A handsome carved white jade bowl had a slight chip along one rim, but that did not deter bidders, who pushed it to $184,000.
:Mainland Chinese dealers converged on the sleepy town of Dedham in pursuit of a group of Chinese jades from the collection of the late Donald and Pauline MacDonald, and they drove the prices to a grand total of $585,063 at Grogan & Company's April 19 sale. The desirability of the jades was apparent on nearly every lot as bidders jumped the opening bids exponentially.
A carved white jade covered bowl with dragon mask ring handles on the body and elephant trunk handles on the domed cover sold on the phone for $184,000. Two phone bidders were on two carved jade coupes that opened at $2,000; one of the bidders then jumped to $50,000. But the coupes eluded both original bidders and went to another phone bidder for $155,250. The gray example was carved with a dragon and two climbing chih lung on cloud bands; the other, a white jade example had four scroll feet, each with a boy holding an insect.
A lot of two Chinese carved white jade birds included a pair of long-beaked birds with peach clusters and a pair of perching birds. Bidders were so eager that when bidding on the lot opened at $2,000, a bidder in the gallery jumped it immediately to $20,000. The final price was $43,215.
A phone bidder paid $48,875 for a carved gray jade scribe's box with moghul-style carving and $14,950 for a collection of jade objects comprising nine snuff bottles, two incense holders and a carved belt hook. The same bidder paid $20,700 for a carved ivory and brown mottled jade jar. Another phone buyer took a gray jade covered bowl carved with loose ring handles for $17,250; two carved mottled brown jade vessels, including an archaistic jug with a dragon-form handle and a two handled coupe, for $6,900; and two more carved jade vessels for $4,025. The same buyer got a carved spinach jade covered bowl with bird-form loose handles and animal mask feet for $57,500.
Two carved jade coupes brought $155,250.
A lot of 34 carved jade hair pins or snuff spoons in fitted cases brought $10,925, and a pair of spinach jade table screens with Chinese gilt decoration sold online for $4,025.
Aside from the flurry created by the jades, the bidding pace was deceptively relaxed. Auctioneers Michael B. Grogan and Hercules Pappachristos called more than 250 lots per hour.
Other Asian lots of interest were the 9-inch signed yellow Peking glass vase that sold for $9,200 and an early Twentieth Century Japanese silvered and enameled censor that stirred up the phones and brought $4,888 from one. A Satsuma tray was decorated prettily with flowers and birds and sold for $4,600.
Silver was well received; a Georg Jensen silver flatware service for 12 in the Pyramid pattern sold for $8,625, and a set of four George III candlesticks made in London by William Abdy in about 1790 sold for $6,325.
A Gilbert Stuart portrait was the most coveted painting in the sale. His circa 1823–1825 portrait of Bishop Jean-Louis Anne Magdelaine Lefebvre de Cheverus, first Roman Catholic bishop of Boston, sold for $19,550. The painting was one of two commissioned by Mrs John Gore (Mary Babcock Gore) before his recall to France. The other was donated to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in 1921 by Charlotte Gore Greenough Hervoches du Quilliou.
"Bubble Dance,” the 1923 bronze by Harriet Frishmuth, cast at Roman Bronze Works, sold for $33,350. The model was dancer and actress Desha Delteil, Frismuth's favorite, who starred in the 1929 movie The Bubble.
Stuart's oil on canvas portrait of Edward Tuckerman III of Boston sold online for $8,050. The painting was commissioned by the sitter and painted sometime between 1798 and 1814. A miniature watercolor on ivory portrait of Tuckerman, attributed to English artist William Grimaldi, went to $1,495.
An 1868 watercolor on ivory miniature portrait of James Ingersoll, imprisoned for his part in the Tammany Hall scandal, painted by Richard Morrell Staigg, sold for $5,750. The same telephone buyer paid $2,300 for a portrait miniature of a pleasant looking man by Nathaniel Rogers. Both pictures descended in the Tuckerman family.
A signed but unframed floral still life by William Merritt Chase realized $13,225; a charcoal study of a nude male attributed to John Singer Sargent, on laid finish paper with French watermarks, brought $5,175.
The Twentieth Century Impressionistic "Girl Picnicking in the Park" by German artist Dietz Edzard sold for $6,325, while the oil on panel scene "Moonlight on the Canal" in the manner of Dutch baroque artist Aert van der Neer sold for $4,600.
A late Nineteenth Century KPM porcelain plaque depicting the dramatic "Kiss of the Wave" after Gustav Wertheimer, and signed Wagner, sold for $7,475. Another example, also rectangular, "A Young Girl with Flowers," elicited $5,463. A third rectangular example, an interior scene signed F. Fenner and titled "Die Wahl der Kasten," sold for $4,715.
The carved ivory and brown mottled jade jar sold for $20,700.
A substantial Sevres presentation box in cobalt blue with gilt decoration and a painted panel signed L. Vigee measured 16 by 11 by 6½ inches and sold for $13,800. It was inscribed and dated "To Lady Caperton, the Directorate of the Port of Montevideo, 1918."
A Nineteenth Century Continental patinated bronze gueridon base with whippet supports estimated at $600/800 sold instead for $3,450.
An Eighteenth Century Queen Anne tiger maple flattop highboy with fan carving drew $5,750, and a pair of Eighteenth Century Queen Anne walnut sidechairs realized $4,600 from an area dealer. An Eighteenth Century Massachusetts Chippendale upholstered armchair with serpentine arms and square legs sold for $2,645. A Nineteenth Century Chippendale maple slant front desk was $1,380, while a Nineteenth Century Chippendale figured mahogany three-part dining table fetched $1,610.
The highlight of the Continental furniture was the Louis XV-style parquetry and tooled leather lady's writing desk by Henry Dasson, dated 1888, that brought $9,200.
An Eighteenth Century Italian walnut fall front desk with inlay and two faux drawer fronts concealing a desk compartment brought $2,185; a pretty carved Italian fruitwood open armchair from about 1800 with cabriole legs brought $2,013; and an Eighteenth Century Anglo Indian fall front desk with bone inlay and metal mounts estimated at $300/500 was a surprise when it realized $2,875.
Gilbert Stuart's portrait of Bishop Cheverus, the first bishop of Boston, realized $19,550.
A group of eight Minton pate-sur-pate cabinet plates made for Caldwell and Company of Philadelphia were sold in pairs and realized a total of $23,000. A set of 12 Dresden porcelain cabinet plates with classical scenes sold for $6,325; a late Nineteenth Century Russian porcelain "Cameo" service bowl, marked with a crowned "A" and numbered 92, fetched $4,313; and a Royal Doulton flambé vase signed "SNG" sold for $2,990, six times the low estimate.
A Continental elephant tusk that was carved elaborately with exotic hunt scenes went for $6,038.
Tiffany Studios' six-piece patinated bronze and green opalescent glass desk set, in the Grapevine pattern, brought $2,530, and a Tiffany Favrile glass vase and compote that were signed and numbered realized $1,840.
Other glass pieces included a Continental cobalt blue glass three-piece centerpiece with gilt decoration and a complementary plinth, which attracted much phone interest and sold for $16,100 against the estimated $800–$1,200. Another Continental piece, a highly unusual figural cold painted bronze and ivory centerpiece, signed O Margolin, sold for $3,738.
All prices quoted reflect the buyer's premium.
For further information,
www.groganco.com
or 781-461-9500.
