Antique & Related News

FREEPORT, MAINE — Of the 537 lots offered in Casco Bay Auctions’ August 13 Summer Americana Auction, a rare sailor themed hooked rug sailed into first place, achieving $10,200 against an estimate of $1,2/1,800. Worked in the early Twentieth Century, and inscribed “A Sailor Thinks of Distant Friends / Of His Wife and Humble Cot / And From His inmost Heart Ascends / The Prayer ~ Forget Me Not,” the 30-by-49-inch rug was attributed to possibly the work of James and Mercedes Hutchinson. It sold to a local collector bidding online. Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium; watch for a longer review in a future issue.... Read more

BUFORD, GA. — “In the Beginning…” of Slotin Folk Art’s August 6-7 Fun Folk Art & Paradise Garden Fundraiser auction were a favorite biblical couple. Levent Isik’s Adam and Eve were presented holding hands in a lacelike garden of trees and took the sale’s penultimate price of $4,875, well over the $2/3,000 catalog estimate. The signed, dated and titled enamel on board from 1997 measured 20½ by 17½ and had provenance to Jim and Lynne Browne. It was being sold to benefit the Paradise Garden Foundation, one of 23 lots in the 755 lot auction to do so. Only two lots were passed from the podium, with the sale totaling $426,000. Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house; a more extensive sale recap will appear in a future issue.... Read more

POSTDAM, N.Y. — Blanchard’s Auction Services conducted its Premier Adirondack online auction on August 12, offering more than 650 lots of rustic charm where form truly meets functionality. The highest price was achieved by one of the largest pieces, a Lake George cabinet custom built by Randy Holden of Elegantly Twisted in Norridgewock, Maine, in 2006. Pieces such as this sometimes take years to build, and they rarely appear at auction. Made from many different types of wood, antlers, bark and other fruits of the forest, the cabinet is accompanied by an artist’s label that explains his placement and construction technique. The cabinet is featured in Ralph Kylloe’s Cabins (2008) and sold for $18,600 with buyer’s premium. More on this sale to follow in an upcoming issue.... Read more

MARLBOROUGH, MASS. — Many of the items in the August 13 Bonhams Skinner Americana sale were from the family collections of Nina Fletcher and Bertram Little. Leading the day, from that collection and selling for $100,000, was a 246-page manuscript, The Story of George Crowninshield’s Yacht Cleopatra’s Barge on a Voyage of Pleasure to the Western Islands and the Mediterranean 1816-1817, which was privately printed in 1913. The volume included 22 watercolor, pen and ink, and pencil illustrations of harbors, towns and landscapes encountered on the journey. Also from the Little collection, with Nina Fletcher Little’s handwritten note, was a two-sided Samuel McIntire carved and painted George Washington profile portrait plaque, which sold to Historic New England for $72,000. The sale included more than 50 Elmer Crowell miniatures, two Andrew Clemens sand bottles, marine paintings, a superb collection of Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century needlework, and much more. Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium; a full report will follow.... Read more

SANTA FE, N.M. — Santa Fe Art Auction’s American Indian arts sale on August 12-13 coincided with Indian Market to celebrate diverse Native American arts. Featuring more than 500 lots from Nineteenth Century to contemporary pottery, textiles, jewelry, baskets, katsinam and paintings, a special highlight was the firm’s ongoing presentation to the market of more than 165 lots from the Georgia and Charles Loloma collection. Top lot on the sale’s first day was a Dine [Navajo] rare Lander turquoise and silver Squash Blossom necklace, circa 1970, which brought $23,750. From the Connie S. Sanchez estate, California, the 14 ½-inch-long necklace had approximately 90 carats of Lander turquoise and an overall weight of 7.4 ounces. Watch for an extended review of the sale’s highlights in an upcoming issue.... Read more

VALATIE, N.Y. — On August 9 and 10, Old Kinderhook Auction Company conducted a two-day marathon sale, August Or Bust 2022, offering almost 1,100 lots. The top lot of both auctions was a grouping of a Benjarong porcelain bowl with a lid and a porcelain Japanese tea cup. The bowl showed overglazed decorations of mythological figures, medallions and a turn finial, and the cup sported two men with accessories. Benjarong porcelain is often given as a gift on special occasions such as a wedding or New Year’s Day, and the group lot sold for an exponential $17,400 against its $50/100 estimate. Price quoted with buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. More on this two-day sale in an upcoming issue.... Read more

FREEPORT, MAINE — Of the 537 lots offered in Casco Bay Auctions’ August 13 Summer Americana Auction, a rare sailor themed hooked rug sailed into first place, achieving $10,200 against an estimate of $1,2/1,800. Worked in the early Twentieth Century, and inscribed “A Sailor Thinks of Distant Friends / Of His Wife and Humble Cot / And From His inmost Heart Ascends / The Prayer ~ Forget Me Not,” the 30-by-49-inch rug was attributed to possibly the work of James and Mercedes Hutchinson. It sold to a local collector bidding online. Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium; watch for a longer review in a future issue.... Read more

ORLEANS, MASS. – The morning of Saturday, August 6, dawned clear and warm for the entirety of Cape Cod, which, like much of the United States, was enjoying a heat wave as it had for much of the summer. In Orleans, 26 dealers crossed their fingers for cooling breezes and set up the 52nd annual Summer Antique Show in Orleans on the front lawn at the Nauset Middle School. It was the second of several annual shows hosted by the Cape Cod Antique Dealers Association (CCADA), including its latest event, a new show at the Inn at Sagamore, on July 7 in Sandwich, Mass. (for coverage of the CCADA Sagamore show, see the July 29 issue of Antiques and The Arts Weekly). Saturday is the traditional change-over day for Cape Cod vacationers who rent by the week, with sunburnt tourists loading up and making the slow trek towards the bridges that connect the Cape with mainland Massachusetts; they pass an even longer line of traffic coming from the West, inching their hopeful way towards the various beaches that dot the bay or ocean coastlines. The single-day show, open 9 am to 3 pm, is an opportunity for one last excursion for departing visitors, an alternative to beach-going pursuits for those who are staying throughout the summer, or the first of many memories to be made in a summer vacation. Warm and sunny weather can portend low attendance as the show competes not only against the beach but various other cultural events taking place throughout the region. While the line of people waiting for the show to open just before 9 am was fairly short, show managers reported a steady stream of visitors throughout the day, as well as strong sales and new visitors. The total number of visitors exceeded 500,... Read more

BUFORD, GA. — “In the Beginning…” of Slotin Folk Art’s August 6-7 Fun Folk Art & Paradise Garden Fundraiser auction were a favorite biblical couple. Levent Isik’s Adam and Eve were presented holding hands in a lacelike garden of trees and took the sale’s penultimate price of $4,875, well over the $2/3,000 catalog estimate. The signed, dated and titled enamel on board from 1997 measured 20½ by 17½ and had provenance to Jim and Lynne Browne. It was being sold to benefit the Paradise Garden Foundation, one of 23 lots in the 755 lot auction to do so. Only two lots were passed from the podium, with the sale totaling $426,000. Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house; a more extensive sale recap will appear in a future issue.... Read more

John Gould Bird Proofs Fly High At Mid-Hudson NEW WINDSOR, N.Y. – Two avian proof plates with pencil emendations and annotations by John Gould (English, 1804-1881) and William Matthew Hart (English, 1830-1908) from The Birds of New Guinea and the Adjacent Papuan Islands… (1875-1888) escaped the constraints of their $25/30,000 estimates to lead Mid-Hudson Auction Galleries’ August 6 auction. One titled “Sauromaystis Gaudichaudi” brought $46,360 (shown) while “Oriolus Decipiens, Sclater” soared to $41,480. Both were from the same collection and sold to the same telephone bidder. For information, 914-882-7356 or www.midhudsongalleries.com. L’Engle’s ‘Bathers’ Makes A Splash At Bakker Auction PROVINCETOWN, MASS. – James R. Bakker Antiques conducted its annual summer live online fine arts auction on August 6, “Bathers” (shown), an oil painted by Lucy L’Engle (1889-1978) in 1923, was expected to be the top lot and it was, selling for $25,000. L’Engle was born in New York City to a family of means. She attended the Art Students League and studied with Charles Webster Hawthorne in Provincetown. By 1914 she was in Paris studying with Albert Gleizes, who later became a friend as well as a teacher. The same year she married William L’Engle, a fellow art student. Three years later they were in Provincetown, beginning what was to be a life-long relationship with the Cape End. Also doing well in the sale was “Rowing Boat” by Ross Moffett, which more than tripled its high estimate to finish at $11,250. For information, www.bakkerproject.com or 508-413-9758. Bidders Follow Yellow Brick Road To Desirable Oz Book SOUTH GLASTONBURY, CONN. – The August 5 Connecticut River Book Auction was rich in children’s literature, offering more than 25 lots, which equated to more than 150 children’s books. There were several lots of Oz books by Frank L.... Read more

Auction Action On Nantucket, Mass. NANTUCKET, MASS. – Rafael Osona Auctions conducted two sales over the weekend of August 6 and 7, offering no less than 850 lots between them. The first was the Americana, Fine Art and Decor Auction on August 6, and the second was the Marine Auction on August 7. Gail Osona, wife of Rafael and partner in the business, said, “Nantucket art is skyrocketing.” The two auctions made about $2 million in total. The highest lot of the first sale was an oil on canvas by Anne Ramsdell Congdon, “View From Monomoy,” which sold for $123,000. Painted circa 1941, the oil on canvas shows a view from Monomoy Harbor in Nantucket. A member of The Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston, Congdon and her husband took holidays to Nantucket, moving there permanently after his retirement where she joined the island’s Art Colony. Congdon’s work was represented by the Easy Street Gallery through the 1940s, when this painting was made. It was one of three Congdon paintings sold that day, including “Stone Alley,” for $38,400 ($15/17,500) and “Homestead in New Hampshire,” for $30,750 ($25/35,000). Next in the top lots was “Sunset Sail” by Robert Stark Jr, which sold for $70,725 and set a new record for his work. From Osona’s online Artists’ page, written by Carolyn Walsh, “[Stark’s] legacy is a modernist approach to American Luminist paintings. Working principally in oil on canvas or panel, he is best known for coastal scenes that feature an iconic, red-sailed catboat.” This detail was present in each of the Stark’s included in the sale, such as “Lone Red Sail Off Headland” and “Red Sail Approaching Shore At Evening,” selling for $20,910 ($10/12,000) and $9,840 ($8/12,000), each well over their estimates. Ralph Eugene Cahoon Jr’s work was strongly represented in... Read more

Auction Action In Marion, Mass. MARION, MASS. – On August 6, Frank and Diane McNamee of Marion Antique Auctions, along with partner David Glynn, conducted their fifth auction after relocating in 2020 to the old Marconi Building on Atlantis Drive. The sale, aptly titled “The Connoisseur’s Sale,” featured 530 lots of largely unreserved furniture, fine and decorative arts, toys, maritime and modern furnishings. With more than 93 percent of lots selling, the auction grossed a total of about $500,000. “Overall, we were really pleased with how it turned out,” said Marion Antique Auctions associate Nick Taradash. “There was a lot of diversity in the sale and the results were pretty solid, with a lot of strong results.” One of the estates and collections that fed the sale was that of the Webb Family of Marion. It was from this estate that many of the sale’s top lots came, including this top lot, a group of six Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century Qing dynasty textiles, which attracted attention from around the world and closed out – after competition between bidders both online and on the phone – to a Chinese buyer on the phone for $79,200. The lot was one of a few Chinese textile groups, which Frank McNamee said he discovered in an old trunk under the eaves in the attic. “The family was in the diplomatic service in China during the Boxer Rebellion. Everything was wrapped in 1910 newspapers.” Another lot found in the trunk also fetched a top price: a Nineteenth Century Qing dynasty Manchu woman’s changyi robe in red silk with flower and butterfly decorative motifs, the latter of which gained popularity among Manchu women as they were favored by the Empress Cixi. Estimated at $800-$1,200, the robe brought $7,500 from a trade buyer in California bidding... Read more

By Madelia Hickman Ring NEWTOWN, CONN. — The Smith family announces with sadness the passing of R. Scudder Smith on August 14, 2022; he was 87 years old. Born on April 12, 1935, Robert Scudder Smith was the elder son of Paul Scudder Smith and Mary Starr Conger Smith, and older brother to Mary Starr Adams and Ted Smith. He attended his father’s alma mater, Amherst College, briefly, in 1953 but in 1954, he enlisted for three years with the United States Marine Corps, where he trained as a navigator at Cherry Point, N.C. There, he met and married Helen Willis, settling in upstate New York in 1957 where he attended Union College in Schenectady, N.Y. Smith’s family company has owned and published The Newtown Bee for 141 of its 145 years; Scudder worked at the paper beginning in 1961; he succeeded his father Paul as editor in 1972. On June 28, 2022, local luminaries, including Newtown’s First Selectman, both of Connecticut’s US Senators and the Fifth District US Congresswoman, honored The Newtown Bee for its longevity and to celebrate Smith and his family’s love for and dedication to the community. Scudder’s passion for antiques manifested in The Newtown Bee’s sister paper, Antiques and The Arts Weekly, which he founded in 1963 and began as four pages of antiques coverage in The Newtown Bee. It has covered antique shows, auctions, museum exhibitions and related art-world events since then. In 2006, the Antiques Dealers Association of America (ADA) honored Scudder with its Award of Merit for his contribution to the industry that has been substantially shaped by Antiques and The Arts Weekly. Scudder and Helen began buying antiques during their life in Schenectady, gradually gravitating to folk sculpture, with weathervanes, game boards, whirligigs and carousel figures forming the core... Read more

Auction Action In Plainfield, N.H. PLAINFIELD, N.H. – Bill Smith timed this sale perfectly. The sale did not have items that were expected to sell for five or six figures, but it had wonderful folk art, redware, needlework, trade signs, decoys, painted furniture, woodenware and more. And with the sale conducted on August 5, there was plenty of quality stuff of interest to dealers doing the New Hampshire shows August 7-13. Much of the material was from the collections of Harvey and Sandy Sussman, who spent summers in Vermont each year from 1976 to 1986. The Sussmans shopped all the major dealers and shows in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, along with small tag sales and wherever else they might find things. Smith decided to set up the material for viewing in the “French House,” a circa 1820 house on the site of his gallery, instead of in the gallery as he normally does, so that attendees could “see how early American life looked from inside an 1820s homestead.” It was a great bit of creative marketing. The “French House” was bought by Bill Smith’s father in the 1980s and moved to the gallery site from its original location in Grafton, N.H., Smith said, “Dad wanted to hold auctions in it and eventually live in it. But the living in it part didn’t work out. We’ve used it for previews like this from time to time, and we use it for storage. It’s a great old house.” It is that. It’s a one-and-a-half story, center chimney, post-and-beam home with some paneled walls, chair rails, built-in cupboards, fireplaces and other early features. The Sussman collection, along with other items in the sale, displayed beautifully in the house. The gallery site has an interesting history. Bill Smith Sr, who founded the business... Read more

Sensational 19th-century soda fountain front and backbar with lighted fountain and marble soda dispenser expected to sell for $60,000-$100,000DENVER, Pa. – Just as nightclubs are today’s social hubs, there was a time, more than a century ago, when the local soda fountain or soda shop was where people went for a light meal or wholesome refreshment in a cordial environment. Sometimes a soda fountain – named for the actual device that dispensed carbonated beverages – was found within a larger establishment, such as a drugstore or candy store. Soda fountain memorabilia is pure American nostalgia, and collectors revel in the opportunity to purchase such treasures from a source as esteemed as the Sharyn and Terry Brown collection, which highlights Morphy’s August 23-25 auction series.19th-century soda fountain front and backbar with lighted front fountain and Charles Lippincott 10-position marble soda dispenser; originally in a Helena, Arkansas café that opened in 1888. Size: 161¼in long by 130in high. Estimate $60,000-$100,000The Brown collection will be offered during the August 23-24 Soda Pop & Soda Fountain Advertising session, which is followed by General Advertising on August 25. The auction will begin each day at 9 am, with all forms of bidding available, including live via the Internet through Morphy Live.The star of the show, and a prize that any collector would covet for their own home soda shop, is a stunning 19th-century soda fountain front and backbar with a lighted, stained-glass front fountain and a Charles Lippincott 10-position marble soda dispenser. Its origins can be traced to a Helena, Arkansas café that opened for business in 1888.  It comes to auction with six bent-wire stools, as well as historical photos and a newspaper clipping as provenance. The pre-sale estimate for this grand soda fountain suite is $60,000-$100,000.If any trade sign could be described as... Read more