They billed it blandly as a winter auction, but Carl R. Nordblom and Karin J. Phillips put together a most eclectic sale at CRN Auctions that drew varied groups of bidders and most went away happy on January 30.
Of particular interest was a group of some 200 lots of Asian art objects. Japanese objects, particularly a selection of Satsuma objects from a Newport collection, turned out to be among the choicest of the offerings, surprising Nordblom and Phillips.
A 7½-inch Satsuma porcelain bowl decorated with figures picnicking in a garden in celebration of a children’s festival raced to $14,950 to a phone buyer. The bowl was marked on the base with a poem and bore impressed marks on the bottom. The same phone bidder paid $5,175 for an Edo/Meiji Satsuma octagonal vase that was decorated with ho-ho birds and chrysanthemums and bearing the mark of the Tokozan Seiko kinran toki fuso Satsuma.
A miniature (3½ inches) Japanese Satsuma flared vase decorated with courtly figures and children at play sold to a buyer in the room for $3,738.
A Chicago dealer was active on the phone, capturing a Nineteenth Century Japanese wedding trunk with lacquer decorations of gold medallions on a maroon ground for $8,625. Another Nineteenth Century Japanese wedding trunk with gold foliate decoration on a black lacquer ground came from a Massachusetts collection and went to the same phone buyer for $5,750.
That buyer was also eager for a Japanese bronze tea caddy with a mixed metal basket weave pattern and an applied flower arrangement for which he or she paid $1,380. A Japanese silver round box with an embossed fish decoration and a kanji mark fetched $1,725, and a Japanese silver flask with an embossed iris decoration and a kanji mark brought $1,150.
A Japanese short sword with a bronze relief of a man on the kosuka sold for $2,530. Another phone bidder went after a Japanese polychromed metal Shakyamuni Buddha on a lotus platform and took it for $3,738. A Japanese carved and polychromed figure of an Oni found a home with another phone bidder for $2,588.
Another trunk, a Nineteenth Century Indonesian hardwood trunk with allover star-form mother-of-pearl inlay, went for $3,105.
Several Chinese items were hotly contested. A Chinese carved teak three-panel table screen with inlaid ceramic precious objects, one of which resembled a golf bag, was $3,450; a Nineteenth Century pair of Chinese elm horseshoe back armchairs went for $2,070 to the Midwestern trade; and a Nineteenth Century Sri Lankan teak center table with ornate carving and piercing went on the phone for $2,415.
A Rose Medallion palace vase with applied foo dog handles brought $2,300 from an area dealer, while a Chinese Export Rose Mandarin punchbowl attracted $1,725, and a Rose Mandarin covered cider jar with a foo dog finial and strap handles was $1,495 from an absentee bidder. Eight large Chinese Export Mandarin breakfast cups and saucers went to an area buyer for $1,355.
A Nineteenth Century pair of Chinese Export famille verte pierced garden seats drew $1,955, and a Chinese Export blue Fitzhugh porcelain cider jug that had a double strap handle was $1,150. An Eighteenth Century Chinese Export armorial platter went to a Boston dealer for $978. A pair of Chinese Export nesting tray tables with gilt decoration of exterior courtly scenes on a lacquer ground fetched $1,255.
Another group of objects that attracted interest was from the Arts and Crafts era. A Gustav Stickley oak director’s table, No. 631, came from a house on the South Shore and went to the trade for $12,650. The circa 1912 table bore a branded red mark and retained the original finish with pegged construction. An L&JG Stickley Arts and Crafts oak reclining chair with the original leather seat sold for $920, as did an Arts and Crafts matte green pottery oil lamp that was probably a Hampshire pottery piece decorated by T.J. Wheatley. An Orientalist marble top table that may have been a Herter Brothers piece sold for $1,295.
A Grueby planter in matte green with modeled leaves and yellow buds was signed and sold for $4,313. The 10½-inch planter retained the original metal liner. The Grueby tile titled “The Pines” was decorated with a landscape in pleasing tones of greens and blues and sold for $2,300.
Two Aesthetic Movement lots included an 80-inch carved and ebonized étagère with panels and a cupboard door of beveled mirrored glass carved with full-bodied cranes that sold to an absentee bidder for $2,070.
The pair of Rookwood covered jars decorated by Ohio artist William Hentschel with a Persian design of leaves and birds on blue glaze realized $1,255.
A large (19½ inches) pair of Daum Nancy art glass vases with etching and overlay in a Queen Anne’s lace pattern was signed and sold for $9,775. The pair came from a Kingston, Mass., house and went to the Chicago trade.
A Handel table lamp reverse painted with bright blossoms on a black ground was signed and realized $5,125 on the phone, while a Handel slag glass lamp with an imbricated filigree shade drew $1,610; a Tiffany Studios table lamp in the “Adam” pattern was signed and sold for $3,163; and a Tiffany Studios “Aladdin” floor lamp base, without a shade, fetched $1,955.
The Nineteenth Century parlor table with marquetry and ormolu mounts and intricate floral inlay was probably American and sold for $3,910. An Eighteenth Century Italian baroque walnut cabinet with relief carving was $3,450, and a pair of Italian neoclassical walnut commodini brought $2,645 from the same phone buyer. An Eighteenth Century Italian walnut cabinet table with carving was $1,955; an Eighteenth Century Portuguese polychromed wood cage doll used in processions sold at $2,070.
An English George III mahogany D-shaped sideboard with inlay and tambour doors and a brass rail brought $3,680, while an English George III-style painted and gilt marble top console realized $2,875. A pair of Eighteenth Century Italian rococo carved walnut torcheres was $2,185, and a pair of Italian torcheres in cream paint and gilt decoration was $1,840.
The Nineteenth Century French Napoleonic pedestal in marble and porcelain realized $4,313. The column was decorated with a portrait of Josephine and was signed Wagner. A pair of well-decorated Swedish majolica pedestals by Rorstrand fetched $1,840.
A Nineteenth Century French Louis XV-style jewel casket with bronze mounts and hand painted porcelain panels depicting figures in a garden was $4,313.
Several of the pictures across the block may not have brought big money, but they were of special significance. An American painting depicting the sailing vessel St George leaving the port of Boston for the Grenfell colony at Newfoundland commemorated a similar voyage by Dr Herbert Hall, co-founder of the Handcraft Shop in Marblehead, Mass., which evolved ultimately into the Marblehead Pottery. The painting was believed to have been made by a Marblehead Pottery tile decorator and it hung in Hall’s Devereaux mansion in Marblehead and descended through his family. It sold for a modest $633.
The Midcentury oil on canvas painting of women in a café by French artist Charles Levier depicted the mother of the Cambridge consignor in the upper left corner. It sold for $2,185 to a phone buyer.
An autumn landscape by William Lester Stevens sold for $2,875. A note on the back of the painting recorded that the painting was a gift in 1978 to “our daughter” Patricia from B. Rance Flanagan. There was also “Desolation,” the aptly titled oil on canvas by California artist Robert Watson that sold for $1,150. The painting “Apple Tree” by Irish artist John J. Inglis commanded $1,150.
A selection of Midcentury Modern furniture was attractive, but bidders did not clamor for them. A flip-top dining table designed by Gio Ponti for Singer & Co. was $2,760, and a particularly appealing goatskin parchment double pedestal desk designed by Aldo Tura of Milan went for $1,495. A very cool goatskin parchment and brass drinks cart, also by Tura, was $316.
James Burlini’s 80-inch kinetic sculpture comprised multicolored rotating orbs and spheres and went for $2,990.
Of a selection of silver, a set of four Gorham sterling candlesticks brought $3,795, and a sterling tea and coffee service was $1,725.
All prices reported include the 15 percent buyer’s premium. For information, 617-661-9582 or www.crnauctions.com .
