6  PM.

Preview:  Monday, November 8, 9 AM to 5 PM,  9 AM Tuesday

Terms:13% Buyer’s Premium with a 3% cash discount, V/MC accepted

Auction: Nov 14th Geneva

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date of Release:  Nov. 5, 2010

Long-held collection of antique Asian jade takes the spotlight

in Austin Auction Gallery’s Nov. 21 Multi-Estates sale

Army colonel’s collection led by exceptional Chinese jade design of cabbage and crickets

AUSTIN, Texas – With Asian art currently dominating the headlines in nearly every antiques trade publication, the timing is 10 out of 10 for Austin Auction Gallery’s Nov. 21 sale featuring a superb 38-lot collection of early Chinese jade. Amassed primarily in the 1970s by a U.S. Army colonel posted in Japan and later Vietnam, the collection contains purchases made during the officer’s extensive travels throughout the Orient.

“The colonel and his wife had a great appreciation for Asian cultures, and collecting jade and ivory carvings, wood carvings and other Asian art became a lifelong hobby,” said Ross Featherston, owner of Austin Auction Gallery. “Among the countries they visited while living in Asia were China, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia and Nepal. The pieces they acquired were displayed and enjoyed for many years.”

Chinese pale celadon jade carving of a cabbage topped by two crickets, late Qing/early Republic period, 6½ inches long, 3.25 lbs. Provenance: U.S. Army colonel who lived in Asia post World War II. Estimate $3,000-$5,000. Austin Auction Gallery image.

The most intriguing entry in the sale is a 19th-century Chinese pale celadon jade carving of two crickets atop a cabbage. The 3.25-lb., 6½-inch-long carving was crafted to a very high standard and detailed to perfection, down to the bas-relief veins visible on the cabbage’s peeled-back “leaves.”

In the course of cataloging the jade collection, Austin Auction consulted with two high-profile experts on Asian art. It was the opinion of both specialists that the cabbage, from the late Qing/early Republic period, is “quite exceptional – a premier piece of jade,” Featherston said. The lot is estimated at $3,000-$5,000, although Featherston noted that its value is “anybody’s guess, since we have not been able to find any records of a similar piece for comparison. We think collectors will view this as a very exciting discovery.”

Standing 18 inches tall, a spinach-green Chinese jade carving modeled as Guanyin depicts the deity on a lotus-draped platform in front of a full-length pierced screen ($2,000-$4,000). Another key lot is a Chinese lotus-form double brush washer carved from translucent agate. Dating to the mid Qing Dynasty, the 3-inch piece is carved with lotus leaves serving as two separate bowls, adorned with flowers and birds along the rim of the bowl. The auction estimate is $2,000-$4,000.

Two fraktur pages from an 1875 youth diary created by siblings Jonathan and Catharine King of Lancaster County, Pa., 42 pages total (25 illustrated) describing daily chores on the farm, attending school, and play time. Purchased by consignor in Pennsylvania in the 1970s. Estimate $2,000-$4,000. Austin Auction Gallery image.

The Nov. 21 auction includes rare and outstanding examples from several other categories of fine and decorative art and furniture. Dated 1875, a three-part hand-colored folk manuscript is, in actuality, an illustrated youth diary created by siblings Johnathan and Catharine King of Lancaster County, Pa. Twenty-five of the diary’s 42 pages are profusely decorated with the children’s fraktur paintings of flowers, wagons, animals, farm and kitchen implements. Contained in a “Ciphering Book” published by Reuben Chambers, Bethania, Pa., the diary also includes four pages of mathematics inscribed by Jonathan King, and hand-written accounts of the children’s daily activities, with their chores including milking cows and washing dishes. Offered with decorative calling cards for both Johnathan and Catharine King, the lot is expected to make $2,000-$4,000.

Other American highlights include a 1914 Newcomb College vase created by Joseph Meyer and with the cipher of decorator Henrietta Bailey (estimate $4,000-$6,000); and a scarce 84-inch oak hall tree and bench with dual beveled mirrors and a central grandfather clock ($5,000-$7,000).

Newcomb College art pottery vase, New Orleans, 1914, 8½ inches tall, Joseph Meyer potter’s mark and cipher of decorator Henrietta Bailey. Estimate $4,000-$6,000. Austin Auction Gallery image.

Approximately 50 lots of 18th- and 19th-century colonial Mexican art will be offered, including retablos painting on both canvas and tin. A 17 ¾-inch by 13-inch framed oil on canvas of The Repentant Magdalene is a naïve artwork that depicts the important female Christian disciple in a sensitive downward gaze, surrounded by cherubim ($400-$600).

A fine selection of antique European furniture has been cataloged for this sale. Among the highlights is a circa-1890 monumental Italian Renaissance-style sideboard, its upper shelf supported by four 20-inch griffins. The entire piece is richly adorned with foliate and figural carving, with the finishing touch being a monogrammed crest presented by winged putti. It carries an estimate of $5,000-$10,000. From the same decade, a Louis XV gilt and ormolu cabinet in the Vernis Martin taste features a landscape painting on each of its sides as well as a central-door painting of a courting couple in lavish attire ($2,000-$4,000).

The Repentant Magdalene, Mexican, 19th century, oil on canvas, sight: 17¾ inches high by 13 inches wide, retains original frame. Estimate $400-$600. Austin Auction Gallery image.

Two lots in the sale consist of Mid-century Modern furniture designs by Pierre Jeanneret (1896-1967), a Swiss architect who often collaborated with his famous cousin Charles Jeanneret, a k a “Le Corbusier.” Both the Jeanneret teak desk with leather writing surface and six storage cubicles ($6,000-$8,000) and the set of six teak chairs with cane seats and backs ($4,000-$6,000) come with provenance from the Punjab Civil Secretariat of Chandigarh, India.

The 470-lot auction includes numerous other furnishings, paintings and decorative art, as well as small selections of coins, furs and jewelry. Four lots of pin-up art by Olivia de Berardinis (b. 1949) will be sold, including two signed and dated (1996) watercolors, each estimated at $2,000-$4,000; and two Playboy limited-edition lithographs, each of which is expected to make $400-$600.

All forms of bidding will be available for Austin Auction Gallery’s Nov. 21, 2010 Multi-Estates and Chinese Jade sale, including live via the Internet through LiveAuctioneers.com. For additional information, call 512-258-5479 or e-mail info@austinauction.com. View the fully illustrated catalog online and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com. Visit Austin Auction Gallery’s website at www.AustinAuction.com.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date of Release:  Nov. 3, 2010

International demand for Asian art finds ally in online bidding

Chinese yellow jade rhyton, 10 inches tall, relief carved with spiraling design, sold through LiveAuctioneers.com for $17,360. Image courtesy Leslie Hindman Auctioneers.

NEW YORK – It may have taken centuries for China’s art treasures to make their way to the Western World, but it is taking less than a minute for many of them to repatriate to Asian ownership via the Internet.

“Buyers from China, Hong Kong and other Asian nations have become very comfortable about bidding in overseas auctions online,” said Julian Ellison, CEO of LiveAuctioneers.com. “In many instances they’ve become repeat buyers and have formed ongoing, mutually beneficial business relationships with auction houses in America and Europe.”

Boston-based Skinner Inc. was one of the first auction houses to cultivate a bond of trust with Asian buyers. Their June 25-26 auction of Asian Works of Art, with Internet live bidding through LiveAuctioneers.com, brought in an impressive $4.8 million – around $260,000 of it from online participants. The company’s director of Asian Works of Art described the sale as “an all-out bidding frenzy.”

Late October saw a continuation of the now-familiar trend. In Leslie Hindman Auctioneers’ Oct. 26 Asian Works of Art auction, the blue-chip Chicago firm sold 142 lots (29% of the  total lots offered) online through LiveAuctioneers. The lots also represented 25% of the sale by value.

White jade vase with cover, 10 inches tall, ovoid with lion-form finial, sold through LiveAuctioneers.com for $22,320. Image courtesy Leslie Hindman Auctioneers.

White jade, for which demand far outweighs supply, was hotly pursued online. A LiveAuctioneers bidder paid an above-estimate $22,320 for a 10-inch white jade ovoid vase with cover with lion-shape finial. A Chinese yellow jade drinking vessel based on an ancient Greek object known as a “rhyton,” with relief carving and a spiraling design, also sold above its estimate to an Internet bidder, for $17,360.

But it wasn’t just jade that the 414 online participants were chasing in Hindman’s sale. A Chinese Ming Dynasty landscape painting on silk, 66 inches by 16¾ inches and dated 1535, paid no heed to its $1,500-$2,000 estimate, selling to an Internet bidder for $21,080. Also, a Wang Hing & Co. Chinese silver export serving tray with pierce-carved dragon motif, weighing in at 145.87 ozt., sailed past its $5,000-$7,000 estimate to settle at $17,360 online.

Chinese silver export tray, Wang Hing & Co., pierce carved dragon design, 145.87 ozt., sold through LiveAuctioneers.com for $17,360. Image courtesy Leslie Hindman Auctioneers.

Postsale statistics indicated there was keen interest prior to the auction. There were 5,540 electronic-catalog page views, with 616 absentee bids placed online through LiveAuctioneers.

Jackson’s International of Cedar Falls, Iowa, had its own Internet success with a selection of outstanding Asian pieces included in an Oct. 27 offering of antiques and fine art. The sell-through numbers showed that 33.5% of the lots sold via LiveAuctioneers, representing 24% of the sale’s total value. There were 735 online participants, and more than 8,600 people viewed the catalog through LiveAuctioneers, placing 1,115 absentee bids.

Chinese carved jade mortar, 10¼ inches tall, late 19th/early 20th century, spinach-colored jade, motif features scrolling dragons, clouds, waves, sold through LiveAuctioneers.com for $14,760. Image courtesy Jackson’s International.

Because it was not exclusively an Asian art sale, not all of the lots sold online were of that particular genre, but here are a few of the many examples that were – an 11¼-inch white jade vase with cover, late 19th or early 20th century, with a mountainous garden scene in relief and a Qianlong seal, realized $24,600 against an estimate of $10,000-$15,000; while a baluster-form white jade vase with cover featuring pierced and scrolled foliate openwork streaked past its $8,000-$12,000 estimate to achieve $18,450. Another Internet highlight was the 10¼-inch carved mortar of spinach-colored jade, late 19th or early 20th century with a design of dragons, clouds and waves, that made $14,760 against an estimate of $5,000-$7,500.

“I think we’re going to see much more of the same in the fall and winter sales featuring Asian art,” said Ellison. “On November 21st, Austin Auction Gallery in Austin, Texas, is going to be selling a single-owner collection of jade originally brought to the United States around 40 years ago by an American Army colonel who was stationed in Asia in the post-World War II period. From what I’ve been told, one of the jade pieces – a carving of two crickets on a cabbage – is highly important, and experts who’ve examined it say it is a premier artwork. It’s just this sort of discovery that keeps the auction business exciting.”

All prices quoted in this article are inclusive of buyer’s premium:

Skinner Inc. – 18.5% to $200,000; 10% above that amount

Leslie Hindman Auctioneers – 22%

Jackson’s International – 18%

Auction Dec. 7th, 2010

London

The selection of books manuscripts and drawings being offered on December 7^th represent the cream of this distinguished collection, built up by successive generations of the Fermor-Hesketh family. The items the best of every aspect of the bibliophile’s endeavor: typography, illustration, illumination, literary and historical importance, and fine binding.

Auction Nov. 7th, 2010  11am

Skinner’s next auction of American Furniture & Decorative Arts will be held on Sunday, November 7th in Skinner’s Boston Gallery. Skinner is among the world’s foremost authorities on American furniture and decorative arts, and our Americana auctions offer American formal and country furniture and decorative arts, including folk art, naive portraiture, marine arts, pottery, fine clocks, Shaker artifacts, American textiles and needlework, American silver, Chinese export items, trade signs, and early glass.

Auction Nov. 6th, 2010  11am

Auction of American and European fine art, decorative arts, and fine antique furnishings.

“Fornasetti: The Complete Universe”
edited by Barnaba Fornasetti,
text by Mariuccia Casadio,
published by Rizzoli, 2010

Nov. 6th, 2010  4 – 6pm

Hi,

I wanted to pass along some information about a new Discovery series, Auction Kings. Auction Kings showcases one of the country’s most storied auction houses, Gallery 63, in Sandy Springs, Georgia. Its owner, Paul Brown, worked for 20 years at Red Baron’s Antiques, his dad’s auction house, learning the art of selling and how to tell trash from treasure.

Today, Gallery 63 is renowned for bizarre, high-end items — such as a snooker table custom-made for the Rolling Stones.  Paul has made a name for himself as the go-to guy for bidders looking for those one-of-a-kind pieces that can only be found inside his doors. Discovery Channel’s series Auction Kings delves into the world of unique items — from vampire-hunting kits to meteorites to jewel encrusted pencils and the emotional process of their acquisition and loss.

I’ve included an embeddable clip from Tuesdays, “Vampire Hunting Kit/Meteorite” episode below that features a vampire killing kit , and I can provide a preview of the entire episode online upon request.

Auction Kings – Vampire Killing Kit | Vampire Hunting Kit/Meteorite
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk_1t3jJmsE

Auction Kings premieres on Discovery on Tuesday, Oct. 26 at 10 PM/ET (with “Vampire Hunting Kit/Meteorite“). If you have any questions or need additional information, please let me know.

Here is a link to our press web if you want some other information:
http://press.discovery.com/us/dsc/programs/auction-kings/

Thank you,
Jessie

Jessie Lane/ Digital Publicist / Discovery Communications / Jessica_Lane-cw@discovery.com / Office: 240-662-2661 / Mobile: 240-381-0562