The top lot of the auction was this Tiffany Studios Poppy table lamp that attained $143,960 ($50/80,000).

Review by Andrea Valluzzo

GENESEO, N.Y. — Cottone Auctions pulled out all the stops for its March 19 Fine Art & Antiques auction, and it showed. Artwork by well-known and desirable artists were the predominant fare, but important and elegant decorative arts also found favor with buyers. Altogether, bidders drove the 245 lots on offer to a sale total of $1.8 million.

Auctioneer Matt Cottone said he was pleased with the sale and while they don’t typically hold back items for these quarterly art and antiques sales, this one did feature many good items, stemming from two noted local collectors.

One of the featured estates was that of Charles E. Balbach, an entrepreneur and former president of the Harvard Business School Club of Western New York. An ardent collector, he was a guiding supporter early on of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum. “He was a great collector of many things. He traveled all over the country and all over the world, and bought and collected these things,” Cottone said. While Balbach had bought items from previous Cottone auctions and was well known to the firm, Cottone said the family had many options with what do with his collection. “We were very pleased to be able to handle the collection for the family,” he added.

Attracting much international bidding and selling for $53,680 was this Iznik polychrome painted pottery deep dish from the Ottoman Empire ($7/10,000).

Another prominent arts patron whose estate helped fuel this auction was Frederic P. Norton, a longtime supporter of the same museum and a past Buffalo Fine Arts Academy board member.

In some auctions, the top-selling lots are offered at strategic places, like lot one or lot 100, and in others they are sprinkled liberally throughout the auction with the intent to keep bidders paying heed to the auction throughout. Whether it was planned or just worked out that way, most of the auction’s heavy hitters crossed the block during the first few hours of the sale.

The top lot came about two hours in with a Tiffany Studios Poppy table lamp ($50/80,000), which attracted much pre-sale interest online and achieved $143,960. The circa 1910 lamp had a 16-inch-diameter shade impressed “Tiffany Studios New York 1461” and its base was impressed “Tiffany Studios New York 533.” Cottone said there were quite a few online bidders and several phones chasing this lamp, but in the end it came down to three or four people once the lamp hit six figures. It sold to a determined phone bidder, a private collector.

Fine art accounted for nearly one-fourth of the whole sale and rare works, not surprisingly, led the day. An example of this was a small signed study by Joan Mitchell that was estimated at $40/60,000. Works by this Abstract Expressionist painter seldom appear at auction, Cottone explained, so bidders were eager to snap this one up, especially in a pleasing small size. Measuring 9 by 14½ inches, the circa 1960 mixed media painting was driven to $73,200. It was among several standouts from the Balbach collection.

The parade of artworks across the block was led by this scarce Joan Mitchell (American, 1925-1992) study that took $73,200 ($40/60,000). Works by the artist like this signed circa 1960 mixed media seldom appear at auction, Cottone said.

“It’s very, very hard to acquire a piece of her work right now that’s an original work of art, even though this was a study,” he explained. “There’s just not any for sale and most of them are larger works of art that are going to cost you millions, so this was something that there’s not a lot of opportunity for on the marketplace right now.”

Realizing the same price was a piece of furniture from the Norton estate. In 1969, Wendell Castle created a singular multi-function piece that was a bed, desk lamp, night table and chest of drawers all in one. The example on offer dated to 1972 and was made of stacked and laminated walnut. Estimated at $40/60,000, it took $73,200.

Highlighting the jewelry category was a circa 1958 Van Cleef & Arpels platinum and diamond necklace that outperformed its $20/40,000 estimate to take $56,120, while a Van Cleef & Arpels platinum, sapphire, diamond and pearl “Fleur” clip brooch made $21,350 ($10/15,000).

Cottone noted that the auction drew a lot of bidding from all over, including internationally, and one key lot that drew global bidding was an Iznik polychrome painted pottery deep dish from the Ottoman Empire (Fifteenth-Seventeenth Century). Hailing from an Upstate New York collection, the colorful dish left its $7/10,000 in the dust to attain $53,680 from an overseas buyer.

Lighting up the auction block was this circa 1900 Tiffany Studios Pepper lamp base that brought $48,800 ($10/15,000).

Rounding out the auction were a circa 1900 Tiffany Studios Pepper lamp base, inspired by the form of a pimento, which brought $48,800 ($10/15,000), and a Vacheron Constantin overseas dual time watch, having a desirable 42 millimeter diameter, that sold mid-estimate at $34,160.

Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. Cottone Auctions’ next major sale will be an art and antiques auction in May. For more information, www.cottoneauctions.com or 585-243-1000.