Dick Button’s personal skating collection up for auction

A.H.Black said:
There's a thread on the Trash Can here - https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/th...nal-skating-collection-up-for-auction.105074/
It was also mentioned in the Skating History thread here - https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/th...-re-figure-skating-history.99121/post-5487475
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A.H.Black said:
There's a thread on the Trash Can here - https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/th...nal-skating-collection-up-for-auction.105074/
It was also mentioned in the Skating History thread here - https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/th...-re-figure-skating-history.99121/post-5487475
Click to expand...
A.H.Black said:
There's a thread on the Trash Can here - https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/th...nal-skating-collection-up-for-auction.105074/
It was also mentioned in the Skating History thread here - https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/th...-re-figure-skating-history.99121/post-5487475
Click to expand...
Capella said:
Apologies if I missed a thread about this, but nearly 100 pieces from Dick Button’s collection of art and costumes will be up for auction later this month.

You can view all the items HERE.
Click to expand...
Capella said:
Apologies if I missed a thread about this, but nearly 100 pieces from Dick Button’s collection of art and costumes will be up for auction later this month.

You can view all the items HERE.
Click to expand...
Capella said:
Apologies if I missed a thread about this, but nearly 100 pieces from Dick Button’s collection of art and costumes will be up for auction later this month.

You can view all the items HERE.
Click to expand...


Xis Dick OK? or just cleaning house
 
“I want to sell my apartment in New York City, but I can’t do that with all the things that are there. So I am selling a number of items to be able to do that,” said Button who began collecting skating memorabilia in 1947.

“I went to Stockholm for the World Championships and Cecile von Mendelsohn-Bartholdy, the wife of Gillis Grafström, offered me her entire collection. My father said he would buy it for me if I would like it but I said, ‘what would I do with all those things?’ So she gave me one Dutch tile from the 18th century – I now have 31 of them. She also gave me a print and I was so fond of it I started collecting.”
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https://www.ifsmagazine.com/dick-button-auctions-memorabilia/
 
Capella said:
Apologies if I missed a thread about this, but nearly 100 pieces from Dick Button’s collection of art and costumes will be up for auction later this month.

You can view all the items HERE.
Click to expand...

WOWWWWWW some (most) of these pieces are really really cool...

I wonder why he wants to unload all this???..??

I love the outdoors Netherlands and such pieces... He has accumulated some really nice pieces!!!!
 
AngieNikodinovLove said:
WOWWWWWW some (most) of these pieces are really really cool...

I wonder why he wants to unload all this???..??

I love the outdoors Netherlands and such pieces... He has accumulated some really nice pieces!!!!
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He's selling his NYC apartment, and I would guess that no one in the family wants this stuff.
 
AngieNikodinovLove said:
I dont know why.... but makes me kinda sad......

Do you know where he is going to live?

I got room for Uncle Dick!!
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Dick Button lives in North Salem, NY. He is just selling his NYC apartment. He will be 90 (!!!) in July.

It would be nice if some of the items in the auction get donated to the World Figure Skating Museum and Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs.
 
I just came across this article, dated February 12, 2019, about the results of Dick Button's auction that happened back in January: https://www.antiquesandthearts.com/high-marks-for-dick-buttons-skating-collection-at-brunk/
Excerpts:
ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Eighty-seven lots from the collection of North American, European, World and Olympic champion figure skater Dick Button passed beneath the gavel at Brunk Auctions’ January 26 Premier sale. The offerings had been acquired by Button over his long career as a figure skater turned sports commentator and was representative of a figurehead whose focus never left the ice. The sum, much of which was exhibited in the Fenimore Art Museum’s 2017 exhibition “The Art of Figure Skating Through the Ages,” represented the image of skating from the Nineteenth into the Twentieth Century. Spanning fine art, posters, lithographs, Americana and skating memorabilia, the collection would go on to produce $234,240 in total sales.
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The top lot from the collection went to a painting by American artist William H. Willcox (1831-1929) that brought $66,000, an auction record for the artist. The 16¼-by-24½-inch oil on canvas titled “Skating on the Schuylkill” was executed in 1875. The busy scene features a large crowd of men, women and children – well over 100 people in all – in various acts of enjoyment on the ice. In the background is the Fairmount Water Works with a noticeably bare hill behind it. This painting was executed one year before the Philadelphia Museum of Art would begin construction. Philadelphia played host to a vibrant skating community in the mid-Nineteenth Century. This began in 1849 with what is now the oldest figure skating club in the United States: the Skater’s Club of the City and County of Philadelphia. The club would host fashionable gatherings on the ice as well as charitable events, though a serious and central concern to the group was skater safety.
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ETA: Dick Button's 90th birthday will be on July 18! :encore:
 
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He's not selling the apartment, just the collection. Dick offered the entire collection to USFSA and to Harvard, but they don't have room for it. To give you a sense of the scope, he described to me how in 1972 he had bought Ice Pond Farm by us in North Salem and also bought the apartment, which is a whole floor the same year. The collection takes up all 5 staff bedrooms in the apartment, floor to ceiling and wall to wall. The house and apartment are also chock a block full of to die for beautiful things that have not been sent to the auction. If any of you live near by, DB opens his fabulously beautiful garden once a year for charity (The Garden Conservancy) in early September. Easily the most beautiful garden they have all season. Well worth the drive, and he's always about for a chat.
 
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Since this thread has been revived, I'll post here what I just mentioned in U.S. Men's thread: Dick Button's 90th birthday is on Thursday (which is also the day before* the anniversary of Denis Ten's tragic death). I wonder whether USFS will be giving a shout out to Dick or if anything special has been planned by his family and friends?

Maybe on the day, we can start a thread here offering congratulations to Uncle Dick for reaching this milestone, and as well thanking him for his invaluable contributions to the sport! :)


* as corrected by greenapple
 
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greenapple said:
The anniversary. of Denis Ten's death is July 19, which is Friday.
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Hmmm, well he must have died on the 19th. My memory is that I heard the news of the attack on the 18th. But exact dates and details of traumatic events are always kind of fuzzy.
 
greenapple said:
There is nothing fuzzy about what day he was murdered other than your recollection. Google it.
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Sure, I simply said what date I remembered it as, and I'm not sure why I recall it that way. There's no need for me to Google the date. You caught my mistaken recollection. You cited it. Denis is still dead and he can't be brought back. Who really cares so much about the exact date, than they do the gut-wrenching fact he's gone? Thanks for keeping the date details on point, though.
 
aftershocks said:
Since this thread has been revived, I'll post here what I just mentioned in U.S. Men's thread: Dick Button's 90th birthday is on Thursday (which is also the day before* the anniversary of Denis Ten's tragic death). I wonder whether USFS will be giving a shout out to Dick or if anything special has been planned by his family and friends?

Maybe on the day, we can start a thread here offering congratulations to Uncle Dick for reaching this milestone, and as well thanking him for his invaluable contributions to the sport! :)


* as corrected by greenapple
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Well, I am having lunch with him this week...does that count?
 
He is the nicest man. I had the kids in the skating club sign a card for him. A lot of the littles didnt know who he was as he was way before their time. Ummm...2x OGM, 5x World Champion, first double axel, first triple jump, inventer of the flying camel aka originally the Button Camel, shall I go on? said yours truly.
 
Lacey said:
@scooter, whoever you are, thanks for sharing that you are going out with Mr. Button. I am sure that all fans of figure skating here on FSU (is that all of us?) would want, like me, for you to wish him our congratulations and best wishes.
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Lacey, I am lucky enough to be a neighbor and the local Skating Club President. He was kind to me from the begining all these years ago now. And I say again, he has the MOST divine garden open once a year in September. If you are near by, it's well worth the drive and has many little skating references in the sculpture etc. So beautiful. And he is always there to chat to.
 
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