Date: Fri 17-Jul-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: LAURAB

Quick Words:

Sothebys-Americana-Auction

Full Text:

Sotheby's Americana Various Owners

(W/9 Cuts)

NEW YORK CITY -- June in New York lacks January's zest, when collectors are in

town and money is freely spent. But despite their laconic appearance, the

spring sales had an underlying vigor affirming the Americana market's current

bullishness.

Between June 16 and 19, Sotheby's collected a grand total of $6,530,921,

including $1.6 million in receipts from the estate of Richard von Hess and

$3.1 million from the collection of Thomas Mellon and Betty Evans.

Properties from various owners made up less than a third of the sales, or

$1,865,750, of total sales.

Whaling Art

The Wednesday morning session was devoted to the sale of perhaps the largest

collection of whaling art and memorabilia to come on the market in a decade.

Over 30 years, Judith Ellis assembled more than 300 pieces of scrimshaw and

whaling artifacts, much of which was exhibited in the Whaling Museum created

by Ellis at Sea Life Park in Makapuu Point, Oahu.

"I collected pieces like they were paragraphs in a story," explained Ellis, a

former Hawaii resident who now lives in Gaithersburg, Md. Her love of marine

life over time evolved into a 26-episode animated program, Wonder Whales, to

be aired by PBS next year.

Marketers faced a set back after it was determined that some of the scrimshaw

dated to the Nineteenth Century while other pieces were later copies. Though

downward revisions in estimate had a dampening effect, the grouping still

tallied $394,680.

Standing 25 inches high, an octagonal birdcage of carved panbone reached

$10,350 (est $15/20,000). It had once been a fixture of the Gib and Boom Club

of New London, Conn.

Ellis's first piece, a stipple-engraved walrus tusk (est $20/30,000),

purchased about 30 years ago in a fine arts gallery in San Francisco, failed

to meet reserve.

Objects with the provenance of E. Norman Flayderman, a pioneering collector

and author on the subject of scrimshaw, fared better. From Flayderman's

assemblage, an engraved porpoise jaw was bid to $7,475 and a scrimshawed whale

ivory, baleen and whale teeth watch stand crossed the block at $14,950.

Topping the group was a mid-Nineteenth Century sperm whale tooth engraved on

one side with the figure of a reclining nude woman. Two frolicking women were

on the reverse. Illustrated in private editions of Flayderman's book,

Scrimshaw and Scrimshanders, the tooth fetched $51,750 (est $30/35,000).

Perhaps the best investment of all had been Flayderman's book itself. It

achieved $2,185, while a 1930 Lakeside Press edition of Moby Dick garnered

$5,462.

Art

Though there was very little of it for sale, fine art drew the top bids of the

day. Two pastel portraits, one a folk likeness attributed to Michah Williams,

the other a sophisticated rendition attributed to John Singleton Copley, sold

in succession, the first for $74,000 and the second $107,000. They made a

striking comparison: two women of similar demeanor in similar dress, like

palette, and related composition by two Eighteenth Century artists who were

radically different in their training.

Each sale, Sotheby's primes the market with a small assortment of outsider

art. Clear favorites are beginning to emerge, with prices for outsider's

insiders far exceeding most examples on the secondary market. Topping sales

this round was "The Overland Stagecoach," an enamel painting on Masonite by

William Hawkins, $21,850 (est $12/18,000) and "The Preacher," a pencil and

crayon on cardboard by Bill Traylor, $23,000 (est $15/25,000).

Traditional folk art included figural redware lions attributed to John Bell of

Waynesboro, Penn. The pair dating to the mid-Nineteenth Century sold for

$9,775 against an estimate of $7/10,000. Painted with an American eagle and

shield, a Pennsylvania blanket chest dated 1816 sold under estimate, for

$10,350.

Among several elegant examples of embroidery was an early Nineteenth Century

picture, $23,000, attributed to Philadelphia's Folwell School. Designer Samuel

Folwell was discussed by D. Deutsch in a 1981 issue of The Magazine Antiques.

Ex-collection of Marna Anderson, a primitive horse and rider pull toy, 26

inches long, exceeded estimate to sell for $10,350 (est $6/8,000).

A Rhode Island needlework sampler, signed Mary Tillinghast and dated 1796,

passed at the $10/20,000 estimate. The piece that descended in a prominent

Rhode Island family depicts the First Baptist Meeting House in Providence.

Passed was a painted pine bust of an American ship owner attributed to Joseph

Bowers of New York. The Nineteenth Century bust of a gentleman in high-stock

tie and frock coat was bought in at the $20/30,000 estimate.

Furniture

Leading a selection of moderately priced furniture in the various owners'

portion of the sale was a Maryland sideboard of circa 1800. The piece

atributed to one of Annapolis's leading cabinetmakers, John Shaw, sold to a

cllector for $54,625 (est $15/25,000).

Bidders were also drawn to a Charlestown, S.C., furniture, which rarely comes

to auction. A circa 1780 tall post bed with waterleaf and grain carvings

attracted a bid of $42,550 (est $15/25,000) from a collector. According to

research conducted by the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, the

carving detail derives from George Hepplewhite's plate for "Bed Pillars". The

carved sheaths of grain led to the appellation "rice bed" although the grains

more resemble wheat.

Crowning sales of Pennsylvania material was a Philadelphia Queen Anne tea

table of circa 1740-50. Downingtown, Penn., dealer Philip Bradley bought the

elegant scalloped-top walnut table on ball and claw feet for $48,875 against

an estimate of $30/50,000. The table, which descended in the Samuel Penrose

family, once furnished Graeme Park, a house built as Fountain Low, circa 1722,

in Horsham, Penn., for Sir William Keith, governor of Pennsylvania from 1717-

to 1726. Most of the contents of Graeme Park were auctioned by the Continental

Army.

New York dealer Leigh Keno picked up a set of four Federal shieldback chairs

for $39,100 (est $30/50,000). The circa 1790 chairs are attributed to John

Carlile & Son of Providence, R.I., on the basis of two labeled examples. One

of those examples is in the collection of the Chipstone Foundation; the other

belongs to Joseph K. Ott. A third labeled example was illustrated in The

Magazine Antiques in June 1980. Nearly identical chairs have come to auction

over the years, and others are in the collection of the Rhode Island

Historical Society, Yale, Winterthur, and the Henry Ford Museum.

A Newport Chippendale block-and-shell carved slantfront desk credited to the

Goddard-Townsend workshop was bid to $20,700 (est $10/15,000). The piece with

John Walton provenance is related to handful of others that have come to

auction.

Among Massachusetts examples, a Queen Anne flat-top high chest of drawers of

vivid curly maple left the room at $32,200 (est $12/18,000). A handsome

Federal mahogany chest of drawers with oval panels of birchwood, a shaped

apron, and splayed bracket feet fetched $25,300 (est $8/12,000). The circa

1795 piece descended in a Rhode Island family.

A tallcase clock by William Cummens of Boston, circa 1790, crossed the block

at $28,750 (est $20/30,000). It was one of several fine timepieces to be

offered over several days in New York.