The auction series’ high point was reached when this “Madame Butterfly” woodcut in colors executed in 2000 by Helen Frankenthaler (American, 1928-2011), housed in a floating frame measuring 50½ by 91½ inches, achieved $325,000 ($100/200,000).
Review by Carly Timpson
AMESBURY, MASS. — You’ve heard it, you’ve seen it, you’ve lived it. This summer, the United States is celebrating its 250th anniversary and companies around the country are joining in with celebrations of their own. Such was the case July 30-August 2 at John McInnis Auctioneers when the firm conducted its America’s 250th Celebration Auction.
Much like the country itself, the auction was a melting pot, and its nearly 1,375 items spanned a vast array of eras, styles, forms, cultures and collecting categories. The firm’s director, Dan Meader noted that it was a very well received sale, which they were pleased with, and added that some of the items were sold to institutions and museums.
“It was a very diverse sale, so we had to divide it up into sections,” Meader told us. “Originally, it was going to be a three-day sale, but we got a Native American collection at the last minute and added it in as a fourth section. One day was more Americana — diversified offerings from the Battle of Bunker Hill all the way to JFK.”
The first day, however, was mostly silver, jewelry and lamps, and the sale started off on a high note with the very first lot when an 18K gold Tiffany & Company repeater pocket watch shot past its $15,000 high estimate to earn the day’s top price of $31,000. The catalog identified it as “exceptional” and in working condition, but still, Meader said, “It blew us away.” From the same collection came a Gorham/Martelé silver punch bowl. Coincidentally, this piece also bested its estimate and finished as the second-highest price of the day: $24,800.
Though it was cataloged as “exceptional” and “top-of-the-line,” it was still exciting that this 18K gold Tiffany & Company repeater pocket watch, 1⅞ inches in diameter, rose to $25,000 to start the four-day series off on a high note ($7,5/15,000).
Of course, silver is doing well across the board as a commodity, but the sale offered beautiful pieces with artistic and stylistic value, according to Meader. Other examples included two other Gorham sterling lots: a Chantilly pattern flatware service and a Chantilly Countess tea service, each bringing $9,920.
The second day, which primarily featured art Meader described as “a lot of Continental, European…lots from all over the place,” was a diversified mix from a number of estates. It was in this session that the overall highest price was achieved. Flying to the top of the four-day sale was “Madame Butterfly,” a 2000 woodcut printed in colors by Helen Frankenthaler. This edition, number 21 of 33 plus 14 proofs, was signed, numbered, dated and housed in a floating frame measuring. The work, which had an estimate of $100/200,000, was pushed to $403,000.
Other artworks among the top lots were an Alfred Sisley oil painting, “Paysage L’Hiver / Winter Landscape” ($37,200); an artist proof of Robert Motherwell’s “Mask (For Ingmar Bergman)” ($5,270); Carl Robert Holty’s oil on canvas “Burning Hill” ($4,960); and a “Portrait of a Woman” oil on canvas after Auguste Renoir that soared past its $300/600 estimate to earn $3,720.
“Paysage L’Hiver (Winter Landscape)” by Alfred Sisley (British, 1839-1889), oil on Cottier & Company stamped board, 11 by 13¾ inches, realized $30,000 ($40/60,000).
Day three brought bidders back to the American focus. “We had presidential material like Thomas Jefferson’s chair and other history like a sword from the Battle of Bunker Hill,” Meader said. At the top of the highlights was the sword, which had belonged to Captain Nathaniel Warner of Gloucester, Mass. Warner carried this 33-inch saber on June 17, 1775, during the Battle of Bunker Hill and it sold for $23,560 with a binder of documentation corroborating its history.
A Sheraton period library chair with a swivel book rest brought $14,880 thanks to its documented provenance. The key to its draw was inscribed on the inside of the seat frame: “Owned by Thomas Jefferson and used by him in Monticello – Fanny Burke.” Frances “Fanny” Maury Burke, a great-great-granddaughter of the president was known for her efforts in preserving family history, as she did with this chair.
“Another thing that was kind of interesting was a document, signed by [Alexander] Hamilton and framed, from a business office where it was kept for about 100 years or so,” Meader said. This document, a 1790 Treasury Department circular following the North Carolina Act in which it was granted the rights of a state, was signed by Hamilton in his power as Secretary of the Treasury on March 3, 1790. Framed with two engravings of Hamilton, the letter hung on the wall of the Hamilton Trust Company after it was given by New York City businessman, lawyer and early collector of Americana Gordon L. Ford in 1891. It sold for $8,680.
In a 17-by-31¼-inch frame as hung at the Hamilton Trust Company after it was given in 1891 by Gordon L. Ford, this 1790 circular relating to North Carolina’s statehood was signed by Alexander Hamilton and it brought $7,000 ($5/10,000).
“Even more interesting was actually just a record of Alexander Hamilton’s death,” Meader remarked. “That really surprised me, as it sold for almost as much as the signed documents.” The Saturday, July 21, 1804, edition of the Portsmouth Oracle, a newspaper printed in Portsmouth, N.H., featured Hamilton’s death notice, a “Deep Lamentation,” marked with a bold, monogrammed coffin engraving at the center of the column. Beginning, “DIED, at New-York, on the afternoon of Thursday last. General ALEXANDER HAMILTON, of a wound, which he received on the morning of the preceding day, in a duel with Col. BURR. Never was a death more sincerely and justly lamented; & his loss will be sensibly felt throughout the United States,” the preserved newsprint brought $8,060 against an estimate of just $150/300.
The last-minute Native American consignment gave the firm an extra day of auction action and allowed the firm to shift things around categorically. Of the 272 lots offered on the last day, Meader said, “It all came from one collection except maybe 15 things. The whole session did really well and we’re very pleased.” Leading lots included a Wampum buckskin bag with intricate beadwork and a bear claw charm ($3,410), a 14¼-inch-long Native American bone-handled dag knife marked “Quebec T” ($1,364) and a Plains Indian beadwork pipe bag that earned ($1,240).
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, www.mcinnisauctions.com or 978-388-0400.
