(OCEANSIDE, N.Y.) – A Tiffany Studios leaded glass bronze floor lamp lit up the room for $135,600 at a three-day multi-estate sale held Sept. 24-26 by Philip Weiss Auctions. It was the top item of the estimated 1,800 fresh-to-the-market lots offered from prominent local estates and collections. The sale was held in the Philip Weiss showroom, at #1 Neil Court in Oceanside.

The Tiffany lamp came from the Jacqueline Lowe estate. Its provenance could be traced back to an appraisal the family had done in the early 1930s. It boasted a bamboo-style lamp base and a dragonfly type shade, but altered into a unique pattern. The shade was marked “Tiffany Studios New York 150″ and a foot of the base was marked “Tiffany Studios New York 472.”

The auction grossed over $750,000 and attracted approximately 1,000 bidders, both in-house and online (through Proxibid.com). “As expected, fresh merchandise sold for big money,” said Philip Weiss of Philip Weiss Auctions. “We had everything from transportation and ocean liner material to stamps and coins to original paintings and sculptures to Peanuts comic strips.”

Following are additional highlights from the sale. All prices quoted include a 13 percent buyer’s premium.

The Tiffany name was front and center among top achievers. A fantastic Tiffany & Co. humidor made for the Corsair – a yacht owned by renowned American industrialist J. P, Morgan – changed hands for $7,628. The case was rosewood, with two flags centered, and most of the covers were marked “Tiffany & Co.” The humidor measured 23.5 inches long by 11 inches wide.

Three original Peanuts comic strips, drawn by the legendary illustrator Charles Schulz, went for a combined $41,245. A 1969 daily with a football theme and Peppermint Patty as the coach brought $14,125; a daily dated Dec. 15, 1956, in which Lucy loses her tooth, hit $18,080; and a strip from January 1984 showing Snoopy on top of his dog house gaveled for $9,040.

An archive of material pertaining to the short-lived Tucker automobile fetched $19,200. The material, all circa 1940s and from a dealer called Prusack Motor Sales, included a company checkbook, booklets, advertising posters, newspaper clippings, silk advertising banners, four original seat covers with boxes, and two suitcases, which came with the purchase of a Tucker.

Turning to artwork, a figural statue of a boy and a girl, executed in Carrara marble by the Italian artist Romanelli Fratelli (circa 1888) climbed to $20,340. The work depicted a little boy getting ready to blow his horn into the ear of a beautiful little girl laying down on a period sofa. The marble pedestal was spectacular, showing a group of dolphins and heavily carved leaves.

Two oil on canvas paintings by Eugene G. Berman (1899-1972) got paddles wagging. One, signed and dated June 1949, was titled The Obelisks and measured 24.5 inches by 30.5 inches ($10,170); the other was initialed and dated 1948 and measured 29.5 inches by 36 inches (16,950). Both were from the estate of Theresa Helburn, with 40+ years in the Theater Guild.

An important oil on canvas painting by Jacques Zucker, titled The Subway Station and executed during the Great Depression for the WPA, topped out at $9,605. The work boasted a fabulous image of a man at a newsstand, buying a newspaper and accompanied by his dog. It measured 21 inches by 26 inches, had been signed and came from the estate of a family member.

A turn of the century fireman’s archive from Henry Wolleben, former Brooklyn fireman, rose to $4,200. Included were a Limoges occupational shaving mug, a cabinet card of Wolleben in full uniform, a retirement certificate, an 18kt gold pocket watch from the FDNY, a souvenir paperweight, Wolleben’s fire helmet with original front leather and an 1893 exempt certificate.

Rounding out the auction’s top lots: a pair of U.S. silver dollars dated 1870 – a proof dollar and a standard dollar, both in high grade condition – sold as one lot for $12,995; and a rare Ben Shahn Progressive Party poster, titled “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” hammered for $4,520. The poster, 45.5 inches by 30 inches, had some light creases but was overall very nice.

Philip Weiss Auctions has a massive three-day weekend sale slated for Oct. 22-24, also in Oceanside. Featured will be hundreds of fresh-to-the-market lots of toys and toy trains, railroad memorabilia, Hollywood memorabilia, vintage dolls, antique advertising, coin-ops and more. Online bidding will be facilitated by Proxibid. Phone and absentee bids will also be accepted.

Then, sometime before the turn of the year, Philip Weiss Auctions will present a Comic Books and Comic Art Sale. Featured will be rare and vintage comic books from the 1930s to the present time, wonderful examples of comic art, Part 2 of the Copley comic art collection (featuring original cartoon panels and assorted daily comic strips and Sunday pages) and more.
Previews will be held on the days leading up to, and including, the auction dates, for both upcoming sales.

Philip Weiss Auctions is always accepting quality consignments for future sales. To consign an item, an estate or a collection, you may call them at (516) 594-0731, or e-mail them at phil@prwauctions.com. To learn more about Philip Weiss Auctions and the firm’s calendar of upcoming auctions, to include the Oct. 22-24 weekend event, click on www.prwauctions.com.

(ATLANTA, Ga.) – Red Baron – the premier auction house in the Southeast – has saved the best for last in 2010 with a fall auction that will be packed with over 2,000 lots that would impress even the most discriminating and seasoned collector. The weekend event will be held Nov. 6-7 in the Red Baron gallery, located at 6450 Roswell Road in Sandy Springs, near Atlanta.

“This will certainly be our greatest event of the year, and possibly ever,” said Bob Brown of Red Baron. “We have gone to great lengths to assemble an array of items that would suit the taste of any connoisseur: architectural antiques, fine furnishings, fine art, rare and vintage guns, guitars signed by rock ‘n’ roll legends, jaw-dropping gems, killer cars, vintage wine and more.”

The auction will feature several important presidential items, to include a bench handmade and signed by Jimmy Carter (with a photo of Mr. Carter building the bench), Ronald Reagan’s yearbook from his senior year at college (The Prism, 1932), with an autographed message from Mr. Reagan, and a wax figure of Ulysses S. Grant, in full uniform, from Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum in England.

Headlining the guitars category will be an acoustic guitar played and signed by the late musician Jimi Hendrix, a Galveston guitar signed by numerous rock legends, two Peavey Predator series electric guitars (signed by Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia and others), a guitar signed in bold writing by blues legend BB King, and many vintage Gibsons and Martins.

Fans of royal couture will be amazed by a collection of clothing items from the collection of Princess Lucie Shirazi, a Belgian-born aristocrat who married Prince Ali Shirazi Parav of Iran. She died in 1994 at age 86. Pieces from the collection will include a Pauline Trigere’s tailored dress with bolero jacket, a circa 1930s black velvet opera coat and many other gorgeous items.

Rare, magnificent bars – a staple at most Red Baron sales and a wonderful addition to any fine home or office – will be led by “The Joker Bar,” an original back bar in Honduras mahogany, crafted for use on a Mississippi riverboat and so-named because of the four large joker masks integrated into the capitals. Also sold will be a nice towering antique Brunswick liquor cabinet.

Another jaw-dropping lot promises to be an original set of 15 stained and layered figural windows made in the late 19th century by the Tiffany Glass & Decorating Company and still in their original wood frames. The set, titled Parable of the Sower, was commissioned by Noah Pomfrey’s children and installed in St. Paul’s Universalist Church in Meriden, Conn., in 1893.

Speaking of Tiffany, vintage lamps made by the renowned manufacturer will include a 10-inch Damascene shade on a hand-blown glass base (circa 1900-1910), a blown glass linen fold shade on a dore adjustable counterbalance base (circa 1910-1920), and a harp floor lamp with gold Favrile shade and signed, numbered base. Very nice Pairpoint lamps will also be sold.

From the fine art category, just a few lots of note include an oil on canvas by Jules Ghobert (Belgian, 1881-1971), titled Bath Time; two original oil on board works by Wayne Morrell (Am., b. 1923); an oil on canvas by Giuseppe Puricelli Guerra (It., 1825-1894), titled Hawking; and a grand scale oil on canvas by W. H. Smith, on the subject of “Eve” (circa 1900).

Wild and wonderful vehicles are another Red Baron trademark, and this sale will be no exception. Where else can you bid on a veritable fleet of 1960s Good Humor ice cream trucks? Other offerings will include a 1958 custom-bodied one-of-a-kind MG MGA hot rod, a 1963 Land Rover, a 1965 British armored scout vehicle, and restored Willys Jeepsters (1924, 1948).

From the open road to outer space, Red Baron has got it all. Sold will be a massive 397-pound meteorite that landed in Chile and will now be auctioned. Other finds will feature a rare white quartz crystal from Brazil weighing over 1,000 pounds, a large fossil of amenorites, and an authentic baby dinosaur skeleton from the Cretaceous period, originally unearthed in China.

Guitars won’t be the only musical lots on the menu. Other items of “note” will include a completely restored Wurlitzer jukebox (Model 850), a very nice signed harp in mahogany with a gilt edge, a rare musical clock in European walnut with fine carvings, and a large Regina 25-disc polyphone music box in a mahogany cabinet with foliate carvings and 12 additional music discs.

Red Baron Antiques is one of the oldest, largest and widely-known fine antiques sources in the Southeast. The firm is celebrating over 35 years of providing its customers with world-class service and unique inventory, displayed at its gallery facility, which is open to the public Monday through Friday, from 9-6, and Saturday from 9-4. Red Baron is closed on Sundays.

Red Baron also has several affiliate operations, such as The Red Baron Collection, Gallery 63, King Galleries and Queen’s Garden. These are profiled in the ‘Affiliates’ tool bar of the firm’s website, at www.rbantiques.com. Red Baron also owns Southern Seasons Magazine, a high-society lifestyle publication dedicated to the arts, culture, entertainment, style and class.

Red Baron is always in the hunt for quality merchandise for future sales. If you have an item, estate or collection to be considered, you may call them directly, at (404) 252-3770. Or, you can e-mail them at info@rbantiques.com. To learn more about Red Baron Antiques and the Nov. 6-7 auction, log on to www.rbantiques.com. A free color catalog is available on request.

With a body modeled after May West and an attitude to rival Madonna’s, she has evolved into a cult figure with thousands of fans world wide. Although only a cartoon character, her obvious sensuality and her “I can do anything a man can do” approach to life, have earned her as loyal a group of fans, as any flesh and blood woman. This year she celebrates her 80th birthday, and she is still going strong. She is the incomparable Betty Boop.

Betty started life as a dog type character with a human body in the 1930′s film “Dirty Dishes”. Created by Max Fleischer with the help of animator Grim Natiwck, she was originally intended to be the love interest of Bimbo, the lead dog in the Talkartoons cartoon series. Bimbo met with moderate success, but the public instantly fell in love with the nameless little girl/dog. Within a year she had evolved from semi-canine to full human form and was given the name Betty Boop. In early 1931, with her new name and an ever growing audience, she appeared briefly in the film “Kitty From Kansas City”. Later that year in “Silly Scandals” she delighted audiences with her rendition of “You’re driving Me Crazy”, during which her blouse kept slipping down revealing a frilly bra underneath. Her next release “Ups and Downs” pushed the boundaries of good taste even further containing a scene with her dress blowing up. This scene would be recreated many years later by another famous screen vixen, Marilyn Monroe, in “The Seven Year Itch”.

Created at the very end of the “Roaring 20′s”, Betty’s risqué nature was generally accepted by an American public that was relatively uninhibited about sexuality. Her cartoons were geared to an adult audience and as a result were rather explicit, especially in the early years. Interaction between her character and the male leads in her films was suggestive, to say the least, and on more that one occasion her catch phrase “Boop-oop-a-doop” could be interpreted to be more than just scatty nonsense. From 1930-1934 she was a top box-office draw, but as the moral attitude in America shifted, Betty found her self on shaky ground.

In the mid 1930′s women’s clubs, church organizations, and various reform groups began organizing demonstrations at theaters across the country, calling for censorship of Hollywood films. With Will Hays, the head of the Motion Picture Producers and Directors Association, as their spokesperson, studios were held to new standards of decency. Under the guidelines of the “Picture Producer’s and Distributor’s Code” and the “Hays Act of 1935″ heavy fines were levied against studio that did not comply. In addition Hays created the “Purity Seal” . Movies that did not qualify for this stamp of approval were not allowed to be shown in PPDA-affiliated theatres, which most major theatres were.

Betty Boop received a complete makeover. Her wardrobe was altered to skirts that reached below her knees and shirts that fully covered her cleavage. No more clothing that slipped off or back lighting to expose her ample silhouette. Films from 1935 forward saw her as a baby sitter, teacher or housewife. Gone were the great jazz songs of the 1930′s that had been the back drop for many of the early films, removed due to their questionable lyrics. The surrealism of “Minnie the Moocher” and “Snow White” was replaced with story lines about Betty and her new pet monkey. In fact, by the time the censors finished, Betty was all but unrecognizable and the public gradually lost interest in her films. After appearing in “Yip, Yip, Yippy” in 1939 Betty Boop retired. In the nine short years of her career she had worked with such greats as Rudy Vallee, Cab Calloway, Don Redman and Louis Armstrong and appeared in over 100 animated features

The risqué little girl with an air of innocence still enjoys a following of loyal fans who are willing to pay top dollar for authentic 1930′s Betty Boop memorabilia. Recent auction results include results include a string holder for $250, a celluloid bobble-head Betty for $450, a twelve inch chalk carnival figure for $1,994 and a linen-matted 1930′s Paramount movie poster for a whopping $7,455. Now that’s a lot of Boop-Oop-A-Doop! Until next time………Linda

Linda Hamer Kennett is an associate member of the International Society of Appraiser specializing in down-sizing for seniors and the liquidation of estates and may be reached at 317-356-8967 or lkennett@indy.rr.com}

NYTimes.com
By JULIA WERDIGIER
Published: January 12, 2009

“LONDON – When works by the British artist Damien Hirst sold for a record $127 million on the same day in September that Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection, it seemed the art market might escape the economic crisis.

But a string of disappointing auctions over the last four months showed that the art market had no such immunity, prompting Christie’s International, the large auction house, to start a cost-reduction effort on Monday that will include job cuts.”

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BBC NEWS | UK | England | South Yorkshire
17 September 2008

“A rare Saxon artifact found by a metal detector enthusiast from South Yorkshire is expected to fetch up to 15,000 pounds (US $27,300) at auction.

Tim Pearson thought the 9th Century gold pointer was a milk bottle top when he made the discovery while treasure hunting in Aughton near Rotherham.

Three years on the relic has been valued at 10,000 to 15,000 pounds by Bonhams Auctioneers, which will sell it.

The item, known as an aestel, was used by monks to help read manuscripts.”

Read the full story >>

Yahoo! News
Wed Sep 10, 2008

“LONDON (Reuters Life!) – A 1,000-year-old carved rock crystal ewer, one of only seven known surviving examples, will be offered for auction next month at Christie’s Islamic art sale and is expected to fetch over 3 million pounds ($5.3 million).

The auctioneer said the ewer was made for the court of the Fatimid rulers of Cairo in the late 10th or early 11th century, and has been embellished in enameled gold mounts made in 1854 by a French silversmith.

…In April, rival auction house Sotheby’s sold a 12 century key to the Kaaba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest site in Islam, for 9.2 million pounds (US $16.2 million), setting a new record for an Islamic work of art at auction.”

Read the Full Story >>

UPDATE: Oct. 7, 2008 – The carved rock crystal ewer was valued at 100 pounds in January prior to an auction in Somerset and fetched 220,000 pounds but the sale was later declared void.

The 1,000-year-old item was sold to an anonymous bidder for 3,177,250 pounds (US $5.49 millon).

By DAVID GLOVIN,
Bloomberg News
September 4, 2008

“Sotheby’s, the world’s largest publicly traded auction house, sued Halsey Minor, founder of CNET Networks Inc., for not paying $16.8 million for the purchase of works of art including Edward Hicks’s “Peaceable Kingdom.”

The suit, filed yesterday in Manhattan federal court, claims Mr. Minor bought Hicks’s biblically inspired painting and two other works in May and hasn’t paid for them. The works are worth more than $13 million and the auctioneer said it’s also owed legal fees, interest, and late fees, according to the complaint.”

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He had the following insight on the current art market:

“There’s definitely a great opportunity still in regard to painting markets and even in first and second-generation American impressionist paintings there’s still really good opportunities. You’re about to see the value of Andrew Wyeth’s work skyrocket. Not that it doesn’t bring quite a bit now, but I think over the next 10 or 15 years you’re going to see some incredible numbers come up in that market.

…Andrew is in his 90s and he’s definitely an American icon when it comes to his work and, compared with the prices that contemporary art is bringing, some of his stuff is still way undervalued.”

Worcester Telegram & Gazette News
Friday, April 4, 2008
Finding treasure in the junk
By Nancy Sheehan TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Forbes.com
Nina P. West, Artfact.com
02.29.08

“There’s a market for everything. Need proof? A painting of dogs playing poker, by little-known American artist Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, was recently purchased at Doyle New York for $193,000.

The painting, ”Only A Pair Of Deuces,” fetched the highest price of the day at the annual “Dogs in Art” auction held on Feb. 12. It had been expected to sell for between $60,000 and $80,000.

…Original Coolidge paintings, on the other hand, are exceedingly rare. There are 16 paintings in this series; the whereabouts of many of the original works are unknown. ”Only A Pair Of Deuces” came to the auction house via the artist’s daughter, Marcella Coolidge.”

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starbulletin.com | Features | /2008/02/26/
By Gary C.W. Chun
gchun@starbulletin.com

Hawaii collectors line up for the newest French Dunny figures

“Wanna buy a Dunny? Collectible French Dunny designer toys went on sale Thursday at a trading party at Kaimuki’s Urbanz Toys, one of 27 stores worldwide chosen by maker Kidrobot to carry the toys.

Kidrobot is known for its limited-edition art toys and apparel that merge urban street trends, fashion and pop art. In fact, the Museum of Modern Art in New York acquired 13 Kidrobot toys late last year to add to its collection.

…Kidrobot has made much of its reputation on the Dunny. The company carefully watches over the line, from designer to producer to retail stores in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Miami. The 3-inch, bunnylike toys are a hit because of their collectible value, as artists use them like a blank canvas for their unique designs.”

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