SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Turner Auctions + Appraisals will present a Family Collection on Sunday, May 24, 2026, at 10:30 am PDT. Featuring over 185 lots, most from a Northern California family, with some lots from other collectors and estates, including the Estate of Joan A. Nitis of San Francisco. The diverse sale includes artworks, sterling silver items, gold coins, European and Asian decorative arts, miniatures, books, small furniture, Persian rugs, and more.
Artworks include watercolor, oil, pencil, etchings, lithographs, and sculpture, with works by Frances Marian Hebert, Ludmilla Pilat Welch, and Elizabeth Strong. There are sterling silver items, among them flatware sets, and serving pieces and table articles such as salts and spoons. The wide range of European decorative arts includes European miniatures, porcelains from Sèvres, Meissen, Minton, Royal Vienna, and Dresden. There is also an array of Asian decorative arts: from Japan are woodblock prints, table articles, Imari and Satsuma items, and a suit of armor. From China are snuff bottles; rosewood reclining chairs; and porcelain boxes, figures and bowls. There are Lalique items and glassware from Baccarat, Nachtmann Traube, and Bohemia. Among the furniture and home items are several clocks, plant and music stands, and an ebonized secretary plus a selection of Persian rugs. Gold coin lots feature several of the First Spouse series. There are books and folios from the 19th and 20th centuries, some with illustrations by Salvatore Dali or Gustave Doré.
Turner Auctions + Appraisals begins its online auction on Sunday, May 24, 2026, at 10:30 am PDT; sale items are available for preview and bidding now. The auction will be featured live on four platforms: LiveAuctioneers, Invaluable, Bidsquare, and Turner Auctions + Appraisals free mobile app, which can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Apps ("Turner Auctions"). Both are easily accessed through Upcoming Auctions at the companys website:
www.turnerauctionsonline.com/upcoming-auctions/.
Here below are some highlights of the upcoming online sale:
LOT 160: Kashan Carpet. Size approximately 12 feet x 8 feet 9 inches. Estimate $800-$1,200.
LOT 136: Pair Chinese Rosewood Reclining Chairs. Also known as Moon Gazing chairs, each shaped top rail above a back rectangular splat and long arm rest, attached to a rectangular seat, on u shape supports, joined by horizontal bars, 34"h x 22"w x 33"d. Estimate $800-$1,200.
LOT 166: Large Lalique Frosted Glass Nam Water Buffalo Figure. Partial paper label "Made in France", 8.5"h x 15.5"w {Good condition}. [Provenance: Estate of Joan A. Nitis, San Francisco.]. Estimate $700-$900.
LOT 84: P.J. Mène Animalier Bronze Sculpture. Modeled after Pierre-Jules Mène (French 1810-1879), Lévrier et King Charles à l'éventail, patinated bronze, 6.7"h x 9.5"w x 5"d {Overall good condition}. Estimate $800-$1,200.
LOT 24: Artist: Elizabeth Strong (1855-1941). Painting: Title/Description: Springer Spaniel with newspaper, interior. Signature: Signed lower right. Medium: Oil on canvas. Size: 16 1/4" x 13 1/4" (frame 23" x 20"). Condition: craquelure; scattered spots of paint loss. Estimate $800-$1,200.
LOT 96: French Opaline Glass Box and a Turquoise Perfume Bottle. The gilt metal mounted pink "topaz" opaline box with raised gilt painted leafy sprays 3.75"h x 5.125"w x 3.5"d; a French gilt metal turquoise perfume bottle with integrated hinged stopper surmounted by an inset watercolor painted plaque 3"h; together a pair purple flashed cut glass decanters 10.75"h [4 Total]. Estimate $400-$600.
LOT 80: Louis XV Style Gilt Bronze Porcelain Clock. The figure of Cupid, replete with his bow and quiver of arrows, seating on a drum cast with a swag length of flowers, joining a pair of oval miniatures of ladies on the top of the base of the clock, the eight day movement with alarm, the pink ground dial centering a pair of painted birds around a Roman numeral chapter ring with apertures for winding keys, stamped "AB" within a star symbol and #4117.13.3, atop a gilt composition base, overall 14.5"h x 11"w x 5"d [key]. Estimate $400-$600.
LOT 28: Artist: European School (Late 19th Century). Title/Description: Lady in blue with white cockatoo. Signature: Signed lower left, R. Hoixand(?). Medium: Oil on canvas. Size: 18 1/4" x 15 1/2" (frame 21 1/2" x 18 1/2"). Condition: fine craquelure across surface; scattered small spots of paint loss, including underneath the parrot (near stand), and at upper left margin. Estimate $300-$500.
LOT 48: Two Chinese Snuff Bottles. Comprising a pale nephrite or celadon jadeite bottle with finely carved lion's masks fitted with an apple green glass stopper 3"h and a pink quartz bottle carved with a bok choy cabbage head fitted with a matching pink quartz stopper 2.75"h; together with a pink stone scent bottle {crack} [3 Total]. Estimate $200-$400.
LOT 89: Two European Portrait Miniatures of Ladies. Comprising a miniature of Lady Jane Grey, signed "N Collod" mounted in oval faux tortoise shell frame 5" x 3.5"; and a French miniature of "Kadidja" wearing a fancy hat with flowers, signed "Drea, mounted in a Napoleonic gilt metal frame 5.5"h. Estimate $200-$400.
LOT 177: Six Baccarat Lagny Cobalt Blue Cut to Clear Wine Glasses. Each 7.75"h. Four with the original red Baccarat retail boxes. {Overall good condition}. [Provenance: Estate of Joan A. Nitis, San Francisco.] Estimate $200-$400.
LOT 111: John Muir, Our National Parks, First Edition. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company; The Riverside Press, Cambridge. 8vo. Gilt-stamped pictorial green cloth, top edges gilt. 12 photo illustration plates. Condition: Good; light edge wear, ding to cloth on spine; front free endpaper with large numeral in blue pencil, and owner's inscription. Together With: Ormond, Clyde. Complete Book of Outdoor Lore. Drawings by Ernest Kurt Barth, and animal sign drawings by Douglass Allen. New York: Outdoor Life, Harper & Row, 1864. Condition: overall Good; p. 101 with underlining, staining to scattered pages. Estimate $200-$300.
LOT 53: Three Chinese Famille Rose Porcelain Boxes. Late Qing Dynasty, the largest, a lidded stacking circular box of three sections, the lid decorated with a mother and her son riding a qilin, an orange printed Qialong mark on the circular base, 4.6"h x 3.5"d; a pair circular boxes over glaze enamel painted figural reserves, the sides with Chinese "double happiness" symbol (Shuangxi), each 2.25"h x 3.5"d [Overall good condition, some wear to enamel decoration}. Estimate $200-$400.
LOT 5: Gorham Chantilly Sterling Flatware Set. Comprising (6) salad forks 6.5"l; (9) dessert forks 5.75"; (7) dinner knives with stainless blades, in two sizes, (2) larger 9.5"l and (5) smaller 9"l; (33) teaspoons 5.75"l; (2) sugar shells; a bonbon spoon; a master butter knife 6.75"l; a pair of sterling handled wood salad servers 11"l; (2) graduated pair sterling handled punch ladles 14"-16"l, approx. total silver weight 1779g [60 Total]. Estimate $2,000-$4,000.
LOT 140: American Renaissance Revival Inlaid and Ebonized Secretary. In the Herter Bros Style, New York, circa 1870, the superstructure consisting of a pediment top centering a raised platform for a statue with flanking urn form finials, rising on tapering fluted supports and a back with oval kingwood medallion, over the slanted drop front with a leafy metal surround, centering an oval floral bouquet medallion, fitted with elaborate brass twin cherub escutcheon plate, opening to reveal a green velvet writing surface and bird's eye maple fitted interior with three drawers and cubbies, on turned and stop fluted legs, joined by an incurvate stretcher with green
felt lined footrest, 55.75"h x 33.75"w x 18"d. [Some of the metal surround trim to the abattant front has come off and the sides need to be reattached, as well to the left side trim on shelf above the desk. There is wear to ebonized corners above drawer frieze. Some nicks and minor losses.] Estimate $1,000-$1,500.