The fireworks were erupting early during the annual Fourth of July Americana auction at Cyr Auction Gallery on July 2 as bidders hotly competed for a select grouping of market-fresh Americana. The annual summer Americana and fine art auction conducted by Jim Cyr once again proved to be one of the most popular sales of the season for the gallery, with an absolutely packed standing-room-only crowd in attendance for the Wednesday sale.
Attic finds and merchandise consigned directly from local Maine homes, as well as estates from as far as Virginia and Pennsylvania, attracted serious attention throughout the day. Preview for the auction was heavily attended the day prior to the sale, resulting in numerous absentee bids and a host of telephone bids, as well.
The auction was filled with choice lots. A small grouping from an attic in Island Falls, Maine, did extremely well, with a rare stoneware crock topping the selection. A heavily carved China Trade sofa that had originally been part of a homestead in Kennebunk was the cause of a road trip for Cyr to Virginia as the family had relocated. And a collection of spatter and folk art from a Pennsylvania collection had Cyr traveling south once again †with the end result being Pennsylvania dealers traveling north to repatriate portions of the collection with their home state.
The auction got off to a quick start with Cyr wasting no time getting to the choice lots. While other auctioneers make you wait, Cyr makes sure that you are on time. The first lot offered, an Ohio tiger maple corner cupboard that had been consigned from a local Coastal Maine home, attracted a great deal of attention with an opening bid of $5,000 coming from the rear of the room and selling there for $9,200.
A mid-Nineteenth Century folky oil on canvas depicting the main street of Berwick, Maine, was another item to do well. “It has everything you would want to see in it,” commented Cyr as the 17-by-24-inch painting crossed the auction block. Bidding opened at $2,500 in the room and the lot hammered down moments later at $5,750.
“I guess you have figured out what my favorite piece in the auction is,” commented Cyr as a folky watercolor depiction of a white seated cat in a garden with a freshly caught mouse in its mouth was offered. Cyr had used the image on the cover of the color catalog, featured it in advertisements and touted its merits throughout the preview.
From a Pennsylvania collection, the 12-by-9-inch watercolor was well executed with the cat seated against a dark background with yellow flowers off to his left and red flowers to the right. Green leafy foliage formed a canopy above the cat, whose bright yellow eyes expressed satisfaction with its kill.
Cyr asked for an opening bid of $5,000 and got it immediately from a bidder in the room. A counter bid of $6,000 came quickly and the piece advanced with rapid fire bids from the two gallery bidders to $12,000. New bidders jumped into the fray and pushed the piece to a selling price of $19,550.
“We took a gamble driving up there,” said Cyr of an excursion that he took traveling some 250 miles to the north and near the New Brunswick border to the town of Island Falls. “The people thought they had some antiques,” said the auctioneer of the items that had been found in the attic. They did indeed have some antiques and the first lot to be offered was a nice Chippendale six-drawer chest on a bracket base that sold for $2,300; an embroidered Masonic apron went reasonably at $115, a portrait of a young girl with her kitten took $2,300, and a portrait of a gentleman realized $1,265.
A large 6-gallon stoneware cooler, unmarked, but clearly from Bennington, Vt., was the lot from the Island Falls home that had captured everyone’s interest. Decorated with four repeating large peafowl on a stump with a fence and pine tree in the background, the crock was in excellent overall condition except for a hairline crack that had been stabilized by a tinsmith who had applied a band around the top.
“We almost didn’t get this piece,” commented Cyr as the cooler was offered. “One of the heirs wanted to take it home to put umbrellas in. I said I would give her a five-gallon crock to use instead, and she asked ‘For free?'” Cyr ponied up with the crock for the heir and got the cooler to sell. It opened for bidding at $1,000 and bounced around the room in $250 increments to the $5,000 mark, where a phone bidder jumped into the action. The three kept hammering away at the lot until it sold to the phone for $12,075, a number that apparently pleased all of the heirs.
A small group of weathervanes crossed the block, with a horse and sulky leading the way. The vane had blown off the top of a Hadley, Mass., barn during a storm in 1955 and had since been displayed atop a kitchen cabinet. Bids came from several in the gallery, with it selling to a woman seated in the front row for $10,350. The same woman bought a leaping stag vane that had been consigned from a Connecticut collection for $9,200, while a large rooster vane from the same collection brought $4,025.
A New York continuous arm, brace back Windsor in a dark green paint sold at $4,025, as did a Hepplewhite card table in strong tiger maple that had been consigned from a Norway, Maine, home.
“It is the best one I have ever seen,” commented Cyr of the early Nineteenth Century China Trade carved sofa. Bidding on the lot was brisk, with it selling at $4,025. A 28-piece Chinese Export tea and desert service went out at $2,875, and a large famille rose vase with faux bamboo handles brought $1,840.
Pennsylvania items did well, with a yellow spatterware teapot with a large red tulip on the sides selling at $8,050; a five-color rainbow spatter pitcher achieved the same result. A thistle pattern cup and saucer brought $1,150, a cockscomb decorated pitcher $1,150, and a teapot in red with peafowl made $805.
Numerous pieces of mocha were offered, with a pitcher with double earthworm decoration selling at $3,450, a pitcher with earthworm and cat’s-eye decoration bringing $2,300, a pair of muffineers with seaweed decoration making $1,552, and cat’s-eye decorated mug with alternating blue and yellow banding selling for $1,150.
Other items of interest included a large cast iron stag garden figure that sold at $4,600, a military sword that made $4,025, a New Hampshire graduated four-drawer chest brought $3,450, a scrimshaw climbed to $3,450, and a sign for bathroom fixtures hammered down at $3,162.
Prices include the 15 percent buyer’s premium charged. For information, contact Cyr Auction Gallery at 207-657-5253 or www.cyrauction.com .
