Gray’s May 25 art & furniture auction to benefit Cleveland Play House Gray's Auctioneers holds first of several auctions with objects donated to benefit The Cleveland Play House, on May 25 at 11am at the auction showrooms, 10717 Detroit Ave, Cleveland, Ohio 44102.
News-Antique.com - May 18,2011 - CLEVELAND – Gray’s Auctioneers’ sale on Wednesday, May 25, will feature fine works of art, decorative arts and furniture – and many of the lots have been donated to benefit the Cleveland Play House, America’s first regional theater, founded in 1915.
Highlights of the 341-lot auction include a magnificent Tree of Life Persian rug, a Clement Meadmore artist’s proof bronze, a Dominick Labino glass sculpture and a Marc Chagall limited-edition signed lithograph.
“The Cleveland Play House is like many cultural institutions facing reduced funding,” said Gray’s Auctioneers CEO Serena Harragin, who is also a director of the theater. “Deba Gray and I came up with the idea to have board members, subscribers and enthusiasts donate items instead of cash.”
Deba Jean Gray is president and auctioneer at Gray’s Auctioneers.
Gray’s Auctioneers is contributing their services to the fundraising effort, including free written and illustrated appraisals.
“More often than not, people donated something,” said Harragin, noting that donated items are tax deductible. “We’re making it an open-ended offer. We conduct an auction every month, so anyone can donate at any time.”
This month’s auction will feature a large antique Kirman Shah rug in the Tree of Life pattern. In Islam, Tree of Life rugs remain an important metaphor for the pathway between Heaven and Earth. Harragin said the rug at Gray’s is a beautiful example of its type, with depictions of animals around a bountiful tree. The rug, which shows normal fading and wear, measures 18 feet 3 inches by 12 feet. It is estimated at $3,000-$5,000.
A hand-signed and numbered Marc Chagall color lithograph titled The Tribe of Dan is another highlight. The lithograph on Arches Vellum is from the artist’s designs for stained-glass windows he created for the synagogue of the Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital in Jerusalem. Printed by Charles Sorlier and published by Fernand Mourlot, the lithograph comes with sound provenance and is included in Chagall: The Lithographs: Catalogue Raisonne. It has an $8,000-$9,000 estimate.
An artist’s proof of a Clement Meadmore (Australian, 1929-2005) bronze sculpture on a marble base is attracting attention. “The great thing about this work is it seems to defy the material it’s made of. It’s elegant and dynamic, but it’s a piece of bronze. Unlike the artist’s large outdoor installments, this 1984 work titled Open End measures only 12 inches wide and 5 inches high and 8 inches deep. It has a $10,000-$15,000 estimate.
“Meadmore’s work is nicely in demand now and this is one of his early works when he was designing outdoor installations (of this type),” said Harragin.
Another sculpture – this one of glass – came directly from the studio of Dominick Labino (1910-1987), the Toledo, Ohio-based inventor and designer. Labino developed the technique that produced the internal veiling in this 7 1/2-inch-high work from his Emergence Series. It will be sold with an autographed and dated studio catalog dated Dec. 16, 1982.
“Pieces from his Emergence Series have come up for auction before, but not this particular design. It’s
