Notable sales found in our October 23, 2020, issue include two record-setting results: Leslie Hindman’s October 1 sale saw Alexander Calder’s standing mobile, “Triple Cross,” close at six-figures, setting a house record for the highest sale price in the Chicago firm’s 38-year history. Meanwhile, at Sotheby’s Romare Bearden’s “The Fortune Teller” established a new auction record for the artist when it sold for more than $700,000. Read on for furniture sales in the form of Stickley and Chippendale, a Warhol portrait of Haring and more.
Calder Sets New House Record For Hindman
CHICAGO – Alexander Calder’s standing mobile, “Triple Cross,” 1947, was one of two works by Calder offered in Leslie Hindman’s October 1 postwar and contemporary art sale. “Triple Cross” more than tripled its estimate ($600/800,000) to close at $1,872,500, setting a new record for the highest sale price in the Chicago auction house’s 38-year history. Both Calder works were from the estate of Joan Conway Crancer, the only daughter of St Louis artist Fred Conway. Savvy collectors, Crancer and her husband were avid supporters of the arts community in St Louis. The two Calder works were the top two lots in an 85-lot sale that grossed $4.2 million. For information, www.hindmanauctions.com or 312-28-1212.
German Toy Catalog Delights Merrill Bidders
WILLISTON, VT. – Duane Merrill and Co., Auctioneers & Appraisers was not playing around when it offered a rare circa 1850 German toy sample book containing 295 hand colored plates illustrating 2,354 products in the October 2 toys, advertising and estate auction. The book, which brought $52,275 from a New York dealer bidding on the phone against competition online from Germany and Italy, relates to both the Waldkirchen and Rau Co., Nurnberg sample books, but this book appears to have all of its original plates and retains a front page describing the scale of the pictures in five different languages. Cataloged as an “outstanding” reference, the volume had been hardbound in cloth over leather end boards, measured 11 by 17 inches and had been estimated at $30/50,000. For information, 802-878-2625 or www.merrillsauction.com.
Romare Bearden Work Sets New Auction Record
NEW YORK CITY – Sotheby’s fall Contemporary Curated auction achieved $31 million, marking the sale series’ fifth consecutive season with a total above $30 million. The sale saw significant results for works by Black artists, with new artist records established for Romare Bearden, as well as Titus Kaphar and Simone Leigh – two artists whose auction records were previously set at Sotheby’s earlier this year. Also, works by established masters Kerry James Marshall, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Barkley L. Hendricks all achieved more than $1 million, driving the overall total of the sale. Rounding out the morning session on October 2, Bearden’s “The Fortune Teller,” a masterwork from 1968, established a new auction record for the artist when it sold for $770,200. For information, 212-606-7000 or www.sothebys.com.
‘Hand Me Down My Walking Canes,’ Say Bidders At Nathan Sale
MANCHESTER, VT. – Billed as a “Vermont Boutique Online Auction,” Eric Nathan’s October 2 event was his firm’s first attempt at an online-only timed auction of multiple lots. A lot of two gold handled walking canes with inscriptions led the better lots, leaving the gallery at $1,534 – that’s ten times the pair’s high estimate – while a gold handled cane in the form of a hoof sold for $1,003 and a lot of four Tiffany sterling silver candlesticks took the same price. “We have two very good estates coming up that will be using the Vermont Boutique online format,” said Nathan. For information, 802-362-3194 or www.nathanre.com.
Chippendale Chairs Stand Tall For Leo Legare
HUDSON, N.H.- Leading the October 3 multiple estates auction, conducted at the Hudson VFW Hall by Leo P. Legare Auctions, was a pair of Chippendale chairs with scrolled feet, carved knees, slip seat, the pierced splat carved with interwoven ribbon and scrolls, carved crest with rosette and carved ears that had been owned by Francis Welch (1776-1867). The pair sold to a buyer in the room, underbid by a phone bidder, for $8,625. For more information, www.legare-auctions.com or 603-595-9625.
Stickley Director’s Table Stretches To $15,000 At Hudson Valley Auctioneers
BEACON, N.Y. – Hudson Valley Auctioneers presented an autumn unreserved absentee, phone bid and online antiques and estate auction on October 5, the 400-lot sale combining items from several local estates and collections. From a long-held storage unit came a treasure trove that included Gustav Stickley furniture in good finish and condition led by an 8-foot director’s table selling for $15,000 (shown). Additional highlights were a banner weathervane from a New Jersey barn at $5,610, a Manhattan student lamp with Tiffany shades going out at $7,500 and a pair of Hans Wegner for Fritz Hansen chairs that realized $2,813. “The sale went very well; we had more than 10,000 approved bidders on the live platform for the first time, making for a pretty good sale, plus the usual phone and absentee activity,” said the firm’s Theo de Haas. “We still are not conducting auctions with a live audience, so it’s still an online, absentee bidding event, but we do allow in-house viewing the day prior and on the day of sale.” For information, 845-480-2381 or 914-489-2399 or www.hudsonvalleyauctioneers.com.
Three Audubon Elephant Folio Prints Go Big At Lotus International
GUILFORD, CONN. – “Lotus had a fine art online auction on September 27,” said the firm’s Tom Mason. “We had a few John James LaForest Audubon prints that sold. “The ‘White Heron’ (shown) went for $17,500; the ‘Black Bellied Darter’ and the ‘Columbia Jay’ both went for $11,250. All were early double elephant folio prints printed by Robert Havell.” The sale had 422 artworks: oil paintings, watercolors, etchings and lithographs. For information, www.lotusauction.com or 203-689-5062.
Register For Catskill Mountain House Brings $45,000 In Americana At Swann
NEW YORK CITY – At Swann Galleries’ September 24 sale of printed and manuscript Americana, the guest register of the Catskill Mountain House, which served as a spiritual home of the early Hudson River School, led the auction at $45,000 against a $5/7,500 estimate, just nosing out a strong order bid when it sold to a collector on the phone. The overall sale brought an 82 percent sell-through rate by lot, totaling more than $600,000 with at least 23 institutions purchasing a total of 93 lots in the sale. The sale was “evidence of continued stability in the book and manuscript market,” according to Rick Stattler, a vice president of the house and specialist for the sale, “Buyers were eager and willing auction participants, with many lots selling for double or triple their estimates.” For more information, www.swanngalleries.com or 212-254-4710.
Warhol Portrait Of Keith Haring With Juan Dubose Raises $504,000 In Benefit Auction
NEW YORK CITY – Nearly 450 bidders, 29 artist records and an average of 33 bids per lot drove Sotheby’s white-glove sale of Dear Keith: Works from the Personal Collection of Keith Haring, which achieved $4.6 million – more than three times the sale’s $1.4 million high estimate. It was a “white glove” sale, with 100 percent of the lots on offer sold. Works by Andy Warhol soared exponentially beyond their high estimates, led by an untitled portrait of Haring with Juan Dubose which achieved $504,000 – doubling its $250,000 high estimate. Dubose was a DJ as well as Haring’s partner and lover, who passed away due to HIV/AIDS in 1988. In keeping with the Keith Haring Foundation’s mission to sustain and expand the artist’s legacy of philanthropy, full proceeds from the auction will benefit The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center of New York. For information, 212-606-7000 or www.sothebys.com.
