Innehållsförteckning för February 26 2020 från Kovels Antique Trader

DENVER, Pa. — Medieval steel ruled the day at Morphy’s recent $2.3 million auction of the Susquehanna Collection. To the delight of a packed house that had gathered to bid on a 40-year collection of early Pennsylvania antiques and European heirlooms, a rare and outstanding early 16th-century composite suit of armor with royal provenance claimed top-lot honors at $270,600. “The suit of armor was a constant source of interest in the run-up to the sale and a very popular attraction at the preview,” said Morphy Auctions founder and president Dan Morphy. “We were contacted by collectors from all over the world who wanted to bid on it. They were very familiar with its provenance and importance.” The circa-1510 to 1520 Maximilian suit of armor, which is similar to an example…

LONDON — Following their collaboration at The European Fine Art Fair in New York in fall 2019, Hazlitt and Stuart Lochhead Sculpture will once again join forces at TEFAF Maastricht 2020 to present an extraordinary stand designed by Japanese architect, Yuichi Kodai, March 7-15. Other works on display will include a painting by Cavalier d’Arpino previously unseen in public and a rare sculpture by Jean-Joseph Carriès. The stand is designed to draw people into the space which provides a sense of enclosure from the busy TEFAF walkways. The exhibition will showcase 14th to 19th century Master paintings, drawings and sculptures in three defined spaces where works can be glimpsed through specific openings, offering directed views that draw the visitor’s curiosity and enrich the importance of history, culture and technique. Stand…

THIS ISSUE OF Antique Trader shares stories of beginnings and endings, and the wonderfully confounding middle. Let’s start there, right in the middle, with Paul Ferrante, a collector of baseball stadium memorabilia, who through pure happenstance is getting to start all over again. Sort of. Ferrante shares his story beginning on page 34. Here’s a snippet. “So, for 30 years I went happily along, acquiring a piece here, a piece there, while also trading with other collectors, until the day came when my only child moved out and my wife said the dreaded words that bring chills to any collector: ‘We have to downsize.’ “Yes, folks, it was sell-the-house-and-buy-the-retirement-condo time. Yikes!” Sounds more like the end than a rebirth, right? But life intervened, as it tends to do. Ferrante’s decision…

DALLAS – Strong results and several high-profile, world-record setting sales in comic art, coins, sports memorabilia and other departments, helped push Heritage Auctions’ total sales for 2019 to nearly $825 million. Heritage Auctions, HA.com, reported that it recorded sales of $824.7 million in the 2019 calendar year, comprised of $559,931,610 in auction sales and $256,991,331 in private sales. Total sales online reached a company record of $483,857,445, or 58 percent of all sales, the highest dollar volume and percentage of sales of any auction house in the world. “We set several world records last year and our overseas offices continue to grow at a steady pace, all of which helped our sales hold strong amidst a choppy economy,” said Heritage Auctions co-founder Jim Halperin. “These results and our long-term investments…

Q I’m trying to figure out how to identify an unknown antique piece. Can you identify the attached photo, or direct me to where I might find out about it? I’m told it’s a typesetter’s table. Thank you, Jennifer Powers A I haven’t seen a typesetters table in this form. Typically, typesetters work from a type case mounted on a rack rather than a table. A type case is a shallow tray-like wooden box with many small compartments. The sides are about two-inches high, it can be three-feet wide and two-feet front to back. The type is stored in the small compartments. These cases are stored in racks with the letters on the highest racks being “upper-case” letters and those on the lowest racks being the “lower-case” letters. Your bench has the…

SOFIA, Bulgaria — Europe is perhaps the only continent with such a density of museums and galleries. Think of the Louvre in France, The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain, the British Museum, the Vatican Museums in Italy, and so on. And while these famous tourist locations attract billions of people each year, some hidden cultural gems are just as worthy of exploring. Like the small East-European country Bulgaria with its abundance of historic towns, archaeological sites, gallery halls, and, most importantly, the biggest private museum in Eastern Europe that will open its doors in the Bulgarian capital very soon. Set to become a new cultural beacon, the future museum will offer a brand-new way of experiencing art, history, culture, and technology altogether. “Vasil Bojkov Museum” will be something with no…

THOMASTON, Maine — The exceptional inventory of fine art and decorative rarities at Thomaston Place Auction Galleries’ winter 2020 auction will be a perfect diversion from the Maine winter chill. The sale on February 28-29 and March 1 will offer masterworks by Andrew Wyeth, George Inness, and Maurice De Vlaminck, an important Roman marble statue, items by Faberge, Cartier, John James Audubon, and Georg Jensen, plus many outstanding marine, historical and Asian artifacts. “I’m very excited about the many great local discoveries in this sale. We’re honored that Maine families have asked us to present these rare and historic pieces to the marketplace,” said Thomaston Place owner and auctioneer Kaja Veilleux . Buoys, a gouache and ink painting by Andrew Wyeth (PA/ME, 1917-2009) will be featured, along with two colorful…

Living in the snowbelt of Jericho, Vermont, in the 1800s meant dealing with around 120 inches of snow each year. While many dreaded those winters, at least one person found the beauty in what they offered: Wilson Bentley, who was so intrigued by the mystery of snowflakes that he became the first person to successfully photograph one. It is largely due to Bentley’s pioneering photomicrographs of snow crystals that the world became aware that no two are alike. Born in Jericho in 1865, Bentley lived and worked on his family’s farm and was taught by his mother. From the time he was a small boy, he was fascinated by the natural world around him and loved to study butterflies, leaves and spider webs. He kept a daily record of the…

The dining tables of wealthy Victorians were a treasure trove of utensils and beautiful serving pieces in ornate patterns and styles. One of these common table accessories that is an example of the Victorians’ mastery of combining practical function with a beautiful form is the pickle castor. Pickle castors are glass jars (in pattern glass and colored art glass) fitted in an elaborately designed silver-plated frame and matching silver-plated lid. Some castors also have matching silver-plated tongs or pickle fork. They were used to serve pickles and other pickled vegetables and fruits. It was considered the height of elegant dining to have a pickle castor on the table — or two, if a family was especially wealthy. Not only did pickle castors convey status, they also showed off the power…

The problem is, Jerry Phelps dreams bigger than most of us. Normally that’s just fine. A person can accomplish a lot in life with a good dream to follow. And a strong partner to help carry the load. So when his friends were off vacationing in Florida or Europe or wherever folks who don’t dream as big as Phelps does go to vacation, there he was in his truck hitting antiques shows in his home state of Kentucky. Or in nearby Indiana. Or Ohio. Or Kansas. Throw in a trip to Canada. And, oh yeah, California. He made a trip there once, too. And Brimfield. He drove out to Brimfield, Massachusetts, for the big flea market. Only he bought too much stuff and had to leave some of it behind.…