Claremont Rug Company Exhibits Major “Treasury” of Collectible Antique Art Pieces

OAKLAND, CA.- Claremont Rug Company today announced the acquisition of an 85-piece collection of rare 19th century art-level Oriental rugs assembled and held by a single family over four generations. Entitled “The Heartland Treasury of Antique Art Carpets,” the collection will be available for viewing on the Gallery’s website (www.claremontrug.com) on Thursday and at the Gallery’s location (6087 Claremont Avenue) on Saturday. Assembled by two generations of an industrialist family between the 1930’s and 1970’s, the collection contains a wide [...]

World Record: $32.4 million for a Qing Dynasty Vase

HONG KONG (REUTERS).- A Chinese Qing dynasty vase sold for HK$253 million (20.2 million pounds) in a Sotheby’s sale in Hong Kong on Thursday, a world record at auction for any Chinese porcelain. “This is definitely a milestone,” Nicolas Chow, the Deputy Chairman of Sotheby’s Asia told Reuters. “Chinese works of art took their place on the world auction stage today.” While segments of the Chinese art market cooled substantially during the financial crisis, especially once white-hot Chinese contemporary art, [...]

Exhibition at the Museo Picasso in Malaga Explores the Toys of the Avant-Garde

MALAGA.- Toys of the Avant-Garde will illustrate at the Museo Picasso Malaga early 20th-century interest in making children familiar with the shapes and ideas of modern art. Pablo Picasso, Giacomo Balla, Alexander Calder, Fortunato Depero, Alexandra Exter, Paul Klee, El Lissitzky, Joan Miró, Alexander Rodchenko, Oskar Schlemmer, Edward Steichen, Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Joaquín Torres-García are among the numerous artists and authors whose work will be shown. With nearly six hundred objects on show, play serves as the narrative thread for [...]

Show at Victoria & Albert Museum Puts Diaghilev Among Greats of Modern Art

LONDON (REUTERS)- Russian dance impresario Sergei Diaghilev once sat down to dinner with Pablo Picasso, James Joyce, Marcel Proust and Igor Stravinsky. For many, his name is the least familiar amid the roll-call of early 20th century artistic greats, but a major exhibition at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum seeks to explain why Diaghilev deserved his seat at the table. “It is curious organising an exhibition when you know that your central figure is much less well known than many [...]

Bonhams to Sell Meissen Teapot Once Owned by Mother of George I for £200,000

LONDON.- A teapot once in the collection of the mother of King George I is the highlight of the concluding part of the auction of ‘The Hoffmeister Collection of Meissen Porcelain’. Part III of the sale will take place on 24th November 2010 at 101 New Bond Street, London. This follows on from the great success of Part I of the sale which made £1,097,100 in November 2009, and Part II which made £1,076,460 in May 2010. Sophie of Hanover [...]

Christie’s Offers the Remarkable Wolfgang Joop Collection

PARIS.- Christie’s offers a remarkable selection of 20th century decorative art from the Wolfgang Joop Collection in Potsdam, reflecting his exceptional eye and taste, on 26 November 2010, in Paris. Wolfgang Joop has gained worldwide fame not only as a fashion designer but for his artistic passion, intuition and the perfection of his craft which has yielded results in various genres of fine and applied art, duly honoured by numerous exhibitions. The interior of the Villa Wunderkind in Potsdam – [...]

Intensely Colorful Works by Phillip Maberry and Scott Walker at Maloney Fine Art

LOS ANGELES, CA.- For more than twenty-five years Phillip Maberry and Scott Walker have created one-of-a-kind ceramic sculpture, reliefs and objects for gallery and museum installations as well as having fulfilled numerous residential and commercial commissions. Best known for their eccentric, intensely colorful style associated with the ‘Pattern and Decoration” movement, Maberry and Walker’s most recent body of work, titled “Pool Toys” continues the investigation of constructed figurative forms. Utilizing color and design, articulated in the artists’ characteristic playful manner [...]

Raphael Tapestries Go on Show in Britain at the Victoria & Albert Museum

LONDON (REUTERS).- Four priceless tapestries designed by the Renaissance master Raphael have gone on display with their original drawings for the first time at an exhibition in London to coincide with Pope Benedict’s visit to Britain. The fragile artworks — woven from wool, silk, gold and silver — were created for the Sistine Chapel and are considered to be among the greatest treasures of the High Renaissance. The Vatican has never lent four of its Raphael tapestries at the same [...]

£300,000 Collection of Moorcroft for Sale At Bonhams

LONDON.- The largest and most valuable single owner collection of Moorcroft pottery ever to come to auction is for sale at Bonhams in London on 21 September. The Richard Wright collection has been put together over 25 years by Jackie and Richard Wright and is estimated to be worth over £300,000. It includes a very rare ‘Carp’ vase of 1902 painted, unusually, in yellow and blue estimated at £8,000 – 12,000; the iconic ‘The Yacht Vase’ from 1899 (£6,000 – [...]

Sotheby’s to Offer a Unique Collection of Imperial Porcelain

HONG KONG.- Sotheby’s Hong Kong will hold an unprecedented sale of Chinese ceramics and works of art, titled Masterpieces Of Qing Imperial Porcelain From J.T. Tai & Co., on 7 October 2010 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, comprising 13 lots and expected to bring in excess of HK$170 million/US$22 million. The second part of the collection will be offered at Sotheby’s New York during its Asia Week in March, 2011. The imperial Chinese porcelains from the J.T. [...]

Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art At Sotheby’s

NEW YORK, NY.- Sotheby’s September 2010 series of Asia Week auctions in New York will include Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art on 15 September. The sale will feature paintings, ceramics, jades and furniture including a number of Imperial works from distinguished private collections. Overall the sale is estimated to fetch between $11.8/16.2 million. Among the highlights of the sale is a Superb and Rare White Jade Vase and Cover, Qing Dynasty, Qianlong Period, an exquisitely carved vessel from [...]

Doyle New York to Auction a Chinese Imperial Zitan Table

NEW YORK, NY.- Doyle New York, one of the world’s leading auctioneers and appraisers, will hold an auction of Asian Works of Art on Monday, September 13, 2010 at 10am (EST). The sale offers over 430 lots showcasing the arts of China, Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia dating from the Neolithic Period through the 20th century. Offerings include porcelain and pottery, jade, ivories, scholar’s objects, bronzes, swords, textiles, screens and paintings. The public is invited to the exhibition on view [...]

Lord Chesterfield’s Panelling Highlighted At The Bowes Museum

COUNTY DURHAM.- One of the treasures of The Bowes Museum’s sequence of period room panelling will be highlighted as the Object of the Month for August. Every Thursday at 2.30 curator Howard Coutts will reveal the story behind a segment of panelling from a London townhouse built for Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield. Chesterfield, best known for his letters to his [illegitimate] son, giving advice on how to behave and get on in society, was also an international [...]

17th Century Automata Lion Clock Roars in £117,600 at Bonhams

LONDON.- An early 17th century gilt brass automata lion clock, which moves its eyes in time with the seconds and roars a chime every hour, sold for £117,600 at Bonhams, New Bond Street as part of its Fine Clocks and Barometers sale on Wednesday 14 July. The sale made an impressive £716,000 in total with a 74% sale rate by value. Made in France, the clock which had been estimated to sell for £70,000 to £100,000, is unique in that [...]

The Joe Grimberg Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles at Sotheby’s New York

LONDON.- One of the highlights of Sotheby’s fall 2010 Asia Week sales in New York will be a single owner offering of the Joe Grimberg Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles on 14 September 2010. The bottles date from as early as the beginning of the 18th century and reflect a broad variety of Chinese decorative arts from glass and porcelain to jade. Mr. Grimberg bought only from respected dealers and auction houses, meaning that many of the bottles have extensive [...]