Art pottery dealers and collectors from around the world put off New Year’s celebrations long enough to take part in the two day sale hosted by J.K. Galleries of Boca Raton on December 30 and January 1. Auction owner Jay Kielstock said he had 300 bidders registered in house and 900 registered to bid by phone, absentee and live online through LiveAuctioneers.com for the 850 lot inventory forty percent of which sold online. Since relocating to Boca Raton in late 2006 J. K. Galleries has established itself as the premier art pottery venue in the South and this sale helped cement that reputation.

Nearly half the lots, 48 percent, sold online including the opening lot of the sale, a Moorcroft silver overlay tea set which also turned out to be the top lot of the sale. Each piece of the three piece set was signed “W. Moorcroft” and had incised script reading “W. Moorcroft ship to San Francisco” followed by the black registration number 452777. The set had a sage green ground with pewter colored highlights featuring a cartouche of swirling leaf circled by heavy sterling overlay with handles, spouts and finals all encased in sterling. The set was competed heavily on the phone, in the room and online beginning with an opening bid of $1,200. It closed after the top bid of $14,400 including buyer’s premium from an online bidder in England, well above the presale estimate of $3,000/5,000.

For more information about this sale or upcoming sales call Jay Kielstock, J. K. Galleries, at (954) 421-2800, email at jkgalleries@bellsouth.net or visit the website at http://www.jkgalleries.com/. J.K. Galleries is located at 8221 W. Glades Road, Suite # 13, Boca Raton, FL 33434.

Posted: 01|30|08 at 9:30 am. Filed under: Auction News.