Auctioneer John McInnis gathered an eclectic selection of objects to tempt dealers and collectors who packed the gallery for his January 30 sale. Featured was material from the Palm Beach estate of Boston native, arts patron and philanthropist Natalie G. Stone, who died last year at 93. Stone is reported to have numbered among her many achievements and accolades her inclusion on the second Nixon enemies list. Other choice lots came from an Exeter, N.H., estate.
An Italian wall niche with gilt decoration enclosing carved and painted clothed figures of the Holy Family set off Internet bidders, who jumped it from an opening bid of $1,900 to $11,500. It came from a Maine estate and is headed back to Italy.
A Chinese bronze censer with zoomorphic handles with a studio mark in archaic seal script on the base elicited $11,500 from a buyer in China bidding online. A 15-inch Nineteenth Century Cantonese Export ivory box with carved and pierced medallions came from an area collection and sold for $8,635.
A Qing dynasty hanging scroll in ink and color on silk depicting court life in a series of linked pavilions in a garden landscape sold for $2,875.
A group of Japanese ivory carvings enticed bidders. One lot of six Japanese ivory okimono of zodiac figures brought $4,600. A Twentieth Century okimono carved as a kabuki actor as the samurai Sogo no Goro was signed and sold for $2,070. Another example carved as a kabuki actor in the play Shibaraku went for $1,955.
Bringing $2,588 was an Eighteenth Century Korean chest on stand with heavy iron hardware and the original keys and locks. The stand was signed.
Desirable English sterling, made mostly in London, activated Internet bidders. Much of it came from a sterling silver gilt flatware service made in London in about 1867 by George Adams with an openwork grape and leaf design and weighing 109.7 troy ounces, which realized $10,350 online. A later, circa 1890, flatware service made in the same pattern in London and comprising 18 knives, 18 forks, 18 teaspoons and 18 dessert spoons was $9,200, also online.
An Art Deco sterling footed bowl by Arthur J. Stone and bearing the mark for 1906 elicited $7,475. A salad fork and spoon by Stone with a reticulated handle with iris decoration brought $3,220 from the same buyer.
Eighteen sterling plates, each with ten sides and decorated with gadrooning and shell decoration, were made in London in 1830 and sold online for $7,475.
A six-piece sterling tea and coffee service in an Eighteenth Century pattern with ebonized handles and marked “Reproduction handmade Sterling 1735” was $2,530 from the same bidder who also bought a Twentieth Century London tea and coffee service with wooden handles and reeded bodies, accompanied by a Gorham silver tray, for $2,300.
The same buyer also bought a set of 22 sterling bread and butter plates made in London in 1872, with reticulated rims, a rope edge and applied figural medallions for $4,600.
An Eighteenth Century sterling footed salver made in London by John Robinson brought $2,588.
By London makers Rebecca Emes and Edward Barnard, a sterling hot water kettle, circa 1815, with thistle finial on a fluted body with shell and gadroon decoration on eight hairy paw feet sold in the gallery for $6,038. It weighed 153 troy ounces.
A Gorham Martele hand hammered bowl with a ruffled leafy decoration and bearing the I/LS mark fetched $6,325.
Headed back to Mexico after being won for $1,295 was a Mexican silver four-piece tea service from Casa Prieto, which was located at 40 Juarez Avenue in Mexico City. Also, a Japanese silver and enamel sake set decorated with a family crest sold for $1,840.
Enlightening lighting included a Tiffany Studios Acorn table lamp that was signed on the base and the shade that sold on the phone for $8,913. Another example was a Pairpoint lamp with a shade decorated with trees and butterflies on a silvered base, both of which were signed, that sold for $1,725. A lighthouse-form lamp with a caramel slag glass shade and silvered decoration sold for $1,150, and a cloisonné garden lantern in pagoda form was $1,898.
A 12-inch Austrian cold painted bronze cockerel with the original paint bore the Franz Bergman Foundry mark and sold on the phone for $8,050
French porcelain was highly desirable. A late Nineteenth Century Sevres-style porcelain urn with gilt ormolu mounts and gilt bronze figural handles on a cobalt plinth was signed Poitevin and sold online for $5,175. A Sevres-style porcelain pedestal signed and decorated by C. Rochette also went to an Internet buyer for $3,738.
Online bidding won a 30-inch Italian majolica pottery urn with serpent-form handles, which brought $2,875.
A recently discovered copy of The Last Will and Testament of General George Washington , which was published in 1800 by Isaiah Thomas Jr of Worcester, Mass., generated much presale interest and sold on the phone for $5,175.
The same phone buyer paid $774 for the copy of “Mr. Sewall’s Eulogy on the late General Washington,” which was given by Jonathan Mitchel Sewall at St John’s Church in Portsmouth, N.H., December 31, 1799, and published by William Treadwell of Portsmouth. The New England consignor brought the items to McInnis after learning of his auctioning a prior rare example that elicited a bidding war between a private collector and a family member last fall.
Paintings of interest included a White Mountains oil on canvas panorama by Boston artist John W.A. Scott that realized $8,035 from a phone buyer. Early in his career, Scott was a lithographer in partnership with Fitz Henry Lane, but his paintings became much in demand.
A selection of paintings by Vermont artist Scott Carbee was offered, but the star of the group was an unsigned 60-by-30-inch portrait of a harem dancer with some stated condition issues. It realized $5,463.
An Old Master School framed painting of Salome was unsigned, but realized $4,600.
One painting that sold was testament to the futility of high estimates: The oil on canvas painting of the yacht Waterwitch by English artist Miles Walters, father of Liverpool artist Samuel Walters, was unsigned and sold for $3,450. The picture had been offered in another auction with an estimate of $14/18,000 and failed to sell.
An American oil on panel desert landscape was unsigned and realized $1,727, and a China Trade portrait of an American clipper under sail that was also unsigned sold for $1,150.
Offered were a couple of samplers †a Massachusetts example wrought in 1803 by the 13-year-old Ida Burnham of Lynnfield sold on the phone for $2,070. The same bidder paid $1,610 for an 1803 sampler by 12-year-old Nancy Emerson worked with the alphabet and a verse.
Custom beat out period as a pair of mahogany cabinets with flower inlay with ram’s heads and bellflower carvings, along with a pair of carved mahogany Adams-style urns, brought $8,050.
A Massachusetts Hepplewhite mahogany serpentine front chest with four graduated drawers and the original brasses decorated with lions sold online for $3,565, while a North Shore Massachusetts Hepplewhite mahogany lolling chair brought $2,300.
An Eighteenth Century English tall case clock with a silvered dial signed “Warburton/W. Hampton” had floral and bird carving and three brass finials topped with eagles and sold online for $6,900. The clock had been purchased years ago from the former antiques department of Shreve, Crump and Low in Boston. It came from a North Shore house.
Selling for $4,600 was an elaborate Louis XVI-style gilt-bronze mantel clock decorated with putti riding swans and painted Sevres porcelain inserts.
A pair of late Nineteenth Century leaded glass windows depicting the Virgin Mary and Jesus, each made in two sections, had come from an unidentified cathedral through the consignor’s home and sold in the gallery for $3,163.
Collectors and dealers liked the oversized Waterman Ideal fountain pen that was patented in 1899 and 1903 and realized $1,295, as well as a handsome pair of recumbent stone garden lions that drew $920.
All prices quoted reflect the 15 percent buyer’s premium. For information, 978-388-0400 or www.mcinnisauctions.com .
