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Growing up, if there was any sort of antiques sale in town, my mother had to have us there hours before it opened, practically sleeping on the sidewalk like we were waiting to be first in line for Springsteen tickets or something. Since this show is already in progress, she would think all the deals are gone already.
Lot 0558, Christie's Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts, First Edition
Continue reading "New York City Auction Previews: December 1–7, 2007" »
Paul De Beer, vintage Persian Rugs
507 East 83rd Street #1B
By appointment
646-422-0189 or [email protected]
cash or check, no credit cards
Story with a happy ending: Gracie enjoys the new living room rug.
A man in Iran owed a man in New York City some money. Instead of flying to Iran and beating on the man's door every month, the man in Manhattan thought it would be a more pleasant arrangement to take his debt in rugs (the business of the man in Iran). Together, they decided that in square feet the debt owed equaled roughly six thousand rugs. Every two months, the man in New York flies to Iran, selects his rugs, ships them back to NYC, and sells them through Craig's List.
Meanwhile, a woman uptown had bare floors. But kittens, a dog–all are guaranteed to ruin rugs. She wanted something pretty, but something she wouldn't cry over when the dog threw up on it (inevitable). So she started surfing the internet.
Continue reading "Vintage rug dealer sells great finds on Craig's List" »
Susan Farley, New York Times
I've been planing to take the train up to Larchmont and check out the monthly C&C Auction. But The New York Times beat me to it. Here's a link to the story they published last week.
According to The Times:
Clarke’s is a retro kind of auction house, low key and quirky and about as different from Sotheby’s as it is possible to be.
“They’re low on the food chain,” said Leon Castner, who, since selling his own auction house, teaches courses in antique appraisal. “What they sell is going to be turned over three or four times.”
In other words, Mr. Castner says, much of the merchandise at Clarke’s consists of “virgin items” — estate furnishings that haven’t been resold before (or recently) and whose value may be unclear. These goods are at the beginning of the process by which one person’s old chair, for instance, eventually becomes another’s fabulous find.
Junk, some might say. Or, just as easily, undiscovered treasure.
You can preview some of the lots on line. Live previews are Saturday, Sunday, and on Mondays, the day of the sale, from noon until the auction starts. For we New Yorkers who don't own a car, Larchmont is a half hour away by train, and the gallery is a short walk from the station.
The Times also published a list of auction houses in the suburban New York City region. Check it out.
Your TV here? Balfour & Bankston Framefinders Inc. is the only antique frame brokerage and auction house in America,and they're on the auction list this week. People are beginning to buy antique and reproduction frames to hang around their super-sized flat panel televisions.
Lot 97 Balfour & Bankston: American, 20th Century, Taos style Arts & Crafts frame, with label for Milch
Continue reading "New York City Auctions: Nov 26–Dec 2, 2007" »
After the big business and high stakes of the last few weeks' Impressionist and Modern Art auctions, the bigger houses are hosting some more ecclectic sales, and the smaller houses have gained some elbow room to showcase their specialties, including antiques frames and Judaica.
lot 117 Christie's Rock and Pop memorablilia: original logo T-shirt worn by music journalist Greg Shaw ; one of the earliest known rock T-shirts.
Continue reading "New York City Auction Previews: November 24–30, 2007" »
Columbus Avenue between 76th and 77th Streets
Sundays 10 am–5:30 pm (6 pm in the summer)
Since schools are less likely than parking lots to be decommissioned in favor of a new high-rise, partnering with a school's PTA helps give city flea markets some stability. Such is the case with the Greenflea at Middle School 44 on the Upper West Side. 
Lot 11, Fernando Botero "Bird," Sotheby's Latin American Art Sale
This Thanksgiving week, there are only four auctions, all about Latin American art.
Your dollars will go to the dogs through November 30th at the Manhattan Art and Antiques Center. The mall, with 65 dealers at 1050 Second Ave (56th Street) is donating 5% of proceeds from sales of animal-themed pictures, jewelry, silver, rugs or decorative objects to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
On November 29th, from 4 to 6 pm, the ASPCA's adoption van will be parked out in front of the center, so that you can be tempted both inside by animal art, and outside by the real thing.
Charity for Animals [The New York Times]
image from Lauritz.com
The only game in town next week is Latin American art. The Rufino Tamayo masterpiece found in the trash and now valued at 1 million dollars will be on the block at Sotheby's. Below, another Tamayo painting.
lot 19, Rufino Tamayo "Trovador," Christie's Latin American Sale
Granny's Attic Antiques
619 Maple Avenue, Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ
Monday–Friday 10 am –8 pm
Saturday and Sunday 10 am –6 pm
201-632-0102
PATH to Hoboken; New Jersey transit to Ho-Ho-Kus
I've been shopping for furniture on Craig's List; a few months ago, I noticed a store called Granny's Attic Antiques placing multiple ads trying to entice shoppers out to Bergen County. It looked like just the sort of place I was looking for: a large warehouse chock full of choices. Last week I went to scope it out. The store is 30,000 square feet and three floors crammed with antique furniture, much of it on consignment. It's the perfect place to shop for that armoire every closetless NYC apartment needs.
Continue reading "30,000 feet of antique furniture: Granny's Attic Antiques" »
The Wall Street Journal has a very good, if a bit star-struck, blog about the auction world called On The Block. They recently posted this interactive graphic calling out features of the Sotheby's auction salesroom. Follow the link to find out who sat halfway back on the left side (a star!) They also have a nice series of photographs from the Impressionist and Modern Evening Sale.
I always imagined that I'd be able to just walk into Sotheby's and attend one of their auctions, but I've learned now that I'd likely be directed into the overflow room (aka "Siberia"). According to an attendee, it's like "being at a rock concert but not in the actual hall."
Watertowers reflected in a mirror at the last weekend of The Annex Flea Market, by the elegant anniebee.
I'm at the Sotheby's Impressionist & Modern Art Day Sale right now.
No, I'm not clacking away on my laptop in the back row. I'm sitting in my apartment watching the auction on my computer monitor.
Sotheby's and Christie's have started to broadcast their auctions live over the internet. I imagine this feature is mostly for the convenience of remote customers. There isn't much to see, since the unmoving camera is trained on the auctioneer. I wish that Sotheby's had hired a camera man to sweep the audience and train in on the actual bidders. I want to witness on each face the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, or the steely lack thereof.
The auctioneer is standing to the left of a large grey revolving wall that swings around to present each piece of art. Last night at the Evening Sale the art was easier to see; this morning a spot light is positioned badly, producing a glare that wipes out any view of the paintings. Nice frames, though.
Sotheby's inclusive of buyer's premium; Doyle and Swann exclusive.
This just in: dismayed (like most of us) by the loss of the flea markets in Chelsea, the folks over at Brownstoner are planning to their own. It will open in Brooklyn this April.
The location will be the Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School in Fort Greene, with an almost 40,000 sq foot playground to host the new flea. Check out the photo of the new site below. All that space! All that opportunity!
UPDATE: Check out photos from the first day of the market.
UPDATE: as of 2014, this flea is still in the same location, but is now run by the Brooklyn Flea and seems to be more foccussed on "family friendly."
180 Seventh Avenue between 1st and 2nd Street, Park Slope
Saturdays and Sundays 10 am–6 pm
I visited P.S. 321 in Brooklyn on a bad day for flea marketing: temperature in the 90s, threat of storms, and the weekend in August before Labor Day. Everyone in New York except me and a few lonely vendors seemed to have been smart enough to get out of town. The goods were displayed on playground equipment in front of the building and leaned towards the description vintage and garage sale. Michael Taylor at Accentiques (337 Flatbush), however, had promised that I'd find some interesting items, even some furniture, so this market might be worth checking out in better weather.
Seventh Avenue is the heart of Park Slope and a trip out here gives you a great chance to visit Brooklyn.
Continue reading "Brooklyn's P.S. 321 Recycling Center and Flea Market" »
Poster by T. Laforet at Poster Auctions International, lot 356
Continue reading "New York City Auctions: November 5–11, 2007" »
That's according to its caption on Anniebee's Flckr site.
Lot 30, Christie's Impressionist and Modern Evening Sale, Edouard Manet: La jetee de Boulogne
The houses are putting on Impressionist sales next week. Why go to the museums when you can just preview auctions?
Continue reading "New York City auction previews: November 3–9, 2007" »
hi: $105,000
Sikhote-Alin, The Epitome of an Iron Meteorite From
the Largest Meteorite Shower in Human History and a Cataclysmic Event
Frozen in Time, lot 39
lo: $325
Holbrook, Collection of Meteorites from the American Museum of Natural History, lot 9
prices exclusive of buyer's premium
With many space rock hounds in the audience, Photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto drove the bidding. He views the meteorites as works of art that "I use for
inspiration." [The Oregonian]
