Yvonne Laurent Farley was an extensive miniatures collector throughout the 90's and early 2000's and very active in the miniatures community for many years. Born in Twin Falls, Idaho, in the early 1920's, she moved to Los Angeles where she met her husband. She worked in the retail and the medical world but her true love was fine art and she studied calligraphy at UCLA Riverside in California and started her own caligraphy business.
She caught the miniatures "bug" when the computer age hit, reducing the need for hand-inscribed art and so she started making miniatures and joining clubs including the Los Angeles Riverside and Empire Miniature Societies. She attended miniature shows throughout the United States, took classes in miniature making and built a large collection of small treasures in a broad range of categories, themes and scales.
Her strong interest in the arts fueled her passion for the tiny, filled her home with miniatures and brought her tremendous joy.
After her passing, a dear friend wrote this in a note to her niece, Gail MacAlpine about her "AuntieSis" (which she was affectionately known as): "she was an amazing artist at making all kinds of miniatures. She invited me to see her miniatures collection and it was like walking through a magical kingdom!".
Yvonne lived with her niece Gail and her husband Bob until her passing in 2015 and since then Gail has held careful watch of her collection until reaching out in the fall 2022 to talk about how we might work together to find happy new homes for Yvonne's treasures where they will be as lovingly adored and cared for.
So I headed down to North Carolina, spent a few days touring and getting to know the family and then we loaded the truck of treasures to bring them back to New York to start cataloguing the collection. I've been privileged to work on such a lovely collection of miniatures and I can feel the joy and excitement Yvonne felt crafting, discovering, searching and collecting each and every piece offered in this collection and thrilled that I get to find happy new homes for her treasures where they will loving adored and cared for.
I'm thrilled to present the Yvonne Farley Collection estate sale. The sale consists of a very large and broad collection of Yvonne's treasures, both artisan and quality commercial miniatures, with over 350 lots, covering over 20 categories including Fine Furniture, Books, Food, Flowers, Porcelain, Sterling Silver, Pottery, Toys, Art Dolls, Glassware, Lighting, Needlework, Textiles and more. Additionally there are multiple themed lots for added fun including Ladies' Boudoir, Sewing Room, Gentleman Study, Circus, Vintage Kitchen, Southwest Style, Asian Inspirations, Boys' & Girls' Rooms, Camping and Cow (yes, COW!).
There are also smaller scales featured in this sale, roomboxes and a few assorted surprises including 100 piece lots for the miniacs who goes for mini-multiples!
The sale will extend over several weeks (through early February) with about 125 lots posted per week. There will be a total of 4 auctions starting at 5pm ET on Sunday Jan 22 with subsequent auctions on Thursday Jan 26, Sunday, Jan 29, and Thursday Feb 2nd. Each auction will last 7 days. Start times will be staggered to allow for greater participation and competitive bidding. You can find a PREVIEW of some of the pieces featured in the sale here. This preview will be updated with additional sale items periodically over the next several weeks, so stop in often to explore the collection before each sale begins. Items in the previews will have random placement during the sale period so check often if there is something specific you are looking to score.
Photo Above: Yvonne Farley's Sister and Family
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