Here Be Old Things

New York City auctions: April 14–20, 2008

Lot 40 Loge de Théâtre à Pékin, 1918, by Alexandr Evgen'evich Iakovlev at Christie's Russia sale

Searching for thoughts and input on this blog.

I started Here Be Old Things as a travel guide to collecting events in New York City. Many people find me through google, but I have a few regular readers (not including you, Mom).

Whether you're just passing through, or check in on a regular basis, what do you like or not like about this blog? How do you think it could be better?

From auctions to flea markets information, this is the type of guide I would like to find if I were traveling abroad. Bit by bit I hope to add more information, including a shops search. So, do you like the weekly auctions listing? Would a calendar work better for you? What sort of news are you interested in?

Shoot me an email, kristi (at) herebeoldthings (dot) com, or post your comments here. Thanks in advance!

Coming up this weekend

The much-anticipated Brooklyn Flea debuts on Sunday. Their blog includes a map on where to find them, subway directions, and even a weather map of the day of the event. I was a little worried they wouldn't have enough antique dealers, but as of today, there are 50 names under the "Antiques + Vintage Clothing" category. Yeah!

Today we head into the celebration of old books with the New York Antiquarian Book Fair at the Park Avenue Armory.

From Art in Review in the New York Times:

Wandering the aisles of the annual Antiquarian Book Fair, at the Park Avenue Armory, is like being a fly on the wall at the ultimate dinner party. Two hundred dealers are exhibiting rare books, manuscripts, first editions and ephemera related to a host of authors, artists and historical figures. . . .

Bits of gossip are mixed in with the polite literary conversation. Among the legal guides and treatises at the Lawbook Exchange are several 18th-century books illustrated with scenes related to famous adultery trials. . . .

Many older rarities can be paged through and pored over: 17th-century wall maps, at Martayan Lan; letters from Mozart and Beethoven, at La Scala Autographs; a Delacroix-illustrated version of “Faust,” at Ursus; even fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls, at Michael R. Thompson Bookseller. On Sunday the fair will sponsor “Discovery Day,” during which ticketed guests can bring up to five of their own treasures for appraisal.

Christie's to auction nude photo of Carla Bruni-Sarkozy (yawn)

If you work in the marketing department at Christie's and there are some photography sales on the calendar, how do you beat the publicity surrounding Phillip's upcoming Diane Arbus auction?

Piss off the first lady of France, perhaps?

Robert Langmuir is appearing at the Strand Bookstore the day before auction of Diane Arbus photos

Two weeks ago I wrote about the controversy surrounding Diane Arbus photos being auctioned at Phillip's next week. Bayo Ogunsanya has asked Brooklyn Federal Court to block the auction, saying that Robert Langmuir, the dealer who bought the photos from him, cheated him of their true value. Most dealers who commented on that post said, in effect, "tough luck." One lone voice suggested Langmuir should end the court wrangling by slipping Ogunsanya a bonus.

Phillips auctions the Arbus photos on April 8th, and each is estimated in the hundreds of thousands. Ask Langmuir which island he intends to buy when he appears at the Strand Bookstore next Monday, April 7, at 7:00 pm. He will be appearing with Gregory Gibson, author of "Hubert's Freaks: The Rare-Book Dealer, the Times Square Talker, and the Lost Photos of Diane Arbus," which is the story of Langmuir's life and his "discovery of a lifetime," the Arbus trove.

Langmuir, a Philidelphia dealer of African-Americana, books and ephermera, has led a colorful, sometimes sad and chaotic life. The New York Times tells his story best: Genuine Wonders from the Flea Circus: Photos by Arbus. If he really does sell on eBay under the name that one commenter divulged, he's still at it . . . give it up man! Go enjoy your new island!

New York City auctions: April 7–13, 2008

Lot 16 at Phillip's: Hubert's Museum Work 1958-1963 by Diane Arbus

 

I.M. Chait's Natural History Auction: waaaaay more fun than New York City's Natural History Museum

No long lines of tourists, no mobs of kids on field trips–just you, nose-to-nose with the skull of a unicorn dinosaur, a cousin of the Triceratops. That's one pleasure of a natural history auction.

I.M. Chait, a family-owned business from Beverly Hills, was in Manhattan this month to present their second annual Natural History Auction. Greg Barton of Manhattan was there on lower 5th Avenue to pick up two pairs of positive/negative fossil fish for his six-year-old son, "who of course wants to be a paleontologist." Father and son had attended last year's preview, because "it's more intimate than the Natural History Museum."

high/low auction prices: Asian Art Week 2008

There were fifteen auctions in town for Asian Art Week in New York City. Here are results from four.

Bonhams Fine Japanese Works of Art

• hi: $35,000 lot 5241 a fine patinated bronze jardiniere with gold accents By Miyao (the workshop of Miyao Eisuke of Yokohama), Meiji Period
• lo: $300 lot 5235 two pairs of menuki Edo Period, 17th/18th Century

Christie's Japanese And Korean Art

• hi: $825,000 lot 451 Kim Whanki Untitled oil on canvas, white porcelain jar and plum tree
• lo: $313 lot 99 Tsunetomi Kitano "Meido no hikyaku no Umekawa"
• details from lots pictured above

I.M. Chait Important Chinese Ceramics & Asian Works of Art

• hi: $225,000 lot 216 Xuande porcelain water sprinkler
• lo: $400 lots 7 & 13, antique wood netsuke

Sotheby's Indian Art

• hi: $409,000 lot 13 Maqbul Fida Husain, Untitled oil on canvas
• lo: $5,000 lot 44 Sakti Burman, Untitled ink and watercolor

Bonhams', Christie's, and Sotheby's prices include buyer's premium; I.M. Chait's do not.

Foreign auction lust: Hallands Auktionsverk in Sweden

If I am ever able to decorate my apartment exactly as I would like to, I plan to shop for all the furniture at Hallands Auktionsverk. Not sure how I'm going to ship it back to New York. (This whole fantasy includes winning the lottery.) Hallands is in the town of Halmstad on the west coast of Sweden, about two hours outside of Copenhagen in Denmark. Click "auktioner" on the left, and their list of auctions come up. Hit the "katalog" icon, pull down "alla" and let the thumbnails load. There's tons of pretty estate furniture–hello, Carl Larsson–art, lighting, and smalls. (Container share, anyone?) No English language options here, but if you want it, you'll figure it out.

New York City auctions: March 31–April 6, 2008

Lot 3 Aristotle, composite manuscript on vellum, containing:  PORPHYRY at Bloomsbury

The Pier Antiques Show: New York City must-go event gets even better

With cherished memories of past Stella Show Management's two-weekend, Triple Pier Antiques Show, I arrived at Pier 94 Sunday sure that the one weekend, one pier show spelled the end of the antiques trade. I was wrong. The March 15–16 Pier Antiques Show was as good as, if not better than, previous shows.

New York City Auctions March 24–30

Lot 2 Karim Rashid, Prototype "Infinity" Carpet at Sotheby's 20th Century Design Auction

Tonight: documentary about collectors of old photographs features the Chelsea Flea Market

Other People’s Photos by Lorca Sheppard and Cabot Philbrick
7:30pm at The City Reliquary
370 Metropolitan Avenue (at Havemeyer St), Williamsburg
L train to Metropolitan / G Train to Lorimer

Some of us are hustling for overlooked and underpriced Diane Arbus photos we can consign to auction for thousands of dollars. Others, apparently, sift through old photos at the Chelsea Flea for philosophical needs:

Other People’s Pictures is a documentary about collectors who share an unlikely obsession – snapshots that have been abandoned or lost by their original owners and are now for sale. The film is set at New York City’s Chelsea Flea Market where, every weekend, dozens of collectors sift doggedly through piles, boxes and bins of cast-off photos, ready to pay anywhere from a few cents to hundreds of dollars for a single snapshot. Many of the film’s subjects find that collecting ‘other people’s pictures’ helps them confront the darker aspects of human existence – familial trauma, social injustice, historical atrocity. Others simply appreciate the beauty, humor and mystery of these scavenged images.

OK, but what about a Diane Arbus photo of puppies? How cool would finding something like that be?

Coming up this weekend: The Pier Show inaugurates a pink tag sale

Ah, the good old days, when Stella Show Management's Pier Antiques Show was the TRIPLE Pier Antiques Show. Things were so hopping, the show was held on two weekends in a row. Two weekends, three piers–hey, that's six piers, really.

Well, it's smaller now. One weekend, one pier (Pier 94). This year they're trying a pink tag sale, where dealers will hang a pink tag on items cheaper than $300. I'll be curious to see how this plays out. I can imagine that in a booth with very high-priced items, one or two tagged items might lure in the faint-hearted. But what about a booth with a number of collectibles priced under $300. Will it look silly? Desperate? Or merely affordable? 

Also up this weekend, in time for Asian Arts Week, the International Asian Art Fair at the Park Avenue Armory. Check the Shows+Fairs page for details.

Man who sold Arbus photos to another dealer says he was cheated of their true value

Lot 11 Charlie Lucas with sword box, Hubert’s Museum, NYC, 1959 by Diane Arbus

Bayo Ogunsanya has asked Brooklyn Federal Court to block an auction of Diane Arbus photos at Phillips de Pury next month. Ogunsanya sold the photos for $3,500 to  Robert Langmuir but was alerted to their true value by an article about their exhibit in the New York Times. He now complains that he was scammed.

"He was morally bound to give me a fair price especially since he had more knowledge [about the photos] than I did," Ogunsanya said.

Hear that? It's the sound of dealers across the land gasping. Buying low from the unsuspecting and chuckling all the way to the bank–that's the job description!

Ogunsanya, who collects African-Americana, bought a trunk full of the unclaimed photos from a Bronx storage facility in 2002, and now says he feels victimized. He claims Langmuir promised to give him more money if the photos turned out to be "worth more than you and I think they are."

They are a worth a whole lot more than $3,500. Picturing Hubert's Dime Museum and Flea Circus in Times Square in the 50s, the photos can be previewed on the Phillips de Pury website. There are 28 lots ranging in estimated price from 20,000–120,000. The photo above is estimated at 70,000-90,000.

While some may protest that Ogunsanya should have done his homework, I think most of us have experienced the sick feeling of realizing too late the value of a piece we've sold too cheaply. Imagine your worst mistake. Now add a few zeros and a really sweet retirement to the total . . . that hurts.

Dealer 'lost out' on lost Diane Arbus art [Daily News]
NYC man says he was conned into selling Arbus photos cheap [newsday.com]
Art Collector Feels "Victimized" After Selling Arbus Photos [Artinfo]

New York City Auctions March 17–23

Lot 5001 Hiroshi Yoshida "Numazaki Pasture" at Bonhams

Next week is Asian Art Week, with thirteen auctions around the city focusing on Chinese, Japanese, and Indian art. Don't forget IM Chait's Natural History Auction on the 21st.

Art theives: only cool and smart in the movies, part 2

Jason Beltrez: DeCrescenzo/News

A few weeks ago I posted a story about a Warhol Dollar Sign stolen from the Martin Lawrence Gallery in 1998. Christie's remarked that when Jason Beltrez tried to consign it, he didn't seem like a typical Warhol consignor, and I wondered exactly what your typical Warhol consignor looks like.

Then I found the photo above. I guess your typical Warhol consignor does not live in Windsor Terrace and wear Old Navy sweatshirts. Other negatives: Mr. Beltrez has suffered some personal losses that pushed him into drug abuse (he's now in rehab), is unemployed and has a criminal record. But on the plus side he is a homeowner and the father of three. And, apparently, a poodle lover.

Mr. Beltrez says that he bought the painting for $180 at a flea market outside the Holland Tunnel. He has hired a lawyer and is standing his ground, saying he's an honest man who lucked out and, in effect, finders keepers, losers weepers. "If I knew it was stolen, would I go to Christie's?" he asked.

Good point. On the other hand, art thieves are often "simply not the sharpest grappling hooks in the toolbag." Mr. Beltrez used to live on Broome Street, just blocks from the gallery from which the painting was stolen, which he himself admits seems fishy.

But the strangest part of the story is that he says he didn't realize what he had until a friend asked, of the dollar sign hanging on his wall, if it was painted by "that Campbell soup guy." Can you live in SoHo in the '90s and not know a Warhol when you see it?

A Warhol Surfaces and Is Headed for Court [New York Times]
SoHo gallery sues unemployed Brooklyn man, Christie's over Warhol painting [Daily News]

“Look what I'm leaving you in my will!” (Loud shreiks of horror.)

Some kids inherit grandma’s pearl necklace. Last March at the IM Chait Gallery's Natural History Auction in New York, Anders Karlsson, a gallery owner in Santa Monica, California, seemed confident that this Egyptian mummy’s hand would become a family heirloom. For the pleasure of freaking out his heirs, he paid $4,500. (I somehow wonder whether his kids would prefer the cash.)

Beverly Hills-based IM Chait will be holding two auctions in New York this March: Important Chinese Ceramics & Asian Works of Art on the 21st, and the next day, their second annual Natural History Auction. IM Chait's New York location is 267 Fifth Avenue at 29th Street, 11th floor. Previews are March 17–20, 10 am to 6 pm.

There's a giant gold nugget, a dinosaur skull, a mammoth tusk, fossils and meteorites . . . but sadly, this year no mummy hands. Even if you're not in the market for grisly family heirlooms, it should make fun browsing.

What’s been left to you that are you not looking forward to inheriting? Anyone?

And to the Winners Go the Dinosaur Skull and the Mummified Hand [New York Times, 2007 auction]

New York City Auctions: March 10–16, 2008

Hank Ketcham autograph at Swann Galleries.

Estate auctions at Clarke and Tepper, Stamps and autographs at Cherrystone and Swann, and vino, vino, vino at Christie's and Sotheby's.

Antiques Garage in Chelsea: the most authentic flea market left in New York City

Antiques Garage
112 West 25th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues
Saturday and Sunday 6:30 am to 5:00 pm

This is it, people: the most truly authentic flea market left in New York City is the Antiques Garage in Chelsea. It's exactly the type of market you can still find in Europe but that is fading fast from Manhattan.

Approximately 100 dealers set up their tables every weekend on two floors of a parking garage between 24th and 25th Streets. Sheltered inside from the weather, they sell eclectic antiques, decorative arts and vintage collectibles. There's silver. There's prints and paintings. There's furniture. There's all sorts of weird and interesting stuff plus the promise of haphazard luck that keeps people like us on the move and on the hunt. In short, there's old things–lots.

The craft and new jewelry makers that swell other fleas have tried their luck here, but with no success, because the crowd drawn to the Antiques Garage is too hardcore.

Clarke Auction Gallery to Antiques Roadshow: valuation day? We got your valuation day right here.

Clarke Auction Gallery is now offering free valuations on Wednesdays from 1 to 5 pm.

That mystery piece in the garage that you've always fantasized about hauling out to Antiques Roadshow? You'll be missing your chance to appear on television with one of the Keno brothers, but on the other hand, at Clarke there's no long lines, and no chance that you'll be that shame-faced sucker who just got told in front of millions of viewers that the cherished family heirloom is a worthless reproduction.

Clarke once identified a suite of shabby chic furniture as 18th- or early 19th-Century Venetian, and sold it for $70,000. Get this–the owner hadn't been able to interest any of Manhattan's larger auction houses in the furniture. Oops.

There's a limit of three items per person, and you can bring photos instead of the actual object. Contact them at 914-833-8336 or email [email protected]. If you're pleased with what you discover, you can sell it to Clarke directly (if they're interested) or consign your prize to auction. Or bring it home and brag a lot.

If you're not happy, however, you can just slink away, blissfully anonymous.

What the...?! Clarke identified this unwanted piece of glass as a Livio Seguso sculpture and sold it for $1900.

Related: Clarke Auction Gallery: deals on estate furniture and mid-century modern

 

New York City auctions: March 3–9, 2008

Lot 0141 Cai Guo Qiang "Alligator" at Christie's Interiors sale 

Tuesday March 4

• Christie's 10 am and 2 pm: Interiors

Wednesday March 5

• Christie's 10 am and 2 pm: Interiors
• Bloomsbury 10 am and 2 pm: Bibliophile Sale: Americana and Literature

Thursday March 6

• Sotheby's 2 pm: American Paintings
• Swann 10:30 am and 2:30 pm: 100 Fine Works on Paper; and 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings

Friday March 7

• Christie's 10 am: Fine American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture

Foreign auction lust: Bruun Rasmussen in Denmark

Yes, we're still in Denmark. Great coffee, marzipan desserts, wonderful antiques . . . why move on before we're ready?

Bruun Rasmussen is the big kid auction house in Copenhagen. Even though Lauritz claims to the be the largest, my sense is that with their internet-based rise, they're the upstart; Bruun Rasmussen, opened in 1948, is the more traditional, with sophistication equivalent to Christie's and Sotheby's. One of the top ten auction houses in the world (according to their site) they have four galleries in Denmark, hold over 40 auctions a year, and are represented in Sweden, France, Spain and the USA.

If you want Danish modern, go to the source. If you can't afford to have it shipped, Bruun Rasmussen has a nice website with several photos of each lot, and a zoom feature, so you can at least drool. Everything's in English, too, so you know what you're missing. I appreciate their search agent, which sends me updates if an artist I've listed for appears for sale.

Art theives: only cool and smart in the movies

photo from The New York Times

"Art is an exceedingly dumb thing to steal." That's the conclusion of the New York Times. While art thieves may have a sexy, sophisticated reputation:

The mundane reality is that many art thieves are simply not the sharpest grappling hooks in the toolbag; the smart ones choose to steal things that can be much more easily converted into money — or just money itself.

In other words, once the Van Gogh is in your possession, where in the world are you going to fence it? It's not like there are multiple copies of the same painting lying around. If you've got the painting that just disappeared from the famous museum, it's pretty glaring.

New York City Auctions February 25–March 2, 2008

Greene photo of Marilyn Monroe at Tepper Galleries

Monday February 25

• Sotheby's 6 pm: An Exceptional Private Cellar

Wednesday February 27

• Doyle 10 am: Doyle at Home: Fine Furniture, Decorations and Paintings
• R.A. Siegel 6 pm: The Tahoe Collection of Superb Used United States Stamps

Thursday February 28

• R.A. Siegel 1:30 pm: The Barry K. Schwartz Collection of the 1893 Columbian Issue
  

Saturday March 1

• Tepper Galleries 10 am: Fine & Decorative Arts Estates Auction

high/low auction prices: February 12th dog sales

Doyle: Dogs in Art

• hi: $193,000 lot 2078A Cassius Marcellus Coolidge "Only a Pair of Deuces"
• lo: $75 lot 2079 Linda Hackett "Pekingese - a Study"

The Pekingese study was actually the second lowest-priced lot (the very lowest lot was #2033, two books on dogs, for $63.) but I wanted to show it because every time I look at these pieces next to each other I think ... why? WHY?

Bonhams: The Dog Sale

• hi: $66,000 lot 225 John Emms "Foxhounds and a hunt terrier on a bench"
• lo: $108 lot No: 50 "Dogs Rough and Smooth" illustrated by Lucy Dawson

These pictures are details of the originals. Prices are inclusive of buyer's premium and, possibly, taxes.

 

Antique Trader hosts an amusing and informative blog

Have you checked out the Antique Trader Blog? Some of my favorite posts so far:

When Antiques Get Dangerous! a story about about a New Jersey flea market site that was a former firing range–live munitions may still be buried there;

Auction Dupe? Or the name of the game? a pretty sad tale about how a rogue Oregon auctioneer bilked a couple out of the rightful gains from their estate;

and a number of posts about the mess eBay is making of their business and the lengths sellers are going to to find other outlets, including: Online auctioneers divide eBay exodus booty.

The Antique Trader Blog pulls in many quick, informative, and amusing stories from around the country. My mother used to subscribe to the print version and it was a big event when it came in the mail. It's nice to see that the magazine is still relevant and moving gracefully into the digital world.

Clarke Auction Gallery: deals on estate furniture and mid-century modern

Clarke (C&C) Auction Gallery
20 North Avenue in Larchmont
(914) 833-8336

Bidders rest on one of the lots at Clarke.

New York City is almost cursed with a number of big name auction houses. Christie's, Sotheby's, Doyle . . . where's the fun of going to an auction if you have to worry about wearing the right designer shoes?

Luckily, there are still some "real world" auction houses in the area. Clarke Auction Gallery is one of these. Comfortable and unassuming, patronized by dealers looking for inventory, interior designers shopping for clients, and apartment self-decorators fleeing Pottery Barn, Clarke has some great finds.

Sotheby's rocks with Bono and (Auction) Red

Rock star Bono is hosting (Auction) Red at Sotheby's this Valentine's Day to benefit the charity.

If you're eager to bid against the likes of Michael Stipe, Moby, Josh Hartnett, Ed Burns, Dennis Hopper and Christy Turlington, don't hurry to register for a paddle. The audience of 700 is invite only.

(Red) benefits AIDS patients in Africa. A percentage of the sale of consumer products bearing the (Red) label goes to buy the two pills a day necessary to keep patients alive. Bono convinced Damien Hirst to petition many of the art world's top contemporary artists–Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami, Chuck Close and more–to donate pieces to the auction, the entire proceeds of which will benefit the charity. Many of the pieces were created specifically for the auction, and are donated directly by the artists.

It's refreshing to hear about an auction where the proceeds will go to real good. But the original sales estimate of $40 million has dropped recently to $21–29 million based on recession fears. Pump up the music, Bono! Shake those wallets, people!

Shelley's Art History Blog [About.com]
Sotheby's Cuts Estimate for Hirst, Bono-Backed Auction by 28% [Bloomberg.com]

New York City Auctions February 18–24

Lot 2136 Walter Williams, "Harvest," at Swann's African American Fine Art sale

Tuesday February 19

• Swann 1:30 pm: African American Fine Art

Wednesday February 20

• Cherrystone 11 am: The Salomon Rosenthal Collection of Mexican Maritime Mail
• Christie's 10 am and 2 pm: Photographs

Thursday February 21

• Swann 1:30 pm: Printed & Manuscript African Americana

Saturday February 23

• Morrell Wine Auctions 10:30 am and 2 pm

Coming up this weekend

Starting today, the New York Design Fair is at the Park Avenue Armory. And tomorrow, the Manhattan Vintage Clothing Show is back at the Metropolitan Pavilion. (See Shows + Fairs for details.)

The Clothing Show has someone who's a really good photographer cover the events and I always like looking through the highlight shots on their site. Here are a few from 2007.

Update: the new Brooklyn Flea is building its dealer list

I was wondering the other day if the Brownstoner's Brooklyn Flea had been able to recruit any sellers. Then I found their new blog. Check it out: they've included a list of all the vendors who have committed so far. Paul De Beer is one–Eric Demby says that he spotted Paul on Craig's List and called him up with an invite. It looks as if they already have a good selection, but I'm rooting for the flea's list of antiques, vintage and collectible dealers to grow (there's just way too many hand-made crafty things in the city markets these days, grumble grumble) so if you're that person, or if you have any advice on which sources Eric should use to spread the word to the antiques community, please contact him through the website.

Random news linkage

Just when we all got over the Elizabeth Gibson/"Tres Personajes" drama, another stolen painting has surfaced in Manhattan. Filched from the Martin Lawrence Gallery in 1998, one of Warhol's Dollar Sign portraits re-surfaced when a man named Jason Beltrez tried to consign it to Christie's. The auction house is holding the painting, which is on the Art Loss Register, while the gallery sues for its return. The register's general counsel remarked "It really was a textbook case for us. You had a seller who may not have been your typical Andy Warhol consigner and you have a major auction house that's doing the right thing."

OK, but who IS a typical Warhol consigner? Are they that easily recognizable?

On to the shows ... reading between the lines, it sounds as if attendance was off at the New York Ceramics Fair; they're blaming bad weather and football. If you want to get an idea of who showed what and what it sold for, check out these reports on the Winter Antiques Show and Antiques Manhattan. I'm wondering how Phyllis Sauter made out with Antiques Show Chelsea . . . Phyllis?

New York City auctions: February 11–17, 2008

Lot No: 252 Portrait of the Brussels Griffon 'Dearly' by Eugene van Gelder (Belgian, born  1856) at Bonhams Dog Sale.

Monday February 11

• C&C Auction Gallery 6 pm (Larchmont): Estate Auction

Tuesday February 12

• Bonhams 10 am: The Dog Sale
• Doyle 1 pm: Dogs in Art including Sporting Paintings

Wednesday February 13

• Doyle 10 am: Belle Epoque: 19th and 20th Century Decorative Arts
• Sotheby's 10 am: Impressionist and Modern Art including Russian and Latin American Art

Thursday February 14

• Christie's 10 am: Impressionist And Modern Art
• Sotheby's 7 pm: (Red)

Saturday February 16

• Tepper 10 am: Estates Auction

Generally, dealers leave the Winter Antiques Show because they've died

photo by stickerhelsinki

That's the gist of  this article about getting a spot at the Winter Antiques Show. Dealers wait up to THIRTY years to be asked to the show; they can apply, but in the end they have to get the nod in the form of a formal invite. To even have a prayer, their goods have to be top-notch and in original condition. Mirrors, for example, must be the original glass, not re-gilded, and the condition of the paint has to pass muster.

"We have a very low attrition rate,'' said the show's executive director, Catherine Sweeney Singer. "Of course you can be removed for not having show-worthy material, but that's very rare."

Besides New York socialites, the clientele at the show includes many museum curators. Let's see . . . limited access to high-rolling, high-profile customers, intense entry requirements, and possibly long-living dealers/rivals blocking access to the Big Show: sounds like the makings of a good murder mystery.

Cool curiosities; Dealers wait decades for a slot in the Winter Antiques Show [The Sault Star]

"The Magical Grasp of Antiques" in The New Yorker

Back in July, Glenn Eichler wrote a Shouts & Murmurs piece that poked fun at the collecting passion:

How to describe the sensation of walking into an antique store? That first moment, so pregnant with possibility, when you exchange the tiresome sunlight and fresh air of the street outside for the musky, dark, crowded aisles where pleasure awaits? There’s the initial blindness, of course, and the stumble over the uneven floorboards and perhaps a sharp howl of pain as the hand you put out to steady yourself ends up in a basket of awls. But then your eyes adjust and you see the riches laid out before you: the headless dolls, the nibless pens, the shadeless lamps. And the zithers. Dear God, the zithers.

Zithers. Well said. Check out the full piece here.

New York City auctions: February 4–10, 2008

lot 0396 Japanese Wood Brazier with Applied Bronze and Mother-of-Pearl Decoration at Christie's Interiors

Tuesday February 5

• Christie's 10 am and 2 pm: Interiors
• Richmond Galleries 10 am (Staten Island)

Wednesday February 6

• Christie's 10 am and 2 pm: Interiors
• Sotheby's 10 am and 2 pm: Important Jewels

Thursday February 7

• Christie's 10 am and 2 pm: Prints & Multiples
• Swann 2:30 pm: Fine Photographs 
• Tepper Galleries 10 am: Valentine Estate Jewelry and Related Items

Friday February 8

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

Foreign auction lust: Lauritz in Scandinavia

When I visited Copenhagen in 2000, a traditional show-room style auction house named Lauritz Christensen was making its internet bid. "How quaint," I thought. "Poor little Danes, eBay is going to squash them like a bug."

Boy, was I wrong. It seems every time I check their site they've bought another Mom and Pop auction house and marched further across Scandinavia. One of the oldest auction houses in Denmark, Laurtiz is now also the biggest, and has expanded into Sweden, Norway and Germany.

high/low auction prices: Americana week sales

Christie's Important American Furniture, Folk Art, Prints And Decoys, January 17

• hi: $10,625 lot 220: Robert Havell (Jr.) engraving, the bird of Washington or great American sea eagle
• lo: $625 lot 225: same artist, engraving of Republican cliff swallow; also lot 247, same artist, engraving of American water ouzel

Christie's Property From The Collection OF George & Lesley Schoedinger January 18 (details pictured above)

• hi: $29,800 lot 546: Ammi Phillips, portrait of Mr. Dilbee of Pine Plains (oil)
• lo: $5,250 lot 762: American School, portrait of a cat with a ball of yarn (oil)

Christie's Important American Furniture, Folk Art, Prints And Decoys January 18

• hi: $157,000 lot 549: attributed to John Sherburne Blunt, Willard Family portrait (oil)
• lo: $500 lot 708: Richard E(dwin) Brooks, a portrait medallion of Edgar Junior

Sotheby's Property from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. George Fenimore Johnson, January 18

• hi: $31,000 lot 18: American School, Boston and the harbor from Donald McKay's shipyard (oil)
• lo: $1,250 lot 85: Curt Walters, rock study of Inner Gorge, Grand Canyon (oil)

Sotheby's Important Americana, January 18

• hi: $1,833,000 lot 168: the McMichael-Tilghman Family "Acme of Perfection" Chippendale carved and figured mahogany tea table
• lo: $625 lot 192: a Chippendale carved mahogany side chair circa 1785

All prices include buyer's premium.

Mantiques Modern: manly 20th Century Design in Chelsea

Mantiques Modern
146 w. 22nd St.
212-206-1494

When I asked the guy at the register if Mantiques is a man's antiques shop, and then stood cursing myself inside for asking such a dumb question, he seemed genuinely surprised that I would suggest such a thing. "It's somewhat geared," he said, "towards the masculine edge."

Uh, somewhat. I'd say that if I were shopping for an ultra-sophisticated, antiques-loving male relative, this shop would be my first choice. It's one of those eclectic, satisfying stores that inside its doors has created its own world.