This blog is about items that are to be auctioned on June 14, 2014, in Green Bay, WI and online.

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Original Oil Paintings by Chicago Modernists Louis Alexander Neebe and Minne Harms Neebe

To go directly to the auction site: SuperiorAuction.com

Among the fine art offered at our auction, we have an unusual pair of oil portraits by Chicago artists Minnie and Louis Neebe.  


Minnie Harms was born in Chicago 1873, the same year that her future husband Louis Alexander Neebe was born in Philadelphia. Louis was an artist, whose day job was in newspaper lithography, and the young Minnie assisted her husband printing color ads and cartoons. During that time, she began sketching and eventually studied art both at the School of the Art Institute (SAIC) and under Charles Hawthorne in Provincetown, Mass. In his classes, she often sketched fellow classmates instead of the model. Other influential teachers included Lorser Feitelson, Walter Ufer, Charles F. Brown, Ambrose Webster, and Wellington J. Reynolds. Minnie and Louis’s home and studio—at 1320 North Clybourn Avenue, then a working-class Italian neighborhood—was decorated over the course of their thirty-five-year marriage with objects from China, India, Mexico, and the West American Indians (though she never went to China or India). It also was a hub for progressive artists and poets of the day, visited by notables such as Carl Sandburg, George Bellows, and Leon Kroll—one of her teachers at SAIC who was associated with the Ashcan School of urban realism in New York. Neebe and her husband were both active in Chicago in the 1920s and 30s within a circle of radical artists who called her “Aunt Minnie.” She was a member of progressive artist organizations, including the Chicago Society of Artists, the Neo-Arlimusc (founded in 1926 by artist Rudolph Weisenborn to further interaction between art, literature, music, and science), and Chicago No-Jury Society of Artists.
She typically used vivid colors, and, as she explained in J. Z. Jacobsen’s 1933 book on art in Chicago, “The purely abstract in art occupies a most important place, although I always fuse it with the more realistic phases of my canvases.” Her 1930 oil in the Friedman collection,Waukegan, shows colorful row houses standing against a snowy white foreground with barren trees, and the bluish grey lake in background. Above, a billow of white smoke drifts across the horizon, bringing together city and nature, and conveying an unmistakably modern sensibility.
Lisa Meyerowitz

This first portrait is by Minnie.  The canvas board is warped and the canvas is separating.  The surface of the paint is lightly creased, visible in the photo.


Label on the back identifying the subject as "Fisherman's daughter".   She also lists the address of their Chicago home and studio described as a "hub for progressive artists and poets of the day."



The second portrait is by Louis.  The board has chipping at the edges and the painted surface also is lightly creased, visible in photo.


Each is a beautiful oil painting by itself, but they are a very unique pair.   

Both are for sale at auction in Green Bay, June 14, 2014 at the Beja Shrine Hall.  Internet bidding will be available for both paintings at SuperiorAuction.net

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

The History of F&A Antiques. Part 2.



Jon and I opening our De Pere shop in 1997.  


Located on the west side of De Pere, many people discovered us during the Annual De Pere Antique Show and Sale, just up the street at St. Norbert's college.


From the beginning, vintage jewelry was a interest of mine.  I went to "jewelry camp" twice, eager to learn more.


We also continued to put items in Olde Orchard Antique Mall in Egg Harbor, during the summers.

We combined Jon's mail order experience with my comfort with computers, and started doing online sales on newsgroups and eBay.

In 1998 I registered our main URL, The-Antique-Shop.com and built our first website.  We began to establish a reputation both on eBay and our site.  

When we decided to focus more of our time and energy on mail order, we moved nearly our entire store into one room at JJ Antique Mall in Manitowoc.  


Unfortunately, over the years health problems made the large spaces harder to maintain, so we gradually lessened our presence in local malls.  Over the years Jon, or Jon and I together, have been in a variety of malls in Door County, Green Bay and Manitowoc.

When Jon also developed health problems, business slowed even more, until eventually, our entire inventory was packed away.   Some things have been in storage for for decades and many items have never been offered for public sale before now.  

Jon's house by the river is sold.  My own house is overpacked.  We are ready to let it all go, no reserves.

Please join us on Saturday, June 14, 2015 at the Beja Shriner Hall in Green Bay.  If you can't come in person, online bidding will be available at SuperiorAuction.net.

Hope to see you there!

Friday, May 9, 2014

The History of F&A Antiques. Part I.


Before there was Freward & Alk Antiques, there was Jon Alk Antiques.

Jon Alk started attending auctions while he was in college, buying items for himself, mostly art.After graduation, sometime in the 1970s, he started selling his finds to antique shops.  He had a good eye and established a reputation early on.



His first shop of his own was called 900 South Jackson Antiques, on the corner of Jackson and Porlier streets, in the Astor Park neighborhood.  

A recent photo of 900 S. Jackson St.



Jon also started to do mail order, advertising in special interest publications like The Antique Trader.  One of his specialties was ephemera (paper collectibles), and one business name he used for his mail order was The Paper Lion.

His next shop was  on 1515 S. Webster, in an old house across from Schreider's flower shop, next to the monument shop.  No one seems to remember what it was officially called, it's simply remembered as "the antique shop on Webster."

A recent photo of the Webster location.  The first house on the left still sells monuments.

Inside Webster.  If you look closely, you can see Jon reflected in the mirror.



Jon also had a small shop in Fish Creek during the summers.

For a while, Jon was a nationally known expert on Rookwood art pottery.  He provided most of the photos and information for a price guide on Rookwood pottery. He would travel to New York, Ohio, Georgia... for estates, major auctions, shows, and private collections. 
Unfortunately, the Rookwood is sold, so we can't offer any at our auction.  Yet, it remains an excellent example of the many areas of expertise that Jon developed over the years, the quality of the items he preferred to deal in.



I started working for Jon in the early 1990s.  By that time, he had closed up his Webster shop and was focused on mail order, local antique malls, and private sales.

In 1996 I brought my laptop and used it to help Jon run mail-order postcard auctions through the Postcard Collector, and for the first time we used the name Freward & Alk Antiques.  



Jon had the experience and the expertise.  I had a good eye, the enthusiasm of youth, and most importantly, computer skills.  Eventually, the day came when I was no longer content to be an employee, and Jon had to make a choice.  I was his partner, or I was his competition.  

The rest of that story is for another day.


Do you remember Jon in the early days?  Did you shop at one of his shops?  Please share your stories, or even your photos if you have them.


Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Steampunk Inspiration


Antique is not steampunk.

However steampunk is inspired by the past, and antiques as props, inspiration, or a source of materials can create a greater realism for steampunk projects.


This illustration could easily be mistaken for a steampunk fantasy, but it is, in fact, one of a series of published paintings depicting the aviation technology of the time, from a bound volume of Scribners magazines for sale at our auction.
I love the earphones, the goggles, the gloves, and all the wood and brass... that guys mustache!  But I think what impresses me the most is that these guys FLEW in that thing.

Another item that stirs my imagination is this cool old watchmans clock.  A conversation piece as-is, I can imagine it's potential as decor, fashion, or part of some wild invention.  
The leather strap makes it easily wearable as a prop or fashion accessory.




Cameos are often part of steampunk fashion.  Why not upgrade from mass-produced plastic to a unique antique work of art, hand carved in shell from the Victorian era? 


Little tiny gears are fun and all, but how about some big wooden gears and machine parts?  You could dust them off and hang them on a wall, as unique art.
My research he suggests they were foundry molds, and this is only a sample of what we have.  I'm still trying to round them all up.



We have many more cool items, selling without reserve.  June 14, 2014.  Online bidding will be available.

Nellie at Superior Auction has started listing official photos on her website as well.   
You can find her at SuperiorAuction.net.





Tuesday, May 6, 2014

We're Auctioning Off Everything But The Kitchen Sink!

Oh... Never mind.



Old Books: Collector Books.

To go directly to the auction site: go to SuperiorAuction.net.   More items will continue being added as we get closer to the auction date.   

One catagory we have a huge selection of is books.   Fiction, non-fiction, informative, interesting, all different kinds of vintage books.

The only thing collectors love almost as much as the things they collect, are books about the things they collect.


We have auction catalogs and price guides, beautiful coffee table books, and informative histories.  

 



These are just a few examples.