Jasper52 invites you to beautify your home, June 1

On Wednesday, June 1, starting at 8 pm Eastern time, Jasper52 will present a sale of Furniture, Home Decor and Collectibles. Consisting of almost 300 lots, it truly contains something for everyone.

Circa-1960s steelcase swivel Pollack-style office chairs, est. $1,100-$1,500

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Louboutin purple pumps step up in May 31 Luxury Fashion sale

A Chanel quilted glazed leather Large Boy handbag in dark green ombre, a Hermes Garden Party handbag in etoupe-colored leather, and a pair of Christian Louboutin suede purple pumps with five-inch heels will compete for top lot status at Jasper52‘s Luxury Fashion Louis Vuitton, Chanel auction. It will be conducted on Tuesday, May 31, starting at 5 pm Eastern time.

Christian Louboutin purple suede pumps, est. $500-$600

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Learn more about the auction on Auction Central News.

Woodstock collectibles document an American cultural phenomenon

A cardboard poster designed to advertise the Woodstock festival on New York City mass transit buses achieved $12,000 plus the buyer’s premium in December 2021. Image courtesy of Psychedelic Art Exchange and LiveAuctioneers.

Woodstock, the concert held on Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in New York state in mid-August 1969, has become the stuff of legend. It’s memorable for the sheer number of major rock stars who shared the bill, the rain that plagued the event for three days, and most of all, for being a cultural touchstone. With comparatively little advertising, it drew half a million young people to a 600-acre plot where they endured miserable conditions with little food, less water, too few toilets and too much mud. Still, everything turned out OK. 

A nylon security jacket from the 1969 Woodstock festival realized $1,005 plus the buyer’s premium in October 2008. Image courtesy of Weiss Auctions and LiveAuctioneers.

The crowd didn’t riot. The crowd didn’t stampede. Many who were there claimed they saw no incidents of violence. Only two people died, one from an overdose and the other as the result of an accident, which is absolutely astonishing, given the potential for danger and mayhem. If you support the hippie ethos of the era and are willing to believe the stories of a woman who gave birth while stuck in concert traffic and another who went into labor on-site and was airlifted out, you might regard the two new lives who entered the world at Woodstock as having balanced the cosmic ledger. (Neither of those babies, now eligible for AARP membership, have ever been definitively identified.)

A 50-star American flag featuring many of the 32 bands and performers who appeared at Woodstock, along with period peace slogans and logos, all hand-drawn in dark marker, sold for $12,500 plus the buyer’s premium in November 2018. Image courtesy of Julien’s Auctions and LiveAuctioneers.

Woodstock was a phenomenon – the godfather of all outdoor music festivals. Demand for genuine Woodstock memorabilia has shown no signs of fading. 

The most iconic image from the Woodstock festival is its poster. A 1969 original earned $5,000 plus the buyer’s premium in January 2021. Image courtesy of Stephenson’s Auction and LiveAuctioneers.

The most commonly encountered Woodstock items that appear at auction are promotional posters, paper tickets and festival programs. By far, the most visually appealing is the classic Woodstock poster, which pictures a white catbird sitting on the head of an acoustic guitar against an orange background. It was created by graphic artist Arnold Skolnick, who was paid $15 (about $120 today) for his work. “I used a catbird instead of a dove,” Skolnick said in a 2019 interview for National Public Radio, “because a catbird is fat, and a dove is like a pigeon. It has no shape whatsoever.”

A version of the Woodstock poster that lacks the text printed in black, which named the show, the site, the dates and the musical acts, sold for $1,800 plus the buyer’s premium in October 2018. Image courtesy of Jasper52 and LiveAuctioneers

The original Skolnick poster was printed in two sizes: 18 by 24in and 24.5 by 34.5in. Each had a thin white border with the name of Rapport Press, the printing company, on the reverse instead of on the bottom of the poster’s obverse, or front. The poster has been reproduced many, many, many times, starting less than a year after the concert itself with the 1970 release of the Woodstock documentary. 

A legitimate variant poster exists as well. The music festival was initially to have been held in Wallkill, New York, until town leaders made it unlawful to book an event for a group larger than 5,000. A more detailed and more psychedelic-style poster by David Byrd, indicating Wallkill as the event site, was never formally released. It is unclear how many copies of the poster were printed before the show venue was changed, but it emerges at auction on occasion.

A different, never-released version of the Woodstock festival poster, designed by David Byrd and produced for the event when it was initially supposed to take place in Wallkill, N.Y., achieved $3,600 plus the buyer’s premium in July 2021. Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions and LiveAuctioneers.

Tickets for the 1969 festival were priced at $6 per day (later printed editions raised the per-day price to $7, then $8) with the full three days costing $18 in advance or $24 at the gate. The only way to purchase them was through local record stores or via a post office box in New York City. Nonetheless, a total of 186,000 tickets were sold with the expectation that only 50,000 concert attendees would actually make it to the event.

This set of five unused Woodstock festival tickets, described as “complete, unused and NM (near mint)” sold for $885 plus the buyer’s premium in March 2019. Image courtesy of Hake’s Auctions and LiveAuctioneers.

The concert organizers were off by a factor of 10. Some 500,000 young people showed up and simply crashed the gate, walking in for free. Unsurprisingly, any surviving Woodstock tickets – especially a complete, original set numbered in chronological order – commands strong collector interest. Beware of crisp-looking orange and green Woodstock tickets; those are usually reproductions. 

A 52-page festival program was given away with each ticket purchase. It features all 32 artists and bands on the Woodstock roster, including Creedence Clearwater Revival (the first band to be signed up for the show), Jimi Hendrix, Joe Cocker, Richie Havens, Arlo Guthrie, a very pregnant Joan Baez, the Grateful Dead (who overloaded the amps, thus cutting their set short), The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin and Sha Na Na. Ordinarily, original programs make ideal keepsakes, but at Woodstock, attendees repurposed them as rain shields or burned stacks of them to keep warm at night. First-edition Woodstock programs that have survived without water stains are few and prized. 

An original 1969 Woodstock festival program went for $900 plus the buyer’s premium in February 2021. Image courtesy of Thomaston Place Auction Galleries and LiveAuctioneers.

As with the Woodstock poster, the festival program has been reproduced several times in the decades following the concert. On a true original, the front cover image of yellow wildflowers on green grass has the letter “f” in the word “of” from “3 days of peace and music” printed directly on a blossom. 1969 programs were printed on glossy, heavy paper stock, with the first and last pages printed on an opaque onionskin-like paper. Also, pages printed in black ink will show some white dots, which was the norm for the contemporary offset printing process of the era. 

The master audio tapes used to produce the concert albums ‘Woodstock’ and ‘Woodstock II’ achieved $120,000 plus the buyer’s premium in November 2020. Image courtesy of GWS Auctions, Inc. and LiveAuctioneers.

Other Woodstock artifacts that were not created as potential keepsakes have found favor at auction. The documentary film of the concert, released in March 1970 with the minimalist title of Woodstock, earned critical acclaim and an Academy Award for Best Editing. The audio master tapes used to produce the concert albums and the 16mm print film reels from the documentary were offered in two separate sales at GWS Auctions in California, the former realizing $120,000 plus the buyer’s premium in November 2020, and the latter earning $47,500 plus the buyer’s premium in September 2021. Security jackets, badges, t-shirts, stage instructions, program notes, order forms, brochures, lighting instructions, musician lineups and other festival memorabilia are highly coveted, as well, in any condition.

The 16mm work print film reels from the Academy Award-winning documentary ‘Woodstock’ sold for $47,500 plus the buyer’s premium in September 2021. Image courtesy of GWS Auctions, Inc. and LiveAuctioneers.

The passion for Woodstock and what it has come to represent extends to things associated with Max Yasgur’s farm, which was a working dairy at the time it served as the venue for the three-day event. Signage, crates, packaging, advertisements, invoices and milk bottles from Yasgur’s dairy are all treasured. However, Yasgur was not as popular as the mementos of his farm. He was ostracized by the community for allowing the festival to take place on his land. He finally sold the property in 1971, moved to Florida and died not long afterward from a persistent heart ailment. Addressing the crowd on the last day, he said, “ … the important thing that you’ve proven to the world is that a half a million kids … can get together and have three days of fun and music and have nothing but fun and music.”

The Woodstock festival was unique. No one, including experienced concert promoters who won the right to stage shows under the Woodstock name, has ever managed to recreate the magic of the 1969 original.

A milk bottle emblazoned with the Yasgur Farms Dairy logo – the site of the Woodstock festival – sold for $200 plus the buyer’s premium in December 2015. Image courtesy of Alexander Historical Auctions (LLC) and LiveAuctioneers.

After Woodstock was recognized as an iconic event, the community that had shunned Yasgur eventually embraced the concert’s historic and cultural significance by creating the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts on the very site of the former farm in 2006. Eleven years later, the field where the concert was held was added to the National Register of Historical Places.

A pair of staff passes for the 1969 Woodstock festival sold for $400 plus the buyer’s premium in April 2014. Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions and LiveAuctioneers.

Relics from the decades-old show carry more than just historical importance; they remind us that the impossible happened at least once. Maybe a future generation of peaceful, loving young people can make the impossible happen again. 

Jasper52 delivers Americana, Folk Art, and Outsider Art, May 26

On Thursday, May 26, starting at 6 pm Eastern time, Jasper52 will present a sale of Americana, Folk Art, and Outsider Art. Its 310 lots are, as always, curated by the unimpeachable Clifford Wallach, an expert in tramp art, folk art, and Americana.

Circa-1920s cast iron doorstop of a put-upon wine merchant, est. $1,800-$2,000

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Modern Art Masters sale explores power of works on paper, May 24

A Pablo Picasso linocut, an Egon Schiele self-portrait lithograph, and a Bernard Buffet lithograph will fight for top lot status at Jasper52’s Modern Art Masters auction, which will be conducted on Tuesday, May 24, starting at 3 pm Eastern time.

Bernard Buffet, ‘Clown on Red Background,’ est. $200-$250

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Explore Tiffany’s earthy side through pottery

This geometric three-handled Tiffany Studios vase in green and blue-green glaze sold for $7,500 plus the buyer’s premium in April 2014.
Image courtesy of Michaan’s Auctions and LiveAuctioneers

Bright, iridescent glass is the hallmark of Louis Comfort Tiffany and the firm he founded, Tiffany Studios. Its stained-glass masterpieces, Art Nouveau lamps and favrile glass pottery, have attracted legions of fans for more than a century. Less well known is the fact that Tiffany pursued an interest in pottery design. Tiffany Studios pottery might even be more desirable today than it was when it was introduced at the height of the Art Nouveau movement.

A circa-1905 favrile bronze pottery vase, pictured on page 63 of ‘Tiffany Favrile Pottery and the Quest of Beauty,’ sold for $22,000 plus the buyer’s premium in January 2022. Image courtesy of Rago Arts Auction and Auction Center and LiveAuctioneers

The leaders of Art Nouveau wanted to remove the stuffy, antiquated boundaries between decorative and applied art. In a nutshell, the former was to be admired, while the purpose of the latter was to be functional. Artists of the era insisted that practical everyday object could be just as fashionable as a strictly decorative piece. Louis Comfort Tiffany did with glass and pottery what his fellow Art Nouveau trendsetters did in their respective fields – Aubrey Beardsley with graphics, Gustav Klimt with painting, Victor Horta with architecture and Louis Majorelle with furniture.

A Tiffany Studios scarab pottery vase with a jeweled scarab mount attained $15,000 plus the buyer’s premium in May 2013. Image courtesy of Michaan’s Auctions and LiveAuctioneers

Tiffany Studios pottery production lasted from roughly 1900 to about 1920. Louis Comfort Tiffany might have been inspired by the American art pottery movement that emerged from the 1876 Centennial International Exhibition held in Philadelphia, or perhaps he visited the French-inspired pottery exhibits at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900 and was moved by what he saw. Whatever the source of the inspiration, Tiffany exhibited his firm’s earliest works of pottery at the Louisiana Purchase International Exposition in Paris in 1904 and at the Salon of the Societe des Artistes Francais in Paris in 1905.

The contours of an artichoke also serve as the body of this Tiffany Studios vase, which earned $16,000 plus the buyer’s premium in April 2010. Image courtesy of Rago Arts Auction and Auction Center and LiveAuctioneers

Just like Tiffany Studios’ famous works in glass, the firm’s pottery designs were based on flowers, plants and the beauty of the natural world. Artichokes, water lilies, vines, celery, ferns, crocuses, seedpods, blossoms and poppies were translated into the medium of ceramics with exceptional authenticity, resembling the real-world models in vivid, lifelike detail. Tiffany and his artisans achieved this feat by casting actual flowers and plants into the molds that formed the final design. This strict, obsessive attention to detail sets Tiffany Studios ceramics apart from others and wins the devotion of collectors. Note: the ceramic pottery should not be confused with Tiffany Studios favrile glass pottery, which is a separate category of wares.

An ivory and moss green vase modeled after the flowering trillium plant, which features the incised initials of Louis Comfort Tiffany on the base, earned $8,000 plus the buyer’s premium in October 2020. Image courtesy of Hill Auction Gallery and LiveAuctioneers

Part of what makes the ceramics of Tiffany Studios valuable today are the fundamental practices that led to its downfall. Louis Comfort Tiffany always strived for perfection, and whenever he had to choose between maintaining quality and increasing profits, he chose quality every time. Tiffany and his artisans were always experimenting, always improving, always ensuring every detail was just right. While most of the firm’s pieces were cast in commercial molds, it is said that Tiffany himself always threw the first piece on the line the one that would create the mold from which to shape all that followed.

The aquatic plant known as Sagittaria latifolia, possibly the arrowhead variety, is showcased in this Tiffany Studios vase that achieved $140,000 plus the buyer’s premium in May 2013. Image courtesy of Michaan’s Auctions and LiveAuctioneers

Once Tiffany Studios pottery pieces were fired, talented artists painted them individually with colored glazes in matte, crystalline and iridescent finishes. These glazes became the preeminent design feature of the firm’s pottery line. “Glazes on pottery claimed much of his time in certain years,” says the authorized 1914 biography The Art Work of Louis Comfort Tiffany, written by Charles de Kay. Glazes defined his work, and his work was exacting, labor intensive and costly.

This experimental Tiffany Studios vase, colored with mottled blue, pink, and green glaze, sold for $8,000 plus the buyer’s premium in May 2017.
Image courtesy of Rago Arts Auction and Auction Center and LiveAuctioneers

Unfortunately, Tiffany Studios pottery did not enjoy the same commercial success as its other offerings. Pottery production ceased around 1920, with only about 2,000 pieces created in total. While that was bad news for the firm, the relative rarity of Tiffany Studios pottery is good news for collectors. 

A whimsical Tiffany Studios vase depicting a frog on a green-glazed lily pad realized $5,500 plus the buyer’s premium in March 2013. Image courtesy of Treadway Toomey Auctions and LiveAuctioneers

The dwindling of Tiffany Studios pottery might have been a signal of dark times to come. In the 1920s, the Art Nouveau movement was eclipsed by the sleeker, more minimalist aesthetics of Art Deco and Bauhaus. Business declined, and too many pieces went unsold. Tiffany Studios declared bankruptcy and closed in 1932. Louis Comfort Tiffany suffered a personal bankruptcy and fell ill not long after closing the foundry, dying of pneumonia in 1933.

A high-shouldered Tiffany Studios Favrile pottery jar sold for $3,750 plus the buyer’s premium in July 2018. Image courtesy of I.M. Chait Gallery/Auctioneers and LiveAuctioneers

Tiffany was forgotten for a time by the art world, but the power and beauty of his decorative arts vision was rediscovered in the 1950s by curators and collectors. The artistic genius of Louis Comfort Tiffany and the artists he employed is proven at auction whenever original Tiffany Studios pottery captures the pre-sale high estimate, which it often does.

Budding collectors can learn more about Tiffany Studios pottery at the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art (www.morsemuseum.org) in Winter Park, Florida which “… houses the world’s most comprehensive collection of works by Louis Comfort Tiffany …” including his paintings, graphics and an ever-expanding display of decorative art.

A Tiffany Studios Favrile pottery vase, depicting a forest with the help of a matte chocolate glaze, realized $5,500 plus the buyer’s premium in January 2017. Image courtesy of Rago Arts Auction and Auction Center and LiveAuctioneers

Speaking on Tiffany and Tiffany Studios pottery, the Morse Museum’s site states it “… celebrates the design genius’s achievements with the ceramic medium that proved irresistible in his pursuit of beauty.” It is indeed a fitting epitaph for an artist whose works are beloved and immortal. 

It’s hip to be square: all-Hermes scarf sale, May 17

Leave it to Hermes to make something perfectly square perfectly chic. On Tuesday, May 17, starting at 1 pm Eastern time, Jasper52 will present a sale titled Exclusive Hermes Scarf Collection, devoted to the fashion must-have that the French firm debuted in 1937.

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Learn more about the auction on Auction Central News.

Gold, gold and more gold emerges from Jasper52 vault, May 18

A Cartier 18K gold and sapphire lion brooch, a Van Cleef & Arpels Ludo 18K gold and diamond link bracelet, and a large set of fan-shaped 18K gold and diamond earrings by Verdura should claim top lot status at Jasper52’s Designer Jewelry and Watches sale, which will take place on Wednesday, May 18, at 8 pm Eastern time.

Cartier 18K gold and sapphire lion brooch, est. $28,962-$31,595

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A SIGN OF THE TIMES

A Kelly Tires sign featuring its fictional spokeswoman Lotta Miles sold for $55,000 plus the buyer’s premium in August 2018. Image courtesy of Route 32 Auctions and LiveAuctioneers.

“Sign, sign, everywhere a sign” says the chorus of the 1971 song Signs by the Five Guys Electric Band. Signs were, and still are, everywhere. But the older a sign gets, the more charming it can become. The company that paid for it might have shuttered many decades ago, and the product or service it touts might be as absent as a dodo bird, but it can still do what it was created to do: grab your attention.

This vintage porcelain sign for RCA Victor, featuring the famous ‘His Master’s Voice’ logo, sold for $800 in May 2014. Image courtesy of Rich Penn Auctions and LiveAuctioneers.

Porcelain signs, in particular, conjure a sense of nostalgia and a different era because they their heyday was in the 20th century. Back then, people had to leave their homes to buy almost everything they needed. An attractive, well-designed sign would turn the head of a carriage driver or walker. If the sign was destined for display outside where it would be exposed to the elements, it made sense to manufacture it from porcelain and decorate it with enamel.

An H.P. Hood & Sons Milk porcelain sign in outstanding condition achieved $11,000 plus the buyer’s premium in November 2021. Image courtesy of Dan Morphy Auctions and LiveAuctioneers.

To some, the word “porcelain” cannot be divorced from the word
fragile,” but those people forget that ceramics are amongst the most durable of materials, able to survive for centuries with their surface decorations almost as bright and vivid as they were when they emerged from the kiln. This admirable quality ensures that vintage porcelain signs will always have an audience.

An undated porcelain sign advertising DuPont shot powder realized $1,800 plus the buyer’s premium in May 2016. Image courtesy of Rich Penn Auctions and LiveAuctioneers.

Collectors concentrate on two broad types of porcelain signs: petroliana/automobilia, the terminology for signs that tout anything related to gas and oil, motor vehicles and the businesses that support and maintain them; and country store, which covers pretty much everything else from the 19 and early 20th centuries. The former have a daunting number of fans, many of whom seek period decor for the garages that house their car collections. 

Of course, condition and rarity matter in the realm of vintage porcelain signs, but what trumps them both, and always will, is the quality of a sign’s graphics. Prompting people to fix their vision on a sign may seem simple enough, but it is in fact quite challenging. Cutting through the visual clutter to command attention is both an art and a skill. The best porcelain signs testify to this fact.

This large Mobil Oil Pegasus sign sold for $3,250 plus the buyer’s premium in March 2011. Image courtesy of Daniel Donnelly Vintage Auction and LiveAuctioneers.

Early 20th-century designers of automobile signs faced the extra challenge of attracting drivers flying by at then-breathtaking speeds of up to 30mph. Their graphics had to be bright, whimsical, and colorful to entice the motorist to stop, top off the gas tank, and perhaps make other purchases, as well. The sign had to communicate its message quickly, boldly and efficiently. 

A unique illuminated Texaco porcelain sign festooned with red and green glass jewels achieved $55,000 plus the buyer’s premium in April 2017. Image courtesy of Dan Morphy Auctions and LiveAuctioneers.

To a collector of enameled porcelain signs bidding at auction, the most important criterion is, and will always be, the graphics. If the graphics are colorful and unique, the sign will attract healthy bids; if they are dull and non-graphic, the sign is likely doomed, unless the featured product or the company it represents has an exceptional backstory.  

Porcelain signs are relatively rare. In a 2009 interview with CollectorsWeekly.com, Michael Bruner, an enamel sign collector and author of Signs of Our Past: Porcelain Enamel Advertising in America, explained, “By World War II, a lot of those products had become obsolete. The signs came down, and they would just sit in places,” he said, adding, “The scrap drive of World War II really took a lot of our heritage away.”

A circa-1930s Canadian porcelain door push sign for Coca-Cola realized CA$1,400 (about US$1,000) plus the buyer’s premium in May 2021. Image courtesy of Miller & Miller Auctions Ltd. and LiveAuctioneers.

Collectors express a clear preference for smaller porcelain enamel signs. Those that are perceived as too big to ship, store and display might not attract as many bidders at auction. Another popular forms is the porcelain ceramic door push, which retailers would attach to the part of a store’s front door that customers pushed to enter. “D]oor pushes are so popular; you can put them right in the palm of your hand,” Bruner said. 

Another example of a coveted smaller porcelain enamel sign form is the pump plate, which appeared on early gasoline pumps and identified the company brand and, sometimes, the type of gasoline the pump dispensed.

A Gasco Motor Fuel porcelain gas pump plate earned $12,000 plus the buyer’s premium in November 2018. Image courtesy of Route 32 Auctions and LiveAuctioneers.

Ceramic signs with imagery showing railroads, highways, farms, tobacco, and anything featuring the Wild West tend to be serious draws at auction. Collectors can also specialize by shape, lasering in on two-sided flat, one-sided flat, round, curved or flanged signs as well.

A Western-theme porcelain sign from the early days of service station advertising realized $8,000 plus the buyer’s premium in April 2017. Image courtesy of Dan Morphy Auctions and LiveAuctioneers.

Reproductions can be an issue. According to antiqueadvertisingexpert.com, savvy collectors can determine the authenticity of a porcelain enamel sign by checking for the presence of rust spots. The genuine article will have a black-brown rust color that is noticeably metallic. Reproductions will have hand-painted or computer-applied rust spots with a distinctive orange-red color that will be evident when closely inspected.

Sun-fading affects a porcelain sign’s lettering more than its background, with the color red suffering the most. Be wary of signs with reds that appear a little bit too vibrant; they may be bogus. Other telling details include rivets and screws, which should be checked to ensure they have rusted evenly along with the holes. Unless a sign has survived unscathed, the reverse of the sign should be corroded and worn in the right places as well. 

It pays to use a magnet when examining a vintage porcelain sign. Prior to 1950, sign substrates were fashioned from steel sheeting. Reproductions, by contrast, feature aluminum. If the magnet sticks, that’s a good sign, literally and figuratively.

A curved corner porcelain sign for Old Dutch Cleanser attained $2,250 plus the buyer’s premium in September 2020. Image courtesy of Showtime Auction Services and LiveAuctioneers.

As of yet, no association exists specifically for the study of vintage porcelain enamel signs, however an abundance of porcelain sign collectors are members of the long-established and well regarded Antique Advertising Association of America (www.pastimes.org), which welcomes collectors of all types of antique and vintage advertising. Additionally, publications such as Bruner’s Encyclopedia of Porcelain Enamel Advertising and online sites such as antiquesigncollector.com can help novices learn more about the collecting specialty

Those who invest the time and money to acquire vintage porcelain enamel signs treat it as a lifetime hobby. They enjoy them for their artistry and for their ability to recall a vanished time when Coca-Cola cost a nickel and squads of smiling, uniformed gas station attendants would ready your car for the next leg of your journey.

Jasper52 sets the table with fine antique silver, May 10

On Tuesday, May 10, starting at 7 pm Eastern time, Jasper52 will conduct a sale of Fine Sterling Silver and Decorative Art. The carefully curated auction features just 57 lots that nonetheless represent a deep and broad survey of the silversmith’s art. Earning a place in the lineup is a Georgian-style sterling silver epergne centerpiece, fitted with four baskets and dating to 1909; a pair of 1809 shell-shaped Georgian Rococo Revival sauce boats; and a five-piece Victorian tea and coffee silver set with kettle.

The highlights continue with a circa-1880 French silver gilt, glass and enamel inkstand clock; a sterling silver and wood horseshoes game set from 1996 in a velvet-lined case, a 1763 George III silver tea caddy with chinoiserie decoration, a 1937 pair of sterling silver ewers by Omar Ramsden, and a mid-century Georg Jensen vegetable tureen, dish and cover, part of pattern no. 228. Also included in the sale are: an Art Nouveau table clock from 1913 in the Tree of Life design, a George II silver gilt lidded trophy dating to 1738, a four-piece silver condiment set created by Gerald Benney in 1968, a pair of solid silver pheasants, a cock and a hen, rendered in Germany in 1938 but featuring an English import mark; a George III sterling silver basket for cake, bread or fruit, with an elaborately detailed rim; a solid silver lidded box or bowl, made in Iran circa 1940; antique candlesticks, tankards and trays; and a large French silver cigar box from 1910.

Pair of Arts & Crafts sterling silver ewers by Omar Ramsden, est. $16,000-$19,000

View the auction here.

Learn more about the auction on Auction Central News.