Antiques PR Publicity Announcements News and Information
Antiques PR Publicity Announcements News and Information

Rago English Art and Antiques Auction

A long hidden cache of English art and antiques will auction without reserve, with 600 other largely unreserved lots, at the Rago Arts and Auction Center on August 7th and 8th, 2009.

The Estate of English and Continental antiques dealer Joseph Stanley has been shuttered in a New Hope, PA mansion since the mid 80s. Rago’s will sell its many rooms of property, along with additional lots of fine art, 19th C. and 20th 20th C. furniture and design, rugs, jewelry, watches, silver, ethnographic art and collectibles.

Friday, August 7, 2009 at 10 am: Discovery Auction

A lot of great, affordable pieces come to Rago’s with consignments destined for its high-end catalogued sales and on its Appraisal Days. This is the property that goes up for auction twice yearly in Rago’s Discovery Auction, where the high bid – whatever it may be – takes the prize. Rago’s invites you to take part in its biggest and best Discovery sale to date, which includes additional property from the Estate of Joseph Stanley.

“The Discovery sales are the most fun we get to have all year. It’s the way great country auctions used to be – but with a way broader selection for people who want anything from the perfect sofa to silver, modern design or antiquities, lighting, an original work of art or garden items.” says David Rago.

This Discovery auction includes over 200 lots of jewelry, silver and accessories, many from Tiffany & Co., Omega, Mont Blanc, Lalique, Baccarat, Cartier, Guerlain and Gucci. There’s a Tiffany & Co. Atlas necklace, as well as other discontinued Tiffany & Co silver & gold jewelry; a Farone bypass bracelet; unmounted gemstones; period jewelry; Russian silver; watches by Cartier, Tiffany & Omega; Tiffany and Mont Blanc fountain pens; and a perfume bottle collection. Also look for over 400 American silver coins including more than 200 silver dollars.

Modern furnishings are abundant in this sale – there are over 100 lots to choose among, from Dakota Jackson’s dining table to furniture by Warren Mc Arthur, Norman Bel Geddes, Heywood Wakefield, Howell Co., Paul McCobb, Edward Wormley, Wendy Murayama, George Nelson, Paul Evans, Charles Eames, Alvar Aalto, Wolfgang Hoffman, Knoll and Dunbar. Glass, metal, smalls and lighting include work from Gunnell Sahlin, Barovier, Paulo Venini, Orrefors, Fratelli Toso, Chase, Krome Kraft, Fantoni, Gambone, Curtis Jere, Tommy Parzinger, Russell Wright, Jamie Walker and a great bowl by Jonathon Bonner.

The walls and floor of the auction house will be filled with Discovery fine art. Among the paintings, works on paper and sculpture is work by Rockwell Kent, Diane Burko, John Grabach, Karel Appel, Robert Morris, Julius Bloch, Robert Kushner, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Jules Olitski, Yoshitomo Nara, Nicola D’Ascenzo, Cornelius Peck, Cesare A. Ricciardi and Douglas Volk.

This Discovery sale contains the largest selection of traditional furniture, fittings & decorative accessories to date – many from the Estate of Joseph Stanley. Buyers will find a pine stepback cupboard ca. 1810 and an Irish pine corner cupboard; period English furniture including Victorian, Chippendale, Empire, Queen Anne and country styles. Among the smalls, look for Chinese export porcelain, Meissen, Staffordshire and Minton china. Browsers will also find Georgian mirrors, a bracket clock, quilts, samplers, field baskets, decorative brass accessories, 18th C. hardware & fittings including fireplace trivets, andirons, fenders, screens and tools.

Rago’s is known for Early 20th C. design and a number of nice pieces have been accepted for this sale. Among them is a Gustav Stickley wicker armchair, as well as other furniture by Gustav Stickley, L&JG Stickley, Harden, Lifetime and a reproduction sideboard by E. J. Audi. Among the smalls is pottery from Marblehead, Dedham, Roseville, Rookwood, Van Briggle, Walrath, Teplitz, Fulper and Peters & Reed. There is art glass by Lalique and Galle, Roycroft metalwork, and a collection of American Art tiles including American Encaustic, Grueby and Marblehead. Also look for textiles and Bradley & Hubbard and Pairpoint lighting.

It’s the season for gardens, so there should be good homes available for a selection of wrought iron and wire furniture, decorative ironwork & cast stone ornaments.

Tribal offerings appeal to collectors and design buffs alike, as they look great in many styles of room settings. Here are African works in wood, bronze, pottery and textile, Oceanic works from New Guinea and, from the New World, Native American baskets and Pre-Columbian pottery. There are antiquities here, too, in several lots of Roman glass and pottery.

More, there are rugs, weathervanes, 1939 World’s Fair memorabilia, advertising signs, including an Apothecary sign, reference books on art, architecture & antiques; Asian snuff bottles, bronzes, cloisonné, netsukes and ivory.

Saturday, August 8, 2009 at 12 pm: An Estate Auction featuring the Estate of Joseph Stanley

“Buyers will find the best of the Stanley estate in this Saturday sale, all unreserved,” says Tom Martin, the specialist in charge of Estates at Rago’s. “We’ve included 200 lots of his antique English furniture and over 100 paintings and 100 lots of decorative arts and accessories. It’s a treasure trove.”

Furniture: From the Stanley Estate comes a fine selection of Georgian and Regency desks, tables, chairs and cabinetry including a Regency breakfront, desks, sofas, knife urns, cellarettes and wine coolers, card tables, chests of drawers, breakfast tables, whatnots, dining tables, upholstered chairs, campaign furniture, kneehole desks and writing tables, plus much more. 17th C. oak English furniture, including dressers, side and drop leaf tables, armoires, cassone, a paneled blanket chest and chairs. Highlights include an English partner’s desk in mahogany, ca. 1840-1850 (pre-sale estimate $3000-5000); a 19 C. English Regency four-drawer bowfront chest (pre-sale estimate $1500-2000); a Regency card table in rosewood with satinwood crossbanding, brass inlay and lyre base, ca. 1810 (pre-sale estimate $1500-2500); a mahogany cellarette on stand, ca. 1760-1790 (pre-sale estimate $1200-1500); a Dutch kas, ca. 1680-1720 (pre-sale estimate $3000-5000); a two-section three-drawer campaign chest with brass handles in camphor wood, 19th C. (pre-sale estimate $800-1000); a six piece English Regency parlor set with original painted decoration, ca. 1810 (pre-sale estimate $2000-3000); a 19th C. English Regency mahogany breakfront (pre-sale estimate $3000-4000); a Welsh dresser base, ca. 1740-1760 (pre-sale estimate $1000-2000); an English high chest, ca. 1780-1800 (pre-sale estimate $800-1200); a 17th C. Continental blanket chest with painted panels (pre-sale estimate $1000-1500); and a Regency style pair of knife urns in mahogany, 20th C. (pre-sale estimate $1000-1500). Also among the finest furnishings, a pair of tortoiseshell chairs in the Regency style with horsehair upholstery, late 19th/early 20th C. (pre-sale estimate $10,000-15,000); and a ca. 1860 Victorian Rococo mahogany sideboard with marble top attributed to Alexander Roux (pre-sale estimate $6000-8000).

Fine Art: From the Stanley Estate come 18th and 19th C. portraiture, marine art, animal art, 19th c. landscapes, Chinese export paintings and works of art of the 20th C., including work from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Arts and the New Hope school. Oil paintings in the sale include: “The Charles Morgan Off Cape of Good Hope”, 19th C., (pre-sale estimate $5000-8000); Ethan Allen Greenwood’s “Sambo The Beggar Man”, 1854, signed, titled and dated, with caricature on verso (pre-sale estimate $2000-3000); a signed, untitled painting of hunters and dogs by J. Bradley, (pre-sale estimate $1000-1500); a signed, untitled painting of two fox hounds by T. Palmer (pre-sale estimate $800-1200); “Summer”, by Cesare A. Ricciardi, 1934, signed, dated and titled (pre-sale estimate $600-800); an untitled early 19th C. painting of a horse drawn carriage (pre-sale estimate $1000-1500); “Durham Ox” by James Scraggs, signed and dated (pre-sale estimate $800-1200); an untitled painting of exotic fowl in landscape by John King, 1832, signed and dated (pre-sale estimate $1000-1500); a pair of 19th C. panels with mythological scenes (pre-sale estimate $1000-1500); a large 19th C. full-length portrait of a young boy with dog (pre-sale estimate $5000-8000); a large 18th C. portrait of a young girl with a rabbit (pre-sale estimate $2000-3000); and a 19th C. portrait of a gentleman (pre-sale estimate $500-700). Also “Unity of Cork, Denis Whelan, Master, January 1st, 1851″, a nautical scene in gouache and pencil (pre-sale estimate $1200-1500); an Asian painting on wood depicting a scholar, ca. 18th C. (pre-sale estimate $600-800); a pair of Japanese portraits on silk, ca. 1900 (pre-sale $400-600); and a pair of 19th C. portraits by Raimundo de Madrazo y Garretta (pre-sale estimate $5000-8000).

English and Continental Decorative Arts and accessories highlights include 19th C. English tea caddies in tortoiseshell and fruitwood; a 19th C. English miniature desk (pre-sale estimate $600-800); an English Girandole mirror with candleholders and eagle finial (pre-sale estimate $2500-3500); a 19th C. English stick barometer inscribed Zambra (pre-sale estimate $600-800); a Louis Vuitton steamer trunk (pre-sale estimate $3000-5000); late 18th C. English figural dummyboards, including one depicting a man and a woman in period dress (pre-sale estimate $700-900); a pair of 18th/19th C. English gilded sconces with winged female figures (pre-sale estimate $1000-1500); a late 19th C., unsigned Italian marble statue “Susanna After the Bath” on green marble base (pre-sale estimate $12000-18000); a 20th C. sculpture of Hercules and Antaeus in green veined marble (pre-sale estimate $5000-7000); and a 19th C. Biedermeier mantle clock (pre-sale estimate $1500-2000). Many more wonderful smalls from the Stanley Estate and other owners include English samplers and bronze statuary.

Americana and folk art are here. Highlights include a ca. 1900 patchwork quilt in the “Bethlehem Star” pattern (pre-sale estimate $400-600); a 19th C. English apothecary cabinet with original yellow glass pulls and label remnants (pre-sale estimate $2000-3000); a ca. 1900 American copper weathervane topped with a rooster (pre-sale estimate $1000-1500); and a thirty-hour Philadelphia grandfather clock by Joseph Wills with brass dial and works, in walnut case, 19th C. (pre-sale estimate $2000-3000); and stoneware.

Among the Asian offerings are Chinese export porcelains, lacquer furniture, ivories and bronzes, including a 19th C. Chinoiserie-decorated English china cabinet (pre-sale estimate $800-1200); tall ivory figures of an emperor and empress with carved decoration (pre-sale estimate $4000- 6000); an 18th C. Chinese export punchbowl with Masonic symbols (pre-sale estimate $1500-1200).

Serapi, Heriz, Sarouk, Kashan and Caucasian rugs are offered, including a 19th/20th C. Serapi measuring 108” x 132” (pre-sale estimate $500-800); a 142″ x 107″ Sarouk, ca. 1930 (pre-sale estimate $2000-3000), and a 156″ x 120” Heriz. (pre-sale estimate $1000-1500).

Also of interest: 20th C. garden statuary of two male and two female figures depicting each of the four seasons (pre-sale estimate $400-600); books and ephemera, including an important two-volume 18th C. set ‘Navigatium Atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca’, 1st edition, published by John Harris, 1705 (pre-sale estimate $800-1200); a collection of Kennedy memorabilia (pre-sale estimate $1500-1800), and a Franklin Delano Roosevelt pardon.

Auction Contact Information
Kristina Wilson: 609-397-9374 or [email protected]

Exhibition Preview
Saturday, August 1 through the morning of Saturday, August 8 at Rago Arts and Auction Center, midway between New York City and Philadelphia (near Princeton, NJ). Hours are 12-5 PM and by appointment. Doors open at 8 a.m. on Friday, August 7 and 9 am on Saturday, August 8.

Bidding
Bidding is available in person, by phone, by advance bid and online. Rago’s has engaged the services of Live Auctioneers (liveauctioneers.com) to provide its clients with online bidding.

Catalogues
Printed listings for the August 7 sale are free by calling (609) 397.9374 or e-mailing a request to [email protected]. Printed catalogues for the August 8 sale featuring The Estate of Joseph Stanley are $20. View a complete online catalogue for either day with color images at ragoarts.com.