Maine Antique Digest March 2015

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Maine Antique Digest, March 2015 7-B
- AUCTION -
A well-chosen trio of offerings was displayed
just below the podium and reflected the mix of
international, national, and regional lots in the
sale. Many bidders competed for the French
bronze and cut-crystal mantel clock, circa 1825,
which brought $4880 (est. $800/1200); it had once
belonged to Joseph Bonaparte, the brother of
Napoleon, who had a house called Point Breeze
in Bordentown, New Jersey. New England Hill-
side with Rocky Stream, 24½" x 20", by William
Trost Richards (1833-1905) also outstripped its
$8000/12,000 estimate when it sold to a buyer
in the room for $68,115. The Shearwater pot-
tery Bacchante vase decorated by Walter Inglis
Anderson (1903-1965) sold to a phone bidder for
$23,900 (est. $7000/10,000).
Southern landscapes are a staple of this particular auction,
but this unsigned painting—high up on the top ten list at
$51,385 (est. $12,000/18,000)—was thought to be a sawmill
on a Florida waterway rather than a Louisiana bayou. The
luminous light in the scene and good dimensions (29¾" x
48½") added to the value. More choices for different tastes
and checkbooks hung nearby. Below, left to right: To the
Beach, 1997, by New Orleans artist John Clemmer (1921-
2014) sold for $3585; It’s the Way Christmas Time Was Once:
The Holy Family, 1944, by Clementine Hunter (1886-1988)
brought $9150; and The Shadowed Pool by Alfred Heber
Hutty of Charleston (1877-1954) sold for $8962.50.
The set of 32 pieces of Classical Medal-
lion flatware—all Dionysus heads in
this case—made circa 1870 by Hotch-
kiss & Schreuder, Syracuse, New York,
and retailed in St. Louis, brought
$1673.
So many ladles to serve punch
at a holiday party. The showy
Medallion pattern (right) with
an 1869 New Orleans presen-
tation inscription, probably by
Wood & Hughes, was a great
buy at $776.75. Kentucky
collectors stepped up for the
coffin-handled ladle (center)
made in the Lexington work-
shop of Samuel Ayres and
Noah Haydon, 1811-13; the
winning bid of $6100 doubled
the high estimate.
An extremely rare 1855 map of the “City of
Baton Rouge, the Capitol of Louisiana,” after
Marie Adrien Persac, printed by J.H. Colton,
New York, sold for $10,755 to a Baton Rouge
institution where it will be conserved and
studied.
The New Orleans market favors
heavily ornamented tall-case clocks
of the late 19th century. Here a
Cuban mahogany model with a sty-
listically ambitious modern Gothic
design by Daniel Pabst, retailed by
J.E. Caldwell & Co., Philadelphia,
sold for $23,180, near its high esti-
mate, to a buyer on the phone who
outbid the floor.
Collectors of Newcomb College pottery and
craftwork had a diverse group of offerings
to bid on. A pair of circa 1930 brass book-
ends brought $2868; a tall 1913 vase deco-
rated with palms by Sadie Irvine brought
$17,377.50; a 1903 vase with pines by Marie
de Hoa LeBlanc, $5676.25; a 1900 circular
charger with a portrait by Harriet C. Joor,
$8066.25; and a 1903 vase with alamanda
blossoms by Amelie Roman, $7468.75.
More chairs were added midmorning, allowing the
crowd to observe the back and forth bidding in com-
fort. Internet bids are shouted from the left, phone
bank calls from the right. Serious bidders on the floor
tend to lurk nervously along the back of the showroom
as their lots approach.
Observant auction-goers
would have noticed that this
pair of 20th-century Chinese
fish bowls was receiving a lot
of attention; one potential
bidder was taking extreme
closeups of the famille rose
decoration. The final price
of $31,070 (est. $1500/2500)
from a buyer in the room
added substantially to the
total proceeds from the Son-
neborn estate, as did several
other Asian lots within that
consignment.
Awell-documented architectural element that sadly
did not sell, this carved rosewood overmantel mir-
ror by Herter Brothers, New York, was made to
order circa 1887 for the drawing room of William
Avery Rockefeller’s mansion in Tarrytown, New
York. It is monumental in size—86½" x 103"—and
it carried a $30,000/50,000 estimate, and, of course,
it requires the right spot on a wall.
Oldest of the Mardi Gras associations, the Mistick
Krewe of Comus began parading in the mid-19th
century. The five-piece invitation to the 1905 ball
at the French Opera House, with the theme of “The
Lost Pleiad,” sold for $1314.50. Photos courtesy
Neal Auction Company.
Sonneborn material will be sold
in the future. Pleasant surprises
from the estate included a small
white jade snuff bottle that brought
$29,520 (est. $800/1200).
Sitting behind the phone bank
was trial lawyer John Cummings,
a well-known collector often seen
at Neal sales spending a great deal
of money on regional furniture and
decorative arts for his restoration of
Whitney Plantation. What he sets
his heart on, he usually wins. Cum-
mings is a passionate man, dedi-
cated to opening the eyes of others
to the evils of slavery. The emphasis
at Whitney is not on the pleasant
life at the big house but on the labor
of thousands that made that wealth
possible. To see what he has accom-
plished, view the images on the Web
site )
and read the articles posted there,
including Eve Kahn’s piece for the
New York Times. At the November
sale, Cummings said, “The opening
is on December seventh, and we’re
starting tours on the eighth. We have
almost a hundred reservations. You
should see it—it’s just magnificent.
There are no words to describe that
‘peculiar institution.’ There are no
words, so what we are doing is sim-
ply taking the facts and displaying
them so you can make up your own
mind.”
The overall total for the three-
day Louisiana Purchase Auction
this year was $2.9 million. Even
100 photos would not do justice to
the sale’s important highlights. The
strong top 20 list reflected its diver-
sity—landscapes, art pottery, Asian
art, furniture, and lighting. The best
of the best found the right buy-
ers, and yet there were some very
good deals available for collectors
starting out. More consignments
are always in the pipeline. For
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