
William Edmonson’s (American, 1874-1951) carved limestone sculpture “Mother and Child,” 13 inches high, earned top-lot status at $244,000 ($60/70,000).
Review by Kiersten Busch
KNOXVILLE, TENN. — Spanning two days, June 12-13, Case Auctions’ 2025 Summer Fine Art & Antiques auction exceeded its high estimate by 25 percent and had a sell-through rate of 98 percent. The 1,176 lots offered featured items from various Southern estates, as well as objects deaccessioned from the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, the Arkansas Museum of Art and the Hunter Museum of Art. Vice president of fine and decorative arts, Sarah Campbell Drury, shared, “It was an outstanding sale, with over 98 percent of the lots sold and approximately 6,000 registered bidders in person, online and on the phone.”
Drury continued, “We don’t give numbers, but the sales total exceeded our pre-sale high estimate by 25 percent. We are delighted with the outcome and very grateful that so many people attended in person. We had people in the room from as far away as New York! The overwhelming majority [of bidders] were from the US and Canada, although we also had significant representation from China, France and Germany, about the same number of bidders as usual.”
Leading both days was William Edmonson’s “Mother and Child,” a carved limestone sculpture which rocketed past its $60/70,000 estimate to earn $244,000 on the first day. “This was an excellent example of a well-documented William Edmondson sculpture, in one of his favorite themes, won by a bidder from the East Coast, underbid by phone and online bidders in the south and northeast,” said Drury. “Even though we intended the pre-sale estimate to be conservative, we believe this is a strong price for the form and size and reflects the growing national appreciation for Edmondson’s work.”

“Final Resting Place” by Carroll Cloar (American, 1913-1993), 1964, acrylic on board, 30 by 40 inches framed, had labels for Alan Gallery, New York, and Christie’s affixed verso; it was laid to rest for $97,600 ($30/35,000).
Paintings made up 106 lots on day one, led by “Final Resting Place,” a magic realism painting by Carroll Cloar. Sold for $97,600 to a Southern buyer on the phone with “a very healthy contingent of underbidders on the phone and online,” according to Drury, “This was an estate-fresh and early Carroll Coar painting, circa 1964, from the late Nashville collectors Jane and Ervin Entrekin.”
An oil on board equestrian portrait of President Andrew Jackson astride his horse, Sam Patch, galloped home with a new world auction record — $28,800 — for its artist, Lloyd Branson. Selling to a Tennessee collector, “It was Branson’s 1919 version of Ralph E.W. Earl’s portrait that currently hangs in Jackson’s home, the Hermitage,” shared Drury. “It’s not an exact replica. Branson added his own artistic perspective, and the result was very successful.”
Drury also pointed out a pair of Art Nouveau sterling silver candelabra by Howard & Company, New York, which led 81 lots of silver and objects of vertu. Deaccessioned from the Arkansas Museum of Art, the pair sold for $13,200 to a private collector. “In a time where — let’s face it — so many silver objects are being sold to scrappers, it was comforting to see these exceed the high estimate and go to an appreciative home,” Drury concluded.

Recently deaccessioned from the Arkansas Museum of Art, this pair of Art Nouveau sterling silver candelabra, dated 1905 and marked “Howard & Co. / Sterling / New York,” 25 inches high each, sold to a private collector for $13,200 ($8/10,000).
The second day was led by another world auction record, this time for artist Meyer R. Wolfe, for his oil on canvas portrait depicting a Tunisian woman seated with her hands on her lap. Previously exhibited at The Nashville Parthenon in the 2021 exhibition “Meyer Wolfe: The Star of All Things” and in Wolfe’s 1928 exhibition at the Carnegie Library in Nashville on Capitol Hill, the work sold to a southern collector for a record-breaking $17,080.
Another new world auction record was set, at $4,064, for “Ellipse,” a textural urban bronze sculpture by Mexican engraver and sculpture artist Paloma Torres Estrada. The sculpture, a bronze pillar wrapped with horizontal bronze bands and mounted to an oval base, came from a corporate collection and measured 72 inches high without its base.
Two lots from the collectibles category earned the second- and fourth-highest prices on day two. An album collection of early prints and photographs by American photographer Timothy O’Sullivan flipped to $5,856. According to catalog notes, “The prints, compiled by an unknown person likely around 1900-1920, represent an extensive survey of Sullivan’s work during the Civil War and Clarence King Expedition.”

This album of early prints and photographs by Timothy O’Sullivan (American, 1840-1882), contained approximately 60 Civil War related images and approximately 40 related to the Clarence King Western Expedition; it was snapped up for $5,856 ($100/200).
Also attracting bidders was a lot compiling an early Twentieth Century Memphis, Tenn., plat or street map and four watercolor elevation drawings of historic buildings in Memphis known as the Victorian Village. “Sadly, we don’t know the origin story of these watercolors, but many of the mansions depicted no longer stand, so they were of great interest to preservationist-minded bidders,” explained Drury. The lot was bid to $4,392.
Asian works of art spanned 10 lots, ranging in price from $120 for a lot of four jewelry items including jade necklaces and a dragon brooch, to $5,080 for three Chinese or Japanese scrolls. The latter, all watercolor on silk or paper, were signed in calligraphy. The works included a kakejiku, or Japanese hanging scroll, depicting ducks in water with spring blossoms, a kakejiku depicting a sleeping white cat and a landscape scene with a calligraphy inscription.
Case’s next auction will take place January 31-February 1 and will include more than 1,000 lots. Prices quoted include buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, 865-558-3033 or www.caseantiques.com.