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Maine Antique Digest, December 2016 35-C
-
AUCTION -
35-C
Waverly Rare Books and Quinn’s Auction Galleries, Falls Church, Virginia
Mid-Century Furniture, Books, and Fine Art
Highlight Quinn’s Sales
Leading the way at the
Waverly sale were several
lots of original artworks by
American author/illustrator
Tasha Tudor.
by Walter C. Newman
Photos courtesy Quinn’s Auction Galleries
O
n September 8 and 10, Quinn’s Auction
Galleries conducted two separate sales.
Both sales took place at the firm’s Falls
Church, Virginia, salesrooms.
On September 8, the firm’s Waverly Rare
Books division offered 402 lots covering a wide
range of books, manuscripts, illustration art, and
photography. Leading the way at the Waverly
sale were several lots of original artworks
by American author/illustrator Tasha Tudor.
The high lot in the sale came from the Tudor
offerings. It was a group of eight watercolors,
several with pencil notations related to their
placement in a 1962 edition of
The Night Before
Christmas
. The lot brought $6600 (with buyer’s
premium) against an estimate of $800/1200. A
two-item lot by the artist, a signed watercolor
Nativity scene and a pen-and-ink Santa Claus
and a cat, brought $3900 (est. $400/700).
After the sale, Matthew Quinn stated that it is
refreshing to see Tasha Tudor material regaining
its strength.
A run of NASA and space exploration-related
material was highlighted by a 118-item lot
consisting of astronaut autographs including
material related to John Glenn, Scott Carpenter,
Gene Cernan, and many others. Other items in
the same lot included material from the early
years of the Mercury program and Apollo and
Skylab. The lot brought $480 (est. $300/500).
One interesting lot among the space material
failed to sell. A spectacular image of Earth was
the first infrared photograph of Earth taken from
the GOES 1 weather satellite in 1975. It carried
an estimate of $200/400.
The photography lots were led by a group
of ten images by William Christenberry (b.
1936). The artist is known for his photographs
of deteriorating landscapes of the Deep South.
His
5¢ Demopolis, Alabama, 1978
led the way,
selling for $1920 (est. $1000/1500).
Two days following the Waverly sale, Quinn’s
Auctions held its fine and decorative arts sale.
This sale offered a wide variety of traditional
auction categories.
The sale was led by seven lots consigned by
the estate of Francis Chapman, painting assistant
to the acclaimed Washington, D.C., artist Gene
Davis (1920-1985). Davis is known for his
brightly colored vertical-striped paintings. The
Davis/Chapman lots consisted of both original
and reproduced works from the Davis studio.
The high lot of the sale was an untitled acrylic
on canvas inscribed to Chapman and dated
1972. It sold for $34,800 (est. $20,000/30,000).
A second acrylic on canvas,
John Barleycorn
,
dated 1970 and also inscribed to Chapman, sold
for $32,400 (est. $15,000/20,000).
Other Davis pieces from the Chapman estate
included an uncharacteristic pencil and crayon
line and dot creation on lined paper that sold
just above its high estimate for $960. The most
interesting and thought-provoking lot from the
group was a poster featuring one of Davis’s
vertical-striped images advertising the Mostly
Mozart Festival at New York City’s Lincoln
Center in 1975. The inscription reads: “To Fran,
who paints half my paintings, Love, Gene.” It
sold for $360, only slightly more than half its low
estimate.
Mid-century furniture seemed to perform
well. Charles and Ray Eames’s designs did
particularly well. A classic 670 lounge chair
with ottoman in blue leather brought $4800;
a pair of wire and leather Bikini chairs brought $450; a
pair of LCW bentwood lounge chairs made $1080; and
a single molded fiberglass side chair on an Eiffel Tower
base sold for $390. All of the Eames lots sold within or
above high estimates.
Mid-century case pieces also found new homes, selling
above estimates. An Arne Wahl Iversen teak desk, No. 64,
sold for $1200. An unmarked sliding-door teak sideboard/
credenza with four compartments, raised on tapered
turned legs, brought $1020.
Among the fine art lots, a 21½" high bronze bust
by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (French, 1827-1875),
The
Laughing Neapolitan
, circa 1873, sold for $3600 (est.
$3000/5000). An oil on canvas titled
Seeking Shelter
by
Emile van Marcke (French, 1827-1890) brought $10,200,
more than double its high estimate. The painting depicts
cattle and sheep moving toward the viewer ahead of an
approaching storm.
For additional information, contact Quinn’s Auction
Galleries at (703) 532-5632 or visit the website (www.
quinnsauction.com) for both Quinn’s and Waverly Rare
Books.
This lot consists of eight original watercolors by author and illustrator Tasha Tudor
(1915-2008). Tudor was best known for her contributions to children’s literature.
Pencil notations on the backs indicate that these images are likely associated with
a 1962 edition of
The Night Before Christmas
by a Swiss publisher. The image sizes
range from 6" x 8¼" to 2½" x 3
3
/
8
". This group of original Tudor works brought
$6600 (est. $800/1200).
Gene Davis (1920-1985) lived most of his life in Washington, D.C. He is known for
his large, colorful vertical-striped paintings. This example of Davis’s work was the
high lot of the Quinn sale. The 22" x 30
1
/
8
" (sight size) acrylic on canvas is not
titled but is inscribed “To Fran, my faithful collaborator,
with Love, Gene Davis, Jan. 3, 1972” on the back. Francis
Chapman was Davis’s painting assistant. The painting
brought $34,800 (est. $20,000/30,000).
This volume of John George
Wood’s
The Natural History of
Man; Being An Account of the
Manners and Customs of Uncivilized
Races of Men
was published in
London in 1870. This volume is
particularly noteworthy because
of its double fore-edge painting of
a Native American chief, inspired
by one of the book’s illustrations.
When the pages are manipulated
in one direction the chief is viewed
on horseback with a war shield
and a rifle. When the pages are
manipulated in the opposite
direction, the chief is shown
standing in front of a tepee. This
interesting fore-edge painted book
sold for $1800 (est. $1500/2000).
Here is a copy of
The American Geography; Or a View of the
Present Situation of the United States of America
by Jedidiah
Morse, printed for John Stockdale, London, 1794. This
version is a revised and corrected edition and includes three
maps. This book sold for $1680 (est. $2400/3500).