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34-A Maine Antique Digest, March 2017
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AUCTION -
34-A
Jill Waddell of Christie’s silver department is
shown holding a pair of Simeon Soumaine silver
candlesticks, 1730-50, ex-Wunsch collection. Estimated
at $100,000/200,000, the sticks failed to sell. Sally
Apfelbaum photo.
This French empire ormolu mantel clock with a figure
of George Washington, 1815-17, 19½" x 14¾" x 6", the
dial signed by Jacques Nicolas Pierre François Dubuc
of Paris, sold to an Internet bidder for $100,000 (est.
$100,000/150,000).
AMemphis collector who’s been chasing
Puma Kitten
by William Hawkins for a decade finally got a chance to
own it and won it for $85,000 by besting a phone bidder
in a drawn-out bidding battle that featured unusual
bidding. There were $1000 increments around $58,000
all the way to $61,000, where a jump bid to $65,000
was made, then back to $1000 increments to its final
hammer price of $68,000. The animated collector then
stood and took a bow. The enamel, metallic paint, and
cornmeal paste on board measures 44" x 31
⅞
".
“It’s my third Edmondson,” said New
York City collector Jerry Lauren shortly
after paying $511,500 for
Lion
by William
Edmondson (1874-1951). The underbidder was
dealer Philip Bradley, sitting with a collector.
The circa 1937 sculpture, 22"x 37½" x 7",
was sold with a photographic contact sheet
showing Edmondson and the
Lion
. It’s the
second-highest price paid for an Edmondson.
(The highest was for the 17" tall
Boxer
,
sold at Christie’s in January 2016; Lauren
was the underbidder.) “The
Lion
is both
rugged and subtle; it’s mysterious,”
said Lauren. It’s one of the largest
carvings by the artist and one of
only four known lions. (One lion is
in the collection of the Milwaukee
Art Museum; another is at the
Cheekwood Botanical Garden and
Museum of Art, Nashville, Tennessee.)
“It’s beat up, but somebody loved this cup,”
said a collector who paid $4750 for a circa
1694 cup by Samuel Haugh, measuring 3
⅛
"
high and the earliest of three documented
surviving objects made by Haugh. It had sold
at Christie’s in January 2001 for $11,750.
This circa 1700 trencher silver salt,
2¼" high and with the mark of Richard
Conyers of Boston, sold to a phone
bidder for $6000 (est. $8000/12,000).
There’s not much Conyers silver
known; Patricia Kane lists only five
objects. When last seen at auction in
January 1992 at Christie’s, the silver
salt sold for $18,700.
This circa 1735 silver coffeepot
made by John Blowers (1710-1748),
10¼" high, ex-Wunsch collection,
has a striking feature not visible
to most. The piercing behind the
spout—where the coffee would pass—
is in a heart and teardrop pattern
that can’t be seen without removing
the cover. Engraved with a crest and
coat of arms of John Jones of Boston, it
sold to an absentee bidder for $32,500
(est. $30,000/50,000). Circa 1732, John
Jones (1709-1772) married Mary Ann Faneuil
(1715-1790), sister of Peter Faneuil. Patricia Kane
lists only 13 objects by Blowers, and this is the only
coffeepot. When it sold at Sotheby’s on June 30,
1983, it brought $51,700.
This silver wine cup, Boston,
circa 1660, is marked by John
Hull and Robert Sanderson and
engraved “Property / of the /
Old South Church.” It went to a
phone bidder for $150,000.