A reverse serpentine mahogany four-drawer Chippendale chest with carved ball and claw feet and retaining the original surface became the top lot of the day at Fontaine’s Auction Gallery on October 18, selling to a bidder in the gallery for $34,500. The auction featured merchandise from at least six different estates, including the estate of Henry Brownell from which the chest and other prime examples of Americana had been consigned.
Michael West Jr, Henry Brownell’s protégé, described the Falls River, Mass., antiques dealer who died last winter as, “The Last of the Mohicans, the last of the old-time pickers.” Brownell often kept back the best of what he discovered for himself. His collection of some 200 pieces, including many early, untouched and completely fresh-to-the-market items, formed the first session of the two-part sale. The auction exceeded expectations, according to auctioneer John Fontaine, with the approximately 500 lots sold going more than 30 percent over estimate, and realizing more than $1 million.
Another of the prime Americana lots that was hotly contested was a Queen Anne tap table in red paint. It started slowly at $1,000, but surged past its presale estimate to end at $23,000, selling to a buyer in the gallery.
Other furniture highlights included an Eighteenth Century banister back stenciled arm chair that caught the eye of Brock Jobe of Winterthur in Delaware. It went at $20,700 to an in-house bidder. A lovely Queen Anne maple two-part Eighteenth Century highboy, with a shaped apron, sold for $6,900; and an early six-drawer Chippendale Rhode Island chest, with graduated drawers, brought $9,200 from the gallery.
“We had about 150 registered bidders for the first session,” Fontaine said, “and while some left after the first part, others arrived, so there were about 200 for the afternoon session.” With 749 approved online bidders and 224 registered phone bidders, the action was fast-paced and items of interest oftentimes surged well over estimated highs.
Several clocks from the Brownell collection did well, and one was “a great buy,” according to Fontaine. The first clock offered was a satinwood inlaid Hepplewhite tall case with fluted quarter columns that slowly worked its way up to $14,375, selling slightly below estimate. However, everyone interested in clocks seemed to be ready when a Roxbury-style tall case clock with inlaid fans was offered a few lots later. Starting at $3,000, Fontaine had bids all over the house, finally ending at $9,200; a smaller, Silas Hoadley clock with a pierced balcony fretwork and aN ogee bracket base realized $6,900.
One clock dealer said he was looking at a Walter Durfee weight-driven banjo clock that he admired. “I am here for it, but it will probably go too high.” Estimated at $1,2/1,500, the clock struck at $6,325.
Fontaine was not sure how the 14 paintings by Robert Spear Dunning (1829‱905) would fare. Dunning was the founder of the Fall River School of still-life painting, and clearly a favorite of Brownell, along with other artists from the Fall River, Mass., area and the same period.
Any concerns that Fontaine had were put to rest when the first Dunning, a small oil on board of two men in a boat fishing, went to a phone bidder for $2,588, almost twice its high estimate. Subsequent paintings did equally well: an Abbey Zoule (Dunning’s friend and member of the Fall River School) tripled its high estimate, going for $1,150; Dunning’s “Winter” had a $800․1,200 estimate, but went to a floor bidder, after some fierce back and forth with the telephone, for $5,175. A Charles Henry Gifford (1839‱904) signed oil on canvas of a lobsterman pulling his pots in a stormy ocean realized $10,350 ($1,5/2,500) to a phone bidder, who won several paintings.
During preview, prospective buyers were closely inspecting the guns on offer. As a group, they sold well above estimates, with some examples that were quite rare, according to one dealer who was hoping to take several home. A Civil War rifle with a walnut stock was marked “Tower London Armoury Company” and “Tower” on the lock plate; it had a $500/700 presale estimate. With fierce competition from left, phone and in-house bidders, it shot to $11,500. It was followed immediately by a T. Ketland & Company notch box rifle, etched W. Mathenson, which sold at $12,650; just two lots later, the top rifle lot sold for almost five times its high estimate: a Frank Wesson rifle with a long scope realized $26,450.
Brownell was an eclectic collector whose collection mirrored his myriad loves. There were several cast iron banks, most in good working condition, that brought several buyers to the sale. A Punch & Judy cast iron mechanical bank, with Punch wielding a baton and Judy a coal shovel to catch the coin, was in good working condition; the few areas of worn paint did not deter bidders, who pushed it up to $1,495.
Session II comprised objects from many estates from the area, as well as Arizona, Ohio and New York State. It started off briskly, with a nine-piece figural carved walnut parlor set with standing putti, figural maidens and classical scenes going out at $24,150.
Two swords more than doubled their high estimates when a German E&P Horster Solingen sword decorated with swastikas brought $1,250; the same price was paid for an historic Schuyler Hartley & Graham brass Civil War sword.
Tiffany lamps are always highly sought-after, and Fontaine was showing a grouping that included many rarities. A 20-inch Tiffany Studios Acorn border table lamp realized $21,275; a 16-inch shade only, also in the Acorn pattern, went to $5,463; a Tiffany bronze floor lamp with an overlaid shade, standing 52 inches high, sold within estimate at $6,038; a Tiffany Studios Pomegranate table lamp with signed shade and base, 24 inches tall, garnered $12,075; and a Tiffany Studios colonial geometric table tamp brought $7,475.
But the brightest Tiffany lamp was one that Fontaine held up to the light and said, “I have never seen a better color, just look at that!” Selling well over estimate, the Tiffany Studios mottled Greek key dichroic border table lamp went for $25,300.
“The Tiffany was just great,” Fontaine said after the sale, “but there was also a Handel reverse painted autumn scene table lamp [#6549], that sold for $7,475.”
Decorative art pieces garnered great interest: A Walter pate de verre yellow and brown vase with a beetle on one side went for $5,750; a pair of Barbola mirrors from the Brownell collection were in need of restoration, but Fontaine said they were his favorite pieces in the sale. The pair had their original rouge marble in a gilt frame with a floral basket on the crest over a framed scenic oil painting and sold for $8,050.
While most of the art offered was from the Brownell collection, an oil on canvas by Adolf Schreyer (German, 1828‱899), “The Startled Team,” consigned from another private collection sold well at $21,275.
As Fontaine said after the sale, “With the market turmoil, some don’t know what to buy or where to put their money. But with antiques, if it’s good quality, it brings good money, and that’s what this sale had.”
All prices given include the buyer’s premium.
Fontaine’s Auction Gallery is at 1485 West Housatonic Street. For information, www.fontainesauction.com or 413-448-8922.
