NEW YORK - Tepper Galleries will auction the collection of Marjorie J. and Robert L. Lawrence on Nov. 12 beginning at 10 a.m. Eastern. The sale will feature more than 500 lots of rare and exotic objects that reflect the lives of the well-traveled couple. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.

Their collection traces the ancient trade routes of the Mediterranean, Middle East and North Africa. Among the offerings will be Italian Renaissance painted furniture, paintings and works of art including a 17th-century Florentine portal, lion-footed child's bed and cassone panels; Roman antiquities; Syrian, Phoenician and Persian art; Indian bronzes; Hispano-Moresque ware; Persian and Indian miniatures; Syrian papier-mâché pen cases; and Oriental and Ottoman rugs and textiles. Also available will be Venini and Italian glassware and lighting fixtures, majolica, Danish silver and Continental snuffboxes

The Lawrence's passion for collecting led them to the bazaars of the Middle East and North Africa and inspired Marjorie to become one of the first women rug dealers and to launch a thriving business called the Pillowry, which operated from 1971-1989 on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

This collection will appeal to the cognoscenti, interior decorator and private collector seeking authentic, one of a kind treasures. Much of it was acquired through specialist dealers in Spain, Italy, Germany, England and America as well as the Lawrences’ direct purchases from mosques, bazaars and even off the backs of camels.

Previews at Tepper Galleries, located at 110 E. 25th St., will be Monday and Tuesday, Nov. 9-10, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., and Wednesday, Nov. 11, 10 a.m.-7 p.m., or by appointment.

For details phone 212-677-5300.

View a fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet during the sale at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

Click here to view Tepper Galleries, Inc.'s complete catalog.

The sales, composed of 357 lots, showcase work from Bror Julius Olsson Nordfeldt, William Aiken Walker, Harry Leith-Ross, Thomas Hill, Chaim Gross, Bessie Vonnoh, Anton Henning, Kehinde Wiley, Andy Warhol and Carl Morris.

"Prospective bidders will find a variety of appealing price points for desirable works taken largely from private collections and estates," said Rago’s Meredith Hilferty. "The selection of original works in both sales is particularly strong, from Alexander Archipenko to Kehinde Wiley."

Among the original works in the sale is a notable selection of works from the Lambertville, N.J., estate of Marcia Chapman, including lot 73, a fine Bror Julius Olsson Nordfeldt beach scene in a Badura frame, estimated at $12,000-$18,000 as well as a Harry Leith-Ross landscape with figures, also at $12,000-$18,000. Among other paintings by Pennsylvania artists is lot 132, Earl ''Bill'' Horter's River Town, Manayunk Hills in a Harer frame, estimated at $12,000-$18,000.

There is a fine and rare pair of paintings by William Aiken Walker, lot 4, Male and Female with Corn Pipes, framed separately, and estimated at $8,000-12,000. Lot 8, an oil by Thomas Hill depicting Vernal Falls, Yosemite is available with an estimate of $18,000-$24,000.

Lot 14, an untitled nude by Hendrik Jan Wolter carries a pre-sale estimate of $7,000-9,000. There are a number of paintings by David Burliuk, three of which were a gift to their consignor from the artist. The highlight is lot 128, Ocean and Flowers, an oil on canvas estimated at $18,000-$24,000.

Rago has secured a fine selection of sculpture. First among many is lot 121, a monumental work by Chaim Gross from The Philip and Muriel Berman Collection. Performer in a Diamond, cast in 1969, measures 144 inches by 76 inches by 25 inches and carries an estimate of $35,000-$45,000. Also for sale: lot 70, Floating Torso (Variant), circa 1940, in painted plaster by Alexander Archipenko, estimated at $25,000-$35,000.

Rago's is proud to be the first auction house in the United States to offer the work of Bui Xuan Phai (Vietnamese, 1920-1988). Among the works on paper in the sale are two pieces by the artist, lot 124, an untitled self-portrait estimated at $6,000-$8,000 and lot 125, an untitled nude estimated at $3,000-$5,000.

Also of great interest: lot 9, William Glackens' Peddler on Delancey Street in graphite on paper, estimated at $6,000-$8,000 and lot 1, an untitled watercolor by William Trost Richards from 1891, estimated at $3,000-$5,000.

Those seeking photographs will find five gelatin silver prints of Diego Rivera by Tina Modotti in three lots, as well as work by Margaret Bourke-White, Lewis Hines and Man Ray. Among the prints in the sale is lot 2, Grant Wood's lithograph July 15th, 1938, estimated at $3,000-5,000.

A highlight among the paintings in this session is lot 580, Amazing Grace by Anton Henning, a large mixed media work. Signed and dated, it is offered at $12,000-$18,000. Another is lot 500, a large, untitled oil on linen by Carl Morris, circa 1975, also estimated at $12,000-$18,000. Also expected to draw great interest is lot 520, Abstract Expressionist Leonard Nelson's Yellow of July, 1979-81, estimated at $8,000-$10,000.

There are many standouts among the broader selection of works on paper. Lot 543 is Robert Mangold's Point, Line, Plane, a pencil drawing from 1974, estimated at $4,000-$6,000. Lot 528a is an Andy Warhol drawing estimated at $20,000-$30,000. The subject of this 1982 work is Jon Gould, Warhol's muse and lover who died of AIDS in 1986.

Highlights among the original prints in the sale include a number of works by Warhol. Four come from a fine estate collection and include lot 528, an Andy Warhol Electric Chair screenprint in colors from 1971, signed, dated and numbered and accompanied by original receipt (estimate $6,000-$8,000); Campbell's Soup Can (Scotch Broth) from 1969 (estimate $8,000-$12,000); and two 1974 Flowers hand-colored screenprints (estimate $1,500-$2,000 each).

For details phone 609-397-9374.

View a fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet during the sale at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

Click here to view Rago Arts and Auction Center's complete catalog.

OAKLAND, Calif. - Clars Auction Gallery will present a strong collection of fine art, furnishings and decorative items in its Nov. 7-8 auction. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.

The standout of the sale is a striking oil on panel diptych from the workshop of 16th-century Dutch master Pieter Coecke van Aelst the Elder depicting both the Annunciation and the Rest on the Flight into Egypt. With an estimate of $20,000-$30,000, the piece is a stunning example of the precise perspective, setting and detail that characterize paintings of the Northern Renaissance.

The diptych heads a diverse group of noteworthy art that will be offered. After the Storm, an oversize oil painting by late 19th-century Polish artist Thaddaus Popiel, depicts a group of farmers grimly observing the destruction wreaked by a recent storm as the skies clear behind them. Popiel’s style is reminiscent of Millet’s famous peasant genre paintings. Deaccessioned from the Denver Art Museum, the painting is expected to sell between $12,000-$18,000.

Early 20th-century American artist Louis Aston Knight’s painting The Willow Cottage, Normandy is another significant piece in the sale.

Highlighting the modern art collection this month is Ghost, a color photograph by contemporary Australian photographer Peter Lik.

Clars’s collection of furnishings this month showcase one of the highpoints of the aesthetic history of California, particularly the Bay Area – the Arts and Crafts Movement. An Arts and Crafts high-back redwood settle by renowned architect Bernard Maybeck is offered with an estimate of $10,000-20,000. Maybeck designed multiple Berkeley landmarks, including the Phoebe Hearst Memorial Complex on the UC Berkeley campus and the First Church of Christ, Scientist, as well as many local private houses, one of which housed this remarkable piece.

Another decorative highlight will be an extensive 350-piece service of Wallace Grand Baroque sterling silver flatware. The set is housed in a custom fitted midcentury modern teak silver chest, a striking contrast to the ornate silver pattern. The estimate is $10,000-15,000.

A stunning selection of fine jewelry rounds out the sale, including a diamond ring mounted in 18K white gold and set with a champagne colored diamond weighing 5.25 carats surrounded by round diamonds. This unique piece has a $10,000-$15,000 estimate.

Special collections this month include antique Asian ceramics and fine decorative items deaccessioned from the San Francisco Hilton Hotel, particularly a selection of 10 large stained glass windows depicting various San Francisco historic landmarks.

For details phone 888-339-7600.

View a fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet during the sale at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

Click here to view Clars Auction Gallery's complete catalog.

YONKERS, N.Y. – When Walt Disney wrote to a Minnesota man on Nov. 29, 1935, he surely never dreamed what that letter might be worth one day to collectors. Its exact value will be revealed 74 years later, in a timed absentee auction to be hosted by Cohasco Inc., dealers in manuscripts, books and antiquarian ephemera. Bidding in the sale will close on Nov. 12, 2009 at 8 p.m. Eastern Time.

Typed on his “Silly Symphony” letterhead, emblazoned with a large Mickey Mouse in orange and black, the letter is a rarity to warm the heart of any advanced Disney collector. For six years, Disney’s Silly Symphony cartoons won Academy Awards, and they hold the distinction of having introduced to the public Duckburg’s irascible but lovable main character, Donald Duck.

Signed with his cartoonist’s pen, the Walt Disney letter, together with its Mickey Mouse envelope, is expected to make $3,500-$5,000 in Cohasco’s sale.

Six hundred other lots of collectibles in the auction include:

• The world’s largest private collection of U.S. Capitol Building memorabilia. Each of the 575 items in this grouping, which was amassed over decades, depicts the famous American structure. The one-of-a-kind collection even includes a shoe, a miniature piano, and a bell, all bearing images of the Capitol Building. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the model for the Statue of Freedom, which sits atop the Capitol dome, so the timing couldn’t be better for this collection to be coming to auction. Its group estimate is $2,000-$4,000.
• An 1837 letter from New Orleans writing of the “dreadful gale of wind” – certainly a hurricane – that is part of a 245-item archive documenting life in New Orleans and the Old South. The original letters and documents describe the lost world of steamboats, cotton trading, plantations, great wealth, the early frontier, sugar, tobacco and slavery Estimate $48,000-$60,000.
• “The pamphlet that shaped a nation,” a 26-page booklet printed by John Dunlap, the Philadelphia man who printed the Declaration of Independence on the night of July 4, 1776. Included in the Library of Congress’ online presentation “Creating the United States,” only three other original examples of this pamphlet are known. Estimate $1,500-2,500.
• Advertising booklet for one of the very first hybrid cars, the 1905 Gas-Au-Lec of Peabody, Massachusetts. Combining gas, steam, and electricity, only four examples of the Gas-Au-Lec were ever built. Estimate $110-$140.
• Description of the fabled “letter from Jesus” in an English schoolboy’s notebook of 1698-1702. According to tradition, King Abgar wrote to Jesus, asking for help in curing his illness. He received a reply, and was visited – and cured – by one of Jesus’ disciples. Estimate $400-$600.
• 1816 letter of a plantation overseer, ordering striped fabric for slaves’ clothing. Estimate $90-$120.

For information about any lot in this sale, contact Bob Snyder at Cohasco Inc. Tel. 914-476-8500 or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Visit the company online at http://cohascodpc.com

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NEW YORK – Andy Warhol’s Brillo Box and Ed Ruscha’s Mean As Hell are two of the top works at Phillips de Pury & Co.’s Contemporary Art Sales to be conducted Nov. 12-13. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.

The auctions will coincide with the annual Contemporary Art week in New York. Both the Warhol and Ruscha masterpieces will be offered at the Thursday Evening Sale, which begins at 7 p.m. Eastern. The Friday sale will begin at 10 a.m. Eastern. The Evening Sale will also offer important works by Richard Prince, Jeff Koons, Yayoi Kusama, Mark Handforth, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Olafur Eliasson, Larry Bell and Richard Artschwager.

Mean As Hell, done in 2002, is a unique piece from one of Ruscha’s most famous series in the 1980s, which paired views of city-light grids with short phrases, displaying the irony between the speed of the city and the rural Western America. This image illuminates the cityscape of Los Angeles with an aerial view of city lights. The acrylic on canvas painting has an estimate of $400,000-$600,000.

Brillo Box is an iconic piece from Warhol’s notorious set of series in the 1960s when he created some of the most recognizable works of art by blurring the lines between mass-produced consumer objects and the canon of art. Warhol exhibited his first series of Brillo Boxes at a solo show at New York’s Sable Gallery in 1964, alongside other boxes meant to replicate the packaging for Del Monte Peach Halves, Campbell’s Tomato Soup, and Heinz Ketchup. The use of Brillo boxes represented Warhol’s desire to expand society’s notion of what constitutes art by making art appear all the more commercial and even superficial. Warhol’s Brillo Box will be offered with an estimate of $700,000-$900,000.

Another highlight of the auction is Olafur Eliasson’s 1m3 light, which is composed of 24 halogen lamps, steel stands and a fog machine, creating a three dimensional cube from the intangible element of light. This 1999 work takes the Modernist concept of the cube to a new realm by requiring the viewer to engage with a form that is both present and fleeting. Following in the Minimalist footsteps of creating primary structures of basic forms, Eliasson utilizes light and fog to create an object that only exists in a moment. 1m3 light has an estimate of $300,000-$500,000.

Additional important works to be offered in the sale include Jeff Koons’ Ice Bucket, 1986, estimated at $200,000-$300,000; Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Nets (T.W.A), 2000, $300,000-$400,000; Mark Handforth’s American Tristar, 2004, $100,000-$150,000; and Richard Artschwager’s Untitled (frontal façade of a tall building), 1967, $300,000-$400,000.

The Contemporary Art Day Sale the following morning will include works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Chuck Close, Agnes Martin, Franz West, Francesco Clemente, Tar R and David Salle.

Following the success of Basquiat’s Year of the Boar, 1983, at Phillips de Pury’s Contemporary Evening Sale in London on Oct. 17, which sold for £1.1 million ($1.8 million), the New York sale will offer a unique sculpture, Two works: Nod and Untitled, 1986, which is estimated at $120,000-$180,000.

Willem de Kooning’s Bewitched Woman, 1965, demonstrates a portrait from the artist’s famous figurative period displaying the highly stylized and fetishistic era of the 1960s encouraging erotic depictions of women. This unique and fresh work will be offered with an estimate of $200,000-$300,000.

Franz West’s lacquered aluminum sculptures have gained great recognition within the last decade from his numerous public commissions displayed globally. His Untitled, 2004, will be offered in the sale with an $80,000-$120,000 estimate.

The sale will be held at Phillips de Pury & Co.’s New York headquarters, 450 W. 15th St. in Manhattan.

For details phone 212-940-1200.

View a fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet during the sale at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

Click here to view Phillips de Pury & Company's complete catalog.

FREDERICK, Md. – Mosby & Co. is mixing it up for the Thanksgiving holiday season with an absentee and Internet Fall 2009 Auction featuring 468 lots of Americana and Civil War items, plus toys, antique advertising, sports-related, carnival and circus items. Bidding is now open through LiveAuctioneers.com and will close at 10 p.m. Eastern Time on Nov. 20, 2009.

Perhaps the most highly prized lot in the sale is the 1865 American Flag in the Great Star pattern accompanied by a period photo and copy of the marriage certificate of the woman who hand-made it – Sara Elizabeth Young Lee. “She was still using her maiden name when she started the flag, but by the time she finished it, which would have been during the Civil War, she had married,” said Spurgeon. “This flag measures 105 inches by 65 inches and is in spectacular condition.”

A selection of 24 mid-20th-century carnival sideshow banners includes Armless Wonder, Plenty for Two – featuring a scantily clad Hawaiian girl – and Horse with Five Legs, which depicts the steed running in a race with a jockey in colorful “silks” and grandstand in the background. Other tops items in the category are an appealing carousel rounding board and three colorful three-sheet stone-litho circus posters, one of which advertises the Tom Mix Circus.

Coin ops include an excellent countertop Mutoscope digger in original, untampered-with condition, and an all-original Whiting Sculptoscope complete with hundreds of original cards.

A second tin-toy standout is a boxed, 1920s Little Giant Zeppelin pull toy measuring 25 inches long and made by the New York company Baer & Strasburger. “It has a great-looking pictorial box with a Manhattan scene that includes the Statue of Liberty but pre-dates the Empire State Building,” said Spurgeon. “It’s always fascinating to see a toy that I have never seen before, like this one.”

An array of clean, original cast-iron toys runs the gamut of cars, busses and airplanes, with a side selection of early, original figural cap bombs and cap guns. The top vehicular lot is a 12-inch red-and-black Willys sedan made by Kenton, one of only three known. “The last time an example of this toy appeared at auction, it made between $10,000 and $11,000,” Spurgeon noted.

Many excellent-condition comic character toys have been consigned, including a Gunthermann Bonzo on scooter and a few Zaccagnini Bambi and Pluto pieces. Additionally, several perennially popular Disney character watches will be auctioned with their original boxes.

The sale features a small selection of Dionne Quintuplets items, including two sets of Madame Alexander quints dolls. One of the sets is presented in a 3-wheeled painted-wood crib cart with the girls’ names shown on the side. An unusual figural clock with an image of the history-making Canadian quints will be offered, as well as a Stuart Warner Dionne Quints painted Bakelite radio in the largest of three sizes made.

Sports items are led by a 1948 Babe Ruth bronze-painted three-dimensional electric clock in excellent condition, and a striking tin sign that advertises Favorite Chewing Tobacco and features images of the Chicago White Sox’s 1959 MVP Nelly Fox, and Ralph Houk, former manager of the “World Champion New York Yankees.” The sign displays bright shades of yellow, red and blue with black accents and measures 5 feet long.

Other sports-related items include Vanderbilt Cup racing pennants for 1914 and 1915, and an exceptionally attractive 1910 pennant for the Harvard Boston Aero Meet, emblazoned with images of bi-planes and the Bunker Hill Monument.

Mosby & Co.’s Fall 2009 Auction welcomes bids through www.LiveAuctioneers.com. Internet bidding will close at 10 p.m. Eastern Time on Nov. 20.

For information on any lot in this sale, call Keith Spurgeon at 301-304-0352 or 781-771-3998, or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Visit the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid online at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

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Click here to view Mosby & Co. Auctions' complete catalog.

LONDON (AP and ACNI) - Fancy a piece of British royal history? On Nov. 20, 2009, Christie's London will be auctioning furniture, jewelry and other heirlooms from the collection of the late Duke of Kent, uncle of Queen Elizabeth II, and his late wife Princess Marina.

While the 336-lot auction catalog does not identify the consignor, Christie's has confirmed that the articles were inherited by the royal couple's children, the present Duke of Kent, Prince Michael of Kent and Princess Alexandra.

The auction includes silver wine coolers, linen towels from the Sandringham estate and King George V's picnic set, complete with silver thermos flask. Personal items include a painting by Queen Victoria of her daughter, Princess Louise, and a chair used at the coronation of King George VI.

Among the more intriguing items in the sale are the albums of vintage photographs. It was the Grand Duchess Elena of Russia, mother of Princess Marina, who took many of the informal family photographs held in these albums, at a time when the royal families of Europe enjoyed lifestyles of unimaginable opulence. In one of the photographs, the last Tsar Nicholas II, who was murdered by the Bolsheviks in 1918 along with his wife and children, is pictured looking through a telescope and reviewing a military regiment.

Increasingly, some royals are said to be feeling the pinch of budgetary cutbacks. Beginning in 2010, for example, Prince Michael and his wife will pay the £120,000 ($195,000) annual rent for their apartments at Kensington Palace out of their own pockets. Unlike the Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra, the couple are not regarded as “working” royals and therefore do not receive any income from the Queen.

Christie's said the collection is expected to raise more than 1 million pounds ($1.64 million).

Auction Central News contributed to this report. Copyright 2009 Associated Press and Auction Central News International. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-ES-11-02-09 0957EST

CINCINNATI - The holiday shopping season gets off to a spectacular start as Cincinnati Art Galleries conducts its Holiday Sale of Art Pottery and Art Glass on Nov. 7-8. Saturday’s session, beginning at 1 p.m. Eastern, consists of more than 600 fine examples of American and European art pottery and art glass. Sunday’s session, 10 a.m. Eastern, will feature more than 350 pieces of outstanding Rookwood art pottery. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.

Saturday morning commences with American art pottery. A rare Weller red Louwelsa 10-inch vase decorated with woodbine by Hester Pillsbury is estimated to bring $1,500-$2,000. Also scarce is a 12 1/8-inch blue Louwelsa vase decorated by Frank Ferrell, who graced the vessel with red poppy decoration, the color of the flower really standing out. Another blue Louwelsa example features crisply defined nasturtiums. Both are estimated to sell in the $1,200-$1,700 range.

Several pieces of decorated Marblehead Pottery will be offered, including a vase with hand-painted blue, gray and brown flowers on stalks, which is estimated at $2,000-$2,500, and one with a band of stylized flowering vines in black slip against a blue ground, estimated at $2,000-$3,000.

Very striking is a tall and regal Roycroft American Beauty vase made for the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, N.C. The 22 3/8-inch vessel has been professionally repatinated and carries an estimate of $2,000-$3,000.

A small but special group produced at Newcomb College will be offered, including an 8 5/8-inch high-glaze vase with carved and painted stylized passion flowers, the work of Cynthia Littlejohn in 1904. The flowers and leaves are outlined in blue and the color and composition are strong. The estimate is $10,000-$12,000. Another is a monumental scenic vase carved and painted in 1912 by Sadie Irvine. Pictured are tall palm trees done in mat blues and greens with tan highlights where the buff clay peeks through. The 16 1/4-inch vase is estimated at $13,000-$15,000.

European and Asian ceramics will follow. A rare KPM porcelain vase provides a repeating scene of house and barn surrounded by trees with bright yellow lights shining through the windows of the house. At 15 1/4 inches tall it is quite large and is estimated at $2,000-$2,500. A spectacular Zsolnay vase, which shows classical buildings and a small sailing ship in a fantasy landscape beneath a crescent moon, has a $3,500-$4,500 estimate.

Saturday afternoon, art glass and other desirable objects will move to the forefront. Tiffany Studios is represented with some fine examples. An early gem is a 3 3/4-inch vase decorated with iridescent gold and emerald green swirled over the surface and marked with the TGC (for Tiffany Glass Co.) logo has a $3,000-$5,000 estimate. A good Tiffany flowerform vase, 12 inches high, was created from an intense blue glass and bearing green foliage. It is estimated at $3,000-$5,000. Estimated at $4,000-$6,000, a Tiffany freeform vase displays a continuous band of connecting loops and a succession of waves against the citron body.

A beautiful Steuben Plum Jade vase, double acid cut in the Canton design, has a definite Asian flair and is estimated to bring between $2,500 and $3,500.

An impressive Mount Washington Glass Co. Colonial Ware vase with dolphin handles carries a hand-painted Venetian scene of a young lady approaching a gondola at the end of a pier and is estimated at $4,000-$5,000.

Sunday morning the chairs will begin to fill for the Rookwood Pottery portion of the auction, which always evinces a lot of interest due to its Cincinnati origin.

The Rookwood vessel gracing the cover of the sale catalog is a 12 3/4-inch Sea Green Glaze vase, decorated by Matt Daly in 1900. The artwork consists of grapes, leaves and vine, all outlined in black, with a dramatic effect, and covered with the desirable glaze, which displays a bit of a peach blush. The spectacular vase is predicted to sell for between $15,000 and $20,000.

A rare and important Aerial Blue vase in Dull Finish depicts a young woman walking through a forest with a tiger at her side, the work of Sallie Toohey in 1895. The clay body is blue and all of the decoration is done in shades of white, creating a vivid effect. It is estimated to sell for $12,000 to $15,000.

A charming Black Iris vase, decorated by Sara Sax in 1906, with red poppies encircling the vase with three sets of stems emanating from the bottom. Uncrazed and with strong color and composition, its estimate is $2,500-$3,500.

Lorinda Epply decorated a 10 1/2-inch vase with colorful daffodils, the vase then being covered with the Black Opal Glaze while the interior is lined with an attractive mottled brown and green glaze. Estimated between $1,750 and $2,250, it is very crisply done and in appealing colors.

A porcelain harbor scene, painted on a vase by Carl Schmidt in his classic photorealistic style, exhibits his wonderfully detailed work. Carrying a $3,000-$4,000 estimate, this one is unusual as it has been covered with a lightly tinted blue glaze, which subtly enhances the scene. Another porcelain vase depicts a landscape with exotic plants and flowers and a single bluebird in flight, the work of Arthur Conant in 1921. This fantastic vase is estimated at $6,000-$8,000.

In the production area, there is a rare set of Hebrew Union College bookends estimated at $1,500-$2,000, as well as Large Rooks and Hippo bookends.

Cincinnati Art Galleries, 225 E. Sixth St. in downtown Cincinnati, will be open for previewing until 8 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 6.

A full-color catalog, individually picturing every lot, is available, priced at $45 plus $5 shipping (Ohio residents add $2.93 sales tax). Phone 513-381-2128 to order the catalog or for details.

View a fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet during the sale at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

Click here to view Cincinnati Art Galleries, LLC's complete catalog.

The majority of items in the sale belong to Peter and Susan Wain, whose extraordinary collection was exhibited at the National Museums of Scotland from 2003-2004. Major exhibition pieces will be offered in addition to the renowned Little Red Books and other Mao memorabilia. Works by Senior Masters, who were given no time restraints, are considered today to be amongst the finest 20th-century Chinese works of art, and they are of a standard not seen for 200 years.

Bloomsbury Auctions’ sale is timed to coincide not only with London’s Asian Art Week but also the 60th anniversary of the founding of The People's Republic of China. The total disappearance of Maoist slogans, architectural monuments, films, plays, sculptures and mass parades from everyday life in Mao Zedong’s China make these artifacts amongst the few visual reminders of that unique historical period which represented the heaviest deluge of propaganda through the arts, that has ever been experienced in any civilization at any time.

When artistic freedom rather than political freedom began to return in 1976 after Mao’s death and the arrest of Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing and the Gang of Four, Little Red Books were shredded and objects regarded as being from a period best forgotten, were destroyed or hidden, thus surviving original items such as these for sale, are rare and highly collectable.

The Chinese Cultural Revolution (from 1966) saw the image of Chairman Mao used as a national rallying point, synonymous with cultural change and the purging of all bourgeois elements. Propaganda was taken over by Jiang Qing, Mao’s wife who controlled all the arts and demanded standardized performance and imagery – art had to adhere to Mao’s political line, not the personal creative vision of the artist.

As the masses were largely illiterate, striking visual images were vital, and Mao himself became a cult figure through ubiquitous images of his smiling, avuncular face. Under Jiang Qing. Artists had to take the greatest care in reproducing Mao’s likeness, as the slightest flaw labeled the creator as counter revolutionary, with dire consequences likely to follow. Mao was frequently depicted as the sun, all powerful and everlasting, with the people shown as sunflowers turning their heads towards him.

One of the rarest pieces in the sale is a large porcelain vase dated 1968 and decorated with Mao’s portrait in under-glaze blue, with sunrays emanating from him and three sunflowers representing the “three loyalties” – loyalty to Mao himself, his thoughts, and the proletarian revolution. The back of the vase bears a poem written by Mao commemorating a guerrilla war in the autumn of 1929.

The idealized porcelain bust of a young peasant girl as a humble rural worker embodies the New China aesthetics of youth, health and materiality before the Cultural Revolution. Made in 1960 by the Senior Master Zeng Shandong, the finely painted headscarf was created by dipping lace into the glaze, then modeling it onto the figure.

A true artistic tour de force is the large lacquer and mother-of-pearl plaque commemorating the Opening of the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, made at the No.1 State Lacquer Factory in 1970. Important items such as this were usually made in threes: one as a gift to a deserving and sympathetic head of state, one to be sent on traveling exhibitions to promote the view of China as a revolutionary Utopia, and the third to be kept by the factory museum as a spare. The plaque offered by Bloomsbury exemplifies the Chinese view of a futuristic “bright, new dawn of technology,” and was bought by the vendor, Peter Wain, from the factory itself.

The Quotations of Chairman Mao, best known as the Little Red Book, was compiled and printed by the Political Department, Air Force Division of Shenyang Military Region, December 1963, prior to the formal official publication in the following year. This larger anthology is barely known and not mentioned in the standard Mao bibliographies; it has been suggested that this may be a trial specimen, created by the Air Force and used as a model and source for Mao’s better known edition of 1964.

Illustrating the span of the Little Red Book, the sale includes three Hebrew editions and one in Braille, edited by the People’s Liberation Army Central Political Department.

In 2006, Bloomsbury Auctions held a highly successful sale of privately owned Chinese vintage posters and as a result it is now staging The Art of Chinese Propaganda. The sale consists of some 300 pieces and is the largest group of artifacts from the Chinese Revolution ever to appear on the market anywhere in the world.

View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet through www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

Click here to view Bloomsbury Auctions' complete catalog.

DORSET, England – Thirteen travel posters featuring the greatest ocean liners ever to ply the Atlantic will be included in Onslows’ Internet auction of vintage posters on Nov. 12. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.

The small collection was purchased unknowingly for a few pounds from a house clearance in Northern Ireland. The posters are of famous White Star Liners including the Titanic's sister ship the Olympic.

The posters can be accurately dated to certainly post 1912 and the sinking of the Titanic because of the additional lifeboats shown on each ship. They most likely date from around 1919 when the Atlantic passenger routes were reopened at the end of World War I.

The finest poster of the group is by Montague B. Black showing the Olympic, which is estimated to sell for £2,500-£3,000 ($4,100-$4,950).

Another is Montague B. Black's White Star Dominion Line to Canada. After the war there was a campaign to attract people to Canada to homestead.

The collection is likely to bring the lucky vendor a windfall of £15,000 ($25,000).

The posters where discovered in original as-found condition. They had been rolled for many years and considering their age are in remarkably good condition, said an Onslows representative. The auction company has had the posters backed on linen and any small tears and damage restored.

View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet during the sale at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

Click here to view Onslows Auctioneers' complete catalog.

The event will be conducted live at Baterbys' Pointe Orlando gallery 9101 International Drive, Unit 1008. The auction will begin at 7 p.m.

Mention of the name Salvador Dali often evokes soft watches and surrealist dream imagery. Later in life, however, Dali turned to more traditional subjects, in particular those involving biblical and historical references. His entire Aliyah Suite is an example of this and will be auctioned along with other limited-edition works, like the Divine Comedy series.

Dali's Aliyah Suite was executed in 1968. Each image in the 25-print series is an original lithograph d'Arche Vellum, about 20 inches by 15 inches each, and signed lower right in pencil and numbered of 250 lower left. All are in excellent condition. The Divine Comedy series, circa 1960, comprises six signed, framed prints, with an image area of 13 inches by 10 1/2 inches.

Gary Benfield (British, b. 1965) is known for his romanticized female figure paintings and equestrian renderings. Offered Nov. 7 will be a six-work series of serigraphs on wove paper, executed between 2003-2007. Each serigraph is signed in gold pen in a limited-edition series of 750. The six titles include Escapade II, Golden Mask, Renaissance, Heavenly Dance, Day Dreaming and Love Secrets.

Original oil paintings and hand-embellished giclee prints by Elena Bond will also be sold. The giclees include Strolling Harbor Side edition of 95, 24 inches by 40 inches; Love Gondolier edition of 95, 36 inches by 18 inches); Sand and Surf edition of 95, 32 inches by 32 inches; and City Reflections edition of 95, 19 inches by 60 inches. All the giclees are artist-signed and in excellent condition.

The oil on canvas paintings by Bond include The Waters of Venice, Early Morning in Venice, Still in Mediterranean Waters, La Trattoria, Hand and Hand, Night in the Keys, Arch and Lake, Artists Café, Summer Manhattan Style, and After Hours Chill and Le Station de Metro. The works range in size from 16 inches by 12 inches to 20 inches by 60 inches. All are signed and in excellent condition.

Nicola Simbari (Italian, b. 1929) launched his painting career while still in his 20s with a one-man show in London. After that, he was commissioned to paint murals for the Italian Pavilion at the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels. His brilliant impressionistic style and vivid and dramatic interpretations of the Mediterranean have established Simbari as a major artist.

Three of his works will be included in the Baterbys auction. All three are serigraphs, done around 1990. They include: Piazzo Del Duomo (36 1/4 inches by 33 inches, hand-signed lower right, hand-numbered lower left); White Dress (31 inches by 36 inches, hand signed lower right, hand-numbered lower left); and El Parasol (35 inches by 26 ¾ inches, hand-signed and hand-numbered).

The auctioneer's premium will be donated to Hope and Help Center of Central Florida, an AIDS/HIV awareness organization based in Winter Park.

For details log on to www.baterbys.com or call 866 537-0265.

View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet during the sale at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

Click here to view Baterbys' Art Auction Gallery's complete catalog.

In terms of record-setting potential, few items in the sale compare to Grandmother's House We Go by self-taught artist Grandma Moses (Anna Mary Robertson Moses, New York and Virginia, 1860-1961). Her 1940 painting depicts a family in a horse-drawn sleigh crossing a bridge over a frozen stream with ice skaters in the foreground and a snow-covered valley in the distance. Grandmother's cottage with smoke billowing from the chimney lies ahead on the right. The painting is inscribed front middle and verso. The 19 1/8-inch by 23 1/8-inch oil with mica flakes on Masonite in a hand-carved wood frame has been in the consignor's family for the past 50 years.

A label verso shows a price of $50 for Grandmother's House We Go. Grandma Moses may have entered the painting in a local competition for prize money in 1940. She was then 80 years old. The painting predates her first exhibition at the Galerie St. Etienne in New York City.

"There is a genuine charm and honesty to the work of Grandma Moses," said Andrew Brunk at Brunk Auctions. "She captured rural America as we wanted it remembered."

Grandmother's House is conservatively estimated at $60,000-$90,000. A 1950 Grandma Moses summer scene Country Fair sold in May 2009 at Sotheby's New York, for $1,082,500. The painting consigned to Brunk, once part of the personal collection of artist Leon Salter, is no. 24 in the 1973 Grandma Moses catalog raisonné by Hildegard Bachert and Otto Kallir.

George Washington dominated the War of Independence and he rules the central portion of Brunk's November sale. The 29 Washington lots range from a bust and political banner to portraits and a lock of the first president's hair, estimated at $400-$800. The most notable is a signed and dated letter from Washington to Sam Hodgdon of Philadelphia, dated, "Mount Vernon Decr. 29th. 83." In the letter Washington requested compensation for the late arrival of a stagecoach bringing important papers to his home. The 9-inch by 15 3/4-inch handwritten letter on laid paper is estimated at $10,000-$20,000.

Also Washington-related is a pine traveling desk dated 1812 for the Washington Benevolent Society, a fraternity that operated secretly in support of the Federalists (estimate $8,000-$10,000). The desk includes an engraved portrait of George Washington inside the lid. The desk and Hodgdon letter come from the estate of the late William and Priscilla Carlebach of Mystic, Conn. and Bedford, N.Y.

From this same historical period is the autograph of Benjamin Franklin to a document pertaining to Peter Stephen du Poncheau. Franklin signed the notary public certificate as president of the Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (estimate $3,000-$6,000).

Charles Willson Peale (1741-1829) painted portraits of America's founders, among them George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and John Hancock. The Peale painting in Brunk's November sale is more personal. The half portrait of Edward Burd (1751-1853) was painted for Peale's daughter-in-law, who was Burd's niece. The circa 1820 oil on canvas, once listed as "unlocated," descended in the families of Rubens Peale and Anthony Morris (estimate $40,000-$60,000).

Items from the Civil War focus on our 16th president: a portrait of Abraham Lincoln by G.V. Cooper, circa 1865 (estimate $12,000-$16,000) and a Lincoln-signed presidential appointment from 1862 (estimate $3,000-$5,000).

Tiffany Studios was a leader in American decorative arts at the turn of the 20th century. Among the company's elegant creations was a six-socket floor lamp on a circular cushion base with a serpentine band of acorns around the a glass domed shade. The acorn lamp in the sale is estimated at $30,000-$50,000. Also from Tiffany Studios is a 22 3/4-inch-diameter dogwood stained glass shade (estimate $20,000-$30,000). Two Tiffany Favrile lots, a vase with pink nasturtiums and a lava vase, both carry $8,000-$15,000 estimates.

For details, visit www.brunkauctions.com or call 828-254-6846.

View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet during the sale at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

Click here to view Brunk Auctions' complete catalog.

Lot 100 is a 9 7/8-inch by 7 7/8-inch acrylic and oil on parchment is attributed to Willem de Kooning (Dutch/American, 1904-1997). The artwork is signed "de Kooning" and dated "1969" on verso. It carries an estimate of $4,000-$6,000.

Another interesting lot, no. 105, is a bronze signed M. Valentin of a seminude woman in a Classical drape. The 22-inch figure stands on a black marble plinth and is estimated at $2,000-$3,000.

A large oil-on-canvas painting that doubles as three-panel dressing screen deserves a second look. Each panel is 67 inches by 20 inches and together depicts a Florida canal scene with foliage, dock and a small boat. It is signed on the upper right panel "Theodore Coe" and dated 1932. Theodore (Demerest) Coe is a listed artist born in 1866. The screen has a $1,500-$2,500 estimate.

Furniture includes an 1830s Chippendale reverse serpentine slant-front desk in crotch-grain mahogany. It has a fitted interior with a shell carved central prospect door flanked by four pigeonholes over document drawers. The desk has a $2,000-$4,000 estimate.

An English sterling silver tea and coffee service by John Sutter, 1842-1843, consists of a teapot, coffeepot, cream and sugar. Weighing more than 76 troy ounces, the melon-shape set with pear finials has a $2,000-$4,000 estimate.

For details on any lot in the sale, call 800-542-3877.

View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet during the sale at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

Click here to view Professional Appraisers & Liquidators LLC's complete catalog.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Affiliated Auctions, headquartered in Tallahassee, Fla., has announced that its Dec. 6, 2009 catalog auction will include a 10-carat ring that Elvis Presley took from his finger and gave to a fan during a 1975 concert. Internet live bidding will be provided by LiveAuctioneers.com.

A unique and original piece of Elvis Presley-worn memorabilia, the ring was given to the consignor, Lloyd Perry, by Presley during a concert in Asheville, N.C. on July 24, 1975 - the last stop on the superstar's tour itinerary.

Four songs into his 1½-hour show, Presley tossed his Gibson guitar in to the audience. Perry and the gentleman seated to his right simultaneously caught the guitar. After strumming it a bit, Perry allowed the other gentleman to have the guitar. A few songs later, possibly feeling that Perry should receive a memento for having allowed the other gentleman to take the guitar, Presley motioned Perry onto the stage from his front-row seat. Presley shook Perry's hand, then removed the diamond ring from his own finger and gave it to Perry.

The size-11, 10-carat ring consists of 14 round-cut diamonds approximately .44ct (each) / F-H color / I-1 to SI-1 clarity; one round-cut diamond approximately 1.29ct / H color /

I-1 clarity; one round-cut diamond 1.39ct / H color / I-1 clarity; and three emerald cut approximately .35ct (each) / H-I color / VS-2 clarity. The diamonds are set in 14K yellow gold with a total weight of 27.2 grams.

The ring will be auctioned together with a complete file of provenance from the consignor, including an autographed copy of Lee Cotton's 1975 book Did Elvis Sing in Your Hometown, Too (in which the gift event is referenced on page 208); three copies of the Asheville Citizen-Times and Bristol Herald Courier, both of which include stories about the event; more than 40 original photographs of the event as it occurred, other photos of Elvis wearing the ring at other venues, original tickets from the concert, and a letter of authenticity signed by the consignor.

For additional information, contact Affiliated Auctions by calling 850-294-7121 or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . The fully illustrated catalog for the auction featuring the Elvis ring will appear online soon at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

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BOSTON - On Nov. 4, Skinner Inc., in partnership with Lower Falls Wine Co. of Newton, Mass., will auction an outstanding array of fine wines at its Boston gallery at 63 Park Plaza. The 400-lot sale will chart new territory for the prestigious antiques and fine art auction company, as it will mark the first time a Skinner wine event has included the Internet as a live-bidding option. Oenophiles will be able to bid on any lot in the sale through www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

The finest producers of Bordeaux are represented, from Chateau Latour and Chateau Petrus to Chateau La Mission Haut Brion. Of particular note is a 10-bottle lot of Chateau Lafite Rothschild 1959 (lot 99, est. $11,000/16,000); eight bottles of Chateau Mouton Rothschild 1959 (lot 105, est. $7,000/10,000); and two bottles of Chateau La Mission Haut Brion 2000 (lot 126, est. $800/1,200).

The sale also offers more recently bottled Bordeaux vintages, offering buyers the wonderful dilemma of whether to collect and cellar, or open and enjoy the wines with friends and family. The Rhone is well represented with a bottle of Domaine du Pegau, Chateauneuf du Pape, Cuvee da Capo 2003 (lot 169, est. $600/1,000) and single bottles of Guigal, La Landonne 1983 (lot 171, est. $400/600), Guigal, Cote Rotie La Mouline 2003 (lot 175, est. $400/600), and Guigal, Cote Rotie La Torque 2003 (lot 176, est. $400/600) among others.

The sale boasts luscious New World wines of superlative description. The iconoclastic, maverick winemakers behind such wines are shown off with two bottles of Sine Qua Non, Just for the Love of It Syrah 2002 (lot 263, est. $850/1,200) and three and four bottle lots from Charles Smith - Old Bones Syrah 2005 (lot 265, est. $325/450) and The Skull Syrah 2005 (lot 266, est. $350/550) and a single bottle of Chris Ringland Shiraz 1998 (lot 200, est. $500/700).

Just in time for the holiday, great Champagne in party-sized lots of 8, 14, and 20 bottles will take buyers from hors d'oeuvres through dessert. Highlighted are seven bottles of Taittinger, Comtes de Champagne (lot 39, est. $700/1,100); five bottles of Veuve Clicquot, Grand Dame 1979 (lot 40, est. $1,500/2,200); and 12 bottles of Heidsieck, Vintage Brut Millesime 1990 (lot 342, est. $700/1,100).

According to Marie Keep, Director of Fine Wine at Skinner Inc., "The current wine market is a boon for buyers. Wines that may have been out of reach at the zenith of the market are now approachable at auction. It's a good time to start collecting again." Keep continued, "Skinner remains the only major auction house in New England to offer fine wines at auction, and the interest in these auctions reflects Boston's love of fine wines."

For information on any lot in the sale, contact Marie Keep at 508 970-3296 or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

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Click here to view Skinner's complete catalog.