COMPLIMENTARY COPY
Titanic’s Last Menu Brings $118,750
AAN Current News
First Class Dinner Menu Is The Only Known Surviving Example FRIDAY DECEMBER 11, 2015 • VOL. 46, NO. 50
The Life, Legacy And Furniture Of George Nakashima A Conversation With Mira Nakashima By Mike McLeod “We are left in awe by the nobility of a tree, its eternal patience, its suffering caused by man and sometimes nature, its witness to thousands of years of earth’s history, its creations of fabulous beauty. It does nothing but good, with its prodigious ability to serve, it gives off its bounty of oxygen while absorbing gases harmful to other living things … Its fruits feed us. Its branches shade and protect us. And, finally, when time and weather bring it down, its body offers timber for our houses and boards for our furniture. The tree lives on” (1). George Nakashima’s philosophy reflected his style of craftsmanship: earthy, unexpected, creative, often
Here is a fantastic George Nakashima bookmatched set of maple burl roots tsuitate, or space divider. Photo courtesy of George Nakashima Woodworker, S.A., New Hope, Pa., www.nakashimawoodworker.com.
George Nakashima in his workshop. Photo courtesy of the Nakashima Foundation for Peace, www.nakashimapeace foundation.org. symmetrical and asymmetrical in the same piece of furniture, elegant and definitely unique. His work, which often incorporates slabs of irregular tree trunks or roots, is highly recognizable and appreciated. Nakashima was born on May 24, 1905, in Spokane, Wash. His parents moved to America from Japan, and both were from the lineage of Samurai. After earning a bachelor’s degree in architecture, Nakashima studied in France for a time before returning to America and earning a master’s degree, also in architecture, from M.I.T. He then traveled internationally and was hired by an architectural firm in Tokyo. One long-term project involved his overseeing the building of an ashram dormitory in India. There, Continued on page 2
The circa 1965 Conoid dining table of American black walnut and East Indian rosewood, 28.5by-106.75-by-42.5-inches, sold for $143,000. The set of six Conoid dining chairs of American black walnut and hickory, 35.5-by-20-by-20.5-inches, circa 1980, sold for $40,625. The sale was on Dec. 18. 2013, at Sotheby’s New York. Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s.
The only known surviving April 14, 1912, first class dinner menu from the R.M.S. Titanic, saved the very night the “unsinkable ship” slipped beneath the waves of the North Atlantic Ocean, sold for $118,750 in Heritage Auctions’ $1.1+ million Americana & Political Grand Format Auction on Nov. 7 in Dallas, Texas. The Nov. 7 auction offered a host of rare and one-of-a-kind items, including the license plates used on the presidential limousine carrying President John F. Kennedy when he was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas, which sold for $100,000. “We pride ourselves on preserving unique items which played a crucial role in the history of our country and the world, and this auction was no exception,” said Tom Slater, director of Americana auctions at Heritage. “These objects tell the story of the human experience, and the rare trove of Titanic objects and the Kennedy limo plates are among the most evocative ever offered at Heritage.” The remarkable Titanic final dinner menu is signed by first class
The Art Of Historic Upholstery Revealed In Landmark Book on page 14
passengers Edward P. Calderhead of New York City; Spencer V. Silverthorne of St. Louis, Mo.; George E. Graham, a sales manager from Winnipeg, Canada; James R. McGough, a buyer from Philadelphia; and John Irwin Flynn of Brooklyn, N.Y., and is one of three pieces of memorabilia relating to the sinking offered in the auction. An oil painting of the iceberg by rescue ship passenger
Morphy Auctions’ Premier Coin Auction Tops $690,000 on page 10
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Man Of Steel Proves To Be A Mighty Force At Hake’s on page 12
Bernard Buffet’s Eiffel Tower Painting To Lead Auction On Dec. 14 The Monday, Dec. 14, American and European Art sale at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers will include top lots from private collections. The 162-lot sale will have a range of well-represented artists. The sale is being led by an early Bernard Buffet work, “La Tour Eiffel,” 1955, which is a strong example of his atmospheric work from the ’50s. In this work, Buffet depicts one of the world’s most recognizable monuments. By including La Grand Roue, a Ferris wheel torn down in 1920, he imbues the painting with a sense of nostalgia and melancholy. The painting will hold an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000. Another leading painting by a French artist is Jean Beraud’s “Le Pont de Bercy” (est. $200,000 to $300,000). Beraud, known for his talent in depicting everyday scenes of 19th-century Parisian life, chooses here to show Bercy, a separate commune from Paris until 1860. In this painting, one can see the influence of both his fellow Impressionist artists and the Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock tradition, especially in the empty space and strong diagonal lines. Three exceptional ink-andwash works by Thomas Hart Benton lead the American session. The first is a dynamic sketch of a Holy Roller
Results From Swann’s Travel Posters Sale on page 17
Bernard Buffet’s “La Tour Eiffel” from 1955 will be estimated at $200,000 to $300,000. gathering from Benton’s time in Appalachia. “Movie Set” (est. $25,000 to $30,000) and “Burning of Chicago” (est. $25,000 to $30,000) are sketches Benton completed while hired by Life magazine to document the movie business in Hollywood. He would later turn these and other sketches into a major composite oil painting titled “Hollywood,” 1937-38. That composite is currently in the Continued on page 4
The Barnes Foundation Announces Extended Holiday Hours on page 4
In This Issue SHOPS, SHOWS & MARKETS . . . . . . . . . . starting on page 3 SHOPS DIRECTORY . . . . . . . . . on page 4 AUCTIONEER DIRECTORY . . . . . on page 9 EVENT & AUCTION CALENDAR . on page 8
FEATURED AUCTION: Leslie Hindman Auctioneers - December 14, 2015 in Chicago, Illinois
AUCTION SALE BILLS . . . starting on page 8 CLASSIFIEDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . on page 19