IMPORTANT SALE OF ESTATE ANTIQUES FEATURING AMERICANA AT CRN AUCTIONS

CRN Auctions of Cambridge, MA., announces a major winter Americana sale to be held at their gallery on Sunday, January 29th at 10:00 a.m. The auction is primarily comprised of material from a northern New Jersey estate as well as items from a Boxford, MA collector. Most of the items have not been on the market for years. The auction itself is made up of fine American antique furniture, American and European paintings, a fine collection of clocks, silver, decorative accessories, antique English furniture and accessories, and Oriental rugs.

Furniture is highlighted by an 18th century New England Chippendale cherry bonnet-top highboy with carved rosettes, fluted columns, shell caved knees and unusual webbed ball and claw feet. The original flamed finials are intact, as well as the large batwing original brasses. A choice set of six Salem Chippendale mahogany ball and claw foot chairs, originally from the Bradlee family of Boston, are in wonderful old surface. There is a fine Newport Chippendale stop-fluted leg card table with its original pierced corner brackets. Another featured item is a highly inlaid serpentine sideboard in old color from the Baltimore or Charleston South Carolina area.

A group of English furniture includes a magnificent Regency hexagonal library table, attributed to Thomas Hope with a large scale inlaid star to the top. Tea caddies and early porcelains are among the English accessories offered.

Paintings consist of both American and European 18th, 19th and 20th century oil paintings by well known and listed artists. There is also a collection of 19th century folk paintings of children, adults and various scenes. Decorative accessories are plentiful throughout the sale, and consist of lots of silver, samplers, Nantucket baskets, Native American baskets, folk art, Chinese Export and domestic porcelains, bronzes, and a private collection of Chinese snuff bottles. Particularly noteworthy is an important large full-bodied fish weathervane with the original gilding, in untouched condition. It is first time offered from a local family.

A collection of American clocks comes from our New Jersey collector.  A very fine Simon Willard banjo clock with its original glass tablets and T-bridge movement fitted in an inlaid mahogany case should inspire much interest. A Daniel Monroe, of Concord, Massachusetts, tall clock with 8-day brass works is another feature of the clock section. A Federal Massachusetts shelf clock with a kidney shaped dial is worthy of attention. There are several other tall, wall and shelf clocks that make up this powerful sale.

Buyers will have several decorative antique roomsize oriental rugs to chose from as well as a selection of scatters.

This sale offers an eclectic array of furniture and accessories, a fine mix as found in the homes of these collectors whose tastes were diverse and discriminating.

Three-day showing of Wayne Thiebaud paintings in Los Angeles

Before they go up for sale at Sotheby's New York in May, 11 canvases and works on paper by Wayne Thiebaud are traveling to Northern and Southern California to go on public display and -- Thiebaud's specialty -- whet collectors' appetites. The highlights include assorted oil paintings of pies and cakes as well as a candy-colored pinball machine rendered by the artist, who has lived in the Bay Area for decades.

"These works will be a revelation to many people who have seen them in book reproductions but haven't seen them in the flesh," promises Anthony Grant, Sotheby's senior international contemporary art specialist, based in New York.

The artworks belonged to New York dealer Allan Stone, who gave Thiebaud his first solo show there in 1962 and died in 2006. According to New York Times critic Roberta Smith, Stone was "legendary in the New York art world for his obsessive collecting .... At one point he owned untold numbers of De Koonings and nearly 30 Bugatti automobiles."

Thiebaud.pinball Now Sotheby's is preparing to sell works from Stone's collection estimated together to be worth more than $30 million on May 9 in New York. The most valuable work from the group is expected to be a 1947 De Kooning, "Event in a  Barn," a busy abstraction with echoes of Gorky and Miró estimated at $5 million to $7 million.

The most valuable Thiebaud, of a total of 20 owned by Stone going up for sale, is expected to be Pies, 1961, featuring a bakery-style display of slices of pumpkin pie, cherry pie, lemon meringue and more. The oil on canvas (it's tempting to say meringue on canvas) is estimated to bring $2.5 million to $3.5 million.

But for now, anyway, the Thiebaud works can be seen for free. The Thiebauds will appear at the San Francisco Art Institute this Monday and Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Wednesday from 10 a.m. to noon. They will then go on display at Sotheby's Los Angeles office, 9200 Sunset Boulevard, Suite 170, from 1 to 5 p.m. Friday through Sunday.