Saturday Morning, April 11, 2026
Facing the Facts
Face the Nation. Face the music. Face value. Change of face. Facebook. Bold faced. Poker face. Happy face. Blackface. Whiteface. Facelift. A face only a mother could love. About face. Save face. Face recognition. A face that launched a thousand ships. Two-faced.
Perpetual Face vase, signed TMS, 2005. 9½" H.
Charles T. Coiner (1898-1989), watercolor, 9¼" x 13¾"
Janus, the god in Roman mythology had two heads, representing beginnings and endings, new versus old, the moment of transition between life's cardinal points. You would hardly remember his name except for one, forgive me, face fact. The month of January is named after him. Out with the old year, in with the new. Farther back in time we discover Helen of Troy. A legendary Greek beauty so stunning, when Paris of Troy abducted her to Anatolia (Turkey), the Greeks retaliated by launching a thousand ships to retrieve her. The result? Every English student has suffered this bane called the Iliad since, bogged down in dactylic hexameter. Despite these vignettes, all of us wear multiple faces. Halloween year-round.
The Three Faces of Eve
In the early 1950's, an unusual psychological problem emerged. A young married woman in Georgia began suffering severe headaches followed by moments of black outs. When she regained her composure, she often found herself in compromising conditions. Smoking a cigarette, wearing sexually alluring clothes, or not even at home with her child. Her husband thought she was lying by living a second life behind his back. The condition reached crescendo when she attempted to kill her child.
Satsuma covered jar, 13" H. Happy faces.
Hermes Kachina silk scarf. A textile with many faces.
Several psychologists stepped in only to discover the woman, Eve White, possessed two distinct separate personalities. Her opposition, Eve Black, was a swinger, sharing control of their body, emerging whenever she could. It was a battle between the two. You could say a Janus condition. Doctors sought a solution, eventually discovering the trigger. When Eve was a young girl, her grandmother had died. In that Depression period, funerals were often at home, the body on view in the parlor. In a final goodbye family members kissed the corpse. Eve's mother, following tradition, forced her daughter to perform this ritual. In that millisecond Eve's personality split, eventually emerging years later.
Three's Company
While under doctor care, a third personality emerged, one with no name, exhibiting no extreme personality traits. Eve White, the shy scared woman, and Eve Black, the holy terror, both fading. This new entrant became known as Jane. She was stable, in complete control of her life.
Replica souvenir bust of John F. Kennedy, by Robert Berks. Produced for the 65th Anniversary Convention for I.L.G.W.U., Miami Beach, 1965, 8½" H.
Austrian Amphora three-headed vase, 8½" H. A horse walks into a bar and sits down. The bartender appears and asks, What's with the long face?
Hollywood produced a magnificent movie starring Joanne Woodward and Lee J. Cobb in 1957. As most movies go, it had a happy ending with Jane driving off with her daughter and husband onto an endless highway. Happy faces. In reality Eve suffered this split condition most of her life, though Jane did dominate. Three's Company replays each week in our gallery. An auctioneer and two bidders. Two faces, both of anticipation with a finality between victory and vanquish. So how do we handle this condition? Very simply. There will always be something else to buy, though this medical condition has no known solution.
Doors open at 8 AM. Auction starts at 9 AM. PA AU 1265L [bb]