More than doubling its high estimate to earn top-lot honors at $162,000 was this circa 1905 Tiffany Studios leaded glass and bronze table lamp with a 22-inch-diameter Dogwood shade and Library Standard Cat’s Paw base ($50/80,000).
Review by Madelia Hickman Ring
GENESEO, N.Y. — After the gavel fell on the last of nearly 600 lots offered, of which more than 96 percent found new owners, Cottone Auctions had accumulated $1.4 million in its May 30-31 sale.
Matt Cottone was upbeat after the auction, telling Antiques and The Arts Weekly, “Tiffany Studios lamps continue to be very strong for us and there were was great interest overall.”
The sale was frontloaded, with more highly estimated items scheduled for day one, which focused on art and antiques. Kicking off the session was a selection of modern and contemporary fine art, including works by such blue-chip artists as Andy Warhol, Jim Dine, Alexander Calder, Karel Appel, Victor Vasarely, Robert Indiana, Marc Chagall and Joan Miró, to name a few. Soaring past its $5/8,000 estimate was a mixed media work by Emmi Whitehorse (Native American/Diné, b 1957) from her “Rincon Marquez” series from 1987. The abstract composition typified the sense of chaos and randomness of the artist’s oeuvre. Previously handled by Lew Allen and Butler Fine Art of Santa Fe, N.M., and a private collection in Buffalo, N.Y., Cottone sold it for $120,000, to an unidentified buyer.
Earning $120,000 was this mixed media on paper mounted on canvas work by Emmi Whitehorse from her “Rincon Marquez” series, May 1987, numbered 627, 38 by 50 inches ($5/8,000).
Cottone has a strong reputation selling Art Nouveau and Art Studio lighting by Tiffany, Grueby, Duffner & Kimberly, Handel and Pairpoint, among other makers; collectors of those were not disappointed with the selection offered in this auction. After dispatching a Tiffany Studios Acorn lamp shade on a Grueby base for $18,600 and exceeding the estimate, the sale’s top price of $162,000 was realized, for a Tiffany Studios table lamp with a Dogwood shade and Library Standard Cat’s Paw base. It related to an example published in Alastair Duncan’s Tiffany Lamps and Metalware (Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2007).
The next lot in the sale was a Tiffany Studios Clematis pattern hanging fixture that sold to a private collector in New Jersey for $120,000. More Tiffany Studios table lamps followed in a vibrant variety of patterns: Black-Eyed Susan ($38,400), Dragonfly ($40,800), Apple Blossom ($30,000), Bellflower ($22,800) and Daffodil ($22,800).
An even half-dozen lamps by Duffner & Kimberly followed Tiffany examples, with floor lamps unsurprisingly selling for higher prices. Topping the offerings at $39,000 was a Peony floor lamp with a related shade published in Paul Crist’s Mosaic Shades Volume II (Paul Crist Studios, Santa Fe Springs, N.M., 2005). A collector on the West Coast had the winning bid.
Cataloged as “rare” and standing 70 inches tall, this circa 1910 Duffner & Kimberly floor lamp, with Peony shade, sold to a West Coast collector for $39,000 ($30/50,000).
The first day closed with American and European antiques, books, Asian works of art and silver. A French champleve enamel and onyx table cataloged as late Nineteenth Century and standing 32 inches tall caught the attention of bidders around the world and finally sold for $9,300 — more than nine times its high estimate — to an international buyer.
Day two began with more than 100 lots of Native American art and artifacts; a Native American-style tomahawk with an engraved American eagle and shield, the blade marked “A. Lefoi, Detroit, 1802,” rose to a category high of $6,480.
Americana followed, offering folk portraits, Nantucket baskets, quilts and samplers, pantry boxes, furniture, ceramics and silhouettes. Early in the session, a framed sampler dated 1715 that depicted Adam and Eve made $9,000. The piece was being deaccessioned by Rochester’s Strong Museum of Play to benefit the museum’s collection fund; an overseas buyer beat out other bidders. It was one of nine samplers deaccessioned from the museum, the rest earning prices ranging from $180 for a sampler worked by D. Bowland in 1863, to one featuring a shepherdess with animals and a church that brought $4,500.
Dating to 1900, this 22-inch-tall gilt bronze gravity ball waterwheel industrial clock was fitted with a thermometer and barometer. The catalog note cited comparisons to exhibited and published examples and it sold for $26,400 to an Illinois private collector ($15/25,000).
Clocks were a focus of the session and the highest price of the day was achieved by a gilt bronze gravity ball waterwheel industrial clock that rose beyond the high estimate, timing out at $26,400. The lot had a lengthy note comparing it to one exhibited at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris and another published in Mystery, Novelty & Fantasy Clocks by Derek Roberts (Schiffer, 1999). Previously in a Midwest collection, it was acquired by a collector in Illinois.
Coming in second place on the second day at $13,800 was a Regina changer upright music box in a figured walnut case that came with a dozen 27-inch discs and was described as “in fine working condition.”
Cottone will conduct an online-only sale in June and, in September, will sell the collection of Dr Martin May of Plantation, Fla.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For additional information, 585-243-1000 or www.cottoneauctions.com.
