A Marblehead Neck home provided some 400 lots of fresh material at Peter L. Combs’ December 10 sale. The single-owner estate was sold without reserves, and the trade manifested its approval by taking most of the top lots.
The home of the late Francis J.A. McCarthy Jr had been furnished in grand style by his parents in the 1920s when they arrived there, drawn to Marblehead for its sailing and golf, which they all loved. McCarthy’s father was an attorney for First National Pictures, Inc, a movie studio established in the 1920s in Burbank, Calif., which later merged with Warner Brothers. The McCarthy family preferred the North Shore to the West Coast but brought with them a good portion of Hollywood glamour. Over the years, the house was the site of some very elegant parties given by the parents and later in the same tradition by their son, a Wall Street banker who summered there.
The highlight of the sale was a walnut table with an onyx top surrounded by embossed bronze and brass Greek battle scenes and supported by robustly carved griffins. It sold to an area collector on the phone for $36,800. The table was attributed initially to Horner, but some opinions included Roux. Auctioneer Peter L. Combs said he thought the piece was French.
Just two days before the sale, Combs found a Horner label on a Louis XV-style curio cabinet with marquetry inlay, ormolu mounts and glass shelves. It realized $2,645. A Napoleon III-style glazed curio cabinet with ormolu mounts went to $690.
A gilt bronze clock garniture and figural candelabra with French porcelain mounts with a distinctive blue ground that Combs thought were Sevres sold to the trade on the phone for $26,450. A large (33 inches) late Nineteenth Century French Sevres-style porcelain vase with a blue ground was decorated with a landscape with figures and brought $4,600.
Another garniture, an elaborate gilt bronze example, circa 1880, comprising a large centerpiece with a center glass bowl (which was a replacement) and candleholders supported by putti and two matching epergnes went to the phones for $19,550.
Six phones chased a large French kingwood bureau plat with gilt bronze mounts, circa 1900, and sold to one of them, a dealer, for $26,450.
A Louis XV-style music cabinet, circa 1885 and attributed to Henry Dasson, with elaborate inlay and a rococo clock supported by cherubs reading books went to yet another phone bidder for $12,650; an Italian pietra dura table with a geometric central reserve of figures in donkey carts and supported on a brass base fetched $6,325; and a carved pair of late Nineteenth Century Flemish Revival commode chairs, each with matching figural and scroll work structure and seashells, sold to an area dealer for $4,600.
A large Flemish-style carved walnut table carved with four nude figures terminating in paw feet elicited $3,220; a carved Italian refectory table sold for $1,150; a set of six carved walnut dining chairs was $4,600; a Dutch pair of carved walnut chairs and a matching settee from about 1900 sold for $1,380; and a Turkish Oushak hunting carpet was one of a number of choice rugs and carpets that brought out the rug dealers, who drove its price to $12,650.
The dazzling Louis XV-style ceiling fixture configured to reflect the Sun God surrounded by rays of heavy glass prisms that may have been made by Lalique was under the money at $4,888. The McCarthys bought it in New York and it is headed back there. Combs described the large and rare double handled Herend vase, which was decorated in the Capodimonte style and brought $2,530 from a New Hampshire dealer, as “the deal of the night.”
A white marble pedestal with four columns and gilt and cobalt blue enamel decoration sold for $2,300, and a carved and ebonized pedestal with protruding tusks was $920.
A pair of planters that had at one time been pier tables matching a dining table attracted much activity and sold for $6,900. They had been painted white, wire work was added and they served on an indoor porch. The McCarthy house enjoyed wraparound porches with sweeping ocean and harbor views, and they were filled with large quantities of white wicker, which was also sold.
The planters went to a California dealer, who also bought a large pair of black cast iron garden urns for $2,415. A pair of white cast iron garden benches attracted $633, a sinuous aluminum garden seat was $575, a large Imari jardiniere drew $1,380, and an exceptionally attractive carved stone garden fox was $316.
A set of Lionel standard gauge trains included a pristine standard locomotive. Other toy lots included a heaping box lot of Britains soldiers that sold for $805 and a horse-drawn farm wagon that was $460.
A very stylish Art Deco cigarette dispenser and lighter in copper and onyx with two top-hatted figures gathering the cigarettes sold for $489.
A phone buyer paid $2,760 for a Gorham sterling bride basket, while a set of four rococo weighted silver candlesticks with Dominick Haff silver marks fetched $2,185, and a lot of four pieces of Francis I sterling flatware serving pieces was $805. Two Francis I sterling compotes, offered separately, fetched a total of $719, and a pair of sterling salts in the form of rickshaws was $403.
The French watercolor of an interior in an elaborate gilt frame was signed indistinctly but realized $2,070, a Hudson River landscape with figures fetched $1,150 and a Nineteenth Century Russian icon with silver mounts and identified as “By tradition from the collection of Czar Nicholas II of Russia,” realized $1,093.
An extensive Ovington’s dinner service with gold and flower decoration sold for $1,380 to the trade; an extensive gilt stemware lot, used with the dinner service, was $1,094; a large Meiji period Kutani vase in globular form went for $1,380; a pair of amber glass candlesticks was $1,380; a pair of Renaissance-style andirons made in the 1890s sold for $1,485; and a pair of fancy chenets was $863 from a phone bidder.
An Arts and Crafts lamp brought $978, and a large bronze woven basket fetched $920, as did a pair of garden barrels with mother-of-pearl inlay, while a Black Forest mirror went for $3,220.
A selection of men’s and ladies’ jewelry across the block was topped by a Hamilton 14K gold tank watch that was inscribed to Frank McCarthy and realized $4,600, followed by a large Waltham pocket watch with a gold chain and a bloodstone fob that realized $3,680. A lady’s bracelet with 94 diamonds and 47 synthetic sapphires fetched $3,810.
All prices reported include the 15 percent buyer’s premium. For information, www.plcombs.com or 978-283-3524.
