MOUNT KISCO, NY.- While the offerings at this monthss Red Carpet auction at
The Benefit Shop Foundation Inc. on Wednesday, May 20, at 10 am, are far-ranging, from Asian art and African masks to midcentury furniture and Pop art, a high point will be metalware.
Sleek and chic, metal is all the rage today in design. Featuring everything from framed art to statuary and accessories, this auction boasts a wealth of interesting metalware pieces.
Metal makes for a stylish and luxurious finish, said Pam Stone, owner and founder of The Benefit Shop Foundation, Inc. We have some lovely midcentury metal-framed works of art as well as bronze sculptures, decorative accessories and fine dining items.
Chrome was a favorite material for famed Modernist furniture designer Milo Baughman and a striking addition to the auction will be a set of six chrome chairs by Baughman for the Design Institute of America ($500-5,000).
Crossing the block early on will be several signed mixed media artworks on paper by the late Canadian artist Rene Marcil, estimated at $100-500 each. Dated 1950, the Abstract Expressionist style works, possibly crayon and colored pencil, depict landscapes. Each is attractively set within a silver metal frame and measures 20¼ by 16¼ inches.
Other highlights in the fine art category include three bronzes of women: a signed bronze sculpture of a woman in long robes by Giuseppe Renda ($100-500), reminiscent of his Spring Breeze sculpture, 17½ inches tall; a signed and gilded bronze statue signed by Eugene Marioton and cast by L. Perzinka ($50-150) of a woman in peasant clothes holding a tambourine, 18 inches tall, and a gilded bronze nude Art Nouveau sculpture ($100-500) of a female nude holding castanets and dancing in front of a mirror, 15½ inches tall.
The thread of metalware in the auction continues into the art of dining with a set of 12 Wedgwood Florentine porcelain plates ($400-$1,500) having wide gold borders with dragon forms, an antique RW&S sterling silver Art Nouveau ladle ($100-300) with a repousse female nude figural surrounded by scrollwork and sinuous vines and florals; and a Gorham sterling silver coffee pot ($200-600), circa 1853, having Art Nouveau design elements with sinuous lines repousse of curling stems, a floral finial and sea shell detail, 11 inches tall. Also on offer is a 77-piece Grande Baroque by Wallace sterling silver flatware set ($1,5/3,000) with a total weight of 45.21 troy ounces.
Rounding out the auction are an H&F antique French dore bronze mantle clock ($100-400) with a finely enameled design and elaborately decorated, 17½ inches tall; a signed mixed metal keepsake box with lid ($40-200), Japanese, decorated with a garden scene and figurals in relief, 2 by 5½ inches, and a faux painted malachite mirror, circa 1970 ($200-500) in an octagonal shape, marked for Sarried, 23¼ inches.