John Moran Auctioneers Announces Summer Decorative and Fine Arts Auction Pasadena, CA--- John Moran Auctioneers’ July 19th Antiques and Decorative Arts Auction will feature an impressive selection of silver, bronzes, porcelain, art glass, Arts and Crafts and mid-century mo
News-Antique.com - Jun 30,2011 - Pasadena, CA--- John Moran Auctioneers’ July 19th Antiques and Decorative Arts Auction will feature an impressive selection of silver, bronzes, porcelain, art glass, Arts and Crafts and mid-century modern design, as well as European and American fine art. While encompassing a broad range of styles and eras, the 200-lot sale is characterized by a consistently high level of quality throughout.
Moran’s sale will also include a landmark in the history of book publishing in the form of four volumes of the sumptuous ‘Bibliomaniac Edition’ of The Works of Charles Paul De Kock (estimate: $6000 – 9000). Published in 1902-3 by Frederick J. Quinby, founder of the Harcourt Bindery of Boston, the Bibliomaniac edition was hailed at the time as the greatest achievement in American bookbinding. Each complete Bibliomaniac set comprised 100 volumes and only ten of the complete sets were published. Made of the most costly and rare materials, each set was originally priced at $50,000. The edition is printed on vellum (and set an all-time record for printing in quantity on vellum) using hand presses, requiring invention of a special process to overcome the technical difficulty of printing on the oil-rich parchment. Each volume is bound in red Levant Morocco leather decorated with gilt tulips and lilies, and illustrated with original works of art, including etchings by John Sloan and watercolors and drawings hand-painted directly onto the parchment by Louis Meynell, William Glackens, E. Boyd Smith and W. F. Scott, and illuminations by Helen Sinclair Patterson & Ella Grace Brown. The four volumes in Moran’s sale are de Kock’s ‘Frere Jacques’ and include the original red Morocco leather boxes with 14K yellow gold clasps, and they are monogrammed on the flyleaves with a gilt ‘M’.
Silver items comprise a quarter of the sale, and include flatware, serving pieces, center bowls and a wide variety of other items by Shreve and Co., Gorham, Towle, Tiffany, Georg Jensen, Clemens Friedell, S. Kirk and Sons, and Wallace; Victorian and Edwardian, Russian, Portuguese, Dutch, German, and Mexican Modernist silver are also offered. Among them are an American coin silver three-piece tea service by early 19th century New York maker Edward Rockwell offered for $2500 – 3500, and a superb George II sterling silver soup tureen (estimate: $6000 – 9000) featuring an unusual artichoke-shaped finial. The body of the tureen was made in 1739 in Dublin and bears the maker's mark of John Hamilton, and the lid was made in 1750 in London, with maker's mark of William Cripps.
Other decorative arts items form an impressive showcase of top 19th and early 20th century European makers. Offerings of glass include pieces by Loetz, Tiffany and Lalique, including a green and blue patinated, frosted 'Sauterelles' (‘Grasshoppers’) vase (estimate: $4000 – 6000). A set of twelve Saint Louis 'Thistle' gold parcel gilt clear glass water goblets is offered for $1200 – 1500. Porcelain items include Royal Vienna and Paris porcelain, led by a pair of large Paris porcelain hand-painted vases, signed Maxant (estimate: $10,000 – 15,000),
