ST LOUIS, MO. – Malcolm
Under the new ownership, Ivey-Selkirk held its inaugural gallery auction with more than 1,050 lots and hammered in a grand total of $1.68 million.
Phillips Auctioneers, owned by LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton for the past three years, recently sold many of its auction salesrooms throughout the world in a plan to concentrate on New York and London. Bonhams purchased all the salesrooms in the United Kingdom and managing directors in St Louis and Sydney, Australia, purchased those offices.
Ivey-Selkirk will continue offering American, Continental and English antique furniture and fine at its St Louis salesroom, located at 7447 Forsyth, in the heart of Clayton, Mo.
Maury Humphries, jewelry specialists at Ivey-Selkirk, was fortunate in acquiring a selection of more 40 pieces of jewelry from the John R. and Eleanor R. Mitchell Foundation, which was established in 1965 by one of southwest Illinois’ most vibrant couples.
A diamond and platinum ring centering a round diamond weighing 6.08 carats flanked by baguette diamonds and accompanied by a GIA report far exceeded its presale estimate of $65/95,000 and sold to an East Coast telephone bidder for $178,250.
A diamond and platinum straight-line bracelet set with 14 graduating round diamonds weighing a total of 22.49 carats spaced by pairs of baguette diamonds and accompanied by 14 reports from the GIA was bid at $143,750 on the telephone.
Also numerous pieces including diamond rings, earrings and colored stone jewelry from a Florida estate ranged in bids from $11,500 to $37,950. Ivey-Selkirk also offered more than 300 lots of abandoned safe deposit box property from a New York bank, which brought increased interest from the Midwest to the East Coast, and included both jewelry and a collection of gold coins.
Other highlights included a pair of oil paintings of Dutch canal scenes by Johannes Franciscus Spohler, size 171/2 by 133/4 inches, that sold to a London telephone bidder for $74,750. Johannes Franciscus Spohler painted town and village scenes with figures and was the son of artist Jan Jacob Spohler, and worked mainly in Amsterdam.
A Steinway & Sons concert grand piano sold to a very enthusiastic floor bidder for $34,500.
A pair of fine Eighteenth Century Georgian carved giltwood wall mirrors with elaborate feather and foliate carved crest with drapery frieze, measuring 621/2 by 291/2 inches and estimated to bring $5/6,000, sold to a successful London telephone bidder at $23,000.
Under the English decorative arts category, a pair of antique English William IV covered entrée dishes, hallmarked circa 1835-1837, William K. Reid, London, brought $5,060.