Tag: Headline News

DALLAS — Frank Miller’s 1982 cover for Daredevil #185 sparked one of the most ferocious bidding wars of the weekend to realize $225,000, leading Heritage Auctions’ March 10-12 International Original Art & Anime Signature auction. The auction achieved a $3,155,731 total with 814 lots. Before Miller’s star-making turn on “The Dark Knight Returns,” the writer-artist rescued Daredevil from Marvel’s margins, and the brink of cancellation, with what comics historian Les Daniels called “terse tales of urban crime.” Daredevil #185 was the first issue for which Miller handed the pencils to Klaus Janson. Miller wrote the story and drew the cover that featured two images of Daredevil, the heroic main rendering that fills the page and the smaller icon leaping out of the corner box. Prices quoted with buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, 214-528-1425 or www.ha.com.

NEW YORK CITY — On March 15, Doyle hosted another of its popular Doyle + Design auctions, offering 315 lots of modern and contemporary decorative arts from prominent Twentieth and Twenty-First Century designers. Max Ingrand’s designs for Fontana Arte led the sale, the foremost being a gilt-metal and glass Dahlia chandelier. Made in the 1950s, the chandelier had 16 lights with curved and tapered translucent green petal-form shades. It was consigned from the property of a Miami collector and achieved $47,250. More on this and other top lots to follow; price quoted with buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house.

GREAT FALLS, MONT. — Described as the finest Keyston Bros saddle ever made, a silver parade saddle, circa 1950, virtually covered with sterling silver and featuring 30 14K gold horsehead overlay decorations and more moseyed to the top of the March in Montana auctions March 17-18, selling for $79,950, including buyer’s premium. The silver and leather masterwork had 13 Ute Chieftain sterling decorations displayed together with all matching accessories, including serape, tapaderos, bridle and bit, martingale, corona and crupper/hipdrop, which is rarely seen on any of the these saddles. The silver and leather were engraved and tooled in floral designs, and “Dedicated to Millstream Hub” was engraved on the cantle. Included with the saddle was a custom stand, made in the style of Ed Bohlin, four fancy rider outfits and several miscellaneous parade decorations for the horse. Keyston Bros bought out Heiser Saddle Co in 1950 and many silver pieces were made from original Heiser dies, including the sterling Ute Chieftain head featured on this saddle. The 36th two-session live auction presented by Coeur d’Alene Galleries and the Coeur d’Alene Art Auction in the Elks Lodge drew dealers and buyers from around the world. March featured more than 750 lots of Western art and sculpture and cowboy and Native collectibles. A future review will discuss additional highlights.

Fine art, silver and early Americana were prominent in this week’s top lots. Silver was represented from early English candlesticks to a midcentury Danish coffee service. Warhol maintained his spot as top earner of most auctions, followed in price by Armenian artist Minas Avetisyan. Well-preserved examples of colonial American decorative art and portraiture also impressed. Read on for more successful bids. Circumnavigation Account Sails To Top At CT River Book Auction SOUTH GLASTONBURY, CONN. – Despite the threat of snow, a large group of book and ephemera enthusiasts made the trek to the Connecticut River Book Auction (CRBA) on March 3. The highlight of the evening was a surprise, but should not have been completely unexpected, according to owner Tom Gullotta. A later inscribed and dated printing of Joshua Slocum’s Sailing Alone Around the World was sold for $1,185 to an attendee. For those unfamiliar with this classic, it details his solo global circumnavigation aboard the sloop Spray. For information, www.ctriverbookauction.com or 860-908-8067. Connecticut Highboy Finds Buyer At D.L. Straight Sale STURBRIDGE, MASS. – A great sale of estate-fresh antiques from all across New England awaited bidders at D.L. Straight’s March 4 Americana and folk art auction. All periods of Americana were represented – from Pilgrim period furnishings, Queen Anne, Chippendale and later. A Suffield, Conn., Queen Anne highboy was the main attraction, selling for $3,750. Standing on carved Spanish feet, the maple and pine case piece, circa 1740, was fitted with original brasses and exhibited red painted surfaces, 73 by 36 by 17 inches. For information, www.dlstraightauctioneers.com or 508-769-5404. Early English Candlesticks Light Up Sarasota Silver Sale SARASOTA, FLA. – Featuring a lifetime collection of sterling silver, Sarasota Estate Auction’s March 4 silver sale included key examples, whether traditional English, French and American and

Consigned from a Dighton, Mass., estate, this shelf clock by B.C. Gilman (Exeter, N.H.) was bought by a collector at almost 25 times its high estimate for $49,200. Review by Z.G. Burnett, Photos Courtesy Bruneau & Co Auctioneers CRANSTON, R.I. – Bruneau & Co Auctioneers conducted its Double Session sale on February 27, beginning with a Couture and Jewelry auction in the morning and continuing with Fine & Decorative Arts in the afternoon. First was the penultimate session of the couture and jewelry collection from a prominent Cranston, R.I., collection, and the second session assembled fine and decorative arts from nearby New England estates. The two sessions totaled $243,500 combined; most of the couture went to collectors, and there was “a diverse demographic for the arts” according to Ashle M. Landry, Bruneau’s operations manager. The top seller of the two sessions came from the art and antiques section, a shelf clock that multiplied its $1/2,000 estimate to $49,200. Commonly known as a “Boston” or “Massachusetts” clock because of the form’s origins in that area, Benjamin Clark Gilman of Exeter, N.H., made this example in the early Nineteenth Century. The clock worked at the time of testing, included its wind-up keys and showed inlaid vine and leaf detailing on its case. Five phone bidders vied for this piece, but in the end only two remained until the end. Born in Exeter in 1763, Gilman began his career as a silversmith and applied these skills to clock and instrument-making, for which he earned acclaim. He was later hired to install the town’s aqueduct, then became the superintendent and treasurer of the Aqueduct Company in Boston. From the same Dighton, Mass., estate came a later Nineteenth Century clock from the Waltham Clock Company (active

Virginia Wolfe’s Mrs Dalloway tied with a George Washington letter for the sale’s highest price, $30,000. Only about 2,000 copies of this book were published and this one retained its original dust jacket. Review by Rick Russack, Photos Courtesy Swann Auction Galleries NEW YORK CITY – Swann Auction Galleries’ sale of Fine Books and Autographs on March 2 ranged from signed photos of Princess Diana and Prince Charles to George Washington letters and first editions of Moby-Dick and Tom Sawyer. In between, there were numerous autographs of presidents, letters from artists, signed photographs of astronauts, Watergate material, fine press and illustrated books and still more. Two items, a George Washington letter and a Virginia Wolfe first edition both earned $30,000 and shared the sale’s top-lot honor. Autographed material was sold first. Letters written by well-known men and women from history often reveal little known aspects of the personality of people we thought we knew well and some of their personal business affairs. Such was the case with a one-page handwritten letter by George Washington concerning a private business transaction. The letter was written during his presidency – in 1790 – to Ebenezer Tucker, who had served under him in the Revolutionary War. It discussed the desired character of prospective buyers of land he intended to sell. In the letter, Washington said that once prospective buyers had examined the land in Pennsylvania, and “act like fair and candid men – I am ready to treat with them. It is not my intention to dispose of the land for a song, nor is it my wish to higgle, or make many words to the bargain – for which reason I pray them to come to a decision at once, and that you would inform me

English maritime artist John Stobart passed away at the age of 93 on March 2, the day after his painting titled “Packet Great Western Approaching New York,” sold for $59,375, the top lot in Eldred’s Marine Sale Session II. Signed lower right “Stobart 68,” titled on a gallery label verso and on a frame plaque, the oil on canvas measured 33 by 44 inches, framed. The ship, designed and built by William Webb in 1851, was the largest vessel to date of the Black Ball Line, designed for domestic mail, passenger and freight transportation. Review by W.A. Demers, Photos Courtesy Eldred’s EAST DENNIS, MASS. – The top lot in Eldred’s Marine Sale Session II on March 1 was a painting by John Stobart (English, 1929-2023) titled “Packet Great Western Approaching New York,” selling for $59,375. Signed lower right “Stobart 68,” titled on a gallery label verso and on a frame plaque, the oil on canvas measured 33 by 44 inches, framed. Designed and built by William Webb in 1851, the packet ship Great Western was the largest vessel to date of the Black Ball Line. Packet ships were designed for domestic mail, passenger and freight transportation in European countries and in North American rivers. The Great Western was a fast and sturdy vessel and completed many transatlantic crossings before she was sold in 1878. On March 2, the day after Eldred’s auction, Stobart, one of the world’s most renowned maritime artists, passed away at 93 years old. A remembrance published by Rehs Galleries, New York City, cited Stobart as “widely celebrated for his breathtaking depictions of historic maritime scenes both at sea and important port cities.” His works can be found in the collections of museums, corporations and private collectors around the world.

“It was clearly the best piece in this sale and set the second highest price for Ohr’s work at auction,” David Rago said of the auction’s top lot, an 8¾-inch-tall exceptional tall pitcher that made $107,100 ($20/30,000). Review by Madelia Hickman Ring, Photos Courtesy Rago LAMBERTVILLE, N.J. – On Tuesday, February 28, Rago offered nearly 150 lots from the collection of artist, collector and ceramics champion, Robert A. Ellison Jr, who donated more than 600 pieces over the course of his lifetime to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Achieving a total of $1,966,264 with 98 percent of lots finding new homes, the sale set multiple records, including those for George Ohr, Pewabic Pottery, Union Porcelain Works and Babs Haenen “This one was personal,” David Rago told Antiques and The Arts Weekly. “Fifty years is a long time for any relationship. And I don’t often think that provenance is all it’s made out to be. I mean, a bad pot is a bad pot no matter who owned it once. But provenance clearly had something to do with the results, and I’ve never seen a stronger ceramics sale, lot for lot. The total was more than double the high estimate, and it was hard, while calling this auction, to resist having a big smile. I think Robert Ellison was certainly smiling down on us.” The author – or co-author – of two books on George E. Ohr (1857-1918), Ellison can safely be called an expert – if not THE expert – on the Arts and Crafts era potter, who Rago said “might have been IN the Arts and Crafts/Art Pottery period, but he was certainly not OF it.” Ellison’s collection offered 20 rare and unusual examples by Ohr, two of which brought the top

Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery featured colorful baskets and paintings by Australian aboriginal artists. London. Review & Onsite Photos by Madelia Hickman Ring NEW YORK CITY – Sixty-three exhibitors, hailing from 15 states and seven international countries, gathered once again for the 31st Annual Outsider Art Fair, which took place at the Metropolitan Pavilion March 2-5. In addition to several dealers who deal in the blue chip “Outsider Old Masters,” – including but not limited to Bill Traylor, Henry Darger, Martin Ramirez, Minnie Evans, William Hawkins and William Edmondson – the fair welcomed exhibitors who showed the work of living artists, both those with an established following, and “emerging” ones new to the field. “The fair was packed the whole time and our exhibitors were extremely happy, which is the ultimate barometer of success,” said fair chief executive officer Andrew Edlin. “So many folks went out of their way to tell me they thought the quality of the work being shown was better than ever.” As the fair has done in past years, two curated non-selling exhibitions were presented for the interest of viewers. Closest to the front entrance was a suite of eight paintings by American artist and architect Paul Laffoley (1935-2015), in an exhibition titled “The Life and Death of Elvis Presley: A Suite.” Begun in 1988 and completed in 1995, the group represents distinct phases of Presley’s life as viewed by the artist. In the back corner of the show’s floor was the exhibition, “We Are Birds,” which was curated by Grammy award-winning music producer Randall Poster and Andrew Edlin in partnership with The Birdsong Project and in support of the National Audubon Society. The exhibition featured dozens of works inspired by birdlife made by nearly 50 self-taught and contemporary artists.

Made by Ernst Plank Company, Nuremberg, Germany, in 1908, this early hand-painted mechanical model bi-plane soared to a final price of $66,000 and was the top lot in the sale. Measuring 20 inches long with a 14¾-inch wingspan, it bore a significant resemblance to the 1903 Wright Flyer. The front elevators, the rudder, fuselage, propellers, motor and wing tips are all virtually identical to those found in all early biplane design. Review by W.A. Demers, Photos Courtesy RSL Auction Company WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J. – Made by Ernst Plank Company, Nuremberg, Germany, in 1908, a Wright Flyer lookalike, an early hand-painted mechanical model bi-plane, 20 inches long with a 14¾-inch wingspan, maneuvered to a final price of $66,000, a record, on March 4. It was the top lot in RSL Auction Co’s Part II of the Kidd Toy Museum collection, which followed Part I on December 3-4, 2022. Catalog notes stated, “Without any doubt, this is one of the most important early toy airplanes to ever be sold at auction. It bears a very significant resemblance to the 1903 Wright Flyer. The front elevators, the rudder, fuselage, propellers, motor and wing tips are all virtually identical to those found in all early biplane design. This plane has been in a prominent collection for many years. The condition for an early hand-painted German toy is very exceptional. When wound, the toy worked very well.” The overall sale, comprising a total of 644 lots, presented a diverse selection of antique toys and banks, including 350 still banks, many from the collections of Gary Stubbs, Frank Kidd and Alvin Goldstein. A total of between 30-40 world auction records were posted in the sale that blew way past its estimate to finish at $966,000 with a 99 percent