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28-C Maine Antique Digest, April 2017
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AUCTION -
28-C
A telephone bidder made a dramatic jump bid from $130,000 all the
way to $150,000 and ended any competition for James Henry Beard’s
49" x 38¾" oil on canvas portrait of Zachary Taylor. With buyer’s
premium, the phone buyer paid $187,500, well above the $5000/10,000
estimate. Beard (1811-1893) was born in Buffalo, New York.
Opinions varied wildly about a set of eight American Chippendale-style brass-inlaid and carved
mahogany eagle shield-back decorated dining chairs (four shown). Were they centennial or
earlier? All Christie’s said in the catalog was “19th century.” Seth Kaller, bidding for a client,
paid $68,750 (est. $5000/10,000) for the set of 43½" high chairs. According to Hicklin, the chairs
lined a marble-floor hallway at the back of the house going to the ballroom.
Indian Ceremony
, 1845, oil on canvas, 21½" x 32", by Thomas Addison Richards (1820-1900) went
to a phone bidder for $37,500 (est. $20,000/30,000). It was exhibited at Knoedler Gallery in 1971 and
possibly at the Canadian National Exposition in 1954. The same phone bidder bought the preceding
lot,
A Red Indian Hunting Buffalo
, oil on canvas, 30½" x 50", by Astley David Montague Cooper
(1856-1924) for $27,500 (est. $8000/12,000).
This 27" x 22" oil on canvas of
General Ulysses S. Grant, done
by Nicola Marschall (1829-
1917) in 1862, sold for $37,500
(est. $5000/10,000) to a phone
bidder, underbid by Seth Kaller.
German-born Marschall served
in the Confederate Army under
the Stars and Bars flag that he is
credited with designing.
The Women’s Loyal National League sold antislavery badges
inscribed “In Emancipation Is National Unity” in solid silver
($3), silver filled ($2), and Britannia metal ($1) to finance a
petition campaign to end slavery. Marked “Women’s L.N.L.,
New York, 1863,” this one in solid silver is only 2" long but
brought $3000 from a phone bidder.
Exhibited at the National Academy in 1861 in New York City,
The
Zouave Que Vive
by James Hamilton Shegogue (1806-1872), a 38½"
x 35½" oil on canvas, signed and dated 1860, sold for $40,000 (est.
$30,000/50,000) to a phone bidder, underbid by Robert Hicklin Jr. It
was the first painting Hicklin ever sold the Altmayers.