Automaton – 1. (n) a machine that performs a function according to a predetermined set of coded instructions, especially one capable of a range of programmed responses to different circumstances. 2. (n) moving mechanical device made in imitation of a human being. A seemingly modern invention, automatons have in fact been around since the time of the ancient Greeks. These first devices served a variety of functions from the practical, such as alarm clocks and automatic doors, to the purely entertaining, as the case with “The Automatic Servant of Philo” - a humanoid automaton that would pour wine into any glass placed in its “hand”. ”The Automatic Servant of Philo,” widely considered to be the first ‘robot’ – currently on display at the Museum of Ancient Greek Technology in Athens, Greece Overtime, these relatively simple mechanisms evolved, ...Read More

There are the things we buy ourselves during the year that give us a little jolt of excitement - we casually add life's luxuries to our closets, foyers and kitchen cabinets with glee. However, nothing quite compares to the objects we desire during the holidays. It's not just that gifts are a tiny-bit (or a lot-a-bit) more lavish, but they hold the memories attached to our seasonal festivities and render back to a specific sentiment. Holiday gifts, given or received, have a way of capturing who we were and what was happening during that special time of year.  So, whether you are eagerly waiting for your turkey to come out of the oven, or if you're already comatose from a cranberry sauce overload, you can enjoy the leisurely activity of clicking and scrolling through our auctions in search of your next glorious gift! For those of you who are ...Read More

New to Bidsquare is Stunning Arts Gallery and Auction from Toronto, Canada. On November 24th, they will feature their Estate Asian Art Auction. This sale will showcase over 200 lots of Chinese Art including paintings, jade carvings, porcelain, furniture, jewelry, and Buddhist sculptures.  Lot 194, Li Keran, Waterfall, Watercolor on paper; Estimate $50,000-$80,000 The top item from this auction is lot 194, a depiction of waterfall by Chinese modernist master Li Keran (1907-1989). Trained by the renowned Lin Fengmian (1900-1991), Li was an instructor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing where he taught traditional Chinese painting fused with Western techniques. Li was mostly known for his depictions of buffalos and boats, but his landscapes also caught the attention of Chinese art institutions and collectors during the mid 20th Cent...Read More

There is an unmistakable buzz that begins to ripple through the city once dawn sets over the Park Avenue Armory, hours before the opening of The Salon Art and Design show. Those of us who roam the exhibition early (while vacuums collect last-minute crumbs and spotlights are tightened just a touch) can taste the fantasia of anticipation emanating off of the exquisite assembly of objects waiting to be admired. Representing the world's finest galleries in historical, modern, emerging, and contemporary furniture, as well as late 19th through 21st-century art, the Salon Art and Design retains a level of refinement and invention that leaves something for every taste, mood, and style. It is filled to the brim with unexpected "aha moments" and familiar favorites; a superb Warhol soup box hangs adjacent from an ancient marble statue of Hercules whil...Read More

It's garbage! As odd as it sounds, ceramicist Victor Spinski considered himself most successful when his artwork was easily mistaken for trash. As a matter of fact, he was known to spend hundreds of hours on a single sculpture just to be sure of it.  A wizard of tromp l'oeil and avant-garde ceramics in the 1960's, Victor Spinski built a specialized name for himself out of clay. His hyper realistic glazing and building techniques manipulated clay into a multitude of objects, many of which assumed completely opposite materials and textures to that of ceramics; cakes on plates, spilled styrofoam coffee cups, used paint cans, cardboard teapots and more.  Lot 2190, Victor Spinski, Trash Can with Banana Peel, Painted and glazed ceramic, 1977; Estimate $3,000 - $5,000 On November 16th, Millea Bros, Ltd. will feature one of Spinski's grand illusion...Read More

We know you don't need reminding...but the holidays are right around the corner, and before we start talking gifts, let's discuss seating arrangements. Whether your adding extra chairs around the dinner table or improving post-meal relaxation for your guests, there comes a time when updating the chairs in one's home seems necessary. I don't want to get stuck with the folding chairs that's been gradually losing boards and nails every year and neither should you! To help you envision the different styles of thrones that you and your relatives could be sitting on, we sifted through our upcoming November catalogs to make it easier. Lot 404, Charles & Ray Eames for Herman Miller, "LCW" chair, aniline-dyed birch, USA, 1945; Buy Now for $896.00 If you're looking for instant satisfaction, mosey over to Rago's Passed Lots: Tribal Art, Remix, The Col...Read More

The art colony of New Hope, PA is a small community with a broad reach that produced some of Pennsylvania’s most celebrated Impressionists, including Walter Emerson Baum, Fern Isabel Kuns Coppedge, Nancy Maybin Ferguson, John Fulton Folinsbee, George W. Sotter and Robert Spencer. Coming to Rago’s Fine Art Auctions on November 10th is a block of locally consigned works by these notable Pennsylvania artists, each fresh-to-market. Lot 121, George William Sotter, Winter Night (Artist's Studio) Oil on canvas; Estimate $70,000 - $100,000 This large, untitled night scene by George W. Sotter depicts the artist’s studio from above, an angle which he could only have imagined. It is a Sotter masterwork: a keen demonstration of the artist’s ability to make the darkness light, gilding a cold, blue winter night with the glow of the moon. Lot 132, Fern Is...Read More

The first half of the twentieth century was perhaps the most fruitful period in American printmaking. Although a variety of styles and schools were explored, it was the unfolding and transformation of American Realism that has been the most thoroughly embraced. The tradition of Realism in American art is unique as it developed exclusively out of the American experience (juxtaposed with the development of American Modernism which evolved from European influences). From 1900-1950, some of the most renowned American print-makers seemed to focus their work around three main themes: urban scenes, rural country life and the human experience. Below I explore some of these themes through a selection of American prints in Rago's upcoming auction. Lot 39, Reginald H. Marsh, Minsky's New Gotham Chorus, Etching and engraving on paper, ca. 1936; Estimat...Read More

https://www.bidsquare.com/collection/artist/gerhard-richter-707Behold, the potato.  Considered one of the most ubiquitous foods in the world, the potato has been identified as a symbol of sustenance and prosperity for hundreds of years, often by cultures far from its ancestral home in the Andean mountains. Some historians even credit the likable round vegetable for the rise of European empires in laying the groundwork for modern industrial agriculture and for providing a staple on the plate of global survival. After all, without the arrival of the starchy spud in the West, feeding rapidly growing populations might not have been possible.   For example, because potatoes provide relative nutritional value and can replace meat in a main meal, the poor and labor classes of Europe began planting them for their own consumption, as well as for liv...Read More

Follow the looping trail of cadmium red brushstrokes down and around the center of this painting; it will infinitely guide you through the delicate posture of the subject sitting before you. Her hands softly overlap and rest upon an eggshell-white dressing gown, a tone not much different than the color of her skin. With blue, downcast eyes and autumnal hair playing a pivotal role in her characterization, an intriguing young woman begins to emerge out of the decorative and powdery palette in which she exists.  Lot 121, Frederick Carl Frieseke, The Fur-Trimmed Peignoir, Oil on board, c. 1919; Sold for $114,950 Squint your eyes and you will see a tightening up of the easeful brushstrokes employed by Frederick Carl Frieseke, the second-generation American Impressionist. His style, closely inspired by Pierre-Auguste Renior, has all of the reckle...Read More