HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. - An important and complete 132-piece modern hammered sterling flatware service for 12 by the renowned California silversmith Allan Adler sold for $15,525 at Leland Little's June 13-14 Historic Hillsborough auction. It was the grand opening event for the firm in its new gallery location, at 620 Cornerstone Court in Hillsborough.

Allan Adler honed his craft in California in the 1930s, and developed a strong following among many Hollywood celebrities (he once hosted Katharine Hepburn at his workbench as an apprentice), as well as presidents, museum curators and silver collectors. He once described his work as "clean lines with a bent toward the unconventional," and that was evident in the large service that changed hands.

The silver service was the top earner of the more than 800 lots that crossed the block during the two days. About 250 people packed the showroom for the Saturday session, while around 150 bidders were counted on Sunday. Just under 1,000 absentee and phone bids were recorded going into Saturday, and Internet bidding was brisk via LiveAuctioneers.com, with around 500 registered bidders participating online.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - One of the original signed prints of Albert Einstein sticking his tongue out at photographers has been sold by a New Hampshire auction house for $74,324.

"Every kid has it in their dorm room on the wall," Bobby Livingston of RRAuction.com in Amherst said Saturday. "It's such an iconic display of freedom of speech."

The picture was taken in 1951 by UPI photographer Arthur Sasse after a 72nd birthday celebration for the physicist. As Sasse tried to coax a smile for the camera, Einstein stuck out his tongue.

Two years later, at the height of the McCarthy anti-Communist hearings, Einstein signed the photo and gave it to broadcaster Howard K. Smith as a gesture of his admiration of Smith's work.

Translated from German, the inscription says: "This gesture you will like, because it is aimed at all of humanity. A civilian can afford to do what no diplomat would dare. Your loyal and grateful listener, A. Einstein '53."

By 1953, Einstein had begun speaking out against McCarthyism.

"Einstein, escaping Nazi Germany, fully understood what was happening in this country and was commenting on it," Livingston said. "That's what makes it so special, he wrote on it and explained his intentions."

David Waxman of Great Neck, N.Y., is the new owner. He is a specialist in important scientific books and autographs.

Waxman said the image probably is the best-known picture of Einstein, appearing on T-shirts and even currently on a New York City billboard.

He said Einstein's inscription makes it even more valuable.

"It's one of a kind, highly important, speaks to the culture, speaks to anybody who looks at it and thinks about it a bit," Waxman said. "It's a message of intelligent nonconformity."

Waxman intends to put the photo up for sale, perhaps with other photos of famous scientists.
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AP-ES-06-20-09 1511EDT

BOSTON (AP) - The Enchanted Village has a new home and will continue to enchant Boston-area shoppers during the Chrismas holidays.

Jordan's Furniture purchased the iconic holiday display from the City of Boston for $140,000 at a public auction on Thursday, June 18. Jordan's president Eliot Tatelman - who topped six other bidders - said he fondly recalled strolling through the Enchanted Village as a child.

Tatelman plans to set up the display at Jordan's store in the Boston suburb of Avon.

The 8,000-square-foot attraction includes dozens of mechanized people and animals in a traditional New England holiday scene.

It was originally set up at the old downtown Jordan Marsh department store - no connection to Jordan's Furniture - to attract holiday shoppers.

The Enchanted Village was most recently housed at the Hynes Convention Center, but hasn't been open to the public since 2006.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-ES-06-18-09 2152EDT

PARIS (AP) - A Paris auction of art belonging to Japanese fashion designer Kenzo Takada has netted $2.63 million.

Auctioneer Claude Aguttes said Wednesday that 75 percent of the sale's 1,100 items were sold.

Kenzo decided to part with the collection, acquired over the past two decades, when he sold his Paris mansion to move into a smaller Left Bank apartment.

The collection included a rich variety of Eastern and Western art, from bronze Buddhas to Hopi Kachina dolls from the American southwest. An 8th-century Buddha sculpture from Burma sold for $88,575, while the Kachinas fetched $14,115.

Some of the auction's lots didn't sell, however, including a set of 16th-century red lacquerwear from a Japanese monastery.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-CS-06-17-09 1544EDT

BEVERLY, Mass. - Kaminski Auctions' May sale, which took place May 30-31, 2009, attracted bidders both locally in Massachusetts and internationally via phone and through the Internet via LiveAuctioneers.com. Day one of this two-day sale featured general fine art, antiques and collectibles, while day two highlighted a diverse selection of maritime antiques and memorabilia. Consignments hailed from estates spanning Massachusetts to Kaminski's second location in California. All prices quoted include a 15% buyer's premium.

A pair of rare 19th-century English silver salt cellars stole the show. Each boasts a figural design with shell, butterfly and salamander accents. The salt cellars are marked Edward and James Barnard, and two accompanying spoons are marked George Angell. Estimated $10,000-$15,000, the duo realized $19,550 after a volley of more than 20 bids.

NEW YORK (AP) - A rare Abraham Lincoln stamp that was stolen from Indiana in 1967 and surfaced 39 years later in Chicago has sold at auction for more than $400,000.

The stamped envelope was offered at auction by order of the Dorothy Jean Baker Revocable Trust and was sold on Saturday, June 13, 2009 at Manhattan's Robert A. Siegel galleries.

The buyer is Arthur K.M. Woo, a doctor who would reveal nothing more about himself.

Dr. Woo paid $431,250 (inclusive of 15 percent buyer's premium) for the 90-cent stamp. It had been entered in the sale with an estimate of $300,000 to $400,000.

The so-called Ice House Cover with Lincoln's likeness is on an envelope mailed from Boston to an ice house in India in 1873.

The stamp vanished from its owner's safe in Indianapolis and turned up in 2006 at a home in Chicago. A collector notified police.

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AP-CS-06-14-09 0048EDT

NEW YORK (AP) - When members of the local historical society in Berwick, Pennsylvania, found a dusty, long-ignored copy of Benjamin Franklin's 18th-century "Poor Richard" almanac on their shelves a few months ago, they decided to find out whether it could be real.

The answer was yes - emphatically confirmed on Tuesday at the Sotheby's auction house, where an anonymous bidder paid $556,500 for the 1733 edition, the second highest price ever for a book printed in America.

That was big news in Berwick, an old manufacturing city of 10,000 residents about 95 miles (150 kilometers) northwest of Philadelphia, where Franklin, using the pseudonym Richard Saunders, printed thousands of copies of his almanac between 1733 and 1760, dispensing advice and aphorisms along with "lunations, eclipses, judgment of the weather" and other data relevant to the 40-degree latitude "from Newfoundland to South Carolina."