The Moldaw’s collection of Royal Copenhagen porcelain Flora Danica was divided into 25 lots, led at $18,750 by this assembled set of 11 soup bowls with date codes for 1956-65; the lot was acquired by a Beverly Hills private collector ($2,5/3,500).

Review by Madelia Hickman Ring; Photos Courtesy Andrew Jones Auctions

LOS ANGELES — On Sunday, June 18, Andrew Jones Auctions offered 315 lots of fine and decorative arts from the Atherton, Calif., collection of Ross Stores’ founders Stuart and Phyllis Moldaw. No lot failed to sell, and results exceeded expectations by making 170 percent of the presale estimate, a total of more than $720,000.

“The Moldaws were very esteemed long-term collectors whose collection was wonderfully strong and comprehensive,” noted Aileen Ward, vice president and senior specialist for Andrew Jones. “They lived in a really traditional style that was well rounded. The great thing about these kinds of sales is collectors can look at them and set an entire table or redesign a room.” She observed that the trend towards auction buying that happened during the pandemic has not waned significantly. “People got used to the fact they could ‘have it now;’ with the shift has stayed and now they have options; they can come to an auction and love something just as much.”

Redoing a tablescape was on the mind of at least one buyer — a Beverly Hills, Calif., collector — who purchased both of the top two lots in the sale, the first being a modern 89-piece Puiforcat first standard silver flatware service for 12, in the Royal pattern, and an assembled set of 11 modern Royal Copenhagen porcelain Flora Danica soup bowls. Both lots earned the sale’s top price of $18,750.

Sharing the sale’s top price of $18,750 was this 89-piece Puiforcat first standard silver Royal pattern flatware service for 12. A private collector in Beverly Hills won the service ($8/12,000).

A Palm Beach, Fla., buyer splashed out $12,500 for a 34-piece French silver gilt and mother-of-pearl breakfast service, made by the Parisian firm of Henin & Cie., Paris, in the Grand Cru pattern in the early Twentieth Century that Ward said was “just beautiful; pretty, delicate and in really nice condition.”
A different collector, from Northern California, paid $16,250 for a set of 14 Régence provincial-style walnut dining chairs that dated to the second half of the Twentieth Century. A Louis XVI brass mounted walnut extension dining table from the late Eighteenth Century that had four leaves and extended to 134 inches in length earned $9,375, nearly twice its high estimate.

Andrew Jones works with independent Asian art expert Daniel Herskee, who is based in Northern California and who advised the house on the Moldaw’s collection of Asian art, which was extensive. According to Ward, the sale “attracted a vast contingent of Chinese works of art buyers the world over, including from mainland China and Hong Kong.”

A domestic Chinese works of art collector paid $8,750 for this pair of Chinese Export famille rose porcelain fishbowls on hardwood stands ($3/5,000).

Topping the Asian art category was a six-piece group of Chinese famille rose porcelain articles that sold to a buyer in Northern California, for $13,750, nearly 20 times the lot’s high estimate. The showpiece of the Moldaw’s dining room was a Chinese gilt and black coromandel lacquer eight-panel screen that stood 81¼ inches tall; it sold to a trade buyer in New York City for $11,875. A more restrained palette could be seen in a group of six Chinese blanc de Chine cylindrical pots and two dishes that brought $10,625 against an estimate of $1/1,500.

Other notable results include the sale’s first lot, a ready made collection of seven Buccellati sterling silver-clad shells and a shell-form footed dish that a decorator snapped up for $11,875. The Moldaw’s 1980 Steinway & Sons ebonized upright grand piano went for a song at $6,250, an early Twentieth Century Heriz carpet, approximately 6 by 5 feet, achieved $6,000, and an Italian Rococo blue painted and polychrome decorated commode from the second half of the Eighteenth Century more than tripled its high estimate to close at $6,250.

Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house.
Andrew Jones Auctions’ next sale is a DTLA auction July 19.
For more information, 213-748-8008 or www.andrewjonesauctions.com.