For $114,000, a private collector on the phone won the auction’s leading lot, “Crest of the Wave (Hogan Statue)” by Harriet Whitney Frishmuth (American, 1880-1980), 1926, bronze, 66 inches tall by 16 inches wide by 15 inches deep ($70/100,000).
Review by Carly Timpson
CLEVELAND — Rachel Davis, director and auctioneer at Rachel Davis Fine Arts, presented a 361-lot auction of paintings, photography, sculpture, decorative accessories and more, featuring artworks from the Cleveland School, on October 24. “The sale overall was a success, mostly because the works were fresh to the market, sourced from local collectors, institutions and estates,” Davis commented. “Bidding was spread fairly evenly across the four platforms we use, as well as proxy, phone and in-house bidding.” When the final hammer fell, the auction realized $622,600 and had a sell-through rate of nearly 90 percent.
Rising to top-lot status was a 1926 sculpture depicting dancer Desha Delteil, which exceeded estimates when it reached $114,000, selling to a private collector in Beverly Hills, Calif., who was bidding on the phone. The Beaux-Arts-style bronze, “Crest of the Wave (Hogan Statue)” by Harriet Whitney Frishmuth, stood 66 inches tall and weighed 110 pounds, and was commissioned by Frank J. Hogan of Washington, DC, who admired “Joy,” a similar fountain depicting the dancer in a neighbor’s garden. Frishmuth did not want two of the same figures so close, so she created another statue of Delteil for Hogan. The statue in this sale, one in an edition of 22 life-sized examples of the Hogan Statue, had provenance to the estate of Mr and Mrs Herbert W. Hoover, Sr (of vacuum cleaner fame) and the Canton (Ohio) Museum of Art, and Davis noted that proceeds from its sale will benefit the museum.
“Indian Moose Hunters” by George de Forest Brush (American, 1855-1941), oil on cradled panel, 1924, 17 by 23 inches framed, brought $48,000 ($12/18,000).
Several other works in the auction were sold to benefit the museum, such as an oil painting by George de Forest Brush. The 1924 work, titled “Indian Moose Hunters,” depicted a pair of Native American hunters in a canoe, one paddling and the other standing at the bow, rope overhead, in effort to catch a moose swimming in the water. A private dealer was the winner of this signed work after it was pushed to $48,000.
Even more locally, many of the works in the sale had ties to the Cleveland Museum of Art. The second-highest selling lot in the auction was “Sun and Rocks,” a 1950-53 mixed media work by Charles Burchfield. Created with brush and India ink, watercolor wash, crayon and Conté crayon, the landscape had been exhibited at the Cleveland Museum of Art in 1953, where it was purchased by the consignor’s family, and Kasmin Gallery, New York City, in 2017. The work related to a larger, more detailed work titled “Sun and Rocks” that is held in the collection of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum (Buffalo, N.Y.). The auction catalog noted this simplified version retained the essential elements of the larger image, explaining that “Charles E. Burchfield occasionally created smaller versions of paintings, either for sale or so he and his wife, Bertha, could remember favorites.” With provenance to a collection in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, the scaled work finished for $78,650, selling to a gallery on the East Coast.
From the same consignor came a moon pot by Hawaiian ceramist Toshiko Takaezu. The untitled porcelain pot, glazed with a desert scene, was closed with a rattle within it. Davis shared that “The consignor’s parents had received this pot as a gift from John Paul Miller (a Cleveland jeweler) who had received it directly from Toshiko.” It went home with another private collector in Cleveland for $10,800.
This untitled glazed porcelain moon pot with rattle by Toshiko Takaezu (American, 1922-2011), incised “77,” sat 6½ inches tall and was 5½ inches in diameter. It sold to a local private collector for $10,800 ($5/7,000).
A world record was set for Prussian-American artist George Adomeit, when his “Hillside Farm, Provincetown” reached $33,750. Davis explained that this work was “donated to Baldwin Wallace University [Berea, Ohio] from Ruth Adomeit (daughter of George Adomeit) upon her death.” She added, “It had been displayed at the Cleveland Museum of Art in their comprehensive exhibition on the Cleveland School of Art,” a 1996 show titled “Transformation in Cleveland Art, 1796-1944: Community and Diversity in Early Modern America,” which resulted in it being illustrated the exhibition catalog.
A sculptural work in bronze with fused glass by Cleveland School artist Edris Eckhardt came from a private collection in Kent, Ohio, and sold to a Cleveland gallery for $4,065, which Davis thought might be a world record for the maker. She also shared, “Edris initially made ceramics for the WPA but later in her career began to do glass and bronze sculptures.” This sculpture, titled “Flames,” was made in 1973, after she was recognized as a pioneer in the simultaneous casting of glass and bronze, and a few years before she capped her career in 1979.
Reaching much further was a work by Laxman Pai. Pai’s 1985 oil on canvas painting titled “Two Figures” was consigned locally, though it sold for $10,625 to a collector in India, where the artist was from.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. Rachel Davis Fine Arts will auction Prints, Drawings, Fine & Decorative Arts on December 5. For information, www.racheldavisfinearts.com or 216-939-1190.
