Bidders waved their proverbial paddles for this United States Centennial Flag but a buyer from Pennsylvania ran it up to $1,320. It was described in the catalog as “scarce” and replicated the 1781 Fort Independence Flag ($600/800).
Review by Madelia Hickman Ring, Photos Courtesy Vintage Accents Auctions
THOMASTON, MAINE. – “Rejuvenation” was the theme for Vintage Accents Auctions’ March 31 sale; the title evoked thoughts of spring and a new season. The firm, which is an independent division of Thomaston Place Auction Galleries, offered nearly 400 lots of art, glass and pottery, Asian art, collectibles, furniture, silver and more with over 94 percent of lots selling. Two internet platforms carried the sale in addition to Thomaston Place’s dedicated app. The auction brought in a total between $75,000 and $90,000, a level on par with previous sales.
“The online auctions have no boundaries,” said John Bottero, Thomaston Place Auction Galleries’ vice president, appraiser and auctioneer. “If there is anything to glean from results like this, it is that bidders from around the country and the world, are still actively collecting wonderful items and have found the online auctions as a source.”
The top price of the day – $1,320 – was shared by two lots that could not have been more different. The first to set the high bar was a scarce United States Centennial flag that the catalog said was a variation on the Revolutionary War-era 13-star flag and may have been flown around 1876, possibly for a historical review in connection with the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. It sold to a buyer in Pennsylvania.
The other lot to reach the sale’s top price was two colorful early Twentieth Century Chinese porcelain bottle vases, one in a citron yellow, the other in bubble-gum pink. Sourced from a local estate and with an estimate of $200/300, it sold to a buyer in Rhode Island. The same buyer also led bidding to $1,080 on a Chinese pale blue monochrome double gourd vase with panels of high relief-molded dragon and phoenix birds and an impressed apocryphal Qianlong seal mark.
This lot of two early Twentieth Century porcelain bottle vases in bright pink and yellow glazes was one of two lots sharing top-lot honors. It brought $1,320 from a buyer in Rhode Island ($200/300).
An interesting Nineteenth Century Chinese “modesty doll” was purchased by a bidder in Oregon for $1,140. The reclining nude was used by women to show a doctor the areas on her body that required medical attention and included an inscribed fan and fitted stand. Rounding out Asian offerings was a two-piece lot of carved rock crystal, one in the form of a reclining Buddha, the other a Koro, which brought $780, nearly its low estimate. That was the same price paid for a collection of two Japanese shell-form porcelain pieces.
A late Nineteenth Century profile bust portrait of a man with a moustache was cataloged as “Boston School” and was done in oil on a mahogany panel. It was inscribed in the upper left “Otto to John, Feb 8, ’85” and measured 20½ by 20½ inches in the frame. A buyer from Texas pushed competition on the unattributed work to $1,200.
Buyers to the sale were not limited to bidders in the United States, and a group of West Indies maps – 16 in total – were purchased for $1,080 from a buyer in that area, specifically the Bahamas. The lot of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century maps were mostly hand colored engravings and featured maps of St Domingo, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Hispaniola, Central and South America, Jamaica and Mexico.
One might think that an unattributed coastal Maine landscape painting would stay in the state but that was not the case. A buyer in Connecticut beat out other contenders to win the oil on canvas work that was signed “M.L.G.” for $600.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house.
Vintage Accents Auctions take place every two weeks, with the next sale scheduled for April 28.
For information, 207-354-8141, info@vintageaccentsauctions.com or www.vintageaccentsauctions.com
