The Sally Abney Rose Collection achieved $4.6 million at Brunk Auctions on February 17‱8, led by a life portrait of Southern statesman and former Vice President John C. Calhoun that attained $333,500.
The oil on canvas was painted in 1847 by William Harrison Scarborough and is one of the most important works done by the Columbia, S.C., painter, who painted many of the area’s most prominent citizens.
“We were sure it would do quite well,” said auctioneer Robert Brunk, indicating there was serious interest in the work by auction time, and that the key players in the sale were people interested in South Carolina history and paintings.
Sentiment among several bidders ran high to having the painting return to South Carolina and remain there. The Johnson Collection, Spartansburg, S.C., proved determined and triumphed over all other bidders.
The single-owner sale of more than 1,200 lots got underway with a collection of Boehm bird figurines and the first lot, an early and unusual macaw example, got the action off to a fine start, selling at high estimate at $2,300, but 14 lots later, things heated up when a pair of male and female song sparrows ($1,5/3,000), with 1958 printed mark, fetched $27,600, the top lot in this category. Later in the sale, two Doughty quail figurines with chicks would bring $12,650.
The diverse sale included Abney Rose’s furniture, fine art, dolls, silver as well as her son’s collection of guitars, guns, fore-edge painted books and spurs, but in the end, an unparalleled offering of glassware dominated the event.
Abney Rose (1916′005) was renowned for her Victorian art glass collection and New York glass dealer Maude B. Feld selected many pieces for her in the two decades Rose built her collection.
“Many people came here because the glass collection was so strong,” Brunk said, saying there were fine examples of Sandwich glass, plated amberina, late Victorian glass, Tiffany, Galle, Steuben and renowned art glass in the sale.
A possible record-setting highlight came when a Nineteenth Century canary-yellow Sandwich glass compote, in the Princess Feather and Baskets of Flowers pattern, crossed the block.
The compote measured 6 by 10¾ by 8¾ inches, and provenance was accompanied by a letter from Feld dated July 6, 1964, noting, “I know of no colored one for sale anywhere even in bad condition&t is an investment in American history.”
Brunk said the compote that soared over its $1,5/25,00 estimate to bring $48,300 might have set a record for form and color. “Condition was good&nd any of the Sandwich glass with good colors is highly collectible,” he said.
Feld’s son, Stuart P. Feld, president and director of Hirschl & Adler of New York City, was not at the sale but did preview it a few weeks prior. While he did not buy for his own collection, he echoed his mother’s role decades before in purchasing the canary compote and several other pieces during the auction for a client.
Abney Rose was partial heir to the Abney Mills estate. She died at her home in Anderson, S.C., in 2005. A renowned traveler in the 1960s and 1970s, she filled her home with objects of beauty she found near home and abroad. Many breakfronts, corner cupboards and chests and vitrines were overflowing with her treasures.
Rare items included ten pieces of plated amberina glass that sold separately to four collectors for more than $168,000. New England Glass Company produced plated amberina for only nine months in 1886. “Only 2,000 pieces were ever completed,” said David Linard, an art glass dealer from Beltsville, Md. “They lost a lot in the annealing process.”
Art glass highlights included a tricolor Webb cameo vase of lavender, olive and white glass that brought $50,600 and a Stourbridge moon flask with intaglio engraving, mythological scene, signed F.E. Kny, circa 1870, which sold for $25,300.
An important pair of Minton pâte-sur-pâte (paste on paste) urns graced the cover of the sale’s 274-page color catalog. Sowing was depicted on one, Reaping on the other. Each was signed in slip, “L. Solon” (Louis Marc Emmanuel Solon, 1835‱913). Fragments of paper labels raised the possibility that these were the urns Minton displayed at the 1878 Paris Exposition. The pair sold late on the sale’s second day for $103,500, twice its presale estimate.
Furniture was led by a pair of Louis XVI-style commodes, probably New York, late Nineteenth Century, modeled after the commode done by Henri Riesener in 1778 for Louis XVI. The pair fetched $103,500. An important pair of Robert Adam pier tables, late Eighteenth Century, satinwood with giltwood frieze decoration that was formerly in the collection of Walter P. Chrysler Jr, fetched $69,000.
Highlights included a Philadelphia classical pianoforte with highly figured mahogany and bird’s-eye maple veneers, attributed to Joseph Barry, circa 1820, that doubled its estimate to realize $41,400, and a Federal inlaid desk of figured walnut and tiger maple, probably Baltimore region, circa 1800‱810, which brought $27,600.
Fine art offerings were led by a Dutch Old Master still life attributed to Pseudo Simons (active second half Seventeenth Century) that achieved $103,500.
Gun highlights from John R. Fulp Jr collections (Abney Rose’s son) included a Winchester double barrel 20-gauge that achieved $23,000 and a Browning Belgian shotgun made for Abercrombie & Fitch at $16,100.
His offering of guitars was led by a 1959 Fender Stratocaster that attained $46,000; a 1962 Stratocaster fetched $25,450.
Other highlights included a George III Waterford chandelier at $73,600, a pair of Regency Newton’s globes at $39,100 and from Abney Rose’s grouping of paperweights came an 1848 Baccarat example with white star ground featuring black silhouettes of a goat, duck, rooster and other animals, which sold for $16,675.
All prices reported include the 15 percent buyer’s premium. For information, www.brunkauctions.com or 828-254-6846.
