Leading both days of the sale was this Baltimore coin silver six-piece tea service, which altogether weighed approximately 140 troy ounces. The tallest piece of the circa 1825 set was 10½ inches high. The lot sold for $10,240, more than double its high estimate ($3/4,000).
Review by Kiersten Busch
EAST DENNIS, MASS. — Eldred’s auction gallery conducted a two-session Fine & Decorative Arts auction on June 13-14, offering more than 600 lots. In total, the sales collectively realized $257,000. “We were happy with the results and especially excited about the large number of buyers who were not only new to Eldred’s, but new to bidding at auction,” commented Cheryl Stewart, the head of marketing for Eldred’s. The sale saw 258 different buyers, with 377 registered phone, absentee and Eldreds.com online bidders, and an additional several hundred bidders via Invaluable and LiveAuctioneers.
Session one garnered the lot with the highest result for both days, a circa 1825 Baltimore coin silver six-piece tea service by American silversmith John Erwin. The set, consigned from a Cape Cod estate, contained two teapots, a hot water pot, a covered sugar bowl, a waste bowl and a creamer. All the pieces bore an oval medallion containing a three-letter script monogram identifying the maker. The set soared past its $3/4,000 estimate, selling to the trade for $10,240. The buyer was from the Baltimore, Md., area.
A Mintons pâte-sur-pâte gilt moon flask was the second-highest selling lot of session one, crossing the block for $6,400. Its four feet were also rimmed in gilt. The flask was signed “L. Solon 80” in white slip after its maker, Marc Louis Solon (French, 1835-1913) and measured 6 inches high ($300/500).
Also defying expectations during session one was a Mintons pâte-sur-pâte moon flask from the late Nineteenth Century, which sold to the trade for $6,400, almost 13 times its high estimate. The flask was gilt with cobalt blue and bleu-de-roi highlights on its shoulders. The scene on the front of the flask depicted Cupid sitting on the right side of a scale, the other side, holding a crown, grapes and scepters, balancing him out. The ground beneath the scene was olive green. Consigned from a Massachusetts estate, the flask was signed “L. Solon 80” in white slip, indicating it was the work of Marc Louis Solon (1835-1913). It was also impressed “Mintons” and “1303” on the base. “I think we were very pleased, though not terribly surprised, to see the Mintons moon flask perform so well,” explained Stewart. “The decoration was by Marc-Louis Salon, one of the leading pâte-sur-pâte ceramic artists, and his work commanded high prices in the late Victorian era. While extravagantly decorated porcelain may be less ‘in style’ than it has been in the past, there is always a strong market for the rarest and best examples.”
The highest-selling lot of session two was a Handel table lamp from the first half of the Twentieth Century. The lamp had a nine-panel slag glass shade with an overlaid design of daffodils along the lower edge. Both the base and shade were marked “Handel,” and it measured 27½ inches high. Its excellent condition encouraged bidders to push it to more than double its $1,5/2,000 estimate, topping off at $4,480. It found a new home with a private New England collector.
The front-runner for session two was this Handel table lamp from the first half of the Twentieth Century, which realized $4,480. The slag glass shade had nine panels with an overlaid design of daffodils along the lower edge. Standing 27½ inches high, its base and shade were both marked “Handel” ($1,5/2,000).
Selling to a private buyer for $2,304 was plate No. 7 from Louis Justin Laurent Icart’s (France/America, 1888-1950) “La Vide de Seins” series. Originating from a Cape Cod consignor, this plate was from a run of 196, and, according to the catalog, it was “from Icart’s late period.”
Eldred’s next sale will be its Summer Sale , on July 24-26; the ever-popular Marine sale is scheduled to take place August 8-9.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, www.eldreds.com or 508-385-3116.
