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Maine Antique Digest, May 2015 31-B
- AUCTION -
Boar’s-head soup tureen and cover, circa 1760, 14¼" long,
$52,500 (est. $25,000/40,000) to a member of the Euro-
pean trade bidding on the phone. The animal’s head is
naturalistically modeled with raised snout and staring
eyes, the open mouth reveals teeth, tongue, and fangs,
the snout and ears glazed in tones of iron-red, the
hide markings in densely packed strokes of gri-
saille, molded around the jaws and neck with rows
of bristles above a pink enamel collar, and with
three large knobs at the back of the head.
According to the catalog, “A boar’s head tureen
of this model from the collection of Mrs. Lammot du
Pont Copeland is in the Peabody Essex Museum and
illustrated by W.R. Sargent,
The Copeland Collection
,
p. 202, where the author notes that the records of the Dutch
East India Company document an order of 25 boar’s head
tureens in the 1763 season. In 1764, 19 were shipped home
to Holland, but a further order was not fulfilled because ‘the
supercargoes considered them too risky.’ A very similar example
was sold at Christie’s on January 25, 2011…”; it sold for $62,500.
“…Boar’s head tureens must have made an impressive effect on the
dining table, especially when filled with hot soup or stew, emitting clouds
of steam through the snout.”
A large famille rose five-piece garniture, Qianlong period, 19¾" high,
comprising two beaker vases and three baluster vases with covers, each
richly enameled with colorful landscape panels between vases of flowers
and elaborate borders, bearing old crested and initialed paper collection
labels, sold in the room for $60,000 (est. $25,000/40,000).
A famille rose five-piece garniture, circa 1740, 12½" high, comprising
a pair of beaker vases and three vases with covers, each of square
form and brightly enameled with scenes from a romance, sold in the
room for $10,000 (est. $7000/10,000) to the same person who bought
the large garniture.
Armorial cup and saucer
en grisaille
, 1747-55, enameled with the
arms of Vaughn impaling Hallowell, the motto
In Prudentia et Simpli-
ceiae
(taken from a bookplate), and the inscription “Samuel Vaughn,” a
gilt chain to the rims, the saucer 4¾" diameter, ex-Wunsch estate, $8750
(est. $1000/1500).
Also offered were three platters from the service. Two of them, each
13¼" long, sold as one lot for $6250 (est. $6000/9000); a single platter
(not shown), 16¼" long, sold for $1250 (est. $1000/1500). All came from
the estate of Eric Martin Wunsch.
There was bidding on the
phones and online for these
18th-/19th-century
Chinese
school paintings, cataloged as
“The Yuan Ming Yuan, a pair”
(one shown), 17¼" x 30" each,
excluding frames. In ink and
colors on paper, they depict
Imperial personages being
entertained by Western musi-
cians or receiving tribute while
seated in front of famous build-
ings designed by Castiglione
and Benoist for the Emperor
Qianlong. The pair sold for
$50,000 (est. $7000/10,000) to an
online bidder from New Jersey.
Mid-19th-century Chinese
school view of the bund at
Shanghai, oil on canvas,
24" x 43" (excluding hard-
wood frame), $60,000 (est.
$25,000/40,000).
This 19th-century Chi-
nese school view of the
Singapore waterfront, oil
on canvas, 17¼" x 29¾"
(excluding the gilt-painted
frame), sold for $40,000
(est. $20,000/30,000). A
matching oil on canvas
view of the Canton water-
front (not shown), the same
size and in a similar frame,
sold for $27,500 (est.
$20,000/30,000).
Massive Canton famille
rose punch bowl, 1820-40,
23¼" diameter, enameled
inside and out with large
gatherings of scholars and
court figures at leisure pur-
suits, including playing Go and
watching an exhibition of mock
combat, the inner rim with a gilt-
ground band of butterflies perched
among chrysanthemums, peonies, and
strawberries, $27,500 (est. $20,000/30,000).
A pair of initialed oval platters, 1785-90, decorated with a Neoclassical
shield studded on the edge with 13 gilt stars and enclosing the gilt script
initial “J” surmounted by a knight’s helm, each 12 7/8" wide, sold for
$47,500 (est. $25,000/40,000).
According to the catalog notes, the platters came from a dinner ser-
vice that “…has long been strongly linked to Thomas Jefferson, including
being published in
Official White House China
(both editions) by M.B.
Klapthor, on display at Monticello, the U.S. State Department Diplomatic
Reception Rooms, and the White House (before at least 1908 when it was
published in
Century Magazine
). Modern scholarship has been unable
to find records of the service in Jefferson’s papers, and archaeological
work at the slave quarters has not turned up a shard amongst the few
early period discarded items found. However, Jefferson’s 19th-century
descendants strongly believed in his ownership of the service, seeking to
reacquire it.”
It is similar “…to a service known to have been made for Christopher
Gore (1758-1827), an early Governor of Massachusetts and U.S. Sena-
tor.” Some of it has been sold at Christies, in January 2013 and January
2014. The ten lots in this sale comprised the last tranche of the family’s
consignment.