Floral still life by Kathryn E. Bard Cherry, $20,700.
Candelabra by Peer Smed, $8,625.
“Pines by the Lake, Estes Park, Colorado,” Birger Sandzen, $26,450.
Exceeding $1 Million with Gems, Tiffany and Fine Art in St. Louis
ST LOUIS, MO.
The fast pace kept auctioneers and support staff in rotation over the weekend, bringing the total sale of 1,900 lots to $1,015,452. Prices cited include buyer’s premium.
Known for brightly colored landscapes of the Rocky Mountains, Birger Sandzen’s work evolved from an early Tonalist or Pointilist inspired approach to become much more Expressionist and Fauve in a style similar to that of Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cézanne. He was born in Sweden in 1871, studied in Stockholm and Paris and accepted a teaching position at Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kan., where he remained until his death in 1945. Ivey-Selkirk offered two oil paintings by Birger Sandzen on November 10: “Pines By The Lake, Estes Park, Colorado,” 1927, oil on panel, 10 by 12 inches, $26,450; and a mountain landscape, oil on canvas 12¼ by 18¼ inches, $19,550.
Among the 500 lots of paintings, prints and photographs offered was the collection of Edwin W. Henderson. His lifelong interest in St Louis regional paintings included Kathryn E. Bard Cherry, born in Quincy, Ill., in 1871. She studied at the St Louis School of Arts as a student of Richard Miller’s and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Her painting sold for $20,700 to an East Coast bidder. A Thomas Hart Benton lithograph, second state of “Huck Finn,” 1936, 161/4 by 215/8 inches, brought $6,900.
The weekend started with Twentieth Century design including Art Nouveau, Arts and Crafts, Art Deco, Moderne and Contemporary furniture and decorative arts. Highlights included a large and important Amphora pottery vase decorated with a network of spider webs centering cabochon jewels on a dark green ground, featured with detail illustration on the catalog cover, and sold for $10,637 to an East Coast telephone bidder, far exceeding its presale estimate of $1,2/1,600. A Tiffany Studios Greek key pattern leaded glass table lamp sold for $32,200 to a bidder in the audience at its high estimate of $30,000.
A pair of handwrought sterling silver candelabra by American silversmith Peer Smed sold for $8,625 to an absentee bidder.
The jewelry auction took place on Saturday, November 9, offering approximately 783 lots of antique and modern jewelry, watches and accessories, numerous unmounted diamonds and gemstones, American and foreign coins and currency. Some of the lots were from abandoned safe deposit boxes from an East Coast bank.
A platinum mounted ring centering a pear-cut diamond weighing approximately 5.2 carats between tapered baguettes and accompanied by a report from the GIA far exceeded its presale estimate of $20/30,000 when it sold for $51,750; an 18K tanzanite and diamond link necklace suspending an oval tanzanite weighing approximately 25.4 carats sold for $13,800 to a bidder in the audience. Approximately 45 lots of various loose diamonds and gemstones were offered and ranged from $600 to $6,250.
