Leading the sale was this lot of six Twentieth Century Japanese woodblock prints, which realized $10,540 from a trade buyer in the United States, more than 20 times its high estimate ($350/500).
Review by Madelia Hickman Ring, Catalog Photos Courtesy The Cobbs
PETERBOROUGH, N.H. – On May 16, The Cobbs offered a 225-lot “Spring Fine Art, Antique & Ethnographic Auction,” which Charlie Cobb pronounced to Antiques and The Arts Weekly as nearly 100 percent sold, with only one lot passed. While Cobb would not divulge a sale total, he said he was very pleased with the results.
“The sale brought 30 or 40 percent more than I thought it would,” Cobb said. “We only allowed inspection by appointment and sold at our place with no live audience but we added a second online platform – LiveAuctioneers in addition to Invaluable – which brought in several new bidders we had not had before. We normally sell about 80 percent of our sales online but we did better than that. I didn’t want to leave any bids out there so it took a little longer to sell the sale, but not much.”
International buyers were active bidding online for the Asian, aboriginal and tribal works offered, though Native American lots were exclusively purchased by bidders from the United States.
Asian fine and decorative arts were a strong category in the sale. Leading the category was a group of six Japanese Twentieth Century woodblock prints, each one depicting a home, building or structure and signed with characters, that brought $10,540 from a trade buyer in the United States, well in advance of the lot’s estimate of $350/500. The lot was not the only lot of Japanese woodblock prints, with a lot of five prints bringing $5,279, while another group lot of six woodblock prints finished at $1,736. Cobb was not certain if the prints were acquired by the same buyer.
Five enameled tin Coca-Cola signs, offered sequentially, were each estimated at $600/900 and realized between $1,612 and $1,984 each. Cobb said that this was the second grouping of such signs, the first group had been offered in February and all consigned by the same person. “They did just about as well as the first group did,” Cobb confirmed.
Other highlights of the sale include a 1914 bronze titled “Nymph and Satyr” by Wilhelm Hunt Diederich, (1884-1953), from a New Jersey estate collection that finished at $2,976 ($3/5,000); an English gold pocket watch, signed on the enamel face “Longsworth & Co, GT George St, Liverpool,” that made six times its estimate when it timed out at $2,356 ($400/600); and a Sheraton queen-size pencil post bed that exceeded expectations, finding a new home for $1,860 ($400/700).
The Cobbs’ next sale will take place over the summer; date to be announced.
Prices quoted includes buyer’s premium as reported by the house, but may not include any applicable internet platform surcharges.
The Cobbs is at 50 Jaffrey Road. For information, 603-924-6361 or www.thecobbs.com.
