Steaming into first place at $51,200 was this Mason Bogie #15 ‘Breckenridge’ live-steam model locomotive, that had been built by Larry Vance in 2008. It measured 94 inches in overall length and stood 34 inches high.
Review by Madelia Hickman Ring; Photos Courtesy Bonhams Skinner
MARLBOROUGH, MASS. — Two auctions, one live and conducted August 13, the other online only which closed August 14, presented nearly 575 lots of Americana in its many myriad forms, from furniture, fine and folk art, to flags, nautical and Chinese export wares. Following on the heels of New Hampshire’s Antiques Week, the auctions provided ample opportunity for dealers to replenish sold inventory and collectors the chance to further expand their collections. The live auction achieved about $200,000, while the online version tallied an additional $392,000.
“Following New Hampshire Antiques Week, we saw flags perform particularly well, including a suffragette banner, a commissioning banner, a 26-star parade flag and a war stripe flag. Ebenezer Coker silver achieved a good price, and there were some good buys on furniture,” said Stephen Fletcher.
The sale’s top lot was a Mason Bogie #15 “Breckenridge” live-steam model locomotive, built in 2008 by Larry Vance of North Weymouth, Mass., which stopped at $51,200, just past it’s low estimate. Fully operational and coal-fired, the 2½-inch scale model came with a custom base, full schematics and build details and was cataloged as “exceptional.”
Even though this tiger maple tall case clock had been refinished and exhibited several replaced elements, it had been made in Boston in the third quarter of the Eighteenth Century by Gawen Brown and nearly doubled its high estimate when it sold for $20,480.
Second place in the live sale was occupied by a Boston tiger maple tall case clock, made by Gawen Brown (1719-1801) between 1762 and 1773 that earned $20,480, nearly doubling its high estimate despite having minor restoration and being refinished. The engraved brass dial featured a silvered chapter ring, seconds hand and calendar aperture and had a silvered boss engraved “Gawen Brown King’s Street Boston.” It stood 82¼ inches tall.
Another clock also featured in the sale’s top lots: an Aaron Willard (1757-1844) Federal inlaid mahogany tall case clock, made in Roxbury, Mass., in the late Eighteenth Century, that had a dial inscribed by its painter, “Willm Prescott No 2” and a label for Willard engraved by Paul Revere Jr. It fell slightly short of expectations, earning $10,240.
A sketch in red crayon on laid paper depicting a Continental officer by John Trumbull (American, 1756-1843) did slightly better, finishing at $10,800. Measuring 9¼ by 5¼ inches, the matted and framed picture had a label affixed to the reverse that read “Presented to John Tayloe by his Affec’e Mother Maria Tayloe” and possibly referred to Maria (Forrest) Tayloe Bohrer (1799-1870) of Rosedale, the Uriah Forrest House in Washington DC, and to her son, John Tayloe V (1818-73), of Culpepper, Va.
John Trumbull’s sketch of a Continental officer, red crayon on laid paper, 9 ¼ by 5 ¼ inches (sight), brought $10,800.
The decorative arts category saw strong results for two pottery pitchers. Topping off at $5,888 was an example attributed to the Jersey City Pottery Co, circa 1850, that depicted the landing of General Lafayette at Castle Garden that relates to an example illustrated in Clarence P. Hornung’s Treasury of American Design (1976). An ice water pitcher, designed by Karl L. Müller (1818-87) around 1876 for the Union Porcelain Works in Greenpoint, N.Y., was comparable to one published in Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, American Porcelain, 1770-1920 (1989). It featured a sea lion’s head, polar bear handle and went out for $2,176.
Maritime and Chinese export paintings rounded out the leaderboard in the live sale, led at $8,960 by a portrait of the Clyde Line steamship SS Apache of West Hoboken, N.J., painted in 1904 by Antonio Nicolo Gasparo Jacobsen (Danish American, 1850-1921). According to the catalog notes, the SS Apache was the first direct passenger line established between New York City and Miami, Fla. The painting had previously been offered at Skinner’s in 2010 and is included in Howard S. Sniffen’s Antonio Jacobsen – The Checklist (Newport News, 1984).
Ship paintings were in good supply, led at $8,960 by Antonio Jacobsen’s 1904 portrait of the Clyde Line steamship S.S. Apache, oil on canvas, 29 by 48 inches.
Another ship portrait, one of the sloop yacht Haswell by James Edward Buttersworth (American, 1817-1894) docked at $6,080, just beyond its low estimate.
The Barque Monsoon off Lin Tin Island was painted by Chinese artist Sunqua (active 1830-1870) around 1850 and had provenance to the collection of Henry S. Streeter and the Child’s Gallery of Boston. Painted in oil on canvas measuring 18 by 23½ inches, it featured a 24-star US flag; bidders pushed it to $7,680.
Flags were themselves the highlight of the online auction, with nearly 40 examples, in addition to several lots of political textiles. Leading the sale was a suffragette banner that had been carried by the Women’s Relief Corps, circa 1890-1920, that had provenance to York, Penn., flag expert and dealer, Jeff Bridgman.
According to the catalog, the Women’s Relief Corps was founded in 1883 in Denver, Colo. A branch of the Grand Army of the Republic, its mission was to honor all soldiers who served for the United States in any war, to teach patriotism, to oppose every tendency to weaken the Constitutional Union and to sustain the principals of representative government and impartial justice for all.
Flying highest of any lot in the online-only sale at $38,400 was this late Nineteenth or early Twentieth Century Women’s Relief Corps suffragette banner, mounted and framed 42 by 28 inches, that had provenance to Jeff Bridgman.
Flying about half as high as the suffragette banner was a rare early Nineteenth Century 20-star US Navy commissioning pennant, which flew to $17,920. It also had provenance to Bridgman, as did a small (framed 5-1/8 by 7½ inches) 36-star parade flag from the 1868 presidential campaign of Ulysses S. Grant and Schuyler Colfax, which achieved $16,640.
“I sold [the collector] almost every flag in that sale,” Jeff Bridgman confirmed. “I bought 16 of the flags back and was back-bidder on the Suffrage banner, which was the best one I had ever sold and was illustrated in the best reference on Suffrage material. I actually have another iconic Suffrage banner from that publication right now, that I had bought back independently and had been sort of excited to reunite the two, which I had acquired together years ago.”
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For additional information, 508-970-3000 or www.bonhams.com.
