Departments
American & European Works of Art
Robin R.S. Starr, Director
Fitz Henry Lane Manchester Harbor $5.5 million
Skinner’s American & European Works of Art department encompasses both the Fine Paintings and Fine Prints departments. The two departments feature three tandem sales annual, in February, May, and September, featuring an afternoon auction of fine prints, multiples, and photography, followed by an evening sale of paintings, sculpture, and works on paper.
Fine Paintings & Sculpture
The Skinner Fine Paintings Department built its reputation on its long history
of record prices for works by North Shore Boston artists, most notably 19th century illuminist painter Fitz Henry Lane. In November 2004, Skinner sold a rediscovered oil on canvas by Lane, Manchester Harbor, for $5.5 million.
Andy Warhol Queen Elizabeth II of England $41,125
The painting set a new world record price for the artist and for any object sold in the U.S. outside of New York. Our audience is much more varied, however, from an Yves Tanguy oil that brought $668,000 in May 2010, to Arnaldo Pomodoro’s bronze Rotante Primo Sezional, No. 1 at $468,000 in January 2010, to a pastel drawing by Child Hassam the fetched $699,000, a Picasso sketch of Ambroise Vollard with his Cat that brought $308,500
Fine Prints & Photography
Skinner began offering regular print auctions in 1987, and cover a diverse range of Western printmakers from old masters through to contemporary artists, ranging from a fourth state of Rembrandt’s Christ Crucified Between the Two Thieves: the Three Crosses, that topped $104,000 to and an Andy Warhol Queen Elizabeth II of England, which sold for a record $41,125.
In the mid 1990s we began offering photography in these auctions as well, from seminal photographers like Edward Steichen, Berenice Abbott, Edward Weston, Ansel Adams to the contemporary, like Shirin Neshat and Chuck Close.
American Furniture & Decorative Arts
Stephen L. Fletcher, Director
This specialty department offers American formal and country furniture and decorative arts, including folk art, paintings, rare clocks, Shaker furniture, American textiles and needlework, silver, early glass and marine art. Highlights include a rare three-drawer Shaker blanket box with its original brilliant red paint from Enfield or Canterbury, New Hampshire (sold for a record $140,000); a yellow Shaker oval carrier from Canterbury, New Hampshire (a record $28,750) -- both examples of a single owner world record auction of Shaker furniture and objects; a Massachusetts Chippendale mahogany carved slab table ($222,500); a pair of Federal painted and decorated oval-back side chairs made for Elias Hasket Derby ($178,500); Portrait of a Brunette Woman..., by Ruth W. Shute and Samuel A. Shute ($145,500); and a Federal mahogany inlaid breakfast table attributed to William Whitehead ($134,500).
American Indian & Ethnographic Art
Douglas Deihl, Director
This specialty department features American Indian pottery, textiles, carvings, beadwork and other examples of Native art. Highlights include sepia tone cartes-de-visites of Chippewa and Sioux images (sold for $46,000), and a Northwest Coast Tlinglit basket ($23,000). Most recently, the department achieved record sales with a Southeastern silk embroidered tanned deerskin coat and leggings ($44,850); an Eskimo polychrome wood hunting hat ($68,500); and a Classic Central Plains beaded hide and tacked cradleboard ($59,700).
Antique Motor Vehicles
Jane Prentiss, Director
Skinner auctions offer something for all types of collectors – even avid car buffs. Skinner has a long history and a proven track record in the auction and appraisal of antique motor vehicles, including antique and vintage cars and motorcycles. Skinner offers these 20th century marvels of form and function as entire collections and also as individual auction items. Skinner is also the only major auction house in New England to offer fine motor vehicles at auction. Recent Skinner auction highlights in arguably what is the coolest segment of the antiques market include a 1930 Packard Deluxe Eight Phaeton, Model 740 which realized $99,500, a 1950 Cadillac Convertible Series 62 Deville, which sold for $44,062, and very rare 1965 Factory Five Challenge Race Car with 1999 GMC Carrier Vehicle for over $47,000.
Asian Works of Art
Stuart G. Slavid, Interim Director
This specialty department presents Asian furniture and decorative arts. Highlights include a rich green jadeite rectangular censer and cover (sold for $21,850); a substantial white jade vase ($32,200); a large rhinoceros horn libation cup ($41,400); a 19th century netsuke of a rat grooming itself ($24,150); and the print, c. 1831-33, Travelers on the Bank of the Omagawa by Kuniyoshi ($34,500).
Books & Manuscripts
Kerry Shrives, Interim Director
Specializing in books, manuscripts and documents, this department presents one auction annually. Highlights include John James Audubon's Birds of America..., 1860 Bien Double Folio edition, (sold for $118,000); a two-volume "Atlas Maior Terrarum Orbis Imperia" compiled by Johann Baptist Homann, c. 1720 ($64,000); a copy of "The Red Lined Map" -- a 1775 map of the British Colonies in America by John Mitchell, so called for the lines added in red ink to delineate the boundaries of the newly recognized United States ($60,800); a George Washington secretarial letter signed ($34,500); a Civil War Carte-de-Visite album ($25,300); and William Henry Pyne's The History of the Royal Residences, 1819 ($5,750).
Ceramics
Stuart G. Slavid, Director
This specialty department offers fine ceramics featuring nationally recognized collections. Highlights include a Louis Solon decorated Pate-Sur-Pate vase, which drew international attention (sold for a record $55,200); an additional Pate-Sur-Pate vase ($20,700); an important Wedgwood Queen's Ware frog service dessert plate ($19,550); a Minton majolica fish-form teapot and cover ($32,200); and an important Wedgwood "Emile Lessore" decorated Queen's Ware two-handled floor vase ($16,100).
Couture & Textiles
Cara Elmslie, Director
Skinner has successfully featured couture and designer clothing and accessories in auctions of fine jewelry in the past, and is pleased to announce the expansion of this category in December of 1999. The auctions will feature fashion merchandise that represents high quality 20th century design. Designers of interest include Chanel, Hermes, Gucci, Fortuny, Rudi Gernreich, Courreges, Norell, YSL, Dior, Pucci, and Judith Leiber, to name a few. Highlights of previous auctions have included a gown designed by Catherine Walker and worn by Diana, Princess of Wales (sold to benefit a homeless shelter for $23,000); an Hermes burgundy alligator Kelly bag, c. 1992 ($9,200); a Cartier Art Deco silk moiré clutch handbag ($2,070); and a Fortuny "Delphos" dress, c. 1950 ($1,495).
Discovery
Cara Elmslie, Director
Discovery auctions are featured monthly in a two-day format, and focus on estate property in an intermediate price range. Offering a variety of collecting categories culled from Skinner's sixteen specialty departments, these auctions include: 18th, 19th and 20th century furniture and decorative arts, Arts & Crafts, Art Deco and 20th century design furniture and accessories, Asian works of art, advertising, ephemera and Civil War items, clocks, jewelry, collectibles, paintings, prints and works on paper, and oriental rugs and carpets.
European Furniture & Decorative Arts
Stuart G. Slavid, Director
This specialty department offers English and Continental furniture and decorative arts, paintings, silver, tapestries, 19th century American furniture, decorations, and decorative rugs and carpets. Highlights include an American Renaissance Revival gilt bronze mounted rosewood, marquetry and marble inset center table, attributed to Pottier & Stymus, New York City (sold for $19,550); a Berlin porcelain ormolu mounted presentation vase ($41,400); and a pair of Regency terrestrial and celestial library globes by Cary's of London ($24,150).
Fine Jewelry
Victoria Bratberg, Director
Offering antique and estate jewelry and watches, this specialty department presents four auctions annually. Highlights include an alexandrite pendant, (sold for a world record $352,000); an Art Deco ruby ring, centered by an oval ruby and flanked by a row of round diamonds in a platinum mount, signed Cartier ($277,500); a 6.77 ct. marquise diamond ring ($51,750); a modern round brilliant-cut diamond of 11.00 ct. ($49,450); an 8.83 ct. pear-shaped diamond ring ($48,300); a natural pearl lavalier ($18,975); an Art Deco enamel and crystal lapel watch by Van Cleef and Arpels ($16,100); a one-of-a-kind gold charm bracelet given by President John F. Kennedy to his daughter Caroline with the image of her pony and the inscription "Macaroni" ($6,325); and an Art Deco diamond and gem-set band bracelet, signed Cartier ($105,900).
Judaica
Kerry Shrives, Director
Skinner is one of the few auction houses worldwide to hold auctions devoted exclusively to fine Judaica. All manner of Jewish ceremonial items are offered including manuscripts, spice boxes, kiddush cups, artwork and textiles. Highlights in Judaica include a Pentateuch (Hebrew Bible), Mannheim, 1740-42, manuscript in five volumes (sold for $145,500); a Siddur (Prayerbook), Vilna, 1827, manuscript in an enameled binding ($56,350); an unusual Continental giltwood mirror, ornately carved and inscribed with Hebrew blessing ($47,150); and an oil painting, The Marriage Broker, by Boris Schatz in the original Bezalel metal frame ($25,300).
Musical Instruments
David Bonsey, Director
Skinner has offered regular auctions dedicated to fine musical instruments since 1987. Highlights include a fine Italian violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, Parma, circa 1770 (sold for $288,500); a violin by Alessandro Gagliano, Naples, 1709 (a record $200,500); a violin by Camillus Camilli, 1740 (a record $180,100); a violoncello by Jean Baptiste Vuillaume, Paris, circa 1860 ($100,400); a gold mounted violin bow by Jean-Marie Persois (a record $49,450); a silver mounted violin bow by Nicolas Maire, Paris (a record $25,300); a "New York" model arch-top guitar by John D'Angelico, 1939 ($21,850); an arch-top guitar by Elmer Stromberg, Boston, c. 1953 ($18,400); and a guitar style O-45 by C.F. Martin and Company, Nazareth, 1927 (a record $16,100).
Oriental Rugs & Carpets
Gary Richards, Director
This speciality department specializes in Oriental rugs, carpets and distinctive tribal weavings. Highlights include a Star Kazak (sold for a world record $157,500), a Baluch prayer rug (an auction record $20,700), and a Caucasian Verneh ($19,550).
Science, Technology & Clocks
Robert C. Cheney, Director
Science, Technology & Clocks offers a wide range of historical and scientific instruments at auction including nautical antiques, instruments of celestial navigation, telescopes, microscopes, globes, early medical material, mechanical music and automata, patent models and timekeeping devices . The horological component of this department spans centuries of invention and function from the earliest timekeeping devices to precision regulator clocks of the 19th century.
Silver
Stuart Slavid, Director
Specializing in Georgian and fine Early American silver, Skinner's Fine Silver department offers 17th - 20th silver from elaborate showroom to very simple table pieces, including Tiffany, Gorham, and Shiebler. Silver is also offered in Skinner's European & Continental and American Furniture & Decorative Arts auctions and in other specialty auctions throughout the year. Of Skinner's significant Fine Silver highlights, one item of special note is a Gorham Martele 18kt gold five-piece tea and coffee service ($43,700), one of two Martele gold tea sets made for the 1900 Paris Exposition, engraved with the Badge of the Order of St. Andrew. According to family legend, the service was owned in the early 1900s by a Russian expatriate relative of the Romanov family, who is said to have added the crests in the 1920s. Additional highlights in Fine Silver include a Tiffany "Chrysanthemum" sterling flatware service in a fitted mahogany chest
($26,450); a George IV silver and cut glass epergne, c. 1805, with a
detailed regimental inscription ($14,375), and a Gorham sterling and
mixed metal Aesthetic Movement pitcher ($10,350).
Toys, Dolls & Collectibles
Kerry Shrives, Director
This specialty department offers two auctions annually of 19th and 20th century toys and dolls. Highlights include a rare Carpenter Burning Building -- one of 12 known to exist (sold for $29,900); "Clown on Globe" mechanical bank by J. & E. Stevens, price realized ($26,450); a horse drawn four-seat brake by Pratt and Letchworth ($18,400); two Ideal light yellow mohair Teddy bears, circa 1905 -- each lot accompanied by four photographs of the Aanon sisters of Easthampton, Connecticut with their bears ($13,800 and $10,925, respectively); a Kammer & Reinhardt Gretchen, a 1909 bisque head character doll ($11,500):and a Steiff ginger mohair teddy bear, c.1905 ($14,950).
20th Century Design
Jane Prentiss, Director
This department specializes in art glass and lamps, Arts and Crafts, Art Deco and Modern period furniture and decorative arts. Highlights include a Tiffany Studios Laburnum table lamp (sold for $129,000); Frank Lloyd Wright walnut library table ($85,000); Tiffany Studios geometric glass and bronze floor lamp ($74,000); Tiffany favrile narcissus paperweight vase ($34,500); Thomas Webb old ivory cameo glass vase designed by George Woodall ($23,000); Rene Lalique opalescent vase Deux Anneaux Lezards ($21,850); Marblehead tile frieze (a record $21,850); Gustav Stickley lady's desk (a record $29,900); a monumental Weller Aurelian vase from the 1904 St. Louis Exposition ($112,500); a cloud-form sofa designed by Isamu Noguchi for Herman Miller Co. ($31,050); and two Rookwood Pottery art tiles, 1894, by Albert Valentien ($19,550).
Fine Wines
Marie Keep, Director
Skinner’s Fine Wines department draws a whole new audience of collectors into the Skinner fold, offering the best in first growth Bordeaux, fine Burgundy, California cult Cabernet and top flight Champagne and Port. Skinner is the sole auction house in New England to offer fine wines at auction and our sales draw both seasoned wine connoisseurs and new collectors eager to learn more about excellent vintages. Our retail partner in this venture is Lower Falls Wine Company, a third generation wine seller located just west of Boston. Highlights of this new and growing department include 3 bottles of Domaine de la Romanee Conti, Romanee Conti 1911, which realized $60,750; 12 bottles of Chateau Petrus 1989 in its original case, which sold for $35,235, and a 12 bottle case of Chateau Lafite Rothschild, which achieved a price of $24,300.
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