Maine Antique Digest, December 2016

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4-B Maine Antique Digest, December 2016
- AUCTION -
4-B
Thomaston Place Auction Galleries, Thomaston, Maine
Bidding the Old-Fashioned Way
on a Major Art Collection
by Mark Sisco
Over $1 million wouldn’t be a bad total
for the entire Thomaston Place Auc-
tion Galleries’ August 27-29 event in
Thomaston, Maine. But $1.6 million was, by
my estimate, the total for what Thomaston
Place brought in from just a single
midwestern consignor. It was a collection of
32 paintings containing some of the biggest
names in landscape and marine art: Bierstadt,
Buttersworth, Bricher, and more, all offered
unreserved. Thirty of the paintings sold, with
two held back at the auctioneer’s discretion
when acceptable bids weren’t forthcoming.
Auctioneer Kaja Veilleux
noted before the sale,
“They’ve been collecting
for over twenty years….
Nobody’s had this good a
set of paintings up here for
a long time.”
Thomaston was careful to
warn that Internet bidding
would not be permitted
on most of the expensive
paintings. Auctioneers have
to bear the risk of semi-anonymous Internet
bidders failing to complete their purchases,
and on the pricier items, sometimes it’s just not
worth the risk. Marketing manager Bob Grant
elaborated, “We, along with other auction
galleries, are trying to guard against people
on the Internet buying and not paying…. We
work for the consignor, and it’s not fair to the
consignor for us to go through all this work
and then to have it not be a sale.” On smaller
items, it may be an acceptable risk, but not so
for high-ticket offerings. “If we lose $1000,
all right, too bad, but it’s not the end of the
world,” Grant continued. “You lose $40,000,
that’s the end of the world…. [So you tell the
consignor] they just won $40,000 and then
three weeks later, you say ‘Sorry.’” With
floor, absentee, and phone bidding all readily
available, curtailing the Internet looked like a
sensible move.
Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) was probably
the most famous landscape painter of the late
19th century. One of his luminously romantic
scenes of a brilliant sunrise backlighting
a lake with trees in autumn foliage led the
sale. The flat terrain of the scene gave no
clue to its location. Signed lower right “A.
Bierstadt” with a conjoined initial, it bore a
Vose Galleries, Boston, label on the back. At
least five bidders were still alive as it entered
the estimate range of $250,000 to $350,000.
One bidder finally prevailed at $386,100
(including buyer’s premium).
Coming from the former MBNA corporate
collection was an enormous cased ship model
of the British passenger ocean liner R.M.S.
Mauretania. The ship was built for the
Some of the biggest
names in landscape
and marine art:
Bierstadt,
Buttersworth,
Bricher, and more.
A romantic sunrise backlights a lake lined with autumn trees in this 25½" x
38½" painting by Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) that sold for $386,100.
Cunard Steamship Co. Ltd. by Swan, Hunter &
Wigham Richardson. In 1909 the Mauretania
set the record for the fastest westbound
crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, which stood for
20 years. She made her final voyage in 1934,
and by two years later, she had been scrapped
to a hulk. The 107½" long model reflected the
great ship in her glory with some purportedly
gold-plated fittings in a mahogany and glass
case. It had a $10,000/15,000 estimate, and the
final price was a hefty $52,650.
Francis Augustus Silva (1835-1886) showed
his skill in depicting dramatic sunset light in
his 30" x 46" oil on canvas
titled On the Hudson Near
Tappan Zee, signed and dated
1888. One could almost feel
the sun beating down from
behind the artist to softly
illuminate the canvas sails.
Cleaned, relined, and in the
original gilt gesso frame,
the painting was a major
winner at $163,800 (est.
$40,000/60,000).
A 25½" x 34½" oil on canvas portrait of
the coastal schooner Frances Hatch by James
Gardner Babbidge (1844-1919) came up to
auction at Barridoff Galleries, Portland, Maine,
in October 2013, when it brought $13,200. This
time around the Hatch set sail for $19,890. The
setting of the painting was clearly identified
as her home port of Rockland, Maine. It was
signed and identified lower right “Painted for
Capt. A. N. Fales / J. G. Babbidge Mar. 1877.
/ No. 7.” Albert Norris Fales was the captain
and part owner and was lost at sea in 1888. The
ship was built in Castine, Maine, in 1854. In
1864 the Hatch ran afoul of the law when she
transported cargo and passengers from New
York to Gwyn’s Island near Newport News,
Virginia, then part of the Confederacy. The
vessel was eventually lost in 1877. So it seems
the painting was made near the beginning of
Babbidge’s career and near the end of that of
the Frances Hatch .
For more information, visit (www.
) or call (207) 354-8141.
Good weathervanes
are still going strong. Here’s a
well-detailed full-bodied bull
weathervane with a zinc head
and copper body. Minus the
usual bullet holes, and retaining
better than 90% of its gilding, it was a
solid hit at $16,380. Thomaston Place
photo.
This Maine blind-door stepback cupboard with a molded cornice,
a dark painted interior, wooden knobs, and thumb turn wooden
latches has much of the original gray-green exterior surface
remaining. It sold for $4095.
This cased model of the passenger liner Mauretania , 107½" long, brought
$52,650. Thomaston Place photo.
This large, roughly three-quarter-life-size tobacconist fig-
ure attributed to Samuel Robb stands a full 76" tall on the
original plinth. A later added bronze plaque reads “TO / THE
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
/ OF TOBACCO DISTRIBU-
TORS / FROM / THE CIGAR
INSTITUTE OF AMERICA,
INC. / 1959.” The crazed,
slightly flaking but original
painted and varnished sur-
face was all it took to turn it
into a winner at $39,780 (est.
$30,000/50,000). Thomaston
Place photo.