Season's Greetings

Season's Greetings from the Vintage Council (Antique & Art Valuation Service). I am taking a break from blogging for the rest of the year, I will be back early 2010 with more antique related stories from New Zealand and around the globe. Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year. If you find any great items for me to value over the holidays, contact me in the New Year!

Treasure Trove Valued at £3.3 million

A panel of experts have decided the value of the unprecedented Anglo-Saxon hoard hidden for 1,300 years is £3.3million. It will be sold to a museum (most probably in Staffordshire once they raise the funds) and split between the farmer and the finder.

Guardian article here.

Do the interactive tour of the hoard here.

Last Antique Auctions of The Year

The big auction houses are having their last antique auctions of the year over the next few weeks. Make sure you get in for those unique christmas gifts. All the catalogues are available online now.

(Image: Cordy's Sale lot number 572A. 19thC painted portrait miniature of a gentleman in formal dress, signed and dated, in old brass mount with suspension ring. H:80mm Estimate: $250 )

Nov 30th - Watson's, Christchurch 'Antiques, Decorative Arts & Fine Jewellery'

Dec 3rd - Webb's, Auckland 'Modern & Traditional Design'

Dec 8th - Cordy's, Auckland 'Christmas Antique Auction'

Dec 9th - Art & Object, Auckland 'Objects of Desire' (catalogue out later today)

First Edition Darwin Sells For £100,000

One of the 1250 first editions of "On the Origin of the Species" sold at Christie's for above the £60,000 estimate. The last first edition sold in April for £35,000. BBC article here. It's been a pretty good Darwin year.

Georgian London

This week's My Space in the Observer is the dining room of Dan Cruickshank the historian. He owns a Georgian house in Spitalfields.

Santa's Make Over Revealed

The Farmer's Santa has been made over, gone is his winky eye and beckoning finger. He looks happier and is now accompanied by some new reindeer, as he used to have. NZ Herald article here.

Yves Saint Laurent Sale Achieves 8 million Euro

The second part of the Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge Sale held last week did better than expected. Achieving twice the 4 million Euro estimated and with a 98% clearance rate. Read report from ArtDaily.org here.

(Image: by Marianne Haas. A guest room at Chateau Gabriel, once the home of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé.)

Lincoln Letter For Sale at $60,000

A letter written in 1861 to prove a child's meeting with Abraham Lincoln is thought to fetch US$60,000 by Philadelphia's Raab Collection. Guardian article here.

Important Couture Dresses Purchased By Three Museums

In a move that proves fashion is becoming as important as art in the collections of museums, The V&A, The Bowes Museum, and the Fashion Museum, Bath have jointly acquired gowns designed by French couturier, Madeleine Vionnet (1876-1975; active 1912-1939) after an export stop was placed on them. This is the first time an export stop has been placed on examples of 20th-century couture and the first time three British museums have worked together to acquire a collection of dresses. They will split the collection between them. Read ArtDaily.org article here.

(Image: Blue and red floral printed silk afternoon dress, 1931. Madeleine Vionnet, 1931. Purchased with the support of the Friends of the V&A © V&A Images.)

Vintage Horror Film Poster Sells For US $334,600

The only known film poster of the Poe adapatation of 'The Black Cat' sold for a record price at Heritage Auction Galleries, Dallas. The 1934 film starred Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff in what is thought to be their best film together. It was estimated at US$75,000. Read liveauctioneers.com article here.

Julia's Kitchen

Did you know that Julia Child's kitchen ninth kitchen (from 1961) was 'gifted to' and reconstructed in the Smithsonian in Washington? Access this online and have a nosy around the exhibit. If you are interested in how to create the look - here is an article from Country Living about how the set decorators put the kitchen together for the movie Julie & Julia. Bon Appetit!

Alternative Investments

Toby Walne at the Guardian has some ideas on alternative collectable investments. As with any investment you would need to sit on these for a while - or rather should have bought them 20 years ago to realise any profit now, but an interesting story anyway. It may be a good time to sell that G.I. Joe or shrunken head you have been sitting on.

Napoleon Mourning Ring Comes Home to Soane Museum

This gold mourning ring containing a lock of Napoleon's hair has been added to the collection of the Sir John Soane Museum in Holborn after 172 years.

It was one of his Sir John Soane’s most treasured private possessions, but was not left to the Museum, instead it was willed to the family after his death in 1837 where it passed out of the family’s ownership and was deemed ‘lost’.

The lost ring came up for auction at Christie's in June this year, the first time the Museum had had news of its whereabouts since Soane’s death. They were not successful in buying the ring at the auction, but when the buyer found out the Museum was bidding they decided to give them the option to buy it. Read full ArtDaily.org article here.

Yves Saint Laurent Et Pierre Berge Sale Part II

The second sale of Yves Saint Laurent’s Estate is set for next week in Paris at Christie's. It contains 1,185 lots of “everyday items” from their country retreat, the three-storey Chateau Gabriel on the Normandy coast, described as "a rambling place with sea views and vast grounds that was built in 1874". The four-day auction of is expected to raise up to €4 million (£3.5 million). Part One which contained the art collection took place in February and raised a record €342.5 million. See the catalogue here.

Qianlong Pheasants Sell for £170,000

A pair of Qianlong Golden Pheasants sold for £170,000 against an estimate of £800-1000 in Plymouth. Read Antiques Trade Gazette article here.

Take a Tour of The Revamped Ashmolean in Oxford

The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology - University of Oxford has had a recent £61 million revamp. The museum has been open since 1683 and includes the lamp Guy Fawkes took to burn parliament. BBC article here.

Money Hidden In Lamp Up For Auction

Lot 72 in Cordy's antique sale held a $22,200 stash found by a man viewing the sale. Read NZ Herald article here.

Auckland War Memorial Museum Is 80

Click through to the Museum's website to see how they are celebrating.

Royal Collection Up For Auction at Christie's London

"The Duke of Kent and his siblings are to sell family heirlooms at an auction that is expected to raise £1m. The auction of 200 lots at Christie's salerooms in London includes jewellery, paintings and furniture with estimates ranging from £250 to £100,000." Read the rest of BBC article here. Peruse catalogue online here.

Peter The Great Miniature Sells For 1.3 million

This diamond studded miniature of the 18th Century Tsar sold at Sotheby's New York for 1.3 million US dollars against an estimate of $80,000 - $120,000.

Auction Central News article here.

Rare Victorian Silver Kangaroo Ewer Sells For £24,000

This silver ewer modelled as a kangaroo sold for £24,000 at Chorley's of Prinknash Abbey, Gloucestershire to a London dealer beating out competition from Australia. Dating from 1882 the 21cm high jug once belonged to the Governor of New South Wales between 1885-1890...

Antiques Trade Gazette article here.

All Hallow's Eve Costumes

It's Halloween Time Again

Here are some ideas from Better Homes & Gardens to inspire your Halloween Weekend party decorating using vintage items.

Search the V&A Collection Online

The Victoria & Albert Museum has announced that over one million records detailing objects in its collections are now available online. Using Search the Collections, anyone can find images of more than 100,000 objects, with records that vary from detailed curator notes to basic inventory information on the maker, provenance or style. Visitors can look up whether an object is on display and where in the Museum it can be found. The database is live so will be updated and grow as new research and photography is carried out, objects are moved and new acquisitions made. Read ArtDaily article here.

World Record Price For Flag

"One of the last flags from the Battle of Trafalgar sold for a world record price on Trafalgar Day on Wednesday confirming that our patriotic love affair with the Union Jack is still going strong. The finely preserved 200-year-old Napoleonic Flag that flew from the jackstaff of HMS Spartiate sold for £384,000, more than 25 times its top estimate of £10,000-15,000, at Charles Miller Ltd in London." (BBC Homes and Antiques article here.)

Nefertiti Back On Show - But Not All Are Happy

The famous limestone and stucco bust of Nefertiti is back on display at the reopened Neues Museum in the heart of Berlin. However, Zahi Hawass, general secretary of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, who is a pioneer for the repatriation of Egyptian objects thinks it should come home. Read NY Times article here. In May this year, a German archeologist claimed it was a 19th Century fake. Read his claims (or conspiracy theory depending on how you look at it) here.

New Objectspace Exhibition Highlights Collections

'To Have and To Hold: Making Collections' is a new exhibition on at Objectspace, Ponsonby which explores the motivation behind collecting objects. 18 different collections are on display in the gallery including; Royal Copenhagen figurines, sunglasses, Winston Churchill memorabilia and contraceptive devices. Read review from the NZ Herald here.

A Deaccession Exhibition in England

It seems it is a time for deaccessioning at museums all around the world. This new exhibition at University College London lets the crowds decide what to keep and what should go. Pictured is 'Agatha Christie's Picnic Basket'. I am sure all collections have stacks of items with tenuous provenance, or none at all. Are they worth keeping the collection? Guardian article here.

Doreen Blumhardt Dies Age 95

Leading female potter Doreen Blumhardt has died aged 95. Read Dominion Post article here.

Alberton Almost Ready to Show Off New Facelift

The restoration of the Historic Places Mansion Alberton is almost finished. Read the latest NZ Herald article here.

Tales From Te Papa

I am probably the only one who has just learned about this bite sized tv series on TVNZ 6. Maybe it is because I am one of the very few New Zealanders without Freeview or Sky? Anyway the stories look great and you can watch them online here.

(image from Te Papa Blog: Riria Hotere and Simon Morton - your guides to NZ's cultural treasures in Tales from Te Papa)

A Roman Cameo Vase to Rival The Portland Uncovered

Bonhams are hailing a find of a rare Roman Cameo Vase as what "may be the most important of its kind in the world".

"These very rare vessels were highly artistic, luxury items, produced by the Roman Empire’s most skilled craftsmen. They are formed from two layers of glass – cobalt blue with a layer of white on top – which is cut down after cooling to create the cameo-style decoration.
Items of this kind were produced, it is thought, within a period of only two generations. They would have been owned by distinguished Roman families." There are only 15 known to exist.

Bonhams claim the vase it in better condition and with superior decoration to the Portland vase housed in the British Museum collection. (Portland left,Bonhams right). Read ATG article here.

$19,000 Portrait May be a £100m Leonardo

This portrait, sold as "German, early 19th Century" at Sotheby's in 1990 may in fact be a lost work by Leonardo Da Vinci. Using new scientific techniques a fingerprint that is "highly comparable" to a fingerprint on a Vatican work was found. Read ATG article here.

Another Artist More Famous After Death

America's most famous Victorian gothic author has been given a well attended funeral in Baltimore 160 years after his death. His funeral in 1849 was witnessed by only a handful of people. Read the BBC article here.

This reminds me of a great story on America's Antique Roadshow about this Poe daguerreotype (illustrated) that came in for appraisal on the show. Purchased for $96 in Walnut, Iowa it was appraised at $30,000 - $50,000. However, it was a find too good to be true and became more complicated once the FBI became involved. Read the story on the Roadshow website here.

Antique Dealer Sick of Appraising Smurf Collections

I hope you are aware of The Onion - there is always truth in satire. I am sure I have seen Smurfs at auction here in New Zealand.

Photographs From Petite Chose

An updated look for vintage studio portraits. See more on her Flickr page here.

More Crazy Toy Prices!

This c.1912 Märklin fire engine toy sold for US$130,000 against a $40,000-50,000 estimate as part of the Donald Kaufman toy collection at Bertoia Auctions in New Jersey.
Fewer than five examples toy are known to exist of this live-steam fire engine, considered by many to be the ultimate in Märklin craftsmanship. (Antiques Trade Gazette)

Merchant Ivory Collection To Sell

James Ivory is selling around 300 objects that belonged to his companion and business partner, Ismail Merchant, who died in 2005 at Christie's London this week.

Mr. Merchant collected antiques obsessively and eclectically for 40 years. The items were kept in apartments in Mumbai, London, Paris and New York in addition to a country house in upstate New York. Some items were used on their movie sets.

Items include Indian furniture, paintings and ceramic pieces. The sale is catalogued online on Christie's website here.

V&A's New Ceramic Galleries

"Take a glimpse of the museum's redeveloped collection" here. (Guardian)

Samson The T-Rex Fails to Sell in Vegas

The T-Rex skeleton offered for auction in a Las Vegas fossil sale did not make the $6 million mark. Bonhams & Butterfields are negotiating with buyers as many institutions found it hard to come up with the large amount of money needed to buy it. The rest of the sale sold well. Read full Herald article here.

Children and Their Toys