$170,000
At a Bonhams & Butterfields fine prints auction held simultaneously in Los Angeles and San Francisco in November, Standard Station fetched the highest price ever paid at auction for a print by the artist Edward Ruscha. The work, produced in 1966, depicts a 1960s-style Standard Oil gas station in bright red, orange, and blue hues. The image displays the bold use of color and the dramatic angles that characterize Ruscha’s Pop Art style. Standard Station had a presale estimate price of $30,000 to $40,000.
$16,250
Two original four-panel Peanuts drawings by Charles Schulz sold for $16,250 each at a rare books and autographs auction conducted by Doyle New York in October. One of the comic strips, from 1952, shows Lucy playing tennis and missing the ball because she can’t lift the racket. The other strip is from 1961, and it shows Snoopy lying on his kennel, looking at two snowballs overhead. He stands, motions for peace, and is hit with the snowballs.
$7.7 million
The Annenberg Diamond, a square, emerald-cut, D color, flawless diamond weighing 32.01 carats, sold in October in New York at an auction conducted by Christie’s. The diamond, which was set on a ring designed by David Webb, belonged to the late Leonore "Lee" Annenberg. She served as chairwoman and president of the Annenberg Foundation, the charitable organization that she and her husband, the late Walter Annenberg, founded. Mrs. Annenberg purchased the ring in 2007, as a gift to herself for her 90th birthday.
She bought the ring, which has two pear-shaped diamonds (weighing 1.6 carats and 1.5 carats) flanking the larger diamond, from Webb’s boutique in Beverly Hills, Calif.
$85,188
At a Cowan’s auction in October in Cincinnati, Ohio, The Unaccountable, a 1959 mixed-media sculpture by Horace Clifford Westermann (1922–1981), fetched the highest auction price ever paid for a Westermann piece. The previous record was $68,712, which was set in 2002 at a Sotheby’s sale. The Unaccountable is made from painted wood and gold-plated metal. It depicts, among other things, a silhouette of the cartoon character Dick Tracy sitting atop a globe. The piece was from the collection of the late Betty Asher of Los Angeles and had a presale estimate price of $20,000 to $30,000.
The auction also featured the sale, for $28,850, of a 19th-century Kentucky coin silver racing presentation pitcher. The pitcher belonged to a group of items relating to William Walker, an African-American jockey who rode the winning horse in the 1877 Kentucky Derby.
$3,808
A magnum of 1961 Château Haut-Brion received one of the highest bids at an Edward Roberts International auction in September in Chicago. Robert Parker gave this wine, the debut vintage for winemaker Jean Delmas, a 100-point rating in 1998.
Also at this auction, two bottles of 1993 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti sold for $2,499. Parker was not quite as enamored of this wine, giving it a 90-point rating in 1995. He also said at the time that it would reach its peak by 2008.
$278,500
An ormolu musical automaton clock made for the Chinese market in the late 18th century was among the star attractions at Sotheby’s watches, clocks, and automata auction in October in New York. The clock, which had a presale estimate price of $70,000 to $90,000, features nine bells and hammers that play one of two tunes on the hour.
The auction also featured the sale of a 1949 Patek Philippe watch made from yellow gold and equipped with a perpetual calendar and a moon-phase display. The watch sold for $92,500. Patek Philippe made only 200 examples of this watch, from 1941 until 1952. It was one of the first perpetual calendars produced in a series.
$42,500
La Meuele (The Haystack), an oil-on-canvas painting by Blanche Hoschedé-Monet (1865–1947), fetched the highest bid at an October sale conducted by Fuller’s Fine Art Auctions in Philadelphia. The painting had a presale estimate price of $15,000 to $20,000. The artist was a stepdaughter and, later, a daughter-in-law of Claude Monet.
$38,720
A lot containing 12 bottles of 1982 Château Lafite Rothschild drew one of the highest bids at the Acker Merrall & Condit red Bordeaux wine auction in October in New York. Also among the highest-priced lots was one containing three magnums of 2005 Château Pétrus. It sold for $26,620.
$142,200
Among the highlights of the Skinner’s fine musical instruments auction in October in Boston was the sale of a circa 1740 violin that had been owned by former Houston Symphony concertmaster Raphael Fliegel. (Fliegel died in 2004.) The violin was made by Tomasso Balestrieri, who lived in the Mantua region of Italy. He fashioned the instrument in the classic Mantua style, with a comfortable, rounded body shape and full, flat arching that produces maximum projection in large concert halls. The violin had a presale estimate price of $70,000 to $90,000.
$45,750
This first-edition copy of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, sold at a Bonhams & Butterfields auction conducted simultaneously in New York and Los Angeles in October, fetched the second-highest price ever paid at auction for a copy of the book. (The record stands at $47,800; it was set two years ago at another Bonhams & Butterfields auction.) The copy that was sold in October contains an inscription from the author to producer/director/studio executive Darryl Zanuck, who made the book into a film in 1939. The inscription reads, "with thanks for a fine picture / John Steinbeck / 1939 / Los Gatos." The book had a presale estimate of $20,000 to $30,000.
Other highlights of the auction included a letter written by Paul Gauguin to his friend Camille Pissarro, discussing the works of fellow artists Manet, Renoir, and Sisley. It sold for $31,720. A lot containing correspondences and black-and-white photographs that once belonged to Winnie-the-Pooh author A. A. Milne sold for $10,980. The lot included two photos of Milne’s son, Christopher Robin, with his Winnie-the-Pooh bear, the stuffed animal that was the inspiration for Milne’s character.
$1.03 million
A 2006 Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR Roadster, the only right-hand-drive example ever built, received the highest bid among all the cars sold during an RM Auctions sale in October in London. The car, which has a naturally aspirated V-12 engine that produces 612 hp, is one of only 25 road-going CLK GTRs that HWA, a sister company to AMG, built to meet FIA requirements. And of those 25, only five were equipped with a roadster body. A collector purchased the car new, in euros, for what would now be $1.9 million. It has never been registered and has only 34 miles on its odometer, all accumulated during delivery of the vehicle.
The highlight of the show, however, was the sale of a 1950 Aston Martin DB2 racing-team car that finished first in its class at both Le Mans and the Mille Miglia in 1951 and was driven on business trips by Aston Martin owner David Brown. The car, which was last offered 52 years ago, went for $919,364, a record auction price for a DB2. In 1957, Brown sold the car to his friend Gerald Lascelles, a first cousin of Queen Elizabeth. Lascelles drove the car in the Mille Miglia Storica events in the 1980s and later gave the car to his son Henry, who occasionally drove it in road rallies.
$440,000
A 1965 289 Shelby Cobra Roadster was the highest-priced item at Barrett-Jackson’s Second Annual Car Collector Auction in October in Las Vegas. The car was sold for the first time since 1968. It recently underwent a complete nut, bolt, and rivet body-off restoration to bare metal, and it has a new top and upholstery. The car’s original owner was the founder of the Jacuzzi hot tub company.
Another highlight of the auction was the sale of a 2009 Iacocca 45th Anniversary Edition Ford Mustang, for $352,000. The car, one of only 45 that will be built, is equipped with a 550 hp engine and an assortment of other distinguishing features. The Colorado collector who purchased the car also received an invitation to dinner with the car’s namesake, Lee Iacocca.
$140,000
A Batmobile built in 1966 and based on the original vehicle that George Barris, aka the King of Kustomizers, created that year for the Batman TV series, garnered the top bid at a Kruse International sale in October in Lebanon, Pa. The original Batmobile began as a $250,000 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car, before Barris, working on a three-week deadline, transformed it into Bruce Wayne’s favorite ride. The car that sold at the Kruse auction was used for promotional purposes; it did not appear in the TV series.
Another vehicle with Hollywood ties also sold at the Kruse auction: A 1996 Ford Georgia State Police car that appeared in the 2005 film The Dukes of Hazzard fetched $7,250.
The auction also featured the sale of a 1958 two-door hardtop Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham, for $60,000. General Motors produced only 703 examples of the car during its two-year production run. When new, it was priced twice as high as the next most expensive Cadillac, yet GM reportedly lost money on each car that it sold.
