$4 bargain?
My, how interesting. Did I get the best bargain? For $3.99 @ Savers Thrift Store I got a spray sculpture, 6" stainless steel base, graceful 25" height. From the auction prices I saw, even as an unauthenticated maybe-not-even-Bertoia piece w/ no provenance whatsoever, it's still worth several hundred dollars. And, of course, could be worth much, much more. It was sitting on a back table, bound up w/ a rubber band so that it looked like a bulging post on a base, but I recognized it as the identical item as shown on Antiques Roadshow. Whatever it is, it looks good on my dining room table. I might even be willing to sell it. Or not.
I am frankly
disappointed that Bertioa's "spray" sculpture receives the attention it apparently does. It is by far the most prosaic, the least inventive or original of any of his wire sculpture, as far as I can see. It would be a one-trick pony of no real interest if not for his name -- it seems to me -- and it just begs to be knocked off, in practically any material, finish, and size. I recall ditzy "fuzzy" little sprays of fine wire, in the early "mod" seventies. I certainly didn't associate these novelty-store items with the great artist I had earlier come to know, from such masterworks as the shimmering metal "waterfall" above the altar in Saarinen's magical little brick chapel in Cambridge, MA.
http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-kyhNJKI05jM/TW1CJTWSIkI/AAAAAAAABnI/4z...
I do not understand
onegroovydude,
By your own writing you purchased this piece make a profit by listing it on your eBay Store (a true misnomer) and now there is a problem sending it to the "one person" who can say yes or no, and for a "price" put it in writing. This is called "the cost of doing business". Stop looking for people to do your homework for free. Your writing seems to indicate many excuses, but no reasons for not doing the next right thing. It is tedious.
Seriously?
Lordy, lordy, is this a bunch of Brits? Put down the sour grapes, kids. The snobbery is unbecoming. "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" and from the sale prices for not-even-authentic Bertoias (all of them I've seen being above estimate) is any indication, quite a few people just like the graceful shape--whoever made it, and lighted fiber-optic novelties notwithstanding.
LOL
I'll grant that. I have a house full of art, decorative art, and antiques of every stripe from furniture to antique tools and my only concern is how pleasing to the eye it all sits. The spray is a piece of decorative art. It sits in the middle of a table made of an oval glass top resting on a primitive base handmade of a large tree trunk and surrounded by 5 bentwood tavern chairs. Looks damn fine for $3.99, whoever made it. Sways prettily when the a.c. comes on, too.
my story
I had a Spray on a square polished chrome or stainless base that looked just like image #2. I had it for sale at Rago maybe 4 or 5 years ago. It was originally authenticated by someone that Rago uses who had worked with Harry Bertoia and we sold the piece at auction. After the auction, Rago contacted me and said the high bidder, who was a good customer of theirs, had been confused and thought he was bidding on something else so they voided the transaction. They were going to put it for sale again at the next auction a few months later. Between the time of the first auction and the second auction Rago?s expert changed his mind and said that he could not guarantee it was authenticate it so they returned it back to me. I then put it on ebay and Lost City Arts bought it, after the auction the owner of Lost City Arts said that Val Bertoia would not authenticate it and Val claimed that his father never used polished bases. Lost City Arts then backed out of the deal even though he had a week to send the pictures to Val Bertoia for authentication. Anyway, I doubted Vals claim was true because when I researched the sculpture I saw versions with polished chrome bases that had been authenticated in the past by Val. It just didn't make any sense to me. When I bought the Spray originally the seller told me they bought it from the Knoll showroom and the research I did once I owned it led me to believe that this was probably true. Personally I thought that Val was trying to distance his father from pieces that were basically mass produced for the consumer market. I ended up selling the piece again on ebay for substantially less just to get rid of it.
More Spray
I have several lovely Sprays, authenticated in the early 90s, in writing, by Bertoias wife - When I sold one in auction it was then returned as Val - would not- authenticate it !
Even though its dopal ganger is on their web page.
Moral of the story... maybe the one person who could truly shed some light on the origin of this stunning objects is sadly no longer with us..
Every thing else should be taken with a pinch of salt !
I'm still here....
I never did anything with the sculpture. It's sitting in the corner of my living room. Idk. He first told me it was the real deal, then said maybe the base wasn't the right material, then said that he found material matching mine in a building out back, then said the height of the base maybe wasn't right, then said it was, then said that Harry only bolted the wires in, but then authenticated a sculpture just like mine not a year later for Sotheby's. So, I'm not sure.
Poor Harry is
probably up there in Artist Heaven shaking his head -- and regretting ever giving in to the temptation to create this lowest form of kinetic art. With all that wire hanging around in the shop, it was inevitable, I suppose, that someone (Harry ? The shop assistant ?) would simply gather a clutch of material and let nature (i.e., physics) take its course. The piece is just crying out for cheap-and-plentiful knock-offs, including gift-shop miniatures and shopping-channel throw-aways.
I mean -- George Rickey it isn't; surely it's the least of Bertoia's efforts.
IDK...
if he regrets making it as much as he regrets just not signing the pieces. That would have ended it all right there, and would tell every original from the fakes. The fact that the spray sculpture is one of the most copied pieces of art out there only shows how great of a creation it was.
I've enclosed
The spray he authenticated for LCA is a mirror image of mine in every detail. The height is the same. The base is the same material. The base is the same size. And on top of that, there's no bolt on the bottom. The grouping of the wire is exact. It's exact in every way. Yet their's got an automatic approval, and mine got a question mark.
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