This gorgeous shelf clock by Robert Swannell (London), circa 18th century, is expected to be one of the top-sellers in a Louis J. Dianni’s fifth annual Palm Beach Auction, slated for Feb. 15-17. It carries a presale estimate of $2,000-$4,000.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Around 1,600 quality lots in a wide range of collecting categories will be sold at the fifth annual Palm Beach Auction slated for Feb. 15-17 by Louis J. Dianni, LLC. The three-day event will be held at the Hilton Hotel & Conference Center, located at 150 Australian Avenue in West Palm Beach. Start times all three days will be 12 noon (EST).
The Saturday, Feb. 15 session will be dedicated mainly to period furniture and decorative accessories; Feb. 16 to militaria and weaponry; and Feb. 17 to artwork and art glass. A crowd of between 120 and 150 people is expected over the course of the three days, and internet bidding will be facilitated by LiveAuctioneers and Invaluable (the new name for Artfact.com).
“At our last auction ,we fielded more than 1,500 left bids, so absentee bidding and phone bidding will be more than welcome, too,” said Louis Dianni, owner of Louis J. Dianni, LLC, a firm with locations in Sunrise, Fla., and Hopewell Junction, N.Y.
“We feel the quality of merchandise in this, our fifth Palm Beach Auction, matches or exceeds that of any prior sale,” Dianni added.
An expected star of the Feb. 15 session is a circa-1770 English bracket clock in a faux tortoise case, with four gilt pineapple finials (est. $2,000-$4,000). The case has hand-painted decoration to appear as brass inlays, and the brass back plate is engraved with scroll decoration. The face of the 15-pound, 22-inch-tall clock reads, “Strike Silent Robert Swannell – London.”
Period furniture will include a set of four late 19th-century oak chairs by Michael Thonet of Poland, each chair having an alligator seat and back pattern (est. $300-$500); an early 20th-century Napoleon III-style ebonized wood buffet with ormolu mounts and stone decorations and red velvet interior (est. $400-$800); and an early 20th-century Italian carved oak cassone (storage chest for linens) with a center coat of arms and two painted panels on each side (est. $400-$800).
Decorative accessories will feature a circa-1750 Chinese export pitcher, made in Sweden, with the coat of arms of Major, Count Carl Johan Morner (1698-1782), with winged griffins and a dragon form handle (est. $500-$1,000); a pair of lidded urns from around 1890, armorial with a coat of arms by Samson, hand-painted with enameled decoration (est. $200-$400); and a pair of Chinese export Canton serving dishes, decorated in the Blue Willow pattern (est. $200-$300).
World War I posters will also be sold Feb. 15, to include a 1918 poster by Albert Herter (Am., 1871-1950), titled “His Home Over There,” 27 inches by 41 inches (est. $400-$600); a 1918 poster by Alonzo E. Foringer (Am., 1878-1948), made for the Red Cross and titled “The Greatest Mother in the World,” 28 inches by 42 ½ inches (est. $300-$500); and a 1919 poster by Howard C. Christy (Am., 1872-1952), titled “Americans All,” 26 ½ inches by 40 inches (est. $200-$400).
The Feb. 16 session will feature militaria items, to include a .45 caliber Kentucky rifle made around 1835 with lock by Joseph Golcher, boasting a tiger maple full stock profusely inlaid with engraved silver depicting an Indian with tomahawk, hunting dog and eagle on the check plate and a 41-inch octagonal barrel (est. $8,000-$12,000); and an 18th century Dutch East India Company Javanese steel sword with carved and hand-checkered rhinoceros horn, with a blade measuring 24 ¾ inches in length (est. $1,000-$2,000). 
This scrimshaw whale’s tooth, circa 1820 and measuring seven inches long, depicts a whale hunt (est. $2,000-$4,000).
Also offered will be an 18th-century leather and silver mounted Dutch East India Company notebook (or diary) with blank pages, measuring 5 ¼ inches by 3 inches, with the binding and cover original and the leather dry (est. $1,000-$2,000); and an 18th -century, hand-hammered silver and carved coconut chalice, depicting Britannia on her chariot with multiple ships behind the figure and another scene depicting an anchor and a rope (est. $500-$1,000).
Historical photos will feature a circa-1900 hand-colored photo of the Native American Standing Elk, by the photographer Carl Moon, showing the subject dressed in Northern Plains attire, probably props from Moon’s studio (est. $500-$1,000); and a collection of 46 United Press International photographs pertaining to the assassination of President Kennedy, including JFK’s assassination, the funeral, Jack Ruby, Lyndon Johnson and Lee Harvey Oswald (est. $200-$400).
An oil on canvas portrait painting of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, done in 1872 by James Kimball Harley (Am., 1828-1889), showing Lee in his Confederate uniform, housed in the original frame with grape leaf and vine decorations (est. $2,000-$4,000). Also sold will be an engraved ivory sperm whale’s tooth (or scrimshaw), circa 1810-1830, depicting a whale hunt in progress, with a harpooner, whale and longboat, about seven inches long and weighing in at 1 pound, 12 ounces (est. $2,000-$4,000).
A single-owner collection of 530 World War I and World War II-era posters will be auctioned. They were assembled from shortly after World War I until the owner’s death in 1989 and are to be sold unreserved.
World War II posters will also be featured in the Feb. 16 session, to include an example by the famed illustrator N.C. Wyeth (Am., 1882-1945), showing the American flag, Uncle Sam and a phalanx of advancing infantrymen, 30 inches by 40 inches (est. $500-$1,500); and a 7th War Loan (bond) poster by Cecil Calvert Beall (Am., 1892-1967), with a graphic based on the iconic World War II photo of the Marines on Iwo Jima, 26 inches by 37 inches (est. $500-$600). 
0A single-owner collection of 530 World War I and World War II-era posters will be auctioned. They were assembled from shortly after World War I until the owner’s death in 1989 and are to be sold unreserved.
A few items from the Feb. 17 session include a hand-woven 18-karat gold necklace by A. A. G. Correa & Son, 16 inches long, from the Turk’s Head Collection, with no noticeable flaws (est. $3,000-$4,000); a bronze sculpture of a winged male holding a female on his shoulder, by Mathurin Moreau (Fr., 1822-1912), cast circa 1900 and standing 39 inches tall (est. $2,000-$3,000); and a hand-blown glass bud vase, made and signed by Marvin B. Lipofsky, 9 inches in height (est. $500-$1,000).
The fine art category on Feb. 17 will be led by an original oil on canvas by David D. Burliuk (Russ., 1882-1967), titled “Travelers Stop,” one of two Burliuks in the sale and depicting multiple figures in a townscape with chickens and a horse and carriage, 22 inches by 27 inches (est. $8,000-$10,000); and an oil on canvas landscape rendering with figures by Dutch painter Marinus Koekkoek (1807-1870), mid 19th-century, 19 inches by 25 inches (est. $3,000-$4,000).
Other artworks that day will feature an oil on canvas landscape work by Cullen Yates (Am., 1866-1945), rendered circa late 19th- or early 20th-century and measuring 25 inches by 32 inches (est. $2,000-$3,000); and an oil on canvas by Homer Dodge Martin (Am., 1836-1897), titled simply Waterfall and showing a waterfall in a forest, probably painted in the third quarter of the 19th century and measuring 36 inches by 22 inches, minus the frame (est. $2,000-$3,000).
World War II-era posters will be sold on the sale’s final day as well. Examples include a 1943 poster by Norman Rockwell (Am., 1894-1978), titled “Four Freedoms,” 28 inches by 40 inches (est. $500-$1,000); a 1943 work titled “Bits of Careless Talk” by Stephen Dohanos (Am., 1907-1994), 28 inches by 40 inches (est. $200-$400); and a 1942 poster by John Falter (Am., 1910-1982), titled “The World Cannot Exist Half Slave,” 28 inches by 40 inches (est. $200-$400). All 530 of the First and Second World War posters are a single-owner collection assembled from shortly after World War I until the owner’s death in 1989 and are to be sold unreserved.
Previews will be held on Friday, Feb. 14, from 3-7 p.m., and on auction days, Feb. 15-17, from 9 a.m. until the gavel falls on the first lot at noon. Louis J. Dianni, LLC, has been in the business of selling antiques since 1973. The firm’s auctions are annual events, held at the peak of the season, in lucrative and historic areas of the country. The firm uses promotion booths at significant and relative collector shows. E-mails are sent to over 150,000 avid collectors and dealers worldwide.
Louis J. Dianni, LLC, is always accepting quality items for future auctions. To inquire about consigning an item, a collection or an entire estate, call 954.895.8727, e-mail to ljdmarine00@gmail.com or visit the Louis J. Dianni website.
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