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WAYNE PRATT BUYS $308,000 TEA TABLE AT NORDBLOM w/cuts

By Bob Jackman

DEDHAM, MASS. - Carl Nordblom conducted his annual Memorial Day auction on May

31 featuring some 420 lots of fine formal antiques with a strong Continental

presence. Total sales were over $1 million, with 99 percent of lots finding

buyers.

The star of the day was a diminutive Queen Anne card table with Boston origin,

purchased by Woodbury, Conn., and Nantucket, Mass. dealer Wayne Pratt for

$308,000. New York dealer Leigh Keno was the underbidder.

Two other examples of such a rare form had previously been auctioned at

Christie's and Skinner. The table was a great draw to the Nordblom preview,

where it was displayed upside down on a banquet table.

Keno, on the phone, opened the action at $100,000; Pratt immediately advanced

that to $110,000. Across the room, four or five bidders attempted to

participate, but Pratt and Keno held the competition to $160,000. When Pratt

leaped the price to $200,000, others in the hall pulled down their cards. Keno

continued the advance until Pratt offered $280,000. With buyers premium, the

final price was $308,000.

"I thought it was the best Boston table that I have ever seen, and I wanted

it," Pratt said moments after the purchase. "The first time that I saw it was

this morning. It was in pristine condition. I also bought the one at Skinner."

The Nordblom example measured 28.75 inches high, 28.5 inches wide at the

front, and 13 inches deep. The table that sold on October 29, 1995 at Skinner

- for which Pratt paid $150,450 - measured 29.5 inches tall, 26.25 inches

wide, and 11.63 inches deep.

There were plenty of other fine formal pieces to be had at Nordblom's, and

many of the top selling examples went to dealer Rick Jorgenson of Wells, Me.

Those purchases included a pair of card tables, which reached $15,400; a

Chippendale serpentine chest, which rang up $9,900; a Chippendale bow front

chest, which fetched $7,150; and a Chippendale wing chair, which sold for

$6,600. Le Trianon Fine Antiques of Sheffield, Mass., purchased several lots

of European furniture along with many decorative accessories.

The auction included two large consignments. The first, from the descendants

of the Brown family, founders of Brown University, accounted for all the

export porcelain and a large portion of the silver.

According to dealer Henry Callan, "the finest export in the sale are the rose

mandarin pieces. That group is in fine condition, and also very well

decorated. The covered vegetables have scenes painted inside them. Other

exceptional pieces are the two chargers, the pair of bough pots, and the two

large platters with different scenes. The gold decoration is particularly

strong."

The second significant consignment, a box collection from the estate of Ida

Ballou Littlefield, was divided into 47 lots. The daughter of a Providence

bank president, Littlefield had collected miniature boxes since 1921. Upon her

death in 1997, she left her assemblage, numbering 650 boxes, to her nursing

home. One hundred of those were kept by the institution; the remaining 550,

grouped by auction coordinator Karin Phillips according to material, were sold

a half an hour before the main auction began and grossed about $25,000.

The most active buyer of boxes was Stone's Throw Antiques of Lenox, Mass., who

bought 13 lots. Other buyers in this section were Arthur Dristilliaris of

Boston, Cauda of Italy, Lolly Chase Antiques of Millis, and Janice Rose of

Boston.

Another particularly interesting consignment was a circa 1875 set of 80 pieces

of Venetian glass with Monrovian enameling. The set had been purchased in

Italy around 1880 by Pearl Ricker Jenney of the Jenney Oil and Gas Company,

which was acquired by Citgo around 1970. The set was divided into nine lots by

form. Three lots sold to a phone bidder, and the other six went to a New

Hampshire dealer whose outlet is in the Manhattan Antiques Center. The most

successful items were candlesticks, with a lot of four bringing $2,860.

Among decorative accessories, globes had a strong day. A pair of Cary floor

globes sold to a phone bidder for $16,500, a pair of table globes sold for

$6,600, and a single Gilman Joslin terrestrial globe sold for $3,300.

An active ceramic buyer was dealer Donna Terzian of Savannah, Georgia, who

purchased about ten lots of Wedgwood along with other lots. She attends both

of Nordblom's big sales each year. Suzanne Meegan of Providence was also an

active bidder in this field.

Most of the jewelry in the auction appeared to go to specialized dealers such

as Weymouth dealer Valerie Gedziun.

Twenty Oriental rugs attracted specialists, but they seemed to be limited to

retail interest. North Andover, Mass., rug specialists Hatchi Afarian was the

most active buyer in this field.

There was considerable phone bidding at this auction, but most lots sold to

attendees in the hall. Two factors which limited phone participation were the

absence of a catalogue and a policy that all items are "sold `AS IS.'" Since

the merchandise is described by brief listings and without illustrations,

buyers need to preview the merchandise before bidding.