Brown furniture is alive and well in some quarters †auction houses and dealers are selling and buyers are buying. For their April 25 CRN Auction, Carl R. Nordblom and Karin J. Phillips put together an event in which it was furniture that dominated the action.
An English piece was the top lot: a large, 73 inches wide, English Regency satinwood desk with a flat tooled green leather top attracted vigorous phone bidding and sold for $41,400. Auctioneer Nordblom informed his bidding audience that the desk had sold at Sotheby’s in the late 1980s when it had realized $28,000. It came from a Rhode Island house.
Another star was American: a diminutive New York Chippendale mahogany card table with turret corners, gadroon carving and a hidden drawer that sold for $14,950. It went to a phone bidder, underbid by Jonathan Trace in the gallery.
Also from a Rhode Island home and possibly a Portsmouth or North Shore Massachusetts piece, a New England Hepplewhite mahogany bowfront chest with 12 panels with satinwood inlay sold for $7,475. A Portsmouth Sheraton mahogany and satinwood four-drawer chest with turret corners and a scalloped skirt brought $3,335.
Several other pieces of American furniture caught bidders’ eyes: an Eighteenth Century Massachusetts Chippendale mahogany oxbow chest had a molded and shaped top and fetched $4,600; a New England Federal mahogany serpentine chest with inlaid banding had been discovered in a used furniture shop in Nome, Alaska, and it brought $4,140; an Eighteenth Century Connecticut Chippendale cherry two-part secretary bookcase elicited $6,613 from a very active area dealer; and a pair of Eighteenth Century Newport Chippendale mahogany side chairs with stop fluted legs and a serpentine crest carved with centered cross hatching had been refinished and brought $5,750.
Two nearly identical Eighteenth Century Connecticut Chippendale cherry four-drawer chests appeared to have been created by the same maker and came from the same house. One brought $2,300 and the other $1,495.
An Eighteenth Century Queen Anne mahogany wing chair on cabriole legs with block and turned stretchers fetched $3,163; a handsome Boston classical mahogany dining table with a split base that allowed the table to extend to more than 10 feet in length went to a bidder in the gallery for $4,715.
A diminutive New York classical carved and stenciled stand with a white marble top, a turned post with extensive stencil decoration and deeply carved hairy paws fetched $5,225.
Phone bidders were active, and one paid $5,175 for a sweet Eighteenth Century New England serving table with sponge decoration and carved and painted feathers along the shaped top and apron. It was thought to have been made in coastal Maine; fresh to the market, it went to the Vermont trade.
A Connecticut River valley cherry snake foot candlestand with fan inlay and a candle drawer reaped $3,738, while an Eighteenth Century Connecticut River valley cherry tilt top candlestand with a distinct serpentine top was $2,990.
Massachusetts furniture, most early, included a Sheraton mahogany worktable with satinwood checkerboard inlay, which drew $3,220. A 91-inch Massachusetts Federal mahogany tall clock with eight-day works and a Roxbury case fetched $12,950. It was by New Bedford maker Stephen Taber and came from a South Shore Boston home. An Eighteenth Century New York or New Jersey mahogany tall clock with inlay and painted spandrels was $3,220.
A fine early Nineteenth Century Federal gilt convex mirror carved with a dolphin amid stylized bulrush brought $7,188 from an area collector, while a late Eighteenth or early Nineteenth Century Bilboa mirror with a pink marble frame and columns with a fancy gilt crest went to an absentee bidder for $6,038.
From across the pond, an English mahogany revolving drum table with the original green leather top, four working drawers and four false drawers sold on the phone for $3,565. An English Regency mahogany sofa table with games boards and rosewood cross banded inlay realized $4,600; an English Regency burl walnut three-tier étagère with inlay had a pierced brass gallery and was signed Gillow & Co. It brought $3,745.
Bringing $2,645, a set of eight English George III mahogany dining chairs, including two armchairs, had carved serpentine crests above pierced splats. A massive Nineteenth Century Italian Renaissance-style walnut bed with elaborate carving went for $4,888. The bed was 79 inches high, 63 inches wide and 85½ inches deep.
Miscellaneous accessories included a Nineteenth Century 12-inch terrestrial table globe signed Gilman Joslin, Boston, which sold on the phone for $2,645. A large Nineteenth Century gilded copper full bodied running horse weathervane brought $4,888.
Folk pieces included a Nineteenth Century carved and polychromed tobacco figure of a black man in a red and white tunic smoking a pipe that realized $2,415 and a Wilhelm Schimmel carved and painted poodle that was a very good buy for the phone bidder who took it for $1,150. A pair of carved walnut American eagles attracted great admiration and sold for $8,575.
Two carvings by Twentieth Century Vermont artist Clark Voorhees crossed the block. An 18-inch northern bottlenose dolphin brought $2,645 and an 18½-inch humpback whale was $2,415.
Two silver services across the block were of interest. A six-piece S. Kirk repousse sterling coffee and tea service with overall floral chased decoration and ram’s-head handles brought $8,913, and a seven-piece Tiffany tea and coffee service brought $6,900. The Tiffany service was accompanied by a 1916 receipt from Tiffany & Co., New York.
While furniture and accessories outshone paintings, prints and drawings, some solid sales occurred in those categories. A Grant Wood pencil drawing of a woman came from a Pennsylvania collection and sold on the phone for $6,038. The portrait had been authenticated by Wood expert James M. Dennis. A portrait of a girl in a bathing suit by Edward Henry Potthast was $6,038 from the same bidder.
“Boats on a Newburyport Inlet,” an 1898 oil on canvas view by Frank Henry Shapleigh, was $5,750 from an absentee bidder.
An exotic Nineteenth Century French school portrait of a seated man with a vividly hued parrot was unsigned, but bore a red wax seal with the image of a serpent wrapped around a tree. It sold for $5,463.
“Battle of the Nile, The Explosion of the French Ship L’Orient at Aboukir Bay, 1798,” an 1864 oil on canvas scene of ships ranged in formation by English artist John Tudgay, sold for $4,888.
Three New York City snowy street scenes by Johann Berthelsen included a 12-by-9 -inch oil on canvas board that brought $5,750. An oil on board view of the Empire State Building that was 8 by 6 inches realized $3,163, and another city scene also fetched $3,163.
An interior scene of two women examining jewels by Helen M. Turner brought $6,325, while a scene of two elderly women reading and sewing by Lewis Henry Charles Moeller brought $4,888.
A primitive portrait of the schooner Ariel with figures on the deck brought $3,450. A Lebanon County, Penn., fraktur dated May 20, 1829, for Elizabeth Beringer was decorated with an angel above a centered heart. It realized $3,680.
All prices quoted reflect the 15 percent buyer’s premium. For information, www.crnauctions.com or 617-661-9582.
