Despite a distinguished New England provenance, it was a southern Hepplewhite walnut hunt board made in coastal North Carolina that achieved $33,350 from a North Carolina collector on the phone at CRN Auctions’ April 25 sale. The piece had an old, possibly original, surface with two center drawers and a pair of cupboard doors. It, along with a number of other choice lots, came from Codman Point in Wareham, the 137-year-old enclave built by the Codman family of Boston. The property is for sale and the contents of the houses on it came to auction.
The same phone bidder paid $7,475 for a Codman family pair of Boston Chippendale mahogany side chairs with carved knees and ball and claw feet. He or she also paid $8,425 for an Eighteenth Century New England Queen Anne tiger maple handkerchief table on a tripod base. Auctioneer Carl Nordblom said he thought it may have been made in the Connecticut River Valley.
A sweet New England Queen Anne tea table in an especially dense mahogany also came from Codman Point and went to a dealer on the phone for $19,550. A Boston Hepplewhite mahogany card table with tiger satinwood panels on the front and legs brought $4,830.
An American Gothic mahogany center table with a black marble inset top from the Codman family was a strong $3,450.
Also from Codman Point were two Nineteenth Century Chinese Export porcelain fish bowls. One, with scenes of people on a boat, in a garden and in a procession on an orange ground was $1,380, as was the other, an example with a gold dragon amid flowers on a yellow ground.
Distinguished form, provenance and freshness to the market were the major draw for dealers and collectors from all over who packed the Cambridge gallery. The phones were exceptionally busy and left bids accounted for serious numbers. Collectors, in particular, bid heavily †and bought easily.
Speaking a few days after the sale, Nordblom described it as “recession-proof,” by which he meant that the generally high quality of the objects meant that buyers were willing to push to get them.
A North Shore dealer beat out other determined bidders to get a large and beautiful American burl bowl with cutout heart handles and a great surface for which he paid $27,600. It was a real gem, and came from a North Shore family who had bought it from Roland Hammond half a century ago.
An Eighteenth Century Windsor walnut meeting house bench that was 120 inches wide and had 12 turned splayed legs and three carved splats attracted lots of attention and realized $13,800. Nordblom said he studied it for months and determined that it was probably made in the Newport area, although it came from a Providence house. It went to the trade.
A set of six New England step down Windsor chairs in the original brown paint with painted flowers and bamboo turned legs sold for $3,105, and an Eighteenth Century Windsor continuous armchair fetched $1,955.
Auctioneer’s choice was a tiger maple stand that Nordblom rated as an 11½ on a scale of one to ten. The Eighteenth Century Hepplewhite stand was beautifully proportioned, had an exceptional grain and sold for $11,738 to a local collector who was only one among the flock of phone bidders. Bidders were also captivated by bold tiger maple, and pushed a Sheraton tiger maple drop leaf table with an untouched surface and deep leaves to $5,463. An Eighteenth Century tiger maple secretary with blind doors brought $2,300.
A fine Eighteenth Century Massachusetts Chippendale mahogany armchair with flared wings, a finely shaped crest and molded legs, fresh from a North Shore estate, went to the trade for $14,425.
A New England Chippendale maple and tiger maple chest of drawers with two drawers over four graduated drawers fetched $3,105. A Boston Queen Anne highboy with walnut veneer elicited $6,900 from a North Shore dealer.
An Eighteenth Century Pennsylvania walnut tall chest on carved ogee feet, with gadrooning and reeded quarter columns, sold for $4,888, and a Philadelphia Chippendale mahogany breakfast table with a birdcage and ball and claw feet was $4,830.
A New York Hepplewhite mahogany slant lid desk with a dominant eagle and shield inlay to the lid and fan inlay to the interior and the drawers went for $6,325.
A Hepplewhite demilune two part banquet table, possibly made in Baltimore, realized $4,313. A New England Hepplewhite mahogany Pembroke table with inlay could have been made in Connecticut and sold for $6,038.
The highlight of a selection of clocks was a 71-inch E. Howard regulator walnut wall clock, No. 59, which was $24,150 to an area dealer. An E. Howard figure eight walnut wall clock, No. 10, sold for $6,900, and an E. Howard marble wall clock, No. 28, was $5,750 to a California collector.
A mid-Nineteenth Century terrestrial globe by Gilman Joslin of Boston on a 44-inch ebonized Egyptian Revival tripod stand sold for $8,913. It came from a Cape Cod estate. A Franklin terrestrial 12-inch table globe by H.B. Nims and Co. of Troy, N.Y., attracted $5,290. Nordblom said the fine condition of both globes determined their prices.
A scrimshaw whale’s tooth was polychromed and engraved with a scene of two ships on one side and a soldier aboard a horse on the other. It brought $6,325 from the same dealer who paid $2,195 for another tooth engraved with an overall scene of a ship offshore and a town scene. They came from the same North Shore collection.
Four Nineteenth Century double sailor’s valentines, each in an octagonal mahogany case, sold. The top lot was an example with a star on one side and an anchor on the other, and it brought $5,175; another example with the message “Home Sweet Home” was $2,875. A third with the message “Home Again” drew $2,588, and another with the message “Think of Me” sold for $2,300.
A 65-inch Nineteenth Century zinc and copper banner weathervane had old gilding and sold to the phones for $3,450. It came from a building south of Boston. Two Eighteenth Century pair of Queen Anne brass candlesticks with petal bases brought $1,955 and $1,035.
The star of the paintings sold was a watercolor portrait of a woman seated on a slope at Cape Porpoise, Maine, by Alfred Thompson Bricher that realized $32,200. A fine ships portrait by Antonio Jacobsen of the American barkentine William H. Sumner was signed and dated 1906 and realized $13,800 from a buyer in the room. The same buyer took Robert Vonnoh’s 1885 signed portrait of David Stoddard Greenough V for $7,463 and a Joseph H. Greenwood fall landscape for $4,313.
An Orientalist interior scene with a seated Arab by Addison Thomas Millar came from an area home and sold to a phone buyer for $16,100.
A pair of China Trade watercolor views of ships at anchor in Whampoa Reach and of soldiers engaged in military exercises sold for $6,038; another pair of watercolors, one of a royal houseboat and another of an extensive summerhouse on the water, realized $2,300. A China trade watercolor view of the harbor at Canton was $2,588. “The Hilltop” a spring-like landscape with blue sky and bright green grass by Charles Harold Davis, was $10,350. The 1867 Edmund Darch Lewis landscape with cows fetched $3,450, and an oil on canvas Cape Ann scene of a woman in a white blouse by the sea realized $5,463.
A compelling 1853 slave auction broadside from Montgomery, Ala., with detailed descriptions of the people for sale at the auction by Lee and Norton Auctioneers sold for $2,760 on the phone. The framed political lithograph “Whig Mass Meeting on Boston Common, Sept. 19th 1844” was estimated at $600/800 and brought $2,300.
A carved and painted mahogany panel depicting a rainbow trout leaping from the water in pursuit of dragonflies by Leander Allen Plummer II went on the phone for $13,800. A Clark Voorhees carved whale with inset teeth was $3,450.
A small Nineteenth Century mahogany heart-shaped box with a geometric inlay to the top opened at $300 and sold for $1,495.
A Chinese Export black lacquer fan with a painted paper cartouche of the hongs at Canton sold to a collector for an impressive $4,255.
Chinese Export porcelain with the red bird and sacred flower decoration included a pair of ice cream trays that realized $2,070 and an oval meat platter that was $690.
Carl Nordblom and Karin Phillips can always be depended on for some highly desirable Continental material and this sale proved no exception. An Irish George II carved mahogany games table with turret corners and cabriole legs on trifid feet brought $5,750, and a pair of English George III satinwood window benches brought $4,888.
A Georgian ivory tea caddy was $2,530, and a Georgian pearwood example was $2,300.
The high lot of the day came at the very end as a room-size Caucasian rug that dated from about 1800 or earlier, with a later Persian border, and which measured 7 feet by 13 feet 7 inches, sold to an area collector in the gallery for $49,450, despite its well-worn condition. Nordblom said it was the highest price to date that he has achieved for a rug.
All prices quoted reflect the 15 percent buyer’s premium. The next CRN auction is June 28. For information, www.crnauctions.com or 617-661-9582.
