The Chinese trade made its way here for Kaminski Auctions’ June 25′6 sale beneath a tent featuring Asian art from two area collections that had been gathered in the Twentieth Century.
One estate was the Gilford, N.H., collection of US Navy surgeon Harold A. Streit who, with his wife Elizabeth, acquired some impressive Asian art while on tours of duty in Europe and the Far East. The other was that of the late Emmett J. Flavin, chief civil engineer of Cook County, Ill., who traveled widely across the Orient in the 1920s. The material from the East culled the highest interest on the part of buyers and was pretty much the soul of the sale.
The highlight was a highly colorful and detailed late Nineteenth Century Turkish diorama made with one panel depicting the deceased sultan in his coffin attended by mourners and the other depicting whirling dervishes and other court figures in mourning ceremonies sold for $19,550. The diorama in highly colored polychrome and gilt was housed in a modern Plexiglas case. It went to a phone bidder.
A group of four small porcelain objects, the largest of which measured 2½ inches, comprising two bowls in a fuchsia glaze and decorated with dragons, a water coupe with a blue green decoration and a blue and white vessel decorated with chrysanthemums realized $14,950.
A porcelain plaque painted with a misty mountainous landscape with calligraphy and one seal sold for $5,750, while a set of four porcelain plaques each depicting two figures in a landscape brought $1,380.
Porcelain was a standout in the sale as evinced with a Chinese porcelain glazed and under glazed water coupe in tones of peach and green that realized $1,495, and a Nineteenth Century blue and white porcelain jar decorated with blue Chinese characters drew $1,265 from a phone bidder. A Nineteenth Century pair of 9-inch Chinese porcelain blue and white ginger jars with carved rosewood tops and bases brought $1,840. They came from a California collection and sold online.
The Eighteenth or Nineteenth Century Chinese Export centerpiece bowl with elaborate gilt bronze mounts fetched $2,185, and two Nineteenth Century Chinese Export blue and white porcelain garden seats went for $1,955.
Furniture also crossed the block, led by an exceptional pair of Chinese elm wood Southern official’s hat chairs that sold on the phone for $10,350. Other furniture included a mid-Nineteenth Century Imperial folio stand with elaborately carved dragons and foliage and a single drawer at the bottom that sold for $4,313. An early Chinese rosewood curio cabinet attracted $1,610.
A fine lacquered wood brush pot brought $5,750 from an Internet buyer, and a bronze incense burner fetched $2,530.
Jade standouts included a carved white jade figure of a bird with russet accents that fetched $3,220, and a pale celadon jade incense box carved in cylindrical form going to an Asian dealer under the tent for $2,300. A late Nineteenth or early Twentieth Century carved green jade table screen in an ornate rosewood frame elicited $1,955.
A lot of two white jade rings, along with a green jade example, together with a rock crystal example inscribed with gilt characters and two seals, brought $1,840, while a 28-inch carved marble figure of a seated Buddha sold for $1,295.
Two Chinese dealers chased a Nineteenth Century Chinese teakwood scepter with three carved jade panels to $1,955, while a carved Chinese hardwood box with mother-of-pearl and hardstone inlay on a carved base elicited $1,380.
Also crossing the block were a Chinese scroll painting on rice paper of a man playing a musical instrument that fetched $1,725; a pair of Japanese door panels decorated with cranes in landscapes, described as Seventeenth or Eighteenth Century, for $2,825; and a solander case of 28 Japanese woodblock prints by such artists as Utamaro, Toyokuni and Hokusai, several of which were from the circa 1900 collection of Dr Charles G. Weld of Boston, that sold for $2,300.
Some American and European lots attracted interest, but not to the extent of the Asian lots and it was the American material that edged out the English and Continental lots. A Nineteenth Century gold badge with colorful enamel decoration in the form of the insignia of the Society of Cincinnati proclaiming “Omnia Relinot Servat Remph” brought $9,775, while another gold example with more subdued enamel colors was $4,888.
American furniture offerings included an early Nineteenth Century Salem Federal mahogany card table with rope twist carved legs broken by acanthus carving, elegant diamond inlay and turret corners that went for $3,163.
A late Eighteenth or early Nineteenth Century Boston or Salem Federal mahogany bowfront chest with satinwood and ebony inlay was $2,875.
Other highlights included a powder horn carved with an image of Philadelphia and decorated with the English monarchy’s coat of arms that realized $1,295, and a Steinway and Company, New York, ebonized concert grand piano E series that made a gratifying $19,550.
An early Continental walnut monk’s desk, described as Fifteenth or Sixteenth Century, perhaps Dutch, made with multiple drawers, applied figures and lion’s feet realized $1,380.
English furniture also found favor with a 109-inch oak refectory table that was carved robustly and fetched $8,625, while a set of six carved walnut chairs, some carved with crowns and others with flowers, took $1,380.
An Eighteenth Century Continental oak lift top chest with panels carved as folded scrolls and a fancifully wrought escutcheon sold for $2,875.
An English coffer, estimated to date from about 1450, was carved with Gothic elements and what appeared to be later pinwheel designs sold for $1,840, while a cased lot of ten Nineteenth Century French bronze medals of various cathedrals, each signed, brought $1,265.
A sunny American landscape by Levi Wells Prentice of a river scene with cattle, a dog, a sailing vessel and windmills realized $4,888.
Other art highlights included two Nineteenth Century American school portraits of a man and a woman, each dressed in black and each in a matching gilt frame, that brought $2,300 each, and a Cape Ann oil on board, “Gloucester Boats,” by contemporary Gloucester artist Robert Gruppe sold for $1,295.
A Nineteenth Century English portrait of an Eighteenth Century gentleman in an oval pinchbeck frame was cased, unsigned and sold for $2,530. The frame contained an insert for a lock of hair and the lot was accompanied by a watch fob containing a lock of hair. A Nineteenth Century English picture of a white horse in a landscape was signed “J. Hobart” and dated 1854. Presumably by John R. Hobart, it sold for $1,725.
An abstract watercolor portrait of a woman was signed “LC39” and attributed to LeCorbusier who was Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris, fetched $2,300, while a contemporary Dutch Impressionist oil on board beach scene with pink and white umbrellas by Niek van der Plas brought $1,380.
Rounding out the sale were a pastel rendering of a man, “Head,” by Russian sculptor Naum Lvovich Aronson, at $1,380; a fragment of a bronze figure of a goddess sold for $1,725, helped or hindered by the fact that it had been owned by Sylvester Stallone; and a 25-inch Nineteenth Century bronze figure of Penelope by Eugene-Antoine Aizelin, also $1,725.
All prices reported include the 15 percent buyer’s premium. For more information, www.kaminskiauctions.com or 978-927-2223.
