Goldberg Coins and Collectibles

Sale 86

The Manuscripts, Collectibles & Space Auction

The William K. Steiner Collection - Artists

Lot	Photo	Description	Realized
Lot 381		Calder, Alexander (1898-1976) American sculptor known as the originator of the mobile, a type of kinetic sculpture which moves in response to motor power or air currents. Autograph letter signed ("Sandy Calder"), on paper stamped in red ink with his name, address, and phone number, one page, Roxbury, Conn., Aug. 28, 1943. To Lola, asking to borrow her mobile for an upcoming exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York: "…I am having a big show at Mus. Mod. Art at the end of Sept. and would like to borrow your mobile. Do you mind lending it? and can it be got? or can you bring it in to N.Y.? Do you mind phoning Miss Margaret Miller at Mus. Mod. Art…and telling her all about it…." Calder drew a pair of spectacles with eyes in them above "Lola." Written in black marker. The show to which Calder refers was called "Alexander Calder: Sculptures and Constructions," and was on exhibit at New York's Museum of Modern Art from September 1943 through January 1944. Estimated Value $2,000 - 3,000. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $1,620
Lot 382		Gropius, Walter (1883-1969) German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School. Typed letter signed, 1 page, 11 x 8½ in, Cambridge, Mass., December 24, 1959. To Maria Piscator. "I send you enclosed six photos and a text photostat regarding The Total Theater which I designed in 1929 for Piscator. In the photos you find the various positions of the stage….The basic idea was to bring audience and performer into a close relation. The whole arrangement has been patented. I still hope that one day such a theater will be built….Of these photos nothing is left any more, therefore, they are precious to me; and I must ask you to return them…." The recipient was the wife of Erwin Piscator, the pioneering avant-garde theatrical producer and director. The drawings for the Total Theater are part of the archive at the Harvard Art Museum/Busch-Reisinger Museum. Estimated Value $1,200 - 1,500. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $690
Lot 383		Guilbert, Yvette (1865-1944) French actress, songwriter, author and theatrical producer of the Belle Époque. Autograph letter signed ("Yvette"), 2 pages, in French, on "Yvette Guilbert's School of the Theatre" letterhead, 9¾ x 8 in., Hotel Majestic, New York, [1922]. To Mr. de Bonneford, telling him she is bringing to Paris "a magnificent reconstruction of an old Mystery Play of the XIV century which will be presented in English…and I should like the Church, in the person of its archbishops etc. etc. to decide at last to help the theater become poetic again, and…religious! as it was in the Xiiith century!!! Would you, could you, help me?….Faith - it is the uniquely true consolation!" With English translation. Estimated Value $150 - 200. View details and enlarged photos	Unsold
Lot 384		Lipchitz, Jacques (1891-1973) Cubist sculptor. Autograph Christmas greetings inscribed and signed on a card, 3½ x 5¼ in., no place, no date. "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Berthe and Jacques Lipchitz." Estimated Value $200 - 250. View details and enlarged photo	Unsold
Lot 385		Neill, John R (1877-1943) American magazine and children's book illustrator known primarily for illustrating more than forty stories set in the Land of Oz. His pen-and-ink drawings have become identified almost exclusively with the Oz series. Original head-and-shoulders pen-and-ink drawing of a scarecrow inscribed and signed, "To Dorothy Crowell - Jno R Neill," on a 5 1/8 x 4¼ in. piece of paper, which is affixed at top and bottom to a leaf from an autograph album. The scarecrow's tongue is sticking out, one eye is larger than the other, and his pointy hat is drooping. A whimsical, appealing drawing. The scarecrow was the first companion that Dorothy and Toto discovered on their journey down the Yellow Brick Road. Estimated Value $400 - 600. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $600
Lot 386		Rivera, Diego (1886-1957) Mexican painter and muralist; husband of Frida Kahlo. Typed letter signed, 1 page, 11 x 8½ in., Coyoacán, D.F. (Mexico), Aug. 31, 1954. To Irwin Edelman in Los Angeles: "I have received the material that you sent to me about Rosenberg case [Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of passing information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union and executed on June 19, 1953]….I am sending you back your manuscripts. Unfortunately, among the list of possibilities and unconvenients, that I could have for your proposition it is precisely the personal problem that put me out of any possibility in that direction. As side that, by more than the ten last years my life does not differs at all of the Party line, of which I try to be a good friend and any contribution I could do for common forces I do through the organization. On the other hand, my personal ressources are extremelly limited." Rivera's wife, Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, best known for her self portraits, had died the month before he wrote this letter, on July 13. Both Rivera and Kahlo were active communists; they had befriended Leon Trotsky when he fled to Mexico in 1936, then supported Stalin from 1939, but above all, Rivera and Kahlo were artists. Estimated Value $400 - 600. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $720
Lot 387		Miscellaneous Artists, Musicians, and Authors. AMQS by the classical harpist Carlos Salzedo, dated Mar. 22, 1936, 5½ x 5¼ in.; ISP by Dutch painter Josef Israels (1824-1911), 10 x 8 in, crease at right corner; postcard photo signed and inscribed and signed business card dated 14.9.01 of Austrian author and playwright Arthur Schnitzler (1862-1931); postcard photo signed by Czech soprano Maria Jeritza (1887-1982); a 1936 TLS by poet Louis Untermeyer (1885-1977); a card signed by American actor Walter Hampden (1879-1955); and a sentiment signed with date (1924) by Edward Bok (1863-1930), the Dutch-born American editor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. Estimated Value $300 - 500. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $400