Tag Archives: Heritage Auction Galleries

Excellent results at Heritage Art Glass Signature Auction, November 19, 2011

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Every major and not so major auction house holds a 20th Century decorative arts sale in November or December. Today’s post will be about the results at Heritage. I hope to be able to publish Thursday about Julia’s results. My goal is to publish new posts twice a week — Mondays and Thursdays. However, if you don’t see a new post on Thursday, it’s because I was too busy, so please look for a new one the following Monday.

Tiffany Studios 16" Daffodil table lamp, Heritage lot #62001

Heritage held its Art Glass Signature Auction on November 19, 2011 with excellent results. Top lot of the sale was a Tiffany 16″ Daffodil table lamp, lot #62001, received as a wedding gift in 1917 by the present owner. (How old does that make the present owner?) It realized a price of $56,762.50, close to the high estimate of $30,000 – $50,000.

Tiffany Favrile paperweight vase, Heritage lot #62024

Second highest was a rare, fine Tiffany Favrile paperweight vase, 9″ tall. It was part of a consignment of fresh-to-the-market items that had been in storage since the 1940s. You can’t get fresher than that, nor better quality. Estimated very low at $3,000 – $4,000, it soared to $50,787.50. That wasn’t a huge surprise, considering the rarity and quality.

Daum Nancy Orchides vase, Heritage lot #62136

From the same 1940s consignment was a very fine artistic Daum Nancy vase, Orchides. Artistic vases are one-of-a-kind, usually found in museum collections. The vase brought the highest price for French cameo glass, selling for $34,655, against a pre-sale estimate of $8,000 – $12,000. However, personally I thought the vase would do even better. My best guess is that the strange shape deterred some buyers (including me).

Many other items did well in the sale, which grossed $1.84 million. For the complete results, click on the following link. Heritage Art Glass results. You will have to sign in (free) to see the results.

Rare and wonderful Tiffany red Favrile vase, just in

Look around my website. There are listings for sale, sold listings with prices and free lessons about glass and lamps. I regularly add Tiffany vases, lamps and desk accessories, as well as French cameo glass by Galle and Daum Nancy and Louis Icart etchings. Here’s the link. chasenantiques.com

Did you hear the story about a Batman comic book? Hard to believe.

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Detective Comics #27, the first appearance of The Batman, Heritage lot #91114

When Robert Irwin was 13 in 1939, he visited the local newsstand in Sacramento, California, to buy a comic book. Little did he know at the time the good fortune that would come of that purchase.

The comic book was Detective Comics, #27, the first appearance of The Batman. Irwin paid 10¢, the standard price for a comic book in 1939. He put it away and forgot about it for 65 years, until 2004, when he discovered it in a box together with 1930s National Geographic and Popular Mechanics magazines. A collector found out he had the comic book and offered him $100,000. Irwin made another good decision in deciding not to accept the offer.

Eventually the comic was consigned to Heritage Auctions to sell on November 18, 2010. It was listed as lot 92224, with a pre-sale estimate of $400,000+. The owner, Irwin, was in attendance at the sale. He had to be pleased with the final result of $492,937.50, including buyer’s premium. Not a bad return on his 10¢ investment.

Irwin’s comic was graded 7.0 by Certified Guaranty Company. Heritage twice previously sold Detective Comics, #27 in better graded condition. On Aug 4, 2010, an example, graded 7.5, brought $657,250 and on February 27, 2010, another, graded 8.0, brought an incredible $1,075,500. When it comes to selling graded objects, like comic books and coins, condition is key. Slight differences in condition can make for dramatic differences in value.

If you like my blog, please let your friends know by sending them a link. Then check out my new Daum, Gallé and R. Lalique acquisitions. I’ve listed them all on my website. I just listed another fifteen incredible Daum items, including swans, rain, and more in the last few days. Here’s the link. chasenantiques.com Then check out the huge sale I’m having on Icart etchings. For the complete listing, click this link. Available Icart etchings.

Mixed, but improved results at Heritage Illustration Art Auction, Oct 14, 2010

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Gil Elvgren painting, Riding High, from 1958, Heritage lot #78043

Heritage Auction Galleries of Dallas, Texas, held their first auction in New York City on Oct 14, 2010. The Illustration Art sale did well with art from the top artists, decently with art from the second-tier artists, and poorly with art from the third-tier artists. The auction was the second highest-grossing sale ever for the Illustration Art category, totaling over $3.75 million.

Top lot of the sale was #78043, a Gil Elvgren painting of a witch on a broom. Estimated to sell for $30,000 – $40,000, it soared to $167,300, including buyer’s premium. Prices for Elvgren’s seven offerings in this sale were all over the map, from $4,481.25 for a pencil on paper sketch of Miss Sylvania to $38,837.50 for a painting of Miss Sylvania to $167,300 for the top lot of the sale, above.

Garth Montgomery Williams, Charlotte's Web book cover from 1952. Heritage lot #78301

Original art from the 1952 children’s book, Charlotte’s Web, did extraordinarily well. The cover illustration, done in graphite and ink on paper, was the second highest lot of the sale, selling for $155,350, against a pre-sale estimate of $20,000 – $30,000. Individual illustrations from the book also did well, with prices from as low as $717, all the way up to $95,600, with an average price of about $10,000.

Several other artists commanded more than $60,000, including J.C. Leyendecker, Thornton Utz, Jesse Wilcox Smith, Howard Pyle and Norman Rockwell.

Packard Motor Car Company advertisement, Heritage lot #78422

As in the past, there were plenty of bargains to be had. Including the next day’s Internet only session in Dallas, over 180 lots sold for less than $1,000. A beautiful large 30″ x 46″ oil on canvas painting of a Packard automobile sold for only $896.25. If that’s not a bargain, I don’t know what is.

For the complete results, you will have to register (free) with Heritage. You can view all of the paintings without results if you don’t register. Here is the link. Heritage Illustration Art auction, August 17-18, 2010.

If you like my blog, please let your friends know by sending them a link. Then check out my new Daum, Gallé and R. Lalique acquisitions. I’ve listed them all on my website. I’ve listed another ten items in the last couple of days, including art pottery. Here’s the link chasenantiques.com

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Heritage Auction Galleries opens New York City gallery

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Heritage Auction Galleries new NYC location

Heritage Auction Galleries of Dallas, Texas, opened a new gallery in NYC on September 1, 2010. It is located at 445 Park Ave. and 57th St. — a prestigious location. The location will feature a rotating window featuring selections from upcoming auctions.

Heritage is now the third largest auction house in the world with total sales of more than $600 million, behind only Sotheby’s and Christie’s. Heritage started their auction business solely with coins, but has gradually expanded into many other categories. Rather than compete toe to toe with their larger rivals, they have cultivated specialty auctions such as illustration art, comic books and sports collectibles. This strategy allows them to compete in areas where the major auction houses are deficient.

Greg Rohan, President of Heritage Auction Galleries

I requested comment from Heritage regarding the opening of their new gallery and received this response from Greg Rohan, President of Heritage Auction Galleries.

We certainly don’t expect to be compared with Christie’s or Sotheby’s; that’s not our business model. We have a large headquarters building in Dallas, but our New York showroom is small, and was carefully designed to be a convenience for our consignors and clients. It’s centrally located on Park Avenue, near the corner of 57th Street, one of the top demographic foot traffic locations anywhere in the world. Visitors who come to our Manhattan “jewel box” with an advance appointment will be able to show their items to, and converse with, any of our experts in Dallas or Beverly Hills via video satellite. We also plan to introduce “simulcast“ auctions in New York, Dallas and Beverly Hills. We are first and foremost an auction house utilizing cutting edge technology, as we always have. Our web site, HA.com, has over 500,000 registered bidder members, and gets significantly more traffic than Christies.com and Sothebys.com combined. That’s why over 70% of the lots we sell at auction sell to non-dealers – the highest percentage of any auction house.

We expect our New York location to operate more like a boutique, even though we are by far the largest auctioneer of vintage collectibles in the world. In many categories, such as Illustration Art, Coins, Comics, Currency, and Movie Posters, we outsell all other auction houses combined. Of course one of the most talked-about features of Heritage’s new Manhattan venue isn’t high tech at all: It’s the Heritage Window on Park Avenue, which will feature a continually rotating million-dollar exhibition of highlights from upcoming Heritage auctions, across all of our categories. The items are on display 24/7.

Norman Rockwell graphite and pencil on paper. Two Men Conversing, c. 1950s.

Heritage’s first NYC auction will be an illustration art auction. It will take place in a rented location at The Ukrainian Institute, 2 E. 79th St. and Fifth Ave., NYC on October 15, 2010. The auction will include a fine assortment of art from the best known illustrators including Norman Rockwell, Maxfield Parrish, J.C. Leyendecker and Gil Elvgren.

If you like my blog, please let your friends know by sending them a link. Then check out my new Daum, Gallé and R. Lalique acquisitions. I’ve listed them all on my website. Here’s the link chasenantiques.com.

The Charles Martignette collection of American Illustration Art, part II

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I’ve previously written about the Charles Martignette collection of American Illustration Art, but I’m writing again because this time I’m giving you advance notice of an upcoming auction, being held by Heritage Galleries on Oct 27, 2009, where you will have the opportunity to buy paintings from his collection. Charles had accumulated one of the best American illustration art collections in the world before his untimely death in February, 2008.

Norman Rockwell, Heritage lot #96253

Norman Rockwell, Heritage lot #96253

Norman Rockwell will be represented with several lots. Rockwell has sold for over a million dollars for some of his famous magazine cover illustrations, but this colored pencil on board from 1955, for Scott Tissue, is estimated to sell for $8,000 – $12,000.

Howard Chandler Christy, Heritage #96058

Howard Chandler Christy, Heritage lot #96058

Howard Chandler Christy is another fabulous artist who will be well represented at the sale with several lots, including a stupendous oil on canvas of several nudes, entitled In the Garden of Eden, dated 1925. This very large painting, 28″ x 71″, has a pre-sale estimate of $40,000 – $60,000.

Cafe des Artistes, showing several Howard Chandler Christy paintings

Cafe des Artistes, showing several Howard Chandler Christy paintings

Christy painted all of the paintings that decorated the interior of Cafe des Artistes, a quintessentially New York restaurant and a wonderful place for Sunday brunch. Unfortunately the restaurant closed this past summer and has since filed for bankruptcy. Hopefully the paintings will still be available for viewing at some point in the future.

The Heritage sale has many other paintings with lower estimates, but I suspect that the actual selling prices will be significantly higher. Remember what I’ve repeated in many of my blog entries — auctions always do well with fresh to the market items priced below fair value. I’ll write about the sale after it’s over and we’ll see if I’m right about my prediction. If you’re interested, here’s the link to the auction. Heritage Signature Illustration Art Auction #7016.

Please send me your suggestions or questions about art glass, lamps, Louis Icart, shows, auctions, etc. If it’s interesting, I’ll answer your question in a future blog entry.

Call or write and let me know what you would like to buy, sell, or trade. philchasen@gmail or 516-922-2090. And please visit my website. chasenantiques.com