CRN – Collections & Estates Auction
April 23 at 11 am
57 Bay State Road, Cambridge, MA 02138
www.crnauctions.com
info@crnauctions.com
617-661-9582
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — CRN Auctions will host its annual spring auction on Sunday, April 23, at 11 am, at the firm’s gallery.
Along with the usual eclectic assortment of goods, CRN will start the sale with three single-owner collections. The first 47 lots are the collection of Indigenous North American artifacts, the majority originating from the Pacific Northwest Coast, purchased in the late 1990s to early 2000s.
Northwest pieces of note include a Nineteenth Century Tlingit or Haida polychrome Raven rattle; a Tlingit polychrome Shaman’s mask; a moon mask and several Bella Bella decorated animal masks. Textiles include a late Nineteenth Century Chilkat blanket in the Diving Whale pattern with whirling log icons; a child’s Chilkat blanket attributed to the master weaver Jennie Thlunaut.
Rounding out the textiles is a rare Navajo Germantown portiere. An interesting story of its colorful history is worth accessing on the auctioneer’s website. Ancient in the collections is a circa 200 BCE carved soapstone effigy bowl with a humanoid figure, purportedly found mid-Twentieth Century near Vancouver. It was featured on the cover of a 2003 publication A New Look at Northwest Coast Stone Bowls.
The second collection is the sixth installment of a collection of Spanish Colonial silver, art and decorative objects both ecclesiastical and secular. CRN has been partnering with this consignor for the past 10 years. The consignor and his wife lived and worked in Central America during the 1980s, traveling extensively to augment their passion for Spanish Colonial antiquities.
Rounding out the collections will be 13 lots of Tibetan Buddhist ritual items from the estate of a woman well acquainted with the Dalai Lama.
One of the highlights of the 40 works of art being sold is a recently surfaced Alexander Calder ink and gouache, “Rolling Down,” signed and dated 1966. From a Boston home, it has been authenticated by the Calder Foundation.
Two lots on offer intersect art and literature. The first is an oversized folio of 12 Arthur Rackham illustrations for J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan and a literary offering of a complete leather-bound set of seven volumes of the 1856 edition of John Audubon’s Birds of America.
Included in the European and English items being sold are items passed down through the Boston Cabot family.
American antiques come from a Rhode Island collector who was a client of the Americana dealer John Walton, among others.
In addition, an Eighteenth Century Philadelphia dressing table and a tiger maple drop-leaf table, both in untouched condition, come from the home of dealer G.W. “Bill” Samaha, whose collections were sold previously by CRN.
Works of art, furniture and decorative accessories, too diverse to mention, are varied in origin and range from the Seventeenth through the Twentieth Centuries. There is something to pique the interest of a broad range of collectors and connoisseurs.
CRN Auctions is at 57 Baystate Road. For further information, www.crnauctions or 617-661-9582.
Previews at the crn gallery: Friday, April 21 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday, April 22 from 10 a.m. to 3p.m. also by appointment – limited preview morning of sale
Phone and left bid forms are available on our website
Follow us on Instagram: @crnauctions
5 Church Hill Road / Newtown, CT 06470
Mon - Fri / 8:00 am - 5:01 pm
(203) 426-8036