The sale’s top price, $17,500, was earned by this 18K gold Cartier flask-form cigarette case, 4-3/8 inches high by 3¼ inches wide, 146.3 pennyweights, which was consigned by a Connecticut gentleman.

Review by Kiersten Busch

WOODBURY, CONN. — It was a celebration for Schwenke Auctioneers on July 8, as the firm conducted its Sixteenth Anniversary Fine Estates Auction, which saw more than 600 lots cross the block. Mainly featuring the first part of the estate collection of designer, collector and former Winterthur Museum docent Bobbie Hainline Howrey — also the life partner of firm president Thomas Schwenke — the sale included additional items from estates and collections in New York City, Westchester County (N.Y.), Massachusetts and Connecticut.

The day was led by an 18K gold Cartier flask-form cigarette case consigned from a Connecticut gentleman. Cataloged as a “possibly unique flask shape,” the case had a telescoping sliding inner and outer case construction and was marked “Cartier Paris.” It puffed out a $17,500 finish to win the day, headed home with an internet bidder. Two additional Cartier lots sold: a 14K gold round pill box closed for $2,125 and a 14K gold and sterling cigarette case was smothered out at $1,500.

The Howrey collection made up more than 130 lots of the sale, and included notable selections such as a lot of two 18K gold snuff boxes and three 10K gold bar pins which gleamed at $2,875, a group of 13 monogrammed Preisner sterling tumblers which were polished off for $2,250 and a Nantucket friendship basket made in 2005 and signed “Terry Sylvia’s Basket Studio Nantucket Island” which closed its lid for $1,625.

Recently deaccessioned from the Wadsworth Athenaeum Museum of Art, Hartford Conn., where it had been on loan and exhibited since 1988, this Phelps-Hathaway Connecticut Queen Anne cherrywood bonnet-top highboy, 87 inches high, went to an internet bidder for $10,625.

Deaccessioned from the Wadsworth Athenaeum Museum of Art in Hartford, Conn., a Phelps-Hathaway Connecticut Queen Anne cherrywood bonnet-top highboy was heavily featured in pre-sale promotional material and earned the second-highest price: $10,625. Made in the Suffield-Windsor area of Connecticut circa 1750-65, the 87-inch-high piece of furniture still had its carved original central finial and original finish and hardware. It had extensively documented provenance but was most notably property of a Pennsylvania family by descent.

Four other lots of Queen Anne furniture found new homes to decorate, including a Salem, Mass., figured maple and walnut highboy ($1,125), a New England maple fan-carved highboy ($250), an English inlaid walnut lowboy ($188) and two brass Queen Anne candlesticks ($156). A painted country Queen Anne-style side chair was the only lot of the group that passed.

Tables of all shapes, makes and sizes also received a range of bids, from the $63 earned by an Edwardian figured mahogany inlaid Pembroke table, a Nineteenth Century inlaid rosewood occasional table and a Nineteenth Century round top mahogany occasional table, to the $10,625 earned by a pair of terracotta Corinthian capital tables. The latter could “trace their origin to Rhode Island circa 1870s,” according to consignor Michael Trapp of Cornwall, Conn., in an auction catalog note. He also wrote, “the unique shaped tops with neoclassical faux painted decoration were fabricated by Moana, an exclusive international art restoration studio, circa 1970s.”

This Chinese-style Chippendale carved mahogany cabinet or stand was made in England in the Nineteenth Century and measured 85 inches high; it shut its doors for $6,875.

A Chinese-style Chippendale carved mahogany cabinet or stand went home with an internet bidder for $6,875, leading 48 lots of Chinese items including furniture, figures, prints, clothing and accessories. The cabinet, made in the Nineteenth Century, had an open carved pagoda top which rested over the upper case decorated with birds of prey and pendant bellflower detailing. Additional notable lots from the category included an enameled and gilt bronze foo lion censer ($5,000), an early bronze seated Daoist scholar figure mounted as a lamp ($4,688), an embroidered silk short robe ($4,375) and a porcelain hexagonal footed vase ($4,063).

Turning away from furniture and looking towards artwork, an untitled lithograph in colors by Roy Lichtenstein, signed and dated “94/200 R. Lichtenstein ’71,” was bid to $9,375 by an internet bidder, the highest price of four lots of lithographs. The work also had “C” and “II” impressed in circles on its lower right, alongside the copyright symbol for Gemini G.E.L., the printmakers in Los Angeles that were its publishers. The lithograph also had extensively documented provenance, beginning with collectors Barbara and Ellis David Schwartz, then by descent. Auction notes explained, “The item is remembered as having been in the Schwartz family home in Westchester County, N.Y., since the late 1970s. It is believed that Ellis and Barbara Schwartz purchased from a gallery in New York City, but the documentation has not been found.”

Earning a colorful $9,375 was this untitled lithograph in colors by Roy Lichtenstein (American, 1923-1997), 1971, 31 inches square (sheet), numbered “94/200.”

Slicing their way to some killer prices were 18 lots of knives, ranging in price from $188 for an M. Franklin fixed blade sporting knife, to $5,625 for an HH Frank engraved gold and steel penknife. The latter, custom-made in 1986, combined 14K and 10K gold with ornate handwork, resulting in a finished product which involved more than 168 man-hours. The 5¾-inch-long knife had a 2-3/8-inch-long blade and was accompanied by several items of correspondence between the purchaser and HH Frank.

Prices quoted include buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, 203-266-0323 or www.woodburyauction.com.