Under The Hammer – Antique Auction News (Dec. 2009)

~ Boris Karloff’s costume from 1934’s “The Black Cat” sold for $89,625 at Heritage Auctions’ 20th Century Icons auction November 6-7 in Dallas. Jack Ruby’s hat, which he was wearing when he shot Lee Harvey Oswald, hit $53,775. Also, a John F. Kennedy-signed “Dallas Morning News” hammered at $38,837. At Heritage’s Signature Vintage Movie Posters Auction on November 12-13, the only known Style B one-sheet for the 1934 movie, “The Black Cat,” sold for $334,000, making it the fourth highest selling poster of all time. This movie was the first collaboration between Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.

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~ At Bonhams & Butterfields in San Francisco on November 23, an ornate lime squeezer made in San Francisco in the mid-1800s brought nearly $30,000, six times its pre-sale estimate. A factory-engraved Colt single action Army revolver with elephant ivory grip attributed to Cuno E. Helfricht brought $38,025, more than doubling the estimate. An historic Gustave Young-engraved Colt Model 1860 Army percussion revolver with engraving depicting a dog’s head and an eagle’s head brought $16,380.

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~ Guyette & Schmidt’ annual fall decoy auction on November 11 and 12 in Easton, Md., yielded 29 lots selling for more than $10,000 each. The top lot was a pair of greenwing teal by Charles Bergman of Astoria, Oregon that sold for $63,250, a world record for Pacific Coast decoys. A blackduck by Lee Dudley of Knotts Island, N.C., posted a price more than twice its estimate at $60,375. A Cobb Island curlew sold for $35,650, nearly five times its presale estimate.

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~ Christie’s December 11 Antiquities auction yielded $722,500 for a Roman marble portrait bust of a Julio-Claudian prince, circa first half of the 1st century A.D. and $578,500 for a Roman marble portrait head of the Emperor Hadrian, who reigned circa 117-138.

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~ On December 3, Swann Galleries of New York City conducted an auction of Maps & Atlases, Books with Plates, Historical Prints, Travel Books & Ephemera. In addition to cartographic works and botanical and ornithological plates, an archive of thousands of early 20th Century cigar labels from the American Lithographic Co. for $15,600 (including buyer’s premium) against a pre-sale estimate of $1,500 to $2,500. A Thomas Jefferys atlas, “The Natural and Civil History of the French Dominions in North and South America,” with 18 folding maps, London, 1760, was the top item, bringing $16,800. Complete results may be viewed online at www.swanngalleries.com.

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~ Michael Jackson’s hat and shoes worn in the 2001 TV special, “Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration,” nearly doubled their expected estimate at Bonhams Entertainment sale in Knightsbridge, making £22,800 against a pre-sale estimate of £10,000 to £12,000.

The top lot was original album cover artwork by Ray Lowry for “London Calling” by the Clash. Estimated at £50,000-70,000, it sold for £72,000.

An autographed issue of “The Beatles Book” fan club monthly magazine,
No.5, Xmas Edition, December 1963, the front cover signed in blue ballpoint by the Beatles; together with issue No. 36, July 1966, and five 8 x 10 black and white press photographs, estimated to sell for £3,500-4,500, went for £12,000.

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~ Swann Galleries’ auction of Photographic Literature & Fine Photographs on December 8 saw a version of Ansel Adam’s “Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico,” created in 1948, signed and inscribed to Valentino Sarra, a photographer and friend of Adams’, sell for $360,000 (including buyer’s premium). Another version of the image, printed in the 1960s, brought $48,000. Complete results can be accessed at www.swanngalleries.com.
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~A pair of American Aesthetic Movement armchairs, missing parts, by an unidentified maker, left in a boiler room for 40 years, and with a pre-sale of estimate of $500 to $700 sold for $320,000 plus 22% buyer’s premium for a total of $309,400 on December 5 at Rago Auctions in Lambertville, NJ. The chairs were described as “…circa 1880/early 1890, similar to furniture associated with or executed by Louis Comfort Tiffany. Sides, front, back and stiles embellished with glass mosaic. Vertical stiles terminate in deeply carved peacocks hooded by their fully open tails. In fragmentary condition, the surviving springs, stuffing, and cut velvet upholstery original. 37 3/4″ x 29 3/4″ x 28″” They were part of a larger consignment of property collected by a Philadelphia area couple whose hobby was weekend antiquing, inherited by their son and sold by his 70-year-old widow.

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Christie’s auction of the William E. Self Library Part II, Important English and American Literature realized $6.4 million in sales on December 4 was led by a poet and followed by a president. Autographed manuscript verses by Edgar Allan Poe, New York: 1849, tapped at $830,000, a world record for the dark poet. His “Tamerlane and Other Poems,” Boston: Calvin F.S. Thomas, 1827, brought $662,500, and an autographed manuscript of two poems by Poe, 1827, realized $362,500 against an estimate of $60,000-$80,000. Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” London: Chapman & Hall, 1843, also recorded a world auction record of $290,500. Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass,” Brooklyn: 1855, followed closely behind at $218,500. A George Washington autographed letter written to Bushrod Washington on 9 November 1787 achieved a world auction record for the first president with a hammer price of $3,218,500. A second letter from George Washington to Bushrod Washington dated 15 November 15, 1786 tapped at $218,500.

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~Swann Galleries’ auction of Rare & Important Travel Posters on November 18 set several record prices, including a circa 1910 poster by Montague Birrel Black for the White Star Line with depictions of the “Olympic” and “Titanic” ships at sea. It sold for $36,000. Also setting an artist record was Odin Rosenvinge’s poster of another ill-fated ship, the “Lusitania,” circa 1907, at $14,400.

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~Bonhams’ Russian Art sale in London in November totaled £1.9 million. The top lot by Aivazovsky was, “The Morning Catch,” which rocketed to £378,400, while being estimated at £150,000 to £250,000. Another major lot was Nikolai Fechin’s “Portrait of a Young Girl” which fetched £168,000 against an estimate of £55,000-85,000.

Also, at Bonhams Sale of Canadian Art on November 30th, the top picture was a James Wilson Morrice (1865-1924) titled, “On the March in France, circa 1918,” which made $194,354. Canadian landscape painter JW Morrice was the inspiration behind the alcoholic poet Cronshaw in Somerset Maugham’s “Of Human Bondage.” Morrice is widely considered to be the first great Canadian painter, if also an archetype for the booze-drenched bohemians of the Belle Époque.

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~ Swann Galleries’ Medical & Scientific Books; Bibles & Early Printed Books auction on October 20 in New York included bibles from the library of Mel and Julie Meadows: “The newe Testament of our Saviour Jesu Christe. Faythfully translated out of the Greke,” the first of three illustrated quarto editions of Tyndale’s version, London, 1552, brought $33,600; “Novum instrumentu[m] omne,” first edition of the New Testament in Greek with Latin translation by Desiderius Erasmus, Basel, 1516, $22,800; and “The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New,” second edition of the King James version, known as the “She” Bible, London, 1613-11, $13,200.

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~The Incredible Hulk in a 9.2 mint comic book form was a smashing success at $125,475 at Heritage Auction’s Vintage Comics and Comic Art Auction November 19-21 in Dallas. The Green Lantern (Showcase #22, fine/near mint 9.0) shined at $59,750, a 9.4 near mint Human Torch #2 realized $92,612, and an original “Peanuts” artwork brought $53,775.

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~ At Sollo Rago’s Modern Auction of October 25 and 26 in Lambertville, N.J., the most expensive buy of the day was lot 26, a Wharton Esherick buffet with a sculpted walnut top set upon a curved solid walnut base. The buffet, with seven drawers and a two-door cabinet, was signed and sold for $335,500, including 22% buyer’s premium. Other stand-outs included: a gilt hand chair by Pedro Friedeberg, $19,520; a polished Prism bench by John Lewis, $32,940; and a nine-drawer dresser by Tommi Parzinger, $28,060.