Bidders took this Nineteenth Century Indian School watercolor of a purple-faced langur, 25⅝ by 17⅛ inches framed, to the sale’s top price of $38,400 ($500/700).

Review by Carly Timpson

NEW YORK CITY — The collection of best-selling mystery novelist Jane Stanton Hitchcock was offered by Doyle Auctions on January 21. The sale, which featured artwork, furniture, decorations, silver, Asian works of art, books and more from the author’s Manhattan duplex at 10 Gracie Square, included more than 270 lots and doubled expectations. With 98 percent of lots sold successfully, the auction realized $769,344 and had participation from more than 860 bidders from the US, Spain, France, Hong Kong, UAE, New Zealand, Denmark, Canada and Austria, most bidding online or by phone.

“This sale confirmed our client appetite for unique pieces of design,” shared Theo Thomine Desmazures, Doyle’s marketing coordinator. “The collection was met with an enthusiastic response, particularly from local clients who knew Jane Stanton Hitchcock personally or were familiar with her celebrated social life. The breadth of the offerings, combined with the rarity and individuality of many of the pieces, made this auction both a compelling and dynamic sale to present.”

Though the top lot, a Nineteenth Century Indian School watercolor of a purple-faced langur, was cataloged with an estimate of just $500/700, bidders pushed it well beyond to realize $38,400. The langur is a tree-dwelling primate native to Sri Lanka, and “Company School” works such as this were originally commissioned by the East India Company for British collectors. The market for them has expanded, as evinced by this result, and the monkey attracted international competition.

Rising well beyond its $300/500 estimate, this Chinese fahua-style earthenware vase, Twentieth Century, 13½ inches tall by 11 inches in diameter, was mounted as a lamp and finished for $12,800.

Collectors with Eastern tastes continued to find desirable pieces, such as a Chinese fahua-style earthenware vase that was converted into a lamp. The vase, made in the Twentieth Century, was of baluster form and was detailed with a ring of alternating lotus and lotus blossoms with cranes below a border with suspended beads and talismans above a border of foliage, all on a blue ground. It far exceeded its $500 high estimate, going out for $12,800.

Two lots that Desmazures specifically noted as “unique pieces of design” can also fall into this category and sold well beyond their high estimates: a pair of Louis Phillipe-style bronze camel chenets and an Anglo-Indian dog bed. The camel chanets, or andirons, each had a patinated bronze recumbent camel lounging on a gilt bronze lambrequin base with scroll feet. The pair, also having a high estimate of $500, rose to $10,880. The dog bed, an octagonal form made in the Twentieth Century, had regal red upholstery on a silvered metal frame with repoussé and chased floral ornaments and lion’s head finials on each corner. The bed rose past its $1,500 high estimate to achieve $9,600.

Bidders also took a liking to Native American items. The sale’s second-highest price was awarded to a Navajo Third Phase Chief’s blanket from the late Nineteenth Century. This blanket, which was hung in a black and gilt frame, had central diamonds flanked by half and quarter diamonds, on patterned bands of natural, indigo and red. It more than tripled its high estimate to earn $16,640.

Displayed in a frame, this Navajo Third Phase Chief’s blanket from the late Nineteenth Century, 38 by 60 inches, brought $16,640 ($3/5,000).

Twelve plates from Portfolio Three (1908) of Edward Sheriff Curtis’s The North American Indian were bid to $11,520. The framed large-format photogravures included “The Medicine Man,” “Sioux Chiefs,” “An Oasis in the Badlands,” “High Hawk,” “Hu Kalowa Pi Ceremony,” “Prayer to the Mystery,” “A Heavy Load – Sioux,” “Black Eagle – Assiniboin,” “An Assinboin Camp,” “Invocation – Sioux,” “The Mountain-Sheep Hunter – Sioux” and “In the Badlands.”

Other framed works to do well included paintings, such as the oil on canvas “Orange Juice” by Jane Wilson, which rose more than four times its high estimate to achieve $12,800. The signed painting had provenance to New York City gallery James Graham & Sons and was in excellent condition. An abstract mixed media collage by Spanish/American artist Esteban Vicente, with provenance to Andre Emmerich Gallery (New York City), brought $10,880, and Gloria Vanderbilt’s 1954 oil on canvas “Flowers Through Tears” finished for $8,320.

Art lovers also chased a cast bronze multiple of Marcel Duchamp’s 1964 “Bouche-évier (Sink Stopper)” to $12,800. The piece, which was less than three inches in diameter, was signed, dated and numbered (“35/100”) on the reverse. Published by International Collectors Society, New York, this edition was inset into a 7⅜-by-7-inch black acrylic stand.

Twelve Regency mahogany dining chairs, two armchairs and ten side chairs, sold together for $16,640 ($4/6,000).

Furniture from Hitchcock’s duplex intrigued bidders as well. Rising to $16,640, matching the auction’s second-highest price, was a set of 12 Regency mahogany dining chairs. Each of the chairs had a scrolled backrest centered by carved anthemion and palmette motifs and was raised on sabre legs; two had scrolled arms.

Other design-forward fixtures included lamps and lighting, particularly models designed by or after Frances Elkins. Topping the category was a pair of plaster lamps with spiral shell-form bases. Designed in the mid Twentieth Century, these lamps had small losses and craquelure, though bidders still took the pair to $12,800, far exceeding the $2,000 high estimate. The shell form was also used in a pair of three-light chandeliers cataloged as “Frances Elkins style.” These, measuring 16 inches each, brought $8,320. A trio of decorative plaster “Plafonnier” chandeliers by Frances Elkins, two 17-inch diameter models and a 21-inch model, made circa 1940, hung for $9,600.

Silver in the auction was led by an assembled English sterling flatware service, largely made up of 1960s pieces by James Robinson, London. The set totaled 164 ounces of weighable silver and brought $15,360. The next notable silver result was for a George III soup tureen made by William Grundy, London, in 1767. This sterling silver covered tureen was of bombé form and had a pomegranate finial on the lid. The body bore a presentation inscription commemorating HMS Britannia: “At the launching of his Majesty’s ship Britannia a 1st rate of 100 guns 109 tons, & 850 Men the 19, October 1762 built by Mr. Thos. Bucknale Portsmouth.” The opposite side of the body was engraved with the royal coat of arms for George III. It served up a $8,960 finish.

Additional property from the Hitchcock collection will be offered in select sales later this spring.

Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, www.doyle.com or 212-427-2730.