Pre-Columbian gold Sinu large bird finial on tube, with an open beak, bead eyes, a crest of curled feathers, talons grasping a snake entwined around a cylindrical tube, decorated with open scroll and braid-work. 7.5″ H x 1.75″ W x 1.375″ D. Comprised of approx 46.09% gold (equivalent to 11K+ gold). Approx 84.2 dwt = 130.94 grams. This piece has been tested via Niton XL3t / XRF Analyzer: Gold: Au 46.09 / Silver: Ag 22.26 / Copper: Cu 31.65 and Gold: Au 50.94 / Silver: Ag 30.68 / Copper: Cu 18.38, photo in images. From a 485 Park Avenue private collection.

Berlin mint, KM306.1, Dav-2586. A gorgeous palette of gold, teals, and olive greens make this example very eye appealing. Superb, satiny luster with the cartwheel being effortless as you rotate this piece under the light.

Pre-Columbian, North Coast Peru, Moche, ca. 100 to 300 CE. A striking gold roundel (83% gold, equivalent to ~20K) featuring a skillfully executed openwork relief depicting Ai Apaec as a Jaguar Deity Decapitator holding a human head in one hand and a tumi knife in the other, this composition surrounded by a ring of attached circular gold danglers that would have reflected the sun and shimmered with dappling light. Size: 2″ in diameter (5.1 cm); 4.25″ H (10.8 cm) on included custom stand. Gold quality: 83% gold or equivalent to ~20K.

The Moche Decapitator God was one of the most important guises of Ai Apaec – the primary deity of the Moche. Here he is depicted as a ferocious half-human, half-jaguar mythological being with a bloodthirsty open mouth presenting sharp fangs, flaring nostrils, fur or a plumed headdress upon his head, and large, boldly delineated eyes projecting a fierce countenance. He holds a tumi or ritual sacrificial knife in his right hand and the head of his latest victim in his left.

At the peak of the Moche societal heirarchy warrior-priests reigned supreme. These men presided over sacrificial rituals in which prisoners of war were decapitated and dismembered. Following this ceremony the victim’s blood was voraciously imbibed. Although the Moche were an illiterate culture, their art provides valuable information about this society that existed prior to Inca expansion, including not only its advanced pottery techniques and metalwork, but also its intriguing political and cultural practices as we see revealed in this piece. A fabulous example of an early Moche goldwork with one of the fiercest representations of Ai Apaec as The Decapitator God we have ever seen!

Provenance: private Hawaii, USA collection; ex-Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York, USA

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#148438
Condition
Missing one dangler; others show minor indentations. Otherwise the form is excellent, and the gold has developed a lovely warm patina. Not able to weigh, since attached to custom, museum-quality stand.

The coal wagon (recto); Study of a horse, with a second study of a horse (verso)
graphite, pen and gray ink, watercolor (recto), graphite (verso)
7 3/4 x 10 3/4 in. (19.6 x 27.3 cm)

ca. 1991, stamped “Chanel” and “Made in France”. l. 3-1/2″

Oil on cotton canvas, 1970. 1270×1067 mm; 50×42 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower right recto. Signed and titled in pencil, upper left verso.

Provenance: the Johnson Publishing Company, Inc., Chicago.

The Last Farewell is a significant painting by Dindga McCannon, made when she began to define her aesthetic in the early 1970s. Born and raised in Harlem, Dindga McCannon is a truly versatile artist; she is a painter, printmaker, fashion and jewelry designer, quilter/textile artist, author and illustrator. McCannon knew she wanted to be an artist from an early age, learning to sew from her mother and grandmother as a child. McCannon chose not to attend college to study art – instead she studied independently. She learned printmaking at Bob Blackburn’s Printmaking Workshop, and painting privately with artists Richard Mayhew, Al Hollingsworth and Charles Alston.

McCannon became a member of the Weusi Artist Collective in the late 1960s, and then was a founding member of “Where We At”, Black Women Artists, Inc. (WWA), a collective of black women artists affiliated with the Black Arts Movement. McCannon, Faith Ringgold and Kay Brown held the first WWA meeting in early 1971 in McCannon’s Brooklyn home. McCannon has also illustrated several books by Edgar White, and wrote and illustrated two books of her own, Peaches and Wilhemina Jones, Future Star. Her paintings and prints are in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Two of her paintings were exhibited in the 2017 traveling museum exhibition We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85. hooks/King-Hammond p. 157.

Property from a Private Collection, New York

SIR PETER PAUL RUBENS

Siegen 1577 – 1640 Antwerp

THE VIRGIN AND CHRIST CHILD, WITH SAINTS ELIZABETH AND JOHN THE BAPTIST

oil on panel

47⅞ by 37⅝ in.; 121.6 by 95.5 cm.

Fine green crackled celadon glaze to pear form body, with ribbon handle and a long curved spout. Cover to top. Yuan to Ming dynasty. H. 25cm (10 in.) Condition report available upon request.

Folded sheet. Diagram of Descendance. First Edition. Seal of the Library Collection of Mr. Lorenzo Zambrano.
Original binding by “Edmonds and Remnants” (spine variant A). Covers and spine are slightly worn; hardcover bound in cloth; in case, “V.R. Stoakley Cambridge”.

Garrison – Morton: 22.; Grolier/Horblit: 23b. Norman: 593. Printing and the Mind of Man: 344b.

“This, without a doubt, is the most important Biology book ever written.” Seen in: Morse Peckham’s Variorum Edition”, 1959.

Charles Darwin began writing this book on July 20th, 1858, while on holiday in Sandown, on the Isle of Wight. Darwin originally planned it as a 30-page project in order to publish it in the “Journal of the Linnean Society”. However, by winter it was evident that 30 pages wouldn’t be enough, and they’d have to be published in book form.
Darwin presented it to John Murray, who accepted it in April 1859 after reviewing the first three chapters. By September, it was completely corrected with the exception of the index. In early November, Darwin received a copy, after which, courtesy copies were sent out both locally and internationally. Only 23 courtesy copies were registered, and possibly there are more in existence than the 12 known ones. All were written by employees of John Murray, none by Darwin himself.

“On the Origin of the Species” was published for the first time on November 24th, 1859, with a limited printing of only 1250 copies, all of which sold out that same day. Darwin’s book is considered to be one of the most important books written in history; both science and religion were directly influenced by Darwin’s theories, even creating new vocabulary terms such as “Darwinism”.

Source: “The Works of Charles Darwin: An Annotated Bibliographical Handlist. Segunda edición revisada y aumentada. Freeman, Richard Broke. Dawson: Archon Books. 1977.

b) Letter Adressed to Dr. William Ogle.
“Dear Dr. Ogle many thanks for your translation of Kerner which arrived while I was away from Down for a day or two. I shall be very glad to read it again in a Christian language, I have not yet had time to look at it as Frank was using it…”.
Written by Emma Darwin and signed by Charles Darwin. Dated “Dec 2 / 78″ written in pencil on the upper left-hand side, slightly erased. 7.2 x 4.4″ (18.3 x 11.3 cm).
– Includes: Envelope, 2.9 x 5.2” (7.6 x 13.3 cm). Addressed to Dr. Ogle. Signed by Charles Darwin on the lower left-hand side.
Pieces: 2.

Total Number of Pieces: 3.

Spalding National League baseball signed by a number of people involved with the film The Pride of the Yankees; lightly soiled overall, some signatures rubbed and faded, a couple of scuffs, including one below Ruth’s signature. Mounted on an ink blotter marked The Pride of the Yankees | Compliments of Christy Walsh.”

Frank Cory was a Hollywood studio guard in the 1920s to 1940s who became friendly with Gary Cooper. Cooper starred as Lou Gehrig in the 1942 film The Pride of the Yankees, and arranged for others involved in the film to join him in signing this ball for Cory. Gehrig’s widow inscribed the ball “with appreciation Eleanor Gehrig.” It is also signed by Babe Ruth and Bill Dickey, two of Gehrig’s teammates who played themselves in the movie; Babe Herman, a left-handed major-leaguer who doubled in some scenes for the right-handed Cooper; co-star Walter Brennan; director Sam Wood; and producer Sam Goldwyn. Christy Walsh was babe Ruth’s agent.