Pushed to $3,840, the sale’s highest price, was this South of France landscape by Orville Hoyt Root (French, Nineteenth/Twentieth Century), oil on canvas, 52½ by 64 inches ($600/900).
Review by Carly Timpson
FREEPORT, MAINE — Casco Bay Auctions’ 2025 March Americana & Beyond auction was conducted on the 8th of the month. The sale was comprised of early American furniture, European decorative arts, Asian antiques, fine art and “beyond.” Offering nearly 630 lots, the auction realized $131,167 and had a sell-through rate of 94 percent. Andrew Davis, owner and auctioneer, shared, “Overall, the auction was reasonably strong. The market is in a weird place across the board, but the prices were about where I expected them to be. Nothing fell flat, but nothing did really, really well either. I think it was a solid sale.”
While the auction was primarily focused on Americana, European fine art rose to the top. Growing far past its $600/900 estimate to become the highest-achieving lot in the sale was Orville Hoyt Root’s Impressionistic depiction of a lush landscape in the South of France. Of this painting, Davis said, “This large-scale painting exhibits a great use of light and shade, and a lush color palette; it will liven up any room.” The oil on canvas work was stamped for “Paul Foinet Fils” on its reverse and was bid to $3,840, ultimately selling to a local collector.
Other European works included two Seventeenth Century Dutch paintings. Selling to a local collector for $3,000 was an oil on panel landscape depicting people at work in a wooded field. On its reverse, the framed painting, which only held a high estimate of $250, retained remnants of an indistinguishable old collection label. The other Dutch painting to soar was an oil on board interior scene of seated subjects having a drink in a kitchen. Housed in an old gesso frame with later black paint, it sold to a New Hampshire-based dealer for $2,880, exceeding its $500 high estimate. Though there were some losses to the frame, the painting was likely in original condition and there appeared to be a signature to the lower right, though it was not legible or known to Casco Bay.
Depicting an interior kitchen scene, this Seventeenth Century Dutch oil on board, 10 by 14 inches, was in a gesso frame with later black paint; a New Hampshire dealer claimed it for $2,880 ($300/500).
Cataloged as “after” the English painter J. M. W. Turner, an oil on canvas scene depicting England’s Chichester Canal rose above its $200/300 estimate to realize $2,860. Showing several boats on the water at sunrise or sunset, including a small rowboat along the bank toward the foreground, the unframed scene was titled, signed and dated “1889” at lower left. On its reverse, the canvas was marked and bore an old paper label with a description of the work; it was won by a decorator based in Maryland.
Of course, American art also found success, with the category being led by a painting of “Two Fish” hanging above a counter. Done by Andrew John Henry Way, the still life included a third fish lying on the counter and miscellaneous mugs, pots and other articles around the focal hanging fish. The Maryland decorator bought this one, too, for $3,456.
A Maine collector took home an American school painting of two ruffled grouse for $1,560. Though no attribution was identified in the catalog, there was an artist’s monogram and date, “66,” to the lower right of the painting. Done in oil on canvas and housed in a wood frame, the forest floor scene flocked well past its $500 high estimate.
In this auction, there were four cast bronze whale sculptures by Alfred Godin. Ahead of the sale, Casco Bay’s social media team published images of the four hyper-realistic figures with the caption, “These endangered whale sculptures by Alfred Godin, a retired marine biologist from Fitchburg, [Mass.] are truly amazing. Don’t you think they’d look swimming in your collection?” A collector in Taiwan must have thought so, as they paid $1,472 for the 29-inch-long sperm whale and $1,408 for the 36-inch-long blue whale, each estimated $1/1,500.
This pair of portraits of a Salem, Mass., couple were attributed to Benjamin Blyth (American, 1746-1786) and each measured 27 by 22 inches framed; a Michigan collector claimed them for $1,920 ($3/5,000).
A dominant subcategory within the larger umbrella of American art was portraiture. A pair of portraits depicting a Salem, Mass., couple, attributed to Massachusetts artist Benjamin Blyth, was won by a Michigan collector for $1,920. While the couple was unknown to Casco Bay, the catalog noted that the paintings were presumably in their original frames, which were “identical to those of the John and Abigail Adams portraits in the Massachusetts Historical Society,” done by Blyth circa 1766. Another pair of portraits, these of George and Martha Washington, were claimed by a Rhode Island decorator for $1,200. Attributed to William Matthew Prior (1806-1873), these were reverse painted on glass and were housed in their original 31-by-27-inch frames.
American history was represented in the first-hand account of General George Hairston, whose Civil War-era journal was the highest-achieving non-art lot of the day. The journal included “records of boarding troops, amounts paid for goods and services and daily happenings,” according to the catalog. Additional documents relating to General Hairston are held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, though this journal will be heading to a collector in Virginia, who paid $1,680 for the book.
Casco Bay Auctions will conduct an auction of international art and antiquities on April 12. Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For further information, www.cascobayauctions.com or 207-370-4592.
