February 16, 2009

• Let There Be Loot!

  Perhaps not so surpising, but I did find a few things to buy at auction.

  

  I actually purchased this at an auction several weeks ago.  It is a watercolor by A.D. Engley-Beek, a female artist that painted from the 1800′s until her death in 1952.  This landscape is one of a series commissioned by a Colorado Hospital in the 1910s.  It’s titled “View of Silver Lake from Ward C – The Rockie Mountains”.  The paintings were later sold to the Yankton Sanitorium (Yankton, SD).  They were decommissioned and sold from the Sanitorium in the ’80s into private hands.  This is one of the pieces in what has become known as the “Lost Dakota Collection”.

  

  Just to give you a sense of the size of the piece.  I happen to be 6′ 1″.

  

  The mat is somewhat yellowed but the watercolor is in good shape.  The frame is also custom and probably worth more than the watercolor.

  

  Like the hand was going to stop Special Someone from taking a picture.

  

  The Loot! (I’m not sure why the had so many Monster boxes at the auction.)

  

  Silver plate serving pieces.  I don’t usually buy silver plate but they were cheap and good quality.

  

  Special Someone bought several lots of costume jewelry for the “pearls”.  He can use them when he makes bridal bouquets.

  

  Aha! What’s in this treasure chest? (Tigerwood Maple veneer with brass banding – circa 1910)

  

  Silver! (Sterling this time)

  

  Romance of the Sea by Wallace Silversmiths.  8 dinner knives, 8 dinner forks, 10 salad forks, 2 teaspoons and a serving spoon.  The set is incomplete.  I’ll probably get 6 more teaspoons, a slotted serving spoon, a meat fork and two butter spreaders and call it good.  All of those pieces are available on Replacements.com.

  As an aside…Sterling silver flatware used to sell quite cheaply at auction.  The necessary maintenance discouraged many and most people just don’t entertain formally like they used to.  The rising price of silver has driven up the prices at auction as many people buy these sets to sell to smelters purely for the silver.  I feel like I rescued these little guys from the fire.

  

  An art nouveau sterling silver bracelet with 18 karat gold accents set with amethysts.  Special Someone was pissed because it’s too small for his wrist!

  

  This is a plique-a-jour bracelet.  An enamel and wire application on a glass bangle.

  

  It’s actually a stylized peacock.  The bracelet is also probably art nouveau/art deco era.

  

  Victorian gold stickpins set with semiprecious stones or pearl.

  

  

  An “early” pewter spoon.  You can barely see the hallmark in the bowl where it connects to the handle.  I told the auctioneer that I wanted a closer look at the “ugly” spoon.  He said “You mean the ‘early’ spoon.”  I said “Yeah, like I said, the ‘ugly’ spoon.”  We went back and forth several times.  The point, of course, is that an “early” spoon is worth more than an “ugly” spoon.  It didn’t matter.  No one else really wanted the damn thing.

  

  Taxco Mexican sterling silver brooch set with abalone shell.  Why buy this?  Because it was purty and cheap.  Just like me.

   

  • 2:53 pm
  • 9 Comments