specialty fashion & textile sales

Our March auction in the historic St. Paul Auditorium featured clothing, accessories and textiles from the Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection, 15th-19th C textiles from Virginia’s Chrysler Museum, Chinese pieces from The Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), and other objects from the National Heritage Museum, the Montclair Art Museum with select additions from private consignors, including a Main Line Philadelphia estate.

Our studio is filled with American, European and Asian treasures from the 15th through the late 20th century. Textiles sold included a 15th-16th C. wool tapestry fragment depicting Roman soldiers, a c.1750 silk Chien-lung Imperial court textile, a large 1770 Aubusson tapestry, a 19th C. Uzbekistani Suzani, an Arts & Crafts  carpet (possibly Voisey), other antique carpets, ecclesiastic textiles including 17th C Spanish lace altar cloths, orphreys and maniples, a Meiji embroidered wall hanging, 17th& 18th C silk brocade dress and furnishing fabrics, 1820-1840 printed chintz, and other textiles too numerous to mention.

Fashions offered for sale included women’s 18th C-1960s shoes, 19th C stockings, shawls & scarves Victorian, Belle Epoch and Edwardian day wear, tea and evening gowns, lace coats & jackets, lingerie and accessories, 1920-1930s lame coats, lame, lace and print evening gowns, 1940-1970s day, cocktail and evening dresses, shoes, hats & handbags, embroidered Chinese robes, Japanese kimonos & obis, other garments from Persia, Turkey, Peru, etc.

Garments and textiles offered for sale from most of the museum collections included pieces that no longer fit the criteria of the museums’ collections policies, duplicate other pieces in their collections, or were pieces no longer exhibited.  Many have been in museum storage for decades. All were new to market and had not previously been offered for sale. The museum collections are sold to the highest bidder, free of any minimum bids or auction reserves. Proceeds from auction attendees’ purchases go directly to the museums’ acquisitions funds or to support their conservation efforts.