On Saturday, November 28, Sandwich Auction House set a new auction record with the sale of a Zedekiah Belknap (1781‱858) portrait painting for $419,750 (including the 15 percent buyer’s premium), owner/auctioneer Duncan Gray announced. The early Nineteenth Century painting depicts two children with a cat sitting on a sofa and is attributed to Belknap.
It was one of three previously undiscovered Belknaps that were sold. The others went for $39,100 and $6,325, and portrayed a woman with a baby and the same woman with a book in her hand.
Born in Auburn, Mass., Belknap was an itinerant limner whose specialty was life-size portraits. Likely without formal training, he was an 1807 graduate of Dartmouth, and then painted portraits throughout New England.
The family that consigned the paintings was unaware of their market value.
Manager Susan Genatossio first spotted the similarity of these works to those sold under the Belknap name, and she and Gray confirmed the attribution and quickly spread the word. Indeed, those who responded by viewing the pieces in Sandwich were enthusiastic and 11 qualified bidders were signed up.
Duncan opened bidding of the children’s portrait at $100,000 and dropped to $50,000 before getting a bite. The bidding the went up in $5,000 increments with the phone lines and two active in-house bidders scrambling to place bids in a fast moving “frenzy.” Most bidders remained active to about $260,000, and only two phone bidders hung on after a $350,000 bid. When Gray finally hammered the winning bid, those in attendance clapped enthusiastically and did not settle down for about five minutes, Gray said.
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