A cataloged antique auction in March will be followed by antique clock and music auctions.
(PITTSFIELD, Mass.) – Fontaine’s Auction Gallery has announced plans for three major sales in 2013, all to be held in the firm’s spacious showroom located at 1485 West Housatonic Street in Pittsfield. A cataloged antique auction on Saturday, Mar. 23, at 11 a.m. (EST) will be followed by an antique clock auction on Apr. 27 and a music-related items auction on Sept. 21.
A. Duminil French bronze silk thread clock with blackamoor figure playing the flute (Apr. 27 sale).
Internet bidding for all three cataloged auctions will be provided by both Artfact.com and LiveAuctioneers.com. Phone and absentee bids will also be accepted. The upcoming Mar. 23 sale will feature over 400 quality lots of antique furniture, Arts & Crafts items, antique lighting (by Tiffany, Handel, Gorham, Moe Bridges and others), paintings, bronzes and sterling silver.
Also being offered Mar. 23 will be porcelains, music boxes, art glass and cameo glass, marble statuary, jewelry and hundreds of related accessories. Previews will be held on Friday, Mar. 22, from 10-5, and on Saturday, Mar. 23, the date of sale, from 8 a.m. until the first gavel comes down around 11 a.m. Many items may be viewed online, at www.FontainesAuction.com.
The Saturday, Apr. 27 auction will be dedicated entirely to antique clocks, a category for which Fontaine’s Auction Gallery has become renowned in recent years. In November, the firm sold an E. Howard & Co. astronomical regulator No. 46 clock in fine condition for $230,100. It was a new auction record for an E. Howard clock. The Apr. 27 sale will feature several Howards.
Over 300 other clocks will be offered, many of them rare and vintage examples by noted clock makers such as Welch, Ansonia Fisher, Wallace, Waterbury, Kroeber, Durfee, Gilbert, A. Duminil, Stennes & Campos, Chelsea and Seth Thomas. Featured will be jewelers’ regulators, French industrials, French annulars, skeleton clocks, advertising wall clocks, weight-driven wall regulators, double-dial calendar clocks, bracket clocks, grandfather clocks and clock accessories.
The musical items auction, slated for Saturday, Sept. 21, will boast antique jukeboxes, Victrolas, automatic instruments and more. Start times for all three auctions is 11 a.m. (EST), with previews all day Friday and Saturday morning. Quality consignments are still being sought for the April and September auctions. To inquire about consigning an item, call 413-448-8922.
Returning to the Mar. 23 sale, furniture items will include a beautiful walnut Renaissance Revival credenza with oval artwork inlays in each door, a Gustav Stickley drop-arm Morris chair with slat-board design and black upholstered cushion, a nicely carved walnut slant-front desk in great shape and a heavily carved R.J. Horner figural oak sideboard with cupids and inlaid mirror.
Antique lighting will feature an Austrian cold-painted bronze Arab lamp with a Middle Eastern man on a camel under a palm tree, a 20-inch Tiffany Studios Daffodil lamp shade accented in green and yellow, a Tiffany Studios hanging Acorn lamp shade with peach and gold accenting and a Handel 18-inch Jungle Bird table lamp with parrots and foliage on the shade.
Decorative accessories will include a Joe Descomps bronze and ivory figural work titled Throwing the Ball and showing a blond female preparing her throw and wearing a black dress, a set of six Chateau des Tuileries Sevres portrait plates smartly housed in a cloth-lined wooden case and bronze figural group of two people (one of them on a horse) by Albert Moritz Wolf.
Also to be sold Mar. 23 will be a carrara marble sculpture by G. Trentanove of a baby sitting on a pillow and holding a chrysanthemum in its hand, a large French porcelain vase by N. Vivien with gold accenting and showing colorfully rendered birds and flowers, and a custom replica of the Heart of the Ocean diamond-studded necklace with a robust blue sapphire stone.
Moving on to the Apr. 27 antique clock auction, as mentioned there will be several E. Howard & Co. examples for bidders to peruse and compete for. These will include an E. Howard #60 regulator in remarkable condition and an E. Howard #13 weight-driven regulator with thermometer-shaped outline framing the pendulum, also in excellent condition.
Vintage American-made clocks will feature a Welch No. 7 regulator wall clock with Roman numeral facing and an ornately carved base, an Ansonia Fisher & Falconer double swinger clock with two figures on a footed base, an animated Wallace fountain clock with figures supporting a pointed crown top, and several handsome large Seth Thomas gallery clocks.
Also offered will be a Waterbury regulator No. 7 with a massive brass pendulum as large as the face, a monumental and beautifully carved Durfee 9-tube grandfather clock, a Gilbert #16 floor standing regulator with heavily carved mahogany case, an 18th century Peter Van Eden tall case clock with gorgeous gold colored case, and Stennes & Campos girandole and mirror clocks.
European clocks will include an Austrian 30-day inlaid mahogany regulator with a clean bright face, an A. Duminil French bronze silk thread clock with blackamoor figure playing the flute, a French figural glass dial mystery clock with figure on the base holding up a bright white face showing Roman numerals, and a French industrial boiler mantle clock encased in metal.
Rounding out just some of the expected top lots for the Apr. 27 auction are a Kroeber Rotary #1 clock with round base and ornate vertical decoration, a chestnut Baghdad wall clock with frosted glass decoration and lovely blond wood case, Chelsea ship clocks and chronometers.
The Sept. 21 musical items auction will have Wurlitzer jukeboxes galore, to include a Model 750 from 1941 accented in yellow, green and brown, a majestic Model 1080 from 1947 with blue harp inlay and silver metal trim, a Model 850 from 1941, very colorful and ornately decorated, and a Wurlitzer 4008 speaker with silver metal braces and colorful starburst center.
Another noteworthy jukebox is a Rock-Ola Jr. Model 39 with matching stand and push-button controls. Victor music machines will include a custom Victor cabinet desk Victrola with electric turntable and arched windows, a Victor Model VV-XXV oak schoolhouse record player with smart and classic styling, and a Victor IV mahogany record player with megaphone horn.
Other anticipated star lots include a J. Krejci & Son cylinder organ with 13 brass horns and a beautiful wood case, a rare and unusual Burns Pollach Capital Style E lampophone with Victorian styling, an Oxford Urn Victrola with oversize hand crank on a large base with feet, and a desirable Mills Coin-Op Violano Virtuoso housed in a two-door, seven-pane windowed case.
Rounding out a short list of expected performers is a Columbia Graphanola music box Victrola with stunning dark wood case, a Modernola floor lamp Victrola with beautifully made and fringed shade, and a Chicago Coins animated band box, which reads “Strike Up the Band.”
With over 40 years in the auction business, Fontaine’s Auction Gallery is a name that has earned the trust of collectors, investors and gallery owners around the world. Cataloged lots get nationwide exposure to the firm’s expansive database of over 15,000 qualified buyers. Seven times Fontaine’s Auction Gallery has been voted “Best Antique Auction Gallery” by the public.
Fontaine’s Auction Gallery is actively seeking quality consignments for all future sales. The firm also buys antiques and entire estates outright. To consign an item, estate or collection, call (413) 448-8922 and ask for John Fontaine. Or, e-mail him at [email protected]. For more information about the three big upcoming auctions, log on to www.FontainesAuction.com
