YORK, MAINE – John McInnis Auctioneers conducted a two-day virtual onsite sale on February 5-6 featuring the estate of John Robert Gregg Jr, born to John Robert Gregg (1867-1948), educator, publisher, humanitarian and the inventor of the eponymous shorthand system Gregg Shorthand and Janet Kinley Gregg, daughter of economist David Kinley. John Gregg Jr worked briefly as an editor for the Sierra Club in San Francisco before moving to York in 1967, where he lived the rest of his life winter, spring and fall. The second day of the sale was led by two works by Leon Dabo (1864-1960), an American tonalist landscape artist. Selling for $37,200 was “Along the Promenade,” possibly Venice, a signed oil on canvas measuring 30 by 24 inches, signed. Sixteen bids took Dabo’s “Flanders Evening,” to $31,000. The oil on canvas measured 30 by 34 inches and was signed, titled and dated verso. As a member of the National Arts Club (and later twice president), the elder Gregg patronized Dabo along with other artist members, including Lawrence Mazzanovich, Ben Foster, Alfred Hutty, Dorothea Litzinger, Edward Mitchell Bannister, Anna Hyatt Huntington, all who were represented in this sale, offered for the first time since they were originally purchased.

A full review of this auction will follow.