A Spectrum of Art Glass at Heritage: New York, Dec. 4, 2010

Auction will feature Property from the estate of Shirley Jacobs Alter of Beaumont, Texas

NEW YORK -- A ‘perfect storm’ of superb consignments from three collections have combined to make the Dec. 4 Heritage Auctions Signature® Lalique, Art Glass and Perfume Bottles Auction one of the premiere Decorative Arts auctions of the season, taking place at The Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion (Ukrainian Institute), 2 East 79^th Street (at 5^th Ave.).

“This is one of the finest glass auctions I’ve ever worked on,” said Nick Dawes, Consignment Director at Heritage and well-known Antiques Roadshow personality, who has been organizing glass auctions for more than 30 years. “This auction represents the confluence of two amazing estates, one composed entirely of Lalique and the other featuring Lalique and perfume bottles assembled over 40 years by Shirley Jacobs Alter of Beaumont, TX.”

These two estates are being combined with an extraordinary collection of Daum and Gallé from a Southern California estate, the second half of an old Gallé collection featuring a ‘Jeanne d’Arc’ artistic tour-de-force, a lifetime collection of French art glass from Long Island and an impressive collection of Lalique hood ornaments, all from American private collectors. Add to this a New Jersey estate that yielded fine American art glass and a rare Lalique perfume bottle among the many gems, and the auction becomes a more-than-400 lot celebratory survey of art glass sure to capture collector attention at the highest levels.

The Saturday, Dec. 4 auction will be offered in two sessions beginning at 3 p.m. EST.

“One of the best things about Roadshow is getting to meet collectors from all corners of the country, some of whom have been dormant for decades,” said Dawes, whose first annual auction devoted to French art glass at Heritage debuted last December. “Now it’s had a direct impact on an important auction at Heritage.”

Last June Dawes was in San Diego, where Roadshow kicked off its summer season. An exquisite art glass collection surfaced that had been assembled mostly in the 1970s.

“That was when you could still buy this kind of thing reasonably,” said Dawes. “This is an assortment of mostly ‘cabinet size’ French glass vases, painted and decorated in cameo overlay by Daum and Gallé during the Belle Epoque, an extraordinary thing to see. This is a collector who has quite an eye, and appears to be very discerning about condition and overall quality.”

Highlights of the group include 8:53 AM 11/17/2010several rare ‘Rain’ vases, decorated with rainy landscape scenes, produced by Daum about 1900, and a strong variety of landscape vessels, coupled with tiny vases of exceptional form.

In addition to this fabulous selection, the auction will feature the second half of a private Galle and Thomas Webb collection held for decades in a southern state, first offered – with great success – earlier this year in May, all of which was purchased in France in the late 1960s and ‘70s. It features two ‘blow-out’ vases, and a virtuoso ‘Jeanne D’Arc’ overlay vase.

The art glass session is completed by some early artistic Gallé from a New Jersey estate and a fine group of Gallé and Daum assembled over 25 years by a New York collector who is planning to retire and relocate. This latter group includes more than 20 pieces of cameo glass, notably a monumental vase by Daum and several of the popular ‘tall- neck’ solifleur vases by Gallé together with an unusual artistic early Galle’ vase in bright green glass.

The art of Rene’ Lalique is represented in more than two hundred lots to be offered in the second session beginning at 6 p.m., much of it at little or no reserve, in what promises to be the finest Lalique auction held in New York since the 1990s.

“The auction includes something for virtually every taste and budget,” said Dawes, “with estimates ranging from $200 to more than $40,000.”

Further highlights include a large selection of vases in colored and opalescent glass from the inter-war years, notably a superb example of the deep amber ‘Serpent’ vase, a rare deep blue ‘Thibet’ vase from the Alter estate with applied handles, and a deep amber ‘Gros Scarabees’ vase found recently on Long Island. Other notable lots include a rare pair of ‘Danseuses’ table lamps from 1931, a ‘Raquel Mellor’ perfume bottle, a deep opalescent ‘Suzanne’ statuette found in the New Jersey estate, 15 automobile mascots, including a superb ‘Victoire’ and several amethyst- tinted rarities such as ‘Grenouille,’ ‘Pintade’ and ‘Grande Libellule,’

Heritage Auctions, headed by Steve Ivy, Jim Halperin and Greg Rohan, is the world’s third largest auction house, with annual sales more than $600 million, and 500,000+ registered online bidder members. For more information about Heritage Auctions, and to join and gain access to a complete record of prices realized, along with full-color, enlargeable photos of each lot, please visit HA.com.

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