An important painting by American artist Martin Johnson Heade and a monumental pair of Sevres architectural scale urns soared to unexpected heights at Thomaston Place Auction Galleries’ Labor Day weekend sale on August 30 and 31.
The Heade painting, “Roman Newsboys II,” was expected to do well and was featured on the back cover of the sale catalog. Estimated at $150/200,000, the rare genre scene elicited spirited bidding action †all on the floor †and went to a private buyer in Maine for $522,500, including the auction house’s ten percent buyer’s premium.
The painting is the second version of a similar work of the same title painted in Rome in 1848 that currently hangs in the Toledo Museum of Art. This is a very rare example of a genre scene by Heade, and the two versions of this appear to be the only examples of this genre scene to have survived.
The sale catalog’s cover lot, a pair of Sevres architectural scale entryway urns in cobalt blue glaze with hand painted panels of Allegories of the Arts, also surpassed their $25/35,000 presale estimate, chased by many bidders, 11 of them on the phones, before going to a New York City phone bidder for $79,750. One couple flew in all the way from Sweden to contend for the urns.
Although they were unsuccessful, “They walked away happy with a nice painting and carpet,” according to Bob Grant, Thomaston Place Galleries’ auction manager.
A full report on this sale will appear in an upcoming issue.
