In the end it was inside a cavernous but nondescript moving and storage warehouse that collectors and dealers got to see another side of Charles G. Martignette Jr, co-author of The Great American Pin-up , considered to be the bible of this quintessentially American illustration genre. Mid-Hudson Auction Galleries had been chosen by the estate’s trustees to conduct an auction of the lifelong collection voraciously assembled by the late dealer/collector. The auction took place June 6 and 7 at the warehouse of AA Varco Moving and Storage.
Martignette, formerly of Somerville, Mass., died at the age of 57 of apparent heart failure in February 2008. He had lived in Florida for 35 years and was recognized as a world renowned art collector, dealer and historian.
An acknowledged authority in the field of American illustration art and internationally recognized as an author, dealer, appraiser and collector of original artwork by America’s great Twentieth Century illustrators and artists, Martignette’s collection numbered more than 4,000 works, the largest in the world.
At the time of his death, Walt Reed, founder of the Illustration House, a New York City-based gallery devoted to the art and history of illustration, who became acquainted with Martignette in the 1970s and mentored the young collector, said, “Charles Martignette never saw a picture †illustration †he didn’t like †and didn’t want to possess! He was a compulsive collector.”
Indeed, Joanne Grant, owner of Mid-Hudson Auction Galleries, recalled that Martignette, whom she knew personally, was known to acquire items, pack them up immediately and put them in storage. When he died suddenly last year, Grant, whose business is based in Cornwell-On-Hudson, N.Y., was called in by the estate’s trustee to help appraise the prodigious array of sculpture, artwork, art glass, advertising and erotica that was emerging from storage containers and Martignette’s home. She arrived in Florida in mid-September 2008 and by mid-October, she, her partner and two art handlers accomplished the task. The trustees ultimately chose her firm to conduct the auction.
“I was a little dubious of conducting an auction in Southern Florida in June in a warehouse, but in the end it turned out to be the perfect venue,” said Grant. The trustees saw to it that the facility was equipped with air-conditioning, security cameras and a big gate for security during the three-day preview and the auction. And, because so many of Martignette’s treasures were crated up in storage containers, having access to fork lifts for heavy lifting also turned out to be a plus.
“It was a spectacular sale,” said Grant, “beyond my wildest imagination.” The turnout for the sale was very good, she said, owing to the fact that there were items that had never before been on the market, some in their original cartons. About 500 people showed up over the three-day preview, some out of curiosity. The sale itself had 60 registered bidders, about 120 in the impromptu saleroom and numerous others competing by telephone and in real time on the Internet. Although some 290 bidders were registered online for the Saturday session, Grant found it interesting that 80 percent of the items sold in the room and only 20 percent to the Internet, 12 percent on Sunday. “It was a good old-fashioned auction in that respect,” she said.
The top lot in the sale, at $11,400, was a rare McClelland Barclay (American, 1891‱943) bronze, 30½ inches high, portraying a curvy “Spirit of Speed” and inscribed with a Roman Bronze Works, New York, foundry mark. Although St Louis, Mo., native Barclay was a painter of pin-up art, he also established a business in the late 1930s that reproduced jewelry and created ashtrays, lamps and other products out of cast gray metal with a thick bronze plate finish. The “Spirit of Speed” bronze was chased by three phones and three very strong bidders in the room, according to Grant.
Bidding on the lot, which was estimated $8/12,000, opened with a nibble from the Internet and stayed active to the $7,500 mark, where two phone bidders commenced dueling †only to lose to a determined floor bidder, an out-of-state collector who had flown to Florida for the auction.
The “Dean of Illustrators,” Dean Cornwell (1892‱960) was the focus of bidder competition when a “leftover” painting by the American artist found among Martignette’s prodigious belongings that were in storage crossed the block. The majority of the dealer’s illustration collection was sold in a private transaction to Dallas-based Heritage Auction Galleries, which is featuring the work of greats such as Norman Rockwell, J.C. Leyendecker, Gil Elvgren, Maxfield Parrish and Alberto Vargas from Martignette’s estate in its July 15 auction.
A couple illustrations, however, such as the Cornwell, escaped detection on the first pass through the dealer’s extensive belongings and thus made it into the Mid-Hudson Auction Galleries sale.
Martignette was “rich in Dean Cornwells,” said Grant, and, indeed, the late dealer was credited with searching out, acquiring and preserving the life’s work of Cornwell. The work featured in this auction was an oil on canvas applied to Masonite, untitled but signed and depicting a gentleman in a nighttime setting. Measuring 29 by 22 inches, the work was bid aggressively by two strong bidders in the room, one of whom had come especially for that lot, and it sold to the room at $9,000.
Another overlooked illustration that did not go into the Heritage sale †an oil on canvas by American illustrator Joseph F. Kernan (1878‱959) documenting the antics of mischievous youths in “Tussling After School,” 26 by 21 inches †brought $7,200.
The sale’s focus shifted quickly back to important bronzes as a large (25 by 28 inches) grouping of “Leda and the Swan,” circa 1897, by Nineteenth Century Italian artist Mario Rutelli also commanded $7,200. A bronze recast of Harriet Frishmuth’s “Crest of the Wave,” three-quarters life-size at 62 inches, also made $7,200, going to the Internet.
Another dimension to Martignette’s collecting passion was revealed in the lineup of Italian art glass, which included a Dino Martens Oriente vase for Aureliano Toso and a Barovier & Toso freeform vase with a blue circular spiral decoration. The latter, made in the 1950s and measuring 13½ inches high, performed well against its $1/1,500 presale estimate, selling for $3,900. The Dino Martens example was 14 inches tall, and also bested its $1/1,500 presale estimate by a mile, bringing $5,100. And yet one more Dino Martens vase, estimated $700․1,000, reached $4,500. All of the art glass lots went to collectors bidding in the room.
They do not appear often in the marketplace, but airplane and airline model airplanes were once quite popular as a form of advertising and marketing. Martignette collected them, and the sale offered large-size painted aluminum models for Delta, Eastern, National, Northwest, Northeast, United and TWA. There seemed to be a lot of interest in these, according to Grant, with about three to four bidders vying for each lot that came up.
The leading lot among the model craft was a TWA version of a Lockheed Constellation Super G. Standing 31 inches high by 33 inches wide on its original metal base, the plane that had been estimated at just $400/600 soared to $3,600.
With ever an eye to the “naughty,” Martignette amassed a collection of erotic fine art that ranged from classical to kitsch. A standout in this category was an Eighteenth Century French lacquered snuff box. Titled “La Pucelle d’orleans,” after Voltaire’s scandalous poem satirizing Joan of Arc, the 3½-inch snuff box looked innocuous enough, its cover portraying a classic couple embracing in a vineyard. When its false bottom was opened, however, the couple’s activities took on a decidedly more bawdy aspect. Estimated $400/600, the snuff box sold to the phone for $2,040.
Another example, a Nineteenth Century European 800 silver cigarette case, had an enameled scene of a bathing nude with attendant. It made $1,920 against a $400/600 presale estimate.
“We were very happy with the results of this sale, and shipping was minimized by conducting it at the warehouse,” said Grant in conclusion. “Having known Charles personally, I felt very privileged to conduct the auction for the estate.”
Prices reported include the 20 percent buyer’s premium. For additional information, www.midhudsongalleries.com or 914-882-7356.
