Auctions

We've all seen over recent years the massive boost that association with an iconic individual can do to sale prices so it's interesting that  three different sales where the name Diana, Princess of Wales is linked are taking place. Art, antiques, and even carriages owned by Diana's familyare to go on sale in London beginning today.

The three auctions feature items which once belonged at Althorp House, the Spencer family's country estate in Northhamptonshire, and in Spencer House, their historic London home. Althorp was where Diana's grew up and became the site of her burial following her death in 1997. The estate is now occupied by Diana's brother Earl Spencer and proceeds from the sale are urgently needed to fund the upkeep of Althorp.

None of the lots were purchased by Diana, but many have been in her family for centuries — including a painting by Peter Paul Rubens, "Commander Being Armed for Battle," which the Spencer family has owned since 1802. The portrait was painted in 1613 and 1614 and depicts a bearded man, believed to be the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, being fitted with his armor. It is expected to fetch between £8 million and £12 million at Christie's auction house's Old Masters sale today. A second painting, "King David" by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, is estimated to sell for as much as £8 million. A sale beginning tomorrow, the "Althorp Attic Sale," includes important 19th century carriages owned by the family, furniture, snuff and cigarette boxes, and military uniforms. A third sale, which starts Thursday, includes works of art and porcelain from Spencer House, which overlooks London's Green Park.

I've just had an email about Heritage Auction Galleries the online/live auctioneers who have a rare books sale next week on 8 June. There are some fabulous lots up for sale with some very rich bids already having been placed.

This first edition in the first issue dust jacket of William Faulkner. The Sound and the Fury published in New York by Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith, 1929 is currently standing at $22,000 with the reserve not met.

Another lot is Oscar Wilde's Ravenna - Newdigate Prize Poem Recited in the Theatre, Oxford, June 26, 1878 by Oscar Wilde, Magdalen College. Oxford published by Thos. Shrimpton and Son, Broad Street, 1878. This First edition with Oscar Wilde's presentation inscription on the front wrapper. Estimate is currently at $24,000 with the reserve not yet met.

It really does show the buoyancy of the rare books market.

I've just received a reminder about a very interesting auction that is to take place on 23 May at Kennet Holme Farm, Bath Road, Midgham, near Reading. Run by Cameo Fine Art Auctioneers it is a sale of film and TV props.

Among the lots is a black tail dinner jacket worn by Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson in the famous Sherlock Holmes film, The Hound of the Baskervilles made in 1939 (£800-1,200). There's a Purple Cloak used by Peter O`Toole as Henry II in The Lion in Winter from 1968 (£150-250, shown left). A Gold leather Roman centurion tunic worn by Richard Burton as Mark Anthony in the 1963 version of Cleopatra (£1,000 - 1,200).

All in all a fascinating auction that I would love to have a look around.

Celebrity memorabilia remain a popular area of collecting among many people – the upsurge in interest in Michael Jackson related items immediately come to mind. There’s an auction today in Lewes in East Sussex at which the hat worn by Lord Baden Powell when he was the Chief Scout comes up for auction. It is part of a collection of memorabilia owned by sculptor Bryan Mickleburgh. According to auctioneer Roy Butler, “He made friends with various people, including the Red Indian chief 'Iron Eyes Cody', who was in over 100 Western films.” Among those he became friends with was the screen cowboy Roy Rogers and among the items for auction are a pair of his white gloves and a white Stetson.

The Scout hat is expected to fetch around £1,000 which for such an item is not a large amount of money. It begs the question, what will celebrity items from the last 20 or so years fetch in the future? No doubt some things will just keep increasing in value while other items will undoubtedly decline – I am not sure that some of the crazy prices that were paid on eBay for some of the Jackson items will ever be matched

I've just posted an article about music boxes and their enduring appeal even in our iPod obsessed world that can read HERE. I decided to have a little look online at various auctions to see what music boxes are available to buy. There is a huge number ranging from a 19th century cylinder music box by Nicole Freres, in inlaid walnut box, 26" wide, playing ten airs, which unfortunately the Auction House of Bridport have not put a guide price on to a Lever-Wind Overture Musical Box by L`Epée, circa 1870 which has a guide of %,250 to £6,000. The latter is on offer from Auction Team Breker

Something else I notcied at Breker's was a very early example of a juke box, although they were not called that in the early 1920s when this Regina Style 33 Automatic Disc Changing Musical Box for 12 Discs, that was made in New Jersey was originally offered for sale. 

Juke is a West African word, in one language it means wicked or disorderly and in another Congolese language it means, a building without walls. The word juke passed into popular usage with a sexual overtone among black Americans from the Southern States, it later came to describe a sort of dance. Like many derivative words it’s almost impossible to get to the complete truth.

Generally Juke (or Jook) joints were found in rural areas of the South and it has been suggested that there is a link to the jute fields and the jute workers that frequented makeshift bars. A juke joint typically had a bar that fronted onto the street, often with a dance floor and a back room for gambling or other activities; some Juke joints doubled as a brothel. The need for music in such a place is obvious. During the 1930’s itinerant musicians, often bluesmen, used the Juke Joints as their regular gigs.

In 1928 Justus P. Seeburg invented one of the first modern jukeboxes (right, a Seeberg Audiophone) and by the mid to late 1930s they could be found in bars, cafes, and juke joints right across America, but particularly in working class areas where people were less likely to own their own phonograph. In late 1938 Billboard began a new chart, which was a survey of the most popular records on Juke Boxes in America.

By 1939 there were 225,000 jukeboxes in America, which prompted James Caesar Petrillo, the President of the American Federation of Musicians to declare that records were “the number one scab”. He and his members felt that records and record companies were taking work away from musicians. Largely because of the juke box the AFM called a strike of its members in 1942; their motive was to persuade record companies to create a trust fund to compensate musicians who might lose live work as a result of records played on juke boxes and the radio. The strike ended in 1944 and the spread of the jukebox and the availability of an increasing number of phonographs was what the musicians strike had hoped to address. In reality the strike, along with the war, helped bring on the demise of the big band. The singer was the star; the traditional bandleader would never again be preeminent.

Black music of the late 1940s and early 1950s was what was most commonly found on jukeboxes. It was what evolved into rock ‘n’ roll and the beautiful looking jukeboxes that are so collectable today became pivotal in spreading the gospel according to rock ‘n’ roll.