Time to turn the page on Turkey Thursday and Black Friday and move on to a generous helping of upcoming auctions that promises a feast of goods from museum quality art to a squadron of model airplanes.

Concept Art Gallery

The last month of 2016 begins with Concept Art Gallery's first-half season finale Dec. 3 at its East End showroom. Along with a wide selection fine arts, antiques and modern design items, the sale delivers a Pittsburgh history lesson in the shape of a lap desk that once belonged to Mary Schenley, who donated the land that is now the city's biggest and most used park.

In 1841, at the age of 15, young Mary created a scandal that spread across the city and nation when she eloped to marry an AWOL, twice-married and divorced British army captain 28 years her senior named Edward Wyndham Harrington Schenley. So shocking was the affair that the U.S. Navy unsuccessfully dispatched a ship to snatch the runaway bride before the wedding. Her father eventually accepted the couple and built them a log cabin, which stands in Schenley Park. During her lifetime, Schenley donated land that would become parts of the city's most treasured places, including Schenley Park, Carnegie Mellon University and the Blockhouse historic area.

The desk, which bears a brass nameplate with her maiden name of Mary E. Croghan, looks like a small wooden trunk when lifting the lid, and the desk unfolds to reveal a blue velvet interior with fitted drawers for ink wells, pens, nibs and a secret compartment for, possibly, forbidden love letters. Schenley used the desk at a boarding school on Staten Island, where she met her amorous captain. The desk eventually fell into the possession of a school mate, also from Pittsburgh, and remained in the family until now.

You'll find no scandals involved with the sale's numerous pieces of artwork with a Pittsburgh provenance. “Nocturnal Steelmaking on the Monongahela,” by Aaron Gorson, captures the majesty and might of the region's industrial heritage.

A playful kinetic sculpture, “Devil / Angel,” by Henry Bursztynowicz encourages viewers to consider the delicate balance of the forces of good and evil on a figure holding the two on a scale. Bursztynowicz also is featured in the “The Gift of Art,” a selection of art from the Pittsburgh Public Schools collection now on display at the Senator John Heinz History Center.

Jeff and Mark Zetts pay homage to the city's favorite pop artist in “Andy Warhol's Liz Doing the Dishes,” a collage made of printed paper, paint and reproductions of Warhol's more famous work. The whimsical piece shows a domesticated and, perhaps, slightly bemused, Elizabeth Taylor drying dinnerware in a kitchen.

Of course, any description of a Concept auction falls under the “tip of the iceberg” category, with more than 500 lots of sterling silver, jewelry and furniture.

Auctions items can be previewed online or in person at the Concept showroom, 1031 Braddock Ave., Point Breeze, from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays and until 8 p.m. Thursdays. The sale begins in the Concept showroom and online at 9:30 a.m. Dec. 3.

Details: 412-242-9200 or conceptgallery.com

BHD Auctions

Brian Detch expects BHD Auctions' next online sale, from Nov. 25 to Dec. 1, to soar sky high as he prepares to sell a large collection of aviation-related goods from the estate of a former airline pilot.

Cleared for takeoff are dozens of store-bought metal and assembled-at-home plastic model airplanes, which once dangled from the ceiling of the owner's home. History buffs will want to view the hundreds of airplane photos, including one of Charles Lindbergh standing beside his trans-Atlantic craft “The Spirit of St. Louis” and a shot of a flaming World War II fighter plane. Also in the mix, many aviation books and magazines, ashtrays and other souvenirs from airlines long defunct, tiny wings handed out to first-time flier and other items from a bygone era of air travel.

Bidders will be on solid terra firma with dinnerware, fine-art glass, model trains, toys, mantel clocks, antique straight razors, jewelry, art, dolls, classic Alberto Vargas pinup girl books and a salesman's palm-sized sample of a folding bed with springs.

Details: 724-816-0683 or bhdauctions.net

Aspire Auctions

Closing out the year with an online sale that runs from Dec. 2 to 10, Aspire Auctions presents a selection that includes high-end art, jewelry, art glass and antiques. Many of the pieces hail from River House Antiques, Lillian Goldsmith's much beloved shop on South Highland Avenue in Shadyside that closed in 2013. Additionally, many works on paper from a prominent Cleveland collection will be in the sale.

Details: 412-894-8221 or aspireauctions.com

Mark Ferry Auctioneers

Ready to take aim at bidders with a fondness for long guns and pistols, Mark Ferry Auctioneers will set up for a firearms sale at the Smithton VFD Social Hall on Dec. 10. With an arsenal heavy on military-style weapons, the sale also features compatible ammo, military history books, bayonets and holsters.

Doors open at 7 a.m. for the 9 a.m. sale at 609 Center St., Smithton.

Details: 724-423-5580 or markferryauctioneers.com.

John Altdorfer is a Tribune-Review contributing writer.

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