The bankruptcy sale of property removed from the defunct Salander-O’Reilly Galleries had private collectors, decorators and dealers raising their paddles fast and furiously at Stair Galleries’ sale June 7.
“It was phenomenal,” said president Colin Stair of the sale offering 311 lots that fetched around $1.6 million. “After the dust had settled, there were only six lots unsold. It was a very strong sale.”
The auction offered choice pickings from the former gallery: fine examples of furniture, particularly strong in European offerings, and works of art.
The big draw was a choice collection of Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century English and Continental garden furniture and ornaments. The garden ornament lots were all purchased from Christie’s 2004 auction of the Michael Roberts collection in Ashurst, Kent, and fetched a total of $1 million at the time.
The top lot of the sale was an English Art Deco hammered wrought iron gate by Galsworthy after designs by Minoprio and Spencely that sold to a local collector for $73,600.
“This was my favorite thing in the sale,” said Stair; he had displayed it front and center in the gallery.
Several garden ornaments made from English Coade stone, and ex Christie’s, performed solidly, including a pair of stone roundels by John Rossi & Coade at $25,300; two roundels of youths, one representing labor, the other holding a trident and riding a dolphin, at $23,000; and a pair of finials stamped “Coade, Lamberth, 1791,” at $19,550.
Terracotta offerings were led by a figure of Diana, 63½ inches tall, with an associated pedestal at $19,550 and a garden seat, attributed to James Pulham & Son, Broxbourne, that achieved $18,400.
Rounding out the stone ornaments were a pair of cast plaster figurines of dancers after Antonio Canova, 70 inches tall, that fetched $28,750, a Rosso Veronia marble well head at $26,450, a carved stone bench with a seat supported by winged lions at $25,300 and four Portland stone urn finials for $23,000.
The sale boasted an interesting and varied selection of frames. Surprising many was a lot of two Seventeenth Century-style tabernacle frames that made ten times its high estimate to fetch $9,200.
Top performers were a Dutch Seventeenth Century ebonized frame, 57½ by 50½ inches, at $26,450 and a pair of Art Deco bronze frames, Twentieth Century, with late mirrored panels, ex Christie’s, that sold for $9,200.
“The frames were incredibly strong,” Stair said, noting the Salander gallery had received an offer for all the frames for $25,000 and here at the auction, one frame brought close to that amount.
Architectural elements found favor with buyers, including a select group of chimneypieces, led by a North Italian (probably Milanese) marble chimneypiece with a frieze centered with a panel in relief of a cherub and four putti, flanked by kneeling cherubs at the ends, at $47,150.
Stair said this price was shy of what it fetched at Christie’s several years ago, but was a good price, and the chimneypiece is being fitted into a New York townhouse.
Other chimneypieces included a Louis XVI-style marble example at $11,150 and an Italian pietra dura and carved marble one with a serpentine shelf above shellwork medallion and inlaid flowers and vinework that brought $10,350.
Furniture was led by a North European baroque carved and veneered walnut shrank with a serpentine crest centered by a figure of Mercury seated on a lion-drawn chariot flanked by putti that attained $40,250.
Among the furniture standouts, Italian craftsmanship was prized, including a Renaissance carved walnut two-part cabinet at $24,150, a rococo carved, painted and parcel gilt console table with a veined molded marble top at $13,800 and a baroque carved walnut credenza at $8,625.
Other furniture offerings included an Elizabethan carved oak side table at $11,150 and a Continental baroque credenza, possibly Spanish, at $9,200.
Bronze works were represented with a figure of Mercury after Giambologna cast by J. Chiurazzi & Fils, Naples, at $20,700 and a figure of an athlete attributed to the same foundry at $18,400.
A handful of relief-carved panels removed from the ballroom of Cornelius Vanderbilt’s Fifth Avenue mansion all performed above estimate, including a French limewood, oak and mahogany panel with the center panel carved with putti and releasing doves from a cage at $6,900 followed by another panel showing musical cherubs on clouds at $6,325.
The top lot was the last in the grouping to cross the block and comprised two similar limewood, oak and mahogany relief-carved panels that fetched $10,350.
The sale was categorized by hardy bidding in the gallery, Stair said, but the phone action was heavy, with staff monitoring ten phone lines and processing more than 1,200 phone calls during the sale.
A weak dollar spurred heavy international bidding in the sale, continuing a trend Stair has seen growing the last few years. “A strong cross section of bidders and conservative estimates show that you can sell good things for good money,” he said.
All prices reported include the 15 percent buyer’s premium. For more information, www.stairgalleries.com or 518-751-1000.
