Maine Antique Digest, April 2017

116 / 221

4-C Maine Antique Digest, April 2017
- AUCTION -
known. The Kentucky sideboard was featured in the
1971 article on the Caldwells’ home in The Magazine
Antiques, which noted what a fine example it was
and how much they enjoyed having it.” The lots from
the estate in this sale were mostly art and furniture,
but other works are expected to appear in Case’s July
event.
The top lot in the entire sale was the Caldwells’
sculpture of The Nursing Supervisor by self-taught
Tennessee artist William Edmondson (1874-1951).
The 13½" high figure brought $129,800 (includes
buyer’s premium), won by an anonymous phone
bidder in competition with a half-dozen determined
participants. The same weekend in New York City,
at Christie’s sale called Courageous Spirits: Outsider
and Vernacular Art, a much larger Edmondson Lion,
22" high x 37½" long, circa 1937, sold for $511,500,
and amore comparable 14¼" tall Schoolteacher figure
brought $52,500. Christie’s published an informative
feature on its website titled “10 things to know about
Edmondson,” the first of which is the fact that the
sculptor was the first African American artist to have
a solo show at the Museum of Modern Art; the article
is illustrated with many examples of his early work.
It is worth noting that another Edmondson carving,
of a birdbath with figural support, sold for $207,000
and was the top lot at the May 2006 Brunk auction of
Caldwell pieces.
John Case explained Caldwell’s early interest
in the artist: “He was collecting them in Nashville.
He was picking them up locally in the 1960s. They
were maybe in people’s backyard or whatever. He
was a visionary who recognized where the market
was going, and he wasn’t afraid to take chances. He
has always had a strong collection of Edmondson,
but this is the one he kept and prized. The carving
is exquisite on this figure. It’s obvious it didn’t get
the wear from exposure to the weather that you see
on other forms. Limestone will weather, but the
carving on this one is really crisp. This shows the
connoisseurship and discernment that Caldwell had.”
Vice president Sarah Campbell Drury added, “We
had international interest on the Edmondson. The
buyer on the phone asked to be anonymous, but we
had two serious bidders in the room who are actively
collecting. I believe the underbidder was one of those
local collectors. William Edmondson is not regional
anymore—he’s international.”
Drury pointed out other important consignments
to the sale, beginning with art from the collection
of Charles and Ann Wells: “Ann was a dealer of
rare maps and books in Nashville. At home, she
and her husband had been accumulating this really
wonderful art collection which had some very nice
pieces. She had the Louis le Brocquy painting for
which we had the capacity number of phone lines
bidding—we were maxed out on international phone
lines. The interest was almost all overseas.” The
abstract oil titled Torso, 11½" x 9¾", which had been
purchased from the artist in 1957, sold for $16,520
(est. $2400/3400). As would be expected, there also
were many lots of historic maps from the dealer’s
collection; an 1800 map of Kentucky by John Payne,
published by John Low, New York, brought $2016.
A brilliant collection of 20th-century works
by well-known artists, rather the “sleeper” of the
sale, came from an unnamed collector with a great
eye. Drury continued, “Although we were really
thrilled to have the Wells collection, if you want
to talk about art, the property of a retired Middle
Tennessee sculptor who was also an art collector and
art patron— he assembled a fantastic collection of
twentieth-century art that did really well. He had the
Salvador Dali lithograph that brought $12,980, the
Picasso ceramics, the Marc Chagall lithograph for
$8260, the 1964 bronze disk medallion Bouche-Evier
or Sink Stopper by Marcel Duchamp for $7812. We
were so thrilled about this collection—I wish I could
go out and find five more just like it.”
“That’s where the excitement in the market is
right now. It was these contemporary pieces that
were attracting multiple bidders from all different
sources, bidders that were willing to blow through
the estimate to get these things, so we were beyond
thrilled and the consignor was too. We did have
good weather. That was another thing that was really
unique about this auction. People are always saying,
‘I can’t believe how many people you get to come
to your auction.’ That was really the case this time,
we had to bring in extra chairs. This was probably
the strongest sale we’ve seen in a couple of auctions
where the floor was doing so much of the buying—
they were taking home a lot of the pieces.”
A selection of silver from a private collection in Knoxville included several circa
1925 lots in the Repousse pattern marked “S. Kirk & Son Inc.” This set of ten
sterling goblets sold for $6300. Not shown, a water pitcher sold for $2242 and a
five-piece tea service for $4284.
The 56½" high walnut pie
safe with each tin decorated
with double pitchers and a
cup, from Hawkins County
in East Tennessee, 1840-50,
had been in the collection
of dealer Mary Jo Case, the
mother of John and David
Case. It brought $4248.
The most expensive furniture lot in
the sale proved to be this southern
Pembroke mahogany drop-leaf table
from the Caldwell collection that
brought $27,140 (est. $2000/3000), a
record for that form. According to
the catalog, it had been “attributed
by Luke Beckerdite to the Petersburg
Guttae Foot Group” (guttae is Latin
for “drops”) and had been purchased
in the Petersburg area of Virginia.
The 30" x 27½" x 16" southern sugar desk of cherry with
poplar secondary, cataloged as “likely Kentucky,” has a
light wood inlay on the front panel of an urn with a floral
spray. The regional piece had turned up in Connecticut
and was sent back to its home territory for sale; it brought
$8260, well above the $2800/3200 estimate.
John Case insists there is a scientific aspect to it all:
“I study lot sequence, the number of lots, the number of
categories, and I also look at how to best garner traffic,
how to gather those people in, to get them into a sale where
they’ll stay in it. The key with that is diverse categories.
It’s a challenge and it’s all day, but it also improves the
probability that you’re really a destination for a given
bidder because there are so many categories represented
and there’s enough depth to be worth the trip. If you’re
going to plop down and monitor an auction that day, which
one do you choose? You’ve got to be the big boy on the
block out there. That’s why I think it’s important that
we reach a critical number of lots so that we pull in the
requisite traffic. Overall, we saw floor and phone bidding
take a greater share of winning bids versus the Internet
compared to sales in July and January of last year. I think
it is encouraging to see we still have a strong contingency
of buyers show up auction day to bid, bucking the trend of
lower live bidding turnout noted by many auction houses
across the country.”
Check the website ) or call (615)
812-6096 for news of the next on-site auction, July 15. The
firm has a new, more spacious location for its Nashville
office, which is headquarters for Sarah Campbell Drury,
2106 21st Avenue South, Suite 2, in historic Hillsboro
Village.
In a group of documents
and ephemera, this copy of
The Great Smoky Mountains
signed by author Laura
Thornborough and owner
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
in 1937 brought $3776.
This inlaid cherry Federal
sideboard has a well-documented
chain of ownership that traces it
back to Meade County, Kentucky.
The piece had appeared as part
of the Caldwells’ furnishings in
the “Living with Antiques” story
in the September 1971 issue of
The Magazine Antiques. It sold for
$22,420.