NEW YORK CITY — A Herman Miller swag leg desk, Shafrazi Gallery Keith Haring catalog, a collection of Alan James Robinson suites, a near complete Wedgwood dinner set, a rare Phil Paradise mixed media on paper and original Fantastic Four storyboards are just a few of the articles to be featured in La Belle Epoque Auction House’s multi-estates spring 2024 auction. It will be conducted live in person in the firm’s 7,000-square-foot gallery as well as online via its own site and app as well as on Invaluable and Live Auctioneers.
The April 6 auction will offer more than 150 lots of rare and antique books that hail from the personal collection of the late Estelle Chessid, a member of the rare and antique book dealer community in Manhattan. Chessid championed the rare book community for more than 30 years, spending her final years creating art in her Upper West Side abode. With collections of New Yorker cartoonists and Pulitzer Prize winners, a highlight of Chessid’s collection are her first edition Alan James Robinson suites of engravings and etchings, including “A Fowl Alphabet,” “An Odd Bestiary” and “The Raven” by Edgar Allen
Poe. A surprisingly rare copy of a signed and inscribed novel titled How to raise your IQ by eating gifted children by New York Times author and cartoonist Lewis B. Frumkes is estimated at $800-$1,200.
Among bronzes, there are four Venturi Arte bronze lots estimated at $400/800 each from the studio of Gianpaolo Venturi, known in the industry for innovating bronze casting techniques. A bronze by Marcel Bouraine French, 1886-1946) titled “Femme Nue Se Touchant L’epaule” ($5/7,000), as well as a Georges Gardier (French, 1863-1939) animalier bronze ($600/800) are notable.