Maine Antique Digest March 2015

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26-D Maine Antique Digest, March 2015
- AUCTION -
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17th, 18th, & Early 19th Century
Furniture, Decorative Arts
& Antique Arms
at $13,750. Lynford Lardner was
Thomas and Richard Penn’s lawyer
and Keeper of the Great Seal of Penn-
sylvania. According to his account
book at the Rosenbach Museum
and Library in Philadelphia, he paid
Hesselius “6 pounds for drawing my
Picture.” Moreover, it is Hesselius’s
earliest documented painting, com-
pleted when the artist was just 21 and
already quite accomplished, accord-
ing to Philadelphia: Three Centuries
of American Art, the catalog for the
Philadelphia Museum of Art’s 1976
landmark exhibition. The portrait,
which was lent by the Lardner family
to that bicentennial exhibition at the
PMA, had been in the same family
since the 18th century. Reportedly,
condition kept the price down, but
unhandy inpainting can be fixed. It is
big, 39" x 32", which is museum size.
Perhaps a museum bought it.
Another bargain was picked up by
William Valerio, director and CEO of
the Woodmere Art Museum. Thomas
Birch’s Ship in Distress, a 20" x
30" oil on canvas, signed and dated
“T. Birch, 1836,” cost $3750 (est.
$5000/8000). According to the Phila-
delphia: Three Centuries of American
Art catalog, some of Birch’s ship-
wreck paintings were commissioned
by survivors and were based on the
survivors’ descriptions. A related but
larger (40" x 60") Birch shipwreck
painting, The Rescue, was in the 1976
PMA’s exhibition.
Valerio made several other pur-
chases for the Woodmere Art
Museum, which focuses on art made
within a 60-mile radius of Chestnut
Hill, where it is located. Woodmere
accessioned two paintings by The-
resa Bernstein, who was one of the
Philadelphia Ten (a group of women
artists). He paid $3750 for Market
Scene and $1375 for Katy in Yellow
Kimono, a painting of Bernstein’s
housekeeper.
There was keen interest in a small
well-painted beach scene by Richard
Blossom Farley (1875-1951), an artist
trained at the Pennsylvania Academy
of the Fine Arts by William Merritt
Chase and Cecilia Beaux. Low Tide
with Sandpipers, 16" x 11¾", oil on
board, dated 1920, and inscribed in
pencil “R. B. Farley, Newtown, Bucks
County, PA.,” sold in the salesroom
for $9375 (est. $2000/3000) to Phil-
adelphia dealer Robert Schwarz with
competition from bidders using the
Internet and phones.
A number of paintings by lit-
tle-known artists found buyers,
but a painting by Milton Avery, A
Couple Watching a Child Bathing,
with a $200,000/300,000 estimate
failed to sell. A 14" x 18" still life
by Avery, done in the summer of
1949, Grapes, sold for $59,375 (est.
$25,000/40,000). The pictures and
captions tell more.
John Hesselius (1728-1778), Portrait
of Lynford Lardner, signed “Jno Hes-
selius pinx” center right on column,
oil on canvas, 39" x 32", $13,750 (est.
$6000/10,000). It was exhibited in Phil-
adelphia: Three Centuries of American
Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art,
April 11-October 10, 1976. The portrait
had been in the same family since the
18th century. It is big, museum size;
perhaps a museum bought it.
Enoch Bolles (1883-1976), Up to
the Minute , signed “Enoch Bolles”
on lower center left, oil on canvas,
20 1/8" x 14 1/8", painted for the
cover of the March 1925 issue of
Judge magazine. It sold to a col-
lector in the salesroom for $27,500
(est. $8000/12,000), showing the
strength of the market for American
illustration.
Robert Gwathmey (1903-1988), The
Mansion, signed upper right, oil on
canvas, 20" x 16". It sold via the Inter-
net for $14,080 (est. $8000/12,000)
and seemed like a good buy.
John Fulton Folinsbee (1892-1972), The Delaware (Sketch
for River Wall), oil on canvas, 16" x 20", signed “John
Folinsbee” and inscribed with the title in pencil on the
back. In a Bernard Badura frame (incised “F ’ 55”), it
sold to a phone bidder for $31,250 (est. $15,000/25,000).
Richard Blossom Farley (1875-
1951), Low Tide with Sandpipers, oil
on board, 16" x 11¾", dated 1920
and inscribed in pencil “R.B. Far-
ley, Newtown, Bucks County, PA.” It
sold in the salesroom for $9375 (est.
$2000/3000) to Philadelphia dealer
Robert Schwarz with competition on
the Internet and on the phones.
Theresa Ferber Bernstein (1890-2002), The Rehearsal
at Carnegie Hall, oil on canvas, 25" x 29", signed by
Bernstein bottom right and painted in 1948. It sold on
line for $6400 (est. $2000/3000). In a letter to collec-
tor Dr. Daniel Lovette, Bernstein wrote to explain that
one of the musical performers depicted represents her
husband, William Meyerowitz, who was a fellow artist
and musician, and the letter added that the group is
rehearsing a work by Jascha Heifetz.
James Hamilton (1819-1878), Near
Point Pedro below the Golden Gate
(California), oil on canvas, 16 1/8"
x 27", signed “J. Hamilton” on
bottom right, also inscribed on the
back with “1877.” It sold for $3000
(est. $3000/5000) toWilliamValerio,
director and CEO of the Woodmere
Art Museum, Philadelphia.
In Memoriam
It is with great sadness that we report
the death of Burt Billings, of North
Hill Antiques, on January 15, 2015.
Please direct enquires regarding
sales or other business matters to
Marianne Billings at 413-203-1380 or
Five phone bidders and a bidder who left a bid with the
auctioneer competed for this painting by Fern Isabel
Coppedge (1888-1951), Lumberville . The 14" x 16" oil
on canvas was signed “Fern I. Coppedge” on the bot-
tom right and “Lumberville” on the stretcher bar on the
back. It sold to a collector in the salesroom for $68,750
(est. $25,000/40,000). Not shown, another Bucks County
landscape by Coppedge sold for $56,250, and a Glouces-
ter harbor scene by Coppedge sold for $53,125, both on
the phones.