Maine Antique Digest, March 2017

Maine Antique Digest, March 2017 3-C

AUCTION -

3-C

Active in the antiques trade

and as a collector throughout

her life, she acquired

a doctorate in psychology

along the way.

Polly Warren Antiques, Rehoboth, Massachusetts

Americana and Nautical Estates Auction

by Frances McQueeney-Jones Mascolo

ighty-four-year-old Polly Warren of

Rehoboth, Massachusetts, has collected

antiques for most of her life. As a child she

spent summers in Chatham, Massachusetts, where

she visited often with her summer neighbor Elmer

Crowell in his East Harwich studio. She was

permitted to watch him work but knew better than

to touch the birds. She was allowed, however, to

handle three carved bird heads and acquired them

from him. They brought $236 (including buyer’s

premium) at the November 27, 2016, sale at the

Warren homestead in Rehoboth.

The Thanksgiving weekend sale, beneath a well-

heated tent that dispelled the autumn chill so that

bidders were able to doff their winter coats and

scarves, brought out a good crowd of buyers.Warren

grew up in the house just down the street from her

family’s turkey farm, where 25,000 turkeys were

sold each year. Although she has been active in the

antiques trade and as a collector throughout her

life, she acquired a doctorate in psychology along

the way and had a career as a counselor.

Good maritime lots included scrimshaw, ship

models, navigational instruments, and paintings.

Warren’s son Edmond Tessier presided over the

sale. In a nice break from auction action of late, it

was a furniture lot that took one of the top honors.

A 19th-century Chinese (Guangzhou) 77" wide

rosewood opium bed, inset with 11 white marble

panels and with large ball-and-claw feet, shaped

sides, and blue silk bedding, brought $6844 from

a phone bidder.

An 18" tall 19th-century ivory and bone swift, tied

with modern red and black ribbon, fetched $2832

from a phone bidder. A19" tall bone and ivory swift

with modern pink and blue ribbons brought $1652

on the phone. A lot of ten 19th-century whalebone

whaling objects, including four whale stamps, a

scribing tool, an Eskimo whalebone paperweight,

a small whale tooth, and three clothespins, sold for

$1770 (est. $600/800).

From the Warren family of Chatham,

Massachusetts, a 23" Canada goose decoy bearing

the “Elmer Crowell Decoys, Harwich, Mass.” stamp

had a large crack across the body but retained the

original paint. It sold for $4720. Three antique carved

and painted Nantucket 9½" plovers in the original

paint from the Warren family brought $2478.

Frank Swift Chase (1886-1958) was a founder of

the Woodstock (New York) Artists Association. He

also established an art school and helped organize

the Artists Association of Nantucket, where he

began spending summers in 1920. Swift’s 15½"

x 19½" oil on canvas of a Nantucket shore scene

with ducks and chickens was inscribed “To

My Friend Francis Saunders” and bore a later

plaque identifying the scene as “Sesachacha

Pond Nantucket.” The painting sold on a left

bid for $4130. Swift’s autumnal oil on canvas,

24" x 18", of a woodland scene sold online for

$1180.

An 18" x 14" oil on canvas scene of a man

watering his abundant flower garden by Abbott

Fuller Graves (1859-1936) was signed and

dated 1882. It sold for $3245.

An 1895 watercolor scene, 12" x 20", of

Nashawena Island with cows was signed and

dated by Boston artist and architect Edward

Clarke Cabot (1818-1901) and realized $708.

A ship’s chronometer by “John E. Hand

& Sons Co., Phila.” was stamped on the dial

“1051 England” and contained in a gimbaled

mahogany case. It realized $1298 online. A

more contemporary Patek Philippe Naviquartz

chronometer clock sold online for $1475.

For more information, call (508) 771-1722.

The late 19th-century cigar-store

Indian is 76" tall and was attributed

to the school of Samuel A. Robb.

Bidders on two phones and the

Internet pushed it to $10,620.

A 19th-century Chinese (Guangzhou) 77" wide rosewood opium bed, inset with

11 white marble panels, sold for $6844.

The carved ship’s billet

head attracted $590.

This Nantucket lightship basket was made

and signed in 1959 by José Formoso Reyes

(1902-1980). With a swing handle and a

rosewood plaque with a carved ivory whale,

it was also signed and dated 1959 by the

owner Beulah F. Orpm [

sic

] and realized

$1652.

The lithographed sign depicting

the Cunard liner

Lusitania

was

described as having been sloppily

repainted, but it still brought

$560.50.