Fitting just right for the sale-high price of $34,650 was this emerald-cut diamond and platinum ring which weighed a total of 4.14 carats ($20/40,000).

Review by Kiersten Busch

WILLISTON, VT. — Just under 500 lots from various Vermont and New York State estates made up Merrill’s Auctioneers and Appraisers’ Americana Estate Auction, conducted on July 11. With only 27 lots not finding new homes, the sale had a 95 percent sell-through rate.

Earning the sale-high price of $34,650 was an emerald-cut diamond and platinum ring. Totaling 4.14 carats, the ring had a center emerald cut diamond that was flanked by two baguette-cut diamonds. Ten additional rings found homes on new fingers, with highlights that included a midcentury 18K gold, platinum, emerald and diamond cocktail ring which shone for $2,898 and a 3-carat platinum and baguette-cut diamond eternity band that was everlasting for $2,268.

Bracelets also attracted bidder attention, with a 12-carat Art Deco diamond, emerald and platinum bracelet earning the third-highest price of the sale. It had a center marquise-cut diamond weighing 1.2 carats, accented by 192 European round-cut diamonds of varying sizes, 61 baguette-cut emeralds and an additional 12 diamonds with tapered ends. Despite a few missing baguette-cut emeralds surrounding the central diamond, the bracelet earned a flashy $15,120.

Securing a sparkly $15,120, this Art Deco platinum, emerald and diamond bracelet, approximately 12 carats, centered a 1.2-carat marquise-cut diamond ($20/40,000).

The remaining 13 bracelets ranged in price from $158 for a Taxco, Mexico, silver bangle, to $5,355 for an 18K gold and diamond modern bracelet and 14K gold earrings, sold together. The latter were made circa 1960 and had a three-leaf design. Another matching set sold together, this example a midcentury Italian 14K gold choker necklace and bracelet made circa 1960, which also performed well at $5,355.

Moving from fine jewelry to fine art, five paintings by American artist A. Hale Johnson were offered, led by “A Boat House,” an oil on canvas signed to the lower left, which built up past its $4/5,000 estimate to earn $8,190. Johnson, according to catalog notes, was “an established oil landscapist for over four decades” who practiced in the American Realist tradition. “Concerned primarily with the history of the land, Hale’s compositions often feature weather beaten barns, boats and well-used farm equipment.” This stayed true with the other four paintings offered in the sale, including “Boat In Dry Dock” ($3,150), “Leaning Boat” ($1,890), “Abandoned Dory” ($1,260) and “Rocky Dune” ($1,260).

Two other oil paintings performed well: “Somewhere near Underhill Vt” by Thomas Curtin, which was bid to $5,040, and “Apples” by Malaysian artist Kim Hai Lim, which earned a juicy $4,725.

This oil on canvas in a birdseye frame, 26 by 30 inches, was made by Thomas Curtin (American, 1899-1977) and titled “Somewhere near Underhill Vt”; it was bid just past the high end of its estimate at $5,040 ($3/5,000).

Five desks were offered during the sale, with only one — a Nineteenth Century pine country butler’s secretary — not finding a new home. Prices ranged from $50 for a Nineteenth Century Aesthetic Movement desk, to $3,150 for an Eighteenth Century Massachusetts Queen Anne two-part child’s desk on a frame. The latter was made of pine and had a later finish. Cataloged as “unusual and striking” because of its Victorian vernacular style, a circa 1870 Northern Vermont or Quebec desk, crafted from figured maple, stood tall at $1,890; it had French bandy legs, drape marquetry decoration, dentil molding and pigeonholes. A Nineteenth Century Hepplewhite maple slant-front desk also went home for $189.

One lucky bidder was able to secure a circa 1820 dwarf tall case clock made by Quaker clockmaker John Bailey, Jr, of Hanover, Mass. Marked “J Bailey Jr.” on the reverse of its face, the clock appeared to have “a banjo clock set of works” and had no pendulum or weight. Called a dwarf clock because of their smaller height than something like a grandfather clock, this example stood as tall as it could at 46½ inches and earned a hefty $20,160; the second highest price of the sale, which was more than 10 times the high end of its $1/2,000 estimate. Only one other clock was offered in the sale: a circa 1830-34 split-column shelf clock with an eight-day brass movement done by Edward M. Barnes (1804-1871) of Chimney Point, Vt., which ticked to $158.

Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, 802-878-2625 or www.merrillsauction.com.