PROVINCETOWN, MASS. — James R. Bakker Antiques tied, broke and set more than 18 new auction price records for Provincetown artists at the firm’s fine arts auction on November 28. Featured was property from the estates of Mark Finnen, Joyce Johnson, Dr Daniel R. Lovette, Marcia Meigs, Rhoda Rossmore and the collection of Al Kaufman and Sue Wilmot. Record setting artists included Emily Farnham at $3,120,exceeding its $400/600 estimate, Sal Del Deo at $2,520 and Steve Toomey at $5,700 against a $1,6/2,000 estimate.
Ross Moffett, “Fishing Boats, Wellfleet,”
was the top lot, selling for $14,400.
Highest price of the auction was Ross Moffett’s oil landscape of “Fishing Boats, Wellfleet” from the Kaufman/Wilmot collection at $14,400. Other highlights included Charles W. Hawthorne’s oil still life inscribed to his friend and fellow artist George Sotter at $6,000, a rare 1933 Provincetown watercolor of houses by Henry Hensche at $3,480 and Karl Knaths’s 1939 Cape Cod oil landscape, formerly in Duncan Phillips’ personal collection, fetching $5,700. The Whorf generation of artists was well represented with a watercolor of “Backyard Laundry, Tenement-NYC” by John Whorf bringing $2,280, “Going to Bryant’s Again” oil by his daughter Nancy Whorf at $6,600 and “Captain Jack’s Wharf” oil by her daughter Julia Kelly bringing an auction record for the artist at $960.
Other significant offerings from the Provincetown Art Colony included a monumental oil by George Elmer Browne at $1,680, Tod Lindenmuth’s “The Fog Bound Harbor” at $2,280, an early Philip Malicoat oil at $3,900, Bruce McKain’s winter landscape at $2,520, a Vollian Rann watercolor at $1,320, a seascape by Frederick Waugh at $2,160 and a George Yater watercolor of Ballston Beach at $3,600.
Nancy Whorf, “Going to Bryant’s Again” garnered $6,600.
American works on paper also faring well included a male figure drawing by Edwin Dickinson dated 1911 at $1,320 and a charcoal heightened in white view of the NY & Penn Paper Company, Lock Haven, Penn., by John Sloan from the collection of Dr Daniel R. Lovette selling for $1,800. Four black and white woodcuts by Wharton Esherick ranged from $600 to $1,020. Claire Leighton’s “Clam Diggers-Cape Cod” wood engraving sold well above its $300/500 estimate for $1,020. A Gustav Stickley mirror from the estate of Mark Finnen rounded out the sale selling at $1,560.
Bakker Auctions said it was pleased with the number of online bidders. Prices reported include the buyer’s premium
The next auction will be conducted on Sunday, April 17. For additional information, www.bakkerproject.com or 508-413-9758.
