Unheralded but high-quality objects pleased bidders who made for a full house at Skinner’s March 7 Americana sale. While some pieces brought solid money, the story was about the smaller objects that brought some exceptional prices.
The sale could be characterized as an upside down event, in which the higher ticket items sold within estimates, for the most part, while the objects with more modest estimates brought improbably high prices. A case in point would be a mid-Eighteenth Century English Queen Anne walnut mirror with a carved gilt gesso foliate device in the crest that was estimated at $2,5/3,500 and sold on the phone for $14,220. Another example was an autumn landscape by John Dodgson Barrow; it was signed and dated 1878, and realized $5,333 against an estimated $800․1,200.
The sale highlight was a New Bedford scene by Fairhaven artist William Bradford, “Portrait of the Whaleship Young Hector off Clark’s Point, New Bedford” that realized $88,875 on the phone. While the final price was slightly above the $60/80,000 estimate, the picture was beautiful and seemed a good value. It depicts the vessel at anchor in a still anchorage as a dory rowed by five whalemen approaches; it had been purchased in the 1970s from North Carolina designer Otto Zenke.
An animated watercolor whaling scene by Marblehead folk artist Jonathan Orne Johnson, “Going Aboard with a Load of Fish, Rolling Sharks and Stealing Fish out of a Dory,” was as lively as the Bradford was serene and realized $8,888. Catalog notes indicate that the title was taken from an exhibition catalog of the artist’s first large showing of his work.
Other ship highlights included Antonio Nicolo Gasparo Jacobsen’s “Portrait of the Screw Steamer Saratoga ,” signed and dated 1880, which fetched $15,405, and “Yacht Race” by James Edward Buttersworth, depicting four boats competing in heavy seas, sold for $31,995. The contrasting “Boston Harbor Sunset,” another view of a serene harbor, this by Clement Drew, sold for $10,073. Drew’s 1885 view of Long Island in Boston Harbor had some retouch and brought $2,844, three times the low estimate.
A full-length oil on canvas portrait of a girl in a black ruffled dress picking grapes with a large dog by Susan Catherine Moore Waters was unsigned, but realized $41,475. The dog seemed to smile, while the child’s countenance was far more austere.
The John Samuel Blunt portrait of a lady in a green dress with voluminous pumpkin-form sleeves and seated in a red chair was unsigned, but realized $21,330.
An early Nineteenth Century oil on paperboard view of Chalkley Hall, the colonial Philadelphia residence of the Reverend Thomas Chalkley, brought $4,740, quadruple the estimate. The oil on canvas “A Cat’s Dream: Waiting for the Right Moment to Pounce” depicts a well-defined cat sleeping with a mouse nearing a wheel of cheese and sold for $11,850.
An Eighteenth Century Connecticut Chippendale cherry chest-on-chest with a scroll top with dentil molding, gadrooning and cockbeaded drawers brought $13,035 from a phone bidder. An Eighteenth Century North Shore Massachusetts Chippendale oxbow desk also went to a phone bidder, but for $10,665. A pair of Boston Queen Anne walnut side chairs with carved shell crests had been passed down through a North Shore family and brought $9,480.
An early Eighteenth Century Delaware River Valley maple slat back armchair had been refinished and was estimated at $700․1,000; it fetched $9,480. An Eighteenth Century Pennsylvania Chippendale cherry side chair with a pierced Gothic splat was signed and dated 1770. It sailed to $5,629 against the estimated $200/250. A Philadelphia walnut armchair, circa 1760‸0 with a serpentine crest and scrolling arms, on Marlborough feet, was inscribed “E. Godier” on the back and fetched double the estimate at $2,370.
A sack back Windsor chair in black paint, thought to have been made around 1790 in Lisbon, Conn., had carved knuckle handholds and a deeply carved saddle seat; it sold for $8,295.
A mid-Eighteenth Century Pennsylvania pine table with two thumb-molded drawers and a stretcher base drew $2,963, nearly three times the estimate. The table was found in New Hampshire. Then a New Hampshire Federal cherry, birch and mahogany desk and bookcase with maple inlay brought $4,977, and a tiger maple tea table with turned legs, possibly a New York State piece, sold for $4,148.
An early Nineteenth Century New Hampshire or Massachusetts cherry and pine desk on frame in red paint had two upper doors above a hinged slant lid with interior compartments and a drawer realized $5,629.
A late Seventeenth Century English pewter candlestick with a plate rim base, an octagonal bobeche and rope and foliate decoration realized $10,073. The catalog noted that such candlesticks were the last pewter examples before the industry moved to brass.
A late Eighteenth Century silver spoon by Paul Revere Jr elicited $6,518, while a three-piece Chinese Export silver tea service made by Canton silversmith Wongshing around 1845 was decorated elegantly and sold for $6,221.
Of a selection of clocks, a late Eighteenth Century Boston Federal mahogany diminutive (86 inches) tall clock by Simon Willard of Roxbury with an eight-day time and strike weight powered movement, an arched hood with pierced fretwork and brass ball finials sold to a phone bidder for $44,438.
A New York Federal mahogany tall clock by Effingham Embree, circa 1800, with brass eight-day time and strike weight-powered movement, a pagoda top with an inlaid star above an eagle, stringing and quarter fan inlay also sold on the phone for $38,513.
Consigned by a family that had owned it for much of the Twentieth Century, a Simon Willard Jr Federal mahogany tall clack, circa 1800, with an with an eight-day time and strike weight-powered movement, an arch molded hood and a painted iron dial decorated with a landscape with a reclining figure and a waterfall fetched $11,258.
A Federal mahogany piano by Benjamin Crehore of Milton, Mass., circa 1800, was estimated at $1/2,000 and sold for $10,665. The piano was decorated by Boston artist and lithographer John Ritto Penniman. It was loaned to the Boston Public Library in 1912 by Steinert and Sons and was donated ultimately in 2008. It is one of five such instruments known, others being in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts and the Peabody Essex Museum.
A group of whalemen’s artifacts from the Clark and Swain families of Nantucket comprised a bone double sheave block, two single-sheave blocks, a segment of an ivory and bone sewing stand, a whalebone serving mallet, a Meerschaum pipe and a one pound brass weight. Estimated at $600/800, the lot fetched $5,629 on the phone.
A selection of carved birds included a painted black duck by A. Elmer Crowell, made for Boston racing yacht designer Edwin A Boardman, that realized $10,073. An 8½-inch Crowell yellowlegs mantel figure on a clamshell base also went for $10,073 to the phone and a Crowell piping plover overmantel figure on a clamshell base went to the Internet for $7,110. A miniature figure of a mallard hen and a drake, also by Crowell and retaining the rectangular maker’s mark, fetched $2,370 online.
A carved Indian maiden tobacconist figure attributed to Samuel Robb brought $15,405, a set of three carved wood drapery panels for a horse-drawn hearse was $4,148, and a Salem, Mass., pair of colorfully painted leather fire buckets emblazoned “John Nichols Enterprise Fire Club 1810” brought $9,480.
A stoneware water cooler with cobalt decoration of a pointing hand emerging from feathers was marked Quigley and Sons and inscribed “Ohio”; it sold for $13,035. The crock may have been a Cincinnati piece. A stoneware churn with an incised flower and bird decoration in brown-manganese, dated from the late Eighteenth or early Nineteenth Century, brought $8,295.
Mocha ware experts Jonathan Rickard and Don Carpentier were observed during the preview examining some of the more intriguing examples that were for sale. Their selections were of more than passing interest to observers. The highlight of the group was a lot comprising two English mocha ware mugs: a pint mug with a reeded green rim over a blue, rust, black and white marbled field, and a smaller example with a blue rim band and a similar marbled field, along with a baluster-form jug with tobacco leaf decoration. The group was dated between 1780 and 1810 and sold for $3,851.
A large early Nineteenth Century English two-quart mug with two bands of looping earthworm decoration brought $2,844, despite an 11-inch crack, well above the $500/700 estimate. A small (5 inches) English mocha ware barrel-form jug, circa 1780, decorated with a black, rust and pumpkin slip marbled field had a snipped spout. Rickard said he was curious about the origins of the object. It went to a phone bidder for $2,370. An early Nineteenth Century English pearlware bowl with an everted rim and an interior decoration of slip looping earthworm and cat’s eyes in a diamond pattern had undulating lines of white slip on a black ground set off by pumpkin colored bands. It sold for $2,607.
All prices quoted reflect the buyer’s premium. For information, www.skinnerinc.com or 508-970-3000.
