Maine Antique Digest May 2015

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8-B Maine Antique Digest, May 2015
- AUCTION -
After the January 29 and 30 sale
held by Garth’s Auctions in
Delaware, Ohio, in which the
material offered ran the gamut from
Asian and Continental arts to coun-
try Americana, Garth’s president,
Amelia Jeffers, noted that people
didn’t bid if they had no interest in
the goods.
That makes sense. The same
has been heard from other auction
houses, and yet, that’s the deal. Peo-
ple have become more particular,
whether at Garth’s or elsewhere. It’s
a market running hot or cold. If buy-
ers want something, they tend to be
all in. There are fewer bidders these
days lurking at the fringes, grabbing
something just because of a low price
rather than for the chest-aching desire
to own something.
Nowhere in Garth’s sale was that
up-or-down attitude more apparent
than with the Asian material, where a
Chinese altar coffer realized $66,000
(including buyer’s premium) against
an estimate of $20,000/40,000.
“There had been a lot of interest in
this table,” said Jeffers. The bidding
bore that out; there really wasn’t a
chance it would go unsold.
The next-best item sold in the
Asian arts session was a Chinese gilt
bronze statue of Sakyamuni Buddha,
which brought $16,250. It toed a little
closer to the low side, but still it sold
within estimate. “It came with a fair
amount of high-end things with high
reserves,” said Jeffers.
For many lots, that was the killer.
“On the highest-end items, we missed
on high reserves,” added Jeffers.
Those included an 18th-/19th-century
white nephrite jade archaistic covered
vase estimated at $100,000/150,000
and an 18th-/19th-century carved
Chinese jadeite hanging lidded vase
estimated at $60,000/80,000.
Some of the unsold lots had been
acquired at New York auctions in the
recent past. “There was a hopefulness
that the market had grown since they
purchased [those items] in New York,
but not so much,” Jeffers noted.
The furious and quick price esca-
lation of Asian material over recent
years was likely to stop at some point.
This might have been it. “You can’t
maintain that crazy high forever,”
Jeffers said. “There does seem to be
a little bit of a pullback.”
It’s not just a matter of buyers
sitting on their hands. Some sellers
share responsibility in what has hap-
pened of late. “It is one hundred per-
cent a reserve equation,” said Jeffers.
“On ninety percent of that auction,
we had coverage and a lot of interest
from all over…. It was good stuff. It
was right stuff.”
Of course, a second opinion never
hurts. “It is a tough market to know,
and I have worked hard to educate
myself, but there’s nothing like ask-
ing a buyer who knows the market,
when they’re standing in front of the
stuff, ‘What do you think?’”
Jeffers asked. Knowledgeable peo-
ple told her two things: 1) it’s great
stuff, and 2) it’s too much. Regarding
the latter, they meant the reserves,
which were reflected in the strong
estimates.
Many of the Asian objects had
reserves, and in January in cen-
tral Ohio, potential bidders had had
enough. In the room and via an active
Internet, they often sat on their hands.
At times, item after item after item
went unsold. The reason? “A lot of
reserves,” said Jeffers.
That wasn’t the case with theAmer-
icana portion of the auction, Garth’s
bread and butter. A ridiculously nice
stoneware crock incised “July 6 1839
/ L.D. Owen Ohio” above a bird and
flowers within a scalloped wreath,
all with cobalt accents, estimated at
$2500/3500, realized
$19,200 despite damage.
“Damage, schmam-
age,” bidders seemed to
say. After all, the crock
was from Ohio, and it was
early, dated, and decorated.
“What’s not to love, right?
It’s just a screamer, and,
condition notwithstanding,
there was a ton of interest,”
said Jeffers.
That piece of stoneware
also suggested something else, she
noted: great material doesn’t need a
specialized auction to bring impres-
sive prices. “I say this would have
brought that if it had sold out of the
back of a truck in Morgantown, West
Virginia,” Jeffers said. The crock
made an impact, she added, benefit-
ing other stoneware and Americana
in the sale—the concept that a rising
tide lifts all boats.
Other material in the Americana
section included a $6900 burl bowl,
which Jeffers described as having
nice form and great burl. “There’s
nothing like a burl bowl with lots of
natural oil and patina. It’s right in our
sweet spot.”
In the middle, between Asia and
the New World, the items that sold
were as diverse as a 12½" high x 17"
long late 19th- or early 20th-century
Meissen figure of Mercury seated in
a chariot pulled by ravens, with res-
toration, at $5700, and a 10¼" high
mid-20th century Danish sterling sil-
ver two-light candelabrum by Johan
Rohde for Georg Jensen, the natural-
istic motif with branches, buds, and
berries, at $3900.
Despite the hiccups of passed lots
during the Asian arts session, it was
a good sale, according to Jeffers. “I
was pleased with it overall,” she said.
“I thought it was a great auction.”
For more information, contact
Garth’s at (740) 362-4771; website
).
Garth’s Auctions, Delaware, Ohio
Asian and Continental Arts and Country
Americana
by Don Johnson
Photos courtesy Garth’s
Chinese huanghuali altar coffer, late 19th
or early 20th century, three drawers over two bifold
doors, relief carving of birds and prunus branches,
pierce-carved panels, 36" high x 72" wide, minor
pieced restorations, $66,000.
Chinese
aloe wood
carving of
birds, Qing
Dynasty
(1644-
1911),
3" high,
$7500.
Chinese gilt bronze statue of Sakyamuni Buddha,
Qing Dynasty, the figure in dhyanasana on a lotus
base with hands positioned in dhyana mudra, six
characters “Da Qing Qian Long Nian Jin Zhi”
above four incised characters “Wu Liang Shou
Fo” on the bottom edge, incised six-character
mark “Ban Ruo Pin,” 8¼" high, $16,250.
Ohio stoneware crock incised “July 6 1839 / L.D.
Owen Ohio” above a bird and flowers within a scal-
loped wreath, cobalt accents, 15" high, rim flakes,
light stains, small plugged hole in front in the design,
faint hairline crack in base, and some surface wear,
$19,200.
It’s a market
running hot or
cold.
Twelve-tin pie safe in walnut, fylfot punched design, pos-
sibly midwestern, mid-19th century, 63" high x 42" wide,
refinished, one tin rusted along its bottom edge, $1680.
Folky tin rifle, likely a trade sign, made of sheet tin, including a stove-
pipe, with a leather hammer and what appears to be the original paint
decoration, found in Vermont, late 19th or early 20th century, 75"
long, some wear, $420.