From a Cape Cod estate barely ten miles down the road, the runaway favorite of Eldred’s three-day auction, August 5‷, was the pre-Civil War tin hose reel in red, yellow and gold paint that drew the attention of a dozen or so collectors who drove its final price to $48,875. Four lions flanked the reel on which a Liberty shield was mounted on one side (the other was missing, as was a bell).
Eldred’s toy specialist Eric Mulak said the toy was sitting on the mantel of the house where a selection of Tiffany glass was present. He explained that because the toy is so early and so few are known to exist, there is little information about the maker. It is thought to have been made by Althof Bergman & Co., of New York or Forestville, Conn., maker George W. Brown; the buyer favors Brown as the maker. The only documentation is in sketchbooks. Mulak added that one sometimes acted as the agent for the other, so the confusion endures.
A three-part mahogany banquet table from about 1800 comprising two D-shaped ends and a center section with ribbon inlay sold for $19,550. Fully extended, the table measured 157½ inches. It came from the Chatham estate of a woman who was a reliable attendee at all Eldred sales. She was also a collector of Asian art objects.
Phone bidders and a Boston-area dealer chased a Boston Chippendale chest, circa 1780, with four graduated drawers that went to the phone for $14,950. A rare Rhode Island Federal mahogany hunt board signed by Thomas Howard of Providence had string and delicate foliate inlay and went to an absentee bidder, also for $14,950.
Equally rare and of Rhode Island interest was an historic pair of Chinese Export porcelain plates decorated with an anchor and an eagle with the banner proclaiming, “In God We Hope.” The pair brought $4,888 from a Boston-area dealer on the phone. Similar plates are in the collections at Winter-thur.
The pair came from a Kentucky collection that was also the source of a rare Sandwich glass triple cut overlay lamp that fetched $1,725. The font was cut in pigeon blood red cut to white to clear, and the stem was clear with a red, white and blue interior twist that created a peppermint stick effect. A pair of 25-inch Chinese Export porcelain vases with famille rose and serpent decoration and gilt foo dog handles sold for $4,313.
An Eastern Massachusetts Hepplewhite mahogany sideboard with quarter fan, bell flower and string inlay went on the phone for $5,463; a diminutive English Hepplewhite mahogany sideboard with an arched apron, quarter fan, crosshatch and string inlay realized $4,025.
A North Shore Massachusetts Hepplewhite figured maple chest with figured birch panels on the drawers sold for $9,775. A phone bidder bought a North Shore Massachusetts or coastal New Hampshire Hepplewhite bowfront chest for $5,175, and a circa 1800 Sheraton bowfront chest with bird’s-eye maple drawer fronts for $3,104.
A Queen Anne cherry highboy was married and its brasses were replaced, but it still garnered $7,475. Another Queen Anne highboy, also in cherry, with dentil molding and fan carving brought $6,900 on the phones.
A Baltimore Hepplewhite card table with half-round shell inlay to the top, oval inlay on the leg panels and bellflower inlay on the legs sold for $5,750. The same price was paid for a Hepplewhite cherry slant front desk, circa 1800, with two labels, one of William Lloyde of Springfield, Mass., and a 1928 label for W.D. Lockwood of Hartford, Conn. The lid was inlaid with a central diamond around a shell inlay.
A Sheraton bowfront chest was attributed to the workshop of Thomas Seymour of Boston. With porringer corners on the top, four graduated drawers and reeded and ring turned posts, it realized $5,463.
Needlework from several collections attracted interest. A schoolgirl sampler worked in 1827 by 11-year-old Elizabeth Ann Caughy sold for $13,800. The needlework, thought to be Pennsylvania in origin, was wrought with a house surrounded by a gate and picket fence, three female figures, animals, birds, trees and a floral border. It went to an Americana dealer. Another sampler by Fanny G. Howell, age 12, was worked with a farm scene, the alphabet and a verse and sold for $2,185.
“Nina,” a 1910 portrait of a woman in a blue dress by Provincetown artist Charles Webster Hawthorne, brought $16,100 from a phone buyer. A portrait, “Lady with a Fan,” by Ohio-born artist Robert Frederick Blum sold for $5,463.
Annie Lajoie of Eldred’s said the auction house staff knew something was up when the painting “Hotel Back Door” by another Ohio-born artist, Clyde J. Singer, attracted significant presale attention. It brought what the auction house thought was a probable record price of $11,150, selling to the phone.
“On the Passagassawakeag River,” an oil on canvas by Maine artist Percy A. Sanborn, attracted $8,625, while “Crossing the Stream” by Samuel S. Carr fetched $6,613.
An unsigned portrait of John Tyler as a congressman drew $6,325 from a phone bidder, and an Eighteenth Century portrait of a gentleman by an artist in the circle of Copley sold for $4,025.
Ralph Cahoon springs eternal, and “A Ride on the Beach,” with a sailor and two mermaids on horse-back and two hot air balloons and a lighthouse in the distance, sold for $23,000.
Nine works by Charles Drew Cahoon included “Mom Snow’s Birthplace, Brewster, Mass.,” which went for $4,600; a signed seascape with marshes and dunes at $4,313 and an oil on board view of dunes that reaped $3,450.
A 1935 oil on board view of docks at Nantucket by Anne Ramsdell Congdon realized $7,475. “The Village End,” a Provincetown scene by Charles Abel Corwin, fetched $4,025. A winter scene of historic Crosby’s Yacht Yard in Osterville by Cape artist Samir Barber sold for $5,175.
The watercolor “The Bathers” by Ben Shahn, who painted for many years in Truro, sold for $4,025. Arthur Rackham’s watercolor of hollyhocks drew $2,760.
A Seventeenth Century map of the English colonies in North America after the 1664 capture of New Amsterdam sold for $6,325. It was engraved in London by Francis Lamb and published in Speed’s atlas.
A Federal gilt girandole mirror with an eagle crest flanked by dolphins, circa 1800, went for $4,313. A pair of Federal mahogany knife boxes from about 1810 with oval inlay realized $4,600.
A selection of decoys included a Mason factory high head sickle bill curlew in original paint, and retaining the original eyes, which went to $18,400. It came from a Chatham collection. A double-mounted miniature pair of bluebills by A.E. Crowell sold for $3,105, and a miniature osprey carved by Wendell Gilley of Southwest Harbor, Maine, was $2,530 to the trade.
A Steiff clown bear with a ruffled collar and a hat with pompoms sold on the Internet for $4,025.
Silver was topped by a circular silver covered box by Oscar Ramsden and Alwyn Carr, and bearing their hallmarks, that sold for $9,200. Made in London in 1929, a silver chalice by Omar Ramsden garnered $6,900. A five-piece sterling silver tea set by Danish maker Hans Hansen was dated 1950 and 1951 and went for $3,450. An English silver plated meat trolley with a domed lid supported on a circular oak base fetched $3,450.
All prices quoted reflect the 15 percent buyer’s premium. For information, www.eldreds.com or 508-385-3116.
