A Closer Look: Record Prices for Watercolors Define Watershed Auction at Grogan

DEDHAM, MASS.

:Grogan & Company's centennial auction, conducted on April 10, was flush with record prices established for a wide variety of materials. An impressive selection of paintings helped push the gross sale total over the million-dollar mark.

It was water, water everywhere as watercolors soared. Andrew Wyeth's signed watercolor "Buoys" topped the action when it sold to an area collector for a record price of $115,000. The successful buyer was present just for the picture and left the gallery immediately after it was hammered down. The painting measured 91/4 by 16 inches and will be included in an upcoming catalogue raisonné of Wyeth's work. It came from a Massachusetts collection and had been purchased in the 1950s at Knoedler by an Omaha, Neb. collector.

Another stunning watercolor, Frank Weston Benson's signed and dated "Geese and Swans in Flight," attracted great interest and sold on the telephone for another record price of $103,500. The painting had a luminescent quality that was extraordinary in a watercolor. Benson's etching "Old Tom" sold on the phone for $11,500. "Old Tom" Nickerson was the caretaker of Benson's Cape Cod home. The circa 1925 etching was inscribed to Francis W. Dahl, whose descendant consigned it.

"Paesaggio Dalmata," a landscape by Zoran Anton Music, was the subject of fevered bidding before it sold on the phone for $83,425, more than double the high estimate.

Texas pictures from a Dallas estate inherited by a Brookline family brought a great deal of energy to the sale. Charles Franklin Reaugh's oil on canvas laid down on Masonite, "Prairie Sunrise with Longhorns, 1883," caused a flurry of bid jumping in the room and on the phones and raced to $57,500 against the estimated $3/5,000. It went to a Texas dealer in the room who was on the phone with a colleague

A framed set of Reaugh's pastel studies zoomed to $13,800 from the same buyer on the phone with his client. Bidding on Reaugh's pastel "Wigwam" opened at $800 against the estimated $5/700 and ended at $2,560, also going to the same buyer.

"Landscape with Trees and Water," an oil on canvas by Texas wildlife painter Reveau Bassett, stirred interest in the room and on the phones. It sold to a dealer in the room who was on his cell phone for $12,650 against the $2/3,000 estimate. A pretty Bassett landscape sketch was $920 and his sketch of a mallard went for $1,380; both went out above the high estimates.

Other Texas pictures were equally coveted. The oil on canvas "Dreaming of Days Done By" by Fred Darge opened at $3,000 and sold at a record $11,500. Darge's oil on board images , "On Guard, Arroyo Hondo, New Mexico" and "Round-up - Sierra Blanco Mountains, West Texas" realized $5,175.

Texan Florence McClung's oil on board "Buckner Boulevard" was estimated at $6/800 and sold for a record $7,187.

Several bidders chased an 1863 George Loring Brown landscape but it sold on the phone for $24,150. The Ogunquit, Maine, pastel inscribed, "Morning Surf, painted by Dwight William Tryon 1915," set another record when it sold for $20,700. John Marin's watercolor "Maine Landscape" fetched a respectable midestimate $17,250 and "Boston Wharf," a picture alive with spars and wharfingers by Arthur Clifton Goodwin, realized $7,475.

Other New England pictures were of interest and brought prices exponential of their estimates. William Bixbee's oil on board "Winter at Marblehead" sold for $6,325 and Lee Winslow Court's signed "View of Monhegan Island, Dock and Harbor from Manana Island" brought $3,450. A Reynolds Beal view of Noank, Conn., went to $12,650.

A southwestern picture, "Old Spanish Gate, Taos, New Mexico," by Elva A. Sommer brought a record for the artist of $2,300. It was estimated at $3/500.

"Portrait of a Dapple Gray Horse," a signed and dated oil on canvas by Franklin Brook Voss, sold for $6,325

What was described merely as a "European school" painting, the Nineteenth or Twentieth Century "Portrait of a Young Girl Reading" with the signature "J. Gonzales," was estimated at $800-$1,200 but sold for $8,050.

While paintings were the big story of the day, the undisputed star of the furniture on offer was a Fifteenth or Sixteenth Century Gothic Ligurian chest that went to an English dealer for $35,650. The carved oak and metal mounted chest stood 361/4 inches tall and was 69 inches wide. It stood originally in the owner's family summer home, which is now Tanglewood, and since the house was transferred to the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1941 the piece was on loan at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, until last year. A pair of Seventeenth Century Italian baroque carved and gilt wood armchairs with the same history brought $1,495 from a Pennsylvania buyer.

A Gertrude and Otto Natzler bowl with an interesting volcanic surface attracted much admiration and sold for $3,335, more than double the high estimate, to a Providence dealer.

A Federal carved mahogany "Cumberland" dining table attributed to Thomas Seymour fetched $11,500. It was sold with a later, companion example. A late Eighteenth Century Pennsylvania Chippendale walnut step back hutch brought $12,075, while an early Nineteenth Century George III mahogany breakfront that measured 931/2 inches by 96 inches brought $9,775.

A circa 1900 Chinese carpet (9 feet, 8 inches by 7 feet, 10 inches) in a striking tiled pattern was estimated at $2/4,000 and sold for $15,525.

A late Nineteenth Century French gilt and patinated bronze gueridon realized $12,650 from a phone bidder and a pair of gilt bronze chenets in figure of winged females holding flaming torcheres was stylish and reaped $4,313. A 1928 English Queen Anne-style seven-piece silver coffee and tea service by Crichton Brothers of London realized $4,888 and a 77-piece Lenox china service fetched $3,565.

All prices quoted reflect the 15 percent buyer's premium.