Matters presidential captured bidder interest here Presidents’ Day weekend, when George Washington dominated the action at Skinner’s Americana sale February 15. The previews were crowded and extra chairs were needed for the sale.
The top lot was a stunner: a miniature watercolor on ivory portrait of the president painted by Robert Field in 1801 that brought $336,000 from a phone bidder. The image is one of two depictions of the president in full dress commissioned after his death by Martha Washington as mementos for family members. Both portraits, each in an oval gilt brass case with a lock of the president’s hair on the reverse, descended in the Custis family to two brothers. When the image of Washington in full dress sold at Skinner in November 2008 for $303,000 to the Yale University Art Gallery, the other brother decided to consign his miniature portrait. The successful bidder this time out was a collector with a lifelong interest in Washington and who beat out a number of other interested private collectors.
A neoclassical French ormolu mantel clock made in Paris by Jean-Baptiste Dubuc in 1810 and depicting Washington in full military dress with a sword sold for $112,575. The clock was presented to Ralston Lovell Gould, chamberlain of the City of New York just after 1900. The figure of Washington clutches his 1783 letter of resignation to Congress as he regards an eagle. The clock descended in the Gould family and went to a collector.
Other presidential material fared well also. An 1840 presidential campaign banner touting the exploits and presidential qualities of William Henry Harrison sold for $21,330. The catalog notes that the banner, made by W. Howard of Roseville, Ohio, is considered an example of the first modern presidential campaign material.
A presidential snuffbox with a portrait of James Monroe commanded interest and sold in the gallery for $5,925.
Bidding on a Federal patent banjo clock by Simon Willard, circa 1805, opened at $42,500 and escalated quickly to $130,350. The clock had at one time belonged to John Ware Willard, the maker’s great-grandson and author of Simon Willard and His Clocks . The clock sold previously at Kenneth W. van Blarcom’s auction of the collection of Lloyd and Vivien Hawes in 2000, when it realized $79,875. Speaking by telephone several days after the sale, Skinner’s clock expert and new head of the science and horology department, Robert C. Cheney, said the clock’s rare and wonderful condition drove the price. It came from a private collection.
An imposing (92 inches) Boston Queen Anne walnut tall clock by Gawen Brown, circa 1760, with an eight day time, strike and alarm five pillar movement, sold for $44,438. The dial was engraved “Gawen Brown, Brattle Street, Boston.” It, too, came from a private collection and went to dealer Gary Sullivan.
The second group of clocks from the 40-year Herbert Nilson collection included a Simon Willard mahogany patent alarm lighthouse clock from about 1830 that fetched $71,100 from a dealer on the phone. The glass dome was a replacement, which lessened the price.
Another rare clock from the Nilson collection was a Pennsylvania shelf clock with four turned columns and four brass urn-form finials made by Samuel S. Grosch of Marietta, Penn., that brought $34,365 from a Texas collector. Cheney said that the clock was published several times about 30 years ago and there had been much speculation as to its whereabouts.
Cheney noted that while most of the clocks across the block fared nicely, he was struck by the strength of a couple of reproduction examples. A mahogany “Aaron Willard” wall clock by contemporary maker T.E. Burleigh Jr of Winchester, Mass., sold for $9,480, a price considerably less than the original cost, but particularly strong for a replica. A reproduction diamond head timepiece by Foster S. Campos of Pembroke, Mass., was $7,703, also a factor of the Campos name.
A J. Howard weathervane in the form of an ox was made with a cast zinc head and front body, while the rest was molded copper. It came from a local collector and went to the trade for $56,288. Speaking of it after the sale, Executive Vice President Stephen Fletcher was admiring, “It had perfect color, surface and form.”
Only some 80 lots of furniture crossed the block. Among them, a late Eighteenth Century Chippendale maple chest-on-chest with fan carving and attributed to John Dunlap had old refinish and sold for $22,515. A North Shore Massachusetts Chippendale birch oxbow chest with a fan carved drop bore the label of T.K. Jewitt, the Ipswich, Mass., agent for the Canton and Pekin [sic] Tea Company and was inscribed “Treadwell and Jewett” on the side of a drawer. It realized $18,960.
Eliciting $15,404, a late Eighteenth Century Chippendale mahogany upholstered armchair that was identified as “probably” coastal New Hampshire or Maine in origin had square beaded front legs and scrolling rear legs.
A Federal mahogany Pembroke table with copious inlay, made probably around Litchfield, Conn., and descended from Eunice Pixley Welles, was $17,775. Fletcher described it several days after the sale as “lovely” and the most examined piece in the auction. A pair of Federal card tables, circa 1795, bearing the label of Newburyport cabinetmaker Joseph Short was also $17,775 from Peter Sawyer.
A Federal birch easy chair thought to be from Portsmouth, N.H., had a serpentine seat rail and ring turned legs and brought $13,035. A nearly identical example is pictured in Brock Jobe’s Portsmouth Furniture . A late Seventeenth Century turned maple great chair had been refinished and went for $9,480. It was thought to be a Long Island, N.Y., piece.
A diminutive Massachusetts Federal mahogany sideboard with a central pullout shelf above two drawers sold for $15,405.
A Connecticut Queen Anne cherry tea table with a tray top fetched $22,515. The piece was purchased at auction at Andersen Galleries in New York for $275 in 1932 by Ruth Welles Worthen. The table descended in her family and from her kinswoman Eunice Pixley Welles.
An elegantly simple Massachusetts Queen Anne drop leaf table, circa 1740‱760, had been found in the garage at a Salem house and it sold for $10,073.
A Massachusetts Queen Anne mahogany dressing table from the Salem area drew $8,295, while a Philadelphia Chippendale mahogany card table carved by Martin Jugiez was estimated at $150/250,000, but failed to sell.
Two Italian watercolor and gouache ship portraits were attributed initially to Guiseppe Fedi, but the attribution was changed subsequently to Michele Felice Corne. As he offered them, auctioneer Steve Fletcher said while there was much discussion of their origins, no consensus had developed. Buyers made the decision for themselves: The painting identified below the image as “The Ship Thomas of Boston Coming into the Port of Naples, Jeremiah Mantor Master 1805″ brought $22,515 from a phone bidder. The other picture, “The Brigh [sic] Attalan of Boston / Captain Taylor / Departing from Naples” went to a different bidder on the phone for $14,220.
Another watercolor and gouache view of “The Ship Alfred of Salem / Joseph Felt Master / Leaving Marseilles October 6, 1806″ by Maltese artist Nicholas Cammillieri sold for $21,330, also on the phone. Yet another phone bidder paid $14,220 for a watercolor and gouache identified as “Brig Charles Leaving the Port of Havre de Grace for Boston Ebenezer Meacom Commander” that was attributed to French artist Montardier. The same bidder took the portrait of the brig Asia “Leaving Palermo Dec’r 25th 1827” for $4,720.
“Nantucket Courtship,” a 1971 oil on Masonite by Ralph Cahoon, boasted two mermaids, two sailors and one hot air balloon, bringing $21,330 from a buyer on the phone. The painting was estimated at $10/15,000.
The folk portrait of a small child in a white dress and bonnet sitting in a Windsor chair against a strong green background, circa 1820, was attributed to Micah Williams and realized $21,330. An almost abstract folk portrait on poplar panel of a youthful gentleman was attributed to Asahel Lynde Powers and fetched $9,480.
Two unsigned portraits, circa 1850, by William Matthew Prior depicted sisters, each in a red dress and each shown against a tasseled drapery. Frances Eudora Taylor is shown holding a bouquet of flowers and sold to a phone bidder for $18,960. Her sister, Adele Clementine Taylor, is shown holding a sprig of flowers and brought $7,110 from a buyer in the gallery. The sisters lived in Stafford Springs, Conn.
“Peek-a-Boo Kitty” by Long Island, N.Y., artist James Long Scudder was signed and dated 1872. Depicting a cat peeking through a round hole in a wood panel, it realized $10,073. A rectangular (46 by 22½ inches) portrait of a girl in a deep blue dress with bright red shoes and a red book was also $10,073.
A longtime collection of portrait miniatures that came to auction included some examples that inspired competition. A watercolor and gouache on ivory image of a gentleman, circa 1785, that was attributed to American portraitist William Verstille sold for $4,148. Another of William Greenleaf, circa 1778, was attributed to the Irish portraitist John Ramage and it brought $3,555.
A powder horn inscribed “Benjamin Bellows Jun’r His Horn made at No. 4 / August 30th 1757” and engraved with a verse and foliage and geometric designs fetched $21,330. Bellows was the son of Colonel Benjamin Bellows for whom Bellows Falls, Vt., was named. The horn, which according to the catalog notes, bears design elements similar to those of the Lake George School of horn decoration, descended in the Bellows family.
A painted pine trade sign decorated on both sides with the image of a Native American, each pictured near a stream in a hilly landscape, sold on the phone for $17,775.
A sweet pine miniature sled in vivid red paint and a soldier on horseback, and with “Harry” emblazoned on the runners, realized $3,851. The back of the sled, which measured 12 inches in length, was inscribed “The sled was made for Harry (me) by my father in 1876 and painted by Charles Mountefort, a neighbor.”
A late Nineteenth or early Twentieth Century cast iron garden ornament in the form of a 60½-inch Statue of Liberty attracted interest, soaring above its estimate to sell for $13,035.
A 1787 Massachusetts copper cent with a figure of an Indian holding a bow and arrow, similar to the early seal of the Commonwealth now deemed politically incorrect, and a figure of an eagle on the other side sold for $1,659. Another bit of Massachusetts history was a blue Staffordshire platter with a transfer image of the state house by Rogers and Son, Longport, England, that went to $1,778. An engraving of Boston Harbor by Charles Mottram after John William Hill realized $1,067.
Among a group of transfer ware was a late Eighteenth Century pearlware mug decorated with the image “Old Women Ground Young” depicting older women climbing into a hopper from which they emerge young and radiant. Probably beats Botox. It sold for $711. A Liverpool jug with a transfer decoration of George Washington on one side and figures of Liberty and Justice on the other and the name Benjamin Larrabee realized $3,081. A portrait miniature of Larrabee, a Portland, Maine, sea captain, was $474.
All prices reported include the buyer’s premium. For information, www.skinnerinc.com or 508-970-3000.
