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Auction 88 : Fall 2024

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Auction Website : Click HERE to Bid

L.H. Selman, Ltd.’s Fall 2024, 88th Glass Paperweight Auction, featuring 360 lots, antique and modern, as well as choice paperweight-related objects. Initial bidding begins Monday, October 21st at 9am, with competitive bidding beginning on November 4th.

The auction is fully online, hosted on our AUCTION WEBSITE. A web friendly digital e-catalog can be viewed above, while a printed copy of the catalog is for sale at PRINT-CATALOG. For those of you who have enjoyed watching spin videos of featured pieces, all 360 lots now have videos available.

By placing an initial bid on a lot, you ensure that you have a position in the competitive bidding that follows in the second stage of the auction. Each lot closes individually, when one bidder is left, and they’ve bid above the reserve price. Competitive bidding concludes after each lot has closed, whereby the Buy-At-Reserve stage commences offering all unsold lots at their reserve prices.

Here is a video explaining the auction process. We encourage you to watch for a full explanation of our unique slow close auctions, including the different stages, rules and processes. And please call us at (312) 583-1177 if you have any questions.

We recommend that you give the catalog’s Conditions of Sale a careful examination for a full understanding of the protocols. A key for condition statements can be found in the Conditions of Sale page in the catalog. Please call the gallery with any questions about these changes or the auction format, and don’t forget, we’re always happy to send additional images, videos or condition reports upon request.

We are currently open to visit by appointment only, so please get in touch to schedule a time to see every lot in person at our gallery in Chicago, 410 S. Michigan Ave., suite 207. If you prefer to place any or all bids by phone, or have any questions, just give us a call at 1-800-538-0766.

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Stately, Sparkling, Stylish & Sublime at 88

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Auction Website : Click HERE to Bid

Have you been looking for a happy place to rest a while and re-energize, away from the headlines and concerns of the day? The world of art glass awaits to fill that bill. And did you know that “Collectors are happy people,”as the great Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once said? Good, then let’s get started…

Take a deep breath. There. We’ve set the stage for our performance; now exhale and perceive with pleasure the artistic bounty that we here are calling the L.H. Selman Ltd.’s 88th Glass Paperweight Auction!

This auction, this offering, is your chance to start a strong collection in a single setting. Featuring 360 carefully considered examples of the finest art glass available. Our holdings include bold and stately antiques – the foundational specimens of the field, a group of cutting-edge and almost incantatory marbles, an enviable and overwhelming assemblage of all the contemporary paperweight luminaries, as well as a first-rate offering from the well-known studios…

Would that we had the time to wax poetic about each lot… (like I really mean that – we’d be here for two weeks!). However, You need to be aware of, at the very least, a few highlights.

Antique lots 1, 2, and 3 comprise a serious big league batting order. Also in the antique lineup, do not fail to notice Lot 9, a magical glass confection of happy pink filament twists that begs you to taste them!

Lot 66, a magical marble by Yoshinori Kondo called “Keshi,. Lot 74, Mike Gong’s dichroic pulse marble functions as a miniature rendition of the Big Bang theory in the palm of your hand!

Are you exhaling yet…?

Lot 90, the David Graeber 100% blue all-over bouquet orb. This is definitely among the lots you want to dig your heels in over. Lot 120, Mike Hunter’s gorgeous blowout celebration of glass art – the 2019 close packed silhouettes, murrini and roses with latticinio incalmo vase, is your opportunity for One-Stop-Shopping!

A plethora of modern masterworks by every name you know and then some. In the six years I’ve here, I don’t remember having a dozen Buzzinis at one time. Among the Stankard, Graeber, Ayotte, Gordon Smith, Byers, Kontes, Tarsitano, (and others) Cornucopia – I want to mention Lot 132, a collaborative diatreta and insculpture faceted paperweight, “Clematis #!” by Doug Merritt and Barry Sautner. See the spin video!

Melissa Ayotte has created an arresting artwork that feels to this viewer to be an ancient artifact that would look right at home in a major museum. Lot 157, (c.2018) cornflower all-over bouquet fancy-cut overlay magnum paperweight.

For anyone trying to complete the seasons series by Cathy Richardson, we offer Lot 173, the 2008 “Forest Seed, Winter Trees,” so here is your chance!

Clinton Smith, Ken Rosenfeld and Richard Loesel…need I say more? I certainly want to.

However, time and space are converging and I need to let you return to your exhaling exercises. I would be remiss if I did not point out the unusual number of Johne Parsley weights on offer (lots 247-252). Johne could be considered a jeweler, specializing in small scale, exquisitely executed designs. And if you saw the 2018 Melt at Wheaton, you understand perfectionism.

I apologize to scores of luscious Parabelles, Deacons, Lundbergs and Perthshires. And in closing I need to say, “It has suddenly dawned on me – Next Time I start at the Rear! “

Good Luck in Auction 88 and remember we’re here to answer any questions if they’re not too difficult! Auction 88 is a wonderful opportunity to strengthen your collection, with a generous selection of superior paperweights from which to select. It may prove difficult to choose from among so much, but that’s also where the fun is, isn’t it?