Kaja Veilleux kicked off an exciting 2008 auction season on February 9‱0 with a successful winter fine art, antiques and rare coin sale at Thomaston Place Auction Galleries. The holidays may be a time of relaxation for many people, but Veilleux and his hardworking staff were busily assembling a first-of-the-year auction consisting of more than 1,000 lots of fresh-to-the-market antiques and coins.
Such hard works pays off; despite wintry weather over that weekend, the gallery was filled with enthusiastic bidders, and a large number of phone and Internet bidders actively vied for the treasures that crossed the block throughout the two-day sale.
Veilleux said, “It was an interesting sale. The weather was bad, but there were still a lot of people in the hall.” The auction grossed just shy of $1 million, in line with similar sales conducted in the past.
A diverse mix of merchandise is a Thomaston Place hallmark, and once again the auction house presented a wide range of categories comprising items that had been consigned to the auction from about a 50-mile radius, and nearly 90 percent of the lots stemmed from family estates. Featured were fabulous ship paintings, fine furniture and clocks, historical documents and ephemera, estate jewelry, gold and silver coins and firearms.
Representations of ships †both the one- and three-dimensional variety †seemed to float bidders’ boats. Top lot in the sale was an oil on canvas portrait of the side-wheeler steamboat Perry by James and John Bard. Achieving $48,950, the 17½-by-35-inch painting by the twin brothers from New York City depicted the boat in the choppy waters (probably Long Island Sound) with 11 gents in top hats strolling its deck. The painting was signed and dated 1845 and stenciled on the back “Prepared by Edw. Dechaux.”
Bidder interest was also keen for a highly detailed 1:48 scale model of automobile manufacturing pioneer Horace Dodge’s private motor yacht, the 258-foot SS Delphine , circa 1921, driving it to $39,600. Veilleux started the lot at $10,000, and then phones, absentee bids and floor action kicked in to propel it to its hammer price of $36,000. “It sold to someone in the gallery and will be staying in Maine,” stated Veilleux, who in an aside marveled that the underbidder who let it slip from his fingers was the Belgian businessman who had purchased the refurbished original vessel in 2003. Made by Croatian-born machinist Milan Rubessa, the 26-by-64-by-12½-inch scale model featured gold-plated deck fixtures and three steam reduction engines. Besides its authenticity-in-miniature, the model also came with an interesting provenance, having been purchased directly from the estate of Anna Thompson Dodge in 1971 by television host Gene Rayburn, who was the son of the model’s maker, Rubessa.
Less pricey marine art came in the form of a trio of oil on canvas ship portraits. One was another painting by the Bard brothers, this one depicting the side-wheeler steamboat St Nicholas, signed lower right by the twin brothers and dated 1845. Measuring 17½ by 35 inches, it sold for $16,500. Attaining $9,350 was S.F. Badger’s 1897 oil on canvas laid on Masonite portrait of the three-masted schooner George V. Jordan passing the twin lights of Thatcher Island, Rockport. Mass. A portrait of the coastal schooner Carrie E. Phillips sold for $4,400. Attributed to W.P. Stubbs (1842‱909), the 17½-by-27½-inch painting depicted the vessel underway in heavy seas.
From surf to turf, art highlights progressed to significant prices achieved for views ranging from California to New England. A Laguna, Calif., coastal scene with a screen of trees by Edgar Alwin Payne (1883‱947) enticed bidders to a final price of $38,500. Signed lower right and in its original carved and gilded corner frame, the 18-by-18-inch oil on canvas was a stellar example of the renowned Californian Impressionist’s plein air technique.
An oil on canvas view of “New England” by New York artist Stefan Hirsch (1899‱964) was unsigned, but the Precisionist-like work was labeled on the verso and bore provenance from New York City art dealer Stephan Bourgeois. The 10-by-10-inch oil on canvas made $22,000.
In the category of sculptural art, bidders took a fancy to a French Empire period terra cotta bust portrait of a young girl in the manner of Joseph Chinard (French, 1756‱813), which finished at $9,900. The bust featured the girl in high-waisted gown with ruched short sleeves. Later in the auction, another bust was offered, this one a marble life-sized portrait of a French aristocratic woman finely rendered in the style of the Louis XVI era. With flowing robe and lace topped bodice and décolletage, the 30-inch-tall bust on an integral socle commanded $5,500.
An ample selection of antique furniture was offered throughout the two days, but the first item to really catch fire in the gallery, nearly 50 lots into the auction on day one, may have seemed at first glance like some serviceable kindling. Stripped of its stuffing and upholstery, a French sofa frame that was late Eighteenth or early Nineteenth Century nevertheless displayed “good bones” in its carved French basswood frame, and it had fine deep relief floral and ribbon motifs with wing carved arm resets terminating in a cornucopia support. The sofa frame, with a bowed front set upon six fully carved round tapered legs, left the gallery at $3,850.
The sale’s top furniture lot, however, was a stately custom-made centennial replica of a circa 1770 New York Chippendale card table that brought $12,100. The mahogany four-leg table measuring 28 by 17 by 34½ inches had a swing left rear leg support, deep shaped top with bullnose edge and an ox-bow front apron with floral carved trim.
A diminutive English Hepplewhite bow front sideboard, its top inlaid across the front with seven lion heads with rings in their mouths and connected by swagged drape and flower inlay, found a new home at $8,800.
As different in style and aesthetic as night and day, two other pieces of furniture offered each brought $3,850. One was a Nineteenth Century classical mahogany marble top library table that featured a molded edge variegated black marble top and a single drawer, applied cast brass mounts and scroll stretcher supporting a central urn. The other was a simple Southern yellow pine hunt board, circa 1820, with recessed panel sides and exemplifying pegged and dovetailed construction.
Victorian furniture continued to be a bargain, with a two-section oak cabinet featuring a three-shelf interior, gothic arch side panels and bottom drawers with cast iron pulls finishing at $3,300.
A silver highlight with patriotic provenance stirred up interest early in the auction. A serving spoon made in the Eighteenth Century by Philip Syng Jr (1703‱789) of Philadelphia realized $20,350. The spoon was embossed three times with Syng’s mark and it was engraved on the reverse of the handle “WWM 1757” for William West Sr (1724‱782), an Irish immigrant and Philadelphia dry goods merchant who, as a member of the American Philosophical Society, fraternized with its founder Benjamin Franklin and Syng, the spoon’s maker. According to catalog notes, all three men signed the nonimportation agreement of 1765, which led to the institution of the tea tax by King George III.
The spoon sold to “an astute silver dealer, one of the most influential in the country,” said Veilleux.
A decorative arts highlight in the sale involved a pair of Regency period pole screens. The Chinese black lacquered wood panel on adjustable brass poles were set into wooden bases. Depicted on the screen panels in polychrome lacquer were Chinese scenes. Measuring 54 inches high and 15 inches wide each, the pair of screens made $5,500.
The sale offered a selection of clocks in all their predictable tall case glory, but an interesting related item, an astronomical regulator, circa 1890‱913, unsigned but cased in mahogany, weight driven with brass movement and painted steel dial, sold for $13,200. A tall case clock, circa 1800‱0, in walnut and with a dial signed by John Green, Carlisle, Penn., chimed at $7,150, and an early Nineteenth Century shelf clock in a mahogany case by Cade & Robinson, London, had an eight-day time and strike brass movement and achieved $3,300.
No Thomaston Place auction would be complete without historical documents and ephemera, and John F. Kennedy memorabilia fans were rewarded with a group of JFK-related material that came from a friend of Rose Kennedy. Comprising 8-by-10-inch glossy photos of JFK (signed), some with Jacqueline and Caroline, as well as official portraits of Rose Kennedy and Lady Bird Johnson, among others, the collection brought $1,870.
A document signed by Abraham Lincoln, a military appointment of First Lieutenant Benjamin Berkley of Company K, Washington, D.C. Guard, dated April 23, 1861, drew a winning bid of $3,850.
A bound folio of 16 Seventeenth⁅ighteenth Century maps of Italy that was compiled in 1812 fetched $5,500, while another bidder paid $2,200 for an original photograph portrait of Lakota Sioux Chief Red Cloud with his sons and compatriots taken in 1871 by photographers Mathew Brady and Levin Corbin Handy during the Indians’ visit to Washington, D.C.
Day two’s focus was trained on more than 160 lots of antique and estate jewelry, led by a pair of platinum ear pendants, circa 1930, each set at the top with a round brilliant-cut diamond, suspending a baguette-cut diamond and terminating with a round brilliant-cut fancy yellow diamond. The pendants sold for $22,000.
Bracelets also dazzled, including a Deco-style handmade platinum and diamond link bracelet that went for $9,075 and an Art Moderne example, handmade in platinum with sapphire and diamond links, that crested at $8,250.
Additional jewelry highlights included a large circa 1920 peridot enhancer pendant in a rectangular shape framed by 35 old mine-cut diamonds and 24 pearls in a 14K gold frame, which totaled $5,610. An antique woven 18K yellow gold necklace with 29 applied floral rosettes, 15 gold acorn-form drops and 14 gold-mounted tear-shaped emerald drops realized $3,740.
Pocket watches were highlighted by an 18K gold open face world time example by Golay Fils & Stahl, Geneva, its case monogrammed GTS, which clocked in at $7,150.
More than 180 lots of European and American estate gold and silver coins from three collections were offered, with Russian coins ruling the roost. A lot of four Russian coins comprising an 1897 7½ rubles, an 1897 five rubles, an 1888 five rubles and a ten dinar Siberia coin from 1882 fetched $2,200. Individual Russian high-flyers included an 1877 three rubles gold coin at $4,730 and a Russian 1828 five rubles coin that made $3,190.
Prices reported include the ten percent buyer’s premium. For information, 207-354-8141 or www.thomastonauction.com .
