Auction Life's Feb. 17 Whimsical Worldly Wonders Winter Auction has 367 Lots of Fresh Florida Finds

2025-01-07 01:25:44 Art & Entertainment

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West Palm Beach, FL, USA, January 30, 2021 -- Auction Life?s upcoming Whimsical Worldly Wonders Winter Auction slated for Wednesday, February 17th, is loaded with 367 lots of fresh-to-the-market Florida finds, to include vintage and antique jewelry, art, porcelain, antiques, collectibles, art glass, artifacts, sculptures, perfumes, crystal and more. The sale will begin at 4 pm Eastern time.

The auction is mostly online, but with limited live seating available in the gallery (an RSVP is required). An exhibition period is to be announced, and gallery previews will be by appointment only, with strict COVID-19 protocols in place. Internet bidding will be via LiveAuctioneers.com, Invaluable.com and Auctionzip.com. Telephone and absentee (or left) bids will also be accepted.

An expected headliner lot is a rare suite of ten original mixed media impressions by Salvador Dali (1904-1989), titled Imaginations and Objects of the Future (est. $12,500-$22,500). The set is a limited edition (#60 of 250), printed on Arches paper in 1975-1976, and each work is hand-signed and numbered in pencil by Dali. The suite has been in a box, untouched, since the 1970s.

Included in the lot is a unique custom wooden Dali case with hard-to-find Dali stand. Everything is original and all sheets are loose as issued. The first one measures 30 ? inches by 22 inches. A few titles are Liquid and Gaseous Television, Breathing Pneumatic Armchair, Cybernatic Lobster Telephone, Intra-Uterine Paradesiac Locomotion and Liquid Tornado Bathtub.

?How exciting it is to have a bona fide suite by one of the masters of surrealism, Salvador Dali,? said Tarek Eljabaly, owner of Auction Life. ?It was also interesting to see new world technology and experts try to solve an old art mystery.? He was referring to another artwork in the auction, a figural landscape oil painting attributed to Joos de Momper the Younger (Flemish, 1564-1635).

The work was previously ascribed to the Dutch landscape painter Jan Van Goyen (1596-1656), but recent inspection and research by I.F.A.R. in New York City concluded the painting's style, materials and composition were consistent with a Dutch or Flemish landscape executed in the first quarter of the 17th century, and that it bore a greater affinity with the works of Joos de Momper. ?Our consignor recalled that her late mother, Holocaust survivor Edith Alexander, was told the same thing some years before when she submitted the painting to Christie?s,? Tarek said.

After a month-long search, the consignor was able to find a letter from Ian Kennedy, Senior Vice President of Old Master Paintings at Christie?s, dated December 19th, 1985, in which he was seeking to include the painting in their April 1985 sale. ?Concerned that someone was trying to cheat her out of her ?Van Goyen?, Mrs. Alexander chose to decline the invitation,? Tarek said.

In 2010, Mrs. Alexander sought professional services to sell her artwork collection and was visited at her Queens, New York home by one of the Keno brothers and a friend from Sotheby?s. ?Her daughter is unsure as to which Keno brother, but recalls that he had allergies and requested that no perfumes be worn the day of his visit, a tough feat for Mrs. Alexander,? Tarek remarked.

While the two were not interested in the majority of her artwork (which was later sold at Hudson Valley Auctioneers), they were very interested in featuring this piece (but not as a Van Goyen). Unfortunately, even their $30,000 estimate would not shake Mrs. Alexander of the feeling that someone might be trying to get her for her ?Van Goyen? and she declined that invitation as well.

To schedule an appointment, or to RSVP for limited seating at the live venue in the West Palm Beach area, please call Auction Life at (561) 757-1551; or, send an email to auctionlifeflorida@gmail.com. For more info, log on to www.AuctionLifeFlorida.com.