As we cast our eye over this week’s Across The Block, the circular form jumped out at us. Incorporating the shape was a nearly $80,000 Musgo double-sided porcelain sign, a $1,920 Etruscan-style brooch and a $4,160 discus-form trophy plaque. Add to that a miniature tilt-top table with circular top that bested its estimate to bring $1,375, and a medallion centered in a $6,480 Oriental rug, this week’s top lots had bidders going ‘round and around.
Miniature Table Tips Its Estimate At Roberson’s
PINE BUSH, N.Y. — Roberson’s Auctions conducted a Multi Estates Auction on June 21, featuring more than 400 lots in categories such as jewelry, silver, sporting, art, furnishings, holiday collectibles, toys and more. Though it wasn’t the sale’s highest price, one of the most notable results of the auction was a salesman sample miniature tilt-top table, which brought $1,375, far exceeding its $300/500 estimate. This example, which measured 14 inches high when tilted and 9½ inches high as a table with a 7¾-inch tabletop diameter, was only the second Roberson’s has ever sold. For information, www.robersonsauctions.com, 845-283-1587 or 845-283-1578.
Oriental Carpet Rolls Up Competition At Copake
COPAKE, N.Y. — Copake Auction’s July 12 Estate Auction featured just shy of 1,000 lots of fine art, posters, photography, ephemera, accessories, lighting, ceramics and stoneware, primitives, rugs, quilts and textiles and Eighteenth Century through modern furniture. A room-sized (10 by 13 feet) silk Oriental rug led the day, unrolling for $6,480, more than 16 times the high end of its $300/400 estimate. For information, 518-641-1935 or www.copakeauction.com.
Gauguin Zincograph Fueled Summer Fun At Associated Estate
CRANSTON, R.I. — Associated Estate & Appraisal Company was celebrating summer with its Early Summer Fine Art & Furnishings sale, which featured Japanese woodblock prints, watercolors, paintings, works on paper, lithographs and etchings, rare books and maps, a collection of antique and vintage rugs, decorative arts and more. Leading the 182 lots on offer was Paul Gauguin’s (French, 1848-1903) “Pastorales Martinique,” an 1889 zincograph in black on chrome yellow wove paper from his “10 Zincographies” series. Signed and titled lower left, the 7¼-by-8¾-inch work was housed in a 21½-by-27¾-inch frame and realized $7,500. For information, 401-781-1181 or www.associatedestate.com.
Hemingway Sheds Jacket For Highest Price At CT River Book
GLASTONBURY, CONN. — “The threat of thunderstorms did not dissuade a strong crowd of book enthusiasts from attending the Friday, July 11 Connecticut River Book Auction,” reported president Tom Gullotta. “Despite active interest in house for the first edition of Ernest Hemingway’s In Our Time, published in 1925 by Boni & Liveright of New York, a copy without the dustjacket of his first published book sold for $734 to an absentee bidder.” For information, www.ctriverbookauction.com or 860-908-8067.
Morphy Bidders Go For Musgo
DENVER, PENN. —In Morphy Auctions’ 1,226-lot Automobilia, Petroliana, & Railroadiana auction on July 16-17, a round Musgo Gasoline “Michigan’s Mile Maker” double-sided porcelain sign with the image of a Native American chief became the highest-achieving lot of the day. This piece, issued circa 1920s by the Muskegon Oil Company, was cataloged as “exceptionally rare and sought-after, the Holy Grail of gasoline advertising.” Measuring 48 inches in diameter, it filled up the tank for $79,950 ($50/80,000). For information, www.morphyauctions.com or 877-968-8880.
Etruscan-Style Brooch Revives Thomaston Bidders
THOMASTON, MAINE — Thomaston Place Auctions’ July 11 Antique, Vintage, & Designer Jewelry auction featured 362 lots from rare, antique finds to modern designer pieces. The top lot was a circular gold Etruscan Revival brooch from the Nineteenth Century Roman workshop of Castellani. The 7/8-inch diameter piece had a central floral rosette bordered by rope-twist and applied beadwork details. A similar example from Castellani, circa 1860, is at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. An in-person bidder had the winning paddle, taking the brooch home for $1,920 — far exceeding its $450/500 estimate. For information, www.thomastonauction.com or 207-354-8141.
Red Sox Ruth Card Hits Heritage Home Run
DALLAS — A rare Babe Ruth card from his early years as a Boston Red Sox pitcher sold for $244,000 to lead Heritage’s July 11-12 Summer Sports Card Catalog Auction. Nearly two dozen bids poured in for the 1917 E135 Collins-McCarthy Babe Ruth #147 SGC EX 5 before it reached its final result. It was the highest-earning result in the $9.5 million sale. For information, www.ha.com or 214-528-3500.
Alfa Romeo Trophy Drives To A Litchfield Lead
LITCHFIELD, CONN. — A machined and pieced steel discus-form plaque, one of 130 made by Lucio Fontana (1899-1969) and which was engraved “Alfa Romeo Milano a Carlo Scarambone per le vittorie sportive 1964,” won first place in Litchfield Auctions’ July 16 sale. Consigned to auction from a European motorsport art collector and estimated at $3/5,000, it found a new home for $4,160. For information, 860-567-4661 or www.litchfieldcountyauctions.com.
New England Auctions Sends Eagle Flag Holder Soaring
BRANFORD, CONN. — A molded copper figural eagle with flag holder, dated to the last quarter of the Nineteenth Century, was the top lot in New England Auctions’ 376-lot July Americana and Shaker sale on July 16. Its 63-inch wingspan justified the description “monumental,” and it flew to $37,500, well ahead of its $6/8,000 estimate. For information, www.newenglandauctions.com or 475-234-5120.
