The combination of the old and the new attracted a mixed crowd in search of the antique and the Twentieth Century to Landry Auctions’ December 5 auction. Antiques from area collections and estates vied for attention with artworks from the 1960s, many of which retained the original gallery receipts. The mix was interesting and the crowd was gratified.
A selection of modern art from a suburban Boston home had been gathered before 1970 and was met with favor by the assembled dealers and collectors. The highlight was “The Hunt,” a 1967 acrylic and oil and canvas work by contemporary Spanish artist Juan Genoves that brought $6,325.
The highlight of more traditional art across the block was a large framed Nineteenth Century primitive portrait of two children with a white dog that came from an area house and went to the trade for $3,450.
“Three Eakins Rowers” by American artist Sante Graziani, a 1968 acrylic painting, evoked the highly regarded sculling painting by Thomas Eakins. It sold for $1,035. Belgian artist Roger Raveel’s 1967 gouache of a shod lower left leg and foot realized $2,990 on the phone. Raveel was part of the Nieuwe Visie (New Vision) in the 1960s.
“Daybreak,” a 1966 oil on canvas by Gabor Peterdi, realized $1,380 from a phone bidder, and a Plexiglas work by Dutch sculptor Carel Visser sold for $1,725. Four phones went after “Night Leaf,” a Formica work by Louise Nevelson, numbered 22/150 and retaining a Pace gallery label, that sold for $1,840. An abstract composition by Joseph Albers went for $1,380, and a 30-by-34-inch work in Liquitex by Jim Huntington was $863.
A large ceramic bowl by New Hampshire potters Mary and Edwin Scheier in hues of greens and blues and incised with figures sold to a phone bidder for $5,520. It came from an area home.
Among the other traditional representational works, the wintry watercolor “Chapel in the Snow” by New York native Walter Launt Palmer from a Marblehead, Mass., home stirred up a phone competition and sold for $2,990. The landscape “Summer in Vermont” by Pennsylvania artist Esther Groome brought $863. “The Source,” a KPM German portrait on porcelain, after Ingres, sold for $1,093, and a lot of four miniature portraits on ivory represented a good buy at $230.
A mirror in a 1907 Carrig-Rohane gilt frame bore Herman Dudley Murphy’s monogram and retained a label from the Society of Arts and Crafts of Detroit. It realized $1,035.
The book, By Salt Marshes , a 1908 collaboration between Ipswich artist Arthur Wesley Dow and Ipswich poet Everett Stanley Hubbard, included poems by Hubbard and nine color woodcuts of Ipswich. It came from a Gloucester collection and went to a Boston dealer for $1,150.
A historic 1857 document signed by Nathaniel Hawthorne brought $1,265. Hawthorne signed the document as Consul to Liverpool, having been appointed to the position by college classmate President Franklin Pierce. The document referred to the delivery of a crew list for the condemned vessel Sea Lion and was consigned by a Cape Ann descendant of the owner of the ship.
A Massachusetts Hepplewhite mahogany bowfront four-drawer chest with bellflower inlay was attributed to Abiel White of Weymouth and stirred much interest. From an Ipswich, Mass., home, it drew $5,520 from a New England dealer.
A late Nineteenth Century Georgian partners’ desk with a leather top sold for $2,875, and a Chippendale mahogany slant lid desk realized $1,265 from an absentee buyer.
A lacquer lap desk with mother-of-pearl inlay sold for $920; a Nineteenth Century secretary a abattant was $690; a Duncan Phyfe style dining table and six chairs realized $1,121; a triple pedestal mahogany dining table was $983; and an oak office cupboard with many flat document drawers sold for $863.
A Chinese opium bed was $690; a Chinese fan in a gilt framed shadow box brought $230; Herman Miller Eames’ rosewood chair and ottoman sold for $1,610; a fancy pretzel-style swivel chair in green sold for $493; a good-looking burl wood octagonal stand sold for $569; a grain painted dome top document box was $978; and a Shaker oval box brought $633.
A Victorian-bordering-on-Aesthetic-Movement stained glass fire screen fetched $690, and a pair of chenets was $345.
A Georg Jensen silver flatware service for 12 in the Lily of the Valley pattern sold for $1,725, and a flatware service by English maker C.J. Vander, Ltd, brought $1,610. A four-piece Gorham sterling tea set fetched $748, while a five-piece Gorham silver tea service brought $460.
A Japanese Edo kabuto (helmet) from a Marblehead, Mass., collection went to a Boston dealer on the phone for $1,725.
A lot that included a pair of Mexican spurs, a bridle and a whip elicited $1,265, while a lot of early surveyor’s instruments sold for $375. A box lot of toys that included Tootsie Toy warships realized $575. A German teddy bear, along with two other animals, sold for $403; a Steiff mohair teddy bear fetched $345; and a cast iron fire truck garnered $259.
A pair of goose form cast iron andirons stamped “Howes Boston” came from a Marblehead, Mass., home and sold for $633.
Two pieces of Orrefors crystal, an octagonal goblet with particularly fine etching and an unadorned vase realized $1,323. Three pieces of Wedgwood black basalt, a pair of figural candlesticks and a vase, drew $978, and a Wedgwood Jasperware jardinière went for $276. A pair of polychrome prickets sold for $920, and a Grand Tour slate column fetched $604. A lot of ten French porcelain armorial plates with green borders made in Limoges sold for $575; a square Rose Mandarin plate had some restoration, yet brought $345; and a lot of ten Quimper plates fetched $127.
A Navajo transitional weaving from a Concord, Mass., home sold for $1,265, and a Star of the East appliqué quilt was $748.
A phone buyer took a Persian Imperial Order of the Lion and Sun for $546, and the same order in a shadow box for $431. An absentee buyer paid $288 for a lot of five walking sticks, two of which had bone handles. A cane with a gold top sold in the room for $173, and another example was $127.
All prices reported include the 15 percent buyer’s premium. For information, www.landryauctions.com or 978-768-6233.
