Date: Fri 10-Sep-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: MARYG

Quick Words:

Lansil-Venice-Litchfield

Full Text:

Lansil Oil Top In Litchfield County Auctions

(with 4 cuts)

LITCHFIELD, CONN. -- A luminous sea view of Venice, aglow with corals, blues,

crimsons and whites by Walter Lansil, (American, 1846-1925), from the personal

property of the internationally renowned photographer, Horst P. Horst, was the

top lot in the Litchfield County Auctions, Inc. August 1 multi-estate sale,

rising with a spirited floor fight to $6,400, more than twice its catalog high

of $3,000.

The sale, which included a large group of American, European and Continental

paintings, prints and sculptures, as well as American and European furniture,

porcelains, Chinese carvings, clocks, and garden ornaments and accessories,

was assembled from estates in New York, Westchester, the aforementioned Horst

Oyster Bay, N.Y. home and several Connecticut country homes. Despite the 90

plus degree heat the show attracted and held an overflow crowd in the public

hall of the Litchfield Firehouse.

Other paintings included a Connecticut river fishing scene by William

Chadwick, an Old Lyme, Conn. school painter, which drew $4,800, and an Arthur

Quartley (American, 1839-1886) oil of sailboats off shore with fishermen and

boats on a beach, $4,000. A large, very strong, predominantly black painting

of a waterfall in Interlachen, Switzerland by Herman Herzog, also from the

property of Horst, brought $4,500, and another Horst piece, a marble sculpture

of wrestlers, rose above estimate to close at $1,700.

Collectors of carved and polychromed Baroque wood sculptures had an

opportunity with several lots from the collection of the late T.P. Miller, a

former curator of the Cloisters. A pair of Eighteenth Century German creche

figures (probably two of the Wise Men) sold to a left bid for $2,400, well

above the $1,000 low estimate.

Other highlights were a pair of Empire mahogany fauteuil with dolphin arm

supports, $2,300; a Nineteenth Century KPM white porcelain dinner service,

each piece bearing a different bisque medallion, $3,400; and a much sought

after pair of Nineteenth Century majolica figural candlesticks, $900, almost

twice the high estimate of $500. Chinese porcelains did especially well with

three small pieces, estimated at $200-300, soaring to $1,600, and a Nineteenth

Century sang de boeuf vase (another Horst item) jumping five times its high

estimate of $200 to close at $1,000.

Litchfield County Auctions, Inc. will hold its next auction the first weekend

in October. Call 212/249-8108 for information.