LiveAuctioneers Top Lots February 2007

Important, high-value items sold at auction in February of 2007

[USPRwire, Tue Mar 06 2007] Northern California’s San Rafael Auction held a Feb. 3 sale of the Wilke-Dalziel Antiques Estate, with 21% sold through LiveAuctioneers. Among the 145 items purchased online was a pair of 19th-century standing pottery figures made to serve as roof tiles. Both of the 27-inch-tall figures were elaborately “dressed,” with a blue and turquoise glaze, and represented the moon goddess and sun god. Estimated at $1,500-$2,500, the pair garnered 28 bids and sold for $11,400.

http://liveauctioneers.com/item/3049894


Cheffins
As usual, LiveAuctioneers’ search engine played a big role in connecting bidders with objects of interest. A perfect example would be lot 78 in Cheffin’s Feb. 9 auction of Ceramics, Glass, Silver, Jewelry & 20th Century Design. Twenty-three percent of those who viewed the lot – a 14½ inch Chinese transitional blue-and-white double-gourd vase – located it by searching for the word “Chinese,” through LiveAuctioneers’ aggregate search function. This feature, available to all who visit the LiveAuctioneers Web site, scours all active auction catalogs in one step. The vase at Cheffin’s, which we tipped for success in last week’s newsletter, stormed past its $2,000-$3,000 estimate to sell online for $23,000.

http://liveauctioneers.com/item/3050244


Sloans & Kenyon
Sloans & Kenyon’s big Feb. 9-11 Estate Catalog Auction was a smash, with 329 lots selling through LiveAuctioneers for more than $350,000. Bidding ran hot for a Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973) owl-form, hand-painted ceramic vase. Standing 11¾ inches tall and decorated in appealing shades of aqua and russet on a brown and white body, the figural vessel was inscribed under the base: Edition Picasso, 97/500 Madoura Plein Feu, R.146. Forty-six percent of those who viewed the catalog page searched for the word “Picasso,” and to our surprise, we learned that there must be a large contingent of owl collectors, since 33 percent of the page viewers had searched for the word “owl.” We can’t be sure whether it was a Picasso fan, a pottery collector or an owl enthusiast who bought the vase online, but we can confirm that it flew away for an above-estimate price of $6,655. In the same sale, a Stanislaw Zukowski (Russian, 1873-1944) signed oil-on-board painting titled Forest in the Springtime dashed its $4,000-$6,000 estimate to sell to an Internet bidder for $14,520.

http://liveauctioneers.com/item/3059408


333 Auctions
The name Orrin Augustine White (American, 1883-1969) is one to watch. In 333 Auctions’ Feb. 10 sale of 19th and 20th Century American & European Art, an untitled but artist-signed 19 7/8 by 24 inch oil-on-board landscape by White achieved $19,600 online against a presale estimate of $8,500-$12,500. Its Internet catalog page was a busy one, with 50 percent of the visitors searching for the name “Orrin” and 45 percent searching for “White.” Another artwork that surpassed expectations was an untitled, but signed and dated, 1949 oil and collage on canvas by Lloyd Raymond Ney (American, 1893-1965). From a Philadelphia private collection and measuring 29¾ inches by 36 inches, the painting was purchased by a LiveAuctioneers bidder for $14,700 against an estimate of $3,000-$5,000.

http://liveauctioneers.com/item/3023157

http://liveauctioneers.com/item/3023213

http://liveauctioneers.com/item/3023231


Brunk Auctions
They say nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina, and LiveAuctioneers certainly delivered the bidders electronically to North Carolina for Brunk’s Feb. 17-19 auction of 18th and 19th Century Antiques & Decorative Arts. Before the sale even commenced, more than 1,600 bidders had registered to bid online, and Brunk’s Web catalog on LiveAuctioneers had been visited 116,586 times. The two-day total for merchandise purchased online was $342,576, and included a Louis XV-style bureau plat that sold for more than triple its high estimate at $14,400. But that was just a warm-up. A fine carved and parcel-gilt 18th-century Chippendale looking glass estimated at $5,000-$10,000 soared to $17,600 online; and a suite of four finely enameled porcelain panels depicting various birds and trees attracted 36 bids worldwide, with only two bids coming from the auction floor. Estimated at $400-$800, the lot of magnificent framed panels sold to a LiveAuctioneers bidder for a staggering $66,000!

http://liveauctioneers.com/item/3105704

http://liveauctioneers.com/item/3105764

http://liveauctioneers.com/item/3106376

http://liveauctioneers.com/item/3106244

http://liveauctioneers.com/item/3106133



Cowan's Historic Americana
Cowan’s Historic Americana’s Feb. 17 sale recorded $166,866 in Internet sales, with 131 lots changing hands through LiveAuctioneers. A very special timepiece, an English 1757-1758 gold pocket watch presented by Benjamin Franklin to his nephew Jonathan Williams – engraved The Gift/of Benjamin Franklin L.L.D., F.R.S./to Jon – attracted 12 bids to sell above estimate at $36,000. In the same session, a very unusually shaped Dutch, circa-1885 Art Nouveau Rozenburg eggshell porcelain vase handily surpassed expectations to make $11,400 online.

http://liveauctioneers.com/item/3083482

http://liveauctioneers.com/item/3083640


Pook & Pook
Pook & Pook got the ball rolling on Feb. 23 with a Variety Auction of Furniture, Art & Accessories that was more than 25% sold to the ’net. Online buyers spent almost $179,000, with Asian antiques once again topping the roster. A pair of circa-1900 Chinese porcelain plaques measuring 32 inches by 8½ inches had been estimated at $200-$400, but with 762 hits on that particular lot, we knew it would set off some fireworks. The plaques attracted 16 bids to settle at $46,360 – truly an astonishing Internet result. In the same sale, a Chinese export blue-and-white hexagonal baluster-form vase standing 21½ inches tall, also circa 1900, raced past its $300-$500 estimate to achieve $8,540 online.

http://liveauctioneers.com/item/3115158

http://liveauctioneers.com/item/3115025


Phillips de Pury & Company
Last week’s auctions with live Internet bidding through LiveAuctioneers clearly favored fine and decorative art, with the top lot appearing in Phillips de Pury’s Feb. 27 offering titled Contemporary Art: Under the Influence. Twenty-nine bids were lodged on a signed and dated Mel Ramos (b. 1935) graphite and colored pencil on paper artwork. The current interest in Ramos’ work was indicated by the search results through LiveAuctioneers, 48% of which keyed in the word “Mel” and 49% of which sought “Ramos.” This particular work, 19¼ inches square, had been exhibited in 1965 at Modernism Inc. in San Francisco, and came with provenance from a private collection in Portugal. Against an estimate of $30,000-$40,000 it sold to an online bidder for a very impressive $110,250.

http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/3125169




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