“Extremely rare” was the term used to describe this Pilgrim Century paneled oak valuables cabinet, attributed to the Mason-Messenger and Edsal shop traditions; it is one of just two examples believed to have been made in Boston. A private collector on the phone won it for $442,800 ($100/150,000).
Review by Madelia Hickman Ring
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Two comparatively small but significant and complimentary auctions took place at Brunk Auctions recently: a 209-lot British & Continental sale on March 11, followed on March 12 by the 211-lot lifetime collection of John B. and Marie-Teresa Vander Sande of Newbury, Mass. The two sales saw high sell-through rates, with the first netting $1,270,160, the second tallying $1,529,874. (Add to that the $938,429 realized by an American and Southern sale on March 13, and it was a very good week for the Brunk team.)
“We knew they were going to be good sales, but passionate bidders turned good sales into great ones; it was incredibly gratifying,” said Nan Zander, Brunk Auctions’ director of external affairs and senior specialist of American fine art, photographs, Native American and garden decoration. “The Vander Sandes were passionate, lifetime collectors; they were fascinated by the details, which he approached with an engineer’s eye. The human element of the pieces in their collection — the stories of the makers — captivated them and they gravitated towards signed pieces or those with links to specific craftsmen. Many of the things in these sales — including the tapestries — are tremendously important, culturally. It is our responsibility to engage buyers, both experienced and novice, to help pass that appreciation along, to make sure they stay relevant.”
British & Continental
The auction house has been helping the Brooklyn Museum deaccession works for several sales but held back some of the jewels of the museum’s deaccession: nearly 20 textiles that included a series of eight historically important Seventeenth Century French tapestries that had once been owned by William Randolph Hearst before he gave them to the museum in the early 1950s. Five of the tapestries told the story of the Roman general Coriolanus and were woven around 1625 by Franz van den Planken/Francois de La Planche (1573-1627) and Marc Comans (1563-1644), after designs by Henri Lerambert (circa 1550-1610) and possibly Laurent Guyot (circa 1575-after 1644). Scenes from the Homeric adventures of Telemachus were featured in the other three tapestries, which were woven in Brussels, circa 1729 and 1745, by Urbanus Leyniers (1674-1747), after designs by Jan van Orley (1665-1735) and Augustin Coppens (1668-1740). Both series had been extensively published and outlined in the auction catalog. Four of the five Coriolanus tapestries swept the leaderboard, with the sale’s top price of $184,500 realized by “Coriolanus Summoned Before the Tribunes in the Forum,” which found a new home with a private collector. The least expensive of the Coriolanus series — “The Tribunes Condemn Coriolanus to Death” — brought $27,060 and found a new home at the Louvre Museum in Paris. The Telemachus trio of tapestries brought $34,440, $44,280 and $59,040.
A trade buyer on the phone outbid competitors to win, for $184,500, this silk and wool tapestry panel titled “Coriolanus Summoned Before the Tribunes in the Forum,” which had provenance to William Randolph Hearst and the Brooklyn Museum. It was the highest price in the British & Continental auction ($20/30,000).
Also from the Brooklyn Museum, a Nineteenth Century French Savonnerie carpet ($46,740), a French or Dutch Fifteenth Century Millefleurs and animal wool tapestry ($18,450) and a Nineteenth Century French Savonnerie carpet with swans and squirrels ($15,990).
Though most of the highest prices in the British & Continental auction were for works from the Brooklyn Museum, there were high-fliers from other sellers. A portrait of a girl, signed by copyist “J.R. Nicholysen,” nearly tripled its high estimate when it realized $19,680. Thomas Pitts’ 1774 silver epergne, came to auction from a Charlottesville, N.C., seller and finished at $17,220.
Vander Sande Collection, Session I
Massachusetts-made pieces were a key collecting focus of the Vander Sandes. A Pilgrim Century paneled oak valuables cabinets attributed to Boston cabinetmakers was the top lot from their collection, soaring to $442,800 and going to a new home with a private collector. While several comparable cabinets survive linked to Salem, Mass., shops, the one in the Vander Sande collection was one of just two known examples from Boston.
More American Pilgrim Century furniture realized high prices. A lift-top chest paneled oak chest, made in northern Essex County, Mass., and dated 1685, had extensive family history and the couple paid $44,000 for it when they acquired it from Freeman’s in 2004; Brunk’s bidders took it to $79,950. The same price was paid for a carved oak box, attributed to Thomas Dennis of Ipswich, Mass., circa 1670-1700, that was of rare diminutive form, measuring just 5 inches high, 13¼ inches wide and 7½ inches deep.
Publication and exhibition history accompanied this circa 1685 great chair that descended in the Chase family of West Newbury, Mass. It sold to a private collector for $34,440 ($10/15,000).
About two dozen chair lots populated the sale. Earning $34,440 and the category’s highest price was a slat back great chair in its original reddish-brown paint, made in Newbury or Charlestown, Mass., circa 1685, possibly by Thomas Chase (1654-1733) and which descended in the Chase family. Of slightly later vintage, a 1720-30 William and Mary carved and black painted open armchair, made in Boston or the North Shore of Massachusetts, rose to $22,140.
A shell-and-beadwork armorial overmantle hatchment — probably made to commemorate the 1729 marriage of upholsterer Samuel Grant (1705-1784) to Elizabeth Cookson (1708-1778) — was cataloged as “an exceptionally rare and possibly unique survival from early colonial Boston”; bidders responded to its rarity and it achieved the second-best price of $196,800.
A Boston William and Mary Japanned high chest of drawers was another rarity that bidders responded to. Featured in the Massachusetts Historical Society’s 2013 exhibition, “The Cabinetmaker & the Carver, Boston Furniture from Private Collections,” it found a new home for $34,440.
The second session of works from the Vander Sande collection is tentatively scheduled for November 5.
Brunk Auctions will sell Modern Art on April 22, Jewelry & Coins on April 23, Luxury Goods on April 24, British & Continental on May 29 and American & Southern on May 30.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, www.brunkauctions.com or 828-254-6846.
