Billionaire Scaife's Collection of Sailor's Valentines at Auction
- October 06, 2014 22:03
Intricate 19th-century shellwork folk art from the Nantucket summer home of the late billionaire publisher Richard Mellon Scaife comes to auction this week.
Scaife's collection of sailor's valentines and other whimsical Victorian-age maritime souvenirs will be offered at Rafael Osona's traditional Columbus Weekend Auction on Nantucket Island, Mass. on Oct. 11.
Nearly three dozen examples of vintage and contemporary sailor's valentines are part of the sale. The Victorian pieces, worked from hundreds of small shells and often incorporating endearing phrases, were picked up by sailors in the Caribbean, largely Barbados, as tokens for loved ones at home.
Heir to the Mellon banking and oil fortune, Pittsburgh native Scaife was owner of Trib Total Media. He was also a controversial conservative, and major philanthropist. Scaife died on July 4 at age 82.
A longtime collector, Scaife left his vast art holdings, a 900-acre Western Pennsylvania estate, and $15 million to the Brandywine Conservancy and Museum of Art in Chadds Ford, PA., according to his will.
100x100_c.jpg "‘The Surf Riders of Hawaii’ by A.R. Gurrey Jr., the earliest and most important book pertaining to the sport of surfing, circa 1910-1914, one of eight known survivors or an unknown original number. Handmade with eight gelatin silver period photos of surfers in Hawaii, adorned with hand calligraphy and including poetry and prose by Lord Byron and Gurrey")
100x100_c.jpg "Sheila Isham Tui II, 1972 Acrylic on canvas 42 x 52 in. (106.7 x 132.1 cm)")
100x100_c.jpg "Boba Fett L-slot rocket-firing prototype action figure, predecessor to the Boba Fett figure in Kenner’s popular 1979 Star Wars toy line, 3.75in tall, AFA-graded 80+ NM (archival case). Encapsulated with notarized CIB COA. Sold for a world-record price of $236,000 against an estimate of $100,000-$200,000")
