Displaying items by tag: Antiques

The antiques dealer and collector Joseph Kindig Jr. never fired a shot with any of his hundreds of American rifles made around 1800. He was not a hunter; he was a vegetarian who did not like to kill anything. At his store in York, Pa., he would refuse to sell his gun inventory to buyers who seemed snobbish or ignorant. He believed that the firearms represented the first major American artistic innovation.

His guns came mainly from Pennsylvania workshops, where a single artisan made and assembled each one: the maple stocks, iron mechanisms and brass floral ornaments. Each workman’s product “contained something of his spirit and soul,” Mr. Kindig told an interviewer in the 1950s.

A housekeeper has been charged with stealing £500,000 of antiques and art including a Picasso sketch from her aristocratic boss.

Kim Roberts, 58, of Colyton, Devon, is accused of taking valuable items from the Dowager Countess Bathurst, while working at her grand Cotswolds estate and Kensington home.

Roberts appeared at Gloucester Crown Court on Friday facing three counts of theft, including one count from another previous employer.

She is accused of theft between April 30 and May 21 last year of of art and antiques to the value of approximately £500,000 from Gloria, the Dowager Countess Bathurst at her Cirencester home.

It's almost time for the May installment of the Brimfield Outdoor Antiques Shows, a thrice annual event that draws antique lovers from near and far to the tiny town of Brimfield for six days at a time.

The May show - known as the largest antique show of the three - opens Tuesday, May 13 and runs through Sunday, May 18.

What is usually farmland transforms into a giant outdoor antique sale, featuring thousands of dealers on 23 fields selling almost everything imaginable - giant Ronald McDonald heads, garden items, 1950s dishes, postcards from various eras, music equipment, furniture, vintage jewelry and clothing and more.

On Tuesday, April 1, at 10AM, the Antiques Dealers’ Association of America (ADA) will launch its inaugural online antiques show. This innovative show model allows collectors around the world to browse offerings on their computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone. The digital marketplace will open to participating dealers and patrons at the same time, providing all interested buyers with an equal chance to acquire the show’s most sought after objects.

The ADA’s online show will run around the clock until Thursday, April 3, at 10PM. This unprecedented accessibility allows buyers to visit the show on their own time, despite busy schedules, unpredictable weather or location. A variety of dealers will be offering American antiques and fine art, folk art, Americana, Native American art, and decorative objects. Prices will be clearly listed on the website and each item will be sold with a guarantee of authenticity.

Judith Livingston Loto, the president of the Antiques Dealers’ Association, said, "The ADA is thrilled to bring online antiques shows to the realm of art and antiques. The world of e-commerce has been growing and, while the ADA and others in the field will continue to offer quality material at traditional shows,  with this online buying opportunity we are providing collectors with the means to conveniently shop from home from the same dealers they'd see at a show. All prices will be stated up front and there is no pre-buying."

The Antiques Dealers’ Association of America was established in 1984 as a non-profit trade association. Its main objective is to enhance the professionalism surrounding the business of buying and selling antiques. Each of the ADA’s members are committed to integrity, honesty, and ethical conduct in the antiques trade. To be accepted to the ADA, a dealer must have at least four years of experience in the antiques business, must be recommended by a committee of peers, and is required to sign an agreement promising to abide by the ADA’s bylaws.

To visit the ADA’s online antiques show when it opens on April 1, click here.

Ralph M. Chait Galleries, dealers of fine antique Chinese porcelain and art, are moving to the Crown Building on Fifth Avenue in New York. The 104-year-old gallery’s new home will open to the public on January 6, 2014. The 4,000-square-foot space is being designed by the Stylander Design Group and will include several connecting galleries and a library, which will house over 5,000 volumes.

The gallery, which previously occupied a different space on Fifth Avenue, was founded by Ralph M. Chait following his arrival to New York from London in 1909. The gallery is now operated by Chait’s son, Allan, and his two grandsons, Andrew and Steven.

The Ralph M. Chait Gallery is a founding member of the National Antique & Art Dealers Association of America and a go-to source for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Frick Collection, the Chicago Institute of Art, and several other respected museums.

Back in March, officials in charge of the European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) announced that they were talking with Sotheby’s about launching a high-end art and antiques fair in China. TEFAF, which takes place in Maastrich each year and is widely considered the finest art fair in the world, has just announced that TEFAF Beijing will not be taking place in 2014.

The fair was going to be a collaboration between TEFAF and Sotheby’s joint venture with China’s state-owned Beijing Gehua Cultural Development Group with Sotheby’s taking a percentage of sales from the fair. TEFAF released a statement saying that “a high-end art fair, as presently envisaged, in Beijing is not viable at the current time,” but many believe that dealers were not keen on giving a percentage of their sales to the auction house. In addition, most of TEFAF’s high-selling items such as old master paintings, antiquities, and fine antique furniture, are not in-demand among Chinese collectors.

TEFAF Maastricht will take place as planned from March 14, 2014 through March 23, 2014.

An Israeli antiques dealer who was acquitted in a high-profile forgery case last year is suing the Israeli government for $3 million. Robert Deutsch is claiming that the trial tarnished his reputation and that he has lost a third of his business as a result.

Deutsch estimates that he has lost over $1 million in revenue since he was indicted in 2004. He has also paid $800,000 in legal fees. In addition to his financial woes, Deutsch was kicked out of his university doctoral program, removed from a university teaching job and banned from a major archaeological dig that he was involved with.

Deutsch is suing the Israel Antiquities Authority, its director Shuka Dorfman, the head of the organization’s anti-theft unit Amir Gamor, the Jerusalem District Attorney and Assistant District Attorney Dan Bahat.

On November 2, 2013 Oprah Winfrey will auction the contents of her 23,000-square-foot mansion in Montecito, CA with the help of Beverly Hills-based Kaminski Auctions. Offerings include a marble-topped Louis XVI chest stamped by the maker “Boudin” (estimate: $30,000-$50,000), a set of Louis XV armchairs in hand embroidered yellow silk upholstery (estimate: $20,000-$40,000), and various works of fine art as well as English antiques and furnishings.    

Winfrey purchased the 42-acre estate in 2001 for $50 million and hired well-known designer Rose Tarlow to overhaul the house’s interior. All proceeds from the sale will benefit The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy Foundation College Fund. A public preview will be held from October 30 through November 1 at the grounds of the Santa Barbara Polo and Racquet Club.  

An extremely rare Fabergé statuette depicting a royal Russian bodyguard was recently discovered in an attic in Rhinebeck, NY. The work, which was believed to have been lost, is one of 50 sculptures in semiprecious stones and gold produced by the Fabergé workshop.

 The statuette was acquired by a collector from the dealer and industrialist Armand Hammer in the 1930s and re-emerged this summer complete with original receipts when a descendant’s estate was emptied. The work depicts Nikolai N. Pustynnikov, bodyguard to Empress Alexandra, the wife of Nikolai II, Russia’s last Tsar.

 Stair Galleries in Hudson, NY will auction the work on October 26; it is expected to sell for $500,000 to $800,000.

Qiang Wang aka Jeffrey Wang pleaded guilty to smuggling artifacts made from rhinoceros horns from the United States to China. Wang, a 34-year-old antiques dealer based in New York City, was arrested in February 2013 as part of Operation Crash, a nationwide, multiagency crackdown on the illegal rhinoceros trade.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara says Wang pleaded guilty to wildlife smuggling conspiracy on Wednesday, August 7, 2013 in New York. Bharara added that Wang used fake U.S. Customs documents to smuggle packages containing libation cups carved from rhinoceros horns into Hong Kong and China. Wang will be sentenced on October 25, 2013 and could spend up to five years in prison.

Over 90% of the wild rhinoceros population has been slaughtered illegally since the 1970s, mainly because of the price their horns can bring. U.S. and international laws currently protect endangered rhinos.