RAGO’S CRAFTSMAN AUCTION MARCH 8TH AND 9TH - TIFFANY, STICKLEY, ART POTTERY AND GLASS EXCEPTIONAL PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTIONS OF ALEXANDRA AND SIDNEY SHELDON AND SIX OTHERS TO SELL AT RAGO’S CRAFTSMAN AUCTION ON MARCH 8TH AND 9TH. TIFFANY STUDIOS “POPPY” TABLE LAMP; FURNITURE BY GRE
News-Antique.com - Feb 25,2008 - EXCEPTIONAL PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTIONS OF ALEXANDRA AND SIDNEY SHELDON AND SIX OTHERS TO SELL AT RAGO’S CRAFTSMAN AUCTION ON MARCH 8TH AND 9TH
TIFFANY STUDIOS “POPPY” TABLE LAMP; FURNITURE BY GREENE & GREENE, WRIGHT, AND ELLIS; MARBLEHEAD POTTERY; ROYCROFT AMONG THE HIGHLIGHTS.
Lambertville, NJ – Mrs. Sidney Sheldon has chosen David Rago’s Craftsman Auction as the venue for the sale of her collection of Arts & Crafts furniture, lighting and decorative arts. It will be sold in company with six other stellar collections in a 900 lot sale over March 8th and March 9th, 2008.
Much of this property was featured in the 1993 exhibition “American Arts & Crafts from the Collection of Alexandra & Sidney Sheldon” at the Palm Springs Desert Museum. Among the highlights: a Tiffany Studios “Poppy” table lamp with twisted vine bronze base (pre-sale estimate: $50,000-70,000); a Greene and Greene armchair with drop-in seat and tacked leather back (pre-sale estimate: $20,000-30,000); a Frank Lloyd Wright hall chair with tall spindle-back (pre-sale estimate: $17,500-22,500); a Harvey Ellis for Gustav Stickley inlaid occasional table (pre-sale estimate: $25,000-35,000). (The late Sidney Sheldon won awards in three careers — Broadway theater, movies and television — and then turned to writing best-selling novels. He wrote over twenty in all, published in 51 languages and sold more than 300 million copies.)
The descendants of Marblehead Pottery’s Arthur Baggs also chose Rago’s Craftsman Auction as the venue for sale of their singular collection. Baggs joined Marblehead Pottery soon after it started; as artist and owner, he brought this small company to its heyday. The best of the work he produced is in evidence in lot 567, a vase incised by Baggs with brown crabs and green sea plants in 1915 (pre-sale estimate $20,000-30,000) and lot
577, an exceptional tile incised with a landscape of poplar trees reflected in a pond, complete with original
watercolor and pencil sketch study (pre-sale estimate $10,000-15,000). The collection includes many more beautiful tiles and vases, as well as watercolors and oils, plates, bowls, hanging baskets, pitchers, teapots, wall pockets, candlesticks and mugs.
A third fine collection comes from Roycroft collector Kevin McConnell. Highlighting this grouping of metalware, furniture and smalls – some 70 lots in all - is a Secessionist hammered copper candelabra with three stems, 1910-15 (pre-sale estimate $20,000-30,000). One of only three known examples, this is the first Rago has seen. Notable among the furniture is a Roycroft Ali Baba bench (no. 46) from the Roycroft Inn - an excellent version of this form (pre-sale estimate $7,000-10,000).
American Art pottery is, as ever, a strong suit of the sale. Headline lots include a Van Briggle two-handled tapering vase with hand-applied bronze overlay of stylized mistletoe (pre-sale estimate $20,000-30,000), believed to be the work of Van Briggle’s Rookwood associate Asano for the 1904 St. Louis Exposition. An 1897 vase with deeply tooled leaves and ribs that represents the transition from Grueby's Neo-Classical style to Arts & Crafts wares is the first Rago has seen (pre-sale estimate
