Renoir, Matisse & Tiffany featured in Gray’s March 15 Auction. Fine Art, Antiques, Decorative Arts & Books will be sold at Gray's March 15 auction. With over 600 lots, more than 200 are Books Box Lots to be sold with No Reserve.
Japanesque, Koi fish and wave design, marked under the base with her monogram, a conjoined “J” and “P”. The 2009 exhibition "Apostles of Beauty": Arts and Crafts from Britain to Chicago at the Art Institute of Chicago featured her jewelry and decorative artifacts, and included one of her signature candelabrum. Her work was described by Mary Adams writing in House Beautiful in 1901, as ‘very attractive... [showing] both delicacy and force’, clearly recognizing the artist's expert navigation between visual refinement and material strength.
Continuing the Art Nouveau theme are two lots from the Tiffany Studios. Lot 241 is a Tiffany Studios counterbalance bronze desk lamp, with green damascene shade with etched L.c.t. inside upper rim and on the underside of the base stamped "Tiffany Studios New York 416". Lot 242 is a Tiffany Studios bronze and favrile glass, three light lily lamp, with a weighted bronze base stamped "Tiffany Studios New York 320". Two of the shades are etched L.c.t, one shade lacks the makers mark.
Lot 299 is a bronze Arctic Club Medal commemorating Frederick A. Cook's reputed discovery of the North Pole dated Sept. 23 1909. Designed by Aleixo de Queiroz Ribeiro (AKA Alexis de Santa Eulalia). Only two of these medals were cast, the other is in the collection of the Missouri Historical Society. Frederick Cook was stripped of the honor of ‘North Pole Discoverer’ when his rival Robert Peary claimed the prize, disputing Cook’s claim and disproving his data. The medal up for auction remained with the artist and his wife, Mrs. John B. Stetson, the widow of the Stetson Hat Company’s founder. It has been consigned by their heirs.
The auction includes several silver lots including lot 263 a Georgian, sterling silver flatware service, Threaded Fiddle and Shell pattern, with 109 pieces in total, by various silversmiths ca.1809-1834. This silver service was made in London ca.1809-1834 with the mark of fifteen different silversmiths including Paul Storr. Assembled over time and purchased in England in the 1930’s as a complete set by the consignor’s family, there is so much history and superb silver-smithing in this set that the auctioneer has wisely set the estimate at $12,000 – 15,000.
All auctions nowadays would be remiss without a section of Asian decorative arts, and most notable amongst the Asian works of art at Gray’s this month is lot 212, a superb pair of early 19th century Chinese cloisonné ginger jars, on a striking yellow ground depicting figures, and standing at 9 inches high. A whimsical collection of thirty lots of antique Chinese and Japanese ivory carved figures and netsukes precede the cloisonné jars, including lot 170, a delightful Japanese carving of a man carrying rabbits.
The experts at Gray’s have put together a terrific auction and have included lot 233 a Navajo Third Phase Chief's Blanket, and lot 228, an H. B. Smith Company, Special Pony Star Safety Bike, 1885-1891, designed by George W. Pressey, in Hammonton, New Jersey. This is model number 3715, and is being sold
