An imperial Chinese box carved with five clawed dragons attracted the attention of the Chinese trade, which pushed it to $26,450 at Kaminski Auctions’ annual Thanksgiving weekend sale, November 28′9, that attracted a good crowd on both days.
A 1969 oil on canvas rain forest abstract of deer by Sri Lanka artist Senaka Senanayake brought $13,800. Senanayake was a child prodigy, having had his first exhibit a week after his eighth birthday in 1959, and his work is highly desirable.
Measuring 55½ by 18½ inches, a Nineteenth Century woven tapestry panel with Arabic design elements brought $8,625.
A Nineteenth Century gilt bronze sleigh-form vessel with marble sides decorated with a putto and a mythical beast brought $5,750, while the real thing, a Nineteenth Century sleigh by H.M. Wilder of Keene, N.H., had been restored meticulously and sold for $690.
Towle sterling silver flatware in the El Grandee pattern, a set of 152 pieces, realized $5,290 from a phone bidder, and an International sterling flatware service for nine in the Royal Danish pattern fetched $1,610.
A French mahogany serving trolley with a silver plated dome by Christofle that came from the late and lamented Ritz Carlton Hotel in Boston (the original one) sold for $5,175. Another buyer in the room paid $4,888 for a silver plate and mahogany dessert trolley, also from the Boston Ritz. A mahogany and silver plate dessert trolley with revolving shelves used here sold online for $2,875.
“The Crabbers, Fire Island,” a 1959 polymer tempera on Masonite by Virginia artist Allen Dudley Jones, retained a 1959 exhibit label from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. It sold for $4,263.
Two Hungarian paintings from the 1930s, a monogrammed watercolor of a seated woman and an oil on board interior scene, also monogrammed and dated 1935, sold for $5,175. A gouache and watercolor view of Toledo was signed indistinctly and dated 1932 and sold for $3,220. The artist was thought to be Hungarian.
Two powerful etchings by James E. Allen, a 1932 lithograph, “The Builders,” and an image of a steelworker tending the furnace, brought $3,450. The pencil-signed print “Factory Worker” was $690.
An oil on wood panel view of an Indian encampment at sunset with figures brought $3,450, while an oil on wood portrait of a woman with a bouquet of vivid poppies by Belgian artist Florent Willems fetched $2,990.
“Portrait of a Woman in an Elegant Interior,” an oil on canvas image of a woman in an orange dress and a fur by Boston artist Mary Rosamond Coolidge and in a gilt frame with the Guido Frame Studio label, sold for $2,990. A Nineteenth Century Orientalist interior scene of a woman reclining on a sofa with a hookah by French artist Louis Devedeux was also $2,990.
An oil on canvas painting of a man leading a cow signed by Ukraine-born artist David Burliuk realized $2,760, and a still life with a vase of daisies, poppies and cornflowers by Romanian artist Dimitri Berea elicited $2,645. A post-Modern oil on canvas portrait of a man by Russian artist Boris Sveshnikov, signed in Cyrillic characters and dated 1990, harkens back to his eight years in a Stalinist labor camp. It realized $2,300.
“Norfolk X,” a 1963 oil on canvas by the Hungarian-born artist Gabor F. Peterdi, attracted $2,185, while an Eighteenth Century Chinese rice paper scroll depicting a man in a robe embroidered with dragons and holding a musical instrument bore several stamps and realized $1,150.
A stained glass window depicting Christ holding a sheaf of lilies and standing amid a garden of same was missing its head and face, but still exceeded the estimated $400/600 to sell for $4,313, and a bronze figure of a maiden with a lyre, dated 1887, signed by French sculptor Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse sold for $3,738. The artist counted Auguste Rodin among his students.
A green jade covered vase from the 1870s was carved with dragons and signed on the neck. It realized $2,875. A Guangxu period (late Nineteenth Century) carved ivory figure of Guanyin on an integrated base was decorated and sold for $1,150.
Psyche peering into the water was the subject of a late Nineteenth Century German painting on porcelain, impressed on the back “Psyche am Wasserspiegel after P. Thurmann,” that brought $1,495, while a KPM plaque, also Nineteenth Century, painted with an image of a woman with leaves in her hair realized $1,265.
A Nineteenth Century gimbaled brass ship’s clock by London maker John Fletcher, “Maker to the Admiralty,” sold for $2,185, and a late Nineteenth or early Twentieth Century pair of pier tables with carved giltwood cornucopia pedestals filled with dark wood fruit and white marble tops brought $2,185.
From the collection of the late John H. Sweeney, director of the Lars Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline, Mass., a selection of Art Deco objects really stood out among the objects for sale. While they did not bring big money, they were most appealing. Sweeney had a fine eye †and a taste for the quirky as evinced by some of the lots offered. These ranged from the lot of seven Art Deco irons from the 1920s that sold for $748 to a 1920s French marble, copper and chrome clock that realized $546.
A group of table radios from the 1920s made by major manufacturers sold for $518 and a Fada Bakelite radio went for $403. A pair of Art Deco leather and burl wood club chairs fetched $978, and an Art Deco ceiling fixture from the 1920s in aluminum and white onyx was $1,093.
Stamped “Harris and Co., 82 University Place, New York,” a 31-inch roulette wheel in satinwood and rosewood spun to $1,093, while an Art Deco pair of floor lamps in chrome and black paint with black paper and silver shades attracted $633.
Carved with Aesop’s Fables figures and bearing Sheffield hallmarks for the years 1897‱898, a pair of English silver candlesticks with ivory shafts brought $1,495.
All prices reported include the 15 percent buyer’s premium. For information, www.kaminskiauctions.com or 978-927-2223.
