A few examples of appraisal values for
THE CRITIC

• BILL NEBEKER (1942- ), THE CRITIC Title:
  BILL NEBEKER (1942- ), THE CRITIC Title: Bill Nebeker (1942- ), The Critic Medium: bronze, 30/30 Dimensions: 9 x 11 1/4 x 6 Framed dimensions: 11 1/2 x 13 1/2 x 8 1/2
• SELECTION OF BOOKS ON ART TECHNIQUES
  SELECTION OF BOOKS ON ART TECHNIQUES & RESTORATION Comprising nine volumes, including Henry Poore, PICTORIAL COMPOSITION AND THE CRITICAL JUDGMENT OF PICTURES 6th ed. (NY: Baker & Taylor, 1903) 8vo, cloth; and John F. Carlson, ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES OF LANDSCAPE PAINTING Special Edition (Pelham, NY: Bridgman, 1928) 4to, pictorial cloth.
• (4) Collector items, c/o Walt Disney
  (4) Collector items, c/o Walt Disney Classics Collection Symphony Hour "Goofy's Grace Notes" porcelain figurine (5-1/2" h), Superman figure 2492/6100 (10-1/2" h), WS George second issue in the Critic's Choice: Gone with the Wind series "Waiting for Rhett" porcelain plate (8-5/8" dia), 1991 Delphi The Beatles Live in Concert first issue in the Beatles collection plate no 8209A (8-5/8" dia)
• HENRY RANKIN POORE (1859-1940), THE
  HENRY RANKIN POORE (1859-1940), THE BRIDGE - CLOSE OF A CITY DAY Title: Henry Rankin Poore (1859-1940), The Bridge - Close of a City Day Medium: oil on canvas Dimensions: 48 x 76 Frame dimensions: 52 1/2 x 80 3/4 x 1 3/4 Notes: Born on the east coast, and raised in California, Henry Rankin Poore moved to New York in 1876. He studied for a year in the National Academy of Design Antique School, studied in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts under Peter Moran, traveled to New Mexico in 1882 to study and illustrate the Pueblo Indians for the U.S. government, and made a similar trip West at the end of the 1880s. In 1883, after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, Poore left for two and a half years to Europe, where his teachers included William-Adolphe Bouguereau. In England, he became enamored of fox hunting, and the depiction of hunting dogs became a standard subject for him. After a second European trip to France and England in the early 1890s, Poore returned home to become professor of composition at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. In 1896, he married Katherine Goodnow Stevens, moved to Orange, New Jersey, and beginning around the turn of the century, Poore spent summers at the art colony at Old Lyme, Connecticut. He developed a new subject, hazy, soft landscapes without animals during this time. Poore published Pictorial Composition and the Critical Judgment of Pictures in 1903, which he described as a “handbook for students and lovers of art”. In it, he recommended both painters and photographers consider how to draw the viewer “into the picture” as he did.
• JACK BOOKBINDER (1911-1990) TWO LITHOGRAPHSJack
  JACK BOOKBINDER (1911-1990) TWO LITHOGRAPHSJack Bookbinder (American, 1911-1990) Two Lithographs: "Departure," 1982, signed and dated l.r., titled and numbered l.l. "Ed 7/100" and "The Critics," 1965, signed and dated l.r., titled and numbered l.l. "Ed 91/100." Size 1) 16'' x 12.5'', 41 x 32 cm (board); 24'' x 19.5'', 61 x 50 cm (frame); 2) 16'' x 12'', 41 x 30 cm (sight); 24'' x 19.5'', 61 x 50 cm (frame).
• BABES IN TOYLAND, LAUREL AND HARDY,
  BABES IN TOYLAND, LAUREL AND HARDY, STOP-MOTION ANIMATI...BABES IN TOYLAND STOP-MOTION ANIMATION SOLDIER A stop-motion animation toy soldier puppet from Babes In Toyland / March of the Wooden Soldiers (Hal Roach Studios, 1934). The soldier is constructed of carved wood and machined metal parts that have been meticulously hand painted, with additional bent wire bayonet detail. The figure has fully articulating arms and legs with hinged “ankles” and a split base allowing the figure to “walk.” The soldier is accompanied by a DVD copy of the film. The film was originally released as Babes In Toyland as it is based upon the 1903 operetta of the same name by Glen MacDonough and Victor Herbert. When it was re-released, the film was renamed March of the Wooden Soldiers due to the stop-motion animation sequence that happens in the last four minutes of the film. The film stars comedy duo Laurel & Hardy, as Ollie Dee and Stannie Dum work who for the toy maker in Toyland. They inaccurately take down Santa’s toy order for Christmas inspiring this famous exchange: Santa: I ordered 600 solders at one foot high. Stan: I thought you ordered 100 soldiers at six feet high This misunderstanding prompts the classic Oliver Hardy response, “This is another fine mess you’ve gotten us into.” Despite their blunder, Laurel & Hardy finish the film as heroes when their one hundred six-foot soldiers save Toyland from Silas Barnaby and his marauding Bogeymen. The stop-motion animation sequence was created by special effects animator Roy Seawright and cinematographer Art Lloyd using 100 one-foot high soldiers. The film was originally released in November of 1934 and it is likely not a coincidence that this was just over a year and a half after the premier of King Kong, (RKO,1933) in March of 1933. King Kong was a huge success largely because of the incorporation of a staggering number of innovative special effects technologies including Willis O’Brien’s stop-motion animation sequences. The critical reception of these innovative new special effects technologies very likely inspired Roach to incorporate the stop-motion animation sequence in this film. This puppet is an extraordinarily early and rare example of this technology in exceptional condition. Prior to the discovery of this solder, there was only one other known to survive in a damaged state, owned by Laurel & Hardy historian Randy Skretvedt, who has occasionally loaned the soldier to museum exhibitions. The consignor’s grandfather was a high-ranking executive of Hal Roach Studios at the time the film was made and saved ten soldiers. The consigner brought five of these family owned soldiers to Antiques Roadshow where they were filmed for an episode that will air in 2020. The consignor stated at that time that her nieces own the other five soldiers and that she would pass the remaining five soldiers on to her son and grandson. This is the only soldier the family has chosen to sell. Dimensions: 13.25"h (excluding bayonet) Provenance: Lewis A French, in charge of Laurel Hardy productions, by Family Descendent Condition: No evidence of inpainting under UV light. Scattered minor wear with small losses. Witherell's strives to provide as much information and photographs as possible but encourages in-person inspection by bidders. Condition: statements are only for general guidance and should not be relied upon as complete statements of fact and do not constitute a representation, warranty or assumption of liability by Witherell's. All lots are sold "AS IS" under terms and conditions. Please be advised we do not provide porters nor packing materials for pick ups.
• GIANNI BORTA FLORAL/ NUDE EXPRESSIONIST
  GIANNI BORTA FLORAL/ NUDE EXPRESSIONIST LITHOGianni Borta (Italian, b. 1941) colorful surrealist depiction of flowers and nude forms; marked to bottom left illegibly, titled to bottom middle, and signed to bottom right; marked in Italian verso; "Albicocco Santini Udine" raised stamp to bottom right corner of paper; measures approximately 20-1/8" x 28" with frame and has a sight image of approximately 19-3/4" x 27-1/4"; in Good overall condition. Gianni Borta was born in Udine, Italy where he now lives. He is acknowledged by the critics as one of the most important and expressive painters of the new generation and for some years his work has been a standard for the valuation of paintings. He has taken part in 850 exhibitions in Italy and other countries, and has been awarded 220 national and international prizes. As well as his fame as a painter he is also well known as a graphic designer and illustrator of books, magazines, and posters.
• CHIN SAN LONG PHOTOGRAPH "THE RAFT"
  CHIN SAN LONG PHOTOGRAPH "THE RAFT" 1930Chin San Long (Lang Jingshan) (Chinese, 1892-1995). Photograph titled "The Raft," executed in 1930, depicting a woman steering a raft through the water with a pole. Silver gelatin print. Hand signed along the backing to the lower right of the photograph. Chin San Long is known for his innovative art photography, particularly his signature "composite photography" technique. He was the first Chinese photographer to take artistic nude photos, and also specialized in nature photography. Provenance: From the collection of William Atkins. William Atkins (1919-2001) was a pilot for Northwest Airlines, who spent his career flying to Asia. He was an avid photographer who was involved in the Photographic Society of America, through which he developed relationships with photography clubs worldwide. It was through the photographic society in Taiwan that he met Chin San Long, with whom he became close friends. In the 1970s, he arranged an exhibit for Chin San Long's photography in Minnesota. Unframed; height: 12 3/4 in x width: 10 in. Matted; height: 20 in x width: 16 in. Condition: The item is in generally good condition with no visible tears, creases, or losses. The photograph is affixed the mat. When inspected under UV light, there is no visible sign of restoration. The emulsion appears to be smooth. There are a few areas with light surface stretches, visible at the critical angle. Along the left margin, there is adhesive visible. Along the upper margin of the mat. there is discoloration and foxing. The verso of the photograph could not be inspected due to the nature of how the photograph is attached to the mat.
• MALVINA HOFFMAN PLASTER RELIEF, PAVLOVA
  MALVINA HOFFMAN PLASTER RELIEF, PAVLOVA AND MORDKIN(New York, 1887-1966) Anna Pavlova and Mikhail Mordkin performing Alexander Glazunov's ballet 'Bacchanale'", 1911-1914, possibly a working artist's proof, cast plaster, 26- x 16 x 2 in. Note: "Blame it on the Bacchanale. Or rather, celebrate the Bacchanale, danced by the great Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, whose performance inspired a young American sculptor, Malvina Hoffman, to spend years creating a magnificent frieze of this iconic duet. Hoffman would go on to become ?one of the few women to reach first rank as a sculptor,? as the New York Times said after her death in 1966. (Full disclosure: Malvina Hoffman was my husband?s great aunt.) The historic record is hazy, but it is likely that the Bacchanale began life as part of Mikhail Fokine?s Cl?opŸtre. Set to Glazunov?s Autumn movement of The Seasons, it featured a group of women pursued by a satyr. Later, Fokine reworked the piece as a pas de deux, which premiered in Saint Petersburg the following year with Pavlova and Laurent Novikoff. Another version of the Bacchanale was arranged by Mikhail Mordkin when he partnered Pavlova, and it is this version that became one of the ballerina?s signature works. Keith Money, in Anna Pavlova: Her Life and Art, reconstructs a performance of the Bacchanale, in which Pavlova, ?so petite and lissome,? and Mordkin, ?well formed and virile,? swept onto the stage, then ?let their billowing veil drop, threw rose garlands at one another, ducked and twisted with almost animal vigor, and even went into kissing clinches ? Together they struck gold, in this autumn bacchanal, which proved itself a display of finely tuned eroticism.? Hoffman, who was living in Paris while studying under Auguste Rodin, saw the duet in 1910, at the London Palace Theatre premiere of the Ballets Russes. The experience left her with an obsession to sculpt the ballerina. She purchased tickets to every other performance during her time in London, and stood in the aisles drawing the different movements of Pavlova and Mordkin. In 1912, Hoffman?s Russian Dancers, inspired by Pavlova, won first prize in the prestigious Paris Salon for its very modern way of showing movement in bronze for the first time. The bronze recreates Pavlova and Mordkin dancing the Bacchanale and you can feel the energy of their movements pushing them forward. The way their momentum and the lightness of their dancing is captured in the heavy medium was groundbreaking. Hoffman wouldn?t meet Pavlova until 1914, when both women were in New York. Pavlova was on a tour supported by Otto Kahn, chair of the board of New York?s Metropolitan Opera. A German native, Kahn missed the European arts in New York City, where he had immigrated, and after seeing Pavlova and Mordkin?s Bacchanale at its Paris premiere, the overwhelming reaction of the audience convinced him they must dance at the Met. He felt it was his responsibility to bring them to the United States. When Kahn?s wife invited the two women to her home for tea so they could meet, Pavlova graciously invited the sculptor backstage to rehearsals. After this, Hoffman?s study of the dance and the ballerina became more intense; she also began to learn Russian. Pavlova corrected Hoffman?s drawings, helping her perfect the arch of a pointed foot or the gesture of a hand. Hoffman encouraged the criticisms, and a friendship ensued. On her return to Europe, Hoffman designed many of Pavlova?s posters and playbills, while continuing to sculpt the ballerina in dance poses, welcoming critiques from Rodin. In Hoffman?s memoir, Yesterday is Tomorrow, she recalls her discussion with Rodin about the bas relief frieze of the Bacchanale, which he called ?a great thing of beauty, like the Greeks created.? The plaster frieze broke down the dance into 26 panels, each one featuring a pose by Pavlova and a partner. Working sessions would take place whenever she and Hoffman were in the same city. Hoffman was allowed to photograph many of the poses, and in some of them, you see a playful, laughing Pavlova. She found this time relaxing, even though they might work well into the night after a performance or long rehearsal had ended. In 1919, Hoffman became the first woman ever installed in the Paris Luxembourg Gardens with her over-life-size bronze sculpture, titled Russian Bacchanale, which features Pavlova and Mordkin holding aloft a billowing veil. Anna Pavlova died unexpectedly in January 1931. Only weeks earlier, she had visited her friend Malvina Hoffman?s studio in Paris. Hoffman saw she was ill and begged her to slow down and rest, but Pavlova would never disappoint her audiences and continued to perform. When Pavlova died of pleurisy soon after, her manager called Hoffman to help him with the arrangements. Hoffman was so bereft at the death of her muse that she wrote in her diary, ?My light is blotted out.? She kept the frieze of the Bacchanale, which had taken 15 years to complete, in her studio for the rest of her life. After Hoffman?s death, her estate gifted the entire Bacchanale frieze to the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art in Iowa, where it is displayed on a wall in their library." -Didi Hoffman (https://danceinternational.org/inspired-by-pavlova-malvina-hoffmans-bacchanale-frieze/) Provenance: Estate of the Artist Condition: missing lower left corner, other chips and abrasions, surface dirt, inscribed with numbers, some sticker accretion
• MALVINA HOFFMAN PLASTER RELIEF, PAVLOVA
  MALVINA HOFFMAN PLASTER RELIEF, PAVLOVA AND MORDKIN(New York, 1887-1966) Anna Pavlova and Mikhail Mordkin performing Alexander Glazunov's ballet Bacchanale , 1911-1914, possibly a working artist's proof, cast plaster, 25-1/2 x 21-1/2 x 2-1/2 in. Note: "Blame it on the Bacchanale . Or rather, celebrate the Bacchanale, danced by the great Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, whose performance inspired a young American sculptor, Malvina Hoffman, to spend years creating a magnificent frieze of this iconic duet. Hoffman would go on to become “one of the few women to reach first rank as a sculptor,” as the New York Times said after her death in 1966. (Full disclosure: Malvina Hoffman was my husband’s great aunt.) The historic record is hazy, but it is likely that the Bacchanale began life as part of Mikhail Fokine’s Cléopâtre . Set to Glazunov’s Autumn movement of The Seasons, it featured a group of women pursued by a satyr. Later, Fokine reworked the piece as a pas de deux, which premiered in Saint Petersburg the following year with Pavlova and Laurent Novikoff. Another version of the Bacchanale was arranged by Mikhail Mordkin when he partnered Pavlova, and it is this version that became one of the ballerina’s signature works. Keith Money, in Anna Pavlova: Her Life and Art, reconstructs a performance of the Bacchanale , in which Pavlova, “so petite and lissome,” and Mordkin, “well formed and virile,” swept onto the stage, then “let their billowing veil drop, threw rose garlands at one another, ducked and twisted with almost animal vigor, and even went into kissing clinches … Together they struck gold, in this autumn bacchanal, which proved itself a display of finely tuned eroticism.” Hoffman, who was living in Paris while studying under Auguste Rodin, saw the duet in 1910, at the London Palace Theatre premiere of the Ballets Russes. The experience left her with an obsession to sculpt the ballerina. She purchased tickets to every other performance during her time in London, and stood in the aisles drawing the different movements of Pavlova and Mordkin. In 1912, Hoffman’s Russian Dancers, inspired by Pavlova, won first prize in the prestigious Paris Salon for its very modern way of showing movement in bronze for the first time. The bronze recreates Pavlova and Mordkin dancing the Bacchanale and you can feel the energy of their movements pushing them forward. The way their momentum and the lightness of their dancing is captured in the heavy medium was groundbreaking. Hoffman wouldn’t meet Pavlova until 1914, when both women were in New York. Pavlova was on a tour supported by Otto Kahn, chair of the board of New York’s Metropolitan Opera. A German native, Kahn missed the European arts in New York City, where he had immigrated, and after seeing Pavlova and Mordkin’s Bacchanale at its Paris premiere, the overwhelming reaction of the audience convinced him they must dance at the Met. He felt it was his responsibility to bring them to the United States. When Kahn’s wife invited the two women to her home for tea so they could meet, Pavlova graciously invited the sculptor backstage to rehearsals. After this, Hoffman’s study of the dance and the ballerina became more intense; she also began to learn Russian. Pavlova corrected Hoffman’s drawings, helping her perfect the arch of a pointed foot or the gesture of a hand. Hoffman encouraged the criticisms, and a friendship ensued. On her return to Europe, Hoffman designed many of Pavlova’s posters and playbills, while continuing to sculpt the ballerina in dance poses, welcoming critiques from Rodin. In Hoffman’s memoir, Yesterday is Tomorrow, she recalls her discussion with Rodin about the bas relief frieze of the Bacchanale , which he called “a great thing of beauty, like the Greeks created.” The plaster frieze broke down the dance into 26 panels, each one featuring a pose by Pavlova and a partner. Working sessions would take place whenever she and Hoffman were in the same city. Hoffman was allowed to photograph many of the poses, and in some of them, you see a playful, laughing Pavlova. She found this time relaxing, even though they might work well into the night after a performance or long rehearsal had ended. In 1919, Hoffman became the first woman ever installed in the Paris Luxembourg Gardens with her over-life-size bronze sculpture, titled Russian Bacchanale, which features Pavlova and Mordkin holding aloft a billowing veil. Anna Pavlova died unexpectedly in January 1931. Only weeks earlier, she had visited her friend Malvina Hoffman’s studio in Paris. Hoffman saw she was ill and begged her to slow down and rest, but Pavlova would never disappoint her audiences and continued to perform. When Pavlova died of pleurisy soon after, her manager called Hoffman to help him with the arrangements. Hoffman was so bereft at the death of her muse that she wrote in her diary, “My light is blotted out.” She kept the frieze of the Bacchanale , which had taken 15 years to complete, in her studio for the rest of her life. After Hoffman’s death, her estate gifted the entire Bacchanale frieze to the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art in Iowa, where it is displayed on a wall in their library." -Didi Hoffman (https://danceinternational.org/inspired-by-pavlova-malvina-hoffmans-bacchanale-frieze/) Provenance: Estate of the Artist Condition: chips and abrasions, surface dirt, inscriptions, sticker accretion
• MALVINA HOFFMAN PLASTER RELIEF, PAVLOVA
  MALVINA HOFFMAN PLASTER RELIEF, PAVLOVA AND MORDKIN(New York, 1887-1966) Anna Pavlova and Mikhail Mordkin performing Alexander Glazunov's ballet Bacchanale , 1911-1914, possibly a working proof, polychromed cast plaster, 26-1/4 x 28-3/8 x 2-1/2 in. Note: "Blame it on the Bacchanale . Or rather, celebrate the Bacchanale , danced by the great Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, whose performance inspired a young American sculptor, Malvina Hoffman, to spend years creating a magnificent frieze of this iconic duet. Hoffman would go on to become “one of the few women to reach first rank as a sculptor,” as the New York Times said after her death in 1966. (Full disclosure: Malvina Hoffman was my husband’s great aunt.) The historic record is hazy, but it is likely that the Bacchanale began life as part of Mikhail Fokine’s Cléopâtre. Set to Glazunov’s Autumn movement of The Seasons, it featured a group of women pursued by a satyr. Later, Fokine reworked the piece as a pas de deux, which premiered in Saint Petersburg the following year with Pavlova and Laurent Novikoff. Another version of the Bacchanale was arranged by Mikhail Mordkin when he partnered Pavlova, and it is this version that became one of the ballerina’s signature works. Keith Money, in Anna Pavlova: Her Life and Art, reconstructs a performance of the Bacchanale, in which Pavlova, “so petite and lissome,” and Mordkin, “well formed and virile,” swept onto the stage, then “let their billowing veil drop, threw rose garlands at one another, ducked and twisted with almost animal vigor, and even went into kissing clinches … Together they struck gold, in this autumn bacchanal, which proved itself a display of finely tuned eroticism.” Hoffman, who was living in Paris while studying under Auguste Rodin, saw the duet in 1910, at the London Palace Theatre premiere of the Ballets Russes. The experience left her with an obsession to sculpt the ballerina. She purchased tickets to every other performance during her time in London, and stood in the aisles drawing the different movements of Pavlova and Mordkin. In 1912, Hoffman’s Russian Dancers, inspired by Pavlova, won first prize in the prestigious Paris Salon for its very modern way of showing movement in bronze for the first time. The bronze recreates Pavlova and Mordkin dancing the Bacchanale and you can feel the energy of their movements pushing them forward. The way their momentum and the lightness of their dancing is captured in the heavy medium was groundbreaking. Hoffman wouldn’t meet Pavlova until 1914, when both women were in New York. Pavlova was on a tour supported by Otto Kahn, chair of the board of New York’s Metropolitan Opera. A German native, Kahn missed the European arts in New York City, where he had immigrated, and after seeing Pavlova and Mordkin’s Bacchanale at its Paris premiere, the overwhelming reaction of the audience convinced him they must dance at the Met. He felt it was his responsibility to bring them to the United States. When Kahn’s wife invited the two women to her home for tea so they could meet, Pavlova graciously invited the sculptor backstage to rehearsals. After this, Hoffman’s study of the dance and the ballerina became more intense; she also began to learn Russian. Pavlova corrected Hoffman’s drawings, helping her perfect the arch of a pointed foot or the gesture of a hand. Hoffman encouraged the criticisms, and a friendship ensued. On her return to Europe, Hoffman designed many of Pavlova’s posters and playbills, while continuing to sculpt the ballerina in dance poses, welcoming critiques from Rodin. In Hoffman’s memoir, Yesterday is Tomorrow, she recalls her discussion with Rodin about the bas relief frieze of the Bacchanale , which he called “a great thing of beauty, like the Greeks created.” The plaster frieze broke down the dance into 26 panels, each one featuring a pose by Pavlova and a partner. Working sessions would take place whenever she and Hoffman were in the same city. Hoffman was allowed to photograph many of the poses, and in some of them, you see a playful, laughing Pavlova. She found this time relaxing, even though they might work well into the night after a performance or long rehearsal had ended. In 1919, Hoffman became the first woman ever installed in the Paris Luxembourg Gardens with her over-life-size bronze sculpture, titled Russian Bacchanale, which features Pavlova and Mordkin holding aloft a billowing veil. Anna Pavlova died unexpectedly in January 1931. Only weeks earlier, she had visited her friend Malvina Hoffman’s studio in Paris. Hoffman saw she was ill and begged her to slow down and rest, but Pavlova would never disappoint her audiences and continued to perform. When Pavlova died of pleurisy soon after, her manager called Hoffman to help him with the arrangements. Hoffman was so bereft at the death of her muse that she wrote in her diary, “My light is blotted out.” She kept the frieze of the Bacchanale , which had taken 15 years to complete, in her studio for the rest of her life. After Hoffman’s death, her estate gifted the entire Bacchanale frieze to the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art in Iowa, where it is displayed on a wall in their library." -Didi Hoffman (https://danceinternational.org/inspired-by-pavlova-malvina-hoffmans-bacchanale-frieze/) Provenance: Estate of the Artist Condition: chips and abrasions
• MALVINA HOFFMAN PLASTER RELIEF, PAVLOVA
  MALVINA HOFFMAN PLASTER RELIEF, PAVLOVA AND MORDKIN(New York, 1887-1966) Anna Pavlova and Mikhail Mordkin performing Alexander Glazunov's ballet Bacchanale , 1911-1914, possibly a working artist's proof, cast plaster, 25-7/8 x 29-1/2 x 2-1/2 in. Note: "Blame it on the Bacchanale. Or rather, celebrate the Bacchanale , danced by the great Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, whose performance inspired a young American sculptor, Malvina Hoffman, to spend years creating a magnificent frieze of this iconic duet. Hoffman would go on to become “one of the few women to reach first rank as a sculptor,” as the New York Times said after her death in 1966. (Full disclosure: Malvina Hoffman was my husband’s great aunt.) The historic record is hazy, but it is likely that the Bacchanale began life as part of Mikhail Fokine’s Cléopâtre . Set to Glazunov’s Autumn movement of The Seasons, it featured a group of women pursued by a satyr. Later, Fokine reworked the piece as a pas de deux , which premiered in Saint Petersburg the following year with Pavlova and Laurent Novikoff. Another version of the Bacchanale was arranged by Mikhail Mordkin when he partnered Pavlova, and it is this version that became one of the ballerina’s signature works. Keith Money, in Anna Pavlova: Her Life and Art, reconstructs a performance of the Bacchanale, in which Pavlova, “so petite and lissome,” and Mordkin, “well formed and virile,” swept onto the stage, then “let their billowing veil drop, threw rose garlands at one another, ducked and twisted with almost animal vigor, and even went into kissing clinches … Together they struck gold, in this autumn bacchanal, which proved itself a display of finely tuned eroticism.” Hoffman, who was living in Paris while studying under Auguste Rodin, saw the duet in 1910, at the London Palace Theatre premiere of the Ballets Russes. The experience left her with an obsession to sculpt the ballerina. She purchased tickets to every other performance during her time in London, and stood in the aisles drawing the different movements of Pavlova and Mordkin. In 1912, Hoffman’s Russian Dancers, inspired by Pavlova, won first prize in the prestigious Paris Salon for its very modern way of showing movement in bronze for the first time. The bronze recreates Pavlova and Mordkin dancing the Bacchanale and you can feel the energy of their movements pushing them forward. The way their momentum and the lightness of their dancing is captured in the heavy medium was groundbreaking. Hoffman wouldn’t meet Pavlova until 1914, when both women were in New York. Pavlova was on a tour supported by Otto Kahn, chair of the board of New York’s Metropolitan Opera. A German native, Kahn missed the European arts in New York City, where he had immigrated, and after seeing Pavlova and Mordkin’s Bacchanale at its Paris premiere, the overwhelming reaction of the audience convinced him they must dance at the Met. He felt it was his responsibility to bring them to the United States. When Kahn’s wife invited the two women to her home for tea so they could meet, Pavlova graciously invited the sculptor backstage to rehearsals. After this, Hoffman’s study of the dance and the ballerina became more intense; she also began to learn Russian. Pavlova corrected Hoffman’s drawings, helping her perfect the arch of a pointed foot or the gesture of a hand. Hoffman encouraged the criticisms, and a friendship ensued. On her return to Europe, Hoffman designed many of Pavlova’s posters and playbills, while continuing to sculpt the ballerina in dance poses, welcoming critiques from Rodin. In Hoffman’s memoir, Yesterday is Tomorrow, she recalls her discussion with Rodin about the bas relief frieze of the Bacchanale , which he called “a great thing of beauty, like the Greeks created.” The plaster frieze broke down the dance into 26 panels, each one featuring a pose by Pavlova and a partner. Working sessions would take place whenever she and Hoffman were in the same city. Hoffman was allowed to photograph many of the poses, and in some of them, you see a playful, laughing Pavlova. She found this time relaxing, even though they might work well into the night after a performance or long rehearsal had ended. In 1919, Hoffman became the first woman ever installed in the Paris Luxembourg Gardens with her over-life-size bronze sculpture, titled Russian Bacchanale , which features Pavlova and Mordkin holding aloft a billowing veil. Anna Pavlova died unexpectedly in January 1931. Only weeks earlier, she had visited her friend Malvina Hoffman’s studio in Paris. Hoffman saw she was ill and begged her to slow down and rest, but Pavlova would never disappoint her audiences and continued to perform. When Pavlova died of pleurisy soon after, her manager called Hoffman to help him with the arrangements. Hoffman was so bereft at the death of her muse that she wrote in her diary, “My light is blotted out.” She kept the frieze of the Bacchanale , which had taken 15 years to complete, in her studio for the rest of her life. After Hoffman’s death, her estate gifted the entire Bacchanale frieze to the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art in Iowa, where it is displayed on a wall in their library." -Didi Hoffman (https://danceinternational.org/inspired-by-pavlova-malvina-hoffmans-bacchanale-frieze/) Provenance: Estate of the Artist Condition: chips and abrasions, surface dirt, inscriptions, sticker accretion, cracks and repairs
• MALVINA HOFFMAN PLASTER RELIEF, PAVLOVA
  MALVINA HOFFMAN PLASTER RELIEF, PAVLOVA AND MORDKIN(New York, 1887-1966) Anna Pavlova and Mikhail Mordkin performing Alexander Glazunov's ballet Bacchanale, 1911-1914, possibly a working proof, polychromed cast plaster, 26 x 30-1/4 x 2-1/2 in. Note: "Blame it on the Bacchanale . Or rather, celebrate the Bacchanale, danced by the great Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, whose performance inspired a young American sculptor, Malvina Hoffman, to spend years creating a magnificent frieze of this iconic duet. Hoffman would go on to become “one of the few women to reach first rank as a sculptor,” as the New York Times said after her death in 1966. (Full disclosure: Malvina Hoffman was my husband’s great aunt.) The historic record is hazy, but it is likely that the Bacchanale began life as part of Mikhail Fokine’s Cléopâtre . Set to Glazunov’s Autumn movement of The Seasons, it featured a group of women pursued by a satyr. Later, Fokine reworked the piece as a pas de deux , which premiered in Saint Petersburg the following year with Pavlova and Laurent Novikoff. Another version of the Bacchanale was arranged by Mikhail Mordkin when he partnered Pavlova, and it is this version that became one of the ballerina’s signature works. Keith Money, in Anna Pavlova: Her Life and Art, reconstructs a performance of the Bacchanale , in which Pavlova, “so petite and lissome,” and Mordkin, “well formed and virile,” swept onto the stage, then “let their billowing veil drop, threw rose garlands at one another, ducked and twisted with almost animal vigor, and even went into kissing clinches … Together they struck gold, in this autumn bacchanal, which proved itself a display of finely tuned eroticism.” Hoffman, who was living in Paris while studying under Auguste Rodin, saw the duet in 1910, at the London Palace Theatre premiere of the Ballets Russes. The experience left her with an obsession to sculpt the ballerina. She purchased tickets to every other performance during her time in London, and stood in the aisles drawing the different movements of Pavlova and Mordkin. In 1912, Hoffman’s Russian Dancers, inspired by Pavlova, won first prize in the prestigious Paris Salon for its very modern way of showing movement in bronze for the first time. The bronze recreates Pavlova and Mordkin dancing the Bacchanale and you can feel the energy of their movements pushing them forward. The way their momentum and the lightness of their dancing is captured in the heavy medium was groundbreaking. Hoffman wouldn’t meet Pavlova until 1914, when both women were in New York. Pavlova was on a tour supported by Otto Kahn, chair of the board of New York’s Metropolitan Opera. A German native, Kahn missed the European arts in New York City, where he had immigrated, and after seeing Pavlova and Mordkin’s Bacchanale at its Paris premiere, the overwhelming reaction of the audience convinced him they must dance at the Met. He felt it was his responsibility to bring them to the United States. When Kahn’s wife invited the two women to her home for tea so they could meet, Pavlova graciously invited the sculptor backstage to rehearsals. After this, Hoffman’s study of the dance and the ballerina became more intense; she also began to learn Russian. Pavlova corrected Hoffman’s drawings, helping her perfect the arch of a pointed foot or the gesture of a hand. Hoffman encouraged the criticisms, and a friendship ensued. On her return to Europe, Hoffman designed many of Pavlova’s posters and playbills, while continuing to sculpt the ballerina in dance poses, welcoming critiques from Rodin. In Hoffman’s memoir, Yesterday is Tomorrow, she recalls her discussion with Rodin about the bas relief frieze of the Bacchanale , which he called “a great thing of beauty, like the Greeks created.” The plaster frieze broke down the dance into 26 panels, each one featuring a pose by Pavlova and a partner. Working sessions would take place whenever she and Hoffman were in the same city. Hoffman was allowed to photograph many of the poses, and in some of them, you see a playful, laughing Pavlova. She found this time relaxing, even though they might work well into the night after a performance or long rehearsal had ended. In 1919, Hoffman became the first woman ever installed in the Paris Luxembourg Gardens with her over-life-size bronze sculpture, titled Russian Bacchanale, which features Pavlova and Mordkin holding aloft a billowing veil. Anna Pavlova died unexpectedly in January 1931. Only weeks earlier, she had visited her friend Malvina Hoffman’s studio in Paris. Hoffman saw she was ill and begged her to slow down and rest, but Pavlova would never disappoint her audiences and continued to perform. When Pavlova died of pleurisy soon after, her manager called Hoffman to help him with the arrangements. Hoffman was so bereft at the death of her muse that she wrote in her diary, “My light is blotted out.” She kept the frieze of the Bacchanale , which had taken 15 years to complete, in her studio for the rest of her life. After Hoffman’s death, her estate gifted the entire Bacchanale frieze to the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art in Iowa, where it is displayed on a wall in their library." -Didi Hoffman (https://danceinternational.org/inspired-by-pavlova-malvina-hoffmans-bacchanale-frieze/) Provenance: Estate of the Artist Condition: chips, cracks, abrasions
• JANET LIPPINCOTT, NEW MEXICO (1918 -
  JANET LIPPINCOTT, NEW MEXICO (1918 - 2007), SMALL WATERCOLOR SERIES, 1991, WATERCOLOR AND INK, 20 1/2"H X 16 1/2"W (SIGHT), 14 1/2"H X 13 1/4"W (FRAME)Janet Lippincott, New Mexico, (1918 - 2007) Small Watercolor Series, 1991, watercolor and ink Signed lower left. Exhibited: Fletcher Gallery, Santa Fe, NM. Biography from the Archives of askART: Janet Lippincott was born in 1918 to a family of privilege in New York City. Her Aunt Gertrude Lippincott, a modern dancer, took her to museums, and when Lippincott saw her first Picasso she was turned on to modern art. Her family lived in Paris during her childhood which was another influence on her art. When Lippincott was age 15, her mother, on the suggestion of a friend, enrolled her at the Art Students League in a life drawing class. Thinking it was a course in nature drawing, Lippincott was taken back when a male nude entered the class. She left the room and sat in the park but did return to the class when a female nude was the subject. The artist graduated from the Todhunter School, a private school in New York where Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt was principal. After high school, Lippincott returned to the Art Students League full time. During World War II, the artist enlisted in the Women's Army Corps and was attached to Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower's staff. Lippincott tells a story of Gen. George Patton storming into Eisenhower's office in London demanding to see him. She told Patton flatly that Eisenhower was busy and that he would have to take a seat and wait and that he should keep his mouth shut, too. In 1949 Lippincott drove from New York to Taos, New Mexico to attend the Emil Bisttram School of Art on the G.I. Bill. Bisttram did not appreciate Lippincott's talent and told her that she was wasting her time. She responded that the G.I. Bill was paying him and that she would remain. In 1972 when Lippincott was exhibiting at the Jamison Gallery in Santa Fe, Bisttram gave her a glowing review. Janet Lippincott attended the Colorado Springs Arts Center and the San Francisco Art Institute on fellowships. In 1957 the artist settled in Santa Fe. She bought property on Canyon Road and built an adobe house and studio. It took time for Lippincott's art to be accepted by critics in Santa Fe. Lippincott herself explains that, "After The war, I came out here, and NO ONE was doing any modern painting. Here I came with my screwball ideas and shook everybody up." Eventually Lippincott won over the critics in Santa Fe. She has had numerous show around the country and internationally. Lippincott works with a wide range of media. She was one of the first artists to create lithographs at the Tamarind Institute. In 2002, Lippincott is still painting and winning awards. She recently won the New Mexico Governor's Award as Artist of the Year. Source: Art-Talk, November 2002 watercolor and ink Dimensions: 20 1/2"H x 16 1/2"W (Sight), 14 1/2"H x 13 1/4"W (Frame)
• ALBERT E. STERNER (AMERICAN, 1863-1946)
  ALBERT E. STERNER (AMERICAN, 1863-1946) THE CRITIC, 1890 PEN AND INK ON PAPER: 9 X 11 1/2 IN. (SIGHT)ALBERT E. STERNER, (AMERICAN, 1863-1946) THE CRITIC, 1890, Pen and ink on paper: 9 x 11 1/2 in. (sight) Framed; lower right signed and dated: Albert E. Sterner / 90; verso label: Figaro Gallery Provenance: Estate of Ronald Sperling
• JOSEF ALBERS (CONNECTICUT/NORTH CAROLINA/GERMANY,
  JOSEF ALBERS (CONNECTICUT/NORTH CAROLINA/GERMANY, 1888-1976), "THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF ARTS, BIENNIAL CONVENTION...1965"., SERIGRAPH, 40" X 29.5". UNFRAMED.JOSEF ALBERS, Connecticut/North Carolina/Germany, 1888-1976, "The American Federation of Arts, Biennial Convention...1965". "...'The Critic and the Visual Arts' Boston, Mass. April 7–10, 1965". Signed and dated in pencil lower right margin. Dimensions: Serigraph, 40" x 29.5". Unframed.
• PATTERSON, Matt, American, (New Hampshire,
  PATTERSON, Matt, American, (New Hampshire, b. 1981): ''The Magnificent Madagascar Radiated Tortoise'', an original acrylic painting, amazing color and detail on vellum art board depicting the critically endangered Radiated Tortoise found in Southern Madagascar. Painted by the artist based on his 2019 fact gathering trip to Madagascar with The Turtle Survival Alliance. Framed in a rustic style white pine frame, 14.5'' x 18.5''. Your chance to acquire an original Patterson work, never before offered for sale at Auction. Patterson, an award winning wildlife artist, sculptor, and Author, has received The Roger Tory Peterson Wild American Art Award in both 2017 and 2018. A delightful and most enlightening artist bio and history may be found at https://www.mpattersonart.com/contact. In the artist's own words.. ''To give you some specific background on this painting, it is a critically endangered radiated tortoise found in Southern Madagascar. In 2019 I traveled to Madagascar with the Turtle Survival Alliance to help in field work surveying sites and current populations. These tortoises are heavily poached for the illegal pet trade and several large illegal shipments of them were confiscated. One seizure had over 10,000 tortoises, another was over 7,000. The Turtle Survival Alliance along with other organizations have a few centers where they are currently caring for these turtles with a goal of getting them back into the wild. What I participated in when I was over there was to survey different sites to find areas suitable for eventual release. We survived the current populations of turtles, the plants and habitat and worked with the locals. I worked at three sites, I think nine overall were surveyed. It was extremely remote, some of the locals had never met or seen foreigners. The heat was really intense and every plant had spines! We saw lemurs, lizards, snakes and of course tortoises! I lived in a little tent, ate some pretty wild food and met some amazing people. While I was there I gathered reference for tortoises and native plants with sketches and photographs. This painting is based on all I saw and experienced there.''
• SHOZO SATO, JAPAN (20TH / 21ST CENTURY),
  SHOZO SATO, JAPAN (20TH / 21ST CENTURY), BAMBOO, NOV '81, SUMI-E INK WASH ON PAPER, 16 1/2"H X 14 3/4"W (SIGHT), 21 1/2"H X 19 1/2"W (FRAME)Shozo Sato, Japan, (20th / 21st Century) bamboo, Nov '81, Sumi-e ink wash on paper signed and dated lower left. Biography from the University of Illinois. Shozo Sato was Artist in Residence at Krannert Center from its opening in 1969 until his retirement in 1992. During his first decade at Krannert Center, he presented traditional Kabuki plays and dances, which he translated into English, designed, and directed. Beginning with Kabuki Macbeth in 1978, he turned to adaptations of western classics with Kabuki conventions. His highly successful productions in this style include Kabuki Medea, Kabuki Faust, Kabuki Othello, and Achilles: A Kabuki Play. These productions, which Mr. Soto conceived, designed, and directed, earned international acclaim and have been presented by professional companies around the world. In February 1991, he returned to his native Japan with Illinois Kabuki Theatre's production of Achilles: A Kabuki Play, the first Kabuki production by a major American company to be performed in Japan. Since retiring from the University of Illinois, Shozo Sato has continued to be involved in cross-cultural activities, both nationally and internationally. Iago's Plot was developed during a semester-long residency at Towson State University in Maryland and has been staged in Baltimore; Cairo, Egypt; and Weimar, Germany. Mr. Sato also directed Kabuki Medea in Chicago in 1994 and in Durban, South Africa, in 1993. Shozo Sato has won numerous honors, including Chicago's Joseph Jefferson, San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Hollywood Drama Guild, South Africa's Vita, and Baltimore Sun awards for directing and design. Iago's Plot won the Critic's Choice for Best Director at the Cairo International Experimental Theatre Festival. In 1993 he was awarded the Sidney R. Yates Arts Advocacy Award by the Illinois Arts Alliance Foundation, and in 1992, the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs awarded him the Certificate of Commendation for his promotion of Japanese culture throughout the world. In May of 2004, he received The Order of the Sacred Treasure with Rosette from the Emperor of Japan. Shozo Sato received his dramatic training at the Toho Academy of Performing Arts in Tokyo and as a special student of the late Kabuki actor Nakamura, Kanzaburo XVII, a National Treasure of Japan. In 1985 he was honored as a Kabuki artist by being officially adopted into the Kabuki family of Nakamura and given the name Nakamura, Kanzo IV. He is also a master of the Japanese Tea Ceremony, Ikebana (flower arrangement), and Sumi-e (back ink painting). Mr. Sato was the founding director of Japan House, a Japanese cultural center serving the University of Illinois and surrounding communities. Sumi-e ink wash on paper Dimensions: 16 1/2"H x 14 3/4"W (sight), 21 1/2"H x 19 1/2"W (frame)
• PRINT, HENRI VION AFTER JEAN LOUIS ERNEST
  PRINT, HENRI VION AFTER JEAN LOUIS ERNEST MEISSONIER Henri Vion (French, 19th century) after Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier (French, 1815-1891), "The Critics of Painting," colored etching, signed in plate, overall (with frame): 18"h x 15.5"w
• DANIEL COTTIER (1837-1891) FOR COTTIER
  DANIEL COTTIER (1837-1891) FOR COTTIER & CO. GRECIAN REVIVAL SIDE CABINET, CIRCA 1870-75 ebonised wood with parcel-gilt and polychrome painted decorations, bears black printed depository label verso GREEN & EDWARDS LTD.,/Depositories, Sailsbury Road, N.W./...188cm wide, 243cm high, 51cm deepProvenance: The Peter Rose and Albert Gallichan CollectionLiterature: en-Doesschate Chu P., Max Donnelly M., Montana, A., Veldink S. Daniel Cottier: Designer, Decorator, Dealer, Paul Mellon Centre 2021, p.64, pl.51 near identical example illustrated.Cooper, J. Victorian and Edwardian Furniture & Interiors, London, 1987, p.291, pl.291Coleman B., The Best of British Arts & Crafts, Atglen, PA, 2004, p.12Note: The firm of Cottier & Co. was founded by the artist, designer, decorator and art dealer Daniel Cottier (1838-1891). Cottier had trained as a coach painter in Glasgow but by the 1860s was working as a glass designer in London where he heard lectures given by the critic John Ruskinand received drawing lessons from the artist Ford Madox Brown. Returning to Scotland he eventually opened his own business in 1864, which would grow to become a highly successful international organisation with branches in London, New York, Sydney and Melbourne. Cottier was interested in glass, furniture, ceramic manufacture, and interior design. In the United States he is seen as a 'harbinger of aestheticism….and a profound influence on American decoration'. A key exponent of the aesthetic movement, Cottier developed a very original and highly distinctive style, employing to great effect delicately painted surface decoration often on gold or ebonised ground providing bold contrast. His designs frequently drew on the prevailing Japanese aesthetic associated with the aesthetic movement but also, as in the current lot, on other ancient sources.
• * Colt Aircrewman AF-1 Presented to
  * Colt Aircrewman AF-1 Presented to General Hoyt S. Vandenberg .38 spl. cal. 2" barrel S/N 4903LW. On the bottom of butt marked AF.-No.1; marked on the backstrap Property of The U.S. Air Force; on the inside of the grip strap engraved Gen Hoyt S. Vandenberg. Left side of barrel marked Aircrewman 38 Special Ctg.; the right side marked Colts Mfg Company Hartford Ct. Blued finish. Checkered wood grips with silver Air Force buttons.General Hoyt S. Vandenberg (1899-1954) was the American Air Force General in World War II (1941-1945) and the Korean War (1950-1953). He was born in Milwaukee Wisconsin and was a nephew of Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg. He graduated from West Point (1923); after graduation from flying school at Brooks and Kelly Fields (San Antonio Texas) was assigned to the 3rd Attack Group then engaged in pioneer air-to-ground attack aviation (1924). He became a flight instructor at the Primary Flying School at March Field Riverside California (October 1927); was promoted to 1st Lieutenant (August 1928). He joined the 6th Pursuit Squadron at Wheeler Field Hawaii (May 1929) and took command of the squadron?in November. Returning to the U.S. (September 1931) he became an instructor and Stage Commander at Randolph Field Texas (1931-1935).He graduated from the Air Corps Tactical School at Maxwell Field Montgomery Alabama (1935) and?from the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth Kansas (1936). He returned to the Tactical School as an instructor (1936-1938). Vandenberg then graduated from the Army War College (1939) and was?assigned to the war plans division of the Air Corps Headquarters under General Henry H. Arnold.He rose quickly with the beginning of WWII. He was promoted to major (July 1941) lieutenant colonel (November 15) and colonel (January 27 1942). He was appointed operations and training officer (A-3) in the newly established Air Staff ?serving as?chief of staff?for General James H. Doolittle in the?Twelfth Air Force (August 1942). He distinguished himself in planning and organizing the American air effort for the invasion of North Africa (November 1942) and was?promoted to brigadier general (December). He became chief of staff of the Northwest Africa Strategic Air Force (March 1943) and?flew numerous combat missions over Tunisia Sicily Sardinia and southern Italy (March-August).Back in Washington he became deputy chief of the Air Staff (August) and?accompanied W. Averell Harriman and General John R. Dean as General Arnold's representative on a mission over the U.S.S.R. where he helped arrange bases for shuttle-bombing missions against Eastern European targets (September). He then returned to Air Corps Headquarters to work on plans for the invasion of France (December).He was promoted to major General (March 1944) and?joined Eisenhower's staff as deputy to Air Vice-Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory commander Allied Expeditionary Air Force. Following the invasion of Normandy Vandenberg was selected by General George C. Marshall to command the Ninth Air Force which provided air support for General Omar N. Bradley's Twelfth Army Group (July). His performance in that position won him a promotion to lieutenant general (March). He returned to Washington after V-E day (May) and was?named assistant chief of staff for operations for the Army Air Forces (July). He was appointed chief of the Army General Staff's Intelligence Division (January 1946).In June 1946 General Vandenberg was appointed by President Truman to be Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) as head of the Central Intelligence Group (CIG). He had been in office for less than a month when he proposed legislation to establish an independent Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) ?free from the control that had been exercised over the CIG by the armed forces and the State Department.?Thus in fact Hoyt Vandenberg was the first director of the CIA.Leaving the CIA in September 1947 Vandenberg was assigned as vice chief of staff of the newly independent United States Air Force then succeeded General Carl Spatz as Air Force chief of Staff (July 1948). He held that post through the critical periods of the Berlin Airlift and the Korean War (June 1950-July 1953). He retired from the Air Force (June 1953) and?died of cancer at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington D.C. (April 2 1954).An outstanding and resourceful air commander Vandenberg's tenure as Air Force chief of staff made him the real architect and builder of the new service. His advocacy of the U.S. Air Force as a deterrent to attack ensured the primacy of that arm in a period of fiscal restraint and limited resources.DECORATIONS AND AWARDS:Distinguished Service Medal with two Oak Leaf ClustersSilver StarLegion of MeritDistinguished Flying CrossBronze Star MedalAir Medal with Four Oak Leaf ClustersSix U.S. Service MedalsTwenty-one foreign decorations and awards. Condition: Revolver is in nearly-new condition.
• Ralph Bacerra (1938-2008 USA) Untitled
  Ralph Bacerra (1938-2008 USA) Untitled Charger ca 1986Whiteware; dia. 22 in.A star of post-WWII studio pottery Ralph Bacerra's (1938-2008) dazzlingly work is prized both polychromatically and technically. His difficult multi-firing method ensured that only works which emerged in immaculate condition could be shown; lesser items were dispatched to the shards pile. Subsequently about half the pots he began ended up there. Of what remains are superbly constructed and lusciously sensual pots and sculptures. But that is just what we came to expect of him. It was simply "what he did." It kept getting better and we accepted that as well without much comment. Now that he has passed on we are realizing for the first time the magnificence of his legacy.He represented the pinnacle of a certain approach to ceramics -- a master craftsman -- unapologetic about his love of process and impervious to pressures to make his work seem more "art-like" and conceptual. Simply stated we have lost the most extraordinary decorative potter of the last fifty years. Initially I was hesitant to make this claim so boldly but the more I thought about it the more I realized that it was an unassailable statement. Yes America has produced many masters of decoration in the past half century. But it is no insult to any of them to say that Bacerra's vast multi-facetted oeuvre stands in a class alone.Bacerra described his goals modestly and unfashionably "I am not making any statements - social political conceptual or even intellectual. There is no meaning or metaphor. I am committed more to the idea of pure beauty. When it is finished the piece should be like an ornament exquisitely beautiful."This statement dovetails perfectly with the writing of Amy Goldin the critical voice of the Pattern and Decoration painting movement during the 1970s when she argued that "decoration can be intellectually empty but that does not mean that it has to be stupid". Indeed Bacerra's vessels bristle with intelligence but of the visual sort; layered planes both receding and advancing interlocking patterns and graceful but contemporary appropriation of Japanese Imari Kutani and Nabeshima porcelain. But given his vocal skepticism of the artworld it is surprising that even Andy Warhol's work was a strong influence. A print from the pop artist's flower series was the first thing one saw when entering the foyer of Bacerra's home.If one spoke of his "art " Bacerra would argue that it was nothing more than quality craft with some science thrown in for good effect. That is true but not complete. What he achieved bordered on the magic of alchemy. Condition: Excellent original condition.
• Pair William E. Powell watercolors (British,
  Pair William E. Powell watercolors (British, 1878-1955), (songbirds, titled in script below, "Among the Lilacs…(Green Finch)" and "The Critic - Robin Redbreast", signed lower left "W.E. Powell", watercolors on paper, pencil inscriptions at bottom "#2532-A" and "#2533-A", 12 x 10 in.; matching 20th century gilt silver frames. Both hinged at top with paper tape, light toning verso; frames with abrasions. The Estate of The Late Paula Spanierman Etherington, Asheville, North Carolina.
• Otto Weber (German, 1832-1888) "The
  Otto Weber (German, 1832-1888) "The Horse Market", oil on canvas, 48" x 70", signed lower right "O. Weber", verso retains partial label en verso "Otto Weber/Rillestrag?/Parlag No. 9 ?". Presented in a period carved giltwood frame. This painting was exhibited in the Maryland Historical Society's Seventh Exhibition of Paintings held in 1868. The lot is accompanied by a copy of the exhibition catalogue that lists the painting as number 82 and the owner as J. H. Meredith. A review of the exhibition from a newspaper clipping states "Amongst the critics who have visited the rooms, the opinion is nearly universal that the 'Horse Market' by Otto Weber is really the great thing. It was purchased in Berlin by Mr. J. H. Meredith, a few years since, and has been loaned to the Exposition. In the foreground are a large number of figures, and the grouping of them, the expression of the faces, the delicate tints of coloring, and the reflection of light upon the houses in the background, combine to form a picture whereupon the eye and taste may feast long and constantly discover new beauties".
• Collection of Twenty-Three French Books,
  Collection of Twenty-Three French Books, late 19th and early 20th century, many from the publishers Fayard et Cie, Paris, including six popular novels in paper bindings; Max Daireaux's Plaire, in a board cover from Fayard's Collection de Bibliotheque; an amusing commonplace book, Le Bonheur de Jour, in a risque paper cover and including a collection of jokes, puns and anecdotes; nine yellow-paper covered volumes in Fayard's Livre de Demain series of popular novels, each illustrated with woodcuts; four cloth-bound volumes of the critical journal "La Lecture"; and two volumes of Fayard's Modern Theatre collection, featuring the works of dramatists Paul Hervieu (1857-1915) and Georges Courteline (1858-1928), h. 7" to 9-3/4".