The top lot of the auction was this Felix Ziem oil on canvas titled “View from Venice Harbor” that brought $22,800 ($15/25,000).
Review by Andrea Valluzzo
NEW YORK CITY & BEVERLY, MASS. — Kaminski Auctions is based in Beverly, Mass., but owner/auctioneer Frank Kaminski is happy to conduct on-site auctions when he can not only because these events hearken back to the original days of auctioneering, but also it means he doesn’t have to pack up and transport the stuff back to his auction gallery. That said, he will and often does travel. For their July auction, they ended up running back-to-back sales in two different states.
The first sale came from a moment of serendipity that happened last November. Kaminski and his team were in New York City on East 80th Street to pick up items for an auction of the Lucille Roberts collection. At the time, a couple who lived a few doors down noticed Kaminski’s truck with his company name lettered on the side and his men moving things out in preparation for the sale. Shortly after, they contacted Kaminski and asked him to sell items from their recently-deceased grandmother’s estate. That auction took place July 25 in the storied New York City brownstone, known as The John Langdon Erving House for its original owners going back to 1904.
“The ironic thing about this whole sale is that the grandson’s wife saw our trucks moving things out of 54 East 80th back in November,” he said. “This has never happened where we got that estate and then we got this house on the same street because they saw the lettering on our trucks. It was a real treasure trove!”
Buyers snapped up decorative objects like this Nineteenth Century Venetian giltwood mirror that sold online for $3,750 ($700-$1,200).
Summertime auctions these days in general can be a mixed bag, Kaminski said, but paintings did well, particularly the European and Indian paintings. “Furnishings were a bargain and that’s how it is in today’s market,” he said succinctly.
The auction comprised 572 lots and kicked off a two-day auction weekend followed by a 508-lot auction the next day that featured items from the David Laurence Roth collection that was akin to a time capsule of life in the Upper East Side in the 1980s. That sale took place back in Beverly in the auction gallery.
Day One: The John Langdon Erving House
The top lot in the first session was a Felix Ziem oil on canvas, “View from Venice Harbor,” that neared its high estimate when it brought $22,800. The painting depicted a view looking north toward St Marks Square. Asked what drove bidding for this painting, Kaminski said this and the other items in the session had been off the market for several decades. “All these items were fresh to the market,” he said. “This painting had been hanging in their home for 30 or 40 years.”
This Nineteenth Century British School portrait of a poodle went to a phone bidder for $15,600 ($2/3,000).
Another standout among paintings was a Nineteenth Century British School oil on canvas portrait of a poodle, estimated at $2/3,000 that performed well at $15,600. The untitled portrait depicted the poodle on red damask pillow with a classical scene in background.
Known artists represented in the auction included George Inness, Jr, whose oil on canvas titled “Early Morning” sold within estimate at $16,250. The painting pictured a pastoral scene with a man standing in a boat in a pond in a clearing with cows and trees against a glowing sunrise.
Several Indian artworks crossed the block, led by a pair of probably late Nineteenth Century watercolors done in the Kalighat style of Hindu deities that was conservatively estimated at $300/500 but sold for $8,125.
Less than a half hour later, a grouping of six Eighteenth or Nineteenth Century framed watercolors, Indian but possibly Burmese, depicting royal processions, made $6,875.
This pair of Indian watercolors depicting Hindu deities attracted much interest and sold for $8,125 ($300/500).
Choice examples of furniture and decorative objects were sprinkled throughout the sale. An elegantly carved base, attributed to Herter Brothers, standing 36 inches tall, doubled its high estimate to bring $7,500 while a Nineteenth Century Venetian giltwood mirror went over its $700-$1,200 estimate to take $3,750.
Rounding out the first session highlights were pair of Nineteenth Century Chinese rose medallion garden seats, 19 by 14 inches, that doubled its high estimate to sell for $3,750, and an Eighteenth Century French hand-woven tapestry, 89 by 61 inches, that realized $3,250.
Day Two: The Roth Collection & More
The parade of fine artworks across the block continued into the second session with a colorful and abstract watercolor on paper by Paul Jenkins titled “Phenomena Seeing All at Once” that brought $6,250. Whimsical and eye-catching pieces included an 1837 oil on canvas painting by Morton Louis Sacks (1922-2013), “Man Smoking a Cigarette.” The signed work was dated 1967 and fetched $2,625. The painter, known for his Expressionist style, was also a Harvard professor.
This Morton Sacks oil portrait, “Man Smoking a Cigarette,” 1967, took $2,625 ($500/800).
An astute buyer picked up an ornate and hand carved Peruvian wood pulpit with corbels for a good price at $4,800. This piece was pictured in Colonial Architecture and Sculpture in Peru by Harold E. Wethey (Harvard University Press, 1949).
Selling over estimates were a pair of George Nelson for Herman Miller chests that brought $3,750 ($500-$1,000) and a map of Hampshire County, Mass., from an actual survey of William J. Barker, published in 1854 that sold for $1,625 ($300/500).
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. Kaminski Auctions’ next sale will be the August Estates Sale August 29-30. For information, www.kaminskiauctions.com or 978-927-2223.
