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Maine Antique Digest, April 2015 5-C
- AUCTION -
A staff member mentioned that
the auction house had received a
call regarding the Chinese Man-
darin robe on the right. “Does it
have nine dragons?” The answer
was “yes.” Produced between 1796
and 1820, the robes were part of
165 Asian lots that led off the sale
on December 5. The robes opened
at $1600 with phones and Inter-
net active. A phone bidder bought
the pair for $4248 (est. $400/800).
Prunkl photo.
Jeff Stephenson of NewYork City and North Carolina bought
this 20" x 30½" Samuel M. Middleton (b. 1927) mixed-media
collage for $1888 (est. $800/1200) because he liked Middle-
ton’s life story. Prunkl photo.
Possibly the sale’s longest and largest battle was fought over this
21½" x 29" Robert Scanlan (Irish, 1801-1876) equestrian por-
trait. Every venue—Internet, floor, phones, and absentee—was
involved after bidding opened at $500. A phone bidder prevailed
at $4720 (est. $2000/4000).
Six phones were active when Louisa McElwain’s
Seraphin
crossed
the block. McElwain, who died at age 60 in 2013, painted the great
outdoors in New Mexico after she moved there in 1985. She used
knives and masonry trowels instead of brushes. Like all of her
recent work,
Seraphin
is large (48" x 47¾"). The oil on canvas
painting sold to a phone bidder for $17,700 (est. $3000/5000).
The difference between the 1924 Lalique
perfume bottle on the right and the 1924
Lalique bottle on the left was $413. The right
bottle is full of Dans la Nuit perfume; it has
never been opened. The full bottle sold for
$708 (est. $800/1200) to glass dealer David
Whitlock. The empty Lalique sold with two
other Lalique perfume bottles for $295 (est.
$400/600). The consignor of both lots worked
for 20 years in the cosmetics department of
Saks Fifth Avenue in Chicago. Prunkl photo.
Fine wine director Mark
Solomon displays the
top lot in the Decem-
ber 3 wine auction: two
bottles of 1975 Chateau
Lafleur wine from the
Pomerol region of Bor-
deaux. Critics cite Cha-
teau Lafleur wines as
among the world’s rar-
est and most expensive.
The two bottles sold for
$3894 (est. $2700/3200).
In the very next lot, one
bottle of 1979 Chateau
Lafleur (not shown) sold
for $1062 (est. $500/700).
Prunkl photo.
Far from an antique but with
the distinction of being the sec-
ond-highest lot in the sale is
this 2010 Mercedes-Benz E350
sedan. It brought $35,400 (est.
$18,000/25,000).
From the late 18th century, this Federal serpentine sideboard from the
Shenandoah Valley of Virginia was crafted in mahogany and mahogany
veneer with yellow pine secondary. Each of its doors and drawers has triple
line inlay. A phone bidder bought it for $21,240 (est. $20,000/40,000). Three
lots later, the same phone bidder captured a mid-18th-century walnut Vir-
ginia Queen Anne dressing table (not shown) for $5900 (est. $5000/10,000).
It is not every day that one
sees a Victorian jockey
scale. The 37½" x 35" x
18" oak bench comes with
its own brass weights. The
scale by Youngs is British
and dated 1893. The bench
sold to the phones for $2596
(est. $1000/2000). Collector
of British furniture Wayne
Shiver was an underbidder.
Two paintings by Francis
Speight (1896-1989) came in
ninth and tenth in the top lots
of the sale.
Highland Avenue
,
a 21" x 29" signed and dated
(1970) oil on canvas, sold to an
absentee bidder for $17,700
(est. $12,000/18,000). The
same absentee bidder took
Speight’s signed and dated
(1950) 29¾" x 35¾"
James-
town Street
(not shown) for
$15,930 (est. $15,000/20,000).