“Anchor Wharf, Greenwich Pensioners, Crowley House & Trinity Hospital in View” by Alexander Davidson (British, 1838-1887) was the top lot in the sale, earning $7,800 from a private collector in the United Kingdom ($1/4,000).
Review by Madelia Hickman Ring, Photos Courtesy Carlsen Gallery
FREEHOLD, N.Y. – Carlsen Gallery’s March Madness Antique Auction on March 6 offered 411 lots, including the lifelong collection of country furniture and accessories from a Woodstock, N.Y.-area attorney. The sale grossed just under $300,000 and Russ Carlsen, who interrupted his lunch to speak with us two days after the sale, was pleased with the results.
“I think it was a very successful auction. It was a proving ground for Country and Americana and all indications show me that there’s still a lot of life in those markets.”
The top lot of the sale at $7,800 – an oil on canvas of a Greenwich, England, wharf by Alexander Davidson (British, 1838-1887) – may have had the best backstory. According to Carlsen, it was consigned by descendants of a John Evans, Esq., who lived behind Knoedler Gallery in New York City in the early 1940s. Evans spotted a fire at the gallery and alerted the fire department in time so that the gallery, and its contents, were not destroyed. As a measure of their gratitude, Knoedler sent Evans the painting along with an object description from the gallery and a letter of appreciation. Recently conserved, the painting was in “ready to hang” condition.
A museum in the United Kingdom was interested in the painting and left an absentee bid but was outbid by a private collector in the United Kingdom.
Americana largely dominated the leaderboard, with a Classical Boston center table with Egyptian marble top that Carlsen described as “a great piece of furniture” sold to a buyer from “the deep South,” who was making their debut purchase at Carlsen’s. Estimated at $1/2,000, the table’s marble top had been beautifully repaired and did not deter interest; it made an even $6,000.
Leading a Woodstock, N.Y., collection of Country and Americana was this Eighteenth Century Hudson Valley shoe-foot hutch table that sold to a trade buyer in New York City for $5,400 ($500-$1,500).
The Woodstock collection of Country Americana had been amassed over 25 or 30 years by a contract lawyer who, according to Carlsen, acquired things almost exclusively from Kingston, N.Y.-area dealer Jack Whistance at Lock Stock and Barrel. The top price from the collection was $5,400, for an Eighteenth Century shoe-foot hutch table. A trade buyer from Manhattan prevailed over competition. Another highlight from the Woodstock collection was a 64½-inch-tall primitive one-door open canted top cupboard with original surface and H-hinges. A collector from outside of New York state, bidding by the phone, topped it off at $4,200.
The same price – $4,200 – was realized by an American School portrait of a child in red holding a silver spoon, with provenance to Kennedy Gallery and measuring 35 by 26 inches. It sold to private collectors from Connecticut and was also part of the Woodstock collection.
What can be a disappointment in one sale can be a triumph in another. In the day of internet bidding, it is (unfortunately) an occupational hazard that buyers fail to pay for purchases. That was the case with an international buyer who defaulted on a 14-inch Nineteenth Century sang de boeuf bottle vase. In its first time across the block, the vase sold for $4,200; in this sale, it brought $4,800.
One of the bargains in the sale was the $2,160 paid for by a trade buyer for a diminutive tiger maple highboy, probably from Eastern Connecticut. It sold to a trade buyer.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house.
Carlsen Gallery’s next sale will take place in late May, date to be announced.
For additional information, 518-634-2466 or www.carlsengallery.com.
