A standing-room-only crowd set the pace for keen competition and soaring prices at Winter Associates’ recent auction. The sale included museum and estate property and attracted bidders from as far away as California and Canada. It was clear the crowd was in a buying mood when early in the sale a blue transfer sugar bowl decorated with an American eagle and estimated at $350/500 sold for $1,904.

Other ceramics in the sale performed better than expected as well. A Nineteenth Century Liverpool pitcher decorated with the ship Connecticut soared to a final price of $5,824, despite some minor damage.

Furniture too encouraged some strong bidding. Early on, a tavern table with Eighteenth Century elements garnered a bid of $1,456. A little later a pair of early Nineteenth Century painted birdcage Windsor chairs commanded $5,488, well above the $1,5/3,000 estimate. Another Windsor chair, this time a sack back, sold for $1,008. Attracting the attention of several bidders, a late Eighteenth Century hutch table sold for $4,760, while a circa 1800 Massachusetts bow front chest sold for $2,240. Continental furnishings also performed well. A Louis XV provincial commode doubled its high estimate, selling for $4,760; and a gilt neoclassical mirror sold for $1,792 to a buyer in California.

Two paintings by Russell Cheney, a view of the Governor Langdon House and a Venetian scene sold for $1,344 and $1,288, respectively. A Frederick Durck oil sold for $4,480; while a Ludwig Bemelmans oil sold for $7,168 and a Jane Peterson watercolor/gouache reached $5,600, both exceeding their high estimates. Two European subject oils attributed to Horace Chauncey Johnson, one of a woman, the other a view of Rome, sold for $3,640 and $2,352, respectively. Also attracting a lot of interest was a Josephine M. Lewis portrait of a young girl. After intense floor and phone bidding the painting sold for $5,040.

Other rdf_Descriptions of note include a Bradley & Hubbard reverse painted lamp, which sold for $2,352; a Nineteenth Century cellerette, which brought $1,344; a Hollywood autograph album, which sold for $1,008; and a sapphire and ruby bracelet, which reached a final price of $1,344.

Prices quoted include the 12 percent buyer’s premium.