At first glance it looked like a some of this and some of that kind of sale, but the disparate offerings made for a lively auction at Grogan and Company February 21. The material ranged from Chinese porcelain to antiquarian books and drew a group of bidders with esoteric tastes. The crowd exhausted Grogan’s usually abundant supply of catalogs nearly an hour before the sale began. It also filled the saleroom, leading staff to add seating well into the sale.
Bidders sat up a little straighter when a group of Asian dealers was observed in the saleroom as a group of Chinese porcelain came up. The highlight was a Chinese Qing dynasty blue and white vase with foo dog handles that sold for $69,000 to the mainland Chinese trade on the phone. The 13-inch vase bore the Qianlong mark. A Qing dynasty blue, white and iron red bottle-form vase decorated with dragons and clouds and bearing the Daoguang mark sold for $6,900. The vase had been drilled for a lamp. A Nineteenth Century blue and white covered jar with a later metal lid and decorated with a landscape, dwellings and a body of water fetched $5,175.
An extensive Chinese Export porcelain dinner service comprising 85 pieces and having a dainty floral decoration realized $16,520 from an Internet bidder. The china came from the estate of Harriet Walker Henderson of San Francisco, whose family established the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minn.
Jade carvings from the Henderson estate also attracted big interest. A Qing dynasty carved quartz figure of a scholar on a carved giltwood lotus-form base with a carved and pierced green jade screen decorated with polished red stones sold for $13,800.
A carved whitish jade with a figure within a rock and tree formation went to the same phone bidder for $8,050, a carved white jade brush pot in lotus leaf-form with gray markings brought $5,750, and an 8-inch carved apple green jadeite covered vase with loose ring handles realized $3,450.
Illustrated antiquarian books that had come from the collection of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society drew antiquarian experts who pursued the exceptionally choice volumes on horticulture. The highlight was Collection des Fleurs et des Fruites , the circa 1805 edition that included 48 colored stipple engravings by L.C. Ruotte after Jean-Louis Prévost that brought $43,125. The book had not been bound in a volume but retained the tiny sewing holes from the original issue.
The volume Choix des Plus Belles Fleurs et des Plus Belles Fruit after Pierre Joseph Redouté with 144 stipple engraved plates by Bessin, Chapuy, Langlois, LeMaire and Victor and published by Ernest Panckoucke sold for $28,750.
The seven-volume Traite des Arbres Fruitiers&⁎ouvelle Edition Augmentee d’un Grand Nombre d’Especes de Fruit Obtenus des Progres de la Culture, which included 378 stipple engraved color plates after Pierre Jean François Turpin and Pierre-Antoine Poiteau, sold for $26,550. The books by botanist Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau were published by F.G. Levrault between 1907 and 1835.
Iconographie du Genre Camellia, ou Description et Figures des Camellia les Plus Beau et Les Plus Rares , a three-volume edition of 300 engraved and stipple engraved plates published in Paris by H. Cousin after Johan J. Jung between 1841 and 1843 sold for $19,550. It was accompanied by the 1838 Monography of the Genus Camellia, or an Essay on its Culture, Description and Classification by the Abbe Laurent Berlese and published in Boston in 1838 by Joseph Breck and Co.
Le Jardin de la Malmaison , a treatise by botanist Étienne Pierre Ventenat on the rare plant species at Josephine Bonaparte’s Château de Malmaison, was also $19,550. The illustrations were made by Pierre-Joseph Redoute and published by Crapelet.
The American publication by Edwin Hale Lincoln, Wild Flowers of New England, Photographed from Nature , was published in 1935 by the author in Pittsfield, Mass. Comprising seven volumes and 351 platinum print photographs, the lot sold for $19,550.
The ten-volume Eighteenth Century work The Botanist’s Repository for New and Rare Plants by Henry C. Andrews was published for him by T. Bensley in London between 1797 and 1815. It realized $6,900.
The entire collection had been offered previously at Sotheby’s, but failed to find a buyer in New York. The result in Dedham was $178,250.
“The Bloody Massacre,” the engraving after the drawing by Henry Pelham depicting the 1770 Boston Massacre made by Newburyport clockmaker and engraver Jonathan A. Mulliken, brought $20,070 from a phone bidder. Pelham, a noted miniaturist, was the half brother of John Singleton Copley. Given the rarity of the print, the price was almost a bargain. It sold to the same bidder who in 2004 paid $195,500 for a 1770 print of the “Boston Massacre” by Paul Revere.
Speaking by telephone several days after the sale, Michael B. Grogan observed that there exists a growing awareness on the part of sellers of the detriment of high estimates and reserves or that the market is getting better. He said that 15 lots went unsold in the sale.
The top lot among the paintings was the Boston area picture “Sandy Beach, Cohasset” by Boston artist Winckworth Allan Gay, who was Barbizon trained. The painting was signed and dated 1860 and sold on the phone for $21,850.
A Dutch village scene by Willem Bastiaan Tholen went to the Continental trade on the phone for $20,700. The picture hung in a signed, numbered and dated 1948 Vose Gallery frame.
The Nineteenth Century French ink drawing with gouache by Normandy artist Félix-Hilaire Buhot, “Valognes, Retour de Kermesse,” was signed and dated 1880 and realized $18,400. It went to a New York buyer. Catalog notes indicate that the image was inspired by a French ballad that was the basis of popular French drinking songs.
The Nineteenth Century oil on panel “Sheep, Boat and Ducks” by Belgian artist Eugene Verboeckhoven came from the same Massachusetts collection as the Buhot and went to the Belgian trade on the phone for $13,800.
Edward Everard Arnold’s 1860 portrait of the schooner William Mason was signed and dated and realized $11,500 from a phone bidder. Born in Wurtemburg, Arnold settled in New Orleans where he worked as a marine and portrait artist, sign painter and lithographer.
The oil on canvas “Baker’s Cottage by the Sea” by Montreal-born artist Henry J. Sandham brought $11,500 from a phone bidder. Sandham moved to Boston in 1880 and worked as a painter and illustrator. The picture came from the rectory of St Mary’s church in Dedham, where it had hung since the early Twentieth Century.
“On Patrol, A Grey Nor’easter,” a watercolor of a warship in a stormy sea by Montague Dawson, came from the same Massachusetts collection and realized $5,750.
The Frank W. Benson etching “In the Florida Keys” was signed, and sold on the phone for $7,475. A bidder in the room muttered and cussed, trying to rush the bidding in his favor, but to the satisfaction of several around him, was ultimately outbid.
A Nineteenth Century French oil on panel portrait of a woman in a vibrant red dress playing a mandolin by an open window by Pierre Charles Comte went to one of the consistently active Internet bidders for $7,670.
A vibrant Jane Peterson watercolor and gouache scene of Venice attracted $4,025, and a sweet Nineteenth Century portrait of a girl and a dog brought $3,163. A pastel on paper by Lovell Birge Harrison realized $4,600.
A bronze figure of Napoleon on horseback by Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier attracted $7,475 on the phone, and the 7¼-inch bronze “Elephant du Senegal” by Antoine Louis Barye was $5,463.
A collection of whaling material from the same Massachusetts collection as the Verboeckhoven and the Buhot elicited stiff competition.
Three whaling logs comprised a July 1844 to June 1847 voyage of the ship Liverpool, the April 1842 to August 1843 voyage of the barque Willis and the Montezuma from July 1844 to January 1846. They went on the phone for $8,050. The same phone buyer paid $3,738 for two more whaler logs from the ships March and the Acushnet, and an account book for 1832 to 1876.
Two more logs from the Mount Vernon and the Morning Light brought $8,050, and four whaling logs from the late Nineteenth Century for the vessels Sunbeam, Charles Morgan and Hunter went to the same buyer for $6,325.
One lot comprising miscellaneous carved whalebone objects sailed past the $800․1,200 estimate and sold in the room for $11,500 to the same bidder who paid $4,025 for another group of miscellaneous whalebone pieces.
A large collection of neoclassical-style carved and painted wood paneling comprised a central overmantel piece, two built-in bookcases, five window surrounds, 17 pieces of vertical raised panels, two outside corners, wainscoting and additional book shelves, crown molding and chair molding. From the collection of Charles C. Patterson of New York and Paris, it realized $10,350.
A Berlin KPM plaque depicting three maidens was signed F. Tenner and stamped “F.D. Vienna, Austria.” It fetched $31,625.
A Georg Jensen silver flatware service in the Acorn pattern was the highlight of the silver when it went to an area retail buyer for $9,775. A Russian silver and plique a jour footed bowl with the mark for Ivan Khlebnikov Company of Moscow sold for $6,900.
An Eighteenth Century brass tripod footed skillet was stamped “Langworthy,” perhaps for the Newport smith Lawrence Langworthy. It brought $7,475.
The sale was light on furniture, but what was offered was of interest.
A late Eighteenth Century Italian painted and giltwood marble top console fetched $6,613. A William and Mary chest of drawers with elaborate marquetry inlay attracted much interest and sold for $5,750. A Chippendale mahogany bowfront chest of drawers with Newport provenance went for $5,175, and a classical mahogany mixing table from about 1840 was $2,070.
All prices quoted reflect the buyer’s premium. For information, www.groganco.com or 781-461-9500.
