After 25 years and 200 auctions, Kenneth W. Van Blarcom continues to run sales that draw knowledgeable dealers and collectors from all over. His sale last month featured some fine New England furniture, the star of which was a circa 1770-1780 Chippendale mahogany serpentine front four-drawer chest that sold for $41,400 to a collector/dealer in the room. The chest, which had four drawers and retained the original hardware, was found on its back in the garage of a house in a neighboring town. It was estimated at $4/6,000. A Massachusetts Chippendale walnut and maple four-drawer chest from about 1775 sold for $4,715 to a phone buyer. It was missing the lower back board and came from the basement of another area home. Although attendance was strong, many of the successful bidders were competing over the phone. A nice looking Chippendale tiger maple tall chest made in about 1780 with graduated drawers on nice ogee molded legs sold for $2,875. The piece was very handsome but refinishing and replaced feet deflated its price. An Eighteenth Century Chippendale mahogany chest-on-chest with a scrolled bracket base was a good value when it sold for $1,725. A Chippendale cherry tall chest with four graduated drawers, two that were split and one drawer at the top, went for $1,265. A Salem Federal mahogany four post bed with satinwood inlay and satinwood and bird’s-eye maple panels had fine reeding and brought $3,450, also from a phone bidder. A North Shore Massachusetts Federal mahogany secretary desk with satinwood inlay had double doors and a fitted interior and sold for $3,105. A New England Federal mahogany drop leaf dining table on six turned and reeded legs was of interest and brought $2,415. A late Nineteenth Century Georgian mahogany double-pedestal dining table with a molded edge top and saber legs sold for $3,910. A Queen Anne mahogany tea table with a square scrolled edge tip-top and slipper feet realized $2,070. A Pennsylvania Sheraton Federal mahogany bow front chest of drawers with turned legs and blocked and reeded sides sold for $1,265. Several bidders really wanted the Mission oak settle by Gustav Stickley that went on the phone for $8,280. The circa 1910 piece carried Stickley’s black mark and was made with square open slats and a raised and open top rail. A Seventeenth Century pair of William and Mary carved side chairs with high crested backs and front stretchers carved with crowns sold for $2,070. A lot of six bow back Windsor side chairs from about 1790 had seven spindles each and bamboo turnings and sold for $1,840. An early pine tall blanket chest with a lift top and a scrolled bracket base realized $1,150 and a nice looking Sheraton grain-painted dressing table with a raised back splash sold for $258. Four carved Eighteenth Century Chippendale chairs made for the Portuguese market sold for $2,185. A round colonial-style pine foot stool by Wallace Nutting of nearby Framingham, Mass., was a robust $345. Bidders were eager for a miniature carved and painted male shelldrake decoy carved and painted by A.E. Crowell and drove its final price to $2,875. A miniature carved and painted mallard drake-form paperweight went for $518. It bore the label “E. Frank Adams Duck Paper Weights, Marine Vanes West Tisbury, Mass.” Both birds came from a Connecticut collector. An attractive pair of Russian brass adjustable candlesticks with blown glass shades with engraving and applied cobalt blue rims brought $460. A Federal carved girandole mirror with a raised crest with an eagle and a scrollwork dropped base had a nice back as well and sold for $4,340. A giltwood and gesso mirror was $345. A very handsome Sheraton mahogany sewing box with an elaborate fitted interior realized $1,415. A Georgian-style mahogany bracket clock with a butterfly inlay from Shreve Crump and Low of Boston with French works sold for $690. A pair of large Asian screens painted with extensive landscapes with flowers and butterflies brought $3,680 from a phone bidder who also bought an Asian export tapestry woven with images of clouds and dragons for $1,898. English silver was an area of strength: a pair of George II English sterling silver tea caddies by J. Newton of London from about 1739 sold for $2,645 to the same bidder who took a collection of ten Continental silver footed beakers with gadrooning and foliate feet for $2,185. A lot of three silver objects with English hallmarks included a barrel-form box, an inkwell and a jam pot, and sold for $2,185. They had been found in a box at a yard sale. A flared pear-shaped tankard made in 1750 by Fuller White of London sold for $1,380 and a 4 1/2-inch sterling silver caudle cup with double handles made in 1774 by John Deacon of London sold for $720. A pair of George II silver salvers with shaped hoof feet and engraved armorial crests made in London in 1752 by William Peaston sold for $1,265. A pair of cut-crystal footed compotes was marked “Musse Galleries, Baccarat, 1831” and sold for $1,035 and a pair of Dutch Delft covered vases made around 1760 and decorated with birds surrounded by flowers with foo dog lids sold for $690. Rugs proved to be another area of interest. An early twentieth Century Serapi rug that measured 14 by 11 1/2 feet after slight shortening brought $9,200. A 9 by 12 feet Persian Bidjar with an attractive scroll lattice design sold for $5,980 while a Bidjar with camel and lattice borders that measured 7 by 11 1/2 feet sold for $4,140. All prices quoted reflect the 15 percent buyer’s premium. For information, 508-653-7017 www.kwvbauction.com. 
22 Aug 2006 / 0 Comment
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