Full Text:

AMERICANA SILVER AND MARINE ART AT ELDRED

(with 3 cuts)

EAST DENNIS, MASS. -- A strong Americana, silver and marine art auction was

conduced on November 20 and 21 at the Robert C. Eldred Co. The event offered

1,100 lots featuring English and American silver, furniture, paintings,

ceramics, glass, Oriental rugs and accessories.

The most noteworthy painting of the sale bringing $96,250 was an oil portrait

of the American clipper ship Flying Fish attributed to James Edward

Buttersworth (British-American 1817-1894). Apparently unsigned but similar in

style and technique to other Buttersworth ship portraits, it will require

extensive restoration and promises to yield a remarkable ship portrait.

Other high fliers were "Kite Flying at Brant's Point" by Ralph E. Cahoon

(American 1910-1982), which sold for $49,500; "The Saybrook Light 1959," by

Guy C. Wiggins (American 1883-1962), which brought $23,100; "In the Rockies,"

by R. W. Pilot (Canadian 1898-1967), for $7,150, and a C.D. Cahoon of a Cape

Cod shoreline, which reached $3,630.

A still life of salmon by W. M. Brackett, dated 1870, brought $5,500, and an

oil by James C. Miller of a floral still life sold for $4,730. Three etchings

by Ogden Minton Pleissner included one of a guide in a boat which sold for

$2,530; one of duck shooters, which brought $1,430; and one of a duck hunter

which reached $3,630. Prints by Currier and Ives included "The Route to

California," which sold for $687.50, and "The Great West," which sold for

$577.50.

Porcelain included an Eighteenth Century Chinese Export punch bowl, with two

portraits of Hong merchants, which tripled its estimate at $18,150, and a

Nineteenth Century Rose Medallion punch bowl, which sold for $4,675.

A rare collection of 196 stereopticon cards of the Army Medical Museum's skull

collection of American Indians underwent fierce bidding to land at $8,250. An

unusual skull-form cobalt blue glass poison bottle brought $1,870; a framed

image of Abraham Lincoln as President dated October 9, 1861, brought $3,850;

and a painted wooden sign advertising "Boots Shoes & Leather, Salt & Lime"

sold for $3,850.

Approximately 300 lots of English, Chinese and American silver included a

restored antique American tankard by Philip Syng of Philadelphia (1703-1789),

which sold for $5,500; a swing-handled basket by Marquand, which brought

$4,510; an antique American silver cann by Elias Pelletreau (1726-1810) of New

York, which fetched $3,190; and an antique American silver creamer by Samuel

Minot of Boston, which realized $3,080.

Flatware services included a set by Tiffany in "Gramercy," which sold for

$5,250, and one by Gorham in "Versailles," which brought $3,800.

About 150 lots of furniture were headlined by American pieces. Leading the

list was an antique Chippendale reverse serpentine front cherry bureau which

sold for $15,400; an antique American chest-on-frame, which sold for $10,450;

and an antique miniature slant-lid desk from New England which sold for

$4,730.

Other notable pieces were an antique Chippendale seven-drawer chest in cherry

with a scrolled bracket base, which sold for $3,630; an antique American

two-part corner cupboard in cherry, with molded cornice, which rang up $1,980;

and an antique American Sheraton slat-lid desk, which garnered $1,650.

The marine section included an antique scrimshaw cane, with a swirled

whalebone shaft and a carved whale ivory handle in the form of a fist holding

a snake, which was bid to a gripping $8,800. A Nineteenth Century English

brass telescope by S.& B. Solomon's sold for $3,300, and a shipmaster's

journal kept on board the bark Coriolanus of Mystic, Conn., while on a whaling

voyage to the Indian Ocean, reached $3,850.

For information, 508/385-3116.