The story behind the model for this bronze sculpture, created by Alexander Stirling Calder, has it all: sex, murder, nudity, and a psychiatric asylum. Sounds like the plot of a movie for sure.

Star Maiden was created by Calder for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. There were originally 94 versions of Star Maiden looking down on the Court of the Universe. According to the website Sweet and Sour Spectator, (www.sweetandsourspectator.org), the pointed headdresses on the statues were hung with cut glass novagems which were illuminated at night by spotlights.

Audrey Marie Munson was the model Calder used in creating Star Maiden. In fact, Munson posed for more than three-quarters of the statues used at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. She also posed for paintings and murals used at the event. According to Wikipedia, Munson began posing for sculptors in New York when she was 15 years old.

“In 1916, probably as a result of her exposure in California at the PPIE, Munson moved to California and entered the movies. In all Munson starred in four silent films. The first of these, Inspiration, the story of a sculptor’s model, featured the first time that a woman appeared fully nude on film. The censors were reluctant to ban the film, fearing they would also have to ban Renaissance art. The films were a box office success. The reviews, however, were very polarized. Only a single print of one film, Purity, has survived,” according to the Wikipedia entry.

Munson moved back to New York in 1919 and lived with her mother in a boarding house owned by Dr. Walter Wilkins. “Wilkins fell in love with her, murdering his wife, Julia, so he could be available for marriage.” However, Munson and her mother had already moved out of the boarding house before the murder and were living in Canada at the time. But, the resulting negative publicity generated by the case effectively ended Munson’s career as a model and actress. “Wilkins was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to the electric chair. He hanged himself in his prison cell before the sentence could be carried out,” Wikipedia said.

In 1931 Munson was ordered into a psychiatric facility after showing signs of mental illness. She remained there until her death 65 years later at the age of 104.

Now, her likeness lives in in sculptures such as Star Maiden.

If her story alone was not enough to spark intense interest in the statue, then there is the sculptor Alexander Stirling Calder (1870-1945) He was the son of sculptor Alexander Milne Calder and the father of sculptor Alexander Calder. In 1912, Calder, along with Karl Bitterk, was named head of the sculpture program for the Panama-Pacific Exposition.

The 54in bronze is estimated at $12,000-18,000 at the June 21 auction but auction house owner Allen Michaan thinks that is a very conservative estimate.

“This is such an iconic piece of California history,” Michaan said of Star Maiden. While 94 of the statues may have once existed, Michaan could find no examples which had ever sold at auction, although at least one other statue survived and is now in a museum. Michaan said his auction firm did sell a plaster cast of one of the statues a few years ago. But as for the rest of them, no one seems to know where they are. Perhaps, they are hidden away in basements, which is where the example up for bids at Auctions by the Bay came from. Michaan said the piece came in during an open appraisal day.

Michaan said the auction would also offer watercolor study used to paint one of the murals used at the Exposition. The painting was done by Bancroft, but it is not known if Munson posed for it.

One of the top lots of the auction is expected to be a circa 1911 hammered copper and mica table lamp created in the San Francisco workshop of Dirk Van Erp. It bears the desirable windmill signature with the maker’s name as wells as that of his colleague D’Arcy Gaw. Gaw’s signature dramatically increases the desirability of the 17in lamp and 19in shade. It has a pre-sale estimate of $70,000-90,000. Michaan said the piece is fresh to the market.

There will also be a strong showing of Tiffany lamps. “Tiffany is stronger than ever right now,” Michaan said. Russian objects, as long as they are authentic, are also very strong. And then there is the category of Asian arts. As soon as the June 21 sale is over, Michaan’s Auctions by the Bay staff will begin setting up for the June 22 auction of Asian Arts. The auction was assembled by Asian Art staff specialist Sarah Zhu. Since joining the Auctions by the Bay staff in 2006, Zhu has developed a steady clientele of consignors and buyers. Michaan said it helps to have someone in that department who is from China as many of the buyers and consignors in this category are Chinese.

One of the highlights of this auction is a Chinese bronze ritual covered Ding vessel from the Han Dynasty. This bronze is pictured in the book, Bronze, Clay and Stone, Chinese Art in the Wang Family Collection by Anette L. Juliano. It is estimated to sell for $5,000-7,000.

Contact: (800) 380-9822,

www.auctionsbythebay.com

Connie Swaim