: Topping Applebrook Auction's February 19 sale was a handsome
Eighteenth Century English walnut chest-on-chest, "a rare find in
walnut," said owner and auctioneer Mitchell Borenstein.
Opening with four phone bids at $6,750, the crowded room burst
into spirited bidding, the price escalating rapidly among phone
and room buyers, until a dealer from Westchester County, N.Y.,
took the bid for $14,950.
The 300-lot sale included items from several estates in
Litchfield and Fairfield counties that had been in the same
families for generations. There were 132 registered bidders,
including 45 phone and 87 absentees.
Also exciting was the bidding for an impressive early Eighteenth
Century Italian heavily carved trestle table and eight chairs
(probably Seventeenth Century) from an estate in Litchfield,
Conn. A dealer from Manhattan bought the table for $10,062 and
the chairs sold to an absentee bidder for $1,437.
An early carved French armoire with bird crest went to a dealer
from Westchester for $4,255; an Eighteenth Century English
serpentine four-drawer chest in flame mahogany with inlaid
banding, sold for $4,140; and an unusual Nineteenth Century
Victorian bookcase, with glass doors, many carved lions' heads
and paw feet brought $3,105.
Auctioneer Mitchell Borenstein stands next to a Tiffany &
Co. tall case mahogany grandfather clock that sold to Frank and
Meg DePasqua of Red Barn Antiques for $12,362.
A Biedermeier commode of palisander wood in a flame pattern,
bounced back and forth between a phone and room bidder, driving the
price to $2,415. An English mid-Nineteenth Century bagatelle table
was "unusually preserved with its original base," said Borenstein,
selling to a phone bidder for $2,012, more than four times its
opening bid.
A pair of Nineteenth Century French tole washstands with old faux
wood grain, in original paint, with marble tops, sold to an
absentee buyer for $2,012; four early Dutch ladder back painted
chairs with rush seats, river scenes and colorful floral design,
reached $1,725; and six Empire chairs, with open backs,
upholstered striped seats, reached $1,840.
Top in the fine art category was "Venetian Lagoon" a 271/4- by
34-inch oil painting by William Posey Silva (1859-1948), a
well-known California artist, depicting a ship in the harbor in
pastel shades. Opening at $4,500, a phone buyer from
Massachusetts bought it for $10,637. A large imposing pastel of a
society woman, dressed in a sleek black gown against a red
background, by Guy Hoff, a famous Hollywood portrait artist in
the early 1940s, brought$1,955.
A highlight of the sale was a lifelong collection of Austrian
miniature bronzes from an estate in Southbury, Conn. The 46 lots,
consisting mostly of animals, included two cat bands with various
musical instruments, dogs, rabbits, pigs, squirrels and foxes.
Sales went from $70 per lot to $750 per lot. Top lots included a
signed and numbered Austrian bronze letter holder with rabbit
figures, bringing $862.
Antique clocks created a flurry of activity and interest. Frank
and Meg DePasqua of Red Barn Antiques, Monroe, Conn., were the
successful bidders of the Tiffany & Co tall-case grandfather
clock, paying $12,362. The handsome mahogany clock had a
decorative brass dial, topped with a moon face, and a large
pendulum with five pipes and chimes enclosed in a glass case.
"It was the best purchase we ever made," said Meg DePasqua who
has been collecting antiques forever.
Other select clocks included an 1850 tall-case Viennese clock
with hand-etched brasses for $2,990 and a Seventeenth/Eighteenth
Century hanging Dutch clock with overall inlaid floral design
closing at $1,265. A Nineteenth Century American Regina music box
with beautiful sound, out of a Litchfield County estate, sold for
$2,760.
"Venetian Lagoon," William Posey Silva, $10,637.
Antique mirrors included an elegant gilt-trimmed Eighteenth
Century Georgian mirror with beveled glass that sold to a private
individual from Massachusetts by phone for $5,750. A convex Federal
mirror with eagle crest, sold to an absentee buyer for $4,025 and a
large elaborate late Eighteenth/Early Nineteenth Century gold-gilt
pier mirror, topped with grape and leaf design, brought $1,840.
China and glassware included a 19-piece lot of early Italian
china. It attracted the interest of two phone bidders from the
United States and England who aggressively bid the lot to $2,070.
Similarly appealing was approximately 300 pieces of Richard
Ginori china, broken into a lot of 144 pieces, a 12-place dinner
service, serving pieces and flower frogs. It totaled $2,300. Two
French Eighteenth Century early creamware urns, intensely bid by
two phone buyers, reached $1,006. A gold iridescent Tiffany
Favrile bowl, signed LTC, also brought $1,006.
All prices include a 15 percent buyer's premium.
