Date: Thu 15-Apr-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: SARAH

Quick Words:

Dargate

Full Text:

Dargate Sale Totals

with 5 cuts

PITTSBURGH, PENN. -- Over $500,000 in total sales was achieved at the March 13

and 14 auction conducted by Dargate Galleries.

Two items shared the spotlight for top lots at Saturday's session: a

Nineteenth Century Belgian oil on board by Eugene J. Verboeckhoven (1799-1881)

sold over the telephone to Dutch gallery on behalf of a Belgian client for

$31,000; and an important, carved oak Ideal Sublime Harmonie Piccolo cylinder

music box of an unusually large size hammered down for $25,000 to a

Connecticut collector/dealer over the telephone against strong floor bidding.

The second session of the weekend event was held on Sunday, and despite

predictions of an impending blizzard, there were more than 600 registrants.

The auction featured an art and antiques collection from a Pittsburgh family

with Russian and European ancestors. Important results included two pieces of

Daum Nancy: a vase, 22 inches high sold for $9,200, and a 4« inch high vase

with a five color scenic cottage scene brought $3,500.

A rare Russian coronation book for Alexander III, 1883, originally a copy

issued to Prince Koudacheff, ambassador to Belgium, brought $9,500 from a

Russian buyer, now residing in New York, who attended the auction. The first

lot of the day was a Nineteenth Century Russian leather-bound volume in

Cyrillic with hundreds of color illustrations and text of various coats of

arms from the Russian Empire. It sold to the Internet for $700, despite some

water stains and creased corners.

Russian artists fared well. A Sergei Lurevich Soudekeine (1883-1946) oil of a

kneeling couple in an interior went to a New York City buyer for $7,000, while

two other Russian pieces stayed in Pittsburgh; an oil on canvas by Nineteenth

Century Russian N. Obolensky of a moonlit sailing scene brought $3,300, and an

Ivan Fedorovich Choultse (1877-1939) oil on board entitled "Ils Danoises

Spitzberg" depicting a lake with boulders, mountains and snow, brought $3,250.

Internet bidding was active and ultimately successful on a Russian watercolor

by Ivan-Jacolevitch Bilibine (1876-1942), which sold for $2,000. An affixed

label verso gave a provenance and attribution to "A Russian architect formerly

President of the Royal Academy and 84 years of age and in exile."

A collection of silver, bronze, and gilt boxes included one which went for

$1,600, a Nineteenth Century cylindrical silver box with the Imperial Warrant

mark by maker "Klbmnikov" of Moscow. It depicted the Kremlin in relief and on

the lid displayed the profiles of three Russian Tsars. A Nineteenth Century

Russian presentation silver casket inscribed as a presentation piece by the

Russian Count Arenoff to Bishop Erenicus of the Greek Church Jerusalem brought

$1,550, and a large Russian Kvosch with "jewels," a Cyrillic inscription, and

swirled panelled sides brought $2,300 from a New York City buyer.

Russian enamelled pieces were also represented. A Nineteenth Century Moscow

berry spoon, probably by maker S.T. Bogadanov (1828-1875), brought $1,100,

while a silver and enamel icon from the early Twentieth Century of the "Kazan

Mother of God" in gilded silver repousse oklad and enamelled halo realized

$1,200.

The name "Tiffany" brought absentee, Internet, phone and floor bidding, which

resulted in a ten-piece desk set realizing $6,000. Two Tiffany lamps brought

attention when the first, a "Zodiac" pattern desk lamp was hammered down to

New York for $3,900, and the second, a counter balance desk lamp, signed and

numbered with a damascene shade, brought $7,000 from an Indiana buyer. That

gentleman from Indiana also bought a Tiffany bronze picture frame for $875.

Other pieces included an "American Indian" inkwell, which sold for $850, and a

standing thermometer, which sold for $1,050, to a lady from Florida bidding by

telephone.

All prices quoted do not include a 15 percent buyers premium.