Contributors
Rising Value of Unrestored Cars
By Malcolm Welford, Vintage Car Specialist
Illustrations
Mark Birley Sale Doubles Estimates
March 22, 2013Mark Birley will always be associated with Annabel’s, the famed—and famously excusive—private club he founded in London in 1962. It was the place to be in London’s swinging 60’s, and is thriving to this day. Around England, however, he was just as well known for his tremendous taste and style, and for what his daughter called the “discrete splendor” of Thurloe Lodge, his home in London. Yesterday, six years after his death, Sotheby’s auctioned his personal effects, including works from his famed art collection, in a London sale that drew 850 registered bidders and at $5.9m, doubled estimates.
Read more...Works By 20th Century Illustration Greats At Swann
January 10, 2013More than 60 works by the late, great illustrator and author Maurice Sendak lead Swann’s upcoming 20th Century Illustration sale. From the collection of the late Reed Orenstein, a bookseller and Sendak collector, they include most of Sendak’s important works in first edition, many signed, and some with small sketches and inscriptions, like the first edition copy of “Where the Wild Things Are” (est. $10,000-$15,000) that’s one of the highlights of the auction.
Read more...Vintage Ski Posters At Christie’s
December 27, 2012Now that ski season’s in full swing, Christie’s will commemorate it with a London sale of vintage ski posters and items evoking, “Traveling In Style.” Three posters created between 1920 and 1930 are expected to be the peak offerings. A single track leads down a bucolic slope in Plinio Colombi’s rendering of St. Moritz. Christie’s expects it will lead to a price as high as $24,255.
Read more...Marilyn Calendar, a bit tattered, Still In Demand
December 05, 2012By big auction standards it won’t sell for much, it’s a bit tattered and worn, even torn in places, but it’s still Marilyn, naked on red velvet, and she even signed the 1952 calendar that was quite a shocker in its day. Heritage is auctioning the 60-year old icon next week. High estimate is $8,000+, but that may not be reflective of the final price depending on unknown demand.
Read more...Rare Norman Rockwell Appears At Auction
November 30, 2012Norman Rockwell’s distinctive—and hugely popular—paintings appeared with great regularity in mid-century America as covers for the Saturday Evening Post. These days his large-scale canvases are seldom seen on the market. Most are held by the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass, although filmmakers Steven Spielberg and George Lucas are also known to have considerable collections. A rare example will come to the block this weekend, when Chicago-based Susanin Auctions will offer “Willie Gillis, Package From Home.” The more than 4-foot tall painting from 1941 is expected to sell for $3m-$5m.
Read more...JP Morgan’s Jewel Collection Catalog For $130,000?
October 29, 2012Collectors are accustomed to paying for glossy catalogs but nothing like the $130,000 Christie’s estimates will be bid just for a catalog, that is prints of JP Morgan’s jewelry and objets d’art collection. At lesser prices, catalogs of his watches and miniatures collections also will be offered at the November 21 sale in London.
Read more...The Most Beautiful Book On Fish
May 09, 2012Between 1785 and 1797, a Frenchman named Markus-Eliezer Bloch produced a monumental work of six volumes devoted to some 1500 species of fish. Hailed as the most beautiful book on fish ever published, it contains beautiful color plates, some heightened with silver to produce the sheen of scales, by a variety of artists. A first edition of the book from the Angling Library of Alan Jarvis is the centerpiece of a sale at Bonhams on May 22nd in London, where it’s expected to realize $64,600-$81,000.
Read more...Rare Complete Audubon Octavo Offered
February 28, 2012Most original octavo editions of Audubon’s famous Birds of North America were broken up as individual pictures were extracted and sold separately. The Waverly Auction house of Virginia is selling a rare first edition of the 500 illustrations completely intact on March 1, at Falls Church. The octavo, notably smaller and more portable than first double elephant folio, has a high estimate of $60,000.
Read more...Early European Ski Posters At Christie’s
January 10, 2012In the first half of the 20th century, European travel posters were—and still are—among the most prized examples of the illustrator’s art. In particular ski posters, with their images of chic Swiss and French resorts, conveyed the allure and stylishness of the sporting life. Later this month Christie’s will auction a private collection of these stylish ski-themed posters. An anonymous example advertising Gstaad’s Royal-Hotel & Winter-Palace leads the January 26th sale, where it’s expected to realize $23,130-$30,840.
Read more...$10m For “Birds of America?”
December 22, 2011Of the 120 copies that are known to exist of John James Audubon’s 4-volume magnum opus, “Birds of America,” just 13 copies are in private hands. All the other copies of the set, generally considered the finest color-plate book of ornithology ever produced, are in private institutions. Sometime after 1838 the Duke of Portland bought the first edition that Christie’s will offer in New York on January 20th, when it’s expected to sell for $7m-$10m.
Read more...B Movie Poster, A-List Price
November 03, 2011‘One of a kind’ might not be the first phrase that springs to mind about RKO’s 1932 thriller, “The Most Dangerous Game,” starring Joel McCrea, Fay Wray and Leslie Banks. It is, however, an apt description of the lurid half-sheet poster for the movie. There’s only one, and at Heritage’s Vintage Movie Poster event on November 18-19, it’s expected to sell above $25,000.
Read more...Playboy Pin-Up Art Gets Re$pect
October 12, 2011The lady in the Vargas painting asks the gentleman for his opinion on her hat. The answer is not shared, but the work is one 85 sexy comic illustrations, paintings and cartoons once in Playboy and now to be auctioned by Heritage. Some of the pieces are expected to go in the $30,00 to $50,000+ range. Surprisingly, the magazine became one of the top venues for the best illustrators and cartoonists of the second half of the 20th century.
Read more...Audubon Bargain: Quadruped Lithographs
October 04, 2011Many are familiar with Audubon’s paintings of North American birds, few are also aware he did 155 illustrations of North America’s 4-legged mammals, “The Quadrupeds.” A complete collection of 155 of the hand colored lithographs will be auctioned by Bonham’s on Oct.18th in New York. The high estimate is $55,000, only a fraction of what the bird paintings sell for.
Read more...Bonhams Features Stars Of Illustration
June 16, 2011The images are world famous, even if the artists’ names are not. Works by Ernest Howard Shepard (“Winnie-the-Pooh”), Maurice Sendak (“Where the Wild Things Are”), Hilary Knight (“Eloise”), and Garth Williams (“Charlotte’s Web”) will be featured at Bonhams Illustration Sale next week in New York. Of the 261 lots on offer at the two-session sale, the leading one is likely to be Maurice Sendak’s poster design promoting the 1990 International Board on Books for Young People, estimated at $400,000-700,000.
Read more...Illuminated Book Once Owned by Astor
March 07, 2011Heritage will sell a 16th Century illuminated manuscript once owned by William Waldorf Astor. Ornately illustrated, with pure gold detail, the manuscript is a bound devotional concerning saints’ days, psalms, and prayers, called a “Book of Hours.”
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