PAOLI, PA.- A beautiful hand-painted Chinese bottle vase, a painting of roses by the French ‘fleuriste’ Raoul M. De Longpré (1843-1911), and an impressive African Dan Guere mask with cowrie shells and bronze bells are a few expected top lots in Converse Auctions’ online-only East West Antique Auction slated for Saturday, February 27th, starting at 12 o’clock pm Eastern.

While the event is Internet-only, with no in-person gallery bidding, online bidding is available at LiveAuctioneers.com, Invaluable.com and ConverseAuctions.com. Live previews will be held by appointment only in Converse Auctions’ gallery at 1 Spring Street in Paoli, Pa., just outside Philadelphia.

The auction is packed with over 550 lots of fine American, European, African, Chinese and other Asian items – a tantalizing blend of objects from the East alongside items from the Western culture (hence the title ‘East West’). All lots have a starting bid of $10, a tactic designed to encourage newcomers to the collecting world, and old pros as well, to bid early and bid often.

Items from the East will feature Chinese and Japanese artifacts, to include fine furniture, jade, porcelain, cloisonné, paintings and seals, plus items from the collection of Dr. Morris V. Shelanski, a prolific antiques collector from the 1950s-1970s. African artifacts will include rarities from a New York City collector who amassed many visually arresting masks up for bid.

Fine art paintings and prints will come from both the East and West. The watercolor and gouache roses painting by Raoul M. De Longpré is an expected highlight. Measuring 36 inches by 29 inches, the work is artist signed and carries an estimate of $800-$1,200. De Longpré was born in Lyons, Paris, into a family of “fleuristes” (artists who painted flowers).

With an estimate of $5,000-$8,000, the hand-painted Chinese bottle vase in a presentation box could be the sale’s top lot. The 12-inch-tall vase boasts tubular handles, a painted garden on one side, calligraphy and an artist’s mark on the reverse and four-character mark on the bottom. The African Dan Guere mask, 23 inches by 10 inches, made from wood, wild boar horn, cowrie shells, beads, textiles, raffia and bronze bells, is on a custom stand and should go for $300-$500.




Other noteworthy Chinese offerings include a tall, late 19th or early 20th century huanghuali cabinet, 78 ½ inches in height, having open “cracked ice” sides and doors and an overall dynamic wood grain (est. $4,000-$6,000); and a large and gorgeous cobalt glazed globular Qianlong vase, showing eight immortals pictured with their traditional symbols (est. $1,500-$2,500). The background is decorated in gold clouds and the symbols are colorfully painted.

Returning to fine art, a pair of oil portraits done around 1900 depicting New York surgeon Dr. Stanley Gardiner and his wife, Elizabeth Bennett Gardiner, is expected to garner $1,000-$1,500. Dr. Gardiner was an expert in the treatment of appendicitis but, ironically, he died in 1914 after delaying treatment for himself. Elizabeth was the daughter of George C. Bennett, publisher of the Brooklyn Times, where the poet Walt Whitman once worked as a journalist.

A gelatin silver print with mixed media by Masao Yamamoto (Japanese, b. 1957), titled A Box of Ku, No. 49, mono print #3 in an edition of 40, should realize $1,000-$1,500. The photograph, measuring 4 inches by 6 inches (less frame), comes with New Yorker and Village Voice reviews.

Also expected to command $1,000-$1,500 is a color lithograph on grey-ochre paper by Marcel Salinas (French, 1913-2010), after one of the 29 paintings from Pablo Picasso’s cycle Portraits Imaginaires, 26 ¼ inches by 33 inches, signed by Salinas in the stone. Marcel Salinas was a renowned lithographer who collaborated with Picasso on Picasso’s Imaginary Portraits series.

Other fine art offerings include a river scene by Eugène-Alexis Girardet (French, 1853-1907); a painting by Tom McKinney (American, 20th c.); watercolors by Philip Jamison, Adolph Dehn and W.A. Mason; prints, etchings, engravings and lithographs from artists that include Whistler, Renoir, Alvar Sunol, David Schluss and Dan Miller; and 19th century photographs from China.

Decorative accessories will be highlighted by a set of three cups by Berndt Friberg (Swedish, 1899-1981), with subtle glazes and refined form and with logos for Gustavsberg and Friberg (est. $800-$1,200; and a group of four handcrafted folk-art knives made by the artist known as “The Peddler” in Kingston, N.Y., in the 1990s (est. $400-$600). The knives, purchased directly from “The Peddler” himself, are hand-forged from various metals and jaw bones, with leather sheaths.

Also due to cross the auction block is a Dominick & Haff sterling service for twelve, Bashful Charlotte frogs, an antique Venetian blown glass goblet, a Baccarat Millefiori paperweight, Mid-Century Modern items (to include the Hungarian-born American artist Eva Zeisel, 1906-2011), Continental porcelain, Wedgwood china and a large collection of hand-forged aluminum items.