Date: Fri 04-Jun-1999
Date: Fri 04-Jun-1999
Publication: Ant
Author: LIZAM
Quick Words:
Eldred-Easton
Full Text:
One Man's Trash At Eldred Auction
(with 4 cuts)
By Rita Easton
EAST DENNIS, MASS. -- An oft-told tale was repeated once more at Eldred's fine
and decorative art auction on May 1, in which 475 lots were competed for by
185 bidders in the hall, in addition to left and phone bids, resulting in a
gross of $130,295.
"The top lot had the best story to it," said Jo Leal Clark of the gallery. "A
dealer came in with an unframed painting, an Eighteenth Century Neapolitan
landscape, that he had picked up out of a trash can. We had [estimated] $1,000
to $1,200 on it.
"The people he was dealing with were emptying out this house in
Massachusetts," she continued. "They were going through the furniture and the
dealer took quite a few pieces of that. Then he asked them what they were
going to do with the painting, and they said they had other plans for it.
"The next day he went by the house and stopped. There were a number of things
in the trash can, and he pulled this painting out. They had kept the frame and
thrown the painting in the trash."
The work brought $8,360, going to a dealer. The unsigned, relatively small,
oil on panel measured 9« by 13 inches, and depicted a landscape with people at
a well in the foreground, and a village against a mountain landscape in the
background.
A framed oil on board depicting cows, harvesters and celebrants, Eighteenth
Century, estimated at $1/1,200, fetched $4,290; an oil on board of a group of
revelers riding in a wine cart while bystanders cut flowers from a hedge, an
Eighteenth Century scene, sold to a dealer in England at $4,290; an undated
framed painting of women tending farm animals, signed on the reverse "Andrea
S(?)ecchietti," estimated at $600/800, also sold to the English dealer at
$2,860; and a third canvas, a framed Eighteenth Century Neapolitan landscape,
relined, depicting a herder tending a flock, again went to the same dealer at
$2,530.
An elaborate, paint decorated drop-front Florentine style desk, having
cabriole legs and shaped ends, the interior fitted with 15 small carved
drawers, estimated at $900/1,100, brought $2,970 from a New York dealer; and
an 11-piece dining suite of Hepplewhite style, furniture comprising a
sideboard, server, eight slip-seat chairs and a dining table with leaves, in
mahogany veneers with banded swag and cartouche inlay, estimated at
$3,5/4,500, crossed the block at $2,970, going to a dealer.
A bronze sculpture of a standing Roman in a toga reached $907.50. The 24«-inch
high orator was holding a scroll, the figure impressed with "A. Dressler
Hopfgarten, Roma, 1868," for Adolph Dressler (German, 1814-1868).
Two mountain bluebirds depicted in a bone limited edition polychromed
porcelain figure group, estimated at $700/900, was purchased at $1,320; a
17-inch-high crystal lamp with drops sold at $742.50; a white and yellow gold
Cartier cigarette lighter reached $1,320; a Suzani Oriental tapestry in
glowing colors, embroidered with blue vines and rondelles on a beige ground,
3'7" by 4'10", estimated at $300/400, achieved $1,320; and a late Nineteenth
Century walnut, 39-inch diameter, octagan-shaped table, standing on a center
pedestal with three hairy paw feet, went out at $8,800.
Prices quoted above reflect the ten percent buyer's premium.