Maine Antique Digest, April 2017

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Maine Antique Digest, April 2017 11-A
Clock Brings Nearly $1 Million
A
A signed white marble sculpture depiction of Diana by Rafaello Battelli (Italian,
19th century), a 34" tall figure nestled against a crescent moon with a star on her
crown, sold for $19,360. A large (25" tall) signed bronze sculpture by Auguste
Nicolas Cain (French, 1821-1894) of two hounds, Pompier and Caron, tied to a
tree trunk sold for $7865.
The auction grossed just over $1.64 million. For more information, check the
website ).
Rare Corkscrews
At an online auction of corkscrews
sponsored by ICCAuctions, LLC,
a rare German Langenhan spring cork-
screw, one of only two known, sold on
November 13, 2016, for $25,376.62
(no buyer’s premium charged). For
many years, German corkscrew col-
lectors have searched for a Langenhan
spring corkscrew, patented in 1878,
and known to have been produced
by Valentin Langenhan, a Thuringian
manufacturer. One was found by a
German collector in 2011. This second
one appeared in Germany recently.
The corkscrew is marked “V.L.Chr.S”
and “GESETZL. GESCHUETZT.” In
near-mint condition, it has a distinc-
tive design (the spring is concealed
in its massive frame), and it is large,
weighing almost one pound.
A German figural “lady’s legs”
corkscrew, marked “Boker,” sold for
$4790.20 on November 20. The cork-
screw is tricolor (burgundy, black, and
cream) and is in very good condition.
These decorative folding corkscrews were considered ris-
qué when they were patented in 1894.
An American figural corkscrew advertising Old Crow
Kentucky whiskey has a handle shaped as the “Old Crow”
wearing a top hat and tuxedo. The corkscrew folds into
the backside of the crow, and the cap lifter folds into the
head. On the reverse it is engraved “The Old Crow Dis-
tillery, Frankfort, Kentucky,”
This Langenhan spring
corkscrew sold for $25,376.62. $4790.20. $1650. $1588.65.
and the opener blade is marked “Paul
A. Henckels, Germany.” Hardly a
functional piece, it is quite rare and
is keenly sought by corkscrew and
whiskey collectors. It sold on Novem-
ber 17 for $1650, reflecting the rarity
of this giveaway promotional item.
An 18th-century decorative French
tool shaped as a rampant lion with
multiple knives and a corkscrew was
carved from mother-of-pearl
and has a silver head and paws.
It is missing five tools but sold
for $1588.65 on November 13.
For more information, visit
Jonathan Fairbanks to Receive AD20/21
Lifetime Achievement Award
The tenth anniversary
AD20/21 Lifetime
Achievement Award will be
presented to Jonathan L. Fair-
banks at the gala preview of
the AD20/21 show in Boston
on Thursday evening, April
6. The show, which includes
the Boston Print Fair, fea-
tures close to 50 modern to
contemporary exhibitors.
Art, design, and creative
vision are the cornerstones
of Fairbanks’s multifaceted
career as a curator, educa-
tor, museum administrator,
artist, historian, and writer.
Fairbanks (b. 1933) founded
the department of American decorative
arts and sculpture at Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston, and served as its curator for 30
years, from 1970 to 1999. He received his
training at the University of Utah (B.F.A.,
1953), University of Pennsylvania and the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
(M.F.A., 1957), and Winterthur Museum
and the University of Delaware (M.A.,
1961). Employed at Winterthur from 1961
to 1971, he became the associate curator
for conservation and was responsible for
building the conservation/research wing of
that museum.
While at the MFA, Boston, he curated
numerous exhibitions, bringing American
decorative arts to international attention.
Among the exhibitions were Paul Revere’s
Boston ; Frontier America; Witness to
America’s Past; New England Begins:
The Seventeenth Century; “The Art that is
Life”: The Arts and Crafts Movement in
America; and Glass Today. He also inau-
gurated the innovative “Please Be Seated”
program, launching contemporary studio
furniture into the prominence of collec-
tions and gallery use.
The following decade included exten-
sive curatorial, educational, editorial, and
research positions. He
served on White House
and State Department
committees. In 2012 he
was named to his current
position as director of
the Fuller Craft Museum
in Brockton, Massachu-
setts. Over the past five
years, he has continued
to play a leading role as
an advocate for American
crafts and decorative arts
while leading the Fuller
Craft Museum, grow-
ing its staff, programming,
collection, and national
reputation.
The AD20/21 gala preview celebrates
Boston Design Week, a 12-day design
festival, March 29-April 9, with 80-plus
on April 6 will benefit Design Museum
Boston. The 2017 Lifetime Achievement
Award will be presented at 6 p.m. at the
gala. Gala preview tickets are $250 (VIP
admission at 5:30 p.m.) and $100 (gala at
6:30 p.m.).
Past Lifetime Achievement Award
recipients include Vladimir Kagan, Dakota
Jackson, Massimo and Lella Vignelli,
Vicente Wolf, John P. Axelrod, Susan Park,
Robert Campbell, and Virginia Bohlin.
AD20/21 and The Boston Print Fair
take place April 6-9 at the Cyclorama at
the Boston Center for the Arts in the South
End. AD20/21, promoted by Fusco &
Four, features modern to contemporary
fine art, mid-century furnishings and con-
temporary studio furniture, jewelry, deco-
rative arts, glass, and sculpture. The Bos-
ton Print Fair features fine print galleries,
contemporary print publishers, photogra-
phy, drawings, and other works on paper.
Jonathan L. Fairbanks.
Ian Justice photo.
Pennsylvania Representatives Introduce Ivory
Legislation with Antiques Exemption
On February 2 two members of the
Pennsylvania House of Representa-
tives, Madeleine Dean and Tarah Toohil,
announced that they would soon introduce
legislation “prohibiting the import, sale, pur-
chase, barter or possession of ivory or rhi-
noceros horn.”
When the text of the proposed law was
published on February 23, it included an
exemption for antiques. The new law will
not apply to antiques or musical instruments,
or in other narrowly defined circumstances.
Antiques are defined as “an object that con-
tains ivory or rhinoceros horn weighing less
than 200 grams; and is documented by the
owner or seller to be not less than 100 years
old.” Ivory is a “tooth or tusk composed of
ivory from any animal, including, but not
limited to, an elephant, hippopotamus, mam-
moth, narwhal, walrus or whale, or a piece
thereof, including raw ivory or worked ivory
made into an ivory product.”
If the law is passed, violators convicted
of a first offense would be fined “not less
than $1000.” A second or subsequent offense
would result in “a fine of not less than $5000
or an amount equal to two times the total
value of the ivory, ivory products, rhinoceros
horn or rhinoceros horn products, whichever
is greater.” The proposed law was referred
on February 23 to the Judiciary Committee,
which heard testimony on February 24.
Longstanding Vermont Antiques Week Show Changes
Name, Moves to New Location
AVermont Antiques Week show is moving and getting renamed. Antiques in
Vermont, which had been held at the Riley Rink at Hunter Park, is moving
to the Mountain Lodge at Okemo in Ludlow, Vermont, and the show will now
be known as the Vermont Pickers Market. The previous promoters had lost the
lease with Riley Rink, and a new set of promoters, Steven Sherhag and Kris
Johnson, have taken over the reins. Sherhag stated, “I felt it was important to
the viability of Vermont Antiques Week to keep the show going.”
The show will be held on Sunday, October 1, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the
lodge. There will be 40 dealers from around the country selling furniture, folk
art, and Americana.
For information, visit the website ), call
Kris Johnson at (610) 207-9505, or e-mail >.
Court, sold for $998,250 (including buyer’s premium) at Fon-
taine’s Auction Gallery’s antiques and fine art auction on Jan-
uary 21 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
rare 18th-century English-made pagoda-form automaton
musical clock, produced for the Chinese Qing Imperial
The 50" tall clock weighs 100 pounds. It is raised on a
large black wooden base topped in brass engraved in a
checkerboard pattern. The clock has 5" painted metal dials
with Roman hour numerals on the front and both sides. The
heavy bronze case is set with colored paste jewels.
The clock plays two different tunes on a nest of eight
bells, including the Chinese folk song “Mo Li Hau,” which
has been popular since the late 17th century. Every two
hours, the automaton mechanism is animated and the
music plays, corresponding to the 12-hour Chinese time
system.
The case form was based on the Pagoda of Nanjing
(or the Temple of Repaid Gratitude), built in the
15th century during the Chinese Ming Dynasty.
The structure was mostly destroyed in the 19th
century during the Taiping Rebellion. With nine
stories and a staircase in the middle, it was one of
the tallest buildings in China and is often called one of the
Seven Wonders of the World.
In other auction action an E. Howard & Co. (Boston)
floor-standing regulator, signed and dated 1891, with a gravity escapement by H.
Conant, sold for $24,200. A Joseph Jennens oak nine-tube grandfather clock, 106 "
tall, with a carved oak case attributed to R. J. Horner, hit $25,410. A French indus-
trial animated clock with a gilt brass case in the form of a vertical steam boiler
with moving parts animated by a spring-driven mechanism, mounted on a rouge
marble base, brought $20,570. A French figural mystery two-chain swinger clock
with a standing cast metal figure of a woman wearing a floral crown and holding a
bouquet of flowers sold for $5142.
A three-color Pairpoint puffy rose table lamp with a 10" diameter reverse-
painted shade with colorful roses on a green leafy background, on a molded pyra-
midal spelter base with poppy decoration, brought $9377. A large (159" x 255")
palace rug, designed in four panels with birds and filigree, with no wear or repairs,
changed hands for $6352.