This shell-shaped dish you see before you, while not really an ashtray, was used as one by one Sir Winston Churchill. Heard of him?
The 200-year-old dish was used by Churchill while at a dining club function at London’s Savoy Hotel. The tray fetched $7,000 at auction. Guess it’s time we started saving someone else’s ashtray….
Lehman Brothers is no more but their art collection is about to go on the auction block. Lehman’s was noted for their amazing art collection and they had some of the most renowned artists lining their hallways and several hundred pieces
Lehman Brothers art collection goes to auction.
will be finding new homes on 1 November 09.
The auction showcases modern and contemporary art with works by Andy Warhol, Alexander Calder, David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein and others. The art being sold is estimated to be in the $500,000 to $750,000 range. Proceeds will go towards any creditors.
If contemporary art isn’t your fancy, on 6 December 09, Freeman‘s will sell off 30 lots of European fine paintings from the Lehman collection.
Additionally, another 500+ lots will go to auction on 12 February 2010.
~~ Raine Devries
Noted auction house, Bonhams & Butterfields, tried to find a happy home for a dinosaur skeleton this past Saturday;
Samson, the Tyrannosaurus Rex, is still up for sale.
however, it was one of 17 lots that didn’t move at the Natural History Auction at the Venetian in Las Vegas.
The auction house had hoped to sell the 40-foot tall 66-million-year-old Tyronnosaurus Rex for an estimated $6 million (his name is “Samson” by the way). By the time the day was done though, only 60% of the items had moved.
Samson is the third most complete T. Rex ever pulled from the ground and is one of four known T. rex specimens which display characteristics that set it apart from other examples of the species.”
Samson was the first T. rex to come on the scene since 1997, when Sotheby‘s auctioned Sue, a dinosaur of similar size. The Field Museum in Chicago picked her up for a record $8.36 million – a price that still has not been topped. Sue is considered to be the largest and most complete T. rex ever excavated.
Vintage luggage expresses the decadence and glamour of yesteryear when travels to exotic locales evoked style, romance, and adventure.
Every now and again, certain pieces will make themselves known at auctions and that is when the Vintage Luggage
The Vintage Luggage Company specializes in rare pieces.
Company in Germany makes their appearance. By having one of the world’s most detailed collections by the likes of Goyard, Vuitton, and Hermes, which they will have professionally crated and shipped worldwide to discerning clients.
Amongst the collection are are a 1920′s Vuitton desk trunk which will convert to a writing table complete with typewriter.
Another trunk, circa 1925, has a full set of plates, cutlery, and cooking equipment (each nestled within it’s own bespoke leather case).
So if you are already thinking about the holidays and what to get for that impossible to buy for person, definitely check out the Vintage Luggage Company.
Humanitarian Barbra Streisand is working with celebrity auctioneers Julien’s Auctions to sell off some personal belongings for charity.
Streisand’s auction will take places October 17th and 18th at the Beverly Hilton with all proceeds of the sales going to the Streisand Foundation.
The auction will feature over 400 lots with such offerings as costumes, paintings, photographs and even Native American baskets.
France’s esteemed Chateau Cheval Blanc is auctioning off rare vintages right from the cellar through 
Sotheby’s next month. On June 17 at Sotheby’s London, collectors can get their hands on over 1,000 bottles from nearly a century of vintages including the 1921, 1928, 1947 and 1949 being sold by the chateau. Each comes in an original wooden case. Older vintages (1900 to 1976 )were recently re-labelled and re-capsuled at Cheval Blanc. Some of the older bottles have been recorked and sometimes topped up with a wine of the same vintage over the past few decades. Serena Sutcliffe MW, International Head of Wine at Sotheby’s, is quoted in the press release as sayiing: “We are honoured to be offering this unique collection of Cheval Blanc that has never before left the cellars at the Château. Cheval Blanc is a wine like no other. It has opulence, finesse and enormous originality.”
The various lots includes a number of verticals including one of over 30 bottles covering 60 years from 1905 that is estimated at £15,000 – 20,000. Château Cheval Blanc dates from 1832 when the first part of what is now the Cheval Blanc estate was acquired from the Figeac estate. The won medals in the London and Paris International Exhibitions in 1862 and 1867 that are still displayed on the labels today. Château Cheval Blanc is one of only two St Emilion Châteaux to be awarded the top Class A classification. No matter what the economy may be doing, I suspect wine collectors will be coming out of the woodwork for this one.
If you’ve got vintage wine to sell your best customers just might be a half a world away. Xinhua reveals in Beijing an auction of fine French wine did very well this week. The auction sold around 1,000 bottles of 
Bordeaux from famous chateaux ranging from Lafite to Margaux and Mouton. The wines were shipped directly from chateaux in France and are currently stored in Hong Kong. Around 94 percent of all bottles listed were sold with the bulk of the buyers planning to sample them themselves rather than sell or cellar them for investment purposes.
The wines were chosen by French wine expert Claude Maratier and all were given more than 90 points by Robert Parker. After the auction, Maratier told Xinhua that he was “very satisfied” with the result. Given that Bordeaux first growth Chateau Lafite is working on a vineyard in China, the Chinese may be soon producing greater quality wine but for now, their growing appetite for fine wine is Bordeaux’s blessing.
Beautiful and eccentric Doris Duke was once the world’s richest woman and her belongings have beget many an auction since her death in 1993. 
The latest is a two-day auction of property from her estate being held by Millea Bros. Ltd. Auctions & Appraisals at the Morristown Armory in Morristown, N.J. The auction will include 846 lots of objects that Doris Duke collected and lived with, including pieces from her collections of European furniture and decorative objects, silver, fine art, carpets, Asian art, lighting, draperies, statuary and automobiles.
The auction’s lots are created in an arrangement based on the Main Residence at Duke Farms. The auction catalog groups items under categories from the Crystal Room to the Hollywood Wing. Prices range from the inexpensive like the silver corncob holders should go for under $30 to to a pair of French Bronze torchieres by Val d’Osne foundries which are estimated to go for up to $12,000.
Proceeds will benefit the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation which issues grants to support the performing arts, environmental conservation, medical research and other causes.
About a month ago, former pop star Michael Jackson began his quest to cancel a huge auction of his personal belongings. Now, with just a week before the 
auction, the King of Pop has finageled his way and auctioneer Darren Julien has said that he has reached an agreement with Jackson that will see the items returned to Jackson after the public exhibit of the 1,400 lots is over.
The auction, to be held on April 22-25, was to have included Jackson’s customized Rolls-Royce, costumes, memorabilia, art and custom furnishings and was anticipated to have brought in more than $10 million. It would have been the largest authorized of Jackson’s belongings and Julien’s Auction House has spared no expense in putting the auction together.
Some reports speculate that Darren Julien spent as much $2 million preparing the sale and the exhibit even creating a signed and numbered five-volume catalog that would sell for $500. Jackson is believed to have paid some money in a settlement with the auction house that may result in some of the items finding a permanent public home in some sort of museum-like space.
