100 Top Treasures
November 2007
86 All that Glitters
Sotheby’s New York jewelry department has a long history of offering pieces from private collections to be sold on behalf of worthy causes. In April a diamond pendant necklace suspending a pear-shaped diamond of 48.91 carats, owned by collector and philanthropist Florence Gould, who was known for her donations to American foundations, sold for $1.5 million. "It is a spectacular piece," says Lisa Hubbard, chairman of Sotheby’s jewelry department of the necklace. —D.G.
87 The Melonaire
Back in the smart-mouthed ’30s, a $5 bill was referred to as a "fin," $10 as a "sawbuck" and $100 as "C-note," but it was only in December 2006 that a rare $1,000 bill printed in 1890 and referred to as the "Grand Watermelon" suddenly became a topic of discussion. So called because of the green melon-like striping in the zeroes of the $1,000 denomination on the back of the note, a Grand Watermelon sold for $2,255,000 at Heritage Auction Galleries in Dallas. The price set a new world auction record for paper currency that was double the previous figure. "This was a red-seal Grand Watermelon and there is only one other known to exist—in the museum of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco," says Jim Fitzgerald, director of currency auctions at Heritage. "Altogether there were probably more than 1,000 Grand Watermelons printed, but most of these bore a brown seal." Brown-seal Grand Watermelons are also relatively rare, with less than three dozen extant examples. "The government stopped issuing $1,000 bills in the 1950s. Although still legal tender, they’re now worth more to collectors than they are as currency," he notes. —D.K.
88 Resurrecting Osiris
At some point between 1294 and 1279 B.C., it’s likely that a notable Egyptian priest was laid to rest in a temple tomb along with this wooden sculpture depicting him with Osiris, the god of resurrection. "Some of the finest sculptures the Egyptians created were of wood, but because so few are preserved, this medium is underappreciated and often overlooked," says Rita Freed, chair of the art of the ancient world at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which purchased this sculpture from French dealer J. Kugel last December. The sum was undisclosed but would have to be at least in the low to mid-five figures, based on previous sale information of items from the period. "It is an object of superb quality of a material and scale that are rare," adds Freed. "It probably dates to the reign of Seti I, which was a time of great sensitivity and technical expertise." —D.M.
89 Astral Voyager
It’s not exactly something you could put on the mantel, but that did not stop a collector from buying a 78- by 59- by 14-inch model of the starship Enterprise-D for $576,000 at an auction held in October 2006 at Christie’s New York. The price was stratospherically above the pre-sale estimate of $25,000 to $35,000. The model had been used in the TV series "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1987–94), which was the highest-rated of the seven "Star Trek" series, first aired in 1966. "The model was very dramatic-looking and quite intricate, with lots of detail," says Cathy Elkies, international director of iconic collections for Christie’s. "It was a so-called ‘hero’ piece, which means that it was actually used extensively on film." —D.K.
90 Mighty Words
At an April auction at Pook & Pook in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, a 5-inch-high pre–Revolutionary War ceramic teapot (not shown) sold to C.L. Prickett Antiques of Yardley, Pennsylvania, for $130,000. The inscription "No Stamp Act" appears on one side and "America: Liberty Restored" on the other, references to the tax imposed by the British in 1765 and repealed a year later. By the sheerest coincidence, a similar teapot surfaced at Northeast Auctions in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, last October. Originally owned by Connecticut Americana dealer William Guthman, it sold to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History for $99,450. "It’s a rare artifact, the only one of the four with red lettering. The others are dark black or blue," says Todd Prickett. "It’s also in phenomenal condition, just a couple of minor cracks and repaired spout." —D.G.
91 The Cobra Strikes
To some it’s the ultimate muscle car: incredibly fast, powerful, beautiful and endowed with an unrivalled pedigree. Automobile designer Carroll Shelby’s personal 1966 Shelby Cobra Super Snake was sold last January for $5.5 million at the 36th Annual Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Event in Scottsdale, Arizona, setting a world record for that model. The buyer was Ron Pratt, a well-known vintage-car collector in Chandler, Arizona. The seller, another well-known car collector, was Harley Cluxton III, of Scottsdale. A legendary race car driver, designer and manufacturer of cars, Shelby not only created the Cobra but conceived a Shelby Mustang for the Ford Motor Company, as well as sundry vehicles for the Chrysler Corporation. The dual supercharged 427 Cobra that he selected for himself was, in his words, intended to be "the fastest, meanest car on the road." The 800-hp dynamo has a super three-speed automatic transmission and reportedly is capable of reaching speeds of 180 to 190 mph. One of only 23 competition Cobra roadsters ever made, it was plucked from production by Shelby and molded into one of the most impressive automobiles ever built. Even its distinctive Viking-blue color is a custom shade that he developed. Referring to the 427 as "the King Kong of Cobras," Steve Davis, president of Barrett-Jackson Auction Company, explained that the number 427 "designated the size of the engine. It is 427 cubic inches. The car we sold was really the absolute epitome of what Shelby represented." —D.K.
92 Lust and Found
It was another one of those private sales that in recent years have sent frissons of awe through the art world. In November 2006, hedge-fund billionaire Steven A. Cohen, one of the most aggressive purchasers of contemporary and modern art, bought Willem de Kooning’s "Woman III" (1952–53) for roughly $137.5 million at a sale brokered by New York dealer Larry Gagosian. The seller was Hollywood film and record mogul David Geffen, and the price was more than quintuple de Kooning’s world auction record of $27.1 million, achieved that same month. "Woman III" was the last of the artist’s series of women paintings, which with their wild, slashing strokes often give female figures a menacing, almost demonic look. The paintings also had their satirical and even comic aspects: The artist himself once claimed he was burlesquing the characterizations of women in commercial illustrations, with their wide eyes, toothy smiles and oversized breasts. Jörn Merkert, a curator at the Academie der Künste, Berlin, where a major show of the artist’s works took place in the early 1980s, observed in a book issued in connection with the exhibition ("Willem de Kooning: Drawings, Paintings and Sculpture, 1983") that the expressive mode in de Kooning’s "paintings of women is love, lust, joy of life and sensual desire. His marriage … in 1943 offers but one key to understanding—another might have been youthful "memories of the brothels" of Amsterdam, where gaudily made-up girls sat ... behind windows, or stood in open doors ... hooking for love." —D.K.
93 Fashion Statement
Their forms were arresting, their size impressive and their colors as nuanced and elusive as the palette for a Calvin Klein fashion collection. No wonder the art aficionados who crowded into one of PaceWildenstein’s two Chelsea galleries last winter were so taken with Robert Mangold’s 12 10-foot-high Column Structure paintings. Each was priced around $200,000. "Column Structure II" (2006) was acquired prior to the show by the Tate Modern, London. The works combine "the classic elements of composition—shape, line and color—to create abstract works of architectural scale," says Douglas Baxter, PaceWildenstein’s president. The thick, thin and doubled lines drawn on their surfaces "push the boundaries of their structure, heightening tension by overlapping, diverging and mirroring each other’s ascent." —D.K.
Sotheby’s New York jewelry department has a long history of offering pieces from private collections to be sold on behalf of worthy causes. In April a diamond pendant necklace suspending a pear-shaped diamond of 48.91 carats, owned by collector and philanthropist Florence Gould, who was known for her donations to American foundations, sold for $1.5 million. "It is a spectacular piece," says Lisa Hubbard, chairman of Sotheby’s jewelry department of the necklace. —D.G.
87 The Melonaire
Back in the smart-mouthed ’30s, a $5 bill was referred to as a "fin," $10 as a "sawbuck" and $100 as "C-note," but it was only in December 2006 that a rare $1,000 bill printed in 1890 and referred to as the "Grand Watermelon" suddenly became a topic of discussion. So called because of the green melon-like striping in the zeroes of the $1,000 denomination on the back of the note, a Grand Watermelon sold for $2,255,000 at Heritage Auction Galleries in Dallas. The price set a new world auction record for paper currency that was double the previous figure. "This was a red-seal Grand Watermelon and there is only one other known to exist—in the museum of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco," says Jim Fitzgerald, director of currency auctions at Heritage. "Altogether there were probably more than 1,000 Grand Watermelons printed, but most of these bore a brown seal." Brown-seal Grand Watermelons are also relatively rare, with less than three dozen extant examples. "The government stopped issuing $1,000 bills in the 1950s. Although still legal tender, they’re now worth more to collectors than they are as currency," he notes. —D.K.
88 Resurrecting Osiris
At some point between 1294 and 1279 B.C., it’s likely that a notable Egyptian priest was laid to rest in a temple tomb along with this wooden sculpture depicting him with Osiris, the god of resurrection. "Some of the finest sculptures the Egyptians created were of wood, but because so few are preserved, this medium is underappreciated and often overlooked," says Rita Freed, chair of the art of the ancient world at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which purchased this sculpture from French dealer J. Kugel last December. The sum was undisclosed but would have to be at least in the low to mid-five figures, based on previous sale information of items from the period. "It is an object of superb quality of a material and scale that are rare," adds Freed. "It probably dates to the reign of Seti I, which was a time of great sensitivity and technical expertise." —D.M.
89 Astral Voyager
It’s not exactly something you could put on the mantel, but that did not stop a collector from buying a 78- by 59- by 14-inch model of the starship Enterprise-D for $576,000 at an auction held in October 2006 at Christie’s New York. The price was stratospherically above the pre-sale estimate of $25,000 to $35,000. The model had been used in the TV series "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1987–94), which was the highest-rated of the seven "Star Trek" series, first aired in 1966. "The model was very dramatic-looking and quite intricate, with lots of detail," says Cathy Elkies, international director of iconic collections for Christie’s. "It was a so-called ‘hero’ piece, which means that it was actually used extensively on film." —D.K.
90 Mighty Words
At an April auction at Pook & Pook in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, a 5-inch-high pre–Revolutionary War ceramic teapot (not shown) sold to C.L. Prickett Antiques of Yardley, Pennsylvania, for $130,000. The inscription "No Stamp Act" appears on one side and "America: Liberty Restored" on the other, references to the tax imposed by the British in 1765 and repealed a year later. By the sheerest coincidence, a similar teapot surfaced at Northeast Auctions in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, last October. Originally owned by Connecticut Americana dealer William Guthman, it sold to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History for $99,450. "It’s a rare artifact, the only one of the four with red lettering. The others are dark black or blue," says Todd Prickett. "It’s also in phenomenal condition, just a couple of minor cracks and repaired spout." —D.G.
91 The Cobra Strikes
To some it’s the ultimate muscle car: incredibly fast, powerful, beautiful and endowed with an unrivalled pedigree. Automobile designer Carroll Shelby’s personal 1966 Shelby Cobra Super Snake was sold last January for $5.5 million at the 36th Annual Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Event in Scottsdale, Arizona, setting a world record for that model. The buyer was Ron Pratt, a well-known vintage-car collector in Chandler, Arizona. The seller, another well-known car collector, was Harley Cluxton III, of Scottsdale. A legendary race car driver, designer and manufacturer of cars, Shelby not only created the Cobra but conceived a Shelby Mustang for the Ford Motor Company, as well as sundry vehicles for the Chrysler Corporation. The dual supercharged 427 Cobra that he selected for himself was, in his words, intended to be "the fastest, meanest car on the road." The 800-hp dynamo has a super three-speed automatic transmission and reportedly is capable of reaching speeds of 180 to 190 mph. One of only 23 competition Cobra roadsters ever made, it was plucked from production by Shelby and molded into one of the most impressive automobiles ever built. Even its distinctive Viking-blue color is a custom shade that he developed. Referring to the 427 as "the King Kong of Cobras," Steve Davis, president of Barrett-Jackson Auction Company, explained that the number 427 "designated the size of the engine. It is 427 cubic inches. The car we sold was really the absolute epitome of what Shelby represented." —D.K.
92 Lust and Found
It was another one of those private sales that in recent years have sent frissons of awe through the art world. In November 2006, hedge-fund billionaire Steven A. Cohen, one of the most aggressive purchasers of contemporary and modern art, bought Willem de Kooning’s "Woman III" (1952–53) for roughly $137.5 million at a sale brokered by New York dealer Larry Gagosian. The seller was Hollywood film and record mogul David Geffen, and the price was more than quintuple de Kooning’s world auction record of $27.1 million, achieved that same month. "Woman III" was the last of the artist’s series of women paintings, which with their wild, slashing strokes often give female figures a menacing, almost demonic look. The paintings also had their satirical and even comic aspects: The artist himself once claimed he was burlesquing the characterizations of women in commercial illustrations, with their wide eyes, toothy smiles and oversized breasts. Jörn Merkert, a curator at the Academie der Künste, Berlin, where a major show of the artist’s works took place in the early 1980s, observed in a book issued in connection with the exhibition ("Willem de Kooning: Drawings, Paintings and Sculpture, 1983") that the expressive mode in de Kooning’s "paintings of women is love, lust, joy of life and sensual desire. His marriage … in 1943 offers but one key to understanding—another might have been youthful "memories of the brothels" of Amsterdam, where gaudily made-up girls sat ... behind windows, or stood in open doors ... hooking for love." —D.K.
93 Fashion Statement
Their forms were arresting, their size impressive and their colors as nuanced and elusive as the palette for a Calvin Klein fashion collection. No wonder the art aficionados who crowded into one of PaceWildenstein’s two Chelsea galleries last winter were so taken with Robert Mangold’s 12 10-foot-high Column Structure paintings. Each was priced around $200,000. "Column Structure II" (2006) was acquired prior to the show by the Tate Modern, London. The works combine "the classic elements of composition—shape, line and color—to create abstract works of architectural scale," says Douglas Baxter, PaceWildenstein’s president. The thick, thin and doubled lines drawn on their surfaces "push the boundaries of their structure, heightening tension by overlapping, diverging and mirroring each other’s ascent." —D.K.
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