J. Russell Jinishian Gallery, Inc. 1657 POST ROAD, FAIRFIELD, CT 06824

(203) 259-8753Specializing in 19th, 20th, and 21st Century Marine and Fishing Art from Europe and America.

Accepting artwork on consignment from collectors throughout the year.

Wick AhrensDimetrious AthasJohn AtwaterNick BergerAnthony BlakeRobert BlazekChristopher BlossomLou BonamartePeter BoweBernd BraatzAl BrossJames ButtersworthMarc CastelliScott ChambersTerry Culpan

Steve CryanR.B. DanceWilliam R. DavisDon DemersLouis DoddWilliam P. DuffyWillem EerlandCarl EversWilliam EwenJames FloodFlick FordPaul GarnettWilliam GilkersonJames GriffithsRobert Grimson

Glen HackerJames HarringtonCooper HartAndré HarveyGeoff HuntJames IamsAntonio JacobsenMichael KeaneLoretta KrupinskiRichard Dana KuchtaRobert LaGasseGerry LeveyPatrick LivingstoneIan MarshallVictor Mays

Lloyd McCafferyJoseph McGurlJohn MecrayJerry MeltonStanley MeltzoffLeonard MizerekWilliam G. MullerRob NapierWilliam Oakley Jr.Julia O’Malley KeyesRoberto OstiYves ParentEd ParkerCharles PetersonJames Prosek

Randy PuckettKeith ReynoldsMarek SarbaArthur ShilstoneKathy SpaldingRobert StickerJohn StobartDavid ThimganTim ThompsonKent UllbergPeter VincentWilliam WalshPatricia WarfieldRobert WeissBert Wright

HOURS: Tuesday - Saturday 10-5 p.m. and by appointment.We invite you to stop by and visit the gallery located just 1 hour from NYC just off I-95 at Exit 21.

Visit our website: www.jrusselljinishiangallery.comE-mail: rjinishian@optonline.net

19th, 20th and 21st Century Marine Art

John Stobart View of Annapolis from the Statehouse in 1860 Oil 22” x 40” $350,000

VOLUME 6 NUMBER 8 - 9 PUBLISHED by J. RUSSELL JINISHIAN © SPRING/SUMMER 2006 / $12.00

What’s Inside:• Latest News from Today’s

Premier Marine Artists,Learn What they’re Working

on in their Studios right now

• Latest Marine Art Sales & Prices

• Marine Art ExhibitionsAcross the Country

• Upcoming Auctions

• Book Reviews

™

Special Double Issue

2159 RT. 129 SOUTH BRISTOL, MEJust up the hill from the Swing Bridge towards Christmas Cove.Look for the leaping fish. August only. 207-644-1102

Information on purchasing the Artwork pictured in the MARINE ART QUARTERLY may be obtainedby contacting the Publisher, J. Russell Jinishian at (203) 259-8753 or rjinishian@optonline.net

News From the ArtistsAs usual, this has been a busy quarter in the

marine art world, with exhibitions, projects by, and articles about, marine artists all

across the country and around the globe. So let’s get right to the news. We’ll begin with the American Society of Marine Artists (ASMA), which is now in its 30th year. It has cemented its position as an important national cultural resource by officially entering into a relationship with the world’s largest museum, the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. One of it’s 20 branches, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery Library, which has over 100,000 books, catalogs and periodicals relating to the lives of American artists and American art, has agreed to add to its collection all of ASMA’s previous exhibition catalogs and newsletters. They’ll further be drawing from Charles Raskob Robinson’s (who spearheaded this project with the Smithsonian) regular column in the ASMA News, “Notes from Brush Hill” in which he profiles two or three artist members of the Society in detail. The Smithsonian is using these to create a “vertical file”—in essence a biographical file—for each of the individual artists that Robinson has profiled in the past, or will in the future. Given the important role marine artists have played in the development of the arts in America, it’s more than fitting that their current contribu-tions are being embraced by our chief national cultural institution. If you’re visiting Washington and want to see these firsthand, pay a visit to the National Historical Landmarks Building which houses them, and which has just reopened after extensive renovation. Even if you are not planning to visit the nation’s capital you’ll soon be able to access this information online at www.si.edu.

The Society as an organization regularly reaches out to promote marine art through a series of regional exhibitions and workshops. This quarter the exhibition was held at the Cold Spring Harbor Whaling Museum, which was hosted by the Art League of Long Island. It featured 52 works of art by 32 ASMA members, augmented by various artifacts from the museum, including a 15 ft. Whitehall skiff loaned by singer Billy Joel which had been built especially for him by the International Yacht Restoration School in Newport, Rhode Island, and a presentation entitled “The Nautical Mission” by artist Michael Killea.

June found artist Don Stone and Len Tantillo leading separate art workshops at the Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine, and the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts in Lyme, Connecticut respectively. From September 30th to October 1st Christopher Blossom, past presi-dent of the Society, will lead a workshop on studio and plein air marine painting at the Lyme

Academy. (lymeacademy.edu) From October 6-7 Ian Marshall will lead a watercolor workshop at the Maine College of Art. (meca.edu) In addition to these activities, the members of the Society gather once a year to talk shop and share ideas and information. They’re planning their annual weekend this year to be from November 2-5 in Cape May, New Jersey. For more information on that, or joining or supporting the Society visit americansocietyofmarineartists.com. You can also read about the Society in the July issue of American Art Collector, which contains a lavishly illustrated article on ASMA.

Of course, the U.S.A. is not the only place with an organization devoted especially to marine art and its artists. There are active societies in England, Germany, Italy, France, and Holland to name a few countries. We recently heard from Betty Ann Anderson, executive secretary of the Canadian Society of Marine Artists, who announced that they’ve moved their headquarters from the West coast of Canada to Lake Ontario—Picton, Ontario to be exact—where this year they held their 23rd annual exhibition, which featured a presentation by Peter Rindlisbacher on the art of the War of 1812 on the Great Lakes, which Peter has painted extensively, and whose recreations of naval actions in full period dress he has participated in actively over the years. More information on this Society can be found at www.ultramarine.ca.

From down under we heard from Tony Geddes of the Mosman Art Gallery, which hosted an exhibition of 81 paintings, drawings, models and photographs by members of the Australian Society of Marine Artists. The exhibition was opened by the governor of New South Whales, her Excellency Professor Marie Beshir, A.C., and featured a number of events, including a talk by Warwick Webb on the great ocean liners from a marine artist’s perspective, a model making dem-onstration by Richard Keyes and a watercolor demonstration by Christine Hill. Painter Ian

Hanson recounted his voyage to Antarctica and Tasmania using his illustrated logbook that he made at sea while underway. More information on this Society and upcoming exhibitions can be found at mosman.nsw.gov.au/recreation/artgallery.html and marineartistsaustralia.com.au.

From England the president of the Royal Society of Marine Artists, Geoff Hunt, tells us that they are in the midst of planning for their 60th anniver-sary exhibition this fall, from October 18-29 (see our exhibition page). In fact they are calling this whole 60th anniversary year “Celebrating the Sea.” This year’s exhibition will be opened by the chair-

man of the Port of the London Authority, Simon Sherrerd. Geoff says the port has been particularly busy recently with ships already arriving with building materi-als for new construction for the 2012 Olympics in London. Mr. Sherrerd is also a member of Trinity House, which is roughly the British equivalent of our U.S. Coast Guard. Trinity House is responsible for maintaining navi-gational aids like lighthouses, etc. Artist membership in the Royal Society is not given easily. In fact, its charter limits the number of members. Geoff says as presi-dent his aim as been to recruit new supporting members. They call them “lay members,” which he says may soon be changed to “close friends” of the Royal Society of Artists. These “friends” are very active themselves. In fact, one of them, Brian Aldredge has

formed his own group of painters from among the current group.

The Society also held an exhibition earlier this year at the Welsh National Concert Hall, which was a great success. Later this summer eight artists have been invited by the commanding officer in charge of all naval bases to create paintings based on Royal Naval vessels berthed in Plymouth, England.

Geoff, of course, is well known as the artist whose paintings are featured on the covers of the Patrick O’Brian novels. Since the death of Mr. O’Brian a couple of years ago, Geoff has now been producing paintings for the Napoleonic era sea novels of Julien Stockwin whose latest is entitled Command, which features the story of the protagonist Kydd’s first command, the brig Teaser. Geoff’s other recent paintings have includ-ed Nelson’s fleet returning to the Mediterranean, and the British aircraft carrier Glory in 1946 with the troops aboard, including his wife Trudy’s father. Over the past few years Geoff has also been researching and painting scenes of the American Revolutionary War at sea. Many of these are repro-duced as prints by Mystic Seaport Museum His newest painting features the incredible story of the aggressive Revolutionary War Captain Biddle who in command of the frigate Randolph took on

3 Continued on page 4

Bermuda Race 1923 – The Start

Anthony Blake MALABAR IV MEMORY Oil 24” x 38” $37,500

Tim Thompson HMS AMERICA Shortening Sail c. 1781 Oil 30” x 40” $65,000

Don Demers MEMORY BLACKHAWK Oil 24” x 36” $40,000

What would happen if two premier artists were asked to paint their interpretation of the same event? Well take a look below.2006 is the 100th anniversary of one of the most famous and longest running annual ocean races, the Bermuda Race. These artists have chosen to paint

the start of the first race that pitted the new John Alden designed schooners like Malabar IV and the first Marconi rigged Herreshoff designed New York 40 Memory, against the traditional fleet of 22 other gaffed rigged yachts. The race began in the relatively light airs off New London, CT. The artists

have chosen different ends of the line to depict, and an entirely different palette. For the record, Malabar IV won on corrected time, although the Bermuda yawl Dainty gave her a good run by using local knowledge to snake through the treacherous reefs off North Rock Channel to the finish.

the 70-gun British ship HMS Yarmouth. It was an act of real bravado. Tragically after about 15 minutes the Randolph simply blew up—a grenade or shot had reached her magazine. Geoff said that this all occurred in three-quarter moonlight off Bermuda, which for an artist presented an intrigu-ing challenge. The incredible part of the story is that the Yarmouth itself was pretty beat up, both by the Randolph attack and also by the concussion from the explosion. After she sailed away from the scene, four days later she found herself sailing right back through the scene of the battle, and there on two pieces of wreckage were the four survivors from the Randolph, still alive!

Many readers and fans of the Napoleonic era are also fans of the novels of Alexander Kent, but may not be familiar with the artist whose paint-ings appear on the covers of those books. It’s Englishman Geoffrey Huband. There are six prints available from the covers of Kent’s “Bolitho” series, all published in signed, limited editions of 300, measuring 14½” x 20” image size that sell for $125. They are: With All Dispatch, Passage to Mutiny, Sloop of War, Form Line of Battle, To Glory We Steer and Avenger. They’re available from Bowsprit Press at 317-465-3142.

There are certain stories that never get old in the retelling. The mutiny aboard the HMS Bounty is one such compelling human drama. A new boxed DVD set for Warner Home Video has been produced by Boothbay Harbor Productions, for which the shipwright aboard the replica for the MGM movie Mutiny on the Bounty Paul Garnett was interviewed, and photographs were used of his

14-foot model of the HMS Bounty which he built, and is now featured at the Fall River Museum in Fall River, Massachusetts. Paul’s painting of the “Battle of Valcour Island” has also been selected to be included in the Revolutionary War Almanac, a research book destined for every major research library in the United States.

Speaking of large models of that period, model builders in Havana, Cuba are about to begin the construction of 1:25 scale model of the Santisima Trinidad, the largest ship built in the 18th century, which was launched in Havana in 1769 and fig-ured prominently in a battle of Trafalgar, in 1805. She carried a crew of over 1,000, sailing under the Spanish flag. Canadian yacht designer Stephen Killing was able to obtain drawings, documenta-tion from the Naval Museum in Madrid and drew a complete set of plans which will be used to built the model, which will measure over 14ft. long. The model itself will actually be built within the walls of the Castillo de la Fuerza, the oldest colonial fortress in the Americas. For more information visit friendsofsantisimatrinidad.org.

On the other end of the scale, collectors, build-ers and vendors of the extremely miniature ship model, scale 1:1250/1:1200, met for their Third Annual Meeting at the University of New York College of Maritime Industry Museum dur-ing Fleet Week in late May. Nearly 100 par-ticipants from two continents spent three days discussing various aspects of naval history, ship model collecting and maritime history, includ-ing Dr. Rudolph and Egbert Kraus from the Navis-Neptun Modell, Germany; Bill Gilpin,

Clydeside Models, Scotland; Paul Jacobs, Saratoga Model Ships, Parrot, California; and modelers John Youngerman, California, and Alain Pioceut, Quadrant Models, France. What is amazing is that at this truly miniature scale a model of 100 ft. ship, for example, would measure only 1 inch. The events chairman Rick Rudosski reports that in this scale model collections up to 2,000 to 5,000 models are not uncommon, “The Tamm Collection in Hamburg, Germany, which is considered the largest collection in the world, is estimated at between 20- and 30,000 models.” Rick tells us that building models at this scale really began in World War I. In England they were used by the Royal Navy as identification models of enemy ships and their own ships for that matter. Not surprisingly the English and the Americans adapted 1:1200 scale, while the Germans adapted 1:1250. There were literally hundreds of thousands of these models used for various navies around the world, last produced in about 1950. Models from that period actually come in boxes marked “US Navy” or “Nippon Navy”, stamped “Top Secret.” Today manufacturers around the world continue building them as collectibles, mostly out of cast metal, sometimes just one of a kind sometimes in editions of 50 to 60. One of the largest manufactur-ers, Navis-Neptun outside of Munich, has a line of warships of the navies of the world that numbers approximately 1,000 different models. Today, lin-ers, tugboats and other modern day vessels are also being modeled on a regular basis. Rick tells us that there is a large meeting held every second year in Kassel, Germany, next one June 2, 2007. So the plans for the New York group include holding

a conference like this every other year. For more information on this fascinating collectible world visit www.steelnavy.com/1250home.htm.

The gold standard, of course, for scratch built extreme miniature ship models are the models of Lloyd McCaffery, whose models can be found in collections of the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria, Oregon , Japan-America Amity Hall, Kushimoto, Japan, Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic, Connecticut, Toy Miniature Museum, Kansas City, Missouri, Oregon Historical Society, Portland, Oregon and The International Yacht Restoration School in Newport, Rhode Island among others. Lloyd’s models are different from the cast models in that he manufactures every piece of the model himself, and literally builds a model step by step just like the vessel itself was built. Building models of 18th and 19th century ships demand, in addition to criti-cal miniature construction skills, exceptional abil-ity to carve wood on a miniature scale. After thirty years, Lloyd has perfected carving on a miniature scale, and recently wrote about it in an article entitled “Miniature Carving on a Grand Scale” for Woodcarving Illustrated magazine, spring issue 2006. Among other things, Lloyd tells us that he buys commercial jeweler’s files and then grinds them down to make miniature chisels to carve

wood. He also makes his own “micro scalpels” using thin wedges off the edge of single edge razor blades. The final finish on his work is done by old fashioned scraping and sanding, but nothing like those of us who have refinished a boat are familiar with. To finish he says, “I tear off small pieces of 400-600 grit paper, grip them in tweezers and rub away for weeks—at least it seems like to takes that long to get a smooth finish.” But it is exactly that kind of dedication and devotion to even the smallest details that sets Lloyd’s work apart, and in fact that attention to every single detail is what also separates the work of the very top painters and sculptors from the rest of the field.

Speaking of the world’s finest marine artists, let’s check in with a few of them. It’s not often you get a chance to see a painting in progress, but John Mecray affords just that opportunity by posting on his Web site (mecray.com) once a week a step from a painting that he’s working on, accompanied by a musical sound track. He’s just completed “Flying Home” which depicts Columbia during her 1899 trials to defend the America’s Cup running down-wind against former Cup winner Defender. This will also be the subject of John’s newest limited edition giclée print. This painting is a little bit different than most that John has done in the past, where he has become well known—to the consternation

of some—for cutting off the top of the sail to allow us to get close into the action. But in “Flying Home,” John informs me that he’s “included 99% of the sail plan.” John spoke about his work, and showed another painting in progress this winter at Essex Town Hall on behalf of the Connecticut River Museum. Readers of Sea History magazine will have seen this painting “Fetching the Mark,” showing the yacht Westward crossing tacks with King George V’s Britannia in the 1920s on the cover of its Summer 2006 issue. Reproductions of two other of John’s paintings “Gloriana and Wasp” and “Schooner Yacht Atlantic” were used to illustrate an article entitled “The Rediscovery of the Sea” by John Rousmaniere, the author of some 12 books on boating and yachting history. Two were just published this year: In a Class by Herself - The Yawl Bolero and the Passion for Craftsmanship and A Berth to Bermuda: 100 Years of the World’s Classic Ocean Race. (See Book Page.)

The yacht Bolero in fact set the Newport to Bermuda record in 1954 when she was owned by John Nicholas Brown. Today she can still be seen on the classic yacht racing circuit under the ownership of Edward Kane, who recently com-missioned Don Demers to paint a portrait of her as she appeared off of St. David’s Light, Bermuda. Don has really been spreading his wings this year.

Louis Dodd The River Thames at Greenwich –showing the American Frigate ST. LAWRENCE bringing exhibits for London’s Great Exhibition, 1851 Oil 24” x 36” $48,000

Continued from page 3

Continued on page 14

4

Don Demers Schooner Yacht ATLANTIC Sets the Transatlantic Record, 1905 Oil 36” x 48” $60,000

always do this. If the seller won’t provide one, but still offers a certificate of authenticity you should do your art shopping elsewhere.” If you think you’ve been a victim of the Dali scam you can call Hochman directly at 800-275-3254, or visit www.daligallery.com.

In fact, for some talented artists, perhaps long on greed and short on imagination, forging another artist’s work can prove to be a career path. Here’s a story that has all the twists of a romance novel. As reported in the New York Times in April of this year, it started in Massachusetts at the home of Don Trachte, who was known as the cartoonist who took over the comic strip Henry in the 1940s. He counted a number of prominent New England artists among his friends, including Grandma Moses and Norman Rockwell. Over time, he bought eight paintings from some of them, including a painting entitled “Breaking Home Ties” from Norman Rockwell for $900. In 1973 Mr. Trachte and his wife Elizabeth were divorced. Mrs. Trachte took seven paintings to her new home in Vermont, and Mr. Trachte was allowed to keep the Rockwell painting, hanging over his piano because of his affection for it. In 2002 Mr. Trachte moved to an assisted living facility and his kids sent the Rockwell painting to the Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts for safe keeping. The curators there cleaned the painting because the surface was grimy after years of being in a room with a wood stove. They noticed that the coloration and facial expression on the boys face was slightly different from what they knew from the painting which had been used as a cover for the Saturday Evening Post. They put it down to age, effects of the environment, etc. Mr. Trachte died in 2005, and as the kids were going through boxes of photographs, cleaning out his house, they found a photograph which appeared to be two views of the same painting. They couldn’t quite figure it out. But as they further searched the house, they actually found a gap in the paneling along one wall, and just like out of movie, when they gave it a shove the panel slid back and behind it was the original Rockwell painting! It turns out that Trachte had made a copy of it and all the other paintings, and kept the originals for himself, hidden away. They must have been pretty good copies. It’s estimated that the original “Breaking Home Ties” painting, which Trachte paid that $900 for is worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $5,000,000 today. According to the New York Times, Trachte’s ex-wife, who is now 98 years old, was given the news by her eldest son. Her response was, “It doesn’t surprise me.”

What a find for museum people! Laura Norton Moffet, director of the Norman Rockwell Museum, said they plan to be exhibiting 8 original paintings along with their copies side by side. So now you know the story. If you’re in Stockbridge this year, it might be fun place to stop.

Of course for a museum, balancing the needs of preserving art while providing opportunities for the public to view it can be tricky. But here’s an interesting case of 435 watercolor paintings by John James Audubon, which were sold after his death by his widow Lucy Bakewell Audubon to the New York Historical Society in 1863. Due to the light sensitivity of these paintings, each painting is only able to be exhibited for a six week period once every ten years. You can do the math.

If you wanted to see the entire collection you would have to be around a long time.

The solution for this for the New York Historical Society was to partner with Oppenheimer Editions. They’ve entered into a licensing agree-ment to recreate 50 of the paintings as limited edition prints. Their plan is to make 200 sets of each of the 50, sell 100 as complete sets only, and 100 as individual prints. They’ve printed them on acid free archrival paper, very similar to the original watercolor paper Audubon used, and using water based dyes that they say virtually match the original. It took 12 months to complete printing. They began selling them even before they were published for $35,000 per set, and $2,500 for each individual print. They’re now $37,500 a set and between $2,500 and $4,500 per print. They are clearly stamped, embossed with Oppenheimer Editions mark and the New York Historical Society stamp. The back will be signed and numbered by Louise Mirrer, President and CEO of the New York Historical Society. In addition to their stated intention of helping to make these images more widely accessible and enjoyable, this is also a pretty good opportunity for a new source of revenue for the Historical Society. How does their pricing line up with actual Audubon original works? Well, the best we can compare it with is lithographs made during Audubon’s time. One, of a Brown Pelican, sold just recently for $95,000. For more information contact nyhistory.org or www.oppenheimereditions.com. Or 866-333-4846.

This, of course, isn’t the first time by a long shot that museums have tried to utilize their collections to create revenue streams. There certainly isn’t a museum anywhere, large or small, that isn’t selling reproductions of items in their collections. These range from note cards to jewelry, to pieces of furniture, sculpture, you name it.

The Metropolitan Museum has probably been the most successful at that. But as you can see elsewhere in this volume they actually engaged in an interesting project in 1941, reprinting an etching from Homer’s original plate in their collection and offering it for sale. While museums are there to preserve our cultural heritage, they are also businesses too. And it’s an ongoing debate in the museum community as to where the line is to be drawn.

The world art scene is a dynamic marketplace, containing all sorts of interesting goings on throughout the year. Some of these have

a direct impact on the marine art market, and others just shed light for us on various aspects of the art business at large. When we want to gauge the state of the market, we first take a look at the sales results at the two major auction houses, Sotheby’s and Christies, which just recently reported their final figures for the year 2005, both registering record years.

Christies reported its 2005 sales totaled $3.2 billion, representing a 30% increase over the year 2004. They held 633 sales in 16 locations around the world, and in those 340 works of art sold for more than $1 million each, including two world record prices. A Yuan Dynasty porcelain jar sold for $27.7 million and a Constantin Brancusi sculpture which sold for $27.5 million. Christies has been very aggressive in expanding its market reach. Last year they opened an office in Dubai as well as in Mumbai, India, and held their first sale in conjunction with the Chinese auction house, Forever, in Beijing. Conducted in Mandarin, that sale garnered a total of $12.1 million. And as we reported in the last issue, Christies, Sotheby’s and every other western business that we know of, which has the wherewithal, is gearing up to take full advantage of the growing Chinese economy in the years ahead.

Sotheby’s for its’ part recorded their highest rev-enues ever, $513.5 million. They attributed part of their success to increased commission margins, in particular, increased buyer premiums rates which went into effect January 2005, and their results in both China and Russia. Their major sales of the year included a Caneletto painting of Venice for $32.5 million, and David Smith’s abstract sculp-ture for $23.8 million. They’ve already kicked off 2006 with a monster sale of a Picasso painting of Dora Maar, which brought $95.2 million. So if you want to know how the art world is doing in this economy, and use the auction houses as a barometer, the fact is, it’s performing astoundingly well. Why this is, is open to speculation. Is it that the businesses are being run more efficiently, and more creatively, or that new methods of com-munication are bringing more artwork and collec-tors into the mix and opening world markets in a new way, or are more people are perceiving value in works of art and artifacts as opposed to other interests? Whatever the answer is, the results are very encouraging.

One interesting development in the auction hous-es in England has been the implementation of a new levy imposed by the United Kingdom as of February 14 on the resale of artwork by contempo-rary artists. A new European Union rule that says that on any resale a royalty based on a hammer price must be paid to the artist when the artwork is sold. There’s a cap on the royalty of $14,904, and an exemption for any works sold for less than $1,200. Christies says that this additional charge will come on top of the buyer’s premium.

It’s reported that both auction houses believe that this may drive more buyers and sellers to other locations, specifically New York where the resale levies are not imposed.

This royalty on resale, has been mastered of course by ASCAP in the music business, where for every time a song is played almost anywhere in public, the writer receives a royalty. As we noted in a previous issue, California has passed a similar bill, but enforcing of it (particularly for sales tak-ing place privately, as opposed to a public auction forum)has proven virtually impossible.

As in any marketplace, new business models are being tried on a regular basis. One such model is iGavel which three years ago began an auction site for online collectibles sales, primarily for deal-ers and auction houses with products that don’t naturally fit into their mainstream. iGavel has actually found a showroom space at 229 E. 120th St. near 2nd Avenue in New York City. Clark Mason, the founder, said they are now setting up to accom-modate consigners with as few as a half a dozen items to collections of any size. They’ve set up drop off centers in Cincinnati, Detroit, Minneapolis, Litchfield, Sarasota, Miami, Savannah, Philadelphia, Ashville, Sacramento, Long Island and now New York City. They’re banking on people’s continued comfort with the use of technology to buy and sell items. Their site can be found at www.igavel.com.

Of course, with increased success and value come the associated problems of fraud and deceit. One

such case came to national attention recently involving the sale and purchase of Salvador Dali prints over television’s shopping channels on Direct TV. Bruce Hochman, author of the official catalogue of the Graphic Works of Salvador Dali, assembled by Albert Field, says, “Art fraud is traditionally committed in all kinds of respectable places, from hotel bar rooms and cruise ships to trendy galleries. But now that people are buying art via the Internet and television it is easier than ever for unscrupulous sellers to peddle fakes.”

The case of the Dali prints is one that’s been in and out of the news since Salvador Dali’s death in 1989 when the art world was flooded with fake reproductions, with non-authentic signatures published by unscrupulous dealers. It actually became a large mail fraud case and the U.S. Postal Service ended up with a tremendous cache of Dali fakes, which they resold clearly marked as counterfeits. (Who knows how those trickled down through the market.) In the case of Dali there are certain giveaways to the fakes. Such as, after 1980 the company that manufactured the paper that Dali himself used actually changed its mark on the paper, so that any print that is reported to be post 1980 with the traditional watermark is known to be a forgery. Of course, the forgers aren’t dumb either. Some of them simply cut the watermark off. Bruce Hochman’s solution to this is fairly simple. “Whether it’s a work by Dali, or any other artist, the buyer should only work with sellers who offer a return guarantee in the event that the piece turns out to be counterfeit. Legitimate sellers will

INTERESTING NEWS FROM THE

ART WORLD AT LARGE

76

Montague Dawson The Action Between H.M.S. SHANNON and the U.S.S. CHESAPEAKE, 1st June 1813 Oil 40” x 50”Sold for a world record $486,400 at Christies, New York Continued on page 22

UPCOMING AUCTIONSJuly 24

Midsummer AuctionSome Americana/Maritime

BonhamsSan Francisco415-861-7500bonhams.com

July 275th Annual Maritime

Summer AuctionChristies

Rockefeller Center212-636-2000

July 28Marine & Oriental Export Art

EldredsEast Dennis, MA

508-385-3116eldreds.com

August 3-4Americana

EldredsEast Dennis, MA

August 3-26The Mountains, Sky & Sea

HeffelOnline Auction

heffel.com

August 4-6Americana

Northeast AuctionsManchester, NH603-627-6200

northeastauctions.com

August 9Cape Cod & Other

Contemporary PaintingsEldreds

East Dennis, MA

August 19-20Marine Art & China Trade

Northeast AuctionsPortsmouth, NH603-433-8400

September 7-30Northwest CoastFirst Nations Art

HeffelOnline Auction

heffel.com

September 7-30Important Inuit Art

HeffelOnline Auction

heffel.com

September 12Marine Pictures

BonhamsNew Bond St., London

44-(0)207-468-8211

September 14Travel & Vintage Posters

ChristiesSouth Kensington

44 (0) 20-7930-6074

September 27Polar Exploration & Travel

ChritiesKing St.

44 (0) 20-7839-9060

September 27Weapons & Historical

SouvenirsTajan

DrouotParis, France

33-1-53-30-30-26tajan.com

October 5Scientific Instruments

ChristiesRockefeller Center

October 13Fishing & Angling Art

BonhamsHoniton, UK

44 (0) 1404-418-72

October 30Marine Paintings

SothebyʼsBond Street, London

44-20-7293-5000sothebys.com

November 8Marine & Scientific

InstrumentsBonhams

Knightsbridge, London44 (0) 20-7393-3900

November 13Channel Isle Sale

BonhamsJersey, UK

44 (0) 1534-722441

November 18AmericanaFreeman

Philadelphia, PA215-563-9275

freemanauctions.com