Date: Fri 29-Jan-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: LAURAB

Quick Words:

Bell-Jackman

Full Text:

Gerry Bell

(with cuts)

By Bob Jackman

GREY, ME. -- At 7 am on New Year's Day, Gerry Bell opened the door to

Morrill's auction hall and invited several dozen enthusiasts to escape the

minus-ten-degree temperature and brisk wind. Three hours later, there were

more than 400 guests in the hall when the sale began.

Highlights among the 400 lots in this general auction were in the areas of

Arts and Crafts, toys, and Classical furniture. Only a few items remained

unsold at the end of the day.

A phone bidder won the top lot for $13,750: a cut-down version of a Gustav

Stickley taboret with green-glazed, undecorated Grueby tile inserts.

Auctioneer Bell estimated each leg had been shortened by about eight inches.

While this was a substantial price, it was about one-quarter of the price for

a similar -- but complete -- taboret recently auctioned by Don Treadway. A

half-dozen commercial grade examples of Arts and Crafts furniture sold in the

range of $200 to $1,000.

The limited selection of earlier furniture did well, considering condition.

Falmouth, Me. dealer Chris Considine purchased a classical console table for

$3,300. The top had a fracture which had been repaired in the Nineteenth

Century with double marble braces attached on the underside. The line of the

crack was filled with buff-tinted material that matched the marble's natural

veining.

"I'm not one of [those] dealers suddenly leaping on the classical wagon,"

stated Considine after making his purchase. "I've always liked and handled

classical furniture. This was a quiet, refined example. The ormolu mounts had

excellent detail and were crisp. I won't clean the natural oxidation. It also

had nice reeded pilasters on the back, in line with the columns."

New Hampshire dealer Bob Foley purchased the top of a narrow, flat-top

Chippendale walnut highboy, with the original brasses but missing most of its

molding, for $908.

The top painting in the sale was an S. L. Gerry landscape, which sold for

$9,900 to Beals Island, Me. dealers Jewel and Robert Miller. Gerry was a

northern New England artist who specialized in Maine and New Hampshire

landscapes.

This work was distinguished by its atypical, larger, four-foot-long size and

complexity. Its unusual details included a rider on horseback fording a stream

near a sandbar. When the work came to auction block, Gerry Bell announced that

it had considerable restoration along the bottom edge.

Another painting which attracted considerable interest was a landscape by

William Patty. With two small patches, it sold for $1,100. Patty had moved to

Laguna Beach in the mid 1930s and remained there for three decades. He is

collected on both coasts.

Other New England artists represented included J. Connoway, with two works;

D.D. Combs, also with two works; and Parker Gamage.

Essex, Mass. dealer Ellen Westman purchased a pair of ancestral portraits from

an Augusta, Me. estate. "I like portraits and do well selling them," she

commented. "We hang them throughout the rooms at Joshua Corners Antiques,

which is an ideal setting for their display."

Art pottery ranged from period pieces to a new vase by Ephriam Pottery in

Wisconsin. Topping the field was a Hampshire Pottery vase which sold to a New

England collector for $1,980.

"The glaze has an uncommon silver cast, and the irregular veining is

interesting," said the buyer. "The green in the veining is also nice. It is

unusually tall, about 11 inches."

Another important work, a Newcomb pottery tea tile, sold for $1,320.

Several early toys did very well. Fifty Magic Lantern slides depicting scenes

from the Civil War sold for $2,310. Two set of stereocards by Underwood sold

for $2,090. One set was on the Spanish-American War and the other overviewed

the Boer War. A flat kaleidoscope with a portrait of President Lincoln

surrounded by a psychedelic field brought $880. Six baseball bats, including

one Shoeless Joe Jackson model, sold for $550.

In keeping with the season, two sleighs were offered. One was purchased by

Wyatt and DiAnne Ward of Deepwood Farm in Bethel, Me.

"We do the sleigh rides for the Bethel Inn," Wyatt volunteered. "We'll use

this sleigh there. We'll add a pole so it can be pulled by a two-horse team.

In needs to be reupholstered, but otherwise it's in nice shape."