Antiques & Auction News 092917

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COMPLIMENTARY COPY

Who Was The 1st First Lady To Win An Emmy Award?

AAN Current News

“What’s It Worth” Antique Minute By Mike Ivankovich

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 29, 2017 • VOL. 48, NO. 39

Old Toy Soldier Auctions To Offer Prestigious Collections From U.S. And Denmark Oct. 14 Auction Includes Rarities From All Britains Categories And Early Nuremburg-Style Flat Figures On Saturday, Oct. 14, collectors of antique and vintage toy soldiers will be setting their sights on Pittsburgh, Pa., as Old Toy Soldier Auctions (OTSA) presents two consecutive These Salvation Army figures will be sold in three consecutive lots and auction events comprise Army men, Army Women “War Cry,” and (partial) Salvation whose contents Army Band. boast outstanding quality, provenance and rarity. The bidding via LiveAuctioneers.com and by phone will start at 10 a.m. (ET) with the distinguished Ib Melchior estate collection of antique military miniatures. A brief intermission will follow the Melchior session, then OTSA will introduce its 2017 Investment Rarities sale featuring Part II of the Bill Jackey collection. “The Melchior family is very The Britains Set #1331, General Service famous in their homeland of Limbered Waggon Active Service Order, only Denmark,” said OTSA owner Ray made between 1940-41, is estimated at Haradin. “Ib Melchior was a $3,000-$4,000. screenwriter and director; his father, Lauritz Melchior, was an his grandfather, Jorgen Melchior, acclaimed Wagnerian tenor; and was headmaster of Melchior’s School in Copenhagen. Jorgen started the family collection of toy soldiers in 1860, and both Lauritz and Ib continued the tradition. For more than 150 years, the collection has remained in the Melchior family, so it’s a very special honor for us now to be aucA Britains Set #1458, Middlesex Band of the Line, listed tioning it on their behalf.” as a special-order set in Gamages department store’s The Melchior collection 1938 Christmas catalog, is estimated at $6,000-$8,000. comprises 170 auction lots of primarily 30mm Nuremberg-style flat figures – the oldest type of military figures ever to be offered in an OTSA sale. It encompasses another fabled collection – that of a Dutch Army General named Snyders – which Lauritz purchased in 1896. The 2,500 figures acquired from Gen. Snyders were made between 1820 and 1890. The This Britains Set #3, Best Soldier Assortment with auction includes the actual rare picture pack counter display stand, 33 pieces, is ledger from the Snyders estimated at $3,000-$4,000. Continued on page 2

Who was the 1st first lady to win an Emmy award? This one should be fairly easy. Shortly after John F. Kennedy won the 1960 presidential election, Jackie Kennedy turned her famous eye for style toward overhauling and upgrading the somewhat outdated décor of the White House. After quickly exhausting her initial budget, Mrs. Kennedy created the Fine Arts Committee for the White House to help her transform the White House into the international show-place that it deserved to be, working with museum curators and acclaimed decorators. Antiques and artifacts once owned by the likes of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were brought in to adorn the White House. In February of 1962, she gave a famous nationally televised tour of the renovated White House to Charles Collingwood of CBS-TV and to a television audience of millions. The telecast gave most Americans their first in-depth look at the home of the presidents and helped to

personalize the office in ways that have affected every presidential administration since. This performance won her a special Emmy award, the first first lady to ever win such an award, and the program can still be seen on YouTube. What’s it worth? As far as we can tell, this Emmy award was not included in Sotheby’s 1996 famous auction of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis estate. Everyone seemed to want a piece of Jackie Kennedy, and that auction grossed $34,457,470, more than seven times the original preauction estimate of $4.6 million. In our opinion, if this Emmy award would go to auction today, it would sell for millions. Mike Ivankovich is an auctioneer, appraiser, home downsizing expert, and host of the “What’s It Worth? Ask Mike the Appraiser” radio show that airs live on Friday mornings from 9 to 10 a.m. on WBCB 1490 AM in the Greater Philadelphia area. It is available on the internet at www.WBCB1490.com. To learn more, visit www.AskMikeTheAppraiser.com.

Old Toy Soldier Auctions To Offer Prestigious Collections From U.S. And Denmark on page 1

African-American Fine Art Auction On Center Stage At Swann Galleries on page 2

The Met Acquires Ancient Egyptian Gilded Coffin The Metropolitan Museum of Art recently announced that it has acquired an ancient Egyptian gilded cartonnage coffin from the first century B.C. The highly ornamented lid of the coffin is displayed prominently in the museum’s Lila Acheson Wallace Galleries for Egyptian Art (Gallery 138), where it will be seen and enjoyed by millions of visitors. “This beautiful and unusual coffin is extremely rare, and we are honored to welcome it to the museum’s collection,” said Daniel H. Weiss, president and CEO of The Met. “It is an extraordinary work of art that will give our visitors the opportunity to appreciate a fascinating period of Egyptian history.” The mummiform coffin was inscribed for Nedjemankh, a highranking priest of the ram-headed god Heryshef of Herakleopolis. The elaborately decorated surface includes scenes and texts in thick gesso relief that were intended to protect and guide Nedjemankh on his journey from death to eternal life as a transfigured spirit. The coffin’s exterior is sheathed in gold, which, because of its permanent nature, was associated in ancient Egypt with the gods and the divinized dead. According to ancient texts, the use of gold in the coffin would have assisted the deceased being reborn in the next life. Unique to this coffin are the thin sheets of silver foil on the interior of the lid, intended to protect Nedjemankh’s face. To the ancient Egyptians, the precious metals gold

Premier Automobilia and Petroliana Sale To Feature Top-Tier Selection At Morphy’s On Oct. 2 on page 10

This gilded coffin lid for the Priest Nedjemankh (detail) from the Late Ptolemaic Period (150-50 B.C.) of cartonnage, gold, silver, resin, glass, wood, was purchased by The Met, 2017 Benefit Fund, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, Louis V. Bell, Harris Brisbane Dick, Fletcher, and Rogers Funds and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, Leona Sobel Education and The Camille M. Lownds Funds, and 2016 Benefit Fund, 2017 (2017.255b). Image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. and silver symbolized several things. On a general level, they could represent the flesh and bones of the gods, or the sun and the moon; on a more specific level, they were identified with the eyes of the cosmic deity Heryshef, whom Nedjemankh served. Even more remarkably, the long inscription on the front of the coffin’s lid explicitly connects gold Continued on page 6

Plan For Your Stuff on page 12

In This Issue SHOPS, SHOWS & MARKETS . . . . . . . . . . starting on page 3 SHOPS DIRECTORY . . . . . . . . . on page 5 EVENT & AUCTION CALENDAR . on page 7 AUCTION SALE BILLS . . . starting on page 7

FEATURED AUCTION: Morphy Auctions - October 2 in Denver, Pennsylvania - Page 10

AUCTIONEER DIRECTORY . . . . . on page 8 CLASSIFIEDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . on page 15


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