Friday, June 17 2011
By David Iams For The Inquirer | Philly.com
While Freeman's sale Sunday of fine American and European paintings and sculpture will feature works on canvas and paper by such acclaimed local artists as Andrew Wyeth, N.C. Wyeth, and Howard Pyle, a sale Saturday will offer works of art on cigar boxes.
The more than 50 lots of cigar boxes are part of Morphy Auctions' 880-lot sale of antique and vintage advertising items, beginning at 9 a.m. at its newly expanded gallery near Reading. The boxes, along with humidors and other tobacco-related items, notably two life-size cigar-store Indians, come from the Gotham Cigar Museum of Tampa, Fla.
They include depictions of Indians, among them an 1898 Black Hawk cigar
box from Illinois; an 1880s "Merry Christmas" box from New York; a Hoffman House "
Bouquet" box depicting nymphs and a satyr frolicking in an Arcadian setting; and, significantly, a full box of Rose-O-Cuba
cigars dating to the 1950s.
The Rose-O-Cubas are examples of "clear" Havana cigars, those rolled in the United States using Cuban tobacco until the U.S. embargo of the early 1960s. Like most of the cigar-box lots, it has a presale estimate of $200 to $400.
The life-size cigar-store Indians, one a chief made in the late 1800s by W. Demuth & Co. of New York, the other a princess possibly carved by John Phillip Yeager of Baltimore, have presale estimates of $20,000 to $30,000 and $25,000 to $35,000, respectively. The sale will open with nearly 100 lots of shaving mugs.
Previews are from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and 7 a.m. to sale time Saturday at the gallery, 2000 N. Reading Rd. (Route 272 near the Route 222 Reading/Lancaster exit of I-76). For further information, call 717-335-3435.
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Source: Philly.com Arts & Entertainment
