Maine Antique Digest, December 2016

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Maine Antique Digest, December 2016 9-A
Fragments
New York City Auction Houses Must Reveal Irrevocable Bids in Post-Sale Reporting
On September 9 a letter from the New
York City Department of Consumer
Affairs confirmed that New York City
auction houses must reveal irrevocable
bids in post-sale reporting.
“The New York City Department of
Consumer Affairs (DCA) writes...regard-
ing whether the sale price disclosed by an
auctioneer pursuant to Section 2 125(a)
of Title 6 of the Rules of the City of New
York (the Rules) must account for any
payment(s) made by the auctioneer in
connection with an irrevocable bid placed
on an auctioned item. As explained
below, if the individual who placed the
irrevocable bid with the auctioneer wins
the auction and is also entitled to a fixed
fee or other compensation from the auc-
tioneer as consideration for placing such
bid, the lot selling price must be reported
net any compensation paid to the irrevo-
cable bidder.
“DCA’s laws and rules governing auc-
tioneers are intended to establish a fair
and transparent auction environment for
auctioneers, auction participants, and
the general public, thereby bolstering
and protecting the integrity of the auc-
tion process. To this end, DCA regulates,
among other things, the terms of the con-
tracts that an auctioneer must provide to
a consignor; reserve pricing; the conduct
permitted at an auction; and the records
that a licensed auctioneer must maintain.
As pertinent here, Section 2 125(a) of the
Rules requires that an auctioneer keep ‘a
written record of all details of each sale,
including...description and selling price
of each lot.’
“It is our understanding that an irrevo-
cable bid, or third party guarantee, as it is
sometimes referred to, works as follows.
When an item is offered for auction, the
auctioneer may guarantee that the item
will be sold for a minimum amount. To
reduce the financial risk associated with
such guarantee, an auctioneer may solicit
an undisclosed third party to place an
irrevocable bid on the auctioned item. By
placing the irrevocable bid with the auc-
tioneer, the bidder agrees to buy the prod-
uct if no higher bid is made at the live
auction. In return for such a bid, which
is not disclosed to the public, the bidder
receives compensation from the auction-
eer, generally in the form of a flat fee or a
percentage of any proceeds above the bid
or guarantee amount.
“Based on our understanding of an irre-
vocable bid, if the party that places the
bid with the auctioneer wins the auction,
he or she must pay the hammer price,
plus the auctioneer’s buyer premium,
minus any amount owed to that party in
connection with the placing of the irre-
vocable bid. Because the fee paid to an
irrevocable bidder works effectively as a
discount on the bid, it must be disclosed
as part of the selling price of the item if
the irrevocable bidder prevails at the auc-
tion. In that way, it is no different than the
buyer’s premium, the additional amount
paid by any buyer to the auctioneer above
the hammer price for each sale. Although
theoretically separate from the hammer
price, the buyer’s premium is disclosed
because it is effectively part of the total
amount paid by the winning bidder.
“Disclosure of the selling price paid by
an irrevocable bidder to an auctioneer net
any compensation reflects the true price
paid by the bidder and promotes greater
transparency in the auction process.”
Kentucky by Design Wins Alice Award
Kentucky by Design: The Decorative
Arts and American Culture, edited
by Andrew Kelly and sponsored by
the Frazier History Museum, has been
named the winner of the Alice Award,
given by Furthermore Grants in Pub-
lishing. Furthermore is a program of the
J.M. Kaplan Fund and is concerned with
nonfiction book publishing related to art,
architecture, and design; cultural history;
conservation and preservation; the city;
and public issues of the day.
The Alice Award was established in
2013 by Joan Davidson, president of
Furthermore, in honor of her mother,
Alice Kaplan. Kaplan had been the vice
president of the Kaplan Fund and was a
well-known patron, scholar, and activ-
ist in the arts who urged the foundation
to support music, dance, libraries, and
the visual arts. She loved and collected
illustrated books as works of art and con-
sidered them essential documents in a
civilized society. The Alice Award is ded-
icated to recognizing and cherishing the
lasting values of a well-made illustrated
book, and the special sense of intimacy
it affords. Each year a jury of distin-
guished leaders in publishing and the arts
selects the winning Alice book from the
hundreds of eligible titles that have been
supported by Furthermore.
Kentucky by Design celebrates the
80th anniversary of the Federal
Art Project’s (FAP) Index of
American Design. The FAP was
established at the height of the
Great Depression under Franklin
D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress
Administration. One of the aims
of this project was to collect and
record the history of American
material culture, and it culmi-
nated in the creation of the Index
of American Design. This work,
while intended for a wide audi-
ence, was never published.
Now, after 80 years, Ken-
tucky’s contributions to the Index
of American Design have been
compiled in Kentucky by Design.
Kelly gathered the contributions
of experts to catalog prime exam-
ples of the state’s decorative arts
that were featured in the index,
pairing the original FAP water-
colors with contemporary pho-
tographs of the same or similar
artifacts. He provides information
surrounding the history and cur-
rent location (and often the jour-
ney in between) of each piece, as well
as local or familial lore surrounding the
object. In addition to a wealth of Shaker
material, the objects featured include a
number of quilts and rugs as well as a
wide assortment of everyday items from
powder horns and candle lanterns to
glass flasks and handcrafted instruments.
An exhibition by the same name at the
Frazier History Museum is open until
February 12, 2017. For more informa-
tion, see page 22-C.
Kentucky by Design: The Decorative Arts and
American Culture, edited by Andrew Kelly,
University Press of Kentucky, 2015, 328 pp.,
hardbound.
My next fixed-price catalog of Americana will consist of 200 examples
of historical ceramics, mostly from my own personal collection, dating
circa 1760-1860, with prices from $100 to $20,000. Monroe cup,
Jackson redware, John Quincy Adams paperweight, Jefferson canary
mug, John Dickinson creamware bowl, several Lafayette rarities, Mark
Twain bust, Cornwallis enamel box, several War of 1812 including
colored, Brooklyn Ferry platter, Zachary Taylor plate, Census jug, unique
Jefferson jug, Proscribed Patriots, Buffalo Bill creamer, Governors Brooks
and Strong pitcher, rare temperance and anti-slavery, Tilden redware mug, many Washington pieces,
Franklin parian by Ott & Brewer, Thomas Paine jug, gold miner figurine, rare Lincoln plaque, Nelson
bust, English royalty, Neal Dow platter, and much, much more.
My catalogs typically feature several hundred items, fully illustrated in color. Political and presidential,
early military, Old West, early photography, advertising, early sports, folk art, numismatics, autographs,
broadsides, textiles, paintings, weapons, Native American, and much more.
HISTORICAL
CERAMICS
Catalog subscription $15 for 4 issues
REX STARK - AMERICANA
BOX 1029, GARDNER, MASS 01440
978-630-3237
206-284-4410 206-819-6670
Color photos and prices of this and other newly listed items can be seen on the Seattle Folk
Antiques website. Call or email for additional color photos. Call or email to be added to our
update list if you'd like to be notified of Seattle Folk Antiques’ new items.
These four 1930-1950s cat carnival knock-downs
or punks have been languishing in barn
conditions for years. Still wearing stains, dust,
debris, and a few cobwebs, they are in good
condition considering their years of assault by
baseballs. Some of the wooden bases have traces
of blue paint with hand-lettered names. The cats
are huge. The three canvas cats with red spots
measure 22½” high, on a base that’s 9½” wide by
4” deep. The yellow canvas cat in the front is 21”
high on a similar-sized base.
Calendar of Rare Canadian
Antiques
The Bytown Antique and Bottle Club
(BABC) of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
has published a 2017 calendar in cele-
bration of Canada’s 150th birthday. The
32-page calendar features color photo-
graphs of rare Canadian antiques from
local Ottawa collections, some of which
have never been published before. Many
of the antiques featured in the calendar are
from Ottawa or the Ottawa Valley. All of
the antiques in the calendar are in the col-
lections of members of the BABC.
Jim Winton, president of the BABC,
said members had been looking for a way
to acknowledge Canada’s birthday when
one of the members suggested the calen-
dar idea.
The calendar is available by mail for
$20 plus postage by writing: BABC, c/o
C. Cameron, Box 57, North Gower, ON
K0A 2T0. The calendar will also be avail-
able at major antiques shows and auctions.
For more information, check the website
).
Five Institutions Awarded
Frame Conservation Grants
by Eli Wilner & Company
Eli Wilner & Company, New York
City restorers and makers of fine art
frames, has announced the recipients of
the 2016 Museum Frame Conservation
Grant Awards.
Colby College Museum of Art, Water-
ville, Maine, was awarded a grant for the
restoration of the original frame on Lady
Judith Maxwell, a circa 1790 portrait by
Gilbert Stuart. The carved and gilded
frame has significant losses to the gilding,
chipped gesso, and some cracks in the
wood, especially along the sight edge at
the spandrel. These problems were likely
the result of poor storage conditions early
in the frame’s life.
Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown,
New York, received a grant for the res-
toration of the original frame on Samuel
Nelson, 1829, by Samuel F.B. Morse. In
addition to various surface and structure
problems, the water-gilded cove frame
is missing its four large carved and bur-
nished water-gilt softwood acanthus