Innehållsförteckning för June 3 2020 från Kovels Antique Trader

SAN FRANCISCO — Rubylane.com, the world’s largest curated online marketplace for vintage and antiques, has declined a six-figure Paycheck Protection Program forgivable loan. “Frankly, we just felt it was better to let other businesses that are under severe economic hardship have access to our allotted amount,” said President and CEO Tom Johnson. Like many small businesses, when the pandemic shuttered most of the world, Ruby Lane feared it would have to pare down its staff to remain viable in the marketplace. “As it turns out, we have been very fortunate through this global crisis to remain fully operational and doing robust sales on the platform,” Johnson said. “The distribution channels our sellers use have remained largely unaffected, which was one of our major concerns a few months ago. As for…

DALLAS – Each spring for the last five years, Heritage Auctions has compiled a sale devoted to art glass and related decorative arts with the objective of meeting every taste and budget, and the market has shown considerable buoyancy over the last few years, with some record prices achieved. “We attribute this to sourcing everything from private collections, estates and museums,” said Heritage Auctions Senior Vice President of Special Collections Nick Dawes, who directs the sale from New York together with Samantha Robinson in Dallas. The selection in this spring’s “Tiffany, Lalique & Art Glass Including Art Deco & Art Nouveau,” which will be held June 4 in Dallas, is more varied than ever before. The sale opens with a strong selection of Tiffany lamps, mostly from one New York…

On March 18, I was checking out of my favorite thrift stores when I asked Ya-Ya, my favorite clerk, if she was worried about the latest news on The Virus. “We’ve got hundreds of people who come through every day and we’re touching their stuff, their money, the pens they use to sign receipts ... I’m really getting nervous here.” Three days later, the thrift shop closed and didn’t open again until May 4 (I live in Texas). For thrift shops that benefit local charities, a seven-week shutdown is a major blow to annual finances and the ability to help those in need. It’s also a blow to shoppers who are used to making daily runs to the shop, looking for the next great treasure or eBay windfall. Just two…

As an admirer of all types of vintage adornment, I have a number of pieces of copper art jewelry I wear fairly regularly. The warm hue of the metal blends beautifully with many different colors ranging from blush to dusty pinks and a variety of greens and browns. Copper jewelry, in general, is also durable so it’s not easily scratched. This makes frequent wearing less worrisome than with more delicate vintage pieces. Some people, both men and women, even swear wearing a copper bracelet helps ease arthritis pain although that’s not a claim I can make personally. Take a look at this introduction to learn more about Mid-Century Modern copper artistry that you can enjoy wearing, too. Modernists Working with Copper A number of artisans developed processes allowing them to…

IT WAS INTOXICATING in its simplicity. The slot cars zipped around the basement track, winding this way and that way, ducking into curves and accelerating into a long straightaway before diving into a left-hand curve and renewing the test of nerves and derring-do of kid drivers. We raced and raced and raced for hours, or until the Oreos that Aunt Harriet brought us were gone. Oreos were a big part of the Aurora HO Slot Car Racing Scene at Kennedy Speedway. My older cousin Billy, president of the Speedway and all around good guy, ran the show. The track, set up on two 4 x 8 sheets of plywood placed on sawhorses in my Aunt Harriet and Uncle Cecil’s basement, was a magnificent example of kid ingenuity. It helped that…

NEW YORK — An 1848 slave-related broadside not only led Swann Auction Galleries’ auction on May 7, it also set a world auction record after selling for more than $37,000. Swann’s Printed & Manuscript African Americana sale, which was the first one conducted since it closed to the public in March and paused its schedule in the wake of COVID-19, featured rare African American books, photographs, posters, historic documents, archives, pamphlets, and brochures, as well as art-related ephemera, related to slavery, segregation, the Black Panther Party, and other categories. The sale totaled $742,581 — far exceeding the pre-sale estimate of $455,900-$672,900 — and set 12 additional auction records. The top-lot broadside advertising “$250 Reward! Ranaway [sic.] from the Subscriber” set the record after realizing $37,500, almost four times more than…

GLENDALE, Ariz. – In December 1986, world-renowned street artist Keith Haring visited Phoenix for a well-documented, week-long visit that included a drawing workshop at Phoenix Art Museum, lectures and, most notably, a collaborative project with some 60 students from South Mountain High School. That collaboration produced a bold, colorful, abstract 125-foot mural on the wall of an abandoned building at the corner of Adams Street and Central Avenue in downtown Phoenix. Now, more than three decades later, an acrylic painting Haring gifted to a young man during his trip to Phoenix has emerged. The painting, measuring 35-3/4 inches by 25-1/2 inches and singed on the bottom right with a personalized note on the back of the canvas, will be auctioned at noon Friday, June 19 at EJ’s Auction & Appraisal,…

SOUTHAMPTON — Banksy, a famous and anonymous England-based street artist, recently donated a painting to England’s Southampton General Hospital in an effort to raise the spirits of medical professionals working on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic. The painting, an uncharacteristic medium for the elusive artist, shows a young boy playing with a superhero doll dressed as a nurse, complete with a mask and apron bearing the Red Cross symbol, and a cape fluttering behind her. Next to the child, a wastebasket holds castoffs, including Spider-Man and Batman figurines — outdated versions of superheroes in our new pandemic-stricken world. Banksy left a note with the special delivery, titled game changer, that read: “Thanks for all you’re doing. I hope this brightens the place up a bit, even if its only…

Unprecedented. This is the word used to describe the COVID-19 pandemic gripping the globe. But societies have endured countless calamities in the past: the Hoovervilles and Hobo Jungles of the Great Depression, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the casualties of the Korean and Vietnam wars, the terrorist attacks on 9/11. In times of uncertainty, there’s no place like home — the repository of our cherished possessions. My husband, Andy, would tell you I like “stuff.” Sentimental items. Decorative pieces. Unique finds. Homemade and store-bought art adorns our walls. Collectibles fill shelves and tabletops. Our fireplace mantle showcases much of my Belleek Irish porcelain, as well as our wedding photo and my (faux flower) brooch bouquet, cradled for all eternity in a simple glass vase. But perhaps it’s my burgeoning assortment…