No date or attribution were provided for this oil on canvas Old Master painting with figures, but that did not discourage bidders from taking it from a $1,5/3,000 estimate to $15,120 on the second day. It was the first of two lots to reach that price.

Review by Madelia Hickman Ring

BRANFORD, CONN. — Seemingly, Fred Giampietro has, for some time, been the antiques dealer’s auctioneer of choice for those looking to downsize their collections, or to sell the inventory of late dealers. Following his October 15 sale, he can add Paula Gimblette and Barbara Ardizone to a list that includes Richard Kazarian, Marc Matz, Robert Walin, Bob Giambalvo, Frank Gaglio, Lincoln Sander, Jonathan Rickard, Pat and Rich Garthoeffner and Steve and Pat Center, among others. Works from the Ardizone and Gimblette collections were supplemented by property from the historic Clark House (North Guilford, Conn.) in a 336-lot auction that was one lot shy of being 100 percent sold. It was followed on October 16 by approximately 375 lots of Asian, European and American antiques. In total, the two-day return was about $550,000.

“Americana was very strong,” Giampetro told Antiques and The Arts Weekly. “We had a lot of activity, a lot of bidders. I’m very pleased. I think prices were really strong.”

Americana Collections of Gimblette & Ardizone

Painted furniture and folk art headlined the first day and a Nineteenth Century Shaker box, painted bittersweet red and in excellent original condition, from the Ardizone collection, earned top-lot honors with an $8,820 result, more than doubling its $2/4,000 estimate. Other Shaker pieces included an Enfield Community handled-measure ($2,016), five other lots of Shaker boxes ($5,166 combined value) and a lot of two Shaker pails ($441).

The top lot in the Americana auction on October 15 was this Nineteenth Century bittersweet red Shaker box, 5½ by 13½ by 9½ inches, that achieved $8,820 ($2/4,000).

The day got off to a good start with an oval miniature portrait of a girl with her black and white cat, painted in watercolor on bone, that dated to the early Nineteenth Century. Estimated at $500/800, it charmed bidders to a $3,276 finish.

Velvet fruit collectors had limited options and competed for an impressive mid Nineteenth Century wire basket that was, at 13¼ inches tall, filled with nearly 40 pieces of velvet fruit, vegetables and birds and traded for $6,930.

Weathervane examples were only slightly more plentiful and two of the three sold exceeded expectations. Leading the group with a $6,048 price was a circa 1880 Black Hawk horse weathervane with cast zinc ears. It retained traces of its original gilt finish and came with a stand. Buyers paid $1,890 for an early Twentieth Century arrow vane with directional, and $1,260 for a late Nineteenth Century eagle weathervane with arrow.

Making nearly five times its high estimate at $5,796, a circa 1825 New England one-drawer blanket chest, with circa 1900 paint over earlier paint, capped the furniture category, painted or otherwise. It was followed in price by a spider-leg table with a gameboard painted on its octagonal top ($5,040), a circa 1720 Queen Anne highboy from New England in old black paint over earlier red paint ($4,284) and a circa 1800 red-painted chimney cupboard ($3,528).

Original red paint, and a black and yellow checkerboard top, enhanced this circa 1825 New England spider-leg table that bidders played to $5,040 ($500-$1,000).

Nine hooked rugs crossed the block, most with flowers but also a pictorial scene with figures and a building, and another example with a lion and cub. Earning the most was a circa 1900 rug with colorful spandrels that interest pushed to $5,040.

Asian, European & American Antiques

Opening with 20 lots of frames, the Asian, European and American Antiques sale on October 16 offered several Old Master paintings, a selection that included the sale’s highest price of $15,120. Two lots achieved that result: the first being a 16-by-38-inch oil on canvas composition of a woman lying on a wood structure, with onlookers; it was followed about 50 lots later by a painting of a woodland scene with a fawn by Rosa Bonheur (French, 1882-1899).

Rosa Bonheur painted this scene of a fawn in a woodland in oil on panel; it measured 10⅝ by 8⅜ inches and was the second of two paintings on the second day to hit the sale’s top price of $15,120 ($2/4,000).

More Old Masters also did well. A Seventeenth Century Italian painting of Venus and Adonis attributed to Augustinus Terwesten I that had sold at auction in May 1995 at Drouot Richelieu exceeded its $8,000 high estimate with a second-place result of $8,190. Rising to $4,536 was a portrait of Saint Giovanni in a later ebonized and parcel gilt octagonal frame. Bidders were not discouraged from the paint loss and surface wear of a Nineteenth Century carved and painted wood bust of Bacchus, and it found a new home for $3,780.

European furniture reached its apex at $3,024, for a giltwood pier table with marble top that was cataloged as probably Italian, Nineteenth Century. An early carved wood chest with iron hardware had splits, surface wear and imperfections but still brought $1,764, nearly three times its high estimate. For the same price, a lucky bidder snapped up a pair of Nineteenth Century Italian giltwood consoles with marble tops.

An Eighteenth Century English stumpwork picture of a village scene achieved $1,512 while a set of 12 Meissen Purple Indian reticulated plates, circa 1900 and measuring 7⅞ inches in diameter, brought $819.
The categories of Chinese and Chinese export ceramics were strong and led at $6,048 by a Chinese Doucai porcelain bowl that had green and blue designs, measured 8 inches in diameter and had been acquired from a 1998 Sotheby’s Hong Kong auction by the Greenwald collection. It was not clear which of the three pieces in a group lot of Chinese porcelains was the rarity, but a deep blue porcelain square-section vase with elephant handles, a jar with figures in a landscape and a shaped cosmetic box with cover realized $4,788, nearly eight times its high estimate. Rounding out the top Asian ceramics lots, a Chinese export bowl with unusual Masonic symbology that had been in the collection of Paula Gimblette soared to $3,276.

Of the fewer than 10 lots of Chinese export in the second day of the sales, this bowl with Masonic symbols brought the most: $3,276 ($500/800).

A brass-mounted American Empire marble top pier table, circa 1815, was the highest-selling piece of American furniture on the second day, followed by a set of six Queen Anne chairs with leather seats, of which four were period, that brought $1,134 — less than $200 per chair.

Giampietro told us that New England Auctions had been working on a dedicated auction platform that would debut during the firm’s upcoming Jewelry, Coins, Timpieces & Silver sale on November 19, and Design & Decorations on November 20. “We’re anticipating having our own platform will enable better photos and result in fewer crashes,” he said.

Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, 475-234-5120 or www.newenglandauctions.com.