Lover's Eye 19th century pin, gold, seed pearls, glass, miniature painting of a blue eye, 5/8"w x

Treadway Toomey Auctions is pleased to offer items from the Estate of Candice B. Groot. This important single-owner collection spans much of the late 19th through 21st centuries and includes fine timepieces, erotica, fine taxidermy, automata and decorative arts in addition to exceptional modern and contemporary art and ceramics. The collection will be offered for sale in four auctions throughout 2016 with proceeds benefiting the Virginia A. Groot Foundation, a nonprofit arts organization.

Candice Groot was an artist, teacher, philanthropist and passionate collector. She established the Virginia A. Groot Foundation in 1988, named in honor of her mother. The Foundation awards annual international grants to contemporary artists who work in three dimensions to help allow for the development of their work. Candice was known by artists and dealers alike for her generosity and keen eye. In 2014, she received the Award for Regional Excellence from the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts for her significant contributions to the field. Candice was also recognized for her contributions to the arts by The Smithsonian Institute with a recorded self-guided tour of her collection that will be a part of the museum’s permanent archives.

A Passion for Collecting: Fine Timepieces, Erotica & Decorative Arts.” This will be followed on April 16, 2016 with “Fire & Form: Fine Art & Ceramics” and will offer one of the most important and comprehensive collections of modern and contemporary ceramics to come to auction. The collection includes the most significant group of works by American sculptor Robert Arneson, with examples spanning the artist’s career. Other highlights from this sale include works by Ken Price, Beth Cavener Stichter, Vija Celmins, Ruth Duckworth, Jun Kaneko, Jan Fabre, Katsura Funakoshi, Diane Arbus, Ron Nagle, Deborah Butterfield, Peter Voulkos and Donald Roller Wilson. The additional sales will be held in August and November 2016. We invite you to follow these sales and appreciate the complexity of this historic collection. 

All items sold in this auction are exempt from Illinois sales tax in accordance with the Illinois Department of Revenue’s disclosure rule.