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26-C Maine Antique Digest, April 2017
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AUCTION -
26-C
Christie’s, New York City
The Altmayer Sale
by Clayton Pennington
Photos courtesy Christie’s
A
fter the final tally was counted, it was clear that
the family and estate representatives of the late
Jay P. and Nan Altmayer had made a tough but
profitable decision. They had turned down an offer of
$4 million cash for the contents of Palmetto Hall, the
Altmayers’ antebellum home in Mobile, Alabama, opting
to sell the contents at auction instead. It was a good call;
the single-owner catalog sale at Christie’s on January 19
totaled $5,364,625 (includes buyers’ premiums).
The total was actually higher. Three paintings with an
Altmayer provenance were sold in the various-owners
sale the next day, a sales tactic Christie’s sometimes
employs. Rembrandt Peale’s portrait of George
Washington brought $235,500 (est. $150,000/250,000);
a painting of George Washington at Dorchester Heights
after John Trumbull sold for $21,250 (est. $3000/5000);
and
The H.M.S. “Macedonian” surrendering to the
U.S.S. “United States” commanded by Captain Stephen
Decatur
after Thomas Birch brought $11,250 (est.
$2000/3000). Those three pictures added $268,000,
making the total $5,632,625.
The $4 million offer had come in June 2016 from
Robert C. Hicklin Jr., a Charleston, South Carolina,
dealer who calls his business Charleston Renaissance
Gallery. Hicklin had known the Altmayers since 1978
and was familiar with their collection. He was good
friends with the Altmayers and had spent many nights at
Palmetto Hall.
Hicklin was a major player at the sale, buying many
lots and underbidding others. In addition, he had advised
several collectors who bid for themselves.
“I made a $4 million cash offer last June and was
turned down. My offer was contingent on nothing. No
guarantees of provenance. No guarantees of authenticity.
No guarantees of condition. Just as-is, where-is. Take my
money, and let me bring my truck,” said Hicklin.
Hicklin had bought from the family before. “There
were two collections. The one that was at Palmetto
Hall, which was the residence, and the other was at
75 St. Michael Street, which was the family business
headquarters. I bought 78 or 79 paintings when the estate
was settled. Some of those were some of the greatest
southern paintings I’ve ever owned. Ever. And they are
now in some major collections,” said Hicklin.
“Because I had worked with the trust department at
the bank with the acquisition of the 78 or 79 paintings
in the family office, I had a very good rapport with the
trust department—and the family—but they elected to
go to Christie’s,” said Hicklin, who added that as far as
he knew the choice for
dispersal came down to
him or Christie’s—no
other auction house was
considered or made an
offer.
“The estate gambled
that they would do better
than the offer, and I think
they won. I think they
came out ahead. I’m
not embarrassed by my
offer. Given the passage
of time—and the time
value of capital—it was
a legitimate offer,” he said.
“We were really good friends. I learned a lot from
them about what made paintings interesting to them.
How can you beat that? There are people who collect
paintings because they’re pretty. There are people who
collect paintings for whatever reason, but Jay Altmayer
was all about history, people, and waving the flag. I
think that pretty well informed his collecting interest in
paintings,” Hicklin said.
“They assembled probably the best collection of
Louisiana landscapes, Gulf Coast, and Deep South
pictures in private hands at that time,” he added. “It’s
perhaps the last great collection of southern paintings in
private hands that is not headed to an institution.... The
Altmayer sale is the end of an era.”
The sale was led by Richard Clague’s
North Shore of
Lake Pontchartrain
at Mandeville
, a 36
1
/
8
" x 60¼" oil
on canvas. Estimated at $120,000/180,000, it sold for
$1,627,500 to Amanda Winstead, an appraiser, broker,
and consultant specializing in paintings from the South,
bidding for a client. She was underbid by a private
collector. It was the only million-dollar lot sold during
Americana Week in New York City.
“It’s his masterpiece,” said Winstead. “Nothing
else even comes close.” Ex-Berry-Hill Galleries, the
painting once hung at the entrance of the Oval Office
during Jimmy Carter’s presidency. According to Hicklin,
the Clague hung in the ballroom of Palmetto Hall. “It
commanded the room,” he said. Altmayer had told
people he bought the Clague for $10,000 in 1968 from
Berry-Hill Galleries.
Altmayer, who died in 1999, was a developer,
philanthropist, and art collector. His wife, Nan, an
ex-model, died in April 2016.
The strength of the sale was the paintings, many
of which had been off the market for years. Hermann
Herzog’s
Southern Hardwood Swamp Scene
, a 22" x 26"
oil on canvas, sold for $487,500 (est. $60,000/80,000)
to Hicklin, bidding for a client. James Henry Beard’s
portrait of Zachary Taylor, oil on canvas, 49" x 38¾",
sold for $187,500 (est. $5000/10,000); Samuel King’s
George Washington at Bunker Hill
, oil on canvas,
A “remarkable sideboard in an American private collection” is how H. Blairman & Sons
described the circa 1815 Regency lacquered-brass-mounted and brass-inlaid rosewood,
ebony, and ebonized sideboard by George Bullock (d. 1818) in a 1988 publication. Martin
Levy of H. Blairman & Sons bought it for $68,750, under the $70,000/100,000 estimate.
“I’m thrilled,” said Levy about the marble-top sideboard, which measures 37" x 80"
x 21½". Bullock began his business in London in 1812, and by 1815 he advertised as
“Sculptor, 4 Tenterden Street, Hanover Square, Mona Marble and Furniture Works,
Oxford Street,” where he worked until his death in 1818, according to the 1986 book
Dictionary of English Furniture Makers: 1680-1840
. The sideboard once belonged to scholar
and author Helena Hayward, who was a director and instructor of the Attingham Summer
School. The sideboard may have been purchased from Hayward directly, as the Altmayers
and Hayward were friends.
Amanda Winstead, an appraiser, broker, and consultant
specializing in paintings from the South, paid $1,627,500
for
North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain
at Mandeville
by
Richard Clague (1821-1873). She was bidding for a client
and was underbid by a private collector. The 36
⅛
"
x
60¼" oil on canvas was estimated at $120,000/180,000
and was the only lot during Americana Week to crack the
$1 million barrier. “It’s his masterpiece,” said Winstead.
“Nothing else even comes close.” Ex-Berry-Hill Galleries,
the painting once hung at the entrance of the Oval Office
during Carter’s presidency.
This 30" x 24½" signed oil on canvas portrait by Louis
M.D. Guillaume (1816-1892) of Irish-born Confederate
Major General Patrick R. Cleburne, whom Jefferson
Davis called the “Stonewall of the West,” sold for $20,000
to an Internet bidder, underbid by the phone. It’s the
second-highest price ever paid for a Guillaume painting.
Dealer Robert M. Hicklin Jr. paid $487,500 (est. $60,000/80,000),
underbid by the phone, for
Southern Hardwood Swamp Scene
, this 22"
x 26" oil on canvas by Hermann Herzog (1831-1932). We couldn’t find
any higher prices paid for a Herzog painting. Herzog painted over 1000
canvases during his lifetime.
“They assembled probably the best
collection of Louisiana landscapes,
Gulf Coast, and Deep South pictures
in private hands at that time.”