The provenance to Ohio Americana dealer Bill Samaha likely helped boost the final price of this 19-by-18-inch needlework picture to $73,800 and the sale’s highest price ($1,2/1,700).

Review by Madelia Hickman Ring

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — “The sale itself brought over $500,000, with several lots selling online and other lots going in-house or to the telephone. It was a well-rounded sale, with quality items from the Seventeenth through the Twentieth Century. Several collectors were involved throughout the day in intense bidding,” noted CRN Auctions’ auctioneer and owner, Carl Nordblom.

CRN’s 340-lot Annual Fall Auction on October 5 was about 90 percent sold on the day, and was led, at $73,800, by an Eighteenth Century needlework picture that came to auction from the Ohio residence of noted Americana dealer Bill Samaha. It depicted a river scene with a woman with a yoke across her shoulders to carry water, a duck catcher with cage and basket of eggs and three sheep, while across the river, a hunter and dog were shown, a brick building and windmill in the distant background. An online bidder prevailed against their competitors to win it.

Another textile, an American needlework and appliqué table mat that dated to circa 1830 and featured an urn with a bouquet of flowers, framed by a flowering vine and several different varieties of birds, flew to $20,910. It was noted to relate to a table cover from the Lefkowitz collection that Northeast Auctions sold in 2007.

The category of American furniture reached its apex at $4,920, for a Chippendale carved walnut dressing table from Salem, Mass., that had provenance to Olive S. Bourgoin and Elizabeth Williams. Following at $3,690, were both an Eighteenth Century Queen Anne mahogany dressing table from Newport, R.I., and a New England painted blanket chest with two drawers and later grain painting that also came from the Samaha residence.

The highest price in the sale for a piece of American furniture was $4,920, earned by this Chippendale carved walnut dressing table with fan-carved drawer, from Salem, Mass. A handwritten note in the drawer identified two of its previous owners: Elizabeth Williams and Olive S. Bourgoin ($5/8,000).

A landscape depicting a New England forest in winter, by Carl C.M. Rungius (American/Canadian, 1869-1959), that came from a South Shore, Mass., home sold slightly below estimate, for $9,840. The same price was achieved by Francis Augustus Silva’s (American, 1835-1886) “The Beach, Near Point Judith, R.I.,” which was found in a Connecticut home.

An impressive English early Eighteenth Century tall clock with red-and-gilt chinoiserie decoration that had a dial engraved “Isaac Papavoine” brought an equally impressive $10,455.

The Continental aesthetic came into focus with a Nineteenth Century white marble sculpture of “Flora,” which was attributed to Giovanni Maria Benzoni (1809-1873). The 38-inch-tall figure of a Classically-draped woman holding a flower and basket of flowers in her hands, her head turned to look at a butterfly on her shoulder, sold for $11,070 and more than five times its high estimate.

Also exceeding expectations was a still-life painting of fruit in a basket, executed in oil on canvas and attributed to the circle of Jan Pauwel Gilleman I (Flemish, 1618-1675). The catalog noted it had been sold at Christie’s New York in a 1997 Old Master paintings sale, for $19,550. Interest pushed it from a $3/5,000 estimate to $6,150.

In the late 1990s, this Flemish still life, which depicted fruit in a basket, a parrot and a plate and measured 26 by 38 inches, sold at Christie’s New York for more than $19,000. It exceeded expectations to earn $6,150 in this sale ($3/5,000).

Rounding out Continental results at $5,843 was a French Aesthetic Movement marble and bronze urn attributed to the Barbedienne Foundry.

A modest selection of Chinese, Japanese, Southeast Asian or Korean objects was on offer, but the category still recorded some strong results, led at $6,765 by a Nineteenth Century oversized Chinese export porcelain Mandarin punchbowl that was 23 inches in diameter. Following in price were a Chinese 8-panel lacquered screen ($4,305), a 21-inch-tall Japanese Meiji period bronze vase ($2,583) and an early Twentieth Century Chinese embroidered robe ($2,460).

Collectors of Twentieth Century Native American objects chased a blown and sand-carved glass seal sculpture by contemporary Tlingit artist Preston Singletary (b 1963) to $9,225. The catalog reported it came from a Cambridge, Mass., collection and noted the artist to have been an assistant to Dale Chihuly, Benjamin Moore and Dante Marioni.

More than a half-dozen works by Tiffany & Company, Tiffany Studios or Louis Comfort Tiffany were available for bidders; a Tiffany Studios table lamp, in the Adam pattern, brought the most of the group: $5,535. Three lots of circus figures, all designed by Gene Moore for Tiffany & Company brought prices ranging from $3,383 for a four-piece group with a wagon, car and tiger, to $1,046 for two acrobat figures.
CRN’s next sale will take place in the spring of 2026, date to be announced.

Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, 617-661-9582 or www.crnauctions.com.