Artwork from the estate of philanthropist Nancy M. Daly will be offered at auction

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Nancy M. Daly was best known as a philanthropist and advocate of children’s rights and the arts who once was married to entertainment executive Robert A. Daly and former Los Angeles mayor Richard J. Riordan.

But Daly, who was 68 when she died last year, also was a longtime art collector who focused on decorative arts and paintings -- with an emphasis on the California aesthetic and early 20th-century design.

Bonhams & Butterfields has announced it will offer approximately 105 works from Daly’s estate at its April 20 spring auctions in Los Angeles. Together the items have an estimated value of up to $1.4 million, according to Joseph Francaviglia, director of trusts and estates.

The auction house’s 20th-century decorative arts sale will feature 94 of Daly’s pieces. More than half -- 57 -- come from her collection of Rookwood pottery, which is considered to be one of the major collections of its type. Included are a selection of the Ohio firm’s signature glazes and examples of designs by decorators such as Arthur Conant, William P. McDonald, Carl Schmidt, Kataro Shirayamadani and Albert Valentien as well as a floor vase decorated by Rookwood Pottery founder Maria Longworth Nichols in 1882, two years after she started the company.

Other offerings include 15 pieces of Wedgwood Fairyland Lustre, notably a covered vase titled ‘Ghostly Woods in Moonlight,’ a Tiffany Studios Favrile glass-and-bronze ‘Lotus’ lamp and a Douglas Donaldson sterling silver and carnelian bowl.

Eleven paintings from Daly’s estate will be presented in Bonhams & Butterfields’ California and western paintings and sculpture auction. The highlight, says Scot Levitt, vice president and fine arts department director, is what he calls ‘the marquee lot of the sale’ -- the Joseph Kleitsch painting ‘Woman in a Garden Sewing’ (c.1928).

Other pieces include Jessie Arms Botke’s ‘White Peacocks and Hibiscus’ (c. 1925) and Franz A. Bischoff’s ‘Roses in a blue vase on a table with a mirror’ (c.1920).

‘Nancy Daly’s paintings and decorative arts really complement each other,’ Francaviglia says. ‘There is a certain American and, really, a California feeling to her collection. The paintings are mainly by American and California artists and even though much of the pottery is Rookwood, which is from Ohio, it has the Arts and Crafts feel that California is known for.’

Daly, who was battling pancreatic cancer, died in October while on a trip with her three children.

As an activist, she lobbied extensively on behalf of foster children and for the creation of what is now the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services. She worked to establish the county’s Family Preservation Program and helped found the Children’s Action Network, which enlists the entertainment community’s help to increase awareness of children’s issues.

Daly joined the board of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2002 and was elected board chair in 2005. She also served on the boards of organizations including the W.M. Keck Foundation and the Los Angeles Opera.

Daly and Riordan donated a Tiffany table lamp to LACMA in 2006. She also gave the museum the painting ‘Monterey Cypress, California’ by the American Tonalist Arthur Frank Mathews in 2008.

--Karen Wada

Photo (top): Joseph Kleitsch’s ‘Woman in a Garden Sewing,’ from the estate of Nancy M. Daly. Credit: Courtesy of Bonhams & Butterfields

Photo (middle): Nancy M. Daly in 1996. Credit: Carol Cheetham / For the Los Angeles Times

Photo (bottom): from left: Rookwood iris glazed earthenware ‘Storks in Flight’ vase, Albert Valentien, 1902, from the estate of Nancy M. Daly; Rookwood high glaze rooster floor vase, Arthur Conant, 1922, from the estate of Nancy M. Daly; Rookwood Sea Green glaze fish and seagull vase, William P. McDonald, 1897, from the estate of Nancy M. Daly. Credits: Courtesy of Bonhams & Butterfields

Related: Nancy M. Daly dies at 68; prominent activist worked for L.A. children