Antique Trader November 15, 2021

Two pairs of special spectacles that not only bestow the gift of observing the world through diamonds and emeralds but are also thought to contain magical powers are expected to sell for millions at auction. The jewel-encrusted eyeglasses, dating to India’s 17th century Mughal era and commissioned by an unknown prince, are magni›cent artifacts that bring together science, beauty and belief, according to Sotheby’s, where they were scheduled to be sold on October 27 in London as part of the Arts of the Islamic World and India auction. Each pair, the diamond-lens “Halo of Light” and the emerald-lens “Gate of Paradise,” has an estimate of $2 to $3.4 million. “This is the work of a supreme master, both of gemstones and of optics. This is a slice of diamond and a slice of…

A native species of parakeet once flew in our skies. The Carolina parakeet was found in Eastern, Southern and Plains states, and lived in old forests along rivers. I never knew this until I recently saw this stained glass window Louis Comfort Tiffany designed in 1889 that is now in the collection of Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. Since we feature other Tiffany stories in this issue (lamps on P. 40 and the cover story on P. 58), it’s a perfect time to share what I learned after doing some research. Parakeets and Goldfish Bowl features a fish bowl suspended by real chains from the branch of a blossoming pink cherry tree, surrounded by six Carolina parakeets in different poses, possibly indicating their personalities or attitudes. The museum said this is an…

Ever since the former USSR launched Sputnik into earth orbit on October 4, 1957, people have been collecting space relics. Imagine a space relic sold by NASA that weighs 39 tons and measures 154 feet (half a football field in length). Now imagine that same collectible sitting abandoned in a small riverside town with a population of about 8,000. Three questions come to mind. What is it? How did it get there? Why is it there? Join me on another travel trailer road trip to ›nd out the answers to these questions. While camping with my wife and daughter in St. Augustine, Florida (the oldest settlement in the United States, having been founded in 1565), we decided to spend a day exploring backwater towns bordering the St. Johns River. When we reached…

That old saying about how crime doesn’t pay? Forget about it. If anything, the auction of notorious gangster Al Capone’s personal belongings proves that not only does crime pay, but it pays extremely well. An impressive array of Capone’s possessions, including what was billed as his favorite gun, sold for more than $3.1 million during “A Century of Notoriety: The Estate of Al Capone,” October 8 at Witherell’s. The gun of the man known as “Scarface” – a Colt Model 1911 semi-automatic .45 – sold for $860,000, or more than $700,000 above its pre-auction estimate. With buyer’s premium, the anonymous purchaser paid $1,040,600 for the gun, which is believed to be the most for a 20th century firearm at auction. Capone, who ruled Chicago’s underworld with an iron fist from 1925 to 1931,…

NEW YORK — African American art from Harlem to Hollywood brought more than $5 million in a recent record-smashing sale at Swann Auction Galleries. “We are beyond thrilled with the results of the auction, which was a historic sale for Swann Galleries: our first auction to hammer over $4 million,” said Nigel Freeman, director of African American Art at Swann Galleries. The sale totaled over $5 million, including buyers premium. “Great excitement about our sale offerings resulted in auction record prices for eleven artists, including Belkis Ayón, Elizabeth Catlett and Howardena Pindell, and signifcant prices for many others, including Edward Bannister, Richmond Barthé and Hale Woodruff,” Freeman said. Leading the auction was Hale Woodruff’s Carnival, oil on canvas, 1958, which sold for $665,000, the highest price achieved for an abstract work by the…

One of the most attractive aspects of collecting jewelry is the connection to the past that each piece holds. Sometimes those associations are difficult to trace and even harder to imagine. But within a subcategory collectors have nicknamed “sweetheart jewelry,” the link to history is immediately evident and sometimes soul stirring. If you haven’t heard of this type of jewelry before, the definition is endearing. Basically, sweetheart pieces are sentimental items that were worn by women waiting for the return of enlisted service men during wartime. Whether that special someone was a wife, girlfriend, or mother, many women owned and wore this expressive jewelry as a way to show support for their loved ones. Some pieces from World War I surface occasionally but these items that encompass nostalgia, sentimentality, and patriotism mainly…