Auction Life's May 18-19 Auction Features Antiques, Oddities, Artifacts, Decor, Perfumes, Factice

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Auction Life will follow up a successful Whimsical Worldly Wonders Winter Auction in February with a two-day, two session auction slated for Tuesday and Wednesday, May 18th and 19th. The May 18th session is titled Antiques, Oddities, Artifacts, Objects & Décor; the May 19th sale is titled Perfumemania, Miscentllaneous, Bottle & Factice.

The auction is mostly online, but with limited live seating available in the West Palm Beach area gallery (RSVP required). An exhibition period will be announced, and gallery previews will be appointment only, with COVID protocols in place. Online bidding is via LiveAuctioneers.com, Invaluable.com and Auctionzip.com. Telephone and absentee (or left) bids will also be accepted.

“We’re trying something new for this follow-up to the February auction,” said Tarek Eljabaly, the owner of Auction Life. “After successfully featuring a few pieces from an estate in our previous sales, instead of their original intentions of hosting a local in-home estate sale, we were contracted to host a live virtual estate sale to be featured online.”

The Day 1, May 18th Antiques, Oddities, Artifacts, Objects & Décor session is loaded with over 400 lots of antiques, artifacts, art, collectibles, jewelry, sculptures, coins, furniture and décor.

Several items could conceivably walk away with top lot honors. One is a late 18th century Italian walnut table crafted in the 16th century style, 34 inches wide by 47 inches long and heavily carved all over with Renaissance stylized foliage and grotesques, a molded oblong top, and sphinx feet. The gorgeous table, which weighs 80 pounds, is expected to bring $6,000-$12,000.

A stunning 14kt white gold and diamond tennis necklace, 16 inches long and weighing 26.3 grams, should find a new owner for $5,000-$10,000 (the appraisal estimate is $12,850). The necklace boasts 119 round diamonds (the largest one measuring 4 millimeters) with a total weight of eight carats. The diamonds are prong set, with a locking closure and safety clasp.

An early 18th century oil on canvas religious painting by an unknown Mexican artist, titled Jesus’s Agony at the Gethsemane, was executed in the Chiaroscurism style and measures 38 inches tall by 34 ½ inches wide. Included are two letters, one in English and one in Spanish, each one describing the painting, which has been appraised at $5,000-$7,000 (est. $4,000-$8,000).

A 140-piece silver flatware set with Austria-Hungary .800 silver purity hallmarks has been given a pre-sale estimate of $3,500-$7,000. The set has a total .800 silver weight of 5532 grams, and that doesn’t include a hollowware set that features four serving spreader knives (.800 silver) and 23 knives with stainless steel blades, one knife’s hollowed out handle weighing 30 grams alone.

A Pre-Columbian standing female effigy figure, 14 inches tall, made from clay in western Mexico between 400 A.D. and 600 A.D., carries a pre-sale estimate of $700-$2,100. The Jalisco culture effigy, pulled from a Palm Beach estate, weighs just over three pounds and is adorned with a head wrap and earrings and decorative geometric circles attached to her shoulders.

Also from western Mexico, and much older at circa 1200-400 B.C., is a Pre-Columbian Olmec transformational figure, translucent jade, with holes in each ear for suspension and standing with legs apart and slightly bent. The 6-inch-tall figure, having a distinct forehead, its arms at its side and with palms slightly raised, with nicely detailed toes, weighs 1.75 pounds (est. $600-$1,800).

The Day 2, May 19th Perfumemania, Miscentllaneous Bottle & Factice session will be dedicated to perfumes and factice bottles, 208 lots in all and featuring all the major perfume manufacturers. The fresh-to-the-market collection of vintage perfume and factice bottles includes the following:

- A limited-edition Lalique for Caron vintage parfum, two fluid oz., in an Art Nouveau perfume bottle, full and sealed, 6 inches tall, in the original black velvet accordion-style presentation display box, stamped “2030” and handwritten “B425” (est. $100-$1,000).

- A rare Lancôme Magie moon face perfume having an opalescent Sputnik perfume flacon design, circa 1958, Georges Delhomme, one of only 100 pieces made (est. $100-$1,000).

- A hard-to-find, vintage Caron L’Infiniti perfume in a corded and sealed bottle (2.7 fluid oz.), with etched “81” to the bottom and in the original presentation box (est. $100-$500).

- A Baccarat Ybry Femme de Paris Perfume Flacon 2 in a jade-colored crystal bottle that’s empty but it has an amber stopper plus the original presentation box (est. $100-$500).

- A Roger & Gallet Le Oeillet Bleu Blue Carnation perfume, corded and sealed, in a 1.7 fluid ounce bottle measuring about 3 ¼ inches tall with a 2 ¼ inch top (est. $100-$500).

Start times are 4 pm Eastern for the May 18th session and 3 pm for May 19th. To schedule an appointment, or to RSVP for limited seating at the live venue in the West Palm Beach area, please call Auction Life at (561) 757-1551; or, send an email to auctionlifeflorida@gmail.com. To learn more about Auction Life and the two-day, two-session auctions planned for May 18th an 19th, please visit www.AuctionLifeFlorida.com.