NYE & Co – Hunt, Heritage & Home Property from the Estate of Susan Ely
April 30th, 10am
20 Beach Street, Bloomfield NJ 07003
nyeandcompany.com

BLOOMFIELD, N.J. — This spring, Nye & Company Auctioneers will present a series of auctions beginning Wednesday, April 30, with Hunt, Heritage and Home: The Private Collection of Susan Ely, an offering from the Gladstone, N.J. area sporting art dealer whose passions and irrepressible spirit are reflected in every item.

Following the Ely Collection, Nye & Company will present a two-day Chic and Antique Sale on Thursday and Friday, May 1 and 2, featuring a mix of traditional Americana, vintage charm and iconic modern design. The sale is officially titled Chic and Antique: A Celebration of Style Across the Centuries. Start times all three auction days are 10 am.

“The Susan Ely auction is more than a sale — it’s a window into a life richly lived,” said Andrew Holter of Nye & Company Auctioneers. “With the air and elegance of a traditional English Country house, Ely’s collection is a tribute to the sporting life, fine craftsmanship and the power of objects to hold memory and meaning.”

According to Ely’s son Tim, many of the things his mother valued in life were beautiful old antiques, baubles from friends and family, bronze statues, ribbons earned by her many terriers and even a collection of ubiquitous red tail hawk feathers tucked neatly for display, camouflaged among her other treasures. The only things she held dearer than these inanimate objects, other than her dogs, were all of her friends and acquaintances.

Looking through the auction catalog for the private collection of Susan Ely is like stepping inside a storybook of English refinement and country elegance, beginning with the selection of sporting art and animal portraiture — dog and horse paintings, evocative of quiet country mornings and windswept fields.

Bronze sculptures will include powerful, evocative pieces by Antoine-Louis Bayre (French, 1795-1875); Pierre-Jules Mêne (French, 1810-1879); and Charles Paillet (French, 1871-1937). Elegant smalls will feature rare silver-mounted cowrie shells, Scottish ram’s horn snuff boxes and hardstone boxes.

The silver category will be led by a Tiffany & Company Broom Corn cased silver flatware service. English furniture will be anchored by a George II harlequin action triple-top games table, two Welsh dressers and more. Black Forest whimsy will include a pair of boldly carved, oversized Saint Bernard and Anchor lamps.

The May 1-2 Chic and Antique auction will be highlighted by the Wunsch Americana Foundation Collection — rare and museum-worthy pieces previously on loan to the Brooklyn Museum, including a footed silver bowl by Myer Myers (1723-1795), the renowned colonial Jewish silversmith; a circa 1720 Boston silver tankard by Benjamin Hiller (1687-1745); and rare Roman glass, a German Seventeenth/Eighteenth Century glass pistol and Daumenglas with cover, and Potsdam glasses as well.

Folk art finds from a private New Jersey collection will feature painted boxes, fruit-form earthenware banks and a watchmaker’s trade sign. Historic drawings (in honor of Marquis de Lafayette’s 1825 US tour) will include two pen-and-ink drawings and a bill of sale signed by Rembrandt Peale — a patriotic and artistic time capsule.

Midcentury Modern magic will showcase items deaccessioned from the Madison Public Library, to include Warren Platner (American, 1919-2006) chairs and a table; two pairs of Eero Saarinen (Finnish-American, 1910-1961) Womb chairs for Knoll; and, from a private collection, Le Corbusier for Cassina LC7 swivel chairs and an LC10 glass-top dining table.

Southwestern and Western bronzes from a New Jersey collection will include dynamic works by Ken Payne (American, 1938-2012); Star Liana York (American, b 1952); and Craig Bergsgaard (American, Twentieth/Twenty-First Century).

Real-time Internet and absentee bidding will be provided by LiveAuctioneers, Invaluable, Bidsquare, BidSpirit, Drouot and the Nye & Company website. Telephone bidding is available on a limited basis.

A public exhibition and preview will be conducted April 21-25 and April 28-30, from 10 am to 4 pm.

“This spring, come for the treasures — but stay for the stories,” Holter invited. “Whether you’re drawn to the elegance of Eighteenth Century silver, the nostalgia of folk art or the bold lines of modern design, Nye & Company’s April and May auctions promise to inspire, surprise and delight collectors of all stripes.”

Nye & Company is at 20 Beach Street. For information, www.nyeandcompany.com or 973-984-6900.

Sporting Art & Country House Treasures
Visit Preview Pre-bid
Apr 16 – Apr 30 Online Preview and Pre-Bid at nyeandcompany, invaluable, liveacutioneers and drouot
Apr 21 – Apr 30 Visit in Person at Bloomfield, NJ Gallery Located at 20 Beach Street 07003, 10 to 4, Weekdays
Colin Graeme Roe (British, 1858-1910), Sporting Dogs in Landscape, Oil on Canvas, 1899