BOSTON, MA – Over 150 lots of instruments and memorabilia from the Estate of John Warren Geils  Jr., guitarist and founder of the Grammy-nominated J. Geils Band, will highlight Skinner’s Fine Musical Instruments Auction on Sunday, November 19 in Boston. The auction will also feature vintage electric, acoustic and classical guitars, mandolins, trumpets, and classical stringed instruments and bows. Highlights from Geils’ guitar collection include his Stromberg Master 400, D’Angelico Excel, several Gibson archtops, and Fender tweed amplifiers.  J. Geils memorabilia highlights include an extensive recording library of reel-to-reel tapes and vinyl, Jim Marshall promotional photographs, and stage-worn apparel including his Nudie Suit. In addition to the special collection of J.Geils guitars and memorabilia, an offering of Gibson mandolins is highlighted by a 1924 Lloyd Loar H-5 mandola, one of approximately twenty known examples. Previews, Catalog, and Bidding Public auction previews will be held in Boston on Friday, November 17 […]

TUESDAY, JULY 18 | 10AM – 3PM Skinner Auctions is inviting consignments for the fall 2017 Auctions. Meet with Fine Jewelry expert Victoria Bratberg and Senior Appraiser Kerry Shrives at the Historical Society of Princeton for a complimentary auction evaluation and consignment of your Fine Jewelry, Silver, Antiques & Fine Art. Appointments required. Please register and a member of our team will contact you directly for an appointment time. High quality photos are recommended for large or particularly fragile items. REGISTER ONLINE Historical Society of Princeton 354 Quaker Road Princeton, NJ Contact us: Fine Jewelry Department vbratberg@skinnerinc.com 617.874.4305

Storied Wedgwood Collections and Stories About the Collectors A Lecture by Harwood Johnson WEDNESDAY, JULY 12 | RECEPTION 5PM | LECTURE 6PM RSVP ONLINE Harwood (Woody) Johnson is the former managing editor and current contributing editor of Ars Ceramica, the journal of the Wedgwood Society of New York.  He is on the board and is a past-president of the English Ceramics Study Group of Philadelphia.  As was Josiah Wedgwood, he is a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in London. Woody began collecting Wedgwood at the age of 15 in 1972.  Forty-five years of collecting has meant a wealth of interactions with collectors of the past and collectors of the present.  His talk “Storied Wedgwood Collections and Stories about the Collectors” will include personal recollections about many collectors, as well as a thoughtful commentary on the psyche of collecting Wedgwood. Skinner Boston Gallery 63 Park Plaza, Boston Contact us: events@skinnerinc.com […]

BOSTON, MA – Skinner, Inc. will present an auction of European Furniture & Decorative Arts in its Boston Gallery on Thursday, July 13 and Friday, July 14. With over 1000 lots on offer, the auction will feature an expansive selection of fine ceramics and silver as well as European furniture and decorative arts of the 16th through early 20th centuries. Session I: Victor & Muriel Polikoff Collection The auction opens on Thursday, July 13 at 4PM with almost 300 lots from the Victor & Muriel Polikoff collection. The Polikoffs began collecting over 50 years ago and amassed an extensive collection that consists of 18th and 19th century Wedgwood and other early English ceramics, including Moorcroft, Turner, Doulton, Staffordshire, 18th century salt glaze and Whieldon ware. Some highlights from their collection include: Staffordshire Solid Agate Pecten Shell Teapot and Cover (Lot 33, Estimated between $1,000-1,500) Wedgwood & Bentley Solid Agate Vase and […]

Fanning in every direction, the June Fine Wines & Rare Spirits auction covers a broad scope of far- reaching distilleries, producers, and vintages. A wide array of single and small lots makes collecting from this auction especially varied, approachable and exciting. The online-only auction opens for bidding on Wednesday, June 21 at 10AM and lots begin a rolling close on Wednesday, June 28 at 2PM. The auction presents vintages that span over decades: from a bottle of Conterno Monfortino Barolo Riserva 1958, to the 2013 and 2014 releases of the much sought-after Screaming Eagle three packs in original wood cases. The geographical range is similarly broad. Wine specialist Anna Ward points to “an incredible selection of rare bottlings of Italian producers from a bygone era including Mastroberardino Riserva Taurasi 1968.” And the singular Vega Sicilia Unico 2004 from Spain is available in two original wood three packs (Lot 1500, Estimated between […]

Pre-Auction Wine Tasting Wednesday, June 21  | 6:30PM – 8PM RSVP ONLINE Please join us for an after hours summer solstice wine tasting of highlights from the Fine Wine auction and chance to meet experts from Skinner’s Fine Wines department on Wednesday, June 21 from 6:30PM-8PM at Lower Falls Wine Company. Limited availability, please RSVP.             2366 Washington Street Newton Lower Falls MA Contact Us: finewines@skinnerinc.com  

  At over four feet in height each, the Fourteen Carrara Marble Stations of the Cross Plaques (Lot 589) to be auctioned in Skinner’s European Furniture & Decorative Arts Auction on July 14th, make a commanding statement as an ensemble. Heavily carved, the marbles are realistically modeled in high relief, depicting the series of events on the day of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion, each inscribed with station number to the projecting base. The marbles were originally installed in the Immaculate Conception Church, South End, Boston. This church was dedicated on March 10, 1861, by Bishop Fitzpatrick as a place of worship for Boston College. While the building was designed by architect, Patrick Charles Keely, the interior design of the church was considered to be the work of Arthur Gilman. It was used as the church for Boston College High School from 1863 until the 1960s and served the pastoral needs of the surrounding […]

The African art offered in the online auction which runs from June 15 to June 23 is from the collection of Gordon Lankton of Clinton, Massachusetts. An engineer by profession, long-time CEO of a major plastic injection molding company and founder of the Museum of Russian Icons, Lankton is also a life-long collector. His extensive holdings of African art are the culmination of a wide-ranging collecting career that has included coins (American pennies with an example for every year back to 1794); World War II posters; cast-iron toy cars; and the largest private collection of Russian icons in the country. These are housed in their own museum in Clinton. “There is always something new out of Africa.” The Roman scholar Pliny the Elder made that comment in the first century A.D. and it remains true today. African art has been a source of fascination and inspiration for centuries, never more […]

  Fine Jewelry Preview | New York City Join the Fine Jewelry Department in New York City to preview highlights from the June 27 Fine Jewelry Auction. Private preview times are available by appointment only. WEDNESDAY JUNE 14 | THURSDAY JUNE 15 REQUEST APPOINTMENT Skinner New York 415 Madison Ave, New York Contact us: vbratberg@skinnerinc.com 617.874.4305  

Papermaking, calligraphy, illumination, paper marbling, and gold-tooled goatskin bindings define fine bookmaking and are generally associated with western and continental books. However, mastery of these book arts was transmitted to Europe through the Middle East during the Middle Ages. Although the Chinese pioneered papermaking and printing with movable type, in Medieval times, all roads from China to continental Europe passed through the Middle East and North Africa. These societies of the Near East were rooted in ancient Greek, Roman, and Hellenic learning and were hungry for any emerging technologies related to books, especially those that emphasized beauty and glorified the written word. In our current Books & Manuscripts online auction we are privileged to offer fourteen examples of Arabic and Persian manuscripts produced between 1461 and 1852. This group of text manuscripts, collected in Iran during the mid-20th century, represents the important branches of Arab and Persian learning of the time. Here […]

Richard Kenworthy, Former Professor of Architecture at Auburn University in Alabama and Asian Art expert discusses collecting with Melanie Mitcheson, Skinner’s Auction Coordinator. What are the Asian countries represented in the current auction? Primarily China and Japan. We do have a very unusual piece from India:  a dark wooden valuables chest with decorative straps around it—in the right space, it would be very dramatic (Lot 1520).  There is also a Tibetan thangka of very fine quality (Lot 1550) from the estate of Dorothy Braude Edinburg. Do you collect anything currently that is represented in the auction?  If so, when did you start and what sort of pieces do you own? I collect Scholars’ rocks (which we actually do not have in the current sale).  These, of course, are naturally occurring stone sculptures:  ideally, they have been untouched by human hands, although this is in fact rare.  Different types of stone […]

A skilled and inventive frame maker, admired by artists and collectors for his ability to create frames that corresponded perfectly to the style and intention of the canvases they surrounded, Charles Prendergast (1863-1948) did not begin working on his own artworks in earnest until he was in his fifties. After having spent years as a woodworker and craftsman, he created his painted panels, like Lot 382 in our upcoming Fine Paintings and Sculpture auction, with many of the same materials and techniques he had used for his frames. He first applied a layer of gesso (a mixture of chalk and glue) into which he incised the outlines of figures and forms; then, he colored the image with tempera paint. Finally, he added gold or silver leaf to highlight certain areas and burnished the decorated surfaces to achieve a weathered effect. He often finished his panels by creating simple frames using the […]