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News Article  
Schmidt Antiques plays beautiful music at auction
By Barb Van Loo

YPSILANTI, Mich. –Hearing the music emanating from the late 19th century Swiss orchestral music box certainly added to the beauty of the instrument. Made by the Conchon firm of Geneva around 1880, it played eight titles per cylinder on six bells, with a 24-key organ, a snare drum and castanets.

This piece was certainly the highlight piece at a recent auction held by Schmidt’s Antiques in Ypsilanti. The final bid for it was $12,000.

If you log on to youtube.com and type in Schmidt’s music box it will afford you the opportunity to get a sample of the music this instrument provided.

There were many very fine art pieces to add to one’s collection or fit that certain place on the wall. By Edouard Cremieux (1856-1944) there was an oil on canvas coastal seascape depicting fishermen on their small fishing boats mending their nets.

This piece sold for $7,500.

A folk art watercolor portrait on paper with the notation “Oscar G van Lew, aged 1 years & 5 months, drawn by H. Walton 1836” elicited spirited bidding and sold for $5,500.

Similar to a book-of-the-month club at one time the Associated American Artists sent out an unframed picture each month. From this source there were two black and white lithographs by Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975): Frisky Day which sold for $1,300 and The Farmer’s Daughter that crossed the block for $2,700.

The principal aim of Carol Everton Moon was to photograph Native Americans as they lived before their view of life, their customs, and their style of dress were changed by European emigrants. Two of his photographs drew attention. One was of a Laguna maiden, possibly Coma-Ci-Ta, who was depicted standing wearing a deerskin dress with a beadwork belt and silver squash blossom necklace. The other black and white photograph was of Yaz-yah, a young Native American girl depicting her wearing a Navajo squash blossom necklace. They sold for $800 and $750 respectively.

Other examples of the many art piece were: an aquatint entitled Les Magies by Joan Miro that sold for $1,700; and an oil on canvas landscape by George Robin that depicted the landscape along the River Loing that was entitled Jouir de Automne Sur le Loing sold for $3,750.

There were two pieces by Gerrit Albertus Beneker. One an oil on canvas landscape entitled An Afternoon in the Nook, depicting several small houses with a mountain in the distance, sold for $2,300; and the other was an oil on panel landscape that depicted a white frame house with an ancient oak tree and white rail fence entitled An October Morning, Truro that sold for $3,500.

Not all of the artwork was for indoors. Two pairs of 20th century lion sculptures came to the auction block. One life-size set in pink veined marble, measuring 70 inches long by 20 inches by 40 inches high, sold for $4,000. The other set was in bronze with the lions lying down with their heads up and facing each other. The final bid for this pair of lions was $3,250.

From the turn-of-the-century there was an American carved oak china cabinet. This piece, attributed to the firm of Pottier & Stymus of New York had an arched top with a carved central cartouche and mask corner blocks above a single arched door. The carved posts had a foliate and urn motif. Everything about this piece, including the key, was original. It sold for $2,300.

The Chinese export tea caddy with a lacquer-ware body, carved dragon feet, and hinged cover had an original Pakton tea box inside. If sold for $1,400. A Meiji period collector’s cabinet with extensive hand-carved decorations sold for $1,700.

Some of the other furniture pieces included: a 1970s 11-piece Italian Neoclassical-style dining set with an eight-leg extension table, 10 chair (including 2 arm chair) that sold for $2,100; a 19th century Victorian three-piece walnut Louis XVI-style bedroom set that saw $1,500; a turn-of-the-century Louis XVI-style mahogany vitrine with bronze mounts that earned $1,000; and an early 20th century Louis XVI-style collector’s vitrine with a lift top that brought $1,300.

A mid-19th century American silver-plated teapot, with a memorial engraving, declaring “Mrs. Millard Fillmore (No. 3), 1853,” from the table of the 13th president of the United States sold for $350.

Of the several clocks available the predominant timepiece was a 19th century E. Howard marble-dial presentation wall clock with a white marble dial with Roman numerals and an eight-day weight-driven brass movement. This clock sold for $1,800.

From the 1920s there was a R. Lalique molded glass ice pail in the Fougeres Pattern that sold for $1,000; and also a Lalique perfume bottle that earned $325. A pair of turn-of-the-century Moser vase, purple to clear with enameled floral decorations sold for $600; and a pair of late 19th century Victorian period art glass vase with white bodies with hand-painted children’s portraits by Josef Ahne earned $400.

A beautiful Wedgwood luster bowl decorated inside and out with butterflies and moths sold for $400; while a 20th century Wedgwood Black Fairyland luster bowl with a Woodland Elves pattern and decorated inside with elves and bats crossed the block for $900.

Among the turn-of-the-century Loetz art glass pieces there was a glass bowl with an oil spot finish that sold for $425; and jack-in-the-pulpit design vase in green with a silver iridescent oil spot finish that earned $850.

The Gibson A model mandolin had a rosewood body with an ebony neck and bridge. The owner of this piece had been killed in World War II and it had been stored in a closet at his sister’s since that time. This beautiful piece sold for $2,000.

Amphora art pottery included the following: a vase with a multi-color iridescent glaze with gold detail on the molded body and a flared slender neck that sold for $1,200; a vase with an oval body with foliate relief and a frog climbing over the edge that earned $1,800; a paneled body vase with three baluster handles and a short neck that also saw $1,800; and a vase with an oval body with a portrait of a woman that crossed the block for $1,100.

There were many other pottery pieces, several additional pieces of furniture, sterling silver flatware sets, Persian rugs, a few pieces of early jewelry, and many, many addition items for one’s home or collection. Prices cited are the hammer prices and do not include the buyer’s premiums.

For additional information contact the auctioneer at (734) 434-2600 or check out their website at www.Schmidts Antiques.com.

7/29/2013