Oil on canvas works painted up a storm at auctions worldwide this week, led by “The Mid Summer Drop-Lead End Table” by Raimonds Staprans which sold for $189,000 at Clars. Bidders also pushed a portrait of Jewish activist Gershom Kursheedt by Solomon Alexander Hart to $29,400 at Schultz Auctioneers. The decorative arts also captured bidder interest with an early Twentieth Century menorah by Swed Masters Workshop lighting up for $16,250 at Ahlers & Ogletree and a small folk art slide lid wood box from Amelia Jeffers closing shut for $15,600. For these highlights and others, keep reading.
Seliger Painting Resurrects Old Kinderhook In Comeback Auction
VALATIE, N.Y. — “Don’t call it a comeback!” The auction catalog said about Old Kinderhook Auction Company’s April 29 The Reserrauction 2025 sale, which celebrated the auction’s 274 lots of Old Master works, furniture, frames, designer clothing and 40 original film stills of Elvis Presley taken by Jonas Mekas. “Crab” by Charles Seliger (American, 1926-2009) led the auction, scuttling past its $400/600 estimate to achieve $3,198. As the title suggests, the watercolor, oil and tempera on paper work depicted an abstract crab and was signed and dated “January 1950.” For information, 518-912-4747 or www.oldkinderhookauction.com.
Rembrandt Etching Is Greatest Gift At Cornell’s Mother’s Day Auction
BELLPORT, N.Y. — What better way to get your mother a Mother’s Day present than at an auction? Cornell Auctions, Objects & Trade’s May 10 Mamma Mia Mother’s Day auction made that possible. An etching print portrait of clergyman and professor Jan Cornelius Sylvius by Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606-1669) topped the sale at $3,375. “This was our first Rembrandt!” shared co-owner Roy Braeger. “We are thrilled that this piece sparked some lively bidding on LiveAuctioneers. It sold to a collector in Massachusetts and came from the collection of a former West Coast gallery owner and resident of Bellport, N.Y.” For information, 631-289-9505 or www.cornellauctions.com.
Bodnar’s Bidders Clock In For Tiffany
MONMOUTH JUNCTION, N.J. — Part three of a single-owner estate collection from a New York City collector and dealer was sold by Bodnar’s Auction on May 8. This selection featured 324 lots from the collection and was highlighted by a bronze wall clock made by Tiffany & Company, New York. Its porcelain dial, with Arabic numerals, was marked “Tiffany & Co.,” and was housed in a molded bronze floral wreath and ribbon-form case. The 9-inch-diameter clock chimed for $523. For information, www.bodnarsauction.com or 732-210-6388.
Swed Masters Menorah Lights The Way For A & O
ATLANTA — Spring has sprung at Ahlers & Ogletree Auction Gallery, where its Spring Estates & Collections Auction was conducted on May 8. The sale featured 417 lots of antiques, fine art and decorative items acquired from prominent Southeastern estates and private collections. Illuminating the top of the sale for $16,250 was a sterling, parcel gilt and lapis lazuli menorah made in the late Twentieth Century by the Israeli Swed Masters Workshop. With provenance to a private collection in Suwanee, Ga., the menorah had lapis cabochons, a detachable servant light and two swivel lights on its base; the lot came with an ewer-form oil server and dreidel. For information, 404-869-2478 or www.aandoauctions.com.
Hermès Crocodile Birkin Snapped Up For $112K
DALLAS — An Hermès Exceptional Collection 35cm shiny Black Porosus crocodile Birkin bag with 18K white gold & diamond hardware sold for $112,500 to lead Heritage’s Spring Luxury Accessories Signature Auction May 8. Bejeweled with nearly 11 carats of pavé-set diamonds, the raven-hued beauty was stunning, a model rarely offered at auction and highly coveted by collectors. It was the highlight of the 321-lot sale that totaled $2,575,411. For information, www.ha.com or 214-528-3500.
Tiffany & Grueby Lamp Brightens Eldred’s Design Auction
EAST DENNIS, MASS. — Eldred’s May 8 Modern Art + Design auction featured fine and decorative works — 268 lots in total — led at $26,880 by a lamp with a Tiffany Studios Daffodill domed leaded glass shade on a green-glazed base by Grueby Pottery. Consigned to sale from a South Shore house with an estimate of $4/7,000, it found a new home with a New England collector bidding online. For information, 508-385-3116 or www.eldreds.com.
Portrait Of Gershom Kursheedt Leads Three Days At Schultz
CLARENCE, N.Y. — In a three-day auction running May 8-10, Schultz Auctioneers offered more than 1,600 lots spanning a diverse range of collecting categories. Achieving the highest price of all three days was Solomon Alexander Hart’s (1806-1881) 1858 oil on canvas portrait of Gershom Kursheedt (American, 1817-1863), who, according to the catalog, worked to “build Jewish congregational life at home, defend Jewish rights abroad and raise funds for Palestine.” A phone buyer won the 34-by-41-inch framed portrait for $29,400, besting its $5/10,000 estimate. For information, www.schultzauctioneers.net or 716-759-8483.
Mini Slide Lid Box Gets Maxi Price For Amelia Jeffers
DELAWARE, OHIO — In November 2024, Amelia Jeffers sold a carved and inlaid folk art slide lid wood box or etui from the Robert Horn collection, which had been made by John Nicholas Matthesiee (1805-1880), for $15,600. That result was seen by someone who had found a similar box at an estate sale and brought it to Jeffers to sell. Six phone bidders, as well as the buyer of the Horn box, online and absentee bidders competed for the 7-inch-long box, which was dated “1857” and estimated $4/8,000. In the end, a Midwest collector, bidding on the phone, won it for $30,000. For information, 740-362-4771 or www.ameliajeffers.com.
Clars Makes Market for Staprans
OAKLAND, CALIF. — “Clars seems to have THE buyers for Staprans, having had three of the top five highest global records,” Rick Unruh told us, following Clars’ Modern + Contemporary Fine Art Auction on March 15. Leading the sale at $189,000 was Raimonds Staprans’ (American/Latvian, b 1926), “The Mid Summer Drop-Leaf End Table,” an oil on canvas measuring 42 by 48 inches from 1993 that had been acquired by the seller at Maxwell Galleries in San Francisco. A Southern California collector had the winning bid. For information, 888-339-7600 or www.clars.com.
