Renaissance Revival fume
oak dining table, $5,520.
Colorful
Socialite's Collection Packs Washington, D.C. Auction
Gallery
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Furnishings from the famed studio house of
prominent Washington socialite and artist Alice Pike Barney were
auctioned at Weschler's November 1 to a standing-room-only
audience of both serious bidders and curiosity seekers.
The colorful Mrs Barney was determined to bring culture to the
nation's capital, constructing a studio house on Sheridan Circle
in 1903, and filling it with the atmospheric furnishings she had
observed in artists' studios in Paris and London. Mrs Barney
regularly held salons of musicals, plays and poetry readings in
the house, entertaining such notable figures as President
Theodore Roosevelt, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes
and Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova.
Previews for the sale were held at the Sheridan Circle house.
Large crowds came for a final view of items not seen by the
public in nearly a decade as Weschler's staff fielded requests
for seances from followers of the house's eccentric original
owner.
Renaissance-style andirons, $4,140.
The sale began with items from the first floor reception room,
with a pair of American Art Nouveau-style table lamps selling for
$4,370 ( including buyer's premium,) esting the $2/$3,000
estimate. An Italian majolica charger with a biblical scene of
Adam holding an apple tempted bidders to double the pre-sale
estimate, bringing $1,610.
Barney's flair for the dramatic was apparent in a pair of
Renaissance-style andirons in the shape of griffins; strong
bidding for the unusual pieces sent the final price to $4,140,
well above the pre-sale estimate of $1,5/$2,500. All 19 lots of
textiles, several elaborately embroidered with the initials
"A.B.," found buyers.
The Renaissance Revival fume oak dining table, designed for the
Barney's by the Cincinnati workshop of Henry L. Fry, saw fierce
competition, finally selling in the audience for $5,520 against a
$2/$3,000 estimate. Other furniture popular with bidders were an
Italian Baroque walnut library table, which brought $8,050 (est
$3/ $5,0000); a Spanish Baroque style vargueno on stand realized
$8,050 (est $2/ $3,000); and a Louis XVI style gueridon formerly
owned by artist Romaine Brooks and given to Alice Barney's
daughter Natalie brought $3,680 (est $1/$1,500.)
The sale included two pairs of Renaissance Revival parcel-gilt
armchairs designed by Alice Barney. Determined bidding in the
audience brought the first pair to $4,830 (est $2/$3,000); the
second pair saw equally strong bidding, selling for $5,060
against a $2/$3,000 pre-sale estimate.
The final lot of sale, an American oak easel brought the gavel
down for the last time at $1,610 to a round of applause. This was
a fitting conclusion considering Alice Barney Pike's status as a
Washington artist and patron.
