Fine and decorative arts swept the block with a flourish this past week. Dutch, Ukrainian and American art was lorded over by a Christ Pantocrator icon made of silver gilt and cloisonné, set with gemstones. More worldly royal goods included a Louis XVI-style commode, and an Eighteenth Century set of candelabra with provenance to a late prince and Gulf Oil magnate. Read on for more.
Hudson Valley Auctioneers Sale Is Fine Despite Being Postponed By LiveAuctioneers Computer Glitch
BEACON, N.Y. — Despite a rather catastrophic meltdown at the LiveAuctioneers online platform, Hudson Valley Auctioneers’ auction that was scheduled for 3 pm on June 5 turned out fine. Just before noon that day, according to the firm’s Theo de Haas, LiveAuctioneers’ servers went completely offline. “Just before 2 pm, their tech department contacted me with the suggestion to postpone the sale. They finally came back online around 2:15, but by then it was too late,” said de Haas. The sale went ahead the following day and featured several estates and partial estates, including a large camp property on Oscawana Lake in Putnam County, N.Y. “A surprise, two paintings sold for $4,688,” said de Haas. “One had a great expressionistic look, but we could not find any signatures, so someone knew something.” For information, 845-831-6800 or www.hudsonvalleyauctioneers.com.
CT River Book Auction Draws Large Crowd Of Eager Bibliophile Bidders
SOUTH GLASTONBURY, CONN. — The June 9 Connecticut River Book Auction attracted a large and enthusiastic audience of in-person and phone bidders. The highlight of the evening was a small, oblong, crushed red leather volume titled Venture London-Brighton 1910. This commemorative souvenir photobook celebrating a coach run from London to Brighton was given by Alfred G. Vanderbilt to friends, with this particular copy being inscribed by him. The volume sold to a phone bidder for $2,300. For information, www.ctriverbookauction.com or 860-908-8067.
Miniatures Fetch Big Price For Winter Associates
PLAINVILLE, CONN. — Winter Associates’ June 12 auction of more than 350 lots emphasized Americana and a Civil War soldier’s collection and was topped by a group of four watercolor portraits, two of children in blue dresses, along with a man and woman in matching frames, that had been estimated at $100/200 but which sold for $13,200. All drawn in profile and bearing labels verso for Braus Galleries, New York City, the largest measured 4½ by 2¾ inches. For information, 860-793-0288 or www.auctionsappraisers.com.
Thiebaud Woodcut The Apple Of Clarke’s Eye
LARCHMONT, N.Y. — The cherry on the top of Clarke Auction Gallery’s June 11 Summer Spectacular Estates Auction was “Candy Apples” by Wayne Thiebaud (American, 1920-2021), which more than doubled expectations when it sold for $52,500. The artist’s proof of the woodcut in colors, one of 20 made, was on Tosa Kozo paper measuring 23-3/8 by 24-1/8 inches and was signed and dated 1987. Published by Crown Point Press in San Francisco, it came to Clarke from a private collection and was the highest-selling lot in the nearly 600 lot sale. For information, 914-833-8336 or www.clarkeny.com.
Ukrainian Still Life Blossoms At Heritage
DALLAS — On June 9, Heritage Auctions presented its furniture and decorative arts Signature auction, which offered 180 lots and tallied $283,112. Bringing the highest price of the day at $12,500 was Ukrainian artist Alexandre Altmann’s (1885-1950) “Les vases aux Dahlias,” an oil on canvas measuring 40 by 32 inches that was signed and dated. Previously sold at Sotheby’s New York in 1994, the lot had been offered by Heritage with an estimate of $2/3,000. For information, www.ha.com or 214-528-3500.
Christ Pantocrator Icon Blesses Doyle’s Fabergé & Vertu Sale
NEW YORK CITY — Highlighting Doyle’s Fabergé & Vertu auction on May 23 was a Russian gem-set silver-gilt and cloisonné enamel icon of Christ Pantocrator made by Ovchinnikov, Moscow, 1899-1908, that bidders took to $195,300 from an estimate of $25/35,000. Measuring 10-7/8 by 9 inches, it came to Doyle from a private New York collector, who had acquired it from a Sotheby’s New York auction in 1981. The 241-lot sale achieved a total of nearly $840,000, more than doubling its estimate of $325,550/483,650. For information, 212-427-2730 or www.doylenewyork.com.
Princely Provenance Illuminates German Candelabra At Sloans & Kenyon
CHEVY CHASE, MD. — Provenance to the estate of Prince Nicolò Pignatelli Aragona Cortes, of Lyford Cay in the Caribbean, undoubtedly boosted interest in a set of four German Eighteenth Century silver two-light candelabra, which had been made by Bernhard Heinrich Weyhe in Augsburg, in 1747-49. Standing 15½ inches tall, each engraved with an armorial device and weighing 254 troy ounces, the set of four sold to a phone bidder for $25,620, against an estimate of $25/40,000. It was one of the top sellers in Sloan’s & Kenyon’s 611-lot June Estate Catalog Auction on June 15. For information, 301-634-2330 or www.sloansandkenyon.com.
Louis XVI-Style Commode A Vantaux Gets Royal Treatment At Kodner Galleries
DANIA BEACH, FLA. — It was billed as an estate jewelry, Asian arts and fine art auction, but Kodner Galleries’ June 15 sale was notable for a mid-Twentieth Century French Louis XVI-style “Marie Antoinette” commode a vantaux, modeled after Beneman & Stökel, which sold for $11,499. The mahogany and ormolu mounted medallion marble top commode sported a bronze panel after Claude Michel (French, 1738-1814) with three apron drawer and allegorical scene panels, all flanked by busy floral scrolls and acanthus leave motif; six interior drawers were fitted with wreath handles. It measured 38 by 70½ by 29 inches. For information, 954-925-2550 or www.kodner.com.
Dutch Genre Painting Cleans Up At Old Kinderhook Sale
VALATIE, N.Y. — Old Kinderhook Auction Company presented an auction titled Children of June on June 13 offering porcelains from Meissen and Sevres, Asian antiques, a plethora of prints and a JMW Turner watercolor with provenance from the Met and Hammer Galleries. A notable lot was a Dutch genre painting, “The Mistress & the Maid” attributed to Pieter Cornelisz van Slingelandt (Dutch, 1640-1691). The oil on wooden panel depicting an elegant woman clad in silk pointing to a woman scrubbing pots in the kitchen went out at $5,875. With great detail to metallic and silky surfaces, classic checkerboard flooring in the background and with the artist’s name plate, the framed work measured 27 by 25 inches. For information, 518-912-4747 or www.oldkinderhookauction.com.
