Brisk bidding was witnessed for many of the 1,000 cataloged lots at Ron Bourgeault’s Northeast Auctions sale this past weekend, March 6 and 7, with the auction house releasing a $3.4 million total for the two days.

More than 350 lots, deaccessioned from Colonial Williamsburg did well in the Sunday session, but it was the Saturday rdf_Descriptions that caught the eye of dealers and collectors. Leading the Saturday session was a rare Eastman Johnson oil on board, 165/8 by 141/2 inches entitled “Embers,” that sold to one of the three active telephone bidders competing for the lot at $239,000. This version of “Embers,” a popular and repeated subject of Johnson’s, was said by the auction house to have remained “largely unknown to the art world” and was “an important rediscovery in Eastman Johnson’s body of work.”

Other lots that did well included a New Hampshire Chippendale carved and painted maple slant front desk signed by maker Samuel Dunlap. The piece, with faux painted inlay and realistic grained paint, featured an unusual step back interior with five shell carved upper drawers. Estimated at $65/85,000, the rare desk more than doubled estimates as three phone bidders pushed the price to $195,000.

Also sold was a pair of oil on paper portraits of Mary Jarvis and Captain Phinias Stone, circa 1796, which were attributed to an unknown Massachusetts limner. The lot, estimated at $20/30,000, opened for bidding at $19,000 with David Wheatcroft and Rockingham, Vt., dealer Stephen Corrigan, Stephen Douglas Antiques, going head to head until Corrigan claimed the lot at $79,500.

A complete review will appear in a future issue.