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Maine Antique Digest, December 2016 7-B
-
AUCTION -
7-B
This 25½" x 34½" oil on canvas portrait of the
Frances Hatch
by
James Gardner Babbidge (1844-1919) landed at $19,890.
This typically realistic and dramatic 23½" x 37½" oil on canvas,
Tacking
Starboard in a Storm
, by Jack Lorimer Gray (1927-1981) of a fishing
schooner with her deck awash in heavy seas is signed and dated 1960
lower left. It more than doubled the $10,000/15,000 estimate to close for
$37,440.
John Bottero explained that this 1832 gooseneck tub
fire pump engine, known as the “Lady Washington,”
was built by James Smith of New York for the Man-
hattan fire company. “In 1858 it changed possession
to the Oxford [New York] fire department…. Then
its whereabouts is believed to have been with that fire
department until about the 1940s, when a guy named
Army Armstrong ran a firehouse surplus business,
and the Glens Falls [New York] fire department did
a volunteer effort on restoration.” Eventually it came
into the possession of the Adirondack Museum. It was
built to be pulled by hand, not by horses. The mahog-
any case with gilt molding is decorated with hand-
painted panels, including a curved image on the back
depicting Lady Victory laying a crown of stars on a
bust of George Washington. The front panel shows
a scene of Pocahontas intervening to spare the life of
Captain John Smith. Although some of the mechanics
and surface of the vehicle had been carefully restored,
neither of the painted panels shows any evidence of
restoration. “There are rare firefighter collectors that
are just frothing on this thing,” Bottero added. When
the smoke cleared, it had sold successfully within the
$60,000/80,000 estimate for $70,200.
This E. Howard & Company #57 astro-
nomical wall regulator clock carried a
seemingly realistic $5000/7000 estimate.
The walnut burl case has a broken-arch
pediment with a large central finial, and
the signed silvered and engraved brass
face shows a single minute hand and
dials for seconds and hours. It is missing
the lower pediment, but bidders ignored
the estimate and chased it all the way to
$47,970. Thomaston Place photos.
This mid-19th-
century Anglo-
Indian center table
in intricately carved rosewood
with a red marble top, a skirt consisting of
egg-and-dart moldings over reticulated ivy,
a ponderous leaf-carved urn pedestal, and a
base with four up-curled feet sold for more
than triple the $3000/4000 estimate, at
$13,200. Thomaston Place photo.
This enormous porcelain Meissen
figural plateau of a pair of hunting
dogs attacking a wild boar with
one poor hound getting the worst
of the battle is signed on the base
with the Meissen crossed swords
between initials “EJ.” With three-
dimensional representations of
forest animals and flora, the
porcelain piece sold for $1872.