$72,230
A pair of engraved, 12-bore, self-opening sidelock ejector guns from J. Purdey & Sons was the top-grossing lot at a Bonhams sporting guns auction in December in Knightsbridge, England. J. Purdey & Sons made the guns in 1937 and resold by them in 1957. They were engraved by the renowned craftsman Harry Kell.
At the same auction, a Portsmouth-engraved, .470 (Nitro Express) sidelock ejector rifle by Asprey sold for $58,565. The rifle’s engravings include a leopard, tribal masks, a Cape buffalo, a rhinoceros, and an elephant.
$850,000
A fully restored 1929 Duesenberg Phaeton received the highest bid by far at a Kruse Auctions collector car sale in November in Auburn, Ind. The dual-cowl model has a two-tone blue body with pinstriping, gold leather seats, and a rare V-shaped rear window.
Other restored vehicles garnering attention and high bids were a 1966 Batmobile ($135,000) used to promote the television series, a 1931 Cadillac Dual Cowl Phaeton ($132,000) built in the year when Cadillac introduced this line of V-12 cars, a 1958 Chevrolet Impala ($121,000), and a 1971 Münch motorcycle ($50,000).
Another of the auction’s main attractions was a restored and customized 1961 Ford Thunderbird show car known as Thunder Flight. The car, whose distinguishing feature is its Batmobile-style twin-bubbletop cabin, sold for $122,000.
$90,750
At an Acker Merrall & Condit wine auction in November in Hong Kong, a lot containing 12 bottles of 1982 Château Petrus received the highest bid. A 12-bottle lot of 1982 Château Lafite-Rothschild sold for $54,450.
$8,500
A Cartier platinum ring set with emeralds and diamonds was among the highlights at a Fuller’s fine art auction in December in Philadelphia. The ring was from the estate of Betty Lacey Gordon, a noted collector, patroness of the arts, and philanthropist from Philadelphia. Proceeds from Fuller’s sale of the estate items will support the Devereux Foundation, a national organization that helps people with emotional, developmental, and educational disabilities.
Other notable items from the Gordon estate that sold at the auction include a Cartier gold twist bracelet ($5,000) and a Cartier gold link bracelet ($3,750).
$575,340
An extremely rare Patek Philippe Reference 5079J sold for the highest price among all of the timepieces offered at a Christie’s watch auction in December in Hong Kong. Patek Philippe produced only five of these watches, in 2004, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its relationship with George Pragnell, one of the United Kingdom’s largest luxury watch retailers. This particular watch has a black dial, Breguet numerals, and a repeating mechanism that produces a sound resembling the chime of cathedral bells.
Another highlight of the auction was the Tourbograph Pour le Mérite from A. Lange & Söhne, which sold for $466,980. This is the first wristwatch incorporating a fusee-and-chain transmission, a tourbillon, and a rattrapante chronograph mechanism. This watch is considered A. Lange & Söhne’s most complex model and one of its rarest: The company built only 101 examples. It is composed of more than 1,000 parts yet weighs only half a gram.
The auction also featured a Greubel Forsey Invention Piece 1, which fetched $459,240, the highest price ever paid for a Greubel Forsey timepiece. The company produced only 11 examples of this watch. Its features include an hour and minute display that consists of two triangular indicators—red for the hours and blue for the minutes—that move in concentric semicircles around the tourbillon cage.
$19,635
A double magnum of 1959 Château Lafite-Rothschild, which had been in the same collection for 38 years, sold at an Edward Roberts International wine auction in November in Chicago. In giving the wine a rating of 99 points in 1994, Robert Parker wrote, "The 1959 is unquestionably the greatest Lafite-Rothschild that has approached full maturity. It remains to be seen whether vintages such as 1982, 1986, and 1990 will reach a similar height. The super-aromatic bouquet of flowers, black truffles, cedar, lead pencil, and red fruits is followed by one of the most powerful and concentrated Lafites I have tasted. Medium to full-bodied, velvety-textured, rich, and pure, it is a testament to what this great estate can achieve when it hits the mark."
$362,500
At Doyle New York’s auction of Modern & Contemporary Art in November, the top lot was Lost and Found, an abstract work from 1958 by Italian artist Afro (1912–1976). Two Women with a Dog, by American artist Larry Rivers (1923–2002), sold for $74,500.
$53,775
The size 7¼ gray Cavanagh fedora that Jack Ruby wore when he shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald, John F. Kennedy’s alleged assassin, commanded the highest price among the items sold at Heritage Auction Galleries’ 20th Century Icons sale in November.
In the late morning of Sunday, November 24, 1963, while authorities were preparing to transfer Oswald from the basement of Dallas police headquarters to the nearby county jail, Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner, stepped out from a crowd of reporters and photographers and fired a snub-nosed .38 at Oswald, striking him in the abdomen. The incident was broadcast live on national television.
Oswald later died on the operating table at Parkland Hospital, the same hospital where Kennedy was pronounced dead two days earlier. Four months later, Ruby was convicted of murdering Oswald, but he successfully appealed his conviction and death sentence. Before his new trial began, Ruby died of lung cancer, in January 1967.
The fedora, which Ruby purchased new for $16.50, has his name embossed on the sweatband in gold lettering. The hat was auctioned with an affidavit of authenticity signed by Earl Ruby, the executor of Jack Ruby’s estate.
$38,837
Another item related to the Kennedy assassination, a Dallas Morning News front page from the morning of November 22, 1963, signed by JFK, also sold at the Heritage Auction Galleries November sale. This is one of the last signatures, if not the last signature, Kennedy wrote before his death.
On the morning he was assassinated, while on his way to give a breakfast speech to the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce at the Texas Hotel, Kennedy was stopped in the hotel hallway by Jan White, a member of the housekeeping staff, who asked him to sign her copy of the newspaper. Kennedy read White’s name on her name tag and inscribed the newspaper "To Jan White, John Kennedy" in blue ink across the image of him and the first lady. Kennedy then gave his speech, after which he flew to Dallas.
Kennedy came to Texas in part to end the political infighting within the Texas Democratic Party, and the paper’s banner headline reads, "Storm of Political Controversy Swirls Around Kennedy on Visit." The accompanying article describes the schism that existed between Texas Democrats. Another story on the page notes how, following protests and leaflet campaigns against JFK’s stances on integration and U.S. foreign policy, former vice president Richard Nixon was urging Dallas residents to give a courteous reception to the president and first lady.
White kept the paper in storage for 45 years. Prior to the sale, it was matted and framed with a color photo of Kennedy, a reproduction of the Seal of the President of the United States, and a small plaque detailing how the signature was obtained.
$373,750
A 1948 Jackie Robinson Brooklyn Dodgers road jersey was the highlight of a Hunt Auctions sale in November. The gray flannel jersey has its original "Dodgers" blue lettering across the front and number 42 affixed to the back.
The Robinson jersey first entered the sports memorabilia market two decades ago, when a former coach with one of the Dodgers’ farm teams sold it. At the end of every season, the Dodgers sent their players’ jerseys, pants, and hats to their minor-league teams so that the coaches could wear the major-league uniforms when they greeted their incoming players. The coach who kept this particular jersey also retained many other uniforms, and over the years he either sold or gave away most of them.
Also during the Hunt auction, a Louisville Slugger bat used by Ted Williams sold for $26,450. The bat measures 34¾ inches long and weighs 37.2 ounces. It exhibits ball marks, stitching impressions, grain swelling, a partially scored handle, and green marks caused by a bat rack—all signs that Williams used the bat during games. The bat is stamped on the knob with Williams’ number 9, and a faded 9 is visible on the end of the barrel.
$57,500
A powder horn from the French and Indian War, one engraved with a map of Pennsylvania that depicts Forbes Road—the route from Philadelphia to Fort Pitt (now Pittsburgh)—sold at a Cowan’s firearms and militaria auction in November.
An army of 5,000 British regulars and Colonial militia, under the direction of Gen. John Forbes, built the 20-foot-wide road in 1758, to bring wagons and artillery from Philadelphia to attack Fort Duquesne, at what is now Pittsburgh. Forbes took control of the fort from the French in November 1758, rebuilt it (the French burned it when they abandoned it), and renamed it Fort Pitt.
The horn was likely carried and carved by one of Forbes’ troops shortly after the construction of the new fort.
At the same auction, a circa 1817 engraved Kentucky flintlock rifle sold for $40,250. The rifle has engravings on the brass patch box, side plate, toe plate, trigger guard, ferrules, and nose cap. The stock is inlaid with 22 pieces of silver. The auction house initially assumed the stock—made of two pieces of closely matched curly maple that are dovetailed together—had been repaired when the rifle was restored in 1970. However, Cowan’s later determined that the stock is original, which added to the value of the rifle.
Selling for $40,250 was a federal-issue infantry jacket worn at Gettysburg and numerous other battles by Sgt. Henry H. Stone, Company I, 11th Massachusetts, Army of the Potomac—also known as the Boston Regiment. When writing to his mother, Stone referred to the garment as his "lucky coat" because he had survived while wearing it in at least five major engagements through early 1864. A patch on the left sleeve is evidence of what Stone described as the "slight wound" he suffered at Gettysburg. Military records confirm that he was grazed in the arm by a bullet during that battle.
Stone sent the jacket home to his mother in Charlestown, Mass., in April 1864.
A month later he was captured by Confederate soldiers and sent to Andersonville prison in South Carolina, where he wrote a diary that is now in the National Prisoner of War Museum in Andersonville. Henry was released from the prison in December 1864 during a prisoner exchange, and mustered out of service in February 1865. At age 23, Stone returned home to South Boston and lived there until his death
in 1892.
$2,139,565
At a Sotheby’s sale of art from Africa and Oceania in December in Paris, a Bamana Kono mask garnered a world-record price for a West African mask. This mask, from the Marcia and John Friede collection, was previously shown in New York 25 years ago, at the Museum of Modern Art’s Primitivism in 20th Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern exhibit.
Masks of the Kono, a social group that enforced civic morality, typically are elongated and encrusted with sacrificial material. The Kono masks also were used in agricultural rituals, mostly to petition for a good harvest. They usually represented an animal head with a long, open snout and long ears forming a V on top of the head. This mask is said to evoke the hyena, a predator, and the elephant, an animal that was considered wise. One expert on the Kono theorized that the combination of these two animals alludes to the polymorphism of the divinities whom the wearer of the mask attempted to influence.
$24,000
A fully restored 1968 Chevrolet Camaro was one of the top attractions at Silver Auctions’ Greater Seattle Auction in November. The car is powered by a revamped 1964 327 V-8 engine. It has a custom dual exhaust system and a rebuilt Muncie 4-speed transmission. The seat covers, dash pad, headliner, carpet, weather stripping, and black vinyl top all are new.
$259,000
At Skinner’s November auction of American Furniture & Decorative Arts, Arctic Sunset with the Ice Bound Panther, an oil on canvas by famed luminous painter William Bradford, sold for more than double the work’s presale high estimate.
Bradford began his career painting ship portraits in New Bedford, Mass., across the harbor from his birthplace, the town of Fairhaven. In 1861 he traveled to Labrador to study and paint icebergs.
He returned to the Arctic several times, and in 1869, with the financial backing of a New York businessman, Bradford chartered Panther. During this expedition, he produced hundreds of sketches of Arctic scenes, and the two photographers who accompanied him documented the trip with more than 300 photos, 141 of which were included in Bradford’s 1873 book, The Arctic Regions.
His sketches and paintings from his Arctic voyages gained Bradford enough acclaim for Queen Victoria to commission him to paint an Arctic scene, which was shown at the Royal Academy in 1875.
This particular work by Bradford was discovered by a Skinner appraiser during an appraisal day in Keene, N.H. Bradford gave it as a New Year’s gift to 8-year-old Minnie Ida Reynolds, whose mother was a patroness of the arts and hosted gatherings with local artists, including Bradford. The painting passed down through Reynolds’ family until its current owner consigned it to Skinner.