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34-E Maine Antique Digest, April 2017
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AUCTION -
34-E
Far from the southern heat, this oil on canvas painting of
Winter—Pennsylvania Hills
by Emile Albert Gruppé (1896-
1978), 30" x 36", sold for $12,500.
Attractive mahogany veneers
ornamented this brass-inlaid circa
1825 Boston secretary bookcase.
Bidding took it well past the
$1000/1500 estimate to $7812.
Mary Tanner of Waubun Plantation,
Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, who was
about 13 years old in this portrait, was
the cover lot of the December auction
catalog. Signed by artist Alfred Boisseau
(1823-1901) and dated 1849, the 39½" x
31½" oil on canvas painting came from
the collection of noted New Orleans
antiques dealer Don Didier and had been
illustrated in Estill Curtis Pennington’s
Downriver: Currents of Style in Louisiana
Painting, 1800-1950
(1991). It brought
$13,750.
This pair of 60" wide cast-iron Gothic Revival garden benches
was a good buy for a southern courtyard at $2250.
José-Maria Cundin was born in
Spain’s Basque country in 1938, but
after sojourns in Colombia and New
York, he settled in Louisiana in 1964.
Popular with New Orleans collectors,
he has a very recognizable style; his
paintings—four in this sale—are filled
with pudgy little figures that can be
funny or slightly eerie at times. This
43½" x 43¼" signed oil on canvas,
El
Pajaro Comegatos de Heraclio Cejeda
,
sold for $23,750 (est. $14,000/28,000).
The Rococo Revival rosewood center table with a conforming
brocatelle violette d’Espagne
marble top was beautifully carved—
Alexander Roux’s New York City workshop was a suggested
source—but it had been aggressively refinished at some point in
its history. It brought $6250, within estimate.
In addition to examples from his pottery
collection, the sale offered several lots
of Arts and Crafts furniture that had
belonged to Dod Stewart—forms that are
not often seen in New Orleans auctions.
This pair of American quartersawn oak
Morris chairs with adjustable slat backs
sold for $3000 (est. $900/1200).