This oil on canvas painting by Granville Redmond titled “Rolling hills with California poppies” tied for top lot in the sale, realizing $237,500.
Review by W.A. Demers, Photos Courtesy Andrew Jones Auctions
LOS ANGELES — A time capsule of more than 550 lots of fine art and antiques was opened to bidders on January 15-16 as Andrew Jones Auctions offered California plein air paintings, Americana, clocks, silver, antiques, Native American works and decorations amassed over 50 years by Jack and Ellen Phillips of San Diego County, Calif. The sale eclipsed its presale estimate by more than one and a half times, totaling $1.487 million and achieving “white glove status.” “It was our 12th ‘white glove’ sale in a year and a half!’ exclaimed Aileen Ward, vice president and senior specialist for decorative arts, furniture, objects of vertu and silver.
“The busy preview brought in a host of new faces to our galleries as well as established buyers, collectors and art and antiques aficionados who braced the unusually soggy Los Angeles weather,” said Andrew Jones, the firm’s president and chief executive officer. “Clients remarked it was the best local private collection they had seen in decades.”
The sale was highlighted by two California Impressionist paintings — by Granville Redmond (1871-1935) and Guy Rose (1867-1925), both works finishing at $237,500. Redmond’s oil on canvas was titled “Rolling hills with California poppies” and Rose’s oil on canvas was titled “View from Arroyo Terrace, Pasadena.” Each sailed past estimate to post the identical selling prices.
Jack Phillips was a naval engineer and his wife Ellen was a schoolteacher. High school sweethearts in Colton, Calif., they married in 1961 and commenced a lifetime of collecting, their sensibilities sharpened over the decades of seeking out antiques, fine art, decorations and accessories.
Oil on canvas painting by Guy Rose titled “View from Arroyo Terrace, Pasadena” went out at $237,500, also a top lot in the sale.
In addition to the artists mentioned above, the collection offered works by California plein air masters such as Maurice Braun, Benjamin Brown, Edgar Payne, Hanson Puthuff and others.
Three works by Edgar Payne (American, 1883-1947) were led by “Fisherman’s Harbor Concarneau, France,” which surpassed its high estimate to sell for $81,250. The oil on canvas, 30 by 30 inches, depicting sailboats in a harbor, was signed lower right Edgar Payne, and titled to reverse Fishermen’s Harbor/Concarneau France. Payne was born in the heart of the Ozark Mountains in southwest Missouri in 1883. He worked as a traveling carpenter and commercial painter eventually making his way to Chicago where he very briefly attended the Art Institute of Chicago.
An additional Granville Redmond work made $40,000. It was an oil on canvas titled “California Wildflowers,” bearing a pencil inscription to reverse “Burlingame/For Harriet Hazard-Spicer from Mary O. Hazard.”
A sweeping landscape by Benjamin Brown titled “Pasadena Poppy Fields (Looking up Allen Ave to Colorado St),” 1900, had been deaccessioned by the Pasadena Art Museum in 1969. The oil on lined canvas, 22 by 30 inches, signed lower right Benjamin C. Brown went out at $32,500.
A Chippendale gilt-bronze mounted mahogany bracket
clock by Charles Geddes, New York, circa 1795, settled at $11,875.
A Maurice Braun (American, 1877-1941) oil on canvas, “Springtime,” a landscape with trees and rolling hills as a backdrop, earned $27,500. It was signed lower left and inscribed with its title to stretcher, 22 by 28 inches.
Fetching $18,750 and leading the sale’s second day was an etching by Rembrandt Harmensz Van Rijn (Dutch, 1606-1669), “Christ Before Pilate,” 22 by 17¾ inches. The large plate etching with drypoint and engraving, 1635-36, bore the watermark Arms of Bern and was a good, strong and even impression of Hollstein’s fourth state (of five) printing.
Two lots each reached $17,500 — Henry Ary’s (American, 1807-1859) “View Of The Hudson River,” an oil on board, 29½ by 24½ inches, and an oil on canvas by Hanson Puthuff (American, 1875-1972), “Flush Of Evening,” 26 by 30 inches.
A “View of the Sea Through Trees” by Marion Kavanagh Wachtel (American, 1876-1954), an oil on board, 14 by 18 inches, took $16,250, while Edgar Alwin Payne’s (American, 1883-1947) dramatic oil on canvas of crashing waves, “Foam and Rocks,” 16 by 20 inches, was bid to $15,000.
The sale’s second day was led by a large plate etching with drypoint and engraving by Rembrandt Harmensz Van Rijn. “Christ Before Pilate” took $18,750.
Elmer Wachtel’s (American, 1864-1929) “A Pathway in Pasadena,” oil on canvas, 16 by 20 inches, realized $13,750, and a lush, green “English Countryside” captured by William Wendt (American, 1865-1946) in a 16-by-20-inch oil on canvas earned $12,500.
In addition to California plein air fine art, the Phillipses had a passion for Americana, leading them to collect a broad array of Queen Anne, Chippendale and Federal furniture and decorative accessories. Notable among these lots was a set of six Chippendale mahogany side chairs from late Eighteenth Century Rhode Island. They were estimated $700-$1,000 but did much better, finishing at $13,750.
Jack Phillips had a fascination with clocks and scientific instruments. A Chippendale gilt-bronze mounted mahogany bracket clock by Charles Geddes, New York, circa 1795, sold for $11,875, a premium over its $2/3,000 estimate, and a pair of Dutch silver candlesticks, probably by Gregorius Van Der Toorn II, The Hague, mid-Eighteenth Century with later tax marks, went out at $10,625, widely surpassing the lot’s $600/800 estimate.
Prices given include the buyer’s premium as stated by the auction house. Andrew Jones Auctions will present its signature Design for the Home and Garden auction on February 12, featuring the estate of Shirley Baskin (the co-founder of Baskin Robbins and KCET television), an exhibited artist in her own right.
For additional information, www.andrewjonesauctions.com or 213-748-8008.
