Antique buyers often have specific goals in mind when purchasing vintage tin signs. There are customers who want to obtain tin signs simply for the pleasure of collecting. Other buyers are more interested in incorporating antique tin signs into their decorating motif.

Dean Ferber, owner of No Egrets Antiques and Collectibles, imparts valuable tips for consumers interested in collecting tin signs.

What to Consider
Do you have a special interest, such as antique cars? Consider augmenting a collection or a hobby with signage. Take into consideration the size and location of the space where you will display your vintage finds. Collections can be placed in bedrooms, basements, garages and even in barns. Budget and time frame are significant. Tin signs are prone to rust and are easily reproduced, so buyers must beware. Authentic tin signs range from $300 to $3000, but can soar upward depending upon rarity.

Where to Purchase
Signs are often found as a person is searching for other treasures. They can be discovered anywhere, from open air markets and eBay to upscale showrooms. Dean believes that antique malls and flea markets offer the best chance to find signs in volume. Auctions are for informed collectors with deep pockets, especially if they're well advertised in newspapers or trade magazines. Estate and garage sales are hit and miss propositions. Get there early. The process can be time consuming, yet potentially financially rewarding

Old-fashioned Hollywood glamour can be yours at the Profiles in History auction of the multi-million dollar Michael H. Epstein and Scott E. Schwimer collection on March 26-27. The auction is considered the largest auction of glamour photography ever up for sale in art history. The lots include many shots by George Hurrell the king of the classic Hollywood glamour shot. In his career he photographed many of the great legends of 1930s and 1940s cinema. His absolutely stunning picture of blonde bombshell Jean Harlow on a white bearskin rug created for Vanity Fair magazine is the platinum standard for ultimate glam. The original camera negative and a custom print of this photograph are estimated to sell for well over $20,000.

The auction features classic images of Gary Cooper, Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth, Veronica Lake , and Johnny Weissmuller from Tarzan, an image which heralded the start of Hollywood beefcake. Master prints by many of photography's modern masters including Richard Avedon, Robert Mapplethorpe, Helmut Newton and Herb Ritts are also part of the auction.

Epstein and Schwimer decided to sell their 25-year collection to benefit many of the charitable organizations they support, primarily the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center. Worldwide bidding begins at 12:00pm (noon) PST both days. Bids can be placed in person, via mail, phone, fax or live on the internet by visiting www.profilesinhistory.com.

[via Art Daily]

Andrew Lloyd Webber is sending a "Blue Period" Picasso canvas under the gavel in June. A painting of an absinthe drinker, the composer has chosen Christie's as the auction house, with the proceeds going to Webber's charity. The Picasso could fetch as much as $60.9 million, a higher estimate than any other piece in Europe so far this year. Last year, Picasso was the top seller at auction, generating $121 million in sales, according to Artprice.

The painting, entitled "Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto (The Absinthe Drinker)," is a study of a young Spanish artist sitting at a Barcelona bar. Says Giovanna Bertazzoni, head of Christie's London-based Impressionist and Modern department to Bloomberg News, "A 'Blue Period' Picasso is the sort of painting that could appeal to a new Chinese buyer." She continues, "There is a new breed of Medici-style collectors who want to buy exceptional art from any period."

Lloyd Weber purchased the painting for $29.2 million in 1995 for his foundation using funds he donated. The painting almost went up for sale at Christie's in 2006 but was withdrawn at the last minute due to some concerns over ownership. A German man had claimed that the painting was lost by his family in a "forced sale" by Nazis but with all issues resolved the painting is now finally up for sale again.

Despite an early sign of success with the February 2009 Yves Saint Laurent auction, France wasn't able to knock China from the #3 spot among the world's art markets. According to Artprice, China finished the year behind the usual leaders (New York and London), making considerable progress in a severe year for the art market. Fine art sales in China hit $830 million, taking a 17.33 percent share of the global market. In 2008, China had only a 7.83% share. Nearly half the 2009 fine art result in China came from three auction houses: Poly International, China Guardian and Beijing Council. The Hong Kong branches of Christie's and Sotheby's were good for another $200 million.

Because of the strength the Chinese art market showed last year, 15 Chinese hammer prices, including a contemporary sale, forced their way into the top 100 results worldwide ... and ever.

There have always been connections between art and politics. Whether you scan the crowd behind Plato and Aristotle (where you'll see Ptolemy wowing a small crowd) or step back from Pablo Picasso's "Guernica" in Madrid, you'll see messages subtle and overt. So, it shouldn't come as a surprise that portraiture is telegraphing who North Korea's next leader will be.

Homes and business establishments in North Korea tend to have two portraits on display: Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. A third is now ready for public display: Kim Jong-un. He is Kim Jong-il's third son and is rumored to be next in line for the top position in the country, according to "Rescue the North Korean People! Urgent Action Network," which usually goes by the much more compact acronym RENK. The group says that the portraits are ready to go, and "we assume that these will be distributed on Kim Il-sung's birthday, which falls on April 15."

Other signs that Jong-un is likely to take the lead next in North Korea also fall distinctly into the "lifestyle" category. His birthday, January 8, has been made a national holiday. This year, it was celebrated, at least quietly, with a collection of songs dedicated to him. Also, anyone who has the same name as the new leader has been instructed to change it.

Interestingly, the portrait will offer a first look at Jong-un for many, especially outside North Korea. So far, only two photos have been found: one at age 11 (furnished by his former Japanese cook) and another at age 16 (shot when he was in boarding school in Switzerland).

Jean Baptiste Camille Corot's "Jeune femme a la fontaine" is estimated to rake in up to $1.8 million at a June 2, 2010 sale at Sotheby's. The nineteenth century piece has an interesting history, having been owned by a patron of Claude Monet and Hamburg banker Eduard Ludwig Behrens. And, it was at one point in the clutches of NAZIs, who had stolen the piece from the Behrens family.

It was returned to the heirs of Georg Behrens, who was arrested in 1938 and sent to a concentration camp, in 2008 based on advice from the Dutch Restitutions Committee. The heirs prefer to remain anonymous. Approximately 650,000 pieces were seized during the 12 years Adolf Hitler held power, and among them were works from the Behrens collection, which was considered one of the most important private art collections in Europe at the time. For 66 years, this Corot painting hung in the Kroller-Muller Museum in Otterlo (in the Netherlands).

My colleague Tom Johansmeyer recently mentioned the Tefaf show going on at Maastricht in the Netherlands from March 12-21. Among the many booths and displays at one of the world's top arts and antiques fairs you'll find the Cohen & Cohen Chinese Export Porcelain Gallery (Tefaf Maastricht Booth 246).

The Cohens are showing some very important examples of 17th to 19th century Chinese porcelain largely created for export on commission from Western clients. For close to thirty years the Cohens have provided major museums and collectors with access to the finest pieces entering the market, and have played a role assembling several world class collections. They often showcase things not seen on the market and recently exhibited at The Winter Antiques Show in New York.

If you're looking for a crafty excuse to visit London in the next few months, I've got a good one for you: Quilts 1700 - 2010, a new exhibit opening at the V&A Museum.

The exhibit, which opens March 20th and runs through July 4th, focuses on quilts both historic and contemporary. The quilt pictured above, "At the End of the Day", is a 2007 creation of artist Natasha Kerr; historic quilts include those commemorating the lives of Admiral Lord Nelson, Charles II and the Duke of Wellington, among others.

(Bonus for fans of Tracy Chevalier, who wrote the novel Girl with the Pearl Earring, which became a movie starring Scarlett Johansson -- she's written a story based on the George 111 quilt, which is in the museum's magazine. There's a great video of her research process here.)

The action at 25CPW has been nonstop. Following its successful show last week, featuring the artwork of guards from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the temporary art gallery on Manhattan's Upper West Side hosted a silent auction featuring the original creations of Afghan women and children. Several thousand dollars were raised at the event, which was organized by 25CPW guru Bess Greenberg and Brianne Leary, the driving force behind Saving Afghanistan and journalist who covered the Soviet/Afghan conflict through the 1980s. The financial result, says Leary, addresses an immediate need for specific refugees in transition.

The prices at the one-night auction were purposefully kept accessible, given the prevailing economic climate, says Leary, and the event was well-attended. Get the full story directly from Leary in the video below.

The action in Maastricht is expected to be hot. Two hundred sixty-three dealers will descend upon the Dutch city, bringing art inventory worth $2.7 billion to the world's largest art and antiques fair, Tefaf. Fingers are crossed that billion-dollar collectors will come out to play. The market has turned the corner, but the community mains reluctant to get its collective hopes up.

For the art market, this is the first chance to see how high demand for art is outside the auction houses. Private deals don't offer the transparency of the gavel scene, but the transactions can be far more interesting. By the end of Tefaf, we'll know just how deep the art market recovery is running. VIP guests will be allowed to visit tomorrow, ahead of the great unwashed.

The largest group of dealers at Tefaf this year will be those representing pre-20th century pictures, with more than 70 exhibitors. Sandro Botticelli's "Madonna and Child with the Infant Sant John," reaching back to the late fifteenth century, will be available for $15 million by Dickinson of London. Dickinson is also showing Paul Gauguin's "Deux Femmes," with a price tag of $24.4 million. Both are being sold by private collectors.

There's an update in the Annie Leibovitz debt saga. For the last year Leibovitz has been struggling with a heavy debt load. She borrowed $24 million from Art Capital Group and as collateral the company took not only her two homes and all her negatives and the copyright to her photographs but also an agreement to sell her archives to repay the loan and the rights to arrange the sale. Now Businessweek reports that Colony Capital LLC has agreed to take over her debt after she bought back control of her works and real estate from Art Capital Group.

The situation got ugly last year when Art Capital sued for breach of contract claiming she wasn't letting real estate agents into her homes and was blocking attempts to sell her photos. In the new agreement, Colony, will help market her photos. Art Capital has confirmed that its debt has been satisfied. Like so many people, Leibovitz ran into trouble with real estate. She bought several properties and spent a small fortune renovating them, using the properties themselves as collateral. She was also late in paying $1.8 million in federal taxes in 2007 and 2008.

Art Capital is in the business of making money off art and sometimes, artists. The company issues loans of $500,000 or more at interest rates from six percent to 16 percent to those who have artwork worthy of making such a loan. Another artist, Julian Schnabel also ran afoul of Art Capital. He took out an $8 million loan in 2006, when he was building his pink folly known as Palazzo Chupi and later sued Art Capital.

Colony might be more interested in the real estate than the art. Colony Capital still owns Michael Jackson's Neverland ranch (and may be able to sell it eventually for $50-$100 million). Leibovitz's property holdings include three contiguous brownstones in Manhattan as well as 220 acres in Hudson Valley, New York that was once part of the Astor family's estate Ferncliff.

Looking for a unique item to add a regal flourish to your interior decor? An extremely rare, important and well-preserved neo-Gothic terracotta chimney piece commissioned for Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia and King of Hungary, in the late 19th century, is being offered for sale during Sotheby's' Origines, Architecture & Heritage, Decoration and Garden Statuary auction in Paris on March 31. The incredible 8.5-ft. tall piece, built to surround a kingly fireplace at one of the imperial Hapsburg family palaces and bearing the emperor's coat of arms, is expected to fetch up to $700,000. Two knights standing on Corinthian columns flank the mantelpiece, which also bears the Emperor's motto Viribus Unitis, "With united forces."

The Upper West Side of Manhattan was once again home to an exciting and unique art exhibition last week. 25CPW, a temporary art gallery occupying a vacant retail space on Central Park West hosted an art show for a unique group within the Metropolitan Museum of Art: the guards. It turns out that some of the people protecting the masterpieces on the other side of Central Park also like to create, and from what I saw on Thursday night, when I attended the opening, they are pretty damned good at it.

The Thursday night opening also included the launch of Sw!pe Magazine: Guards' Matter, an art journal that accompanied the exhibition.

On display were paintings, drawings, photographs and other pieces. The styles varied but were displayed intelligently, preventing contrasting styles from crowding each other and leaving each artist enough space for his work to stand out. Nelson Diaz, an artist and friend who attended the how with me, was as electrified as I was – both by the works on display and the energy in the 25CPW space.

You can view the NY Times photo gallery here.

The next 25CPW event is on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 night at 6:00 PM, when the Afghan Art Auction will be held to benefit the George Dritsas Anthropos Fund. The fund was created to help refugees in transition, so do find a way to open your wallet. The money raised will also be used to help the Afghan Women Council, which seeks to assist women and children inside Afghanistan.

From the inaugural event at 25CPW:

For the past week, the art community has focused on New York City's annual Armory event, in which artists put their best pieces forward, dealers and galleries are on the prowl and collectors look for new finds that will someday redefine their portfolios. Momentum from the contemporary art auctions at Christie's and Sotheby's was certainly present, as all in attendance seemed focused on opportunity rather than window-shopping. The efforts at the Armory were consistent with a marketplace that's active, not the crushing fear that characterized the art market through the second half of 2008 and most of 2009.

1. Koons went bare
What was expected to be the most controversial event of Armory Week turned out to be subdued, though well attended. Jeff Koons offered a tribute to open sexuality with an exhibition that opened last Tuesday. Protesters weren't in sight, but musicians Cyndi Lauper and The Edge (guitarist for U2) checked out the show.

2. Solo booths were back in style
According to ArtInfo, "Solo artist booths were everywhere you looked." Individuals were ready to put themselves out into the market. Collectors had the opportunity to focus on specific artists as a result, rather than see disparate artwork crammed together by galleries and dealers managing inventory as if they were grocers. The good news, however, is that this shift isn't indicative of an art market slump. Rather, it's a sign of optimism. There's a belief out there that art collectors are ready to buy, especially given what we've seen at auction so far this year.

Director David Slade is known for providing movie watchers with chills and thrills in movies like "Hard Candy" and "30 Days of Night" and he's set to delight Cullen fans with "Twilight 3: Eclipse," but Slade also has a side that is downright sweet. The LA Times reports on Slade's Fubear Studios website which features adorable and quirky illustrations and charmingly weird animated films.

He has come out with his first line of giclee prints celebrating two cute characters, Scarfdog and Duck. Their story is one of unrequited love, Scarfdog loves Duck but she doesn't share his feelings. The signed, limited-edition 8.5-by-11-inch prints are sold exclusively at Yolk in Silver Lake for $30 each or $100 for the set of four which illustrate the story of Scarfdog's devotion. Slade tells the LA TImes that film is his main focus but that designing and publishing his own work is something he will also always do.