A collection direct from an original New Bedford whaling family was fresh to the market and drew a small but select crowd dominated by the trade to the Newport County Auction Gallery for the August 19 Gustave J.S. White auction.
Auctioneer Michael R. Corcoran began the sale with a late arrival, which turned out to be the top lot. It was also the only item sold with a reserve. Bidding on a 58-inch narwhal tusk opened at $2,500 and ended when it sold to area dealer James McGrath for $6,600.
The tusk was delivered to the sale by the consignor, Mary Plowden-Wardlaw, who arrived a few minutes late to the sale. The tusk had hung on a wall near her office for many years and she had not been altogether certain she wanted to sell until auction time.
The collection had been housed in a tower built expressly for the purpose at Plowden-Wardlaw’s seaside home. It had descended in the New Bedford ship-owning family of her late first husband, Otis Cook Stanton, and the material related mostly to Stanton family ships. The Stanton family had diverse interests, including the textile industry it moved into as whaling waned; Otis Cook Stanton agreed to sell the family textile business, Berkshire Hathaway, to Warren Buffett in the 1960s.
Stanton family whaling logs attracted intense study during the preview, with a number of collectors and dealers having a look. The logs were all from New Bedford ships and all recorded Pacific voyages. Prices were not remarkable, given the merchandise, most of which will not be seen again.
The log of the New Bedford bark William Hamilton was the star and sold for $6,000 to Cape Cod dealer Richard Kahn. The log details the 1834″7 voyage to the Pacific Ocean under the command of Master William C. Swain and is decorated with many whales.
A log of the 1848‵2 voyage of the bark Sappho under Master Benjamin Cushing went to another coastal Massachusetts dealer for $3,900, while five linen flags from the Sappho brought $120 from another bidder. The log of the 1857‶0 voyage of the Scotland to the North Pacific under Master Joshua Weeks was passed initially, but sold at the end of the auction for $420 to a woman who plans to donate it to the New Bedford Whaling Museum.
Bidding on a lot of ephemera relating to the barks Martha, Paulina and Mermaid opened at $500 and proceeded steadily to $4,200 from an absentee bidder. The group included consular documents, freighting bills, a bill of health, settlement papers, receipts and checks.
What was particularly striking about all of the logs and account books was the eloquence and exquisite penmanship (and correct spelling) on the part of the writers.
A selection of journals and account books recording disbursements to crew was also of interest. The account book of the bark Tropic Bird from an 1876‸1 voyage was $360, as was the account book of slops and cash advances to and from crewman by Captain James E. Stanton between 1858 and 1860. Two account books for the bark Martha, one of slops and recruits for 1863 and the other of articles sold from the ship, brought $240.
Three whalemen’s shipping papers for the barks Martha and Osprey in 1857 and the John Carver in 1875 fetched $1,080.
Ten 1874 consular documents and a crew list for the Martha, under the command of James E. Stanton, related to the drowning of a crewman and the condemning of the vessel at Bay of Islands, off northern New Zealand; they sold for $480. An account book for an 1873‷4 voyage was $360. An attachment of 11 consular documents and a crew list for the 1859 voyage of bark Osprey, of which Stanton was also the master, sold for $180. A pen and ink diagram of the Osprey, delineating the placement of barrels in the blubber rooms aboard ship, sold for $480.
A hand colored and framed lithograph of the CCC New Bedford ships of the Stone Fleet, “View of the Stone Fleet Which Sailed from New Bedford, No. 16th 1861,” published in 1862 by L. Prang and Co., of Boston, was a very good buy at $180.
The auctioneer’s favorite (and that of many others as well) was a plaque with six carved and painted whales, each with a whale ivory nameplate that was attributed to New Bedford carver Frank Wood. It sold for $4,440. A diorama of ten different kinds of sailing vessels might have been a Frank Wood piece. Rough condition and missing parts kept the price to $720.
A half hull of the sloop Kittiwake brought $1,080 from Brian Cullity, who paid $960 for a Nineteenth Century shadow box with a ship model of a square rigger.
The 81-inch quarter board from the Stanton whaler Tropic Bird attracted some attention and went to a phone bidder for $5,400. It is headed to the New Bedford Whaling Museum. A 36-inch sign for “Charles Dimon” that hung in the consignor’s front hall was $480.
Whaling tools commanded some interest, with a mid-Nineteenth Century brass darting gun harpoon and bomb, and mounted on the original 6½-foot wood pole, sold for $4,200. The darting gun was invented by Captain Ebenezer of New Bedford and was used widely.
A Nineteenth Century percussion cap bomb gun with a hollow cast brass stock made by C.C. Brand of Norwich, Conn., was a very heavy weapon and attracted $3,300. Two 37¾-inch cast iron skeleton stock percussion cap harpoon guns (missing ramrods) by C.C. Brand brought $2,640. A rare single flue harpoon marked “Wave N.B.” (the vessel Wave out of New Bedford) on one side and “W.B.” (indicating the waist boat) on the other sold for $1,500. The harpoon measured 32¼ inches.
A darting gun harpoon marked “L.B.” (for larboard boat) and “A.H.” for the ship Andrew Hicks was $840 to a Cape dealer.
The sculptural quality of the hand wrought iron whaling implements across the block was exceptional. Most were mounted on poles, made by crewmen as needed from native hardwood trees in whatever foreign land the ship worked. A 50-inch wrought iron and sheet steel blubber skimmer with a perforated bowl was impressive. Mounted on a 4½-inch native wood pole, it sold on the phone for $2,640.
A double-handled mincing knife with the original wood sheath elicited a bidding competition between the phone and a dealer in the room. The dealer prevailed at $1,440. A 32-inch boarding knife, used to cut blubber, and retaining the original two-piece sheath and handle had a nicely rusted blade and fetched $1,320. A 34-inch wrought iron blubber fork fetched $480. A wrought iron boat spade marked “cast steel, Peters,” measured 4 by 15 inches and was mounted on a 6½ foot native wood pole, and realized $720.
A 64-inch killing lance, with indistinct marks on the head and mounted on a 6-foot wood pole realized $480, while a 58-inch killing lance marked “Mortimer” and accompanied by a photograph of a whaleman holding it, went for $360.
Three darting gun harpoons, two with rusting heads, and a third with indistinct markings that might be “Wave” sold for an overall total of $1,140.
A lot of wooden gear from a whaler, including a pine sea chest, pulley blocks and dead eye, a water keg, floats and a bailing bucket realized $1,320.
Auctioneer Corcoran knows the names of most of his bidders. A bidder that he identified in the gallery as “Dennis from Connecticut” paid $540 for two Nineteenth Century South Pacific island canoe models that measured 25 and 35 inches, together with a coconut shell.
All prices reported include the one-time only 20 percent buyer’s premium. For information, 401-841-5780.
