Paul Revere’s 1768 copperplate engraving of the British troops landing at Boston, the first such image to come to auction in nearly a century, sold on the phone for a record price of $469,000 at Northeast Auctions’ March 21′2 sale. The work was hand colored by Christian Remick and published in 1770, and it descended in the Lawrence family. Four very determined bidders, acting as agents for collectors or foundations, chased the print, but the phone bidder prevailed. One of only ten (nine, actually, since one was lost in a fire) recorded in Clarence S. Brigham’s 1954 work Paul Revere’s Engravings, the engraving well exceeded even the rare Revere engravings of the Boston Massacre that have come to auction in the last few years. One brought $229,000 at Sotheby’s in January 2008 and another fetched $195,500 at Grogan and Company in September 2004. The recorded examples are all in museum collections.
Robert K. Newman of The Old Print Shop, whose brother, Harry Shaw Newman, was in the room bidding for a client, described the print as having a “great pedigree.” He pointed out that ten copies were recorded in Brigham’s book, but other impressions are known and have appeared. He said that The Old Print Shop owned one example in the 1970s and saw another in the 1980s.
The engraving is highly detailed, showing the 14 Royal Navy warships at anchor in the inner harbor with landing craft transporting 700 troops into the town where they set up camp on Boston Common and at Faneuil Hall. The aggressive landing was met with hostility and the rest is American history.
A cartouche with a palm tree on the lower right is dedicated to the Earl of Hillsborough, the English Secretary for America, although Revere was active in colonial resistance.
Another historic object was a miniature portrait of George Washington after Charles Willson Peale that sold to a collector for $106,470. The watercolor on ivory likeness was made in the late 1770s in Princeton, and the artist remains unidentified. Another portrait, an image of a gentleman by French American artist Charles Balthazar Julien Fevret de Saint-Memin, drew $11,115.
A handsome Massachusetts Queen Anne burl walnut high chest that descended in the family of Governor William Eustis Russell and Margaret Manning Swan Russell attracted $55,575.
John Singleton Copley’s portrait of Mrs Joseph Calef, nee Hannah Jordan, circa 1764, was $35,100. The elegantly gowned subject was painted beautifully, but her countenance was decidedly dour. The Calef family was a near neighbor of the Copley family in Boston and the artist is known to have painted a number of Calef family members, although no others are known.
Of a selection of property deaccessioned by the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA), a Chinese Export porcelain armorial plate in brown Fitzhugh from the service made for the Manigault family of Charleston, S.C., sold on the phone for $19,890. The plate, circa 1820, was ordered by Charles Izard Manigault on a voyage to China.
Other objects of desire from MESDA were a terracotta portrait medallion of Benjamin Franklin, which was made in Paris by Italian sculptor Jean Baptiste Nini, that sold for $4,973.
A five-piece Dutch Delft blue and white garniture bearing the marks of Johannes van Duijn, circa 1764‱777, garnered $4,095. A lot of 17 pieces of English creamware by Leeds or Wedgwood and decorated with transfer printed exotic birds by Sadler and Green of Liverpool sold for $7,020. Four American and English redware vessels from the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries attracted $4,388.
The highlight of four lots of Wallace Nutting furniture was a branded Pilgrim Century-style carved oak court cupboard that realized $15,210. The cupboard was owned at one time by a Salem antiques dealer. The same buyer paid $7,898 for a New England Pilgrim Century-style oak Sunflower chest that was carved and paneled. A William and Mary-style maple gate leg table was branded by Nutting and realized $9,360. A set of eight William and Mary-style ash and maple ladder back chairs with ball finials were each branded by Nutting and fetched $5,382.
An American William and Mary maple and pine tavern table on vigorously blocked and turned legs and stretchers sold for $5,148.
A Hudson Valley William and Mary gumwood kas from the collection of J. Jefferson Miller sold for $12,870. As he brought the kas to the block, auctioneer Ron Bourgeault related a story of Miller, whose resume included a stint as director of the Maryland Historical Society, the curator of glass and ceramics at the Smithsonian, a law degree, distinguished and decorated service in World War II, law practice and the position of assistant US attorney in Maryland. His father was less than pleased when he headed to Winterthur to study decorative arts, and referred to his son as the “dish buyer” at the Smithsonian. Miller had a very good eye and his collection was well received.
Miller’s small Massachusetts Sheraton carved mahogany sideboard with three drawers above two cupboard doors and two bottle drawers sold on the phone for $15,210. A Norfolk, Va., classical mahogany linen press with carved gothic arches elicited $2,340.
Miller gathered folk art that presented buyers with some good opportunities. A 39-inch carved figure of Eve with a basket of apples on her head drew $3,218, and a painted game board with backgammon and checkers fetched $2,457, while an 85-inch copper finial with flowers went for $2,925. Three phones chased a folk art chip carved covered box with a central shaped “X” and in black paint that one of them took for $5,733. Another chip carved and painted covered box with a similar stylized “X” sold for $2,340. Three more phones were on an early American golden ball tavern trade sign that they drove to $2,457. Bourgeault informed bidders that the ball was in the up position to indicate the approach of a coach, down if there was some time for refreshment before its arrival. Three phone bidders wanted the Pennsylvania paneled and molded child’s storage chest in blue paint and drove it to $2,223. A New York State tole black painted and decorated dome top box brought $2,340.
A J.W. Fiske full bodied copper weathervane in the form of a running deer with particularly dainty antlers was $5,265, but a full bodied copper prancing horse that was described as “probably A.L. Jewell” went for a more modest $1,053.
Speaking briefly after the sale, Bourgeault said he observed healthy and consistent bidding on smalls throughout the sale. “Not insanity, just good solid sales,” he said. Bourgeault added that buyers with a passion for good objects were successful throughout the sale. It was a good sign that a number of buyers who had not been active recently reappeared and were buying comfortably.
Squeak toys from the collection of Barbara and Frank Wendt may have been smalls, but they were charming and desirable. A lot of three painted papier maché or composition wood and leather squeak toys in the form of a black spotted spaniel with a ball, a seated pug and a brown spotted hound sold for $936. Another lot of interest was the painted and felt covered papier maché squeak toy in the form of a lioness and two cubs that brought $819. A felt covered papier maché, wood and leather rabbit with her young squeak toy, with a painted composition and cloth sitting rabbit squeak toy sold for $761.
Other delights gathered by the Wendts, whose collection accounted for some 200 lots, included a carved and polychromed model of a dapple horse-drawn sleigh with two passengers that sold on the phone for $3,276. A New England maple box with a schoolgirl theorem decoration sold for $4,095, and a New England dome top trunk with fanciful red, white and blue painted floral decoration realized $3,510.
A mid-Seventeenth Century English needlework picture of Esther being crowned by Xerxes was wrought elaborately with silk and metallic thread on canvas and embellished with chenille, wirework and seed pearls. It went for $6,435 to a phone bidder.
A Pennsylvania Chippendale miniature blanket chest with red and green paint decoration and gilt stenciled eagles brought $4,680; a six-drawer slant lid spice box in early red paint was another desirable item that drew $2,808. A personal favorite was a 9½-inch American carved scouring box with a carved pinwheel handle, an inlaid sharpening stone and covered compartments for soap and a straight razor, which was decorated with a snake. The box was incised “Nath. M. Downe 1807” and sold for $1,404.
A set of six New England step down Windsor chairs in red paint with decoration attracted $4,212, and four similar sack back Windsor armchairs, two with straight spindles and two with shaped ones, sold for $2,223. Another group of chairs from the Wendt collection comprised an assembled set of eight New England country Queen Anne side chairs that brought $4,680.
A Pennsylvania Chippendale walnut tall chest of drawers with dentil molding and fluted pilasters appeared taller than it was because of its proportions, 65½ by 38 by 22 inches, and realized $6,435.
A painted pine pewter cupboard was cataloged as New England, but Bourgeault suspected Southern origins because of the hardness of the pine. It sold for $3,803.
A North Shore Massachusetts Federal mahogany card table with bird’s-eye maple panels retained a label identifying it as the “Property of Isaac Starwood / Ipswich b 1783.” It sold for $8,190. A New England Chippendale chest of five drawers in a particularly vivid tiger maple realized $3,978, and a North Shore Massachusetts Sheraton mahogany and bird’s-eye maple chest of drawers sold for $3,276.
All prices quoted reflect the buyer’s premium. For information, www.northeastauctions.com or 603-433-8400.
