Skinner

BOSTON, MA, February 12, 2019 – Skinner will present a live auction of Americana in our Boston Gallery on March 2nd. The auction features 465 lots representing a broad offering of American Furniture, Folk Art, and Decorative Arts from collections across the country. Presidential Portraits and George Washington A compelling group of material relating to George Washington, from various consignors, speaks to Washington’s widespread popularity and influence before his death in 1799, and the decades of reverence for his memory after it. The most iconic image is the portrait of George Washington (Lot 49, Estimate $15,000-25,000) signed and inscribed by Jane Stuart, daughter of Gilbert Stuart, author of Washington’s best-known likeness. This example is one of several dozens that Jane painted as a copy of the famously unfinished “Athenaeum Portrait.” A portrait miniature in watercolor and gouache on paper, (Lot 47, $15,000-25,000) is executed, signed, and dated 1798 by Charles Balthazar […]

MARLBOROUGH, MA – January 28, 2019 – Coins and currency are seen not only as a utilitarian tool for commerce but also as miniature works of art. These small sculptures and engravings historically feature gods and goddesses, rulers, and allegorical figures, rendered in an artistic manner. The Skinner February auction, online from February 13-22, of coins and currency highlights some of the most desirable and beautiful of these designs. Among these is a selection of ancient coins, primarily Greek and Roman in origin, that exhibit strong strikes and fantastic surfaces. Highlights include a toned nomos from Metapontum (Lot 2004, Estimate: $800-1,200), depicting Demeter, an ear of barley, and two amphorae. Another Lucanian nomos from the city of Herakleia (Lot 2005, Estimate: $600-800) features the head of Athena wearing a Corinthian helmet decorated with a scylla, the reverse of Herakles with a lion pelt and club. Both of these coins show very […]

The Fine Wines team at Skinner would like to invite you to join us for the inaugural Skinner Wine Tasting Club on Thursday, February 7th at International Wine Vault (IWV), Framingham from 5-6:30PM. Come join us for a casual, open format tasting featuring the wines below and feel free to bring along a bottle from your personal collection to share with the group consistent with the month’s theme. Our first tasting will be 1960’s Bordeaux with an emphasis on the classic 1966 vintage. Please RSVP here or via email at finewines@skinnerinc.com, by February 6th for February 7th date. Details for the monthly tasting can be found below. If you have any questions please feel free to contact us via email. Hope to see you there, cheers! Notes on the vintage Although the 1966 growing season in Bordeaux was a bit rocky, the weather before harvest was nearly ideal with hot, dry days extending […]

Join us for First Tuesday in Marlborough Tuesday, February 5 | 1:30PM – 4PM Walk in to the Skinner Marlborough Gallery from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, February 5th for a free opinion of value from our specialists. Staff are on hand to evaluate items and accept consignments for upcoming auctions; we’ve had a number of extraordinary objects come our way through First Tuesdays. We are seeking a variety of items across the catagories of: Fine art, jewelry and gemstones, silver, bronzes, Asian art, Art glass and lamps, folk art and more can be brought-in for evaluation. If you have more than a few items for us to evaluate, a houseful, or if your property cannot be easily transported, please get in touch to discuss.  Skinner Marlborough Gallery 274 Cedar Hill Street Marlborough, MA First come, first served. No appointment is necessary. Photos accepted for larger or fragile objects.  […]

FEBRUARY 13 | 10AM-3PM | HARTFORD, CT Skinner specialists will be on hand to evaluate items and accept consignments for upcoming 2019 auctions. Schedule a private appointment for: American & European Paintings, Sculpture, Works on Paper, Prints & Photographs  Fine Silver European Furniture & Decorative Arts Fine Jewelry From single works to entire collections, find out the auction market value for your art, antiques and jewelry.  By advance reservation only. Email info@skinnerinc.com or call 508-970-3000 to schedule an appointment. REQUEST APPOINTMENT

[BOSTON], MA – January 28, 2019 – In the first department offering of 2019, the January auction (open for bidding January 30-February 7) features a New England Cellar, a single-owner collection largely accumulated and curated upon release from local retailers. This pedigreed compilation features storied vintage Champagne (Krug, Cristal, Eric Rodez), pristine lots of First Growth Bordeaux (Chateau Lafite Rothschild, Chateau Margaux, Chateau Cheval Blanc), Burgundy (Comtes Lafon, Meo Camuzet), a deep strain of exemplary Italian producers (Sassicaia, Valdicava’s Madonna del Piano and Rinaldi) and California darlings Kistler and Peter Michael.   In addition, we will be offering a lovingly acquired R. Lopez de Heredia collection spanning three decades and including Gran Reservas Bosconia, Tondonia, Blanco and Rosado.  Also highlighted is a first glimpse of the Emeritus Collection, which will be featured in our April auction and offers a staggering group of rarely seen at auction vintages from the early 20th […]

George Washington is one of the most recognizable figures in American history. Revered as the father of our country, America’s first Commander in Chief led the struggle for independence and served as the nation’s first president. His legacy remains a vivid part of our daily lives. There are countless counties across the United States named in his honor, a state, and the nation’s capital. We see his image nearly every day on the quarter and one dollar bill, and around the President’s Day holiday in February through a dazzling array of television and print advertisements for automobiles, furniture, and a vast sea of consumer goods specially priced in celebration of the holiday. But through this clouded atmosphere of all-out February commercial warfare, the history and meaning of the holiday tends to be obscured. Washington’s passing in December 1799 marked the beginning of a tradition aimed at taking a day to […]

Join us for First Tuesday in Marlborough Tuesday, February 5 | 1:30PM – 4PM Walk in to the Skinner Marlborough Gallery from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, February 5th for a free opinion of value from our specialists. Staff are on hand to evaluate items and accept consignments for upcoming auctions; we’ve had a number of extraordinary objects come our way through First Tuesdays. We are seeking a variety of items across the catagories of: Fine art, jewelry and gemstones, silver, bronzes, Asian art, Art glass and lamps, folk art and more can be brought-in for evaluation. If you have more than a few items for us to evaluate, a houseful, or if your property cannot be easily transported, please get in touch to discuss.  Skinner Marlborough Gallery 274 Cedar Hill Street Marlborough, MA First come, first served. No appointment is necessary. Photos accepted for larger or fragile objects.  […]

Renowned for his large-scale sculptures, Henry Moore (British, 1898-1986) was also a prolific draughtsman, producing nearly 7,500 drawings over the course of his career. He made these drawings for a variety of purposes: as works of art in their own rights, as preparatory sketches for sculptures or prints, as nature studies, or as studies of the works of other artists. Moore made the drawing Reclining Figures, 1948-50, with the intention of using it as a study for a future print. The lower section of his 1950 color lithograph, Standing and Reclining Figures, includes the lower portion of the drawing. Confusingly, Moore inscribed “Lithograph Reclining Lead figures” at the top of the drawing, causing a debate among later owners of the work as to whether it was, in fact, an original drawing or, rather, a lithograph. The Middle Eastern owners had purchased the drawing while visiting Moore’s studio in Hertfordshire, England, […]

Who would have thought that a budding Abstract Expressionist in the 1940s would become one of the most famous sculptors of the American West just a decade later?  That is the story of Harry Jackson, whose bronzes are beloved by collectors and enthusiasts of Western art. As a young man, Harry Jackson served as a combat artist in the Marine Corps during World War II. He returned from the war seeking an outlet through his art for the intense experiences he had undergone, finding in color a way to express emotional content. When he encountered She Wolf, a 1943 painting by Jackson Pollock, the power of abstraction to express force and tension greatly moved him.  As young painter opening a New York Studio in 1946, Harry Jackson found inspiration in works by Pollock, Robert Motherwell, and the Mexican muralist José Clemente Orozco. He had the opportunity to meet Jackson Pollock, […]

BOSTON, MA – January 14, 2019 – On Friday, January 25, Skinner presents an outstanding two-session auction of Prints, Multiples & Photographs and Paintings & Sculpture with over 350 lots spanning Old Masters through contemporary offerings.  Paintings & Sculpture An exceptional selection of bronze sculptures is spearheaded by an important group of western bronzes by Harry Jackson, including early works Stampede (Lot 278, Estimate: $80,000-120,000) and Range Burial (Lot 279, Estimate: $50,000-70,000) among others from the collection of Joseph Thomas Alvarez III. The Alvarez collection also includes a large figure group by French animalier Isidore Bonheur, The Steeplechase (Lot 277, Estimate: $120,000-180,000). A major work by contemporary artist Mimmo Paladino, Assediato or a Surrounded Figure (Lot 461, Estimate: $40,000-60,000) will also be offered. A group of American Impressionist paintings from the Estate of Richard Mellon Scaife, being sold to benefit a Pennsylvania art institution includes a landscape by William Merritt Chase […]

Skinner’s specialist in Modern & Contemporary Art, Kate Leland, helps to produce three major auctions annually, appraising and cataloging paintings, sculpture, and works on paper for a wide variety of Skinner clients. Kate joined Skinner in 2016 after serving in curatorial and administrative roles at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. If you could attend any museum exhibit in 2019. What would it be? The one show I am desperate to see actually opened in 2018 at Columbia University’s Wallach Art Gallery—Posing Modernity: The Black Model from Manet and Matisse to Today. If I don’t make it to New York before it closes there in February, I hope I can see it at its next venue, the Musée d’Orsay, sometime this spring! What is something you wish prospective bidders would ask […]