This Parmigiani Fleurier Toric chronograph with an 18K gold watch face and leather strap was the highest earning lot of the sale at $17,500; it previously belonged to Homestead Inn (Greenwich, Conn.) proprietor Chef Thomas Henkelmann ($8/10,000).
Review by Kiersten Busch
LARCHMONT, N.Y. — Clarke Auction Gallery closed out the month of June with its June Estates Auction, conducted on the 29th of the month. The 554-lot event featured a selection of fine and decorative art, art glass, Japanese woodblock prints, porcelains, Mid Century furniture and more than 180 lots of jewelry and silver. When the dust had settled, the sale earned a 92 percent sell-through rate.
Ticking to the highest price was a Parmigiani Fleurier Toric chronograph, which belonged to Chef Thomas Henkelmann, a “renowned culinary figure and former proprietor of the Homestead Inn in Greenwich, Conn.,” according to catalog notes. The 18K gold watch face was accompanied by a two-piece leather strap and a double-stepped “coin” bezel with a sapphire crystal. It surpassed its $8/10,000 estimate to earn $17,500.
The chronograph was also the highest-earning lot of 13 lots of watches, which was followed closely by a vintage Heuer Monaco 1133B transitional watch consigned from a New Rochelle, N.Y., estate which earned $13,750. Featuring an original 40-millimeter stainless steel case and a midnight blue metallic paint transitional dial, the watch also had an aftermarket piece: its two-piece leather strap with a steel tang or buckle.
Twenty-seven of the 143 lots of jewelry — also including watches — were necklaces, which earned prices as low as $375 for a collection of artisan silver jewelry, including a multi-strand keshi (rice) pearl necklace with a sterling clasp, and as high as $9,375 for a GIA natural and unheated Burmese ruby and sapphire necklace. The ruby and sapphire were part of the antique platinum-topped 13.5-carat yellow gold necklace’s pendant, in which the central ruby was flanked by several old mine-cut diamonds and two prong-set sapphires. Of the 27 lots, only one, a lot of two Art Nouveau gold and pearl necklaces, went unsold.
This necklace had an antique platinum-topped 13.5-carat yellow gold scrolling pendant which displayed a central Burmese ruby, old mine-cut diamonds and two prong-set Burmese sapphires; it dazzled for $9,375 ($4/6,000).
Sculptures of all forms were popular with bidders, as a pair of mid Twentieth Century nickel-plated brass heads by Franz Hagenauer crossed the block for $15,000, the second-highest price overall. Titled “Head in Profile,” each of the pair was stamped “Franz Hagenauer Wien” and had a Werkstātte Hagenauer cipher to the reverse and underside. Another sculpture by Hagenauer, depicting a bird looking backwards, flew to $4,500, while a pair of smaller head sculptures did not sell. All three lots were consigned from the same Muttontown, N.Y., collection.
Another notable sculpture was by Yugoslavian artist Vasa Valizar Minich. “Triangle Column #2403” was painted in acrylic and measured 79 inches high. Previously the property of a Fairfield, Conn., collection, it sold for double the high end of its $3/5,000 estimate at $10,000. Minich’s other three-dimensional work offered in the sale, “Triangle #2515,” was made in 1985 and was bid to $5,250.
African American artists were represented by eight lots, ranging in price from $250 for Donald Boudreaux’s mixed media acrylic on board work “Free Me Africa,” to $12,500 for “African Dancer” by David Clyde Driskell. The latter was a linocut on paper which was signed, titled and dedicated on its lower margins in pencil. According to catalog notes, the work was “given to the consignor by the artist while a student at Bowdin College, Brunswick, Maine.” Driskel had one additional work in the sale, “Three Weeping Willows,” a mixed media pastel on paper done in 1978, which grew to $1,500.
“African Dancer” by David Clyde Driskell (American, 1931-2020), linocut on paper, 23¼ by 18¼ inches framed, was consigned by a Baltimore collector who acquired the work directly from the artist; it danced its way to $12,500 ($800-$1,200).
Sterling silver encapsulated 36 lots, led by a Georg Jensen sterling flatware service in the Acorn pattern, which set the table for $8,125. Approximately 225 pieces, the service weighed 231.91 troy ounces and was previously property of a Poughkeepsie, N.Y., estate. Twelve additional lots of flatware found new homes, with other high prices including a Gorham service in the Melrose pattern ($4,000), a Wallace Stradivari service ($3,250) and a Lunt William and Mary Treasure service ($2,750).
Chairs of all shapes and sizes ranged in price from $188 for a pair of Chinese dreamstone inlaid chairs, an industrial lot of two chairs and a table and a pair of Mid Century Maruni folding chairs; to $3,000 for a pair of Knoll Barcelona chairs by Mies Van Der Rohe. The latter, made of black leather, were signed in the fabric and were consigned from a Queens, N.Y., estate. Another Knoll piece, a signed Saarinen womb chair and ottoman made with grey fabric, came from a local Larchmont estate; the set earned a comfortable $2,250.
Prices quoted include buyer’s premium reported by the auction house. For information, 914-833-8336 or www.clarkeny.com.
