
It will make up the first of a two-day auction in Geneseo on September 22-23.
Cravens’ collection was wide ranging in its taste, taking in antiquities and ethnographic art as well as modern art. She also assembled an impressive collection of studio pottery featuring many pieces by well-known European and American potters.
There are 135 pieces in the auction, many of them purchased from London’s Besson Galerie.
The British contingent reads like a roll-call of the best exponents, with works by Hans Coper, Lucie Rie, John Ward, Elizabeth Fritsch, Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada to name just a few of the most familiar.
Included in the sale is an Elizabeth Fritsch Piano Pot from c.1978 measuring 5½ x 9½in (14 x 24cm) which carries an estimate of $2000-3000.