Myer Myers Silver Salver Tops Skinner Americana

BOSTON

:A silver salver by New York maker Myer Myers was bidders' choice at Skinner's November 6 Americana sale, where it sold for $99,500. Bidding on the circular piece that had a robustly molded edge opened at $15,000 and caused a flurry of phone activity before it sold to the hardiest phone caller of the lot. Although the saleroom was full, the shank of the action was among the phone bidders. The salver first appeared at Skinner in an email from the consignor to Stuart Slavid, director of Skinner's silver department. Speaking after the sale, auctioneer and head of the Americana department, Stephen L. Fletcher, intoned, "It first appeared to us as a vision on the screen."

It was a good day for choice lots with Massachusetts history. The sale was sprinkled liberally with them and they fared well. A remarkably crisp Eighteenth Century Salem wool canvas work picture went to $58,750. The woolie depicted a hunter in a tricorn hat and red frock coat on horseback accompanied by two dogs in pursuit of a stag. The piece retained the original vibrant color, almost as if it had been wrought yesterday. It came from descendents of Timothy Pickering and went to a phone bidder.

A Nineteenth Century street scene of Marblehead that was attributed to Jonathan Orne Johnson Frost also brought $58,750, also from a phone bidder. The painting was among a group of objects from a New York house.

A Seventeenth Century Brewster armchair in turned maple and ash was conservatively estimated at $500/700 and tucked into a group photograph in the back of the catalog. Still, it sold for $54,050. Fletcher said it was rare, and probably made in Plymouth, Mass. A Salem Federal mahogany work table with mahogany and satinwood veneer and inlay made around 1805-1810 brought $43,475.

A Chippendale carved mahogany slant lid oxbow serpentine desk attributed to Salem maker William King sold for $28,200. The desk had lively gadroon carving on the legs and a carved and pierced pendant. It descended in the family of Timothy Pickering of Salem. Another Chippendale mahogany oxbow serpentine slant lid desk thought to have been made in Salem generated a flurry of bidding in the room but went ultimately to a phone bidder for $11,163.

A fine pair of Massachusetts Federal mahogany inlaid card tables with serpentine fronts and bird's-eye maple panels brought $23,500 and a Federal mahogany and bird's-eye maple worktable thought to be a Massachusetts piece brought $14,100. The table's ebonized ovolo corners were made with concentric circles centering ivory bosses.

A North Shore Massachusetts Chippendale mahogany block front chest of drawers with a deep overhang sold on the phone for $24,675.

A diminutive Massachusetts Federal lady's desk with mahogany veneer realized $19,975 from a phone bidder and a Massachusetts Federal mahogany sofa with inlay interested bidders who drove it to $11,750 from a buyer on the phone.

Farther afield, a New Hampshire Queen Anne maple high chest of drawers that was attributed to the Dunlap family went on the phone for $29,375. A New England Queen Anne tiger maple slant lid desk with an attractive interior having eight valanced compartments and a vigorously carved bracket base fetched $29,375.

A New York Federal mahogany serpentine front sideboard with mahogany veneer and inlay made in about 1790-1810 brought $25,850 and an early Eighteenth Century Hudson River Valley gumwood kasten that descended in the Van Wyck family realized $22,325.

Scrimshaw stimulated energetic competition. The top lot was an 81/4-inch early to mid-Nineteenth Century example engraved with the image "South Sea Fishery" on one side and "Port Owharre, Huahene" that brought $70,500 from a phone bidder. The tooth, estimated at $25/35,000, was engraved with a whaling ship flying the English flag, several whaling dories and whales. Another phone buyer took an early Nineteenth Century carved whale ivory and whalebone swift with abalone inlay for $17,265. The same bidder was exceptionally busy and bought a circa 1835 tooth with an image of a square rigger sailing under the American flag with a tombstone, anchor and ship on the reverse for $16,450.

The same bidder also bought an early Nineteenth Century whale's tooth that was carved by an English or American scrimshander for $4,994. The tooth bore an image of a dancing couple with the caption "Fashionable Amuse't" and a portrait of a gentleman with the inscription "Dapper Peer" on one side and "A Well Spent Day" with an image of a kneeling man with a church in the distance and "Obscure Beauty" with an image of a fashionably dressed woman. He or she also bought an interestingly engraved pan bone panel with the legend "Runnymede" above a whaling scene for $5,288. A carved ivory jagging wheel with sprightly bird head arms and a silver band went to the same bidder for $1,293.

A finely detailed and signed Sunqua gouache and watercolor panorama of the Hongs near Canton from about 1832, which is similar to a circa 1852 example in the collection of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, sold on the phone for $47,000. The same buyer took a Chinese school picture of the Praya Grande at Macao by He Chung for $23,500 and another signed circa 1830 Sunqua gouache and watercolor of the city of Macao for $9,988. The Sunqua pictures were deaccessioned by the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich.

A selection of about 85 marine views in watercolor and pencil and ink by US Navy Captain Henry Schreiner Stellwagen, for whom Stellwagen Bank is named, attracted very focused interest. Stellwagen made the pictures during the voyages to many parts of the world made during his naval career, which began in 1828 and only ended in the 1860s. Stellwagen was also a noted hydrographer and inventor of marine devices. One collector, a Boston real estate developer and sailor, bought most of the images - and did so eagerly - snapping up all except six of the images across the block. The album frontispiece fetched $2,820, a view of the navy yard at Norfolk, Va., realized $2,115, and a view of an American whaler offshore near Lima, Peru, sold for $2,115.

Other buyers took other lots such as two watercolor views of Caribbean islands that brought $7,050 from an absentee bidder who also got a view of Havana for $2,938 and an image of a French ship flying dozens of flags for $2,585.

The Stellwagen pictures were originally part of the artist's scrapbook, which was taken apart many years ago. They were also deaccessioned by the Henry Ford Museum.

The Nineteenth Century Chinese School painting "Ship Empress D.R. Lecrew Entering Hong Kong by the Lesoon Passage, 1862" brought $25,850 from another phone bidder who also paid $38,775 for a painting of a sailboat race "Dauntless and Sappho off the Needles, Isle of Wight," which was unsigned by but attributed to James E. Buttersworth.

Another painting of note was a circa 1840 portrait of the 6-year-old twins Audrey and Adelia Brownell that brought $35,250. The picture was unsigned but was probable painted in the area of Pownal, Vt., and Petersburg, N.Y.

Antonio Jacobsen's 1883 oil on canvas painting of the steamer City of Portland was of interest to marine painting collectors and dealers and sold to an absentee bidder for $31,725 while the 1892 portrait of the schooner Monhegan by Solon Francis Monteccello Badger sold on the Internet for $18,800. Badger has for some time been misidentified as Samuel Finley More Badger.

Ten phones were mustered for the portrait of a young woman holding a red rose that was signed indistinctly "W.W. Kennedy 1846," who is included among the artists of the Prior Hamblen School. The picture brought $7,050 against the estimated $1,000-$1,500. Ralph Cahoon's 1980 painting of a mermaid with a ship and a hot air balloon in the background sold for $15,275.

A cast-iron and copper weathervane in the form of a rooster was attributed to J. Howard of West Bridgewater, Mass., and brought $16,450 against the estimated $800-$1,200. The vane had a compact form that appealed to many who saw it. Fletcher said he found it on the workbench in the garage at the consignor's home.

A nice circa 1815 leather fire bucket from the Mechanic Fire Society in Portsmouth, N.H., sold for $4,994.

A mahogany shelf clock made around 1800-1805 by Samuel Mulliken of Salem or Lynn, Mass., sold for $31,725. The clock, like the Salem canvas work picture, came from descendents of Timothy Pickering.

Another clock of interest was a carved cherry tall case clock by William Crawford of Oakham, Mass., that fetched $30,550. The late diminutive (83 inches including the finial) Eighteenth Century clock came from a house in Rindge, N.H. A beautifully painted pine tall case clock by Silas Hoadley realized $11,750.

Lot 1 was an auspicious opening to the sale. The earthenware pitcher with polychrome and transfer decoration commemorating the landing of Lafayette at Castle Garden in New York City, August 16, 1824, sold on the phone for $10,575 against the estimated $1,5/2,500. Among a selection of Staffordshire pottery decorated with blue transfers the highlight was a Dr Syntax vegetable dish that brought $764.

A Chinese Export porcelain vase, circa 1710-1725, that was designed to resemble a Venetian glass piece was estimated at $800-$1,200 and sold for $11,163. The ovoid form was decorated with orange bands with gilded flower blossoms.

The star of the stoneware was a pitcher by Thomas Commeraw of New York decorated with an incised floral sprig that was filled in with cobalt above the inscription "N. York Coelears Hook." Despite the absence of a handle and the presence of a few chips, the pitcher sailed past the estimated $400/600 to $12,925 from a phone bidder. An Eighteenth or early Nineteenth Century redware loaf dish decorated with a jazzy yellow slip squiggle fetched $6,463.

All prices quoted reflect the buyer's premium. For information, call 978-779-6241 or visit www.skinnerinc.com.