South Shore, Mass., estates and collections attracted a standing-room-only crowd to the Willis Henry Auctions on February 7 where bidding was brisk and steady. A number of the historic objects across the block had presidential provenance and drew wide interest.
Marine paintings by New Bedford artist Charles Henry Gifford achieved some near record prices. His 1876 seascape that was inscribed indistinctly “&⁇rand Manan,” opened at $14,000, and sold to a New Jersey dealer on the phone for $65,520. The oil on canvas came from a New Bedford collection. The 1878 “Great Flat Rock, Marblehead Neck, Mass.,” elicited $5,265, and an oil on panel scene of a shipwreck in rough seas drew $3,803 from the same bidder.
A Nineteenth Century portrait of a girl in a white dress holding a cat was as sweet as it could be. It was found behind some screens in a barn on Boston’s south shore and, despite some damage, reeled in $12,870. The painting bore a label indicating that the canvas had been prepared by Hollis and Wheeler in Boston, suggesting a Boston origin.
A portrait of a lady wearing jewelry and a lace bertha and holding a red leather book was found in the same barn, but with knife slits. It realized $1,304.
The ship’s watercolor portrait, “The Bourne of Boston Entering the Port of Palermo, July the 6, 1828″ sold for $4,095, while an oil on canvas portrait of the ship Lizzie M. Merrill of Richmond, Maine, signed C. Olsen was $3,061.
A Civil War presentation sword given April 1864 to Major General Nathaniel Prentice Banks by his friends at the Metropolitan Fair, US Sanitary Commission, brought an impressive $53,820. Banks was a political general from Massachusetts who also served as speaker of the US House of Representatives. He succeeded the infamous political general Benjamin Franklin Butler at New Orleans. He presided over his own infamous debacle at Red River.
The sword descended in a Hanover, Mass., family whose children had once played with it. An 1861 Civil War commission signed by Abraham Lincoln appointing Banks to major general realized $8,795.
A turned wood presentation goblet with a silver liner engraved “Charles Thatcher to N.P. Banks” sold for $3,510, and a Civil War map inscribed “Military Department of the Gulf, Prepared by Order of Major General N.P. Banks †Major D.C. Houston, 1864” attracted $2,457.
A signed photograph of President Harry Truman and his cabinet garnered $1,521.
Historic documents from a Marshfield family included a mathematical equation signed by Albert Einstein that sold for $4,680. A signed typed letter from Einstein dated January 24, 1939, sold for $2,457. A map of Virginia by Gerard Mercator engraved by Henricus Hondius, circa 1630‴0, was a very good buy when it sold for $995. The map was based on the discoveries of the area illustrated in Captain John Smith’s map of 1612.
Other historic documents included a lot of slave documents that comprised eight receipts of Richmond, Va., “Auctioneers” and “Negro Brokers” of February 28, 1861, that sold for $3,042 and another lot comprising six receipts for slaves that sold for $1,170. The documents were found in Florida.
The sale proceeded smoothly until late in the day when a fire alarm sounded, requiring all present to evacuate the Holiday Inn where the sale was being conducted. When the fire department gave the all clear, everyone filed back into the room and the auction resumed.
Three Nineteenth Century leather fire buckets from a nearby Quincy, Mass., collection included a black and red example with the name “Jon A March / Quincy. No. 2” and stamped “N. While;” another labeled “Wilson Marsh, Quincy. No. 1,” and a third labeled “Lem Brackett, Quincy. No. 1” sold for $1,170. A ledger of polls and valuations for the Town of Quincy (Massachusetts) for the years 1792 through 1821 with entries for President John Adams and other Adams family members sold for $702. It came from the same collection.
Two collectors on the phones duked it out over a Mason premium grade goose decoy, circa 1910, that came from the Marshfield, Mass., estate of a hunter and drove its final price to $10,530 from a New York caller. A Joseph Lincoln black duck decoy from the same estate fetched $1,287. A pair of carved wood mallard decoys, a drake and a hen, sold for $891.
A Nineteenth Century English double barrel percussion shotgun by W.W. Greener of London went for $936.
A Nineteenth Century toy bedroom set with a four-poster bed, a washstand, a drying rack and a chest, retaining the label “Manufactured by Samuel Hersey, Hersey Street, Hingham, Mass.,” and inscribed in pencil, “Presented to Bessie by sister Carrie, May 1969” sold for $4,914.
Two Nineteenth Century firkins, one of which was signed by Cotton Hersey of Hingham and the other was stamped “CH” on the lid, went to the same bidder for $585.
Three small (diameter 2¾ inches, 2¼ inches and 1¾ inches) pantry boxes in strong hues of red, blue and yellow, respectively, sold for $1,755. An early Nineteenth Century pantry box signed “G.M. Cognantt” went for $1,404.
An Eighteenth Century Pennsylvania walnut and cherry tavern table in red paint and with a single drawer and a two-board poplar top sold for $4,095. An Eighteenth Century Pennsylvania blanket chest with three drawers and original blue paint was signed in chalk, “Jacob Wein, October 26, 1801” and sold for $2,603. An early Nineteenth Century Pennsylvania blanket chest with the original grain paint decoration appeared to have been dated 1808 and it realized $1,063.
An Eighteenth Century New England hutch table with early red paint was beautifully made and brought $2,925. A New England pine tavern table with a bread board top and a single drawer attracted $1,638. An Eighteenth Century New England Queen Anne tavern table in pine and maple brought $616.
An Eighteenth Century New England William and Mary blanket chest with two drawers realized $1,989.
An early Nineteenth Century New England mahogany tambour desk with inlay attracted $4,971, and a Nineteenth Century Boston Hepplewhite mahogany card table with the original finish sold to an absentee buyer for $1,521. Two Nineteenth Century New England mahogany and mahogany veneer bowfront chests were offered as one lot and realized $702.
An early Nineteenth Century dovetailed hanging cupboard in the original blue paint was 28 inches tall and 7 inches wide and sold for $1,638, while another example in a washed green paint with a single plank door and two interior shelves and a drawer fetched $527. A hanging walnut spice chest with nine drawers sold for $176.
A Nineteenth Century pine step back cupboard in red paint, with two doors over two doors, sold for $1,404.
A pair of Eighteenth Century iron gooseneck andirons with hangers to support a spit and five hooks with skewers was $819.
An Eighteenth Century New England wrought iron candleholder with three hinged arms sold for $1,521, and an Eighteenth Century wrought iron rush light was $293 to an absentee bidder.
A French Restauration chest of drawers made in Paris, circa 1825, had a gray marble top and went to an absentee bidder for $3,510.
A Nineteenth Century Federal mirror with the label from Cermenati and Bernarda of Boston was decorated with two classical female figures and floral garlands; it sold for $1,053.
A Nineteenth Century New England sampler wrought by 12-year-old Mary Brigham of East Sudbury, Mass., and dated September 26, 1828, sold for $2,106, and a Quaker sampler documenting the family of Asa and Mary Walton of Lancaster County, Penn., brought $1,287.
A mid-Nineteenth Century New York redware covered jar signed on the lid by Alvin Wilcox of West Bloomfield fetched $702.
A Nineteenth Century mahogany wig box with an interior drawer for powder, brushes and a comb sold for $468.
A couple of Twentieth Century pieces were of interest: a Rookwood vase in an iris glaze with a white poppy decoration by Constance Baker sold for $2,340. An early Twentieth Century pair of Gustav Stickley brass and hammered copper wall sconces, each of which bore the Stickley logo, Als Ik Kan, realized $1,751.
All prices quoted reflect the 17 percent buyer’s premium. For information, 781-834-7774 or www.willishenry.com .
