Maine Antique Digest, March 2017

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Maine Antique Digest, March 2017 15-E
- AUCTION -
15-E
Robert L. Foster Auctions, Newcastle, Maine
Foster Rings in the New Year
by Mark Sisco
Robert Foster opened the new year just as he’s done for the past several decades—
with a January 1 auction in Newcastle, Maine. In a way, this one was an
extension of his September 2016 auction, in that it was paced by a field of about
20 paintings by Louis Michel Eilshemius and nearly a dozen by Vern Broe.
One of four books on Eilshemius (1864-1941) in the sale characterized him as a “born
poet-visionary” and “a painter of bizarre primitive nudes.” Another described his life as
“one of the greatest tragedies in the history of American art.” Eilshemius was born into
a wealthy family, which gave him freedom from economic concerns and enabled him
to pursue his idiosyncratic eccentricities, traveling the world and constantly seeking
approval for his art but rarely finding it. His earlier works, reflecting the influence
the Tonalists and Barbizon painters, met with some success. But as his style veered
off into the often crudely fanciful, critics savaged his works, leading Eilshemius into
fits of isolation and depression and eventually to quit painting altogether around 1921.
His reputation rose significantly when Duncan
Phillips began to collect his work for the Phillips
Collection in New York City, which owns 20 of
his oil paintings and where in 1933 a catalog of an
exhibition Phillips compared Eilshemius favorably
to the “unskilled folk painters of America...unaffectedly, spontaneously simple and
naïve in manner.” All the works in the sale came from Eilshemius’s latter fanciful
period.
Foster is doing his best to rehabilitate the long since deceased artist, selling about
35 of his works in the last two auctions and possibly more to come. At the top of the
Eilshemius prices was $6612.50 (including buyer’s premium) for an oil on masonite of
three siren-like sea nymphs bathing in frothy surf.
Paintings by George Vernon “Vern” Broe (1930-2011) are still making waves at
Foster’s, as they have been for years. The artist was heavily represented in the sale,
with about 11 of his signature works, most showing brightly lit pleasure sailing craft. A
17½" x 23½" oil on board of a gaff-rigged sailboat led the fleet at $1725.
The top lot of the auction was a rare tall clock by William Cummens that finished at
$8050. Cummens (1768-1834) was a clockmaker in Roxbury, Massachusetts, as early
as 1789 and until 1834. He apprenticed with Simon Willard and maintained a working
relationship with the Willard family throughout most of his career, often using the
same suppliers, case makers, and dial painters that they did. So it’s no
surprise that this clock bore a strong resemblance to Willard’s work. It
was signed on the face “WARRANTED / W. CUMMENS” and bore
three brass ball finials atop a full-column bonnet with a reticulated
crest, surrounding a moon phase dial. The brown mahogany case
featured a quarter-column waist with a flame-grained door over a
string-inlaid and ogee-footed base.
For more information, visit ) or call (207)
563-8110.
“A painter of bizarre
primitive nudes.”
This tall clock by William Cummens led the sale at $8050.
Many styles of Morris chairs have been
developed over the years. But this is the only
one I could locate with drop-down writing
arms. The listing had it patented in 1883. I
did find a similar model patented by German
immigrant furniture maker George Hunzinger
in 1906, in which he developed a mechanism
for the adjustable back and rising footrest.
Some decorative molding and a newer leather
upholstery job made this one worth $488.75.
This grain-decorated hand-cranked Faventia hurdy-gurdy appears
virtually identical to one that sold at Foster’s in April 2011 for $161.
Around 1950, Spanish piano maker Vincente Llinares began creating
these table-mounted models. This one gave an encore performance for
$575.
Victorian camel-back sofas can be ponderous and
unwieldy, with little market appeal, but this one
has enough reticulated rose crest carving and clean
upholstery to get it over the hump at $345.
Stare at this too long and you won’t be able to get the Nelson
Riddle theme from the old Route 66 TV show out of your
head. Yeah, I know that show featured a 1959 Corvette
convertible, and this is a 1957 model. It was produced by
Gary L. Harp of Pedal Classics of California, serial number
E57S001055, and with working headlights and taillights,
inflatable tires, and 400 other parts, it sold for $1035.