Date: Mon 01-Feb-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: SHIRLE

Quick Words:

Julia-tobacco

Full Text:

Tobacco Auction At Julia

(with cuts)

FAIRFIELD, CONN. -- More than 1,000 tobacco-related objects will be offered at

James D. Julia on Saturday, February 13, at 10 am. The collection will be

grouped in approximately 400 lots. Almost all will be from a single owner and

are fresh to the market.

The Robert Lang collection of tobacco was started along with his other

collections over 60 years ago. The late Mr Lang assembled a tremendous variety

of items during his lifetime. So vast is the collection, Julia's expects it

will take 12 to 14 days to market it all.

Many of the categories were segregated and housed in various rooms in Lang's

large brick mansion overlooking the ocean in Rye, N.Y. One such room was the

Tobacco Room, filled with tobacco boxes, snuff boxes, pipes, cigar store

figures, trade signs, and a vast array of other tobacco-related items.

Included in the auction is a selection of eight early tobacco store carved

figures. Lot number 64 is a figure of a Turk "touting tobacco, snuff and

cigarettes," Nineteenth Century polychrome, approximately 32 inches high (est

$2/3,000); a Nineteenth Century figure of a black man, also polychrome, 27

inches high (est $2/3,000); and a small carved Indian figure, which may have

been used on a counter or hung from the entrance door, 17« inches high, with

old polychrome finish (est $1/1,500).

With the exception of three lots, the entire auction comes from the Lang

collection and with the exception of those three lots, all items will be sold

unreserved. Most of the items date from the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century.

A few range back as early as the Seventeenth Century while others hail from

the Twentieth Century.

An Eighteenth Century Dutch brass tobacco box, engraved with animal motifs

(est $400/500); a stamped brass German box of the same vintage which depicts a

monarch and a court scene carries (est $100/200); and an early Dutch

multi-metal box, engraved all over, with a sliding lid panel on the top, which

when opened reveals a silver engraved and reticulated scene (est $500/600)

will also be sold.

A Seventeenth Century steel box, probably Nuremberg, features an elaborate

looking mechanism and is engraved with courtly figures on the front and sides

(est $500/600). A China Trade round, tortoise shell-covered box has high

relief carved landscape on top and low relief carving with figures and

architecture on the bottom, was probably made in the late Eighteenth or the

early Nineteenth Century (est $300/400).

There will be a few carved figured wood snuff boxes. One, with an English

figure in the shape of a portly gentleman, is thought to have been done in the

early Nineteenth Century and features inset ivory buttons for eyes, and

measures 2‹ inches (est $600/800). A group of carved coquille nut snuff boxes

circa Nineteenth Century (est $300/650) will be offered along with an English

hardwood and mother-of-pearl puzzle snuff box in the form of a ship model and

resting in a similarly made cradle, 7¬ inches long (est $750/850). These were

put on a counter in a tavern. By dropping a coin in, a locking mechanism on

one side was released, which, when open, would allow one to take a pipe full

of tobacco.

Another item in the collection which perhaps Lang thought to be a cigarette

box, is an early calling card box. It is a rare American Indian decorated

piece with colored moose hair worked on red wool over birch bark. It depicts a

floral design (est $400/600).

An early tin snuff box bears a relief design with a black man, circa

Eighteenth Century (est $400/600).

There will also be a group of fine horn Scottish snuff mulls. One example has

a repousse silver top with raised thistle motif and an inserted crystal (est

$500/800). Other mulls are estimated as low as $100 to $200 each.

Other highlights will include a huge Nineteenth Century carved European or

American tobacconist trade sign in the form of a pipe, 68 inches long (est

$2/4,000); a number of early humidors, including an early Nineteenth Century

iron and brass English example with engraved scenes of British sailing ships

(est $400/500); and pewter snuff boxes in carved ivory and bone, such as a

rectangular bone oval box with deep carved courting scenes on top and bottom,

Eighteenth or early Nineteenth Century, 3‹ inches long (est $300/500).

A number of decorated papier-mache boxes will include a Nineteenth Century

piece marked "J.J. Mapps Snuff" with Indian tobacco and sailing ship (est

$300/400). A baseball-related item will be a late Nineteenth or early

Twentieth Century spring-loaded cigar nipper with reverse decorated glass case

featuring an early baseball game (est $500/1,000).

Various cigar nippers and lighters, some in advertising, will include an

unusual horn and silverplated Nineteenth Century cigar nipper and lighter in

the form of a dragon (est $250/450).

Pipes will include a large array of Nineteenth Century and earlier examples.

Lot number 238, a Sioux Catlin pipe with a rare, colored quill decorated stem

(est $3/4,000); a carved Nineteenth Century pipe with the bowl in the shape of

a Nubian head fitted with glass eyes and ivory colored teeth possibly a lady's

pipe, (est $200/300); and a large burl Nineteenth Century show pipe in the

form referred to as an ulmer, Bohemian or German, 29 inches long (est

$800/1,200), will be offered.

An early carved Meerschaum pipe bowl, probably Eighteenth Century, is carved

with symbols of war including cannons, armor, swords and a monarch's crown

(est $450/650); and an Eighteenth Century or earlier elaborately carved wood

pipe features a large wood bowl with high relief of outstanding figures,

including religious figures, a horned devil, and a monarch (est $500/800).

The tobacco collection will be preceded on Friday, February 12, at 6 pm, by

Lang's collection of antique photography. Preview for both auctions will take

place on Friday, 10 am to 6 pm. The tobacco auction can also be previewed

again on Saturday, 8 to 10 am.

For information, 207/453-7125.