Textiles were the main draw at Grogan & Company’s June 1 sale, where a group of five tapestries from an unidentified Massachusetts institution took high honors. An impressive Sixteenth Century Flemish feuilles de choux, which measured 11 feet 9 inches by 10 feet 7 inches, sold on the phone for $92,000. Ten phone bidders and a determined Internet buyer from Italy pursued the exotic piece before it went to a French collector. The piece was woven with large tropical foliage and corner medallions with portraits.
A pair of Eighteenth Century verdure park tapestries went to a local collection for $15,525, and a single Eighteenth Century game park tapestry, measuring 16 feet 6 inches by 13 feet 5 inches, realized $11,500. Another Eighteenth Century verdure game park tapestry sold for $9,200.
Of the fine rugs for sale, a Persian Tabriz carpet, circa 1900, with Gore Place, Waltham, Mass., provenance and sold to benefit the Gore Place acquisition fund, achieved $36,800. A Sarouk Fereghan carpet from about 1890 sold for $14,950, and a Persian Oushak carpet, also from about 1890, was $12,075.
Another textile lot of interest was the American needlework memorial by Mary Ann Brown that sold for $4,888.
A pair of gouache on cardboard portraits of James Durfee Jr and Horatio Nelson Durfee, by an artist of the school of William Matthew Prior, sold for $26,450 to a local collector bidding on the phone. A letter accompanying the lot identified the sitters.
The Nineteenth Century oil on canvas “The Fruit Seller” by Charles Baum stirred up the phone bidders; it sold to one of them for $26,450. The picture was inscribed “Egg Harbor, New Jersey” on the reverse. “The Street by the Sea,” an urban seaside scene by Nancy Maybin Ferguson, sold for $14,375 to an online buyer. Grogan & Company retains the record price for a Ferguson work, having sold her “Friends Meet Friends” for $86,250 in December 2005.
“View of the Bog, Donegal” by Irish painter James Humbert Craig sold for $12,675 to a phone buyer from Ireland.
A Nineteenth Century American school oil on canvas of a woman sitting on a white horse had some condition problems and was estimated at $700/900. Bidders were undeterred by the vertical paint drip, several small holes, surface grime and “significant” losses to the frame, and drove it to $8,625.
Two China Trade oil on canvas pictures included a view of Macau that sold for $5,750 and a view of Whampoa Anchorage from Dane’s Island that was $5,175, each to the Internet.
“Sewing Notions,” an etching and aquatint print by Leonard Tsuguharu Foujita, was estimated at $300/600 and opened at $1,600; it sold on the phone for $4,600.
A Turkish sword made in 1869 was inscribed on the blade, “Made by El-Hadj Mustapha Malik Ibrahim, the higher rank. This sword for fighting and executions, made in the year 1286.” The year 1286 refers the Persian calendar. The sword sold to the Internet for $7,475.
A 65-inch Mughal-style intricately carved white marble garden bench was appealing, although not supremely comfortable; it sold for $4,313.
Several tables attracted bidders: a pair of Adams-style painted and parcel-gilt console tables with marble tops inlaid with fans, urns and swags sold on the phone for $13,800; a 63½-inch Italian baroque carved walnut refectory table was a favorite and elicited $6,325; an 87-inch example sold for $2,185; an Italian neoclassical walnut and fruitwood marquetry commode sold on the Internet for $3,335; while a Dutch chinoiserie bureau cabinet in red lacquer fetched $2,588.
A fine Eighteenth Century mahogany spice chest with bail handles, doors opening front to back, two interior drawers and pigeon holes went to a New Hampshire dealer for $1,265.
A set of eight early Nineteenth Century Regency carved mahogany dining chairs realized $2,530, and a Regency-style drafting table with a leather top sold for $863. A set of eight Danish Queen Anne-style dining chairs was $4,025, while a Danish Queen Anne-style dining table was $403.
A George III mahogany pedestal desk with a lock marked “H. Cheafolde, London Hobbs and Co.” was $3,738.
A pair of Nineteenth Century Continental carved and giltwood mirrors sold for $3,450, while a pair of Continental rococo-style carved and giltwood mirrors went for $2,588.
A Nineteenth Century Russian icon of Saint Sergius of Radonezh, founder of the Holy Trinity monastery in Moscow, fetched $1,955.
Bidding on a Louis Vuitton trunk, numbered 211374, opened at $600, and jumped immediately to $6,275 from a phone bidder.
A Federal mahogany tall case clock in a Roxbury-style case sold for $3,220 to a local bidder on the phone; an American mahogany stick barometer was $1,495. The silvered face was marked “B Pike and Son, 518 Broadway, New York,” and the clock retained the label of Charles N. Dunham of Philadelphia.
Chippendale style, either Philadelphia or Pennsylvania, attracted several buyers. A 52-inch Eighteenth Century carved mahogany and giltwood mirror with a swan neck and eagle crest fetched $4,888, and a 27-inch example with a phoenix crest was $2,990. An 85-inch walnut highboy sold online for $3,335, and an Eighteenth Century tiger maple six-drawer chest with fan carving to the top drawer was $10,350, a maple six-drawer tall chest brought $1,840, and a cherry tall chest with three small drawers over five long ones was $1,380.
Federal was also popular: a carved flame mahogany sideboard signed “George Vannevar, the maker,” realized $5,463; a mahogany bowfront sideboard was $3,450; and a figured maple bowfront chest of drawers with bellflower, diamond and line inlay, circa 1805, was attributed to the Weymouth, Mass., workshop of Abiel White, and sold for $1,955.
A set of 12 Coalport 10¼-inch dinner plates with pink and gilt borders retailed by Gilman Collamore of New York, with a set of 12 Coalport 8¾-inch plates, retailed by Ovington Brothers, sold for $4,140.
A pair of English planters with Copeland tiles realized $1,495, and a Victorian papier maché oval tray on stand was $633.
The high spot of the silver that crossed the block was a six-piece tea service by Reed & Barton in the Devonshire pattern, which went for $5,175.
A Russian silver cigarette box with a double-headed eagle, by Ivan Ekimovich Morozov of St Petersburg, was inscribed, “Cercle des Etrangers Winner, Handicap Doubles, Riga, July 1921.” It sold for $2,185 against the estimated $300/500. Two Chinese silver mugs, with a Chinese silver pen box, brought $1,495.
All prices quoted reflect the 15 percent buyer’s premium. For information, 781-461-9500 or www.groganco.com .
