Southern Painting Tops In The North At The Cobbs Auction

Peterborough, N.H.

:Auctioneer Charlie Cobb has managed to pluck no fewer than 11 paintings by Charleston, S.C., artist William Aiken Walker out of collections from the shadows of Mount Monadnock to the Deep South.

The latest example, sold at the Cobbs' July 5 auction, was an oil on board scene of a cotton field and two African Americans with a basket of cotton that brought $28,750 from a Southern collector.

The New Hampshire and White Mountains paintings on offer appealed to bidders and brought strong results. A view of Lake Winnipesaukee, N.H., with boats and figures by Boston artist Samuel W. Griggs fetched $14,950. "View from Sunset Hill, North Conway," an oil on canvas landscape of a vista made famous by John Kensett, fetched $9,775. Although the painting was unsigned and was not a Kensett work, it was clearly the work of a highly talented painter.

A landscape by William Jurian Kaula came from a New Hampshire collection and realized $3,738. The work of Kaula and his wife, Lee Lufkin Kaula, is the subject of the exhibit "Two Lives: One Passion," on view at the Sharon (N.H.) Arts Center through July 26. A mountain landscape with a farm by White Mountains artist Daniel Santry brought $3,450.

Four telephone bidders chased the oil on board abstract landscape by Russian American artist David Davidovich Cherson Burliuk that was signed "Burliuk, Mexico 1930." It sold to the winning phone bidder for $4,025.

A landscape by English painter Alfred Walter Williams of a double team of oxen drawing logs across a stream was signed "A.W.W. 1844" and sold for $3,795.

A primitive oil on canvas view of Revolutionary War headquarters and Newburgh, N.Y., by Nineteenth Century New York and Alabama artist William C. Halsey was dated 1855 and sold for $4,600.

One group of 19 Florida Highwaymen oil on panel landscapes attracted $4,313, while another lot of 11 Highwaymen paintings was $805.

Much of the auction was drawn from New Hampshire collections, providing buyers ample opportunity to acquire fresh material. Since there was no online bidding, energy was high and the sale moved along smoothly.

A Jaffrey, N.H., collection was the source of a Concord (Mass.) Hepplewhite cherry tall clock by Joseph Mulliken that realized $19,550 from a dealer on the phone. A Hepplewhite mahogany shelf clock made in the style of a tall case clock between 1760 and 1781 by London maker Stephen Rimbault sold for $4,600. The clock stood 27½ inches tall and was accompanied by a slightly later mahogany shelf. A Nineteenth Century English cast iron shelf clock with leaf and fruit decoration around a dial with a pendulum window brought $403.

A Hepplewhite pine and poplar server in red paint with two drawers over two doors on a cutout shaped base sold for $2,415. A two-door cabinet in white paint over red with "H" hinges and a cutout base realized $575.

The perennially desirable Louis Vuitton label and LV monogram on a trunk enabled it to garner $8,050, while a Vuitton suitcase made before 1890 but without the sewn-on label was passed. Both came from the same area collection.

An English Chippendale mahogany block front partner's desk from a Lexington, Mass., collection realized $5,750, and an English Chippendale piecrust top tea table was $1,150

An imposing scale model of an Eighteenth Century Pennsylvania barn that was probably made in the Nineteenth Century fetched $345. Of post and beam construction, the barn measured 44 by 51 by 33 inches.

Other highlights included a cut stone feed or water trough that attracted $633; an Irish brass sundial signed by S. Mason of Dublin and mounted on a marble base drew $891 after a telephone competition; and a German silver tabernacle bread box encrusted with semiprecious stones and decorated with several scenes of Stations of the Cross sold for $2,300.

An English Adam and Eve sampler worked by Mary Anne Breeze and dated 1791 sold for $1,150. Another textile of interest was a folky hooked rug depicting a family group beneath a flowering tree that took $1,035.

An impressive Regency mahogany plant stand with a molded brass rim and a copper liner with a carved shaft went for $920.

An Eighteenth Century New England maple oval top tea table with splay legs on a stretcher base attracted a lot of interest and sold on the phone for $7,188.

A Shaker pine server with three drawers and an arched back splash had been refinished and sold for $863, a Shaker dovetailed poplar wood box in green paint was $748, and a Shaker dovetailed sorting box realized $690. All three pieces came from a New Hampshire and Delaware collection. A Shaker-style pine and poplar wall box with an arched backboard and four cubbyholes brought $2,185, while a Shaker-style pine hanging cupboard, also with an arched backboard, with old white paint over the original old red was $1,955.

A late Nineteenth or early Twentieth Century pair of Chinese Export half round tables with paneled tops on pierced and carved aprons drew $1,725.

An Eighteenth or Nineteenth Century Chinese dog form water dropper with multiple glazes realized $748.

A pretty Chinese blue and white flower holder with a central tall beck on a shaped base with five openings for flowers and six round feet fetched $748 from a buyer on the phone.

A turned bowl in blue paint with red and white decoration was in fine condition and elicited $2,650, and a pretty paint decorated pine fireboard that may have come from Mahantongo Valley, Penn., or England was a very good buy at $288.

An Eighteenth or Nineteenth Century pair of Continental candlesticks, each in the form of putti holding a torch, with old painted gesso and wormholes, brought $1,380.

A selection of scrimshaw from a New Hampshire and Delaware collection included a pair of whale teeth, one of which was decorated with a wreathed image of George Washington and the other with a wreathed Benjamin Franklin, that sold for $2,588 to the same buyer who paid $374 for a whale bone crimper. A whalebone busk decorated with the image of an American fort and a drawbridge connecting it to a house with horses and riders realized $2,185.

A pair of whale teeth, one of which depicted a standing woman holding a dagger and the other a woman dressed as an angel, and each with a whalebone base, also brought $2,185. A group of whalebone accessories comprising two clothespins and a three-tine fork and shovel with stirrup handles fetched $690.

A Native American ceremonial mask thought to be Iroquoian sold for $2,300, and a Navajo chief-style blanket drew $690.

All prices reported include the 15 percent buyer's premium. For information, or www.thecobbs.com or 603-924-6361.