Date: Fri 16-Apr-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: CAROLL

Quick Words:

Thomaston

Full Text:

Mellow Agra At Thomaston Place

with 3 cuts

By Rita Easton

THOMASTON, ME. -- Thomaston Place Auction Galleries hosted a five part, two

day multiple estate sale on February 27 and 28. Day one offered antiques, art,

and decorative objects, an African art collection, and an extensive stamp and

ephemera collection. Day two featured an extensive collection of antique and

estate jewelry and watches, as well as a massive collection of over 25,000

antique and collectible buttons, sold unreserved.

Each segment drew its own specialty audience, for a total of 275 bidding

numbers issued in competition for the 550 lots. A gross of $175,000 was

realized.

A member of the rug trade won an antique Agra measuring 11'7" by 16 feet.

Mellow and worn, with a warm, pale array of old color on an ivory ground, the

lot brought $35,000. A 1920 Kashan rug, 4'1" by 6'10", garnered $2,300; and a

decorative Persian with a tree-of-life motif, ten feet by 12'5", reached

$2,400.

A watercolor/gouache by W. Craig depicting the view across from the US Yacht

Club reached $1,700, sold privately; a set of six handmade, wrought iron

chandeliers, 32 inches in diameter, each having nine arms, not electrified, a

Seventeenth Century style made in the Nineteenth Century, were purchased at

$6,000; a Spanish Colonial carved and gilded Seventeenth Century bed went to

the trade at $7,000; and a pair of Tiffany bronze and green glass Arts and

Crafts-form candlesticks, having bulbous green inserts, made $1,700.

A Mettlach #71 wall plaque with a Trojan motif reached $1,500; and a

collection of stamps sold in approximately 125 lots ranged from $25 to $200

per lot, with the exception of the top stamp lot, an album lot of early

American stamps, which sold for $425.

A collection of approximately 130 lots of buttons, from the aforementioned

consignment, reached a top bid of $1,400 for 600 to 800 jet, composition,

inlaid, glass, metal and shell examples. Other lots went for $25 to $500.

African tribal art ranged from $50 to $500 for all lots, with the exception of

$425 reached by a 14-piece lot of assorted hand carved examples, including

wooden boxes. A five piece sterling silver tea service with gold wash was

purchased at $1,800; and a bulldog head tobacco jar, six inches high, unmarked

and in mint condition, sold at $700.

Prices quoted do not reflect a ten percent buyers premium.