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What Remains is a Thing of Beauty:South Carolina artist t Vickie Ebbers uses a subtractive technique to create her moody, ethereal watercolors. Read Full Story |
 First Friday: Starland Design District launches series of First Friday events. Read Full Story His Own Reality: The Human Condition: Southern Minis: Home Boy: Unique Gift:  It's A Wrap: Georgia Historical Society Antiques Show and Sale was a hit with collectors, lecture series was a sell-out. Read Full Story Write On: Record Breaker: Scoping Out a Treasure: It's Not Gold?:
Art Classes: All Stars: Roundup: Sample the Samplers: The Winner Is?: Art Briefs: St. Simons Island Sunshine Festival: SCAD professor: |
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Gwinnett signature sells for $110,000 On June 5, Sotheby's New York sold the most prized autograph of all of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, the signature of Button Gwinnett of Georgia. It was estimated to bring $75,000-$125,000 and hammered at $110,000. The signature was featured among a complete set of signers of the Declaration of Independence included in the sale of the library of Marshall B. Coyne, the late proprietor of the Madison Hotel in Washington, D.C. As recounted in the R. R. Donnelley publication "The Million Charms of Empress Shotoku and Other Stories: A Collection of Tales about the Preservation of Rare Books and Documents" (Chicago, 1966), this Gwinnett signature was discovered by Ralph Newman, who had purchased another Gwinnett autograph that was "affixed to a large document dated April 7, 1763, which had been cut into thin strips by a child or other irresponsible person [and] pasted at random on a large sheet of paper." Newman engaged the conservation department of the Lakeside Press to "remove the strips from their haphazard mounting to determine if the strip containing the Gwinnett signature was actually part of the document, and to discover if there were anything significant written on the back." Subsequent study, and rearrangement, of the manuscript fragments determined that the strips had derived from two distinct documents, and the verso of one of the fragments was found to bear a second signature of Gwinnett. After an extraordinary run of full sets of signers on the market between 1975 and 1985, no complete set has been sold at auction since 1985. And during the last 40 years, just two individual examples of Gwinnett's signature have been sold at auction separately from a set containing the autographs of his 55 compatriots. Call for Artists The Telfair Museum of Art si taking applications for artists to participate in its seventh annual Art Fair, planned for Nov. 2-4. More than $4,500 in prize money will be awarded. Deadline for entries is July 16. Send an SASE for information to Linda McWhorter, Telfair Museum of Art, P.O. Box 10081, Savannah, GA 31412. |