Lying discarded on table after table in the back room of the auction house were piles and piles of books from someone’s library. The auctioneer kept saying that the books and more tables of stuff…
Category: Art
I was drifting among the modern design furniture at one of my favorite auction houses this week and wasn’t finding much that whispered “come hither.” Until I turned a corner and ran smack into –…
I was standing a short distance away from where the auctioneer was selling tables of books. I had already shuffled through them and hadn’t seen any that I just had to have. But when I…
A Louis Slobodkin sculpture with attitude
Posted in Art
Her feet were jaunty, mimicking the I-don’t-take-no-mess jut of her right knee, the straight-up proud stance of her body and the downward jab of her index fingers. Girlfriend seemed to be making a strong point.…
Memories of Augusta Savage in Saugerties
Posted in Art
A few years ago, I went to the Hudson Valley Garlic Festival in Saugerties, NY, with some friends. One of those friends had told me about it because she knows I love garlic, and had…
I drove to New York yesterday for the Swann Auction Galleries’ sale of African American fine art with my art-auction buddy Kristin. I hadn’t planned to go to this one, but there were some pieces I…
I found myself going back to the auction table – once, then again, then again. I picked up the neat pen and ink drawings of women in what looked like very expensive clothes. The drawings…
Sale of artist Earl Wilkie’s works
Posted in Art
When you touch what was once in the hands of an artist, the things he cared for and preserved, are you also feeling a part of him? That’s what I was wondering this week as…
Augusta Savage & the ’39 NY World’s Fair
Posted in Art
A month or so ago, I bidded on and won at auction a set of filmstrips from the New York World’s Fair in 1939. There were several small boxes of films with views from the…
Whimsical teapots of Paul Cardew & others
Posted in Art, collectibles, Home, and Kitchen
Every now and then when I’m at an auction, some items on a table seem to just will me to stop. Maybe it’s a shape. Or a color. Or an unusual collection of “something.” Recently,…