2002 Schedule of Events
Auctions: January February March April May June
  July August September October November December
Prior Years: 1999 2000 2001      

American Antiques Auction conducts Monthly Estate Treasures Auctions the first Thursday evening of each month. The sales are Free, and Open to the Public. The sales usually include: antique furniture, rugs, paintings, jewelry, silver, glassware, pottery, porcelain, china, bronzes, and clocks. The sales are often highlighted with various "Collections." Click Buying for more information.

There is routinely an early-preview the night before the auction from 6:00 to 9:00pm. And the preview continues at 3:00pm the day of the sale. Customers are also allowed to inspect while the sale is in progress. The auctions are conducted at the Elks Lodge, 375 Old Post Road, Edison, NJ. Public transportation is available. Click Contact Us for more information.

January 3rd, 2002

Estate Treasures Auction

Sale contents added to February 7th Estate Treasures Auction.

For information about selling at American Antiques Auction, please click selling.

February, 7th, 2002

Estate Treasures Auction
Thursday, February 7th, 5:00 pm
Previews: Wednesday, February 6th, 6:00-9:00pm
      Thursday, February 7th, 3:00pm
Elks Lodge, 375 Old Post Road, Edison, NJ

Click here for Photographs of Auction Highlights.

The Darden Lighting Collection - Handel, Pairpoint, Moe-Bridges, Jefferson, Miller, Bradley & Hubbard, Reverse-Painted, Scenics, Florals, Paneled, Plus a Pair of 18th C.Cut-Glass Sconces. From the Governor's Mansion, Boston, MA Sold Without Reserve!

18th, 19th, and 20th C. Furniture - C. 1800 English Breakfast Table; 19th C. Classical Secretary with Bookcase Top; Decorated Ball & Claw Partner's Desk; Chickering Baby Grand Piano; M. T. Commodes; Vernis Martin Vitrine; Extra King-Size Tall-Poster Bed; Sold Without Reserve!

Rugs, Bronzes, Porcelain, and More - Sarouk, Kirman, Silk Estate Carpets; Collection of Bronze: Figures, Mythical Characters, Candelabra; Sevres, Meissen, Dresden, KPM; Silver; Pottery; Clocks; Sold Without Reserve!

For information about selling at American Antiques Auction, please click selling.

March 7th, 2002

Estate Treasures Auction

Sale contents added to April 4th Estate Treasures Auction.

For information about selling at American Antiques Auction, please click selling.

April 4th, 2002

Estate Treasures Auction
Thursday, April 4th, 5:00 pm
Previews: Wednesday, April 3rd, 6:00-9:00pm
      Thursday, April 4th, 3:00pm
Elks Lodge, 375 Old Post Road, Edison, NJ

Click here for Photographs of Auction Highlights.
Click here for List of Advertising Sheets, Engravings and Photogravures

5:00pm - Fine Engravings and Advertising
From Streetsboro, Ohio, a single-owner collection of hundreds of great advertising sheets, fine engravings, and photogravures by such giants as Felix Darley, Gustave Dore, William Croome, A. R. Ward, Jean Gerome, Ulpiano Checa, Claude Lorainne and other major classical artists. This collection contains classic 19th and early 20th C. work; is matted and ready to frame; and will be sold without reserve!

6:30pm - Estate Jewelry, Porcelain, and More!
From a Queens, NY Estate, and others: Fabulous collection of enamel, diamond, and Tiffany jewelry; silver; carved furniture; Venetian mirrors, lustres, chandeliers, lamps; 50 pieces of Shelley, Dresden groups and candelabra, figural cartel clock, Beleek, Royal Worcester, Wedgwood, Limoges, chintz, Royal Bayreuth, marble busts, bronze candelabra, and much more!

SOME PEOPLE SAY IT'S WHO YOU KNOW . . . OTHERS SAY IT'S WHAT YOU KNOW . . .

American Antiques Auction's April 4th Estate Treasures Auction profusely illustrates this.

At 5:00pm a collector from Streetsboro, OH will part with 150 great advertising sheets, fine engravings and photogravures, gathered, compiled and carefully cataloged over the years. He knows what he has.

At 6:30pm American Antiques Auction will sell the contents of a Queens, NY Estate. Dorothy was in the process of downsizing in order to relocate to New Jersey. She thought she could trust calling in a local antique dealer to dispose of her unwanted items. He offered her $200. for everything. When she hesitated, he upped the offer to $300. Still hesitant, the dealer offered to "pay her whatever she wanted for the stuff." She felt pressured and sent the dealer on his way.

Dorothy was referred to American Antiques Auction. The first item Jim Calabrese saw when he walked through the door was a rosewood pedestal smoking stand with a mechanical tabletop that lifts upwards to reveal the recessed humidors and ashtrays nestled inside. He realized immediately that the bidding on that piece alone would exceed what the family had been offered for the entire estate!

"Many older people are too trusting for their own good. Also, it is often a time when they are most vulnerable. They are not aware how valuable things have become; or how to dispose of them properly. They throw things away, give things away, or sell them for a fraction of what they're worth. The heirs to estates are usually just as uninformed. They often run out of patience and make the same mistakes."

Thankfully, Dorothy won't. Now she knows what she has too!

For information about selling at American Antiques Auction, please click selling.

May 2nd, 2002

Estate Treasures Auction

Sale contents added to June 6th Estate Treasures Auction.

For information about selling at American Antiques Auction, please click selling.

June 6th, 2002

Estate Treasures Auction
Thursday, June 6th, 5:00 pm
Previews: Wednesday, June 5th, 6:00-9:00pm
      Thursday, June 6th, 3:00pm
Elks Lodge, 375 Old Post Road, Edison, NJ

~ Furniture and Glassware ~ Arthur Sears Model Boat Collection ~
~ Single Owners: Antique Doll Collection; and C. I. Toy Collection ~ ~ Collection of Moritz Loeffler Carvings ~ And Much More! ~

Click here for Photographs of Auction Highlights.

Find Out About the Collections

Arthur Sears had all the right tools for building ship models scattered about his basement workbench, but if it hadn't been for his wife's roasting pan, many wouldn't have been built.

"He used to boil the wood in my roasting pan, right on my stove," explained Sears' widow, Caroline.

The Arthur Sears Ship Model Collection features scale model replicas of sidewheelers, ferry boats, tugboats, trawlers, sailing ships, cabin cruisers and speedboats, as well as automobiles, trolley cars, birds, animals and some whimsical pieces like a miniature coffin cigarette case, and a full-busted woman, inside of which is a transistor radio.

"I used to be so ashamed when he showed that off, I really would," she said.

Sears is one of two New Jersey artisans whose exacting workmanship is sure to dazzle bidders at the June 6th Estate Treasures Sale hosted by American Antiques Auction at the Elk's Lodge in Edison, N. J.

Museum-quality wood sculptures by Moritz Loeffler will also be featured; the sale will also include a collection of vintage cast-iron toys and a collection of antique French and German bisque dolls.

There will be more than 50 hand-built pieces that came out of Sears' workshop in the basement of his modest home in Perth Amboy, N. J., just a few blocks from the Raritan Bay waterfront where he got the inspiration for many of his handbuilt boats.

Sears died a few years ago, but the workbench has been left alone; there's a half-finished carriage from a stagecoach scattered amongst chisels, planes, rags, clamps and hardware.

Tacked to the inside of a tool chest is a faded ad from a woodworker's magazine. It reads: "The things You build will be standing long after You die. Leave a good mark."

Sears also built clocks with wooden gears, tilt-top tables, desks and other furniture.

The Moritz Loeffler collection of wood sculpture features a broad range of human and animal figures in a variety of styles and woods - rosewood, mahogany, maple, pear, maple and walnut.

Born in Germany in 1871, Loeffler's father, a carpenter, taught him to respect wood and tools. He was soon carving figures from scraps of wood in his father's shop.

The family came to the United States when the boy was 12, and his talent blossomed. As a teenager, he was working at a New York City furniture company when he was hired as a woodworking instructor at the prestigious Pratt Institute in New York City.

He was on the faculty for 38 years, doubling up as an instructor at the Newark Public School of Fine and Industrial Arts for 28 years.

He surrounded himself with his work inside and outside his home in Bloomfield, N. J. Life-size carvings of animals including deer, squirrels, lions and bears were scattered about the well-manicured lawns and gardens; inside, there were more sculpted forms of animals, and the human figure, as well as candlestands, lamps, chairs and other pieces of furniture.

His works encompass any number of stylings - an Art Nouveau lamp, a Victorian bust, a heavy Gothic chair, Arts and Crafts pieces with hammered hardware he fashioned himself.

His works are in the collections of museums, with commissioned works including a 13 foot altar chair at a Brooklyn church and gargoyles at the Prudential Building in Newark.

Doll collector Nina Agresta, who with her husband owns an antiques store in New Rochelle, N. Y. is packing off several dozen of her prized 19th century French and German bisque dolls to the June 6th Auction.

Collector Randy Rosenberg, who also lives in upstate New York, has turned his attention towards soda fountain syrup dispensers, which means he's trotting out his vintage cast-iron horse drawn fire trucks and ice trucks for other collectors to buy.

Rosenberg's toy collection features Arcade, Hubley and Denton cast-iron horse drawn fire apparatus, including ten ladder trucks, and six steam pumpers. There are police patrol horse drawn wagons, several ice wagon trucks, even cast-iron trains!

Rosenberg's collection also includes two rare Currier & Ives Civil War cannons.

One of the better dolls in Agresta's collection is in rather poor shape, but the informed collector will see the beauty in the Bru smiler.

The Bru is a late 19th century French pale bisque doll with "a cute little smirk" and paperweight hand blown glass eyes.

The problem with the doll is that the body has deteriorated a bit.

Agresta says several collectors over the years have tried to convince her to sell the Bru smiler; she in turn held on to the Bru, hoping to match it with the right body.

Her decision to sell the Bru should make for some spirited bidding - she says if placed on the correct body, the Bru would be worth upwards of $6,000.00.

Her collection includes other Bru dolls, as well as vintage German bisques, including a Simon Halbig No. 949.

Many in her collection fall into the category of "Sunday dolls," a term used to describe a well-preserved doll.

She explained that most vintage dolls found in excellent condition were played with sparingly and very carefully, usually on Sundays, with mother or father supervising.


For information about selling at American Antiques Auction, please click selling.

July 4th, 2002

Estate Treasures Auction

Sale contents added to September 5th Estate Treasures Auction.

For information about selling at American Antiques Auction, please click selling.

August 1st, 2002

Estate Treasures Auction

Sale contents added to September 5th Estate Treasures Auction.

For information about selling at American Antiques Auction, please click selling.

September, 5th, 2002

Now is the time to Consign!
to Our Next

Estate Treasures Auction!
Thursday, September 5th, 5:00 pm
Previews: Wednesday, September 4th, 6:00-9:00pm
      Thursday, September 5th, 3:00pm
Elks Lodge, 375 Old Post Road, Edison, NJ

Click our Auction Highlights for Photographs and Details.

For information about selling at American Antiques Auction, please click selling.

October 3rd, 2002

Estate Treasures Auction

Sale contents added to November 7th Estate Treasures Auction.

For information about selling at American Antiques Auction, please click selling.

November, 7th, 2002

Estate Treasures Auction!
Thursday, November 7th, 5:00 pm
Previews: Wednesday, November 6th, 6:00-9:00pm
      Thursday, November 7th, 3:00pm
Elks Lodge, 375 Old Post Road, Edison, NJ

5:00pm

Nazi, Civil War, Slavery
Weapons; Documents; Collections of: Movie
Memorabilia; Photographs; Autographs; Cameras;
Fascinating Correspondence (by Political Figures,
Personalities); Press Books; Scrap Books; Ephemera
from the Rose LaRose Estate ("The Queen of
Burlesque"); and Much More!

Some Highlights: SS Weapons; Document Signed by Hitler; Civil War Bible Signed by former PA Governor Beaver while he was Commander of "Bible" Company; Slave Transfer of Ownership Documents; Correspondence between U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, Newsman Harry Reasoner, and the Queen of Burlesque, Rose LaRose; Film: Queen of Burlesque starring Rose LaRose; Deed for a Gold Mine from the Crown Mining Company; Autographs by: Rudolph Valentino, W. C. Fields, Greta Garbo, Gary Cooper, Judy Garland, and hundreds of others!

6:30pm

Estate Jewelry, Watches, Coins
Three hundred lots! Most from Private Estates!
Most Sold without Reserve! Diamond, Platinum,
and Gemstone Jewelry. Wrist and Pocket Watches;
Rare Gold and Silver Coins; Enameled Boxes and
other Objects of Art.

Some Highlights: Rose LaRose's 25 Ct Aqua Marine Ring; Tiffany and Cartier Jewelry; Platinum and Gold ½ Ct to 3.66 Ct Diamond Engagement Rings; ½ Ct to 5 Ct Diamond Earrings, Pins, Pendants, Brooches, Lavaliers, Necklaces, Bracelets, Wedding Sets, Fancy Colored Diamonds; London Blues, Rubies, Sapphires, etc; Gold and Silver Wrist Watches, Pocket Watches, Keywinds; 1790's Large Cents; $1., $5., $10., $20. Gold Pieces; 1921 Zerbie Dies; Bust of George Washington Signed C. C. Wright Co.; and Much More!

Click our Auction Highlights for Photographs and Details.

Find Out About the Collections

Burlesque Queen's Estate ~ Estate Jewelry, Watches, Coins ~ All Types of Memorabilia

Edison, N. J. - Civil War, slavery and Nazi memorabilia, as well as fan mail, posters, films, scrapbooks, publicity photos and jewelry from the estate of a burlesque queen highlight the Nov. 7th American Antiques Auction.

Also featured are more than 300 lots of quality diamond, gemstone and platinum jewelry, gold and silver coins, enameled boxes and other objects of art from various estates.

The sale begins at 5:00pm at the Elks Lodge, 375 Old Post Road, Edison, N. J. with previews 6-9pm, Wed, Nov. 6th, and again at 3:00pm the day of the sale.

Rose La Rose was the consumate professional in a bawdy and sometimes tawdry business.

Born Rosina DePella in New York's Little Italy, she left school at 15 and began work as a cashier at Minsky's at Broadway and 42nd Street. It wasn't long before she worked her way from behind the cage onto the runway.

Showing lots of leg, and lots of saavy, she devised a bump and grind that gyrated her to the top of her business, one of burlesque's marquee stars in the 1930's and 1940's, earning in excess of $2,500. a week from Jersey City to San Francisco.

Several colorful posters from theaters across the country advertising the burlesque queen's performances will be sold.

Long after the house lights had dimmed, in between shows and on the road, La Rose toiled behind the scenes.

She had no business manager or handlers; she ran the show and took care of advance publicity; she wrote her own advertising, designed her costumes, choreographed her bump and grind routines. No detail was too small. One of the paper lots includes her hand-sketched directions to stage hands for arranging furniture and other props used in her dance routine.

Rose La Rose had her legions of fans, but without question, her biggest fan washer mother Jennie, who traveled the circuit with her daughter for 18 years in the best tradition of a stage mom, chroniciling her daughter's career in a series of scrapbooks stuffed with newspaper clippings, playbills and fan mail, including several from U. S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart.

Yet another one of those adoring letters came from Harry Reasoner, at the time a young GI stationed overseas, later familiar to millions of Americans as a TV news anchor on CBS and ABC. Reasoner's letter, the scrapbooks, publicity photos, handbills, cigarette holders - even a few sequined g-strings will be sold without reserve.

La Rose devoted long hours on the homefront during WWII urging Americans to donate blood; her Red Cross donor card, with a scrapbook filled with large format black-and-white photos documenting her work as a government spokesperson will be sold.

Short in stature - she was 5' 3" - the diminutive La Rose enjoyed the great outdoors, and would hire guides and go hunting in Alaska when she took a break from working. She bagged a huge Kodiak bear on one of those trips, with several pictures and news accounts of the conquest included in the sale. There's also a campy home movie of La Rose performing a strip tease in the wilds of Alaska.

When her mother became ill, La Rose settled in Toledo, Ohio, where she bought a theater and turned it into a burlesque house.

The city fathers were uncomfortable with their new neighbor, and tried to shut her down. She fought back.

Scrapbooks filled with news accounts of her court battles against the city of Toledo, Ohio - she eventually won - will also be sold.

Jewelry worn by La Rose - including a 25 Ct aquamarine ring - will highlight the jewerlry offerings.

Other jewelry featured in the sale include Tiffany and Cartier pieces; platinum, diamond, and gold rings, earrings, pins, pendants, brooches, lavaliers, necklaces, bracelets, wedding sets; rubies and sapphires; gold and silver wrist and pocketwatches.

There will also be a selection of American coins, including 1790's Large Cents and $1., $5., $10. and $20. gold pieces.

Other highlights include SS weapons, a document signed by Adolf Hitler and other Nazi items; slave documents including transfer of ownership papers; a soldier's bible dating from the Civil War given as a gift by the company's commanding officer, who later became governor of Pennsylvania; an original Wanted Poster for Bonnie and Clyde; a single-owner collection of Hollywood celebrities' signed photos and correspondence, and sports memorabilia, including a vintage collection of early prize fighters' tobacco cards and a collection of signed photographs.

For information about selling at American Antiques Auction, please click selling.

December, 5th, 2002
Notice: This Event is posponed due to the heavy snow storm.
The New Date will be posted as soon as it is available.

Now is the time to Consign!
to Our Next

Estate Treasures Auction!
Thursday, December 5th, 5:00 pm
Previews: Wednesday, December 4th, 6:00-9:00pm
      Thursday, December 5th, 3:00pm
Elks Lodge, 375 Old Post Road, Edison, NJ

Click our Auction Highlights for Photographs and Details.

5:00 pm

Nippon Collection

Single Owner Collection of Over 150 Pieces of Nippon: Bolted Vases, Plaques, Humidors, Biscuit Barrels, Moriage, Coralene, and Much More!

6:30 pm

Furniture, Paintings, Jewelry,Silver, Pottery,
Porcelain, China, Bronzes, Clocks, and More!

From a Hollywood Producer's Estate and Others: Spectacular Majorelle Art Nouveau Sideboard; Two Herman Miller Ames Chairs with Ottomans; "Century" Banded Mahogany Chippendale Dining Room; Paintings by Reginald Marsh, Others; 100 Ounce Krieder Heavy Repoussee Sterling Tray, Others; Platinum, Diamond and Gold Jewelry; Roseville Jars and Peds; pair of 18" Ernst Wahlis Art Nouveau Figural Candelabra; Old Mark Belleek; Shelley Dinnerware Set; Scenic Clock Garniture Sets; 20" Bronze Figure Signed Cartier, Others; Over 50 Pieces of Period, Figural Carved, Marble-Top, and Oak Furniture From an old Somerset, NJ Farm; and Much More!

For information about selling at American Antiques Auction, please click selling.