New York, New York: Nostalgic wartime images romanticize the Big Apple in black and white
From buskers in Times Square and 40ft tall billboards lighting up the theatre district, to the boardwalk in Coney Island, New York is known for its many landmarks.
But these nostalgic photographs are a distinctly different vision from the Big Apple we know today.
Antique cars and vintage wardrobe tell the story of old New York in these black and white photos taken by LIFE's photographers between 1942 and 1970.
Farewell: A couple in Penn Station share a kiss before he ships off to WWII in December, 1943
The LIFE archive includes a small selection of the magazine's black-and-white photos that 'show off the the spirit, the architecture, the culture (high and decidedly low) of Gotham', according to its editors.
Hovering over Times Square, Marlene Dietrich is splayed on a Times Square billboard attracting crowds below in 1944.
A ghostly photo of New York Harbor shows the skyline much as we know it today with a view straight down bustling 42nd Street in 1946; and people race from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during an air raid drill in November 1951.
In 1944, a strolling blind musician is shown playing guitar and harmonica along Broadway.
Glamour: New Yorkers crowd Broadway below a large billboard depicting actress Marlene Dietrich reclining in an Arabian harem costume over the Astor movie theater marquee in October, 1944
Landmark: Russian head Nikita S Khrushchev and his wife, center, meet the press at the top of the Empire State building in September, 1959
Bustling: Men vanishing from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during an air raid drill in November, 1951
Ruckus: Young boys with sticks, running around while playing a street game in Spanish Harlem in January, 1947
Summer in the city: Aerial view of the crowded beach and pier at Coney Island, including the Parachute Jump amusement park ride, in 1951
Style is telling of the time period in many of the photographs, such as the well-heeled woman walking her poodles along Fifth Avenue in October 1942.
A view from the balcony at the opening of new Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center in January 1966 shows theatregoers in black tie, ready for a show.
Further uptown, in Spanish Harlem, young boys are pictured playing a street game with sticks.
Chic: A woman walks her poodles along Fifth Avenue in October, 1942
Amid all of the chaos, a couple pauses to share a kiss in bustling Penn Station in 1942, before he ships out to war.
But the city crowds are as dense as ever, despite the decades passed.
Another photo of a Manhattan subway train in 1970 show commuters crammed in and holding on for dear life - all for the love of living in the Big Apple.
Source: Daily Mail
Jumbo joy! He’s auctioned a Ferrari for £14m, but nothing’s given Antiques Road Trip’s Charlie Ross more pleasure than selling a china elephant
Some 40 years ago, a little blonde girl stood wide-eyed outside her home on a South African game reserve as a group of elephants grazed on the orange trees in front of her.
As Myrna Schkolne watched in wonderment, a male elephant gorged himself on orange after orange, clearly loving squeezing the sweet juice into his mouth.
Myrna, now a US-based antiques expert and author, has never forgotten the moment, and her love of elephants is still as strong.
Charlie Ross with the record-breaking elephant originally bought for just £8
Fast forward to 2011, and an auction house in Scotland, where Antiques Road Trip presenter Charlie Ross was about to make the biggest sale of the series. And the most extraordinary discovery of his TV career was about to mark the end of Myrna’s 25-year quest for her elephant.
This remarkable story began – as Charlie explains – with sheer luck. Faced with the challenge of bagging bargains from antiques shops and selling them on for a profit at auction for the show, he found himself outside an emporium with fellow expert and competitor James Braxton.
Auctioneer Charlie, 61, recalls, ‘The antiques were stored in a converted chapel and an outhouse. James and I tossed a coin to see who should go where, and he got the chapel while I headed for the outhouse.’
It was there that something caught Charlie’s eye – a Staffordshire elephant, some 9in tall. Charlie says, ‘I knew as soon as I saw him he was something special. I picked him up and looked at the wonderful detail. The price tag was just £12, although I knew this elephant was worth hundreds of pounds. But I wasn’t thinking about the profit I would make; all I could look at was the tiny figure sitting on top of the elephant. He was so charming – he seemed to be calling out to me.’
Charlie still couldn’t resist haggling. ‘The owner of the shop told me he’d found the elephant in a house clearance, sitting at the back of a cupboard. I don’t know who had owned him, but he’d obviously been loved and cared for. At £12, it was a bargain, but I still had to haggle – and I bought him for just £8.’
Next stop was the local auction house, where Charlie’s bargains went under the hammer. ‘I was hoping to raise as much as £500,’ says Charlie. ‘But the auctioneer had put an image of the elephant on the website and suddenly there was an extraordinary explosion of worldwide interest’ – including from Myrna in North Carolina.
‘I saw this elephant on the website, and it was love at first sight,’ she says. Even as an avid collector of Staffordshire pieces, Myrna, 48, had only ever seen two such figures on offer. ‘One had come up for sale but he was albino [the elephants are normally grey], which didn’t do it for me. Another came up at auction a few years ago but had been heavily restored. Then I saw this one and knew we were meant for each other.
‘I placed an email bid, but didn’t want to risk losing it, so, because of the time difference, I got up at 5am to bid over the phone. The bidding took ages, but when it ended he was mine – and the room, to my surprise, broke into applause. “That’s for you,” said the nice lady on the phone, who told me the auction had been filmed for a TV programme.
‘My elephant had cost Charlie £8 and me an awful lot more [£2,700]. But it’s possible to have two winners, and both he and I were happy.’
Charlie adds, ‘The auction was the most exciting I’ve experienced. Last year I auctioned a Ferrari for £14 million, but the excitement created by this sweet little elephant beat that. There was a huge buzz in the auction room, and when the hammer went down, there was whooping and hollering – not least from me.
‘The £2,700 paid is an Antiques Road Trip record. Of course, what I didn’t realise until later was the buyer had spent 25 years searching for this item. It wasn’t about me winning the competition, it was about somebody with a real love finding the object she had spent so long looking for.’
Family’s shock as they discover great uncle’s comic collection is worth $2m
A 'jaw-dropping' collection of some of the most sought after comics in the world are set to fetch more than $2million at auction today.
And while the brothers set to benefit from the eye-watering sale thought they were 'cool' - they suspected they were worthless.
Michael Rorrer of California and his brother Jonathan were fleetingly told as youngsters that they might one day inherit their great uncle's collection of comics.
Jaw-dropping': Michael Rorrer thought the collection of 345 comics he inherited were 'cool' but had no idea his Action Comics No.1 and Detective Comics No.27 would be valued at $325,000 and $475,000 respectively
And when they were handed down to him last year, Michael admits he had no idea the collection contained some of the most prized issues ever published.
Speaking about the impressive hoard Lon Allen, the managing director of comics for Heritage Auctions, the Dallas-based auction house overseeing the sale said: 'This is just one of those collections that all the guys in the business think don't exist anymore.
'It was kind of hard to wrap my head around it, It's absolutely jaw-dropping.
It wasn't until a few months after he received the collection that 31-year-old Michael began to realise how rare they were - after a run of the mill conversation with a colleague at work.
He explained to him how he had read a 1941 issue of Captain America No.2, in which the hero bursts in on Adolf Hitler, hidden away in the stack of 345 books neatly piled up in his great uncle's basement.
His co-worker joked that it was almost as good as finding Action Comics No.1, widely considered to be the most important comic, in which Superman makes his first appearance.
'I went home and was looking through some of them and there it was' said Rorrer, who then began researching the collection's value.
'I couldn't believe what I had sitting there upstairs at the house.'
That issue alone is expected to sell for about $325,000 when the collection goes under the hammer at the Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion auction house in New York today, while the Captain America book he enjoyed flicking through is set to fetch $100,000.
Despite these staggering fees a Detectives Comics No. 27, from 1939, in which Batman makes his first unofficial appearance, could bring in the biggest fee having been valued at $475,000.
In all the collection contains 44 of The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide's list of top 100 and four of the top five - a figure that associate publisher of the guide called 'dizzying'.
Paul Litch, the primary grader at Certified Guaranty Company, an independent certification service for comic books added: 'There were some really hard to find books that were in really, really great condition.
'You can see it was a real collection, someone really cared about these and kept them in good shape.'
Sketched self-portrait of David Hockney as a teenager sells at auction for £22,500
At first glance, it looks like just another childhood drawing.
But look carefully at this young boy and you may recognise a famous face – David Hockney, now known as Britain’s greatest living artist.
The self-portrait, which was sketched more than 50 years ago when the painter was just 17 years old, has just sold at Christie’s for more than £20,000.
David Hockney self-portrait: Experts say the drawing, which sold for £22,500, demonstrates the artist's talent even as a teenager
Fish and Chip Shop: This lithograph sold for £20,000
The image was printed on a piece of cartridge paper less than 30cm wide and was produced by the young Hockney in 1954 as a school assignment.
But despite its humble appearance, experts say it is one of the rarest and earliest examples of his work and shows the distinctive talent Hockney possessed even as a teenager.
- Ssss-ensational: This black-and-red 1964 piece called Jungle Boy fetched £8,750
It was with his encouragement that the youngster applied for the Royal College of Art, where he launched his career as a painter.
The striking black, white and yellow portrait shows the teenager sporting a blunt fringe and prescription glasses – a look he had adopted from his hero, the artist Stanley Spencer.
He signed it ‘David H’ and inscribed ‘For Mr Maddox’ in ink – thought to be Reggie Maddox, Hockney’s art teacher at Bradford Grammar School.
The piece was sold today for £22,500 - its sale estimate was between £15,000 and £20,000.
The extraordinary amount was put down by an anonymous telephone buyer after a fierce bidding war lasting several minutes.
It comes as fans across the country clamour to snap up the last tickets for the artist’s most extensive British exhibition ever at the Royal Academy.
Tickets for the show, which ends on April 9, are now going for £75 on internet touting sites after the first batch of advance tickets sold out before it even opened.
A Christie’s spokesman said: ‘David Hockney’s self-portrait was the first lot of the sale, and as the catalogue cover image it received a lot of exposure prior to auction.
‘As one of Hockney’s first lithograhphs it shows his early interest in the use of colour, and it is an incredibly important image in his oeuvre.’
It formed part of the Hockney On Paper sale at the auction house in South Kensington, London.
It featured 147 works including etchings, lithographs, drawings and photography by David Hockney and was expected to realise in excess of £1 million.
The sale spanned over 40 years of the artist’s career and included works which reflected the different stages of his life.
It also included another lithograph created when he was 17, depicting a fish and chips shop in the artist’s home town of Bradford.
The piece sold for £20,000 – more than double its estimate of between £7,000 and £9,000.
Hockney, who was born in 1937, grew up in Bradford before attending Bradford College of Art and then the Royal College of Art.
In the 1960s, he moved to California where he became a leading figure in the Pop Art movement and created his pool paintings – now regarded as his most iconic works.
He painted landscapes all over the world before returning to paint his native Yorkshire in the late 1990s.
His show at the Royal Academy, David Hockney: A Bigger Picture, is regarded as the most extensive exhibition of his works to appear in Britain.
Tickets are still available on the door each day and more advance tickets have been released since they sold out.
However, unofficial internet touting sites such as thecityticketbrokers.com are selling advance tickets for £75 – five times the original price.
Superheros swing into Peter Francis Auctioneers salerooms
Superheros swing into Peter Francis Auctioneers salerooms in Carmarthen for their Antiques and Fine Art sale on March 27th. Although not always associated with Fine Art, comic books are a very collectable commodity and fully deserve the growing recognition they are being given.
Superhero and condition. A local consignment includes The Amazing Spider-Man Issue 1 from March 1963. Scripted by Stan Lee and brought to life by Steve Ditko this first issue which also features the Fantastic Four should greatly appeal to the collectors. Other Superheroes that will feature inclute Batman, Superman and the Green Lantern.
Fine consignments of silver, Welsh pottery and porcelain, an unusual Indian handpainted wall plate and Scott of the Antarctic memorabilia will all feature in what is shaping up to be a very strong sale across the board.
With over 17000 lots sold last year and four strong sales under our belt already in 2012 competition and prices are buoyant.
The auction will be open for live bidding for more details please check our website www.peterfrancis.co.uk or call on 01267233456.
Whitney Houston’s prized possessions set up for auction…family strips hotel room of ‘death memorabilia’
Prized possession: Some of Whitney Houston's possessions are set to go under the hammer at an auction next month
Some Whitney Houston's most prized possessions are set to go under the hammer at an auction next month.
Items up for sale include a pair of earrings, a brown satin waistcoat and a black velvet dress she wore in the 1992 movie The Bodyguard.
Julien's Auctions boss Darren Julien has defended the decision to hold the sale - which will take place at the Hollywood Legends auction on March 31 - so shortly after the singer's death.
He told the Associated Press: 'It proves a point that these items, they're an investment. You buy items just like a stock. Buy at the right time and sell at the right time, and they just increase in value.'
Mr Julien went on to say the auction would be a celebration of Houston, who was found dead in the bathtub of her Beverly Hilton hotel suite a week ago.
He said: 'It's a celebration of her life. If you hide these things in fear that you're going to offend someone - her life is to be celebrated.
'These items are historic now that she passed. They become a part of history. They should be in museums. She's lived a life and had a career that nobody else has ever had.
Under the hammer: The black velvet dress worn by Whitney in The Bodyguard
'For people who are fans of Whitney Houston and never would have had a chance to meet her and never got to talk to her, these are items that literally touched a part of her life.
'They are a way to relate to her or be a part of her life without having known her.'
Meanwhile, Whitney's family have ensured the hotel room she died in has been meticulously stripped of any memorabilia to prevent anyone selling the items to profit out of her death.
Co-stars: Pictured here in a scene from the film with co-star Kevin Costner
TMZ reports that everything has been removed from room 434, including bed sheets, towels and rubbish.
Houston, 48, was laid to rest yesterday next to the body of her father John Russell Houston Jr. - who died in 2003 - at the Fairview Cemetery in New Jersey.
Only close family - including cousin Dionne Warwick - attended the private burial - which took place a day after her funeral - with fans lining the route to the cemetery.
Infamous: The Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles where Whitney died a week ago
To keep onlookers out a huge tent was erected over the site where Whitney's silver coffin was lowered into the ground.
Stars including Oprah Winfrey, Mariah Carey, Clive Davis and Kevin Costner - Whitney's co-star in movie 'The Bodyguard' - were among the mourners at her 'going home service' on Saturday.
Kevin paid tribute to the singer in a moving eulogy at the funeral, telling her fans to remember 'the sweet miracle' of the singer.
Send off: Whitney's funeral was held in Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday
Source:Daily Mail
Gold Fabergé egg unveiled for Diamond Jubilee charity Egg Hunt in London
As readers are probably aware, this is the Diamond Jubilee year of Queen Elizabeth II's reign over the UK.
The Queen of course owns many collectibles and there are many more associated with her, but there is one particular collectible which has just been unveiled for this celebration which was unheard of until now.
This is the diamond jubilee rose gold egg, created by Faberge and valued at £100,000, is decorated with 60 gemstones - a diamond, emerald, ruby or sapphire celebrates each and every year of the Queen's reign to date.
So how can collectors vie to get their hands on it? In London, 200 'eggs' have been artistically crafted by famous names, and then hidden. As of today (Tuesday), every one has been tucked away to hopefully be found by the eagle eyed. Some of those to craft an egg include Bruce Oldfield, Sir Ridley Scott and Zandra Rhodes.
Those finding an egg are urged to simply keep it, but to send a text to stake their claim for winning the golden egg using a code with the egg.
The hidden eggs will later be auctioned off for the benefit of charities Elephant Family and Action for Children. The event was launched with the appearance of Humpty Dumpty on the wall at Clarence House, and Emilia Fox has now unveiled the golden egg.
Elephant Family founder Mark Shand commented: "The firing gun has sounded - let the hunt begin. Here's to an Olympic effort to win that diamond jubilee egg."
Source: Paul Fraser Collectable
The long-lost ‘haunted’ painting and strange claims…
...that ghost of Mrs Bell vanished after the picture was put back in its rightful place
As ghosts go, she was rather a cultured specimen.
The pale Edwardian figure made frequent visits to the mansion home of Alan Smith, always accompanied by the music of Chopin, according to the startled souls who bore witness.
Her interest in the house was a mystery – until the discovery of a long-lost painting that appeared to feature the very same person, sitting at a piano.
When the portrait was returned to Heale House’s drawing room, the sightings stopped.
Mr Smith was so fascinated he decided to investigate the history of the painting – and uncovered the sad story of the uninvited guest.
He identified the woman as a Mrs Bell, one of the 15-bedroom mansion’s previous occupants, who had been bankrupted and forced to sell all her possessions – including her beloved portrait – shortly before her death in the early 1900s.
Mr Smith said her ghost ‘would walk along the corridors and in the bedrooms, usually at about one o’clock in the morning’.
He continued: ‘She was usually wreathed in a blue haze and just drifted around – you couldn’t see her legs. Sometimes she would even arrive at the bottom of my bed in the middle of the night.
‘I thought there must be some kind of scientific explanation, but other people who visited the house were terrified – and they now believe she’s been put to rest because she got her painting back.’
Mr Smith’s family had seen the apparition many times at the house, near Bideford, Devon, before Mr Smith was approached by the owner of a local junk shop, who asked him: ‘Are you the master of Heales?’
Ghostly: The story came to light when Alan Smith, 70, left, took the picture to be appraised on the Antiques Roadshow
She told him she had something that should be returned to its rightful home and showed him the picture, thought to be by Cyril Roberts, a prominent painter who was based in Paris.
The face was eerily familiar to Mr Smith and he quickly realised it depicted the woman his family had been visited by – and she was seated at a piano in his drawing room.
His research unmasked the subject as Mrs Bell, wife of an Argentine beef rancher who lived in Heale House in the early 1900s.
‘From what we know about Mrs Bell, she was a very cultured lady,’ said Mr Smith.
‘It must have been sad for her to see all of her possessions sold.’
He confirmed that after the portrait was placed in the drawing room, ‘she never appeared again’.
‘We even tried to use a Ouija board to bring her back but it looks as if she’s gone forever,’ he added.
The story came to light when Mr Smith, 70, took the picture to be appraised on the Antiques Roadshow.
Medals of First World War hero and Royal Household legend emerge for sale for first time
The medals belonging to a decorated First World War hero and one of the most influential figures in the Royal Household have emerged for sale.
The Rt Hon Sir Alan 'Tommy' Lascelles worked alongside four monarchs at crucial moments during the 20th century. He was private secretary to Queen Elizabeth II and King George VI.
His medals have never been sold at auction before and there is expected to be huge interest in them. They have been given a pre-sale estimate of £8,000.
They include the Order of the Bath, Knight Grand Cross, the Royal Victorian Order, Knight Grand Cross, and a companions’ badge of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George.
Decorated: Sir Alan Lascelles was a First World War hero Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2101838/Medals-First-World-War-hero-Royal-Household-legend-emerged-sale-time.html#ixzz1mdmjTR00
He also received France’s Legion of Honour, and the group is unique and important.
Sir Alan left the service of the Prince of Wales - later Edward VIII - because of concerns about his behaviour. He famously gave the future King a 'dressing down'.
After leaving the royal he described as 'half child, half genius' he was called back to serve for King George V.
Six weeks later the King was dead and Sir Alan found himself back working for Edward VIII who he served throughout the abdication crisis.
He then became private secretary to King George VI who ascended the throne just before the war.
It was Sir Alan who persuaded the King and Winston Churchill not to sail with the invasion armada on D-Day itself.
When the King died in 1952 Sir Alan became private secretary to the young Queen Elizabeth II and helped build the foundation of her reign that has lasted 60 years.
His astonishing life was summed up in a letter Churchill wrote to him that said: 'Your knowledge has enabled you to steer the best course through tangles which would have baffled others.
'It will always be a joy to you to have played the distinguished part which fell to your lot in the Coronation of our brilliant young Queen and to have advised and helped her during what must have been to her the anxious ordeal of the opening years of her reign.'
The collection is being sold by Dix Noonan Webb auction house in London in a two day sale on March 28-29.
David Erskine-Hill, from the saleroom, said: 'With the possible exception of John Brown’s royal household awards which were auctioned back in 1984, these are arguably the most important equivalent collection to appear on the market in living memory.
Respected: Sir Alan Lascelles, left, who served three Monarchs with Clement Atlee (right) and Sir Stafford Cripps (centre) outside Westminster Abbey
'Medals are all about history, and in Sir Alan’s case we are dealing with a career that witnessed some of the most defining moments in modern royal household history.
'From the bleak days of Edward’s abdication in 1936, to the happy occasion of the Queen’s Coronation in 1953, Sir Alan was there.
'Above all, the momentous years of the last war, when he was present at so many crucial meetings with King George VI and Sir Winston Churchill, stand out.
'It was Sir Alan who was instrumental in persuading His Majesty and the Prime Minster from joining the invasion fleet on D-Day itself, just one of many fascinating stories related in his published diaries, The King’s Counsellor.'
‘Sexually charged’ portrait by Francis Bacon sells for £21m at auction
One of the most ‘seductive’ female potraits ever produced by Francis Bacon sold at auction for £19million yesterday.
Portrait of Henrietta Moraes, one of his favourite models, beat its estimate by £1million, making a total sale price including fees and taxes of £21,321,250.
Bidding began at £13million shortly before 7.25pm at Christie’s in London, but leapt to the final figure in just five minutes.
Auctioned off: The portrait of Henrietta Moraes sold for £21m
It was snapped up by an anonymous telephone buyer, who saw off competition from two other phone bidders and a saleroom bid as the price was raised at £500,000 a time.
Produced in 1963, it is one of the most valuable pieces to be sold at a post-War and contemporary art sale at the auction house, a spokesman said.
The highest selling work in this category was another piece by Bacon, Triptych, which went for £26.3million in February 2008.
Portrait of Henrietta Moraes is an oil on canvas, raw with colour and texture, which measures 65in (165cm) by 56in (142cm) and shows the model sprawled across a bed.
The painting, which has not been seen in public for 15 years, is described as one of Bacon’s ‘most seductive and sexually charged’ paintings.
Since the day it was created the work has only had two owners.
The the present owner who offered the item for sale was not disclosed by Christie’s, who said it came from a ‘distinguished’ New York collection which acquired it in 1983.
The Christie's auction also included Lucian Freud's rediscovered drawing 'Boat, Connemara' executed in 1948
Francis Outred, Christie’s head of post-war and contemporary art, said: ‘The carefully constructed mood through colour is forcefully invaded by the extraordinary swipes of the loaded brush, which create the woman’s voluptuous figure.
‘This juxtoposition of the sheer beauty of colour with the brutal physicality of paint is what makes Bacon’s art so remarkable.’
Bacon was born in Dublin in 1909 to English parents and moved to London in 1926.
Although he had no formal training as an artist, he started to exhibit his work in the 1930s and a decade later he was causing a sensation among the artistic community with his angst-ridden paintings of twisted and mutated forms.
He died of a heart attack in Madrid in 1992. Today his work is among the most popular of 20th century art at auction.
The most expensive painting sold at Christie’s auction house in London is Le bassin aux nymphéas.
The painting by Claude Monet, sold for £40,921,250 - a world record price for the artist at auction in June 2008.
The current world record price was paid for The Card Players by Paul Cezanne.
It was sold to Qatar’s royal family last year for more than £250million, the highest price ever paid for a work of art.