Tallying the top result of the weekend was, from the Barrow Collection, “Setting Sun and Sea” by Roy Lichtenstein, 1964, edition 5/5, signed and dated, blue and white porcelain enamel on steel, 37 by 72 inches, which sold to Dallas gallerist Kristy Stubbs for $479,700 ($200/300,000).

Review by Madelia Hickman Ring; Photos Courtesy Brunk Auctions

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — The May 19 and 20 sales conducted by Brunk Auctions featured a 377-lot Premier auction on the first day, followed the day after by 350 lots from the collection of powerhouse collectors and philanthropists, Jean and Jim Barrow. Assembled with a discerning eye for quality and relying upon some of the best advisors in several fields, the couple’s collection combined Modern art with American Federal furniture, historic maps, decoys and folk art. The Premier Auction achieved a total $1,980,073 with a 90 percent sell-through rate, followed with 99 percent of the Barrows’ collection selling and adding another $7,398,359 to the weekend’s results. Final tally for the weekend? A cool $9,378,432.

But the numbers in and of themselves do not fully paint the picture of the significance of the results, which Andrew Brunk was happy to illuminate for Antiques and The Arts Weekly.

“The Barrows Collection tops every other sale we have had in our 40 years, so we are obviously thrilled with the results. There was tremendous energy in the saleroom, and some top lots were bought or underbid by live bidders in the room. The market had been untested by this quality of Federal furniture for a decade or more, and it brought a great many collectors out of ‘retirement.’ We saw names on the registration list that we have not seen for years. It is extraordinary that the top two furniture lots surpassed the prices paid for them in New York and Boston in the height of the market. Every furniture lot offered found a new home, and most saw spirited competition.”

Leading the Premier Auction at $258,300 was “The Laughing Barrell” by Winfred Rembert, dye on carved and tooled leather, 32 ½ by 36 inches. Exhibited at Adelson Galleries and from the estate of Peter H. Tillou, it found a new home with a private collector ($150/250,000).

He continued, “The market response to the quality was robust across category and throughout the sale. Record prices were set for a Mouzon map and for Pop artist Marjorie Strider. English silver and world maps brought exceptional prices, and Modern art generated competitive bidding throughout the sale with strong interest from overseas. A number of the important Modern works surpassed recent results in New York and London for comparable works.”

The Jean & Jim Barrow Collection

The Barrows’ collection proffered the top lot of the weekend: Roy Lichtenstein’s (1923-1997) 1964 “Setting Sun and Sea,” a blue and white porcelain enamel on steel composition, edition 5 of 5, which sold for $479,700; this was a substantial increase over the $150,000 price the Barrows paid for the work when they purchased it in a private sale from Sotheby’s in 2002. The 36-by-72-inch work had been exhibited in 1964, in an exhibition of the artist’s landscapes at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City. Not only is the piece published in the artist’s online catalogue raisonné and is included in two 1964 articles on the artist, but it had provenance to the artist’s estate. Brunk confirmed that the painting was purchased by Dallas gallerist Kristy Stubbs, who advised the Barrows on a number of their Modern art purchases and was “very active in the sale.”

Stubbs also acquired the sale catalog’s cover lot, “Adrenalin” by Damien Hirst (British, b 1965), for $356,700, surpassing its high estimate. One of Hirst’s “spot paintings,” the 1992 unsigned canvas, which featured pale pink, orange, red and aqua household paint, had provenance to Gagosian gallery in Beverly Hills, Calif., and another in London as well as a private collection in the United Kingdom.

For $356,700, Kristy Stubbs prevailed against competition to take Damien Hirst’s spot painting, “Adrenalin,” 1992, unsigned gloss house paint on canvas, 37 by 39 inches ($200/300,000).

Works by blue chip artists dominated the Barrows’ collection and results kept pace, meeting or exceeding expectations. Following in the wake of the Lichtenstein at $381,300 was “Greenbrier” by Kenneth Noland (American, 1924-2010), which the Palm Beach, Fla., Helander Gallery had featured in their 1990 exhibition, “Kenneth Noland: An Important Exhibition of Paintings from 1959 to 1989.” While the acrylic on canvas was not fresh to the market, having been offered twice previously at Phillips New York, it brought a higher price at Brunk than ever before, besting the $269,000 it realized in 2015 and the $337,500 it achieved in 2019.

Selling within estimate at $307,500, to a collector in France, was “LOVE (Blue Faces Red Sides)” by Robert Indiana (American, 1928-2018). The 36-by-36-by-18-inch polychromed aluminum sculpture, which was conceived in 1966 but executed in 1995, was numbered 3 from an edition of four and was accompanied by a custom shipping crate.

The Barrows worked with American furniture advisor Milly McGehee to assemble possibly one of the finest private collections of Federal American furniture. Topping the category, and attracting no fewer than a dozen phone lines, was a Boston Simon Willard paint-decorated lighthouse clock that sold for $282,900 to a private collector; underbid by an institution. One of just a small number of painted examples known to survive, the clock, made in Roxbury, Mass., 1818-19, had two inked paper labels and survived with its original glass dome and brass feet. The list of publications the clock had been published in matched a similarly long provenance that ended with its purchase in 2004 from Christie’s New York, when it sold for $209,100.

This rare and extensively published Simon Willard paint decorated Federal lighthouse clock, Boston, 1818-1819, which retained its original glass dome and brass feet, sold to a private collector, underbid by an institution, for $282,900 ($60/90,000).

Of similar rarity, and with a lengthy provenance that just added interest, was a Boston Federal inlaid mahogany pedimented tambour desk that sold to a private collector for $258,300. One of just three known surviving examples, and the only one outside of an institution — the other two are at the White House and the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC — the desk was attributed to the workshop of John and Thomas Seymour. The last time the desk appeared on the auction block was in 1998, when Skinner’s sold it for $205,500.

Described in Brunk’s catalog as “arguably the best Boston Federal worktable in private hands,” a Federal inlaid burlwood and satinwood worktable that was also attributed to the Seymour workshop, 1800-10, had descended in the family of Daniel Sargent Curtis. One of a pair, with its mate in the collection of the MFA Boston, and possibly made for the family of Elias Hasket Derby of Salem, it sold to a private collector for $147,600.

About a dozen lots of decoys from the Barrows’ collection paddled across Brunk’s block, led at $104,550 for a Caines Brothers mallard drake, made in Georgetown, S.C., circa 1900. A mallard drake attributed to Hucks Caines, the fourth of the five Caines brothers, which the Barrows acquired from Guyette & Schmidt in 2007 for $34,500, flew to $67,650. The same price was achieved by a mallard hen attributed to Hucks Caines, also purchased from Guyette & Schmidt a year earlier, in 2006.

Brunk established a new auction record for a map by Henry Mouzon with this one of North and South Carolina, which was published in London in 1775. In addition to extensive publication history, the map had originally been owned by the Michel Capitaine du Chesnoy, aide-de-camp and cartographer to General Lafayette during the Revolutionary War. It sold to a private collector for $98,400 ($7/10,000).

Early maps were a more abundant category, with nearly three dozen examples. Dominating the selection at $246,000 was Claudius Ptolemy’s Map of the World, engraved by Johannes Schnitzer of Armszheim and published by Johann Reger (fl 1480-1499) in 1486. According to the catalog, an earlier version of Ptolemy’s (fl 127-145 CE) map was published in 1482 but reissued by Reger, who distinguished it from the earlier by the coloring of the seas. Few examples of either edition are known to remain. It had been published in Rodney W. Shirley’s The Mapping of the World (London, 1983) and sold to a trade buyer.

A 1775 map once belonging to Michel Capitaine du Chesnoy, aide-de-camp and cartographer to General Lafayette during the Revolutionary War sold to a private collector for $98,400. It was a record price for Henry Mouzon’s An Accurate Map of North and South Carolina with their Indian Frontiers…, which was engraved by Samuel Turner Sparrow and published in London by Robert Sayer and John Bennett.

The Barrows’ early silver collection, assembled in large part from acquisitions from S.J. Shrubsole in New York City, was more than 30 lots strong and saw exemplary results. Shining brightest at $46,740 was a James I English silver wine cup, made in London in 1611, which will be returning to England, bought by a trade bidder.

Topping off at $47,740 to lead the Barrow’s collection of early silver was this 8 ¼-inch tall James I English silver wine cup, made in London in 1611, which sold to a trade buyer in England ($10/15,000).

Premier Sale

Items offered in the first day’s Premier sale also brought strong prices, undoubtedly benefiting from being offered alongside the Barrows’ collection.

Topping the day at $258,300 was “The Laughing Barrel” by Winfred Rembert (American, 1945-1921), which had been exhibited at Adelson Galleries and was part of the estate of Litchfield, Conn., dealer Peter H. Tillou. Of the nearly three dozen works by the artist that have come to auction, Brunk has sold a dozen in the past few years and the price — paid by a private collector — is the fourth highest price ever realized at auction anywhere.

Achieving the second highest price of the day at $135,300 was a circa 1788-92 blown colorless non-lead 5-inch-tall glass tumbler attributed to John Frederick Amelung’s New Bremen Glass Manufactory in Frederick County, Md., which was wheel-engraved “Washington.” The vessel was unrecorded among the known works from Amelung so Brunk sought the opinion of Dwight P. Lanmon, who is not only the former director of the Corning Museum of Glass and the director emeritus of Winterthur but the author or co-author of no fewer than three articles on Amelung. Lanmon penned a lengthy and informative essay in the catalog outlining his reasons for attributing the vessel to Amelung. Though pieces by Amelung were once owned or presented to President George Washington, Lanmon was hesitant to make such a connection, citing differences in inscription to other Amelung pieces with documented presentation history. All that being said, the tumbler found a new home at George Washington’s Mount Vernon, which outbid another institution.

The new world auction record for contemporary artist Marjorie Strider (American, 1934-2014) was set at $86,100, for “Green Vertical,” 1964, foam resin and epoxy resin on Masonite with acrylic and oil, 96 ¼ by 48 by 10 inches. When Christie’s New York sold the work in 2010, it set the record then at $32,500. It sold to a private collector ($10/15,000).

Brunk has a long and established track record with Southern artists and achieved what appears to be the new world auction record for Alice Ravenel Huger Smith (American, 1876-1958) when it realized $73,800 from a private collector for “In the Reserve at Coming-Tee.” The painting had been consigned to Brunk by the great-granddaughter of George Logan, who had acquired the watercolor on Whatman’s board directly from the artist in the 1940s.

Interest in historic maps extended into those consigned by sellers other than the Barrows, exemplified by the $39,360 result for the second edition of William Faden’s (1749-1836) A Map of South Carolina And a Part of Georgia. Containing the Whole Sea Coast; all the Islands, Inlets, Rivers, Creeks, Parishes, Townships, Boroughs, Roads, and Bridges…, which was published in London in 1757. Once owned by Winston-Salem, N.C., scholar, curator and collector, Brad Rauschenberg, and sold to a trade buyer in the United Kingdom.
Brunk Auctions’ next Emporium and Premier auctions are scheduled for July 13-15 and September 14-16.

Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For more information, www.brunkauctions.com or 828-254-6846.