The tea table sold for $1,870.
The auctioneer in action.
A Federal sideboard with carved figures and brass claw feet topped a recent estate auction at Richard Villa’s. The rare piece, one of numerous quality furnishings sold, attracted buyers from throughout the Northeast to the Wednesday auction.
Richie Villa commented the day of the auction that he likes the Wednesday schedule as it weeds out a lot of the people that are merely looking for something to do on a Saturday afternoon.
“We get a serious crowd,” stated Villa as he glanced around the crowded auction hall, “these people are here to buy,” he stated with a smile. As might well be expected the crowd was made up primarily of the trade and they too seemed happy with the Wednesday date.
The top lot was a rare Federal sideboard with carved figures and brass ornaments, either from Philadelphia or Baltimore, according to the auctioneer.
The sideboard, picked up from a small Connecticut auction and consigned to Villa’s, opened for bidding at $10,000 and moved back and forth in the room to the $15,000 mark. A telephone bidder then jumped into the action and battled with a buyer in the room that eventually bought the lot at $40,700.
Other top furniture lots included a nice Chippendale linen press of Connecticut origin, circa 1780, that sold for $8,800; a Chippendale game table with ball and claw feet, $3,575; and a nice Sheraton sewing table with reeded legs, work bag and cookie corners realized $2,035. A period ball and claw foot mahogany serving table with a recent marble top did well at $1,870, the same price was paid for a pie-crust tilt-top Chippendale table.
A selection of cold painted ornate Victorian bronzes were hotly competed for with a large pheasant selling at $1,650, a cockatiel $990, a rooster $990 and a bronze shorebird $945.
An unusual brass fire screen decorated with a Louis XV style painting and surrounded by ormolu mounts and fancy sweeping cabriole legs sold to a telephone bidder from California who was up early. The buyer had called to arrange for his spot on the telephone at 8:30 am our time, meaning he had gotten up at 5:30 to make the call. Bidding time was a little more realistic for the Californian as the piece went off at noon here bringing $1,760.
Other rdf_Descriptions sold included a pair of astral lamps that were bid on actively by several in the crowd with them selling at $1,100, a rare South Jersey glass covered sugar bowl sold at a reasonable $165, a mohair teddy bear $330, an Ingraham regulator clock $220, a pair of cranberry lustres $605 and a Tiffany sterling presentation trophy pitcher brought $2,640.
