September Great Estates Fall Curated Auction

Willow Auction House's September Great Estates auction features over 200 finely curated lots of decorative items, furniture, jewelry and artwork. This sale features a selection of mid-century and Danish modern furniture, including pieces by Jens Risom, Kip Stewart, Paul McCobb and Charles & Ray Eames for Herman Miller. Among the other lots on offer are a Steinway Model D Concert Grand Piano, several shipbuilder's models, silver including Georg Jensen and a Wang Hing & Co. Chinese export box, two Rolex watches, a Franz Bergman cold painted bronze and a large selection of ethnographic and tribal items from the Labelle Prussin Estate, Author of African Nomadic Architecture., including jewelry, masks and statues. Rounding out the sale is a collection of artwork, with paintings from David Burliuk, Perle Fine and Kurt Trampedach, photographs by Bernice Abbott & Gordon Parks, a Norman Rockwell collotype, works from Pedro Friedeberg, Alexander Calder, Robert Indiana, and a mixed media cigar box from Mihail Chemiakin.

Mihail Chemiakin (Russian, 1943). Mixed media cigar box field report from a Russian spy on the secret weapon of tobacco. A wooden Davidoff Aniversario No. 2 Dominican cigar box, with Russian stamps and writing, in Russian. Signed M. Chemiakin and dated 1997. The interior of the box lid contains six drawings by Mihail Chemiakin "portraits of the members of Davidoff", with handwritten Russian notations. The interior insert / cover contains more handwritten notations "Top secret. Field report, 1723." On the interior of the box, additional drawings and notations, and a small display including three pendants containing tobacco, as well as 2 bronze rats and a skull, affixed to the bottom of the box. Contained within the box are two handwritten letters (in Russian) detailing the tobacco pest. Both envelopes are addressed to A.F. Tolstoy and contain additional notations, drawings and wax seals. Inside each envelope is a handwritten letter, detailing the threats of tobacco, with additional drawings by Chemaikin.A typed English translation of the Russian language writing is included.The box was Mihail Chemiakin's submission to Cig Art2, a benefit auction for The National Arts Club & Visual Arts Foundation Student Scholarship Funds that took place in New York City in 1997. 50 artists participated in the event including Mihail Chemiakin, Will Barnet, Milton Glaser, Robert Indiana, Roy Lichtenstein and LeRoy Neiman. Box 10" x 7 1/2" x 2"