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36-B Maine Antique Digest, May 2015

- AUCTION -

F

resh estate material drew

the intrepid to the Carl W.

Stinson sale February 21 in

North Reading, Massachusetts.

Stinson sales are held most fre-

quently at the Hillview Country

Club, where the parking areas

were cleared but where greens

with towering mounds of snow

recalled John Greenleaf Whitti-

er’s

Snow-Bound: A Winter Idyll.

The star of the event was the

24" x 29½" oil on board

Moun-

tain Lake

, a scene in Rocky

Mountain National Park in

Colorado by Birger Sandzén

(Swedish/American, 1871-1954)

that sold for $33,825 (includes

buyer’s premium) against the

$10,000/20,000 estimate after

an Internet bidder beat out four

phone bidders. The painting was

dated 1944 and had been given

by the artist to Trygve Lie, first

secretary-general of the United

Nations, who passed it to New

Haven judge Herbert Emanuel-

son, in whose family the painting

descended to an area consignor.

It went to the trade.

Three paintings by Edouard

Legrand (French, 1882-1970)

sold.

Le

Cirque

(Circus), a

38¼" x 51½" oil on canvas,

brought $7200 against the esti-

mated $2000/3000. The picture

bore a label of the Philadelphia

Museum of Art and that of the

Lawrence Rill Schumann Art

Foundation. Legrand’s gouache

under glass

Famille d’acrobats

(32" x 39") bore the same labels

as

Le Cirque

and the same esti-

mates. It realized $5400. A third

Legrand work, an 1899 oil on

canvas given the title

Girl in

Green Dress

(39¾" x 31") and

depicting a heavily made-up

young woman, had some con-

dition problems and sold online

for $2091, still above the high

estimate.

Blossom Time

, a 20" x 28¼"

oil on canvas by Alois Heinrich

Priechenfried (Austrian, 1867-

1933), depicts a woman playing

the piano in a room with a door

open to the outdoors and sold

online for $2460. The artist is

known particularly for his por-

traits, mostly of Jewish subjects.

Thoroughbred with Owner

, an

oil on canvas (24½" x 36¾") by

John Paul (English, 1804-1887),

was signed and dated 1861. It

had come from a Westchester

County estate and sold on the

phone for $3600.

Stinson sales are nearly always

a family affair, and the most

recent event was no exception.

Doug Stinson auctions while

his father, Carl, mother, Brenda,

brother, Ned, wife, Claire, and

son, William keep it all running.

The sale was less well attended

than usual for a Stinson sale

(they are usually packed), but

the weeks and weeks of snow

that had piled up over the heads

of most citizens deterred some.

But, as Doug Stinson informed

your reporter, “Snowflakes are

the butterflies of winter.” For

some, maybe.

Several bidders in the gallery

pursued a 19th-century Maine

bird’s-eye maple three over three

chest (43½" x 45" x 19½") with

vigorously turned legs that sold

for $1680 against the $200/400

estimate. Other case pieces sold.

An 18th-century Salem Chip-

pendale maple and birch oxbow

desk (44½" x 42¼") with an

interior fitted with five drawers

over two interior drawers sold

mid-estimate at $780. It had

been purchased at Friendship

Antiques in Essex, Massachu-

setts, in the 1970s. One buyer in

the gallery made a wise purchase

when he or she took a circa 1800

Chippendale flame birch chest

with four graduated drawers

and a beautifully formed dove-

tailed base (38" x 37" x 15½")

for $300. Another in-house bid-

der paid $300 for a Hepplewhite

mahogany chest of four drawers

(38½" x 42" x 21") with sec-

ondary poplar and hard yellow

pine framing with the original

stamped oval brasses.

Style prevailed when a

19th-century New York walnut

pair of Georgian-style gaming

tables (27½" x 28" x 14") with

acanthus-carved knees, ball-and-

claw feet, and concertina actions

sold online for $1476 despite

some fading and discoloration.

A New York or Pennsylvania

Sheraton cherry drop-leaf break-

fast table, circa 1820, 29½" x

39½" x 21", with reeded legs

and a cloverleaf top sold in the

gallery for $90, leaving a num-

ber of bidders rueful that they

had not bid on it. Then there was

a cherry drop-leaf table with

block turned legs on brass cast-

ers (29" x 46" x 22") that sold in

the gallery for $54.

A six-piece sterling silver tea

set (189.32 ounces) by the San-

born brothers of Mexico was

monogrammed and sold online

for $2767.50. A similarly deco-

rated pitcher from Bigelow Ken-

nard of Boston and weighing

35.82 ounces also sold online for

$738. An English Georgian ster-

ling caster (6¼") with hallmarks

for 1717 went to the Internet for

$430.50.

Speaking after the sale, Doug

Stinson observed that several

silver pieces including Geor-

gian are headed to China. So too

is a Steinway & Sons ebonized

series S grand piano and bench

(56" x 62") that sold online for

$5535. The instrument was pur-

chased by an agent in Georgia

for a client in China.

A 56" English Enfield muzzle-

loading rifle marked with the

royal warrant for Queen Victo-

ria on the lockplate was made in

1862 at the LondonArmoury and

was so marked on the stock. The

brass buttplate was engraved “E.

Lombard Jr / Sept 16th 1865.” It

sold for $2400.

The highlight of the Stafford-

shire pieces across the block

was a lot of six historical plates

(Enoch Wood & Sons’ 10"

Cad-

mus

at Anchor, Chief Justice

Marshall Troy Line steamer

plate, the 9" Nahant Hotel,

Mitchell & Freeman’s China and

Glass Warehouse 10" plate, the

10" Bank of the United States

of Philadelphia, and the Old Sun

Tavern at Faneuil Hall) that sold

for $840. Can you guess what

drove the lot?

A 19th-century Qing vase

(14½" tall) that had been drilled

as a lamp (27" tall) was deco-

rated with scenes of a procession

on horseback and sold online

for $3382.50. It came from the

Carl W. Stinson, Inc., North Reading, Massachusetts

Mountain Lake

by Sandzén

Tops Massachusetts Auction

by Frances McQueeney-Jones Mascolo

Stinson sales

are nearly

always a

family affair.

The highlight of the sale was

Mountain Lake

by Birger Sandzén (Swed-

ish-American, 1871-1954) that sold for $33,825.

An equine lot brought impressive results. A late 19th- or early 20th-cen-

tury full-body weathervane with some sheet metal in the highly detailed

form of a horse being led by a groom or a stable boy retained some orig-

inal gilding and sold for $30,000. The 29" x 21½" vane was mounted on

a metal base. It came from a South Shore Massachusetts home, where it

had been acquired in the 1960s, and went to the trade.

Westchester County estate.

Two Chinese export vases con-

verted to lamps sold for $2700.

One, 15¼" tall on a bronze base,

was decorated with four Rose

Mandarin medallions of court

scenes, circa 1880; the other, a

16" ku-form example, was dec-

orated with flowers, foliage,

and birds. Two Rose Medallion

covered vegetable dishes sold

for $360, while a lot of 24 Rose

Medallion plates fetched $600.

Sharp-eyed bidders homed in

on a selection of mid-century

1900s walnut furniture by Dun-

bar. A pair of armchairs, circa

1960, was in need of reuphol-

stering and sold for $2700. One

phone bidder paid $1080 for a

Dunbar walnut server with four

drawers over four doors, two of

which opened to interior draw-

ers and shelves. The same buyer

took a low table with doors for

$360.

For information, check the

Web site (www.stinsonauction. com) or call (781) 944-6488 or

(617) 834-3819.

Pasture, Cattle and Woman

, 17¾" x 23¾", an oil on canvas by Jean Fer-

dinand Monchablon (French, 1855-1904) was signed and dated 1890

and sold online for $17,220. The painting, estimated at $2000/3000,

went to a buyer in France whose intention it is to open a museum of

Monchablon’s work there.

A large (16" x 9¾" x 9")

bracket clock by Bigelow

Kennard & Co. of Boston

in an oak case with bronze

mounts,

Westminster

chimes, and a nest

of eight bells

and four gongs,

circa 1880, sold

for $2760.

The

19th-century

Qing vase, 14½" tall,

had been drilled as a

lamp and was deco-

rated with scenes of a

procession on horse-

back. It sold online

for $3382.50.