On Staten Island This Friday: Noble Maritime Collection Hosts 38th Annual John A. Noble Art Auction Fundraiser

The Noble Maritime Collection presents The 38th Annual John A. Noble Art Auction fundraiser on Friday, November 13

Editor’s note: Liveauctioneers is an online platform that allows participants to place bids from their own homes as well as from the live event.  Winning bids will be shown in the platform during the live event.  Support a noble cause to help this museum, which preserves the artwork of John A. Noble, provides educational and art-oriented classes and tours for kids from school across the island, along with other important programming for kids and adults.  One of their recent fundraising efforts involved the restoration of a 19th Century ceiling mural that had suffered from years of neglect.  The finished piece is incredible, and was well worth the investment.  People looking up in the foyer of the great museum will be treated to a breathtaking view of the completed mural. 

STATEN ISLAND, NEW YORK—The Noble Maritime Collection will host the 38th Annual John A. Noble Art Auction, a fundraiser for the museum, on Friday, November 13.  The live auction at the museum will also be streamed on LiveAuctioneers.com, with a remote bidding option.

The auction is the Noble Maritime Collection’s major fundraising event of the year, and helps to cover up to 20% of the museum’s annual budget, making possible exhibitions and free and low-cost public programs including arts education for children of all ages and abilities.

This year’s 40 lots include three original lithographs by the museum’s namesake, John A. Noble (1913-1983); watercolor, oil, and acrylic paintings; photographs and prints in a range of techniques by noted local and contemporary artists; and antique and vintage works, including a print by Marc Chagall (1887-1985).

“The Noble Art Auction thrives because of the generosity of this community—artists and collectors who donate remarkable work, bidders who compete with enthusiasm to add it to their collections, volunteers who return year after year, and sponsors who make the evening possible,” said the museum’s Executive Director, Megan Beck.

She added, “In our 40^th anniversary year, we are especially grateful for the way this community has made the museum its own.  That sense of shared ownership is what gives the auction its meaning and keeps it strong.  I believe John Noble would appreciate what we accomplish together in his name—celebrating New York’s working waterfront and preserving maritime history, including our landmarked building, for generations to come.”

Scott Van Campen, Executive Director of MakerSpace NYC, will return for his eighth year as auctioneer, joined by Ms. Beck, who will present commentary on each piece of art and its artist.

The in-person event will begin at 6:30 PM with an open bar and a light supper.  Catering by Framboise, led by Chef Frank Puleo, will once again cater the event with an Early Autumn Harvest menu of Asian-inspired cuisine, served on two floors of the museum.

The art auction will start at 8 PM and will be simultaneously streamed on LiveAuctioneers.com for virtual bidding.

Major underwriting for the event has been generously provided by lead sponsor Caddell Dry Dock and Repair Company and Sung Young, LLC, as well as other business and community supporters that can be viewed at noblemaritime.org/auction.

Tickets are $125 each, or $95 for museum members.  Reservations are required.  Those who wish to participate on LiveAuctioneers can make a free account to register for the Noble auction.  LiveAuctioneers registrations will be accepted through the day of the event on November 13.

To purchase tickets, view the art, and learn about live online bidding via LiveAuctioneers, visit noblemaritime.org/auction.

The auction preview exhibition has been on view at the museum since October 15 and features 40 lots.

John A. Noble, NA (1913-1983), Tides of 100 Years, Lithograph, Edition 300, 1977, 16 ¼” x 22 ⅞”, Donated by the family of Dr. Gabriel Tuder

There are three lithographs by Noble: Ancient in the English Kills from 1947, Soul of Sail from 1961, and Tides of 100 Years from 1977, which carries the highest estimate in the auction.

A 1925 color mezzotint of Alexander Hamilton by T. Hamilton Crawford (1860-1948), after the portrait by John Trumbull, has particular resonance at Snug Harbor: Hamilton was involved in the legal establishment of the institution through the will of its founder, Robert Richard Randall.

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Other antique and vintage works include a tipped-in print by Marc Chagall from 1947; an 1890 photogravure by Frank Myers Boggs (1855-1926); an 1897 Harper’s Weekly engraving by Milton J. Burns (1853-1933); and an engraved map, Ile de New-York 1776, printed around 1807.

Printmaking is a highlight of this year’s selection, with lithographs, etchings, aquatints, mezzotints, and linocuts by William Behnken, NA, Peter Budka, Caroline Greenleaf, Andrea Kornbluth, Michael Pellettieri, Sachin Pannuri, Ellen Nathan Singer, Roxanne Watson, and Tomomi Ono, as well as Staten Islanders Bill Murphy and Stephen Szoke.  Prints by Joop Vegter (1931-2017), Herman Zaage (1927-2008), John McCrady (1911-1968), Robert Kipniss, NA, Frederick Mershimer, and Elaine West round out the selection.

Paintings include work by Dennis Joseph Yanoski, Fred S. Cozzens (1846-1928), Staten Islanders Halina McCormack, Donna Napoli-Steele, and Sarah Yuster. Local artist Elle Finn donated a pen and ink drawing, Vintage.  Maritime subjects include Maurice Schneidler’s view of the Bayonne Bridge spanning the Kill van Kull and Andrea Doria off Sardinia, a print after an original painting by Robert G. Lloyd.

The auction includes photographs by noted Staten Island photographers Bill Higgins and Michael McWeeney, as well as John Sanderson, Michael Falco, and Bo Kass (1938-2020).

Also on offer are a Chinese color stone-rubbing of a fisherman and an oil painting of an Italian winter scene.

Winning bidders through LiveAuctioneers can pick up their purchases at the museum Tuesday, November 17 through Friday, November 20 from 10 AM to 5 PM, and Saturday, November 21 and Sunday, November 22 from 12 to 5 PM.  Bidders are asked to call ahead at (718) 447-6490 to let museum staff know when they plan to come.

Shipping is available directly through LiveAuctioneers or through the museum’s partner, Postal Connections, 1365 N. Railroad Avenue, Staten Island.  Interested bidders can get a quote before bidding and arrange for shipping by contacting them at (718) 980-2000 or [email protected].

The Noble Maritime Collection is located in Building D, a former mariners’ dormitory at Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden, 1000 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island, New York.

The museum is open to the public Wednesday through Sunday from 12 until 5 PM, during which time the auction preview exhibition can be viewed.  Admission to the museum is pay-what-you-wish, and visitors who come solely to see the auction preview exhibition are admitted free of charge.

Sarah Yuster, Leaving Whitehall, Oil on wood, 2020, 11” x 11”

John Sanderson, Arrival St. George, Pigment print, 2019, 13 ¾” x 20 ½”

T. Hamilton Crawford (1860-1948), Alexander Hamilton, Color mezzotint with chine appliqué, after the painting by John Trumbull, 1925, 16 ½” x 13 ¼”

Fred S. Cozzens (1846-1928), Blind Beacon Mass. Coast, Watercolor, 1910, 7 ¾” x 12 ⅜”, Donated by Charles and Laura Mooney

Frederick Mershimer, Mighty Canyon, Mezzotint, Edition 100, 1988, 12″ x 9 1/4″, Donated by William Behnken, NA

To learn more about this unique maritime museum, or for more information about the auction, call (718) 447-6490 or visit noblemaritime.org.

Banner Image: Frederick Mershimer, Mighty Canyon, Mezzotint, Edition 100, 1988, 12″ x 9 1/4″, Donated by William Behnken, NA