Here Be Old Things

Antique Jewelry and Watch Show in New York City this weekend

The New York Sun published an article, Summer Antiques Fairs – and Finds, about the summer antiques scene in the city. Condensed version: there's not much of one. Most wealthy collectors are in the Hamptons, and smart dealers follow them. You'll find them in places like the East Hampton Antiques Show (earlier in July) and Antiques & Design in the Hamptons, August 15 – 17.

One of the only major fairs scheduled in the city is The New York Antique Jewelry & Watch Show, which starts today at the Metropolitan Pavilion. The Sun quotes Neil Marrs, a New York dealer who specializes in collectible jewelry from the '60s and '70s, as saying that this an opportunity for collectors to buy "fantastic stuff" at wholesale — not retail — prices.

"My colleagues and I all sell to the big department stores and boutiques up and down Madison Avenue. If some lady shows up with her husband and she wants a golden-diamond bracelet from the '50s, she can go to Bergdorf Goodman or she can go to this show and save $20,000."

Clarke Auction Gallery is selling a firehouse collection, and other summer auction madness

lot 29: Photos & Clips of "30 Inch" Firefighter Vance Swift, at Clarke

In summer the auction biz lightens up a bit. The big guys offer their "house" sales where they sell less important stock. It's Christie's, Sotheby's and Doyle's version of a stoop sale, if you can get your head around that. The city is empty and there's less competition, so if you drop in a place like Tepper Galleries, the bidding will be less intense and there will be some nice deals.

Collections that don't fit into the traditional categories are popping up. In August, Doyle is offering the contents of safe deposit boxes. And this weekend Clarke (C&C) is auctioning a firehouse collection. It's the massive contents of three 19th century firehouses which had been consolidated into the leaky storage room of a 1970's firehouse. Clarke has moved their usual Monday night auction to Sunday night to accommodate firefighting buffs. The firehouse auctions starts at 4 pm; the regular lots at 6 pm. There's a lot of cool history there – check it out.

high/low auction prices: Christie's James Brown auction

The New York Times called this auction "more tag sale than tribute." Heirs tried to block the auction, complaining that although they were given a chance to sort through Brown's possessions, Christie's did not honor their list. Perhaps the auction house was motivated by the commissions they foresaw on his medical bracelet, which went for $32,500, or the $4,800 hair rollers.

Christie's sale 2116 The James Brown Collection

• hi $47,500: lot 327 black cape
• lo $63: lot 299 Happy Birthday banner

Find stoop sales in Brooklyn

Photo by Michelle V. Agins for The New York Times

Stoop sales are the urban version of garage sales, and Brooklyn is the perfect venue – all those stoops. But finding one is usually a matter of serendipity. There you are, strolling along in your flip flops, and there's a neighbor with a card table loaded with household detritus. Score!

Now, scope out the weekend action using StoopSales.com. It sorts sales by neighborhood, lists times, gives you a preview of what each sales offers, and even locates each sale on a Google map. (Expect to see sales listed approximately mid-week.) If you're on the other side of the card table, submit your sale and alert the world.

New York City Auctions July 28-August 3, 2008

lot 43 at Christie's, Jacob Lawrence "Play"

Thursday July 31

Christie's 10 am and 2 pm: Prints and Multiples

New York City Auctions July 21-27, 2008

Pastel of dog at Richmond Galleries on Staten Island

Tuesday July 22

• Richmond Galleries 10 am: Estate Auction

Saturday July 26

• Tepper 10 am: Fine and Decorative Estates Auction

Sunday July 27

• Clarke (C&C) Auctions 4 pm: Auction Featuring Firehouse Collection

New York City Auctions: June 30–July 6, 2008

Surreal landscape by Jorge Sanchez at Clarke (C&C)

It's July. There are only four auctions in town this week: one at Clarke, three at Christie's. Where iiiiisssss everybody?
 

The ten most expensive photographs, ever

Bloomsbury Auctions is launching a photography department. That's a smart move–there's money in photos. Last year, one by Andreas Gursky, 99 Cent II Diptychon (below) sold for $3,346,456 at Sotheby's in London. Here's an interesting, illustrated list of the ten most expensive photographs to date. Mr. Gursky made the list twice.

New York City Auctions: June 23–29, 2008

lot 73: Arthur Rackham, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, at Bloomsbury

Tag Sales by Mona: Junkbuster estate sales on Long Island

Mona Scavo. Patrick Andrade for The New York Times

I moved to New York City my mouth watering for all the great estate sales that must be here in Manhattan, right? Wrong. Unfortunately, no one here sells estates out of apartments. My mother, back in Oregon, still insists that I'm not looking hard enough. She doesn't understand that, unlike in Portland, hordes of eager dealers staking out a property, sleeping in their cars out front the night before and lining up at 7 a.m. the morning of a sale just would NOT fly with co-op boards. For the authentic estate or tag sale experience you have to head out to the 'burbs.

Hard economic times mean better flea markets, consignment shops and auctions

If you're a flea market fan, this rough economy is good news/bad news. Last fall, when I was researching New York City flea markets, the manager of the Green Flea on the upper west side filled me in on the micro-economy of fleas: when the economy is flush, even the marginally-employable can get a job; when it tanks, those who want to avoid a job at Starbucks sell at flea markets instead.

New York City Auctions: June 16–22, 2008

lot 64 CUVIER, Georges L.C., Baron: Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles de Quadrupeds (Paris: Deterville, 1812) at Christie's Important Scientific Books

Historic Hamilton Grange is moving

So what's up in your hood? Here in mine, they're moving a national historic landmark. The Hamilton Grange, designed by John McComb, Jr., and home to Alexander Hamilton, was moved a couple blocks once before, in 1889. Squeezed between an apartment house and a church it's lost some of its former bucolic flavor. But on June 6th it's being moved down to St. Nicholas Park, where it will enjoy a little more lawn.

For weeks now the neighbors have been hanging out watching workers dislodge the house from the wall next door, slowly hoist it up above the roof of the next door church, slide it out over the street, and finally lower it back to the ground. They've done all this by stacking lumber underneath it–and that's about as much as you'll get from me on the technical aspects. What's pretty cool is that the old windows are still in place. With all the construction accidents around the city, I'm holding my breath and hoping the Grange doesn't end up a pile of firewood on Convent Avenue . . . but so far, so good.

New York City Auctions: June 9–15, 2008

Lot 340 Paysage, Henri Joseph Harpignies, at Swann

Antiques sale at Golden Oldies: 50% of wholesale, woo-hoo!

Golden Oldies in Queens calls itself the world's largest antique store. But this weekend they aim to cut their inventory by half. Starting today, everything in one huge warehouse will be on sale at half off the regular wholesale prices. Let me repeat: 50% off wholesale–a deal every New Yorker can love. Golden Oldies has sold antique furniture and accessories to dealers, set designers and decorators for over 30 years. Now it's your turn (cash and checks only). Above is a selection of armoires from their website. I've not seen this place but it sounds great, so if anyone goes, please report back.

New York City Auctions: June 2–8, 2008

lot 35 a resting sheep, Dutch School 18th Century; Christie's Interiors

Things are Shakering at the Bard Graduate Center

The Bard Graduate Center always has something interesting going on. On Saturday the 31st, as part of their exhibition Out of This World: Shaker Design Past, Present, and Future, you can stop by and watch the making of a Shaker oval box.  Other events include a talk on the 29th called The Shaker Legacy: A Personal Prespective; and on June 6th there's a lecture and tour called Visions Made Tangible: Shaker Gift Drawings.

The whole "make a box" thing seems so not New York, so . . . I don't know . . . gentle.

But is it? “This exhibition is designed to shock people visually and intellectually and challenge preconceptions about Shaker design after 1820,” said show-organizer Jean M. Burks, the senior curator at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont. “The Shakers were not as simple as people think.” So now, with my suspicious New Yorker's mind, I have to wonder . . . what was in those boxes, anyways?

‘Tis a Gift to Be Complex [New York Times]

Bluemner? Villon? Someone out there wishes for Clarke Auction Gallery to get it wrong (sorry, pal)

OK, so art auctions at Christie's and Sotheby's are pushing records right now. But if you know what you're looking for (or even if you don't) the smaller area auction houses offer value and opportunity. Case in point: Clarke (C&C) Auction Gallery is holding its Fourth Annual Fine Art Auction tonight at 6:00. Lot 264 was first listed as a pen and ink by Oscar Bluemner, then, on Saturday, staff realized they'd got the signature wrong and with a hand-written card, re-labeled the lot correctly, attributing it to Jacques Villon and raising the estimate. A bit later, they realized the card was missing. They looked on the floor, they looked under the table . . . gone. They figure that some sharp buyer wanted the competition to remain in the dark, and helpfully removed the label himself.

New York City Auctions: May 26–June 1

Wednesday May 28

• Christie's 6:30: Latin American Sale Evening Session

Thursday May 29

• Christie's 10:00: Latin American Sale Day Session
• Sotheby's 7:00: Latin American Art

Friday May 30

• Sotheby's 10:00: Latin American Art

Saturday May 31

• Tepper Galleries 10:00: Fine and Decorative Arts Estates Auction

Time Out New York one-ups Here Be Old Things with idea for flea market walk

Humpf. I thought I was the flea market maven, but I guess I haven't earned my stripes yet. Ashlea Halpern of Time Out created flea markets walk that takes you from The Annex/Hell's Kitchen Flea Market, swings by The Antiques Garage and other smaller markets, including the Goodwill, and ends up at Union Square. Along the way are suggestions for some stores to pop into, where to grab a bite, even where to fill your Starbucks jones. I get exhausted by trolling just ONE market, but if you're got enough energy for sun-up to sun-down thrifting, go for it.

The Brimfield Antiques Show: ready for a road trip?

It started on Wednesday so who knows? Maybe all the good stuff is already gone! But it's just Thursday, so look around, see if you can rent a Zipcar, and hit the road going north. The Brimfield Antiques Show, "ground zero for the entire trade" according to the Antiques Trader, is happening all weekend. Big? Look at this map below. All those little stars are seperate antiques shows with multiple dealers. One of my favorite memories is driving up and staying at a B&B, walking all day through the market, and then swimming that evening in a Massachussets lake. It might be a little early for a swim, and a little late to book a B&B, but luckily for us all, Brimfield is held three times a year.

New York City Auctions: May 19–25, 2008

Lot 2196 Untitled (Gold Shoe), Andy Warhol, at Doyle Modern and Contemporary Art

On Mother's Day, a thanks to those who stoked our interest (and tortured us a bit, too).

Where did you get your love of antiquing? From Mom? I guess I could run this post on Father's Day and ask the same questions, but the staff's ode to mothers on the Antique Trader Blog made me want to thank my own.

But first I have to curse her. Why? In the town where I grew up there was a shop called Althea's Antiques that for years I begged to go into. It sat back from the road, shabby and rambling, and I just KNEW it was full of treasures. But Mom wasn't into old stuff. It depressed her. So for years, despite my pleas, she just drove right by.

Coming up this weekend: Spring International Postcard Show

Who knew? Manhattan has a vintage postcard club. I always say that's the great thing about New York City: whatever you're into, there's a like-minded group you can join. Check out the site of the Metropolitan Postcard Club of New York City–it's informative and those postcards sure are pretty. The club is hosting the Spring International Postcard Show this weekend at the Hotel New Yorker (34th st. at 8th Ave). It's Friday 12-7:30, Saturday 10-6, and Sunday 11-4:30. Admission is $7-10.

Also up, the The International Fine Art Fair. Check shows and fairs for details.

Christie's Impressionists sale suggests the market is crashing. Or maybe not.

Fears that the weakening U.S. economy would affect the art auction market were either confirmed or denied by the 41.1 million dollar sale of Claude Monet's "Le Pont du chemin de fer a Argenteuil" yesterday.

The New York Times gave the sale an upbeat twist:

Fears that the Christie’s sale of Impressionist and modern art would usher in a market meltdown were assuaged early Tuesday evening when everything from a Monet landscape to a monumental sculpture by Rodin brought record prices.

But the sale also had its bumps, as 14 out of 58 works failed to sell because they were considered either too expensive or second-rate examples by first-rate artists. . . . Yet the weak dollar made prices seem cheap to Europeans, who accounted for 52 percent of the buyers, officials at Christie’s said. Americans lagged behind, making only 32 percent of the purchases, far less than in past sales. “Russian buying was significant,” Edward Dolman, Christie’s chief executive, said after the sale.

But other stories, including Bloomberg, were more pessimistic:

Monet and Rodin failed to prevent Christie's International from missing its low estimate for an evening impressionist and modern art auction for the first time in four years. . . . The result suggests that at least $318 billion of credit losses and writedowns at banks, a slump in the U.S. currency and a dip in global equity markets may have slowed the international art market.

Monet and Rodin Set Price Records at Christie’s [New York Times]
Record Monet Fails to Stem Dip in Christie's Impressionist Sale [Bloomberg]

high/low auction prices: Christie's Impressionist Sale

A Monet sold for over 4 million, but many lots failed to reach their reserve; Europeans, including many Russians, spirited prizes away, continuing to enjoy the cheap candy store New York City has become recently.

Christie's Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale

• hi $41,481,000: lot 21 Claude Monet, Le pont du chemin de fer à Argenteuil
• lo $481,000: lot 57 Edouard Vuillard, Géraniums et boules-de-neige

prices include buyer's premium

New York City Auctions: May 12–18, 2008

Lot 528 Unusual replacement head from Papua New Guinea; Bonhams Fine African and Oceanic Art

Coming up this weekend: British art pottery exhibition

Just ran across this one in the New York Times: Pascoe & Company, who appear to specialize in Moorcraft Pottery, is holding a New York Collectors Weekend at the Omni Berkshire Hotel, 21 East 52nd Street. The advertisement in the Times bills it as a British Art Pottery Exhibition and Sale, including artist demonstrations, master classes, and lectures by a UK historian. It starts today, 5–7 pm, and continues Saturday, 10–5, and Sunday, 10–4. Admission is free.

Rare posters on auction this weekend at the International Poster Center

An Alphonse Mucha poster of Sarah Bernhardt could bring $25–30,000 in a Poster Auctions International event this weekend in New York City. There's also a poster for a 1929 Mickey Mouse film ($15,000 to $20,000); a nine-foot-high 1926 billboard advertising the dancers Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn, ($12,000 to $15,000); and a poster for Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show.

Many posters will sell for much less: you could walk away with something great for around $5,000. I want this Ludwig Hohlwein poster, estimated at $1,200. Cheap! Any one listening?

Not the Poster to Nail Up Over a Crack in the Plaster [New York Times]

New York City Auctions: May 5–11, 2008

Rochers près de Saint-Malo, Maximilien Luce; Christie's

New York City Auctions: April 28–May 4, 2008

Lot 64 Marc Chagall, Enlevement de Chloë, from Daphnis and Chloë; Christie's Prints and Multiples

Society of Ethical Culture flea market on Sunday

Members of the New York Society for Ethical Culture are cleaning out their closets this Sunday, April 20th, and throwing a flea market/white elephant sale. It's a fund raiser to help free those wrongly convicted through DNA testing (but isn't DNA supposed to be accurate? Someone want to start that debate?) Directions to their historic building at 64th Street and Central Park West are on their site. Hurry–the sale runs from only 1:45 until 3:30.

Collection Liquidators auctions black Americana on the internet

I usually only post stories about New York City auctions one can attend in the real, vs. the virtual, world. But this house came across my attention lately: Collection Liquidators, "the world's premier source of black Americana." Located on Lafayette Street, they hold only absentee auctions. In 2006, Antique Trader spotlighted company owner Allen Liffman, (see the "about us" page) who said that his bidders come from all over the U.S., Europe and even the Far East. The next sale is this Saturday, April 19, 2008.

Many collectors are African American themselves, and regard these items, good or bad, as part of their history and emergence. The recent spat over the Diane Arbus photos started in this world. Before Arbus was identified as the artist, Langmuir and Ogunsanya were interested in the photos of Hubert's Dime Museum and Flea Circus primarily as black Americana collectors.

Collection Liquidators include vintage "Klan Kollectibles" in their sales. The thought of cute-sifying the word "collection" with a "k" to match "Klan" seems really "krazy" to me.

high/low auction prices: New York City photography auctions

Christie's Photographs From The Collection Of Gert Elfering

• hi: $241,000 lot 120 Helmut Newton, Sie Kommen–naked and dressed
• lo: $1,875 lot 97 Hans Feurer, Versace

Christie's Photographs By Diane Arbus From The Collection Of Bruce And Nancy Berman

• hi: $115,000 lot 225 Diane Arbus, child selling plastic orchids at night, N.Y.C.
• lo: $6,875 lot 240 Diane Arubs, a lobby in a building, N.Y.C.

Christie's Photographs

• hi: $529,000 lot 454 Irving Pen, Cuzco Children
• lo: $1,875 lot 491 Edward Sheriff Curtis, a hilltop camp, Jicarilla

Christie's Photographs By Ansel Adams From A California Collection (details above)

• hi: $481,000 lot 1058 Ansel Adams, Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite Valley
• lo: $4,750 lot 1098 Ansel Adams, Ranch Near Petaluma

Sotheby's: The Quillan Collection of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Photographs

• hi: $1,609,000 lot 19 Edward Weston, Nude
• lo: $10,000 lot 2 Aaron Siskind, Gloucester (Glove)   Sotheby's Edward Weston's Gifts to His Sister and Other Photographs
  

• hi: $325,000 lot 81 Edward Weston, Nude on sand, Oceano
• lo: $3,750 lot 118 Brett Weston, Lily leaves and oxalia, Santa Monica   Sotheby's Photographs

Sotheby's Photographs

• hi: $553,000 lot 264 Diane Arbus, A family on the lawn one sunday in Westchester, N.Y.
• lo: $4,375 three lots, including Walker Evans, Weegee, and lot 266 Diane Arbus, The female impersonators, Apollo theater, N.Y.C.

Prices include buyer's premium

Photo of Carla Bruni-Sarkosy sells for $88,000 over estimate

The estimate was $3–4,000. The hammer price, $91,000. Even Christie's was stumped as to why a photo of Carla Bruni, now Madame Sarkozy, soared so high. In the video below, one German bidder explains that he was trying to buy the photo to give as a present to the French president and his wife, but the price just got out of hand.

The next highest-priced portrait above Bruni's was one of Kate Moss by Richard Avedon. Estimated at $30-40,000, it sold for $97,000.

The consignor, Gert Elfering, offered proceeds from the sale of the Bruni print to a doctor who runs hospitals in Cambodia, but Dr. Beat Richner refused the money. "My decision was taken out of respect for our patients and their mothers," he said. "Accepting money obtained from exploitation of the female body would be perceived as an insult".

OK, but did he really have to tell anyone where the money came from? That's what I'd be asking if I were on his board, but hey. Now, a Swiss research institute working on turning used water into fresh drinking water in poor countries will receive the money.

p.s. In the video below, note how many times they pan the camera up Bruni's body. Hmm.

Carla Bruni nude proceeds snubbed by hospital [Telegraph.co.uk]

New York City Auctions: April 21–27, 2008

Lot 46 Circle of Antoine Pesne: a portrait of a young boy with his dog; Doyle, European Paintings

Coming up this weekend: The Aipad Photography Show, and flea market news

From the contemporary to the canonical, photography is on exhibit (and for sale) at the Aipad Photography Show at the Park Avenue Armory. The New York Times review says:

With more than 75 dealers from around the world, this elegant expo presents thousands of pictures representing nearly the full range of the history of photography. . . . Most galleries display miscellaneous selections from their inventories, which can make for an exciting experience. You never know what treasure might be hanging just down the wall.

The people who run the Reclaimed Home blog are tweaking their goods for the Brooklyn Flea. Last week: clean, refurbished handmade items at higher price points. This week: small, dusty, junky items for less than $20. Yeah! Bring it on!

Further out in Brooklyn, Metro Festival Productions runs a series of small flea markets. I haven't included them in my list on the resources page, because they say their focus is on "new and used." But check out their site, maybe it's worth taking a trip out to Neptune Avenue, Brighton Beach, or Avenue U some day. If you go, please report back!

Bayo Ogunsanya confronts author of "Hubert's Freaks" at the Strand Bookstore

Way down deep, I was afraid that he'd be there with a gun.

Monday night I decided to stay home rather than go to the Strand Bookstore to hear Gregory Gibson discuss "Hubert's Freaks," which details the life of Robert Langmuir and his discovery of a trove of Diane Arbus photos. I was a little worried that the man he bought them from, Bayo Ogunsanya, might be there, too. In an unfriendly mood.

And he was. (The camera doesn't turn from the author, but the speaker was identified by Galleycat.) If you can sit through the long video of the reading, you can hear the voice of Ogunsanya in the Q&A portion of the evening. He's peeved. Although, thankfully, unarmed. Perhaps he knew his revenge was coming the next day, when Phillips canceled the Arbus auction.

Auction of Diane Arbus photos canceled

Last month I posted about the controversy surrounding the auction of Diane Arbus photos at Phillips'. Bayo Ogunsanya asked Brooklyn Federal Court to stop the sale, saying he had, in effect, been robbed by their true value by Robert Langmuir, a dealer who bought the photos from him. That post got a lot of comments, some heated.

Yesterday, I stopped by to view the exhibition. Phillips employees were setting up chairs for the 7:00 auction.

This morning, the New York Times says the Arbus auction has been canceled. Phillips' website says that a private sale is pending.

Did someone swoop in with a fantastic offer Phillips could not refuse? Does that even happen in the auction world? Or has Ogunsanya  been successful in stopping the sale? The auction house and attorneys are not returning phone calls. Stay tuned.

Photos from the first day of the Brooklyn Flea

Standing on the steps of the Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School yesterday, helping to inaugarate the Brooklyn Flea, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz said  "I always said that Brooklyn has everything. But I was wrong. It didn't have a flea market."

Well, apparently Brooklyn was starving for one. Crowds streamed in the doors of the schoolyard all day long. So many people swarmed the tables it was almost impossible to see what they were browsing. There was a long line for waffles that didn't ever shorten. If the chilly weather was keeping people away, then beware summer. I'm betting Les Puces de Paris Saint-Ouen doesn't get this much traffic on a good day.

Brownstoner has a time lapse sequence of the day. There are also comments regarding how people felt about the flea and its mix of goods.