The Time for Martignette is now! Elvgren, Vargas, Leyendecker and Rockwell ready for the block

July 14, 2009

Posted by Noah

Try as I might, I just can't make myself sick of The Charles Martignette Estate. I've written about the incredible 4300 piece collection, and been back and forth to our Slocum Street location a few miles from Heritage HQ here on Maple Avenue in Dallas, and I simply have not tired of seeing these incredible canvases. The first auction from the collection - a mere smidge of the total at around 400 pieces - will go on the block tomorrow afternoon at 1 p.m. Dallas time. The auction floor, literal and virtual, should be packed, and the bidding should be intense. Most of these pieces have never been offered on the open market before and I, for one, expect a free-for-all.

Have I mentioned how much I love this stuff? And to further sweeten the pot -as if it could be any sweeter than seeing Elvgrens, Vargas, Rockwells, Leyendeckers, Cornwells, Bolles and Morans up close and personal - and as a compliment to the coverage the collection and tomorrow's auction have already gotten in the antiques, art and auction press, the Associated Press Dallas's Jamie Stengle wrote an excellent article currently making its way to thousands of outlets around the world. It's a good piece that explores Martignette's "quirkiness" as she put it, but also his simply amazing collection.

Here's a link to the article, and a taste of what she wrote: "Charles Martignette's love of illustration art had largely gone unseen, an incredible collection tucked away in storage rooms and a sprawling warehouse before his death. But as auctioneers prepare for an expected $20 million sale, thousands of pieces of art — from scantily clad pinup girls to wholesome works by Norman Rockwell — will come out of the dust.

"Martignette's roughly 4,300 pieces of art will be up for bidding during a series of auctions at Heritage Auction Galleries in Dallas beginning Wednesday, just more than a year after he died at age 57. Auctions will continue over the next two years with some pieces expected to draw tens of thousands of dollars each.

"He was at the very forefront of collecting this type of material. He was very quirky, very eccentric, but he was also very clever. What he ended up with was the very best examples," said Edward Jaster, Heritage's vice president.

Thanks Jamie!

If you still haven't had a chance to see the art yet, I do heartily recommend that you follow this link to the auction and spend some time familiarizing yourself with the work; you'll be seeing a lot more of it in the future, and the value will only rise. There will never be another collection like this, or a provenance as unimpeachable.

I mean, think about it: The collection is worth $20 million. Can you even begin to imagine how many pieces of art that is? Or how much space it took to store it?... It's mind-boggling to say the least, and a lot of fun to hear from the folks here at Heritage who were among those who waded in to his warehouses after his death. The boxes and such were, literally, piled to the ceiling, packed like sardines. Not even Martignette knew anymore what exactly was in there. He may be dead now, but his legacy will be lasting and important.

Last but not least, as we wait for the auction tomorrow, I want to say goodbye to the painting above here, James Avati's masterpiece for the cover of Christopher Isherwood's Goodbye Berlin, the book that became the musical and the movie Cabaret. It is the one piece, above every single one, that I covet the most and would do anything for. Had I an extra $10K or so sitting around, or if my longed-for suitcase of money shows up, then there would be no contest for it. The bidding is already above $6,000, so I'm obviously not the only one to recognize the genius of this painting and thus, alas, it will not be so, unless a sympathetic blog reader decides I am worth getting such a gift. And I am...I am...

I love this painting for a lot of reasons, none of which I have room to write about here. Suffice it to say, she's beautiful and looks like a cool lady and a ton of fun. Had I a time machine, I would go back to 1950s Berlin and find her, and make her mine, which I have about as much chance of doing as I do of being able to buy this painting tomorrow. A bloger can dream, though, can't he?

To leave a comment, click on the title of this post.

-Noah Fleisher

Coin Monday: Matte Proof Gold, taken with a grain of sand

July 13, 2009
Posted by John Dale

U.S. coinage designs evolved rapidly during the early 20th century, creating a complex web of changes that broke up the Mint Engravers’ oligopoly on hard money motifs.

In 1905 just three designers – Christian Gobrecht, James B. Longacre and Charles Barber – could be credited with circulating coinage designs struck that year, and the first two were long dead. By the end of 1921 their designs were done, swept away by creations from artists outside the Mint. (A recent and excellent treatment of the time period is Roger W. Burdette’s Renaissance of American Coinage trilogy; together, the three books are among my most-consulted cataloging references, and for good reason.)

These rapid shifts brought with them a number of challenges, including the question of how to strike proofs, the carefully prepared, sharply struck, and all-around special versions of workaday coins.

The “first wave” of new designs, the gold denominations as re-imagined by Bela Lyon Pratt and Augustus Saint-Gaudens, was not well-suited to the mirrored-field (or brilliant) style of proof coinage to which collectors were accustomed. To find a solution, U.S. Mint officials used the time-honored tactic of cribbing from Europe, where the matte proof, as exemplified by this 1912-dated Saint-Gaudens double eagle, was highly popular as a finish for medals. The matte proof is named for the non-reflective quality of the surfaces though Burdette prefers the term sandblast proof, a reference to the sandblasting that gives matte proofs their finely granular texture.

The logic behind a matte proof is that since there is no flashy luster or shine to distract the viewer, the focus is going to be on the design. Unfortunately for those who championed the matte proof in the United States the switch from brilliant to matte was jarring enough to stir complaints, and appeals to sophistication and technical necessity went largely unheard. The controversy surrounding matte proofs was one of several reasons why proof coinage was suspended in 1916. Even today, while the matte proofs of yesteryear are revered, they are an acquired taste for most collectors (myself included!), and after proof production resumed in 1936 as a response to the increasing popularity of coin collecting, brilliant proofs were the rule.

With an understanding of what matte proofs are, though, an exquisitely preserved specimen offers a vaguely exotic but undeniable beauty. The aforementioned focus on the design is particularly welcome in the case of the Saint-Gaudens eagles and double eagles, which are often praised as among the most beautiful American coins.

In 1912, sales of the matte proof double eagle amounted to just 74 pieces, and today survivors are distinctly rare. These elusive and lovely coins may not shine in person, but in the eyes of many collectors, their reputation has plenty of luster.

To leave a comment, click on the title of this post.

-John Dale

When Coins and Fireballs Collide

July 10, 2009
Posted by John Dale

February 20, 2009: the Heritage blog had been up for a little less than a month and a half. At the invitation of Noah Fleisher, Keeper of the Blog, I dashed off a few hundred words about what it’s like to be a coin cataloger. As the first guest blogger, I opened with a bit of snark: “The Noah Fleisher monopoly on the Heritage blog has ended!”

Just over three months later, when Noah told me he was going on vacation for a week, he extended another invitation to me: to take over blogging duties for the whole stretch. It seemed like an awesome challenge in every sense of the word, and I accepted. I knew I would have to push beyond coins, so I took a trip through the various auctions and previews on the Heritage site; rather than letting Noah make the discoveries and deliver them to me, I had to seek them out myself.

Looking back at that first blog post, I ended it with “I’m a firm believer that no collector has only one hobby!” I spoke from personal experience. While I appreciate the inherent awesomeness of the Thomas Nast political cartoon and the program from the first Masters, neither inspires me to pursue more of their kind. My second collection, small but growing, is of fantasy art. It’s an offshoot of my other big hobby: I’m a gamer, passionate about tabletop role-playing and card games as well as video games. (Obligatory Q&A: Have I played Dungeons & Dragons? Yes, and chances are pretty good I own more 20-sided dice than you do.)

Here at work, everyone knows I am a gamer. On the wall of my workspace is a poster of an impressionistic wheat field, not wrought in the 19th century by Pissarro or Monet to hang on a wall forever, but by a gifted contemporary fantasy illustrator, John Avon, to appear on thousands of one of the most common Magic: the Gathering cards, the Plains; it is no less beautiful in its ubiquity. The wallpaper on my computer is a black-and-white screenshot from an online game I play, Final Fantasy XI, of a hushed snowscape with a moon rising over a tree-lined cliff, a scene as serenely elegant as an Ansel Adams photograph.

When a Comics and Comic Art auction is coming up, like the one scheduled for August, I devour the previews; when there isn’t an image of the Fred Fields TSR module cover “Mind Flayer” up, I beg and plead with the cataloger for a taste of how it looks, and when I see a J.P. Targete painting of an orc, posed in his savage regalia against a backdrop of war-tents, only one word comes to mind: Cool.

Mr. Targete is a wildly talented illustrator of both science fiction and fantasy; I highly recommend checking out his official gallery. (Content caution: contains images of dragon-on-dragon violence and mild female nudity. I know several of our Illustration Art customers just thought, “What’s wrong with that?!”) He’s one of my more recent “discoveries,” if you will, an artist I vaguely knew about but didn’t fully appreciate since he spent some time as a concept artist working on projects I never encountered.

Nowadays, however, I am officially a full-on fanboy. Also falling in the recent-discovery camp is the family Froud; two of Brian Froud’s illustrations, “Dawn Fairy” and Goblin, are part of Heritage’s July 15 Illustration Art auction. Keep checking Heritage’s auctions and previews for more fine fantasy art and other treats for a diverse array of collecting tastes!

-John Dale

Coin Thursday: The Little Princess

July 9, 2009
Posted by John Dale

As I was growing up, one of my favorite books was an English translation of The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. My first memories of The Little Prince were of it being read to me, but I curled up with it on my own while I was still completely a child.

In high school, in college, and as a working writer, I read and re-read it, and each time two thoughts came to me: “How did I understand so much so soon?” and “How much will I never understand?” Like the Prince’s single rose, the story continues to unfold for me, and even as I learn and comprehend, the next layer beckons. I have no doubt that when I am old enough to be called either wise or a doddering fool, The Little Prince will be there for me, as simple and as complex as it ever was, never having lost its power to inspire and surprise me.

About the same time as my first rediscovery of The Little Prince, my passion for coins really took hold, and The Little Prince was counterbalanced by the “Little Princess,” more formally identified as the 1841 quarter eagle, a coin prominently featured in our August Los Angeles Auction.

Here’s a questions that’s been bandied about by many a numismatist: “If you could have any coin in the world, what would it be?” For several years, “an 1841 quarter eagle” would have been my answer.

As I grew up, my answer became a touch more mercenary: I would get an example of the “King of American Coins,” sell that 1804 dollar, buy my 1841 quarter eagle, and enjoy many more great coins with the rest of the proceeds. Still, the 1804 dollar is only the means to the end. Even today, the 1841 quarter eagle tops my list of dream coins.

With so many other wonderful coins out there, why did the 1841 quarter eagle capture my imagination? Pinning down one reason is impossible. There was a touch of Red Book mystique to it; it was a proof issue listed before the Red Book said there were proofs! (This was before I researched early proof coins and realized that yes, the Mint made many proof issues before 1858, just not in large and relatively well-defined quantities.)

It tied into my fascination and mild bewilderment with proof-only issues, when my child-mind would laugh at the silly grown-ups who would make “special” coins without remembering to make ordinary ones first.

The 1841 quarter eagle also happens to be highly elusive, with between 15 and 18 extant, though I do not know how well I truly comprehended such rarity back then. Maybe it really was the nickname above all else, the idea of having a “Little Princess” to call my own in the years before I was ready to claim a more famous coin.

I may be older now, but my love for the Little Princess remains. As with The Little Prince, how did I understand so much so soon, and how much will I never understand?

-John Dale Beety

Getting with the Program: A Golf Latecomer's Take on the First Masters

July 8, 2009
Posted by John Dale

I’ve enjoyed watching sports all my life, though my attempts to actually play said sports outside intramural competition ended in sixth grade, when I acquired costochondritis on the cross-country course and compiled an 0-6 record in wrestling. Unsurprisingly for an Indiana kid, basketball excited me most, but I also enjoyed watching football, baseball, and the occasional potluck pick from "sports rarely seen outside the gymnasium or the Olympics." Golf was more take-it-or-leave-it; compared to the constant motion and energy of basketball, the comparatively staid golf broadcasts rarely held my 7-year-old or even 10-year-old interest.

That changed for me on April 13, 1997, a date golf fans know well for the final round of the 1997 Masters; after a decent first round on Thursday and two utterly brilliant rounds on Friday and Saturday, a 21-year-old Tiger Woods had all but put on his first green jacket. There was an excitement around golf and Tiger, an energy I hadn’t seen before in the galleries. The announcers were talking about “the future of golf,” and looking back on the past dozen years from the perspective of 2009, that future has come true in ways few could have dreamed of.

Certainly, the phenomenon of Tiger Woods could not have approached the mind of Bobby Jones on the eve of the “First Augusta National Invitation” Tournament, an event now universally recognized as the first instance of The Masters. Horton Smith won that first event, as well as the third in 1936. Many traditions have sprung up around The Masters, but one that has not survived is the official program; it was produced in 1934 and 1935 but then discontinued. Examples of the 1934 program, like this recent discovery in our upcoming September Signature Sports Memorabilia Auction, number only about a dozen, and whenever they come up for auction, the passion golf fans have for their sport—a passion that often confines itself to light clapping on the course—can come alive.

To be sure, the condition of this program isn’t perfect; like all pieces of paper ephemera, this program was meant to be used and then kept as a souvenir or disposed of as the owner pleased. The cataloger notes “moderate cover wear, including splitting at the spine,” but elsewhere, there is nothing but praise for the program; the staples are firmly attached to the pages, and the interior quality is remarkable; comparing the white inside pages with the back cover is quite the revelation. (Speaking of which…how about that advertisement on the back cover? It’s the “Monroe Adding-Calculator,” complete with 1930s office girl and potshots at FDR’s New Deal labor reforms. It definitely hits my threshold for retro-cool.)

Beyond rarity or condition, though, it’s simply awesome to imagine where this program might have been, what shots it might have seen as it was held by an unknown spectator in the gallery as the crack of persimmon-wood drivers sent balls sailing through the air.

-John Dale Beety

In Nast We…Trust? A hidden gem in the July 15 Illustration Art Auction

July 7, 2009
Posted by John Dale

Across the wide expanse of American history, there are many newsmakers (and many more behind-the-scenes toilers!) who have influenced its course, but only a relative handful –a few hundred, no more than a thousand – that have become so celebrated that they land in the pages of the average eighth-grade history textbook. Most of these names fall into well-defined classes: the pioneer, the president, the symbol of the times.

A few idiosyncratic folks, however, forge their own paths; the name that stuck out to me most as I sat in Mrs. Schwering’s class was Thomas Nast, the caricaturist popularly known as the creator of the modern political cartoon (Let’s not forget he also gave us the modern image of Santa Claus! – Noah).

In that sense Nast, too, was a pioneer; while he certainly was not the first political cartoonist (if you disagree, Benjamin Franklin’s JOIN, OR DIE snake and Gilbert Stuart’s Gerrymander would like to have a word with you), he was notable for his long-range campaigning and consistency, using his cartoons in Harper’s Weekly to hammer repeatedly at foes.

His most famous target was “Boss” Tweed, the infamously corrupt leader of New York’s Tammany Hall political machine and himself a symbol of the Gilded Age. Tweed’s displeasure with Nast has grown to legendary proportions, including the (apocryphal?) line about how voters might not be able to read, but they couldn’t help seeing Nast’s “pictures” in the paper – a strange way of putting it since many of Nast’s early cartoons were heavy on text as well as their more famous imagery.

“Boss” Tweed was convicted and died in prison, but Nast was not done crusading. Even after Nast and Harper’s Weekly parted ways – a split that was mutually disastrous – Nast continued to craft his cartoons, which gradually became simpler and more closely resembled the political cartoon as it appears today.

In style if not in content, his cartoon in our July 15 Illustration Art Auction, The Fat and the Lean Issue, could have been created today: the corpulent and coin-headed effigy of the pig iron trust holds a bar of his own manufacture, which weighs down on a pick-toting man (who looks suspiciously like a Rough Rider-era Theodore Roosevelt) already “shouldering” a war tax. In true political cartooning fashion, the only subtlety in this work is the delicately sketched background, with its smokestacks and house-on-the-hill.

Small but powerful, important but surprisingly affordable (with an opening bid of $400), this cartoon represents a slice of journalism history that may be more than a century old but hardly seems dated.

-John Dale

Coin Monday: The 246

July 6
Posted by John Dale

(I am away on vacation this week – not that this will bother many of you, sniff sniff, sob sob – and have left the Heritage blog in the capable hands of our favorite young numismatist, John Dale. Those of us here at Heritage fortunate enough to deal with John Dale on a common basis share two things: we are quite fond of him and recognize the considerable talent he has at the tender age of 24. Working with him on this blog has made me aware not only of John Dale’s keen intellect and sharp humor, but also that he is a man of many interests and a flat out good writer, no matter the subject. All this week you’ll get to sample John Dale’s work across the spectrum of his existence. You’ll see that his taste is as varied as his talent and his eye for great collectibles so much more than just coins. Many thanks John Dale! – Noah Fleisher)

John Dale Beety here. As Noah has pointed out, I'm taking over the blog for the week. Beyond that, though, the routine isn't changing much, so I'm going to start things off with a Coin Monday.

Many of the greatest rarities in U.S. coinage have come from potentially illicit (or at least dubious) origins. An example is the 1913-dated Liberty Head nickel, which appeared suddenly in the form of five mysterious examples first owned and displayed by Samuel Brown, who never explained how 1913-dated nickels were produced bearing a design that ended in 1912. (Mr. Brown’s employment at the Mint during 1912 and 1913 has provided endless fodder for speculation.)

Other rarities – to give a modern paraphrase to any number of old-time researchers – are all-natural. One issue that has been singled out as such since its rediscovery is the 1854-S quarter eagle. Its origins are in the California Gold Rush, and it came about through an unusual combination of supply and demand.

The need for actual federal coinage was obvious, and the United States started to alleviate the shortage, first through the issues of the United States Assay office, and later through its evolution into the San Francisco Mint, which began formal operations in 1854. As the San Francisco Mint, it produced coins that were identical to those struck at Philadelphia, except for the “S” mintmark on their reverses. That first year, though, the San Francisco Mint struck only 246 quarter eagles. Because this feels like a Battle of Thermopylae sort of day, I’ll go ahead and call them… The 246. (For all the Frank Miller graphic novel devotees and source-material movie fanatics out there, sorry, but this is as close as you’re going to get for a reference.)

Like the Spartans at Thermopylae, The 246 had assistance in its battle against the coinage shortage: gold dollars, a similarly small group of half eagles, and much larger mintages of eagles and double eagles. Gold dollars passed for small change in the context of 1850s California, and eagles and double eagles were convenient for transport; mid-range denominations like the quarter eagle and half eagle simply fell through the cracks and were not ordered in quantity. Any gold struck by the Mint quickly went into circulation, though, and that included the quarter eagle.

The 246 were no match for the hundreds of thousands of miners, merchants, and settlers in California. For a number of years, the 1854-S quarter eagle was thought to be lost completely, though a well-worn example turned up in 1910, and 11 more have appeared in the near-century since, giving The 246 a dozen more survivors than The 300.

The 1854-S quarter eagle is the crown jewel in the R.M. Phillips Limited Partnership Collection, a remarkable collection focused on the denomination that includes many early rarities and the prized proof-only 1841 quarter eagle, the “Little Princess” – but that’s a story for another day.

-John Dale Beety

For love of The Declaration of Independence

July 3, 2009

Posted by Noah

(I will be on vacation next week, and John Dale Beety will be ably holding down the fort here at the Heritage Blog. I have no doubt you are in capable, creative hands. Have a safe and happy 4th of July, remember to thank our American forefathers, whose dream has come true in ways they would have never believed. In honor of those great men, and the greatest writer among them - Sorry Mr. Adams - I humbly submit to you the opening of The Declaration of Independence, written by the one and only Thomas Jefferson. It is some of my favorite writing on the planet; words of which I can never tire. -Noah Fleisher)

"When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

-Posted by Noah Fleisher, written by Thomas Jefferson

This just in: Holden Caufield to remain 16 for the foreseeable future, in the U.S. at least…

July 2, 2009
Posted by Noah

Yesterday, July 1, was a victory for novelist and notorious recluse J.D. Salinger when a U.S. District Court Judge ruled that 60 Years Later: Coming Through The Rye, an “update” of the character of Holden Caufield some six decades later as an old man, cannot be published or distributed in the U.S.

The writer of the book, a Swede with the pen name John David California, is understandably taken aback, but – as the New York Times reports – the judge makes a pretty clear case. The book, says the judge, is not a “critical parody” of Catcher, but rather, simply a copyright infringement. No soup for you!

I can’t really provide you with a look at the now, uh… is banned the right word? Banned? Do we ban books still in this country?... Um… Blocked! The now blocked book because I’m not sure if it’s legal. I can, though give a link to a very beautiful first edition hardcover of the original Catcher in the Rye, sold here at Heritage last October for the reasonable sum of just more than $4,000.

The thing is, California’s book has already been published outside the United States, most notably in England – where I’m sure there aren’t any copies left on the bookshelves today. Does the ruling mean you can’t buy the book overseas and bring it back to America? Can you order it from a foreign book dealer and have them ship it? Is there a charge if you’re busted with it? These are all questions best answered by someone with a hint of a clue. For now, though, you just have me.

I’m not one of those writers who slavishly bow at the feet of Catcher In The Rye, though it is without doubt one of the greatest American novels ever written. Salinger’s prose is mellifluous and his ability to convey Holden’s melancholy and joy at watching his beloved little sister ride the Carousel in Central Park is heartbreaking; it’s a seminal moment in modern fiction and makes me a little lightheaded just thinking about it, like the first few sips of a really good scotch.

It would be easy to wax poetic about Salinger and his book for a good 500 words, but it’s been done. I understand Mr. California’s consternation, especially if he thought he was writing something completely original, even though it was obviously about characters created by another person, and a judge just took away what would have surely been a mint in readers and promotional appearances.

Facts is facts, though, and no one in their right mind would think someone like Salinger – who has gone to great lengths in the almost 60 years since Catcher’s publication to protect both his work and his privacy – would simply let this go with just a summary thumbs up or thumbs down.

In fact, if you take a few moments to read an interview California did with The U.K. Guardian earlier this year, it’s pretty clear that his intention was never critical parody. It’s also clear that he rather sanguinely hopes to get a positive response from Salinger and assumes there’s a chance the author could also be upset by it. Um… No and yes, respectively, Mr. California.

"Maybe he will get upset, but I'm hoping he will be pleased," said California in the interview, May 14, 2009. "I'm not trying to lure him out of hiding – maybe he wants his privacy [but] it would be fun for me to hear what he thinks about this, and if he's pleased with the way I've portrayed Holden Caulfield and his future."

The writer, Alison Flood, rather presciently then ends with this: “Perhaps California shouldn't hold his breath for a fairytale ending.”

It’s safe to say that Mr. California has his answer from both Salinger and The United States. As for that fairytale ending? I wouldn’t say he didn’t get one, I’d say it just happens to be a Grimm’s fairytale ending. If you’ve ever read them then you know how so many of them end, and it’s rarely pretty.

-Noah Fleisher

Even blogs need a break

July 1, 2009

The Heritage Blog is taking a day off. It is a little tired and wants to sit by the pool, even if it is one of those blow-up kiddie pools, or the big plastic kind it had when it was a kid... Man, those summers were hot...

Never fear, however, the blog will be back tomorrow.