Global Auction Blog

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 20, 2008

ALL OUT AUCTIONS & ANTIQUES
July 26, 2008

CONTACT:
NATHAN BURCH
(321) 984-8484

A collection of sports and entertainment memorabilia and autographs that has been thirty five years in the making will cross the block at All Out Auctions & Antiques on July 26.

The collection includes over 350 items and contains classics such as a 1953 Seeburg Model G juke box and a number of vintage electric guitars. And that’s just to get started. Then the serious stuff will appear.

There is a letter from John Lennon that appears to be to Waylon Jennings from 1971, an unused Elvis ticket to a concert he never made in Huntington, WV on September 20, 1977, face value $15.00 and more than 100 photos signed by sports figures and celebrities including Elvis, Charlie Daniels, Hank Williams, Jr., George Strait, Johnny Cash, Fats Domoino, Eric Clapton, Reba McEntyre, Jim Kiick, Mercury Morris, Buddy Baker, Raymond Berry, Johnny Unitas, Merle Haggard, Yogi Berra, Johnny Unitas and many more.

Autographed sports memorabilia will include pennants, hats, T shirts, helmets, a speed bag and a batting helmet signed by such sports legends as Joe Namath, Mike Tyson, Michael Jordan, Duke Snyder, Cal Ripken, Jr., Tiger Woods Pete Rose plus many more.

The sale will also feature more than 65 baseballs with the guaranteed signatures of Hank Aaron, Nolan Ryan, Pee Wee Reese, Bob Feller, Sandy Koufax, George Brett and Lenny Dyskstra along with several team signed balls.

The sale will be conducted at the All Out Auctions Gallery located at 5015 Babcock St. Palm Bay, FL 32905. Absentee bids will be accepted as will phone bids at (321) 984-8484. Online bids are available on Auctionzip.com using auctioneer ID # 5309, www.auctionzip.com/cgi-bin/auctionview.cgi?lid=472920. For more information visit the website at http://www.alloutauctions.com/, email to mailto:nathan@alloutauctions.com or call All Out Auctions owner Nathan Burch at (321) 984-8484.

written by:

Fred Taylor

http://www.furnituredetective.com/

800-387-6377

Photo captions for All Out Auctions & Antiques

One lot will consist of 111 Elvis albums.

A class ice 1953 Model G Seeburg juke box.

John Lennon’s signed letter, 1971.

A ticket for a concert Elvis never made, September 20, 1977.

A single plaque with autographed photos of Willie Mays, Pete Rose and Nolan Ryan

Popularity: 53% [?]

SAN FRANCISCO - Purple Wave, the “click and mortar” auction company, today announced it has appointed Mark S. Strauch as President and CEO. Strauch has served on the company’s board of directors since August 2007 and was formerly the President and CEO of San Francisco-based software company Business Engine. Strauch’s appointment comes at a good time as Purple Wave expands rapidly, having posted 104% sequential quarter growth in its first quarter. For the full year of 2008, the company is on track for over 300% growth.

“We are thrilled to have Mark onboard to drive the amazing expansion in our business,” said founder Aaron McKee. “He has been instrumental as an advisor and board member and now as CEO, his reputation and leadership experience will allow us to achieve our ambitious goal of building the largest local market in the world.”

Purple Wave has successfully pioneered a unique model that blends the scalability and reach of an e-commerce business with a growing number of physical auction locations that provide a full-service liquidation network. Just two weeks ago, the company announced it has recently expanded its operation to cover 6 U.S. states, opening new offices in Reno NV, Dallas TX, Kansas City MO, Wichita KS, Hays KS, and Pueblo CO. Purple Wave goes beyond integrating live and Internet bidding, and is investing heavily in live video, mobile bidding and social networking. By combining these elements into one platform, Purple Wave can maximize the reach of a growing community of value-seeking buyers which is attractive to corporate, government and small business sellers of all kinds.

“I fell in love with this business as an investor and am excited to have the opportunity to join this strong team and lead Purple Wave to the next level,” said Strauch. “Purple Wave is fundamentally redefining the $265 billion auction market by bringing technology, professionalism, and scale to a very traditional industry that in the past has relied heavily on live auction methods. Our unique online-offline model connects end-user buyers with business and government sellers better than existing providers in the market today. Plus, it’s an entertaining way to buy.”

Purple Wave’s emergence is due in no small part to the backing of prominent angel investors Yossi Vardi and Steven Sherman, who have evangelized the company and its innovative model. Mr. Sherman is a successful entrepreneur in his own right, as he has founded and taken public several technology companies. For his part, Mr. Vardi is widely regarded as an Internet visionary, having introduced instant messaging to the world when his company Mirabilis (creators of ICQ) was acquired by AOL in 1998.

“To say that Yossi and Steven are huge assets to this business is an understatement. They are extremely well known in the technology industry. Their involvement has been - and will continue to be - instrumental to our growth. Their vision, their passion, their energy, and their relationships have brought unprecedented opportunities to Purple Wave. When you combine their influence with the respect and trust the company - and Aaron McKee in particular - has built over time, what you have is a powerful recipe for success,” notes Strauch.

About Purple Wave, Inc.

Purple Wave is one of the nation’s leading auction firms, specializing in real estate, equipment, vehicle, personal property and specialty property sales. Purple Wave operates as a sellers agent through unreserved public auctions — a broad range of assets such as high value personal property, industrial equipment, motor vehicles, and real estate. Unlike eBay or other do-it-yourself online marketplaces, Purple Wave specializes in assets that are difficult to transport and require a local turnkey service from listing to marketing to transaction settlement.

Purple Wave’s mission is to build “the largest local market in the world” by combining a central e-commerce destination at http://www.purplewave.com with a growing network of live auction locations across the United States. Resulting in an innovative model where customer acquisition is largely offline and our monetization is largely online.

Web site: http://www.purplewave.com/

Popularity: 50% [?]

ABERDEEN-AUCTIONS
Sale August 2-3, 2008

CONTACT:
ALEX TURCHAK
(727) 656-2974

Not all of them of course but at least a significant sampling of Russian fine art, sculpture and decorative silver art will be in the United States in August at Aberdeen Auctions in St. Petersburg (Florida).

(ST. PETERSBURG, FL) Aberdeen-Auctions of St. Petersburg, FL will serve up a banquet of art with Russian and European flavors on August 2 – 3 consisting of over 450 items of paintings, drawings, sculptures, bronze works, silver, jewelry, porcelain, folk art and Russian icons.

Among the featured works will be four watercolors by Russian artist Ivan Yakelovich Bilibin (1876-1942). He was renowned as an illustrator of Slavic folklore and Russian fairy tales as well as stage design. He was a member of Mir iskusstva (World of Art) and after pursuing his career in Egypt and France, returned to Russia in 1936 and died in the siege of Leningrad in World War II. The four watercolor works are illustrations of Russian folk tales “Baba-Yaga”, “Three Bogatyrs”, and tales by Pushkin “The Tale of the Tsar Sultan” and “The Tale of Golden Cockrel.” All four works are signed in Cyrillic and dated 1899 and 1907.

Other Russian artists in the inventory include Y. P. Annenkov, D. D. Burlak, A.A. Exter, N. feshin, N. S. Goncharova, A. V. Hansen, B. I. Khodasevich, G. A. Lapchine, G. Pogedaieff, P. Tchelichev and M. Voloshin.

The Russian flavor will be enhanced by Russian icons from the 17th through the 19th centuries, bronze sculptures of Cossacks from the last quarter of the 19th century by Evgenii Evgenievich Lanceray (1875-1946) and a bronze candlestick decorated with Russian symbols by N. Stange, c. 1876. Stange also exhibited other nickel plated bronze items in the Russian style at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876 along with this candlestick.

Other works from some of Russia’s famous silversmiths, including I. Khlebnikov, P. Ovchinnikov, A. Lubavin and Gustav Klingert will cross the block along with a Russian gilded silver and enamel photograph frame by A. Kuzmichev, c. 1888, with Cyrillc maker’s mark “AK”, essayer mark “AP” and a Moscow hallmark. Kuzmichev also made some items for the Tiffany Company. There will be a porcelain mantle clock by Alexander Popov, a pair of Russian porcelain vases from the Imperial Manufactory, period of Alexander II and Russian porcelain tea sets from the first years of the Soviet era.

Other European works will consist of Old Masters of the 17th and 218th century and works by Mattie Dube, an American working in Paris (1861- 1944), Alfons Karpinski (Polish, 1875-1961), Arthur Lajos Halmi (Hungarian 1866-1939), George Morland (English 1763-1804) and Pal Fried (Hungarian/American 1893-1976).

Preview for the sale will be on August 1 from 12:00 to 6:00PM at the Gallery at 212 Beach Dr. NE, St. Petersburg, FL 33701. The sale, beginning at 10:00AM EST on August 2 and continuing at 10:00AM August 3 , will be carried live online by LiveAuctioneers.com. For more information call (727) 656-2974, email aberdeenauctions@gmail.com or visit the website at http://www.aberdeen-auctions.com/.

written by:

Fred Taylor

http://www.furnituredetective.com/

800-387-6377

PHOTO CAPTIONS FOR ABERDEEN

Watercolor by I. Y. Bilibin, an illustration for the Russian tale by Pushkin “The Tale of Golden Cockrel, signed with Cyrillic and dated 1907.

Estimate: $45,000.00 - $60,000.00

Ivan Iakovlevich Illustration of a Russian folktale “Baba-Yaga” signed with Cyrillic.
Estimate: $25,000.00 - $35,000.00

A Bronze Group of a peasant boy on horseback with two horses by Evgeni Lanceray(1848-1886), inscribed with signature and with foundry mark. Height 7in or 17.5 cm.

Estimate: $11,000.00 - $13,000.00

Portrait of an Old woman, charcoal on paper, sign lower right by Nicolai Fechin (Russian, 1881-1955)

Estimate: $10,000.00 - $13,000.00

Hannan Restored to Health Painting by Scottish Artist Robert Gavin (1827-83). Former Sotheby’s sale. Listed artist. Oil on canvas. 19¾ x 28½in.

Estimate: $9,000.00 - $12,000.00

Oil on canvas “Coast View” by Aleksey Vasilievich Hanzen (Russian, 1876-1937), signed lower right

Estimate: $28,000.00 - $30,000.00

A Russian Silver and Enamel Bowl, Ovchinnikov, Moscow, circa 1910
enameled with colorful foliage, gild interior. Height with hands 6¾in or 17 cm, width 8½in or 21cm.
Estimate: $8,000.00 - $10,000.00

Popularity: 57% [?]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 22, 2008

HARRISON AUCTIONS, INC
Cape Coral, FL
Sale March 8,9, 2008

Harrison Auctions will hold the first of several auctions to disperse key items from a lifetime collection of toys.

CAPE CORAL, FL - The heirs to a lifetime collection of toys have selected Floyd Harrison, owner of Harrison Auctions of Cape Coral, to begin the dispersal of a portion of the collection. Many of the lots in this inventory were exhibited on loan during the life of the collector at the National Farm Toy Museum in Dyersville, IA, home to over 30,000 farm related toys. Some of these lots retain their Museum tags. Upon his death the family reclaimed the items and are now offering them for sale.

This sale will include 260 lots of toys dating from the late 1800s to the 1960s and includes many examples of farm toys as well as other types of toys. The inventory will include lithograph toys, tin toys, cast iron toys and wind up models associated with names like Argo, Wyandotte, Buddy L, Keystone, Marx, Chein, Tootsies, Lionel, Tonka, Hubley, Lindstrom, Linemar, John Deere, Structo and Auburn to name a few.

Highlights of the sale include a Keystone Packard Model Police Paddy Wagon 28″ long in like new condition, a Louis Marx child’s Pioneer Express riding engine, a Buddy L Emergency Unit truck, a Marx Lumar Road Grader, a Minneapolis Moline 1478 Model tractor, a 12in Marx Coca-Cola truck, a Wyandotte Steel Stake Body Truck and a Tin Lighograph Windup Laying Hen with Wooden Eggs.

The sale will be conducted by Harrison Auctions at Eyeing the Past Antique Shop located at 1936 Commercial Drive, Fort Myers, FL 33901 (239) 275-8885. Live bidding begins at 10:00AM on Saturday March 8 and 11:00AM Sunday March 9. Preview is available at Eyeing the Past during the week before the sale from 9:30AM to 3:00PM daily. The sale will be online through iCollector in association with eBay Live Auctions. Absentee bids will be accepted but there will be no phone bidding. Only 100 seats are available for this sale with no advance seat reservations. The second sale from this collection will probably take place next mid summer.

For more information contact Floyd Harrison at (239) 574-6909, email harrisonsauction@aol.com or see online information including photos and descriptions at www.flauctions.com, select the March 8 date and click “bid online” to view the inventory.

Written by:
Fred & Gail Taylor
www.furnituredetective.com
800-387-6377

PHOTO CAPTIONS FOR HARRISON AUCTION

Marx Lumar Road Grader

Keystone Packard Model Police Paddy Wagon

Sparks Bourne toy sand Digger steam shovel 28″ Indianapolis rare

Lithograph Toy Carnival Roller Coaster by J. Chein USA 19″x10″H wind up,
has lift belt / no cars.

Marx Sparking Windup Tank, Pat 1334539 Original Rubber Tracks need repair.

Popularity: 53% [?]

Kristin Beason

Auctioneer James Bell knows his audience so well he says that by body language alone, he can predict if they are going to bid on an item 70 percent of the time. (Photo by Kristen Beason)

WARRENSBURG, Mo. — Auctions are the way some people find their most prized positions. It can be a place where people find a matching piece of glassware for their set, a used lawn mower or tractor, or a valued coin.

Whether it is the atmosphere they crave, or the deals they make, many people are serious about auctions.

So how does the process of an auction work? James Bell from Davis and Bell Auction Service said it starts when those interested register to bid.

“If they see something they are interested in (in the sales bill), they register for a buyer’s number,” he said. “This allows them to bid on that item at the auction.”

The auction service begins advertising for the auction in newspapers and online. This tells people of the time of the auction and where it will be taking place. Tables and trailers are set up to display all of the items up for bid. Before the auction begins, the auctioneers decide where they want to start among all the items. As the auctioneers travel up and down isles of things, items are held up for bidders to see and the bidding begins.

Depending on the amount of items and the size of the house or farm, an auction can last from three to five hours. (Photo by Kristen Beason)

“Some people want to be discreet in their bidding, especially if there is someone else equally interested in the same item,” Bell said. “There is a relationship that is built between the bidder and the auctioneer. We can pick out who is going to bid through body language about 70 percent of the time.”

The average auction takes about five hours for a smaller farm and from three to five hours to complete a household auction. It mostly depends on the size of the auction and how many items are up for bid.

“(Auctions) are the ideal way to bring people together to sell items,” Bell said. “It is a way for people to raise themselves on a person-to-person basis. It shows what a person will give and who would give more.”

A farm auction could be a great place to find a John Deere tractor at a cheaper price. (Photo by Kristen Beason)

Bell has been in the auction business for most of his life. He was first intrigued by the auction atmosphere as a child and worked at a livestock auction when he was older. He was asked by his employer to sell items when they were short-handed and had the desire to get better afterward. He went to auctioneer school and became licensed in 1992. He worked for local auctioneer Densil Allen, a former UCM agriculture department professor, who owned the business for 26 years. He and his partner took over the business after Allen.

So what do people look for the most at auctions? Bell said that coins and guns are the most sought after at any auction because they hold their value better than most items offered. Glassware and other collectable items are not as popular lately, Bell said, because of the price of gas.

“People aren’t spending their money on collectables,” Bell said. “They are putting it towards their gas tanks. Guns and coins get better with age.”

A lot of times, auctions bring a lot of the same people looking to get a good deal. If an auction has specific items featured, it would bring a different type of auction goer. Sale bills give the public a taste of what will be featured at the auction, but don’t list everything.

“More will come and see what is there if you give them a teaser instead of telling them exactly what is available,” Bell said.

At a May 3 auction in Bates City, Mo., the sky was bright and the weather comfortable for the morning outdoor event. Steve Gee said that he attended it because he was looking for a deal and attends auctions often.

“I came to look for antiques and enjoy this nice Saturday afternoon,” he said.

Vicki Markes attends auctions with her father, who buys farm equipment. They go as often as they can and she enjoys looking for gardening items.

“It’s better than garage sales,” she said. “We’ve been here since 9:30 a.m.”

Some people are very much involved in auctions and there are others who attend for specific items. Either way, it brings many people together for a day to get deals on valuable and highly sought-after items.

Popularity: 54% [?]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 5, 2008

MATHESON’S AA AUCTION
Melbourne, FL
Sale March 29-30

Part of the collection of Lillian Watson, previously exhibited at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art in New York, will be sold at Matheson’s AA Auction in Melbourne, FL.

MELBOURNE, FL - For the first time in its history Matheson’s AA Auction of Melbourne, FL will conduct an auction event live online through LiveAuctioneers.com. Auction owner Lloyd Matheson said, “We owe it to our consignors to open up this sale to the world.”

And what is so special about this sale? The 800 lot sale on March 29-30 will begin with thirty-five pieces of Asian art and antiques from the collection of Lillian Watson, noted collector and world traveler. Twenty of the thirty-five pieces were exhibited at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY and were insured for over $5,000,000 in 1997. Matheson’s will offer the thirty-five pieces sequentially as the opening lots of the sale.

Mrs. Watson normally traveled with art and antiques specialists to advise her on her purchases. Among those advisors were Dr. Marty Young, curator of the Johnson Museum, Dr. Mary Linda, curator of the Rockefeller collection, Dr. Richard Howard of the Birmingham Museum and Dr. Richard Gramley. The descriptions of the individual lots in this sale from the Watson collection were provided by the committee of experts that vetted the display for the Museum. Mrs. Watson also purchased items from C. T. Loo in Paris and New York and the Aladdin Gallery.

Lot 01 of the sale will be a 14in high underglazed copper red and white pear shaped bottle, 14th century, from the early Ming Dynasty, Hongwu Reign. When this bottle was first exhibited in the Museum in 1997, on loan from Mrs. Watson, it was insured for $2,000,000. A bottle with the same design, underglaze and similar provenance, one inch shorter, sold at Christy’s Hong Kong in 1997 for $2,800,000. Matheson will open the auction with this lot at $100,000 with no reserve!

Among other items from the collection are a 10½in Imperial Chinese yellow enamel saucer dish, underglaze blue and overglaze yellow, with a floral decoration from the Ming Dynasty bearing the Emperor Chenghua mark (1465-1487), a 19½in tall Chinese Famille Noire glazed vase with court scenes from the Qing Dynasty with Kangxi mark (1661-1722) and a life size Khmer Baphuon sculpture of a male, Baphuon period, 10th century, 49in tall with base.

Following the initial group of Watson lots will be what Matheson is calling a “Discovery Asian Art” session featuring another thirty to forty Asian artifacts from other collections. This may be the opportunity, according to Matheson, for someone to find an undiscovered treasure. This section will include items like an 18th-19th century Qing Dynasty flambe’ glazed vase, 9½in tall, an eight panel Ming Dynasty blue and white table screen and six important early Japanese tiles framed together, each one signed.

In addition to Oriental art the sale will feature some significant American and European art as well as estate jewelry and select furniture items. One piece of artwork that is of special interest in this sale was previously sold by Matheson’s a little over two years ago. It is a work by American painter Ernest Lawson (1873-1939). Lawson was one of The Eight, a group of Impressionist painters working in New York after the turn of the century. The painting at hand is an Impressionist work of a young girl in a forest.

When originally offered at Matheson’s the unusually large painting by Lawson seemed to be covered by a white film. The consensus in the room was the painting had been “skinned” by over zealous cleaning. The painting sold for $40,000 plus buyer’ premium and the buyer sent it to a restorer where the film was determined to be a discoloration of over varnish. The original buyer has now consigned the fully restored colorful painting to Matheson’s to be sold without reserve.

The sale will begin at 9:30AM Saturday March 29 and will continue at 11:00 AM Sunday March 30. Preview will be Friday March 28 from 11:00AM to 6:00PM, Saturday 8:30 – 9:30AM and Sunday 9:00 – 11:00AM. Matheson’s AA Auction is located at 600 E. New Haven Avenue in Melbourne, FL 32901. Seating for 180 can be reserved by phone, (321) 768-6668 or by email at aaauctions@earthlink.net. Selected portions of the catalog are available for viewing on the Matheson’s AA Auction website at http://www.mathesonsaaauction.com/ and at http://www.liveaucitoneers.com/. The auction will be called by 33 year veteran auctioneer and auction co-owner Lloyd J. Matheson, Jr. Phone and absentee bids are welcomed. For more information call auction owners Lloyd or Jan Matheson or Auction Manager Carey Lucas (321) 768-6668.

Written by:
Fred & Gail Taylor
http://www.furnituredetective.com/
800-387-6377

PHOTO CAPTIONS FOR MATHESON’S MARCH 2008

This 14th century Ming Dynasty bottle with copper red underglaze was insured for $2,000,000 while on display at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art.

This 30in diameter Baccarat crystal and dore bronze centerpiece was made for and owned by Gen. Porfirio Diaz, President of Mexico 1876-1911. It bears his seal.

This painting by Ernest Lawson sold for $40,000 plus buyer’s premium in unrestored condition two years ago. In professionally restored condition it will now be offered without reserve.

This 15th century Ming Dynasty Imperial Chinese blue and yellow saucer bears the Emperor Chengua mark of the period.

This life size Khmer Baphuon sculpture is from the 10th century.

An 18in tall porcelain and dore bronze vase is impressed “Boch” on the bottom.

Popularity: 59% [?]

Had a the opportunity to visit with Murray Rankin Auctions and Downey Crowe Auctions at their Complete Dispersal of Antiques & Collectables Auction in Stonewall Manitoba on May 3rd 2008.

Below you can see Peter Downey calling bids while Brent Crowe looks for the soon to be high bidder.

Popularity: 49% [?]

Had the opportunity on May 3rd 2008 to visit the Carl Zylema farm auction near Winnipeg Manitoba. It was very well attended with the highlight being a collection of 7 Allis Chalmers Model G Skeleton tractors that went as high as 5,000 each.

Here is auctioneer and Manitoba Auctioneers Association president Morris Olafson assuring me that this was the first time he has ever been behind bars.

Auctioneer Darrell Wheeler looking for bids

Auctioneer Vic Wolfe calling the bids

Popularity: 49% [?]