100 Top Treasures
November 2007
30 Red Carpet Treatment
Among the Oriental rugs offered at Freeman’s auction house in Philadelphia in December 2006, one stood out not only for its record price but also for its provenance. A Chalaberd rug, from the southern Caucasus, dating from the early 19th century or earlier, brought a world record price of $341,625. It came from the estate of Robert Montgomery Scott, whose parents were the inspiration for Philip Barry’s play "The Philadelphia Story." The rug has an unusual single central medallion design and is related to Caucasian "sunburst" rugs of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. At least four other examples are known to exist, three of which have red grounds, similar to the one offered. David Weiss, head of Freeman’s carpet department, says, "The rug is an important example of early Caucasian weaving, with a rare, aesthetically beautiful design that includes elements relating directly to known 17th- and 18th-century carpets." —D.G.
31 Not a Very Still Life
The Abstract Expressionist painter Clyfford Still could be a difficult man. He loathed the art establishment, had few friends and fought with one of his most ardent champions. His signature paintings, with their rough-edged lightning bolts of color, reflect the man’s inner storm. None do so more than "1947-R-No. 1," which despite the date in its title was not completed until after 1952, when it was exhibited in an incomplete state at a landmark show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The painting, which had been in a private collection away from public view for 36 years, was sold in November 2006 at Christie’s New York for $21,296,000, setting a new world auction record for the artist. The figure was almost seven times larger than the previous record. Encrusted with layers of red over brown interspersed with flickering flames of black pigment and flashes of orange and white, "‘1947-R-No. 1’ seems pregnant with the idea of corporal existence springing from and returning to the earth," notes Robert Manley, a Christie’s senior vice-president and head of the firm’s prestigious evening sales of postwar and contemporary art in New York. "Any Still painting is special, but the ones completed in the 1940s and early ’50s are considered especially desirable. Altogether his output was not very large; only about 150 of his works were ever sold, with the majority of those now in museum collections. The rest remained in his estate. [The artist died in 1980]. While ‘1947-R-No. 1’, which measures 69 by 65 inches, is not among his most massive works, it has enough ‘wall power’ to hold any space without being overwhelming. It is alive and full of fire." —D.K.
32 Drip Dry
One of Jackson Pollock’s most notable large works, "No. 5, 1948" was sold in a private transaction for about $140 million, according to reports published in November 2006. Last February, another larger Pollock drip painting, "No. 28, 1950," was in the spotlight as the centerpiece of a major collection donated to The Metropolitan Museum of Art by a nonagenarian Chicago artist and collector. Paintings from the 63-piece collection, including works by Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, Helen Frankenthaler and Mark Rothko, are currently on view through February 3, 2008, in the exhibition, "Abstract Expressionism and Other Modern Works: The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Measuring more than 5½ feet by 8½ feet, "No. 28, 1950" would easily be valued in the mid- to high eight figures, according to art-market sources. Although darker and more somber than the densely colorful "No. 5, 1948," this Pollock has its own swirling energy and subtle flickers of pastel color. Writing in the museum’s "Bulletin," Nan Rosenthal, a special consultant to the Metropolitan and a co-curator of the present show, called "this stunning work" one of Pollock’s "classic mural-sized drip pictures, executed on the floor of his Long Island studio … using gravity and motion to form" the dramatic linear skeins. —D.K.
33 Fowl Play
It made quite a splash. A merganser hen duck decoy sold at auction in January for $856,000, which is a world auction record for a waterfowl decoy. The sale was conducted jointly by Christie’s New York and Guyette & Schmidt Inc., an auctioneer and dealer in duck decoys based in St. Michaels, Maryland. The hen was made by renowned carver Lothrop Holmes, a cemetery caretaker who produced a limited number of decoys in the last half of the 19th century. "Most of these were for his own use," says Gary Guyette, president of Guyette & Schmidt. "Very few have survived. I know of only three other of his mergansers. This one had been in the collection of Adele Earnest, a pioneer collector of American folk art, who back in the 1930s wrote The Art of the Decoy. In 1976 Earnest sold it to George and Hope Wick, well-known collectors in San Diego. The seller was one of their descendants." —D.K.
34 Fire Sale
When a fireman was called to duty in 19th-century Edo (present-day Tokyo), he and his colleagues would rush to the site of a fire and, instead of applying water, would tear down the adjoining houses so as to isolate the blaze. While performing his heroic duty in a city dense with wooden structures, the fireman would be dramatically garbed in a quilted cotton jacket sometimes painted with a scene—in this case, one that appears to depict a fire and the saving of lives. This fireman’s coat (not shown) from the early Meiji period (1868–1912), was acquired in September 2006 by the Art Institute of Chicago for an undisclosed sum; Glenn Roberts, a notable New York–based collector of antique Asian dress, says that a garment of this caliber could be worth about $15,000. "The striking imagery on the back of the coat is unparalleled in its style and subject matter," says Christa Thurman, the museum’s curator of textiles. —D.M.
35 Film Feline
"The Black Cat" has everything a horror film from Hollywood’s golden age should have: two masters of the macabre, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi; a dark, twisted tale based on the eponymous Edgar Allan Poe short story; and a delicate damsel in distress. A poster for the 1934 movie realized $286,000 (est. $100,000–$175,000) at an auction conducted last March by Heritage Auction Galleries in Dallas. Not only was "The Black Cat" Universal’s biggest box office hit in 1934, but the first of eight films starring the devilish duo, Karloff and Lugosi. "Horror material is as hot as it ever has been," says Grey Smith, director of vintage movie poster auctions for Heritage. "‘The Black Cat’ poster in itself was exceedingly rare. But posters of Universal horror films from the 1920s and ’30s are the cream of the crop for collectors. The studio invented the genre." —D.K.
36 Masked Man
While traveling through British Columbia in 1863, a Scottish minister, Robert Dundas, began to collect Northwest Coast Indian objects. In October 2006 his great-grandson, Simon Carey, consigned the collection to Sotheby’s New York. All 57 lots sold for a total of $7 million, setting a record for a sale of American Indian art. The top lot, a Tsimshian polychromed wood face mask of a shaman, sold for $1.8 million. The buyer was Donald Ellis, a dealer based in Dundas, Ontario, who was bidding for David Thomson, son of the late Canadian publishing magnate Kenneth Thomson. David Roche, an expert in Sotheby’s Native American art department, calls the mask "the finest piece of American Indian art ever sold at auction. It has a superhuman quality, capturing the moment of transition from this world to the next." —D.G.
37 Mr. Guitar Man
In the early 1960s, a Chicago man took his teenage son shopping for an electric guitar. Attracted by its sharp, exuberant angles and futuristic profile reminiscent of Sputnik, the teenager immediately chose the affordable Gibson Explorer, which is noted for its mahogany neck, curved peghead with a pearl inlay and rosewood fingerboard. Although that teenager did not grow up to become the next Buddy Holly or Eric Clapton, he did keep the guitar for many years in the closet of his Florida home. In 1992 Hurricane Andrew destroyed his residence and its contents, but the Gibson Explorer was miraculously spared. When David Bonsey, the director of fine musical instruments at Skinner Inc., heard about the existence of this guitar, he flew to Dallas (where the owner had relocated) to see it. At a Skinner sale in October 2006, the guitar sold to an anonymous collector for $611,000, "a record for a non-celebrity-owned American-made musical instrument," says Bonsey. "Less than 100 of these models were made, and of those even fewer went out of the factory because the design was so wacky," says Bonsey. "This is absolutely the best example, in mint condition, of a guitar of this genre." —D.M.
Among the Oriental rugs offered at Freeman’s auction house in Philadelphia in December 2006, one stood out not only for its record price but also for its provenance. A Chalaberd rug, from the southern Caucasus, dating from the early 19th century or earlier, brought a world record price of $341,625. It came from the estate of Robert Montgomery Scott, whose parents were the inspiration for Philip Barry’s play "The Philadelphia Story." The rug has an unusual single central medallion design and is related to Caucasian "sunburst" rugs of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. At least four other examples are known to exist, three of which have red grounds, similar to the one offered. David Weiss, head of Freeman’s carpet department, says, "The rug is an important example of early Caucasian weaving, with a rare, aesthetically beautiful design that includes elements relating directly to known 17th- and 18th-century carpets." —D.G.
31 Not a Very Still Life
The Abstract Expressionist painter Clyfford Still could be a difficult man. He loathed the art establishment, had few friends and fought with one of his most ardent champions. His signature paintings, with their rough-edged lightning bolts of color, reflect the man’s inner storm. None do so more than "1947-R-No. 1," which despite the date in its title was not completed until after 1952, when it was exhibited in an incomplete state at a landmark show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The painting, which had been in a private collection away from public view for 36 years, was sold in November 2006 at Christie’s New York for $21,296,000, setting a new world auction record for the artist. The figure was almost seven times larger than the previous record. Encrusted with layers of red over brown interspersed with flickering flames of black pigment and flashes of orange and white, "‘1947-R-No. 1’ seems pregnant with the idea of corporal existence springing from and returning to the earth," notes Robert Manley, a Christie’s senior vice-president and head of the firm’s prestigious evening sales of postwar and contemporary art in New York. "Any Still painting is special, but the ones completed in the 1940s and early ’50s are considered especially desirable. Altogether his output was not very large; only about 150 of his works were ever sold, with the majority of those now in museum collections. The rest remained in his estate. [The artist died in 1980]. While ‘1947-R-No. 1’, which measures 69 by 65 inches, is not among his most massive works, it has enough ‘wall power’ to hold any space without being overwhelming. It is alive and full of fire." —D.K.
32 Drip Dry
One of Jackson Pollock’s most notable large works, "No. 5, 1948" was sold in a private transaction for about $140 million, according to reports published in November 2006. Last February, another larger Pollock drip painting, "No. 28, 1950," was in the spotlight as the centerpiece of a major collection donated to The Metropolitan Museum of Art by a nonagenarian Chicago artist and collector. Paintings from the 63-piece collection, including works by Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, Helen Frankenthaler and Mark Rothko, are currently on view through February 3, 2008, in the exhibition, "Abstract Expressionism and Other Modern Works: The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Measuring more than 5½ feet by 8½ feet, "No. 28, 1950" would easily be valued in the mid- to high eight figures, according to art-market sources. Although darker and more somber than the densely colorful "No. 5, 1948," this Pollock has its own swirling energy and subtle flickers of pastel color. Writing in the museum’s "Bulletin," Nan Rosenthal, a special consultant to the Metropolitan and a co-curator of the present show, called "this stunning work" one of Pollock’s "classic mural-sized drip pictures, executed on the floor of his Long Island studio … using gravity and motion to form" the dramatic linear skeins. —D.K.
33 Fowl Play
It made quite a splash. A merganser hen duck decoy sold at auction in January for $856,000, which is a world auction record for a waterfowl decoy. The sale was conducted jointly by Christie’s New York and Guyette & Schmidt Inc., an auctioneer and dealer in duck decoys based in St. Michaels, Maryland. The hen was made by renowned carver Lothrop Holmes, a cemetery caretaker who produced a limited number of decoys in the last half of the 19th century. "Most of these were for his own use," says Gary Guyette, president of Guyette & Schmidt. "Very few have survived. I know of only three other of his mergansers. This one had been in the collection of Adele Earnest, a pioneer collector of American folk art, who back in the 1930s wrote The Art of the Decoy. In 1976 Earnest sold it to George and Hope Wick, well-known collectors in San Diego. The seller was one of their descendants." —D.K.
34 Fire Sale
When a fireman was called to duty in 19th-century Edo (present-day Tokyo), he and his colleagues would rush to the site of a fire and, instead of applying water, would tear down the adjoining houses so as to isolate the blaze. While performing his heroic duty in a city dense with wooden structures, the fireman would be dramatically garbed in a quilted cotton jacket sometimes painted with a scene—in this case, one that appears to depict a fire and the saving of lives. This fireman’s coat (not shown) from the early Meiji period (1868–1912), was acquired in September 2006 by the Art Institute of Chicago for an undisclosed sum; Glenn Roberts, a notable New York–based collector of antique Asian dress, says that a garment of this caliber could be worth about $15,000. "The striking imagery on the back of the coat is unparalleled in its style and subject matter," says Christa Thurman, the museum’s curator of textiles. —D.M.
35 Film Feline
"The Black Cat" has everything a horror film from Hollywood’s golden age should have: two masters of the macabre, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi; a dark, twisted tale based on the eponymous Edgar Allan Poe short story; and a delicate damsel in distress. A poster for the 1934 movie realized $286,000 (est. $100,000–$175,000) at an auction conducted last March by Heritage Auction Galleries in Dallas. Not only was "The Black Cat" Universal’s biggest box office hit in 1934, but the first of eight films starring the devilish duo, Karloff and Lugosi. "Horror material is as hot as it ever has been," says Grey Smith, director of vintage movie poster auctions for Heritage. "‘The Black Cat’ poster in itself was exceedingly rare. But posters of Universal horror films from the 1920s and ’30s are the cream of the crop for collectors. The studio invented the genre." —D.K.
36 Masked Man
While traveling through British Columbia in 1863, a Scottish minister, Robert Dundas, began to collect Northwest Coast Indian objects. In October 2006 his great-grandson, Simon Carey, consigned the collection to Sotheby’s New York. All 57 lots sold for a total of $7 million, setting a record for a sale of American Indian art. The top lot, a Tsimshian polychromed wood face mask of a shaman, sold for $1.8 million. The buyer was Donald Ellis, a dealer based in Dundas, Ontario, who was bidding for David Thomson, son of the late Canadian publishing magnate Kenneth Thomson. David Roche, an expert in Sotheby’s Native American art department, calls the mask "the finest piece of American Indian art ever sold at auction. It has a superhuman quality, capturing the moment of transition from this world to the next." —D.G.
37 Mr. Guitar Man
In the early 1960s, a Chicago man took his teenage son shopping for an electric guitar. Attracted by its sharp, exuberant angles and futuristic profile reminiscent of Sputnik, the teenager immediately chose the affordable Gibson Explorer, which is noted for its mahogany neck, curved peghead with a pearl inlay and rosewood fingerboard. Although that teenager did not grow up to become the next Buddy Holly or Eric Clapton, he did keep the guitar for many years in the closet of his Florida home. In 1992 Hurricane Andrew destroyed his residence and its contents, but the Gibson Explorer was miraculously spared. When David Bonsey, the director of fine musical instruments at Skinner Inc., heard about the existence of this guitar, he flew to Dallas (where the owner had relocated) to see it. At a Skinner sale in October 2006, the guitar sold to an anonymous collector for $611,000, "a record for a non-celebrity-owned American-made musical instrument," says Bonsey. "Less than 100 of these models were made, and of those even fewer went out of the factory because the design was so wacky," says Bonsey. "This is absolutely the best example, in mint condition, of a guitar of this genre." —D.M.
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