This week’s auction highlights span decades and genres; a black and white Franz Kline illustration, which sold for $37,120, claimed the top spot while a Paul Evans decorative cabinet followed at $35,700. Other featured results include a pearl and diamond brooch, a cherry bed frame, an archive of letters including details about the wedding of an enslaved couple and several artworks. For these stories and more, continue reading.
Old Kinderhook Bidders Dazzled By Vintage Pearl & Diamond Brooch
VALATIE, N.Y. — On January 30, Old Kinderhook Auction Company conducted its Frankenshine’s Monster auction, which offered more than 600 lots and was advertised as “a sale so electric, the dead will rise!” A top result from the sale was that of a Verdura 14K white gold wreath fur clip brooch, which sold to a private buyer for $6,000 ($3/4,000). The brooch featured 15 Tremblant pearls set on diamond studs and with diamond-accented leaves to create the wreath design. Measuring 2-1/8 inches in diameter, the brooch’s approximately 100 diamonds totaled 4.25 carats. Housed in its original box, the brooch was also accompanied by a report from the Gemological Appraisal Laboratory of America. For information, www.oldkinderhookauction.com or 518-912-4747.
Cristof Yvore’s Remembered Interior Is Top Lot At Nadeau’s Sale
WINDSOR, CONN. — Midcentury Modern art and furnishings with decorative accessories crossed the block at Nadeau’s Auction Gallery on January 27. An untitled oil on canvas by French artist Cristof Yvore (1967-2013) from 2008 depicting a series of room partitions with grays, reds and tans surpassed its $10,000 high estimate to sell for $22,140. Signed and dated on verso “C. Yvore 2008,” the 31-by-26-inch canvas had provenance to the Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp, December 2008, a gallery that Yvore joined in 1994. Yvore’s oeurve starts out from remembered images of recognizable and commonplace elements, which are reduced to their most simple form of expression. For information, 860-246-2444 or www.nadeausauction.com.
Franz Kline Collage Beats Estimate In Capsule Auction
NEW YORK CITY — Attributed to Franz Kline (American, 1910-1962), a black and white composition, property from the estate of Rosa and Aaron Esman, realized $37,120 against an $8/12,000 estimate at Capsule’s January 30 auction. The oil on paper collage was signed “Kline” lower right and measured 9 by 8¼ inches, housed in a 15½-by-15-by-1-inch aluminum frame with glazing. It was accompanied by letter from Fred Mitchell, recognized authority on Kline, attributing the work as gift from Franz Kline to Philip Pavia This work was not included in Pavia’s publication It Is. For information, www.capsuleauctions.com or 212-353-2277.
Native Arts Kick Off Santa Fe Art Auction’s 30th Anniversary Year
SANTA FE, N.M. — Santa Fe Art Auction kicked off its 30th anniversary year with a Native arts sale on February 7-8. An annual favorite, this year’s auction included an impressive collection of works from contemporary and historic Pueblo and Tribal artists, featuring Native American jewelry, textiles, paintings and pottery. The sale’s second day featured the top lot, Paul Pletka’s “Assiniboine,” 1971, oil on canvas (shown), which sold for $14,640. The lot achieving the highest price above estimate was the fired clay sculpture “Singing Potter,” circa 1965-70, by Frances Suina (Cochiti Pueblo, 1902-1992). Estimated $800-$1,200, it rang up $7,320. “All the Cochiti pottery performed well in the sale,” said Gillian Blitch, Santa Fe Art Auction’s president and chief executive officer. For information, 505-954-5858 or www.santafeartauction.com.
Archive With Slave Wedding At Maryland Mansion Takes Top Spot At PBA Galleries
BERKELEY, CALIF. — An archive with descriptions of a slave wedding at Maryland Mansion led PBA Galleries’ February 8 auction, bringing $6,875. Approximately 30 autograph letters signed by Elizabeth (Betty) Carter Van Bibber, the Virginia-born wife of the owner of the Westminster, Md., Avondale estate were addressed to her relative, Mary Virginia Yeatman Deans, at the Rosewell Plantation of Gloucester, Va. The trove was a significant and revealing series of letters from the grand lady of a Southern plantation to one of her peers, a decade and a half before the Civil War would send their fairytale lives into the ash bin of history. Elegantly written, the letters are full of family chit-chat as well as recurrent references to favored slaves, shared between the families, who went back and forth between the estates after the widowed Betty, who had lived with the Deans in Virginia, moved north, with a few enslaved people in tow, to marry the Baltimore aristocrat, corn farmer and amateur poet who inherited “haunted” Avondale from his father. For information, 415-989-2665 or www.pbagalleries.com.
JMW Auction Features Work Of Abstract Sculptor Greg Mayo
WEST HURLEY, N.Y. — JMW Auction of Kingston, N.Y., sold the estate of Abstract sculptor Glen Mayo on February 10 at his warehouse and studio in West Hurley. The highlight of the sale was a sculpture titled “Sami,” which sold for $6,300. It went to a buyer from Woodstock, N.Y. Mayo started with Artweld Studio & Gallery in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in the early 1990s, then relocating to the Hudson Valley and opening Wheelhouse 28. The sale also included his complete fabrication shop, his Porsche Cayenne, Suzuki Boulevard motorcycle, partial projects and decorative metal objects. For information, 845-389-1933 or www.jmwauction.com.
Shackleton Cherry Sleigh Bed Coasts Into Winners Circle At W.A. Smith
PLAINFIELD, N.H. — Twentieth Century design was the agenda for William A. Smith Auction Gallery’s online timed auction that closed on February 11. Included were many Sabra Field woodblocks and prints, more than 500 pieces of Inuit carved stone sculptures, leather furniture, artwork from the estate of Jeffrey Marshall, Midcentury Modern and contemporary furnishings and more. Fetching the sale’s top price of $7,400 after 88 bids was a vintage Charles Shackleton carved black cherry queen-size sleigh bed frame, with signature hand-carved curls, slatted head and foot boards, signed on headboard “Charles Shackleton 1993.” For information, 603-675-2549 or www.wsmithauction.com.
Unique Paul Evans Studio Cabinet Holds Interest Of Circle Auction Bidders
KANSAS CITY, MO. — The top lot in Circle Auction’s February 10 Modern + Contemporary auction featuring paintings, prints, sculpture and design, was a 1972 Paul Evans Studio sculpted bronze cabinet. Just one of approximately 25 made, this Paul Evans design was a wood base cabinet with epoxy overlay and applied sculpted bronze composition. The sculpted doors opened to reveal the cabinet’s two-part interior storage with a sliding door compartment beneath a mirrored bar with glass shelving and lighting at the top. Standing at nearly 6½ feet tall, this piece of functional artwork was claimed for $35,700 ($15/25,000). For information, www.circle-auction.com or 913-403-0032.
Savannah Landscape A Highlight Of Everard’s Winter Sale
SAVANNAH, GA. — Myrtle Jones’ “Savannah City Hall,” an acrylic on canvas that depicted Factor’s Walk with City Hall in the background was the top seller in the first day of Everard Auctions & Appraisals’ Winter Southern Estates & Collections sale, February 13-14. The artist, whose works have been exhibited at Savannah’s Telfair Museum of Art, commonly featured streetscapes and the architecture of Savannah. Coming to auction from the Savannah and Charleston, S.C., estate of Jeannie Sims, it was offered with an estimate of $4/6,000 but appealed to bidders, one of which was a local Everard client who took it to $12,500. For information, 912-231-1376 or www.everard.com.
