Maine Antique Digest May 2015

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10-D Maine Antique Digest, May 2015
- AUCTION -
Some dog lovers who came to New
York City over the long Presidents’
Day weekend to attend the West-
minster Kennel Club Dog Show stayed
an extra day to attend Bonhams’ yearly
“Dogs in Show & Field” auction on Feb-
ruary 18. A crowd of two dozen, including
the judge who crowned Miss P, a beagle,
“Best in Show” this year, gathered in the
auction house’s Madison Avenue galleries
to bid on 182 lots of oil paintings, water-
colors, bronzes, etchings, trophy cups,
pastels, and a few brooches.
Private collectors made up the majority
of the audience.Acouple who flew in from
Ohio specifically for the auction bought
many things, most notably oil paintings
by Percival Leonard Rosseau (1859-1937)
and John Emms (British, 1843-1912). The
collectors, who own Yorkies and English
bulldogs, spent over $100,000 and were
smiling throughout the auction. “We’re
trying to figure out where we’re going to
hang all of these,” the woman, who owns
several houses, said after the sale.
The offerings appealed to a range
of buyers. The lowest price was $125
(includes buyer’s premium) for a Margue-
rite Kirmse (1885-1954) etching of two
Great Danes, which sold to a woman in
the salesroom. That buyer spent a total of
$2500 for four other Kirmse etchings and
one by Bert Cobb (?-1935).
The most expensive sale of the day, an
oil painting, King Charles Spaniels by
Richard Ansdell (British, 1815-1885),
sold on the phone for $81,250. It was
painted around 1842. The 36" x 28" paint-
ing had been part of a collection sold at
Sotheby’s NewYork in 1988 by Claus von
Bulow as part of a settlement of a lawsuit
brought against him by his stepchildren. It
was estimated then at $25,000/35,000 and
sold for $198,000.
The Bonhams sale had a presale esti-
mate of $813,000/1.218 million. With
buyers’ premiums, it totaled $817,650,
with 73% sold by lot or 132 of 182. “It was
a good day for [John] Emms, [Percival
Leonard] Rosseau, and [Carl] Reichert,”
declared Alan Fausel, head of sale. “They
all sold well.”
Fausel, who owns an English springer
spaniel, said Bonhams sources half of the
auction’s offerings from Britain and the
Continent and the other half from Amer-
ica. Generally, 80% to 90% of sales are
made to American buyers, he added, and
eight out of ten buyers are private collec-
tors. The trade makes up the balance, and
“most of them bid on the phone,” he said
with a smile.
Many of the estimates were low, which
encourages people to bid, said dealer Wil-
liam Secord, who sat through the entire
sale and bought nothing. “I have a huge
inventory,” the New York City dealer
and author of several books on dog art
explained. “There wasn’t enough quality
material,” he said, although he did like a
pair of John Sargent Noble oil paintings,
which sold to a phone buyer for double
the high estimate at $12,500.
Secord’s “best in show” awards went
to Waiting for Master, a John Emms oil
painting of a group of hounds at a barn
door that sold for $68,750, and to English
Pointers in a Landscape, a Thomas Blinks
(British 1860-1912) oil, which had passed
in last year’s sale. The painting’s estimate
was lowered from $60,000/80,000 to
$40,000/60,000, and it sold on the phone
for $43,750.
“The market is very strong for the very
best,” stated Secord, who owns a Dandie
Bonhams, New York City
Dogs in Show & Field
by Julie Schlenger Adell
Photos courtesy Bonhams
The offerings
appealed to a range
of buyers.
The top lot of the sale was King Charles Spaniels by Richard
Ansdell (British, 1815-1885). The 36" x 28" oil painting sold on
the phone for $81,250 (est. $80,000/120,000). The same bidder
bought five other paintings, all by John Emms, spending over a
quarter of a million dollars, all on the phone with Alan Fausel,
head of sale. This painting sold at Sotheby’s New York in 1988
for $198,000, a record for Ansdell, when it was sold by socialite
Claus von Bulow.
Trimmer, A Smooth Fox Terrier by George Earl (British, 1824-1908)
sold to an online buyer for $8125 (est. $8000/12,000). The painting, on
a 16" x 20" stretched canvas with a 14" x 16¾" oval window, is dis-
cussed in William Secord’s Dog Painting: A History of the Dog in Art,
2nd edition, 2009. Trimmer was the first fox terrier to win a prize at
any British dog show and was owned by J.H. Murchison, according to
the auction catalog.
Portrait of a Foxhound
by Thomas Blinks
(British, 1860-1912)
was bought by a couple
in the salesroom who
were bidding against
the phone. Estimated
at $2000/3000, the 18"
x 14" oil on canvas sold
for $8125.
Three phone bidders pursued this Carl
Reichert (Austrian, 1836-1918) oil painting,
Head of a German Shorthaired Pointer. Esti-
mated at $8000/12,000, it sold for $20,000.
Signed and dated “C. Reichert—898,” it is
18" x 14¾".
Gordon and English Set-
ters in the Field, an oil on
canvas laid to board by
Percival Leonard Ros-
seau (1859-1937), sold in
the Bonhams salesroom
to a couple from Ohio.
The collectors competed
against an absentee
bidder and bought the
signed and dated 1910
painting for $47,500 (est.
$20,000/30,000). It mea-
sures 21¼" x 29¼".
Dinmont terrier. Reached on the
telephone in Florida a day after
the sale, he said there has been
less interest in “purebred dog por-
traits. They’re too stiff.” Further-
more, “If there’s a person in the
composition, it dates it,” explain-
ing that one can tell the period of
the piece by what the person is
wearing.
Bonhams held its annual Bark-
fest charity brunch on Sunday,
February 15, before the auc-
tion, for owners and their canine
companions. Proceeds benefited
the American Kennel Club’s
Humane Fund.
For further information, go to
A group of four early 20th-century reverse-
carved Pekingese intaglios, backed by hard-
stone and mother-of-pearl, which included
a rose-cut diamond, gold, and platinum
brooch, a platinum-topped and gold brooch
inscribed “To Marion/ From Gwen/ Janu-
ary 2, 1929,” and a 14k gold tie clip and hat
pin, sold for $3500 (est. $1000/1500).
The Dachshunds, an oil painting by
Arthur Wardle (1860-1949), was on
the front cover of the catalog. The
22" x 14" oil on canvas, estimated at
$25,000/30,000, was passed at $18,000
during the sale but sold after the auc-
tion for $22,500.