Duane Merrill Sells Sheldon Peck Portrait For $84,700

WILLISTON, VT.

:A folk portrait attributed to Sheldon Peck was the top lot at Duane Merrill's February 11 sale when it sold for $84,700. The early Nineteenth Century oil on board depicts the 6-year-old Mary Jones of Shoreham, Vt., wearing a pretty dress of salmon pink and holding leafy sprigs. Jones is an ancestor of the Vermont consignor.

The painting had some restoration, which will be repaired by the dealer who was the successful bidder. It was included in the 1989 exhibition, "Faces in the Parlor: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Portraits from Vermont," at the Robert Hull Fleming Museum at the University of Vermont.

A Nineteenth Century oil on canvas view of a Shoreham, Vt., Civil War regiment engaged in battle was unsigned and sold for $9,350. The painting came from the same consignor as the Peck.

Continental furniture found favor with bidders who drove a Seventeenth Century Dutch Baroque fruitwood chest with an ebonized top and mahogany inlay to $8,250. The chest was among a group of lots consigned by a Cazenovia, N.Y., family whose ancestor acquired most of the antiques circa 1900.

A late Seventeenth Century Italian four-drawer chest with a molded top and nice inlay fetched $3,450 and a Directoire fruitwood commode with a marble top was $2,300 while a Nineteenth Century French hanging cupboard edged its way to $1,045.

A pair of Seventeenth Century Italian albarelli realized $3,190 and a Cubist painting by French artist Jean Lambert-Rucki was $2,970.

English furniture held its own as a George II Japanned slant front desk decorated with birds, flowers and buildings fetched $4,125 and a George III Japanned hanging corner cupboard was $770. A Seventeenth Century Charles II center table was $2,310. A George III applewood slant front desk was $2,420.

A George III tea table with a solid burl elm top in untouched condition was $880 and a Regency mahogany four-tier whatnot with a drawer was $1,540, while a George III Canterbury fetched $660. A William & Mary oak tavern table with rope twist legs and a molded top was $1,155 and a Queen Anne mahogany tilt-top tea table was $990.

A group of 15 paintings by Constantin Westchiloff acquired by the same Cazenovia, N.Y., family some years ago brought solid interest. One lot of three oil on board paintings sold for $8,690, a shoreline scene was $2,750 and other individual Westchiloff pictures drew prices ranging from $2,000 to $3,500. The artist was born in Russia, studied in Paris and eventually settled in the Adirondacks.

"In the Station," an oil on canvas image of a woman at the bus station by Vermont artist and university professor Francis Colburn, was $2,750.

An early still life with fruit and a bird was $1,980 and a circa 1829 fraktur printed and hand colored by Johann Ritter of Reading, Penn., went for $770.

The 1866 patriotic calligraphy "Freedom's Footstep" by John Fuller was $2,750 and a dozen drawings of Sitka in the Alaskan territory in 1868 John Fuller fetched $1,870. Two early Nineteenth Century sailor-made nautical scenes of lighthouses, British warships and figures on shore made from grasses and leaves and set in old gilt frames brought a total of $1,980.

A sampler by Harriet Craven decorated with striped flowerpots, crosses, flowers and deer realized $770.

A New England Federal birch tall case clock had a carved drop fan, a reticulated crest and Osborne works. It drew $8,525 from a dealer. A New Hampshire Federal tall clock by Silas Hoadley with paint decoration descended in the family of the original owner and sold for $2,300.

A New Hampshire Hepplewhite Pembroke table in "as-found" condition had a fine dry crusty surface and sold for $2,530. A Vermont swing leg dining table in vibrant tiger maple drew $1,870 as did a Pennsylvania sponge decorated blanket chest.

Several lots of books attracted strong interest, the star of which was a 1791 edition of Mary Wollstonecraft's Original Stories with plates by William Blake that sold for $1,650. The book was rebound in a Zanesdorf binding. An 1828 six-volume set on Commodore Perry's voyages in search of the Northwest Passage brought $1,210.

An oval metal serving table painted with an American hunt scene went for $2,090. A three-volume lot of the 1816 edition by Richard Duppa on the Linnaean System of Botany was $1,150.

Another intriguing lot was a Tiffany & Co. cased gaming set with English registry marks that sold for $1,320.

An interesting bronze terrarium with a figural nude at a waterfall sold for $1,430 and a Meriden silverplate smoking stand was a robust $852.

All prices quoted include the ten percent buyer's premium. For information, www.merrillsauction.com or 802-878-2625.