106 / 241
26-B Maine Antique Digest, December 2016
-
AUCTION -
26-B
Good early leather fire buckets are hot items, especially when they
come in pairs. These two, one of which is dated 1846, came from
Milton, Massachusetts, and found a new home for $4945.
“It’s gotta be a commercial
grade,” Moore speculated about
this enormous 19" long chocolate
mold of jolly old St. Nicholas and
his reindeer-powered sleigh that
sold for a sweet $891.25.
This 11" x 17" oil on board
of the ship
Captain Francis
Cook
, as identified on the
back, approaching a wharf
in Friendship, Maine, came
from the family of artist
Elizabeth Guilkey Merriam
of Yarmouth, Maine, who
had several watercolors
in the sale. There was
no evidence that she had
created the painting. It sold
for $258.75.
The oeuvre of William Columbus Ehrig (1892-1973) is limited almost exclusively
to scenes of pounding surf on Maine’s rocky shorelines. He and his wife, Frances,
operated an art gallery from their home in the southernMaine town of Ogunquit.
This 24" x 30" oil on canvas surf scene went for a totally becalmed $172.50.
This oil on canvas illustration by Robert Robinson (1886-1952),
probably for inclusion in Hearst Corporation’s
Motor
magazine,
ended at $1380.
This 11½" x 15½" framed three-dimensional ship diorama of a three-masted
square rigger, led by a harbor tugboat, sold for $517.50.
Antebellum period travel journal authored by
Samuel Gilbert in 1850, $402.50.
Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius or Firmian
Lactance (c. A.D. 245-c. A.D. 325) was an early
Christian writer born in North Africa. His work
known as
Divinae Institutiones
was composed
around A.D. 320. This version, translated from
Latin to French, was published in 1555 and
printed by Jean (Ian) de Tournes (1504-1564) in
partnership with his son-in-law Guillaume Gazeau.
I chased it but was content to let someone else have
the prize for $368. A little more research, and I’m
sure I’ll be kicking myself for chickening out.