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Date: Fri 04-Jun-1999

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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.

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