Released on = March 30, 2007, 5:20 am

Press Release Author = Fred and Gail Taylor

Industry = Internet & Online

Press Release Summary = Two important local collections crossed the block at
Matheson's AA Auction in Melbourne, FL on March 17 - 18. But while the collections
had a Florida provenance the bidders came from all over the country and some from
Europe even bid by phone.

Press Release Body = MELBOURNE, FL - The sale opened at 11:00AM on Saturday March 17
with over 400 lots of art that included works by Picasso, Leroy, Chagall, Greuze and
Faulkner. The house was full with all 200 seats taken and five extra phone lines
were at the ready plus five staff members with cell phones to field call in bids.
The sale was not offered online.

The sale also included a good collection of African and Oceanic art and artifacts
and that got the sale off to good start early on. The third lot of the sale was a
large Costa Rican stone carving of a female figure from the Atlantic watershed
region, 48in tall by 21in wide that quickly soared to $6,325 including the fifteen
percent buyer's premium. That loosened up the audience and by the 10th lot the sale
was rolling. Lot 10 was a pencil signed color lithograph, 27½ by 20in, entitled "The
Bluebird" by Marc Chagall (Russian/French 1887-1985). This was the first of five
Chagall lots in the sale and it made the top Chagall money, selling on the phone for
$9,200. It was followed several lots later by Chagall's lithograph, 16 by 11 ¾in,
entitled "Eve Incurs God's Displeasure" that went for $4,888.

Spaced between the Chagall lots was an etching by Pablo Picasso (Spanish 1881 -
1973) entitled \"Man Uncovering A Woman\" from \"Vollard Suite\". It was signed lower
right and numbered lower left \"XX-VI-MCMXXXI\", size 15½in by 12½in. It sold on the
phone to a New York dealer for what will probably establish a new record for a
Picasso etching. Including premium the Picasso closed at $14,950.

Eight oil on board works by the eccentric American artist Henry Faulkner (1924-1981)
came from the Ft. Lauderdale estate of a friend of Faulkner's who had received the
works directly from Faulkner. Foremost among the works was a crowded village
architectural scene, 13¼ by 16½ in, secured in a rough hand carved frame. Legend has
it that Faulkner often scoured trash bins for frames for his work and this appeared
to be one of them. That didn't bother a collector on the phone who bid the work up
to $9,200. A collector from Lexington, KY snapped up three of the Faulkners paying
$8,913 for figure with a hand across the chest, $6,038 for a flower cart and $4,600
for a work entitled "Two Winged Friends" with the original receipt dated 1965.

An important oil on board portrait by Jean Baptiste Greuze, French (1725 -1805) that
had been passed down in the Chase Banking family, brought $10,350 and the top lot of
the sale, an elaborately framed oil on canvas portrait of a woman and infant, 29 by
31in, by Paul Alexander Leroy, French (1860-1942) sold on the phone to a New York
collector for $18,400.

The Sunday March 18 session of the sale featured over 200 items from an important
Melbourne Napoleonic collection. The top lot of that session was a saber that had
belonged to an officer of the Carabiniers, Napoleon's two elite regiments of
cavalry. The saber with wire handled grip, bronze guard and 36in curved blade sold
in the room to a Pennsylvania collector who had flown in the night before the sale.
He paid $10,637. A 37¼in long regimental saber, Model XI, sold on the phone to a
California collector for $5,290 and an elaborate infantry sword engraved "NK" under
the langet went to the same buyer for $4,888. A French naval blunderbuss captured by
an English officer went for $3,163. Other period firearms included several flintlock
pistols that sold in the $1,100 - $1,300 range and one police model that brought
$2,875.

Non weapons included a polychrome wood carved Napoleonic coat of arms that sold on
the phone for $6,325, a hand painted standard with wire tassels, 20 by 22in,
emblazoned with "Pro Gloria Et Patria" brought $4,888, an infantry officer's Shako
hat, Model 1812, made $3,738 on the phone and a brass cavalry bugle engraved and
dated 1812 led a new charge for $1,380.

Matheson's AA Auction is located at 600 E. New Haven Avenue in Melbourne, FL. For
more information on this sale or future sales call auction owners Lloyd and Jan
Matheson or Auction Manager Carrie Lucas at (321) 768-6668, visit the website at
www.mathesonsaaauction.com or send email to aaauctions@earthlink.net.


Web Site = http://www.mathesonsaaauction.com

Contact Details = Matheson\'s AA Auction
600 E. New Haven Ave.
Melbourne, FL
321-768-6668
http://www.mathesonsaaauction.com
aaauctions@earthlink.net