Porcelain Appraisal Reveals High Values

For centuries porcelain has been an important part of a well-stocked home and especially in eras past has been a popular way of displaying one’s wealth and status. Ranging from lavishly decorated creations to plates and serving vessels of pristine simplicity and quality, European companies scrambled to discover the methods behind Chinese porcelain before producing them for the wealthy elites of Europe. These fine items are passed down for generations as family heirlooms but are often overlooked as a valuable item worth getting appraised and insured. Museums and private collectors alike seek out items by these famous European manufacturers with an eye for the old, the unique, and the items with stories to tell and it is important for owners of such items to seek out professional advice concerning their heirloom porcelain.

Antiques Roadshow Discovery
The monetary value of these items is illustrated by an Antiques Roadshow discovery that was broadcast in England this month. A woman from south Wales was surprised to hear that a large porcelain meat plate that had been inherited from a family member was worth more than 100,000 GBP ($156,235). The piece, which was haphazardly displayed in her home, was brought to the Roadshow evaluation in a shopping bag, an afterthought that seems to have paid off. The woman and her husband traveled to the evaluation with more interest in their group of antique books but came out with this stunning evaluation and a better understanding of its importance and history. The hard-paste plate was a part of a dinner service set made for Fredrick the Great, a Prussian king of the Hohenzollern dynasty who reigned for most of the 18^th century. The incredible appraisal value is due to its great detail and unique heritage or provenance; a piece much smaller than the plate from the same set recently sold for 31,000 GBP ($48,414).

Porcelain Appraisal

MIR’s art appraisers have a great deal of experience evaluating and researching porcelain, and items in MIR’s collection reflect this knowledge. On the walls and in the various china cabinets are displayed plates, serving vessels, candle holders and tea sets made from some of the world’s most renowned manufacturers, giving MIR’s appraisers physical reference points for the evaluation of such items. Porcelain is usually divided into two categories, hard-paste and soft-paste, both of which MIR houses in its research repertoire.

Hard-Paste Porcelain: Meissen

Founded in 1710, Meissen is credited with being the first factory in Europe to make hard-paste porcelain, keeping the process as its own for 50 years. Hard-paste porcelain is considered true porcelain and is composed of kaolin (china clay) and petuntse (china stone) which allows for a unique hard white substance to be created when combined and heated to a high temperature. A process that originated in China because of the prevalence of the necessary ingredients, Meissen revolutionized the European porcelain scene by finally being able to replicate the porcelain much admired by European collectors. MIR has a number of Meissen plates in its collection including one that displays the various incarnations of the trademark blue crossed swords that have come to stand for quality in porcelain.

Soft-Paste Porcelain: Capodimonte

Capodimonte porcelain has been a well-known porcelain manufacturer since its founding by Charles III, king of Naples, in 1743. Identified by a blue “N” with a crown on top of it, Capodimonte porcelain is often ornate and colorful and includes raised/relief designs. Made of soft-paste, the items are created from a combination of white clay and ground glass and considered artificial porcelain because of the absence of kaolin. Soft-paste porcelain was first produced in Florence in the late 16^th century and is skillfully used to create the floral bouquets and ornate mythological renderings typical of Capodimonte porcelain. Among MIR’s Capodimonte holdings are a group of five gold colored cups complete with saucer displaying raised mythological scenes rendered in brilliant colors and complete with faux coral handles. The pieces speak to the ornamental possibilities of the soft-paste medium.

MIR Appraisal Services, Inc. seeks to provide you with quality appraisals on your fine art items. MIR employs a range of appraisers with various specialties in the fine arts and places a premium on research and customer satisfaction. Located in Chicago on Michigan Avenue, MIR has worked with both local and international clients who submit information on their items accompanied with detailed images. Contact MIR and set up an appointment for consultation; call or visit our website for more information on our services.

Written and Researched by Justin Bergquist

MIR Appraisal Services, Inc.

Principal Appraiser & Director: Farhad Radfar, ISA, AM

307 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 308

Chicago, IL 60601

(312) 814-8510

Works Cited:

“Porcelain,” in Oxford Art Online

Simon de Bruxelles. “German Meat Dish Become Antiques Roadshow’s Most Valuable Plate,” on The London Times Online

Images:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00682/Plate_682091a.jpg

http://www.antique-china-porcelain-collectibles.com/images/meissen-marks-assorted.jpg

Exquisite Chicago Art Events in February

A comprehensive list of February art-programming events in our dear city would read like a most artful and prolific Valentine’s Day love-letter, in flowery script, from the handsome and dashing city of Chicago! Please allow your friends at MIR Appraisal Services, Inc. to serve as Cupid, sending to you, with our swift arrow, a loving message containing 12 excellent art events this month in Chicago:

[Image: Head of a Woman (Fernande), Pablo Picasso.]

1. African Art and the Modernist Eye

February 18^th, 6-7 p.m.

111 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL
Price Auditorium
Contact: (312) 443-3600

Free Admission

Christa Clark of the Newark Museum presents a fascinating lecture on the impact of African art on the European masters of the 20^th century. Clark considers how the interest in primitivism in art shaped Western understandings of African art as well as how African art informed the creative process of artists such as Picasso.

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[Exhibition: Now though February 14^th.]
[Image: Covered, Anna Shteynshleyger.]

2. Sexy Challahs, Pregnant Shabbat Candlesticks, and Women with Sidelocks: Anna Shteynshleyger’s Embodied Judaism, lecture by Leora Auslander at the University of Chicago

February 7^th, 2:00 p.m. through February 14th

1025 East 58^th Street, Chicago, IL
Swift Hall, room 106
Contact: Renaissance Society (773) 702-8670

Free Admission

Auslander will deliver a lecture in conjunction with the Renaissance Society’s solo exhibition of photographs by Anna Shteynshleyger. The exhibition includes twenty-four large-scale portraits, still-lifes, landscapes and interiors, from Shteynshleyger’s City of Destiny series. Sensitive and technically stunning, the photographs intimately express her relationship to Orthodox Judaism.

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[Exhibition: Aspen Mays, Every Leaf on a Tree: February 6^th-28^th.]
[Image: Aspen Mays, Every Leaf 0339, 2009.]

3. UBS 12 X 12 Artist’s Talk: Aspen Mays at the Museum of Contemporary Art

February 9^th, 6 p.m.
220 East Chicago Avenue, Chicago IL 60611
Contact: (312) 280-2660

Photographer Aspen Mays brings intensive ordering, reordering, and cataloging into the realm of high art and celebration/collaboration with the natural world. Can an intensive reordering of the universe create a new universe? The Exhibition includes Every Leaf, in which Mays photographs every leaf on the tree outside her studio (over 900 photographs) and Every Book—books on Einstein arranged in a highly satisfying color spectrum.

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[Image: Max Klinger, Abduction (A Glove, Opus VI).]

4. The Dark Mirror: Writing from the Interior Image at the Smart Museum of Art

February 13^th, 1-4 p.m

5550 South Greenwood Avenue, Chicago, IL
Contact: (773) 702-2351

Free Admission, but advanced registration required; contact Kristy Peterson at kristypeterson@uchicago.edu

Poet Eric Elshtain leads an adult writing workshop centered about 19^th century Victorian poetry and works from the Smart Museum’s exhibition The Darker Side of Light. Participants compose a rough draft of a poem.

5. Sketching at the Smart

February 18, 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Free Admission, but advanced registration required; contact Kristy Peterson at kristypeterson@uchicago.edu

Instructor-led drawing workshop focusing on shading-experimentation. All skill-levels welcome. Free snacks, refreshment and music. Graphite, paper, and other materials provided.

[Both events held in conjunction with the Darker Side of Light exhibition February 11^th-June 13^th.]

The exhibit, organized by the National Gallery of Art, focuses on 19^th century prints, drawings, illustrated books, and small sculptures by artists such as Félix Bracquemond, James Ensor, Max Klinger, Käthe Kollwitz, James McNeill Whistler, Charles Meryon, and Anders Zorn.

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[Exhibition: A Room of Their Own: The Bloomsbury Artists in American Collections, now through March 14th.]
[Image: Vanessa Bell, Dust jacket design for Mrs. Dalloway, 1925.]

6. Love Letters and Live Wires at Northwestern University’s Block Museum

February 20^th, 2 p.m.

40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston, IL 60208
Contact: (847) 491-2261
Admission: $6

Short works from 1930’s avant-garde filmmakers, including Len Lye, Norman McClaren, and Lotte Reiniger, which exhibit the Modernist style evident in the Bloomsbury aesthetic. Shown in conjunction with the exhibition A Room of Their Own: The Bloomsbury Artists in American Collections; witness works by members and affiliates of the Bloomsbury group, including Vanessa Bell, Roger Fry, Duncan Grant, and Dora Carrington.

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[Exhibition: February 10^th-May 9^th]
[Image: László Moholy-Nagy, Lightplay: Black White Grey.]

7. Moholy-Nagy: An Education of the Senses, Curator Carol Ehlers leads a tour through the exhibition at Loyola University Museum of Art

February 23, 6:00 p.m.

820 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL
Contact: (312) 915-7600

Free Admission

Part of Living Modern Chicago, a city-wide tribute to the 90^th anniversary of the Bauhaus, this retrospective focuses on the tools of the innovative Hungarian-American artist Moholy-Nagy—art, design, modern technology, and light.

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[Exhibit: Now through May 3^rd.]
[Image: Photograph of Tarkowsky by Stephanie Anderson]

8. Christine Tarkowski: Last Things Will Be First and First Things Will Be Last, Artist Gallery Talk at the Chicago Cultural Center

February 25, 12:15 p.m.

78 East Washington Street, Chicago, IL
Chicago Rooms
Contact: (312) 744-6630

Free Admission

Tarkowski’s artist’s statement addresses her ideas concerning architecture and reverence: “I am building my own religion. Religion is not an entirely accurate description for what I’m creating, a faith-based system is more suitable. The order in which I’m developing this system doesn’t follow the expected logic of such a pursuit… I’m building my system in reverse order, starting with only a fragment of the architecture, propaganda, and music.” The exhibition includes a geodesic dome as house of worship, sketches of satellites, and automobiles as vehicles of “holy” spaces.

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[1968-1987, Al Jarnow, USA, 90 min.]

9. Celestial Navigations: The Short Films of Al Jarnow at the Gene Siskel Film Center

February 19^th and 20^th, 8:00 p.m.

164 North State Street, Chicago, IL
Contact: (312) 846-2800

Admission: $10 for adults, $7 for students

Explore one of Chicago’s hidden cinematic gems while watching the short films of Al Jarnow at the Siskel Film Center. Said by the Center to bridge “the worlds of children’s television and avant-garde, and of geometric abstraction and avant-Gondry playfulness,” the films showcase the inventiveness of this interesting artist and include a documentary by the artist on his creative methods.

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10. Bobby Sengstacke: The Fierce Urgency of Now, Photographs from the New World of the 1960’s and 1970’s at Chicago State University

Exhibit runs now through February 26th

9501 South Martin Luther King Drive, Chicago, IL
CSU President’s Gallery, 3^rd floor
Contact: (773) 995-3984

Robert Abbott Sengstacke’s oeuvre represents over 5 decades of photographic work. His familial connection to The Chicago Defender granted him access to a wide-range of photographic subjects.

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[Image: Sonia Sanchez, photograph by Marion Ettlinger.]

11. Freedom’s Sisters at DuSable Museum of African-American History

Exhibit runs now through April 4th

740 East 56^th Place, Chicago, IL
Contact: (773) 947-0600

Included with General Admission ($3 for Adults) Interactive Stations relate the stories of Harriet Tubman, Mary McLeod Bethune, Septima Poinsette Clark, Fannie Lou Hamer, Dorothy Height, Coretta Scott King, Rosa Parks, along with thirteen more important women leaders.

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12. Visit us at MIR Appraisal Services, Inc.

View works in our collection and bring in works from your own collection for an evaluation (much like your own personal "Antiques Roadshow")! Additionally, for a limited time, MIR Appraisal Services, Inc. will be donating a percentage of your appraisal fee to the Red Cross for disaster relief in Haiti. Just mention "Help for Haiti" when you call to schedule an appointment. With an attitude of reverence and with supreme skill, the experts at MIR extensively research fine art and personal property, providing in-depth analysis, consultation, and formal appraisal reports for your most prized works of art. Please do email mirappraisal@aol.com or call (312) 814-8510.

Written and researched by Jessica Savitz & Justin Bergquist

MIR Appraisal Services, Inc.
Principal Appraiser & Director: Farhad Radfar, ISA, AM
307 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 308
Chicago, IL 60601
Phone: (312) 814-8510

Works Cited:

http://www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu/exhibitions/current/bloomsbury/index.htmlhttp://www.chicagoculturalcenter.org http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/jarnowhttp://chicago.timeout.com/articles/art-design/81856/anna-shteynshleyger-art-story
http://www.mcachicago.org/exhibitions/exh_detail.php?id=192#_self
http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/exhibitions/500Ways/overview
http://event.uchicago.edu/maincampus
http://www.priskajuschkafineart.com/artists/Christine_Tarkowski/statement.php

Roger Chaput: Fine Art & Jazz

Musicians are inherently creative, and many engage in other forms of creation as a means of exercising these impulses. When they are not in the studio or on stage many musicians through out time have devoted themselves to writing poetry and prose and some have even turned to the visual arts to express their unique artistic voice. It often seems that artists aspire to be rock stars and rock stars aspire to be artists but only some of these musical geniuses have successfully bridged the gap between the two forms and have been successful in both arenas. Musicians such as Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney and Paul Simonon of the Clash have found a second front of fame through the visual arts, a stunning achievement and a tribute to their talent.

These multi-talented artists are not confined to the boundaries of rock and roll as is proven by the exciting career of Roger Chaput. Born in 1909, Chaput and his parents moved to Paris while he was young and the budding musician soon came to identify the city as his own. Learning the guitar as a child, Chaput eventually found his calling playing the jazz and swing music of the day. His most successful venture into the Parisian music scene came when he joined Django Reinhardt, Reinhardt’s brother and even a jazz violinist to form the Quintette du Hot Club de France. This group, active in the 1930’s, was inspired by American jazz and swing music but borrowed heavily from the gypsy guitar roots of Reinhardt’s childhood. Playing rhythm guitar for Reinhardt for nearly a decade, Chaput eventually shifted gears towards the visual arts, creating caricatures and eventually moving on to oil paints. Capturing still lives, portraits and landscape pieces, the artist funneled his vibrant artistic bravado into his unique and raw paintings.

The piece that MIR has in its collection shows off many of the key characteristics of Chaput’s work. Painted in a naive and two-dimensional style, the painting of a lace maker is nonetheless infused with a deep sense of energy. Derived from the almost uncontrollable tone of red that fills the background, the energy seems to be everywhere but on the face of the subject. Oblivious to the enlivened atmosphere the worker plugs away at her chore, her thoughts lost even to herself. Much of Chaput’s portraiture features profile views of subjects that seem almost overwhelmed by their backdrop, perhaps his way of expressing an atmospheric rhythm he discovered in interwar Paris.

MIR Appraisal Services, Inc. is different from other fine art appraisers because of the time and effort they devote to researching the hidden stories behind our clients’ artwork. With a large staff of researchers devoted to supporting MIR’s appraisal efforts the company puts a premium on unearthing the hidden stories behind works of art and educating their clients. This dedication is the icing on the cake of a solid service that aims to give clients appraisals tailored to their needs and pointing them in the right direction should they wish to sell their piece of art. We encourage you to call and make an appointment to visit our office on Michigan Avenue and talk to our experienced staff.

Written and Researched by Justin Bergquist

MIR Appraisal Services, Inc.
Principal Appraiser and Director: Farhad Radfar, ISA, AM
307 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 308
Chicago, IL 60601
(312) 814-8510

Works Cited:
James, Donald. “Reinhardt, Django,” in Jazz.com.

Images:
http://www.djangostation.com/IMG/jpg/024-SteI_phane-Graeuro_haput_-1936.jpg
http://www009.upp.so-net.ne.jp/JAZZ-78rpm/masa153.JPG
http://www.chicagoartappraisers.com/invchaput1.html