Buyers looking to nab the top lot at Cowan’s auction sale of American and European Paintings, Sculpture and Asian Art had better get there early. With an estimated value of $20-30,000, Lot 1, an exceptionally rare Tambola Panel from the Cincinnati Art Club, is expected to claim the highest price at the online auction. So what exactly is a Tambola? Well, it’s a term taken from the Italian, where the word means “raffle.” The Cincinnati Arts Club, founded in 1890 to promote “knowledge and appreciation of art," organized annual tambolas to raise money and help achieve its goals. This particular piece, produced in 1894, is a painters palette decorated with miniature paintings by twelve prominent 19th Century Cincinnati artists, and is one of only two known to still be in existence. As local lore has it, the panel would have been passed around am...Read More

A host of happy Valentine’s Day memories will be born tomorrow when the West Palm Beach salesroom of Leslie Hindman Auctioneers sells a cherished collection from the estate of Adele Bloom. Mrs. Bloom, who split her time between Palm Beach and Montreal, was a renowned patron of the arts with a real passion for fine porcelain. Her interest in English and Chinese export ceramics prevails here, accompanied by an array of fine and decorative arts, including paintings by Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita, Moïse Kisling and others. Decorative delights - paintings by Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita  (left) and Moïse Kisling Don’t miss Lot 131 (below), the Chamberlains Worcester Porcelain Dinner Service. From the first half of the 19th Century, this extensive set comprises a pair of soup tureens with stands, a large platter, four oval vegetable dishes, a set of f...Read More

Things will get plenty busy for the Rago Arts and Auction Center this weekend when it holds its sale of Early 20th Century Decorative Arts and Modern Design. It’s enough to make the mouth water of every interior design junkie from here to Honolulu! Nearly a thousand original pieces up for grabs, many from the biggest names in the industry, all available to the bidder who bids boldest. Mid-Mod Part of a new series dealing with mid-priced 20th Century furniture and decorative objects, the Mid-Mod kicks off Friday with 286 lots featuring pieces from industry icons such as Vladimir Kagan, Edward Wormley, Karl Springer, Charles & Ray Eames, Frank Lloyd Wright and more. The Kagan piece (above), Lot 601, is a real eye catcher! Kagan, the German born son of a master Russian cabinetmaker, revolutionized home furnishing design in 1950 with the introd...Read More

Buyers get the chance this weekend to create their very own Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame when a host of rare music memorabilia goes under the hammer during Ahlers & Ogletree’s Winter Estates Auction. Headed by three pieces from Elvis Aaron Presley, the auction offers a stunning array of material from a list of musicians that reads like a veritable industry who’s who. Got an empty space behind your bar screaming to be filled? Might be time to bid on the framed gold record of the King’s classic “Aloha From Hawaii.” There’s also sheet music and a framed theater promo for Elvis’ “G.I. Blues.” A framed gold record of the King’s classic “Aloha From Hawaii,” framed sheet music and a framed theater promo for Elvis’ “G.I. Blues” Other highlights among the music offerings include rare guitars from Gibson, Fender and Gretsch, signed by the likes of Jame...Read More

Caribou Ranch was a recording studio built in the Rocky Mountains by Grammy award-winning musician and producer James William Guercio. The ranch hosted over 150 music legends, including Elton John, during the 70s and 80s. John worked on three albums at Caribou Ranch: Caribou, Rock of the Westies and Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. His 1974 Caribou album was named after the ranch. The mahogany Steinway & Sons grand piano used while recording “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” among other tracks from the album, is now available at auction. Elton John at Caribou Ranch, where he recorded three albums, with a porcelain dinner service available at auction by Leslie Hindman Auctioneers on January 24. The dinner service includes 189 items total, including the pitcher, plate and bowl pictured here. Both the indoor and outdoor furniture ...Read More

With her impeccable eye for design and effortless ability to set global fashion trends, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was the 20th century’s most influential style icon. While the entire world was able to admire her wardrobe choices via the media, very few were invited behind the scenes where she collaborated one-on-one with her favorite designers. That very private aspect of the late first lady’s life is the focus of a January 17 Modern Design, Art & Fashion Accessories auction to be held at Palm Beach Modern Auction’s exhibition center in West Palm Beach, Florida. The auction’s centerpiece is an archive of personal notes from Jacqueline Onassis to Bill Hamilton, longtime design director for Carolina Herrera. “Bill dressed Jackie Onassis almost exclusively from the mid 1980s until her passing in 1994. The notes in his archive show that their ...Read More

Have you ever heard the conventional wisdom: “buy on the whisper, sell on the news?” People have been whispering about Southern paintings for years and it will not be long before those whispers can be heard even north of Virginia.  But you are not too late to buy before Southern paintings become big news.  The sea of paintings and artists with Southern leanings is deep, wide, and complex. So how do you wade in? These 4 tips will help you get started. Anna Catherine Wiley, Gathering in the Woods, Sold September 2012, $15,340 1. Find your connection Look at a region that is of interest to you. If this is a purchase that you will live with, it will give you a great deal more pleasure if the imagery is evocative for you.  If your grandmother is from New Orleans, you might consider the work of  Will Henry Stevens, who painted both the coast of L...Read More

Shaker oval lapped boxes were made throughout the United States in the 19th century, but two styles were uniquely to Shaker tradition.   "The first is made with a lap where the edge is cut like a sawtooth with the length of the teeth varying from about one fourth of an inch to an inch and a half. This sawtooth lap is uncommon and found almost exclusively on boxes that were made at Alfred, Maine," wrote Charles R. Muller in The Shaker Way.   "The second peculiarly Shaker design is the Gothic lap wherein the edge of the lap is cut in a series of Gothic arches making from two to six fingers," Muller continued. "The Shakers discovered that a straight seam held with a series of nails did not allow for shrinkage. Therefore, the edge of the lap had a tendency to buckle between the nails or split at the nails. The use of fingers prevented splits an...Read More

Bidsquare, the online bidding platform for over 35 leading auction houses, announces Bidsquare Cares: a holiday benefit auction of art experiences to aid the Ebola workers of Doctors Without Borders. Bidding opens at bidsquare.com on Black Friday, November 28th at 12:00PM EST, and closes on Monday, December 8th at 12:00PM EST.   Up for grabs are 35 one-of-a-kind art and city experiences from the leading auction houses that created Bidsquare: Brunk Auctions, Cowan’s Auctions, Leslie Hindman Auctioneers, Pook & Pook, Inc., Rago and Skinner, Inc.   Tour highlights include a walk and talk with David Rago at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; a National Public Radio behind the scenes tour in Cincinnati; and a helicopter ride over Chicago. Among the other gifts to give to yourself or others:  a tabletop bronze sculpture by Klaus Ihlenfeld valued at ...Read More

Jade has been an essential material of art and worship in China since its birth as a culture over 6000 years ago. The myriad of colours and translucencies formed the belief that the natural beauty of the stone held the essence of universe’s qi and thus a quintessential part of early culture. Historical context notes that the birth of jade culture in China corresponds with the beginnings of metallurgy and the invention of written language in the Ancient Near East (Tigris Euphrates). In China, jade was being carved in the areas along the Yellow and Yangzi Rivers, considered to be the birthplace of Chinese civilization including the Neolithic period Yangshao, Hongshan and Liangzhu cultures. Carved jade was an essential part of ritual, as represented in funerary ceremonies. Small jade objects or pendants were kept for personal prayer and larger...Read More