Butterscotch Summer Estates Auction
July 11
608 Old Post Road
Bedford, N.Y.
914-764-4609
www.butterscotchauction.com

BEDFORD, N.Y. – A wide variety of objects from several prominent local estates will cross the block at Butterscotch Auction on July 11, including items from the estate of William D. Wixom (1929-2020), a well-known art historian who served as the chairman of the department of medieval art and the Cloisters at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1979 until his retirement in 1998. Although several pieces of early Continental furniture from the estate attest to Wixom’s interest in medieval art, his collection, which he built with the help of his wife, Nancy Coe Wixom, displays a passion for art that went well beyond the medieval world.

An early American silver creamer by Samuel Casey (1723/4-circa 1773) of Rhode Island, circa 1750, accompanies several Native American baskets collected by Wixom, as well as a collection of Native American pipes inherited from his brother-in-law, the equally prominent museum curator, author and collector of Native American objects, Ralph T. Coe (1929-2010). The pipes are almost all from the Hopewell culture of Ohio (circa 100 BCE-500 CE), which makes perfect sense, considering that both the Wixom and Coe families have roots in Cleveland, Ohio.

The top lot of the sale is a Royal Octavo edition of John James Audubon’s The Birds of America and The Quadrupeds of North America, New York and Philadelphia, 1840-44 and 1849-54, uniformly bound as one 10-volume set ($28/36,000). The set belonged to the noted ornithologist John Eliot Thayer (1862-1933) and is being sold with a bound catalog of Thayer’s collection, compiled by Evelyn Thayer and Virginia Keyes and privately printed in Boston in 1913. This set, along with other important books and fine bindings, comes from the 30-acre estate of a Greenwich, Conn., family.

A large, single-owner collection of Continental and Old Master paintings forms a significant part of the fine art category, which is duly rounded out by American paintings and sculpture spanning several centuries. Among the Old Master offerings is an oil on canvas by the Belgian artist Gaspar de Crayer (1584-1669) titled “Putti gathering fallen fruit,” circa 1635, that was sold by Christie’s, London, in the 1960s ($5/10,000). Other notable paintings are a still life by the famed French painter and co-founder of Fauvism, Andre Derain ($5/7,000), a vibrant watercolor depicting Boston’s Faneuil Hall in winter by John Whorf ($5/7,000), a landscape by the American tonalist Henry Ward Ranger ($6/9,000) and a rare oil painting by the American portrait miniaturist Joseph Wood (1778-1852), depicting a horse with its owner ($5/10,000).

Leading the decorative arts category is a rare Eighteenth Century American pewter flagon inscribed on the front, “The Gift of Mr {Moses Gerrish / John Greenleaf / Muhepane Harlon / Jeremiah Pierson} to the 3d Church in Newbury, January th 1727/28” ($7/10,000). Additional highlights include a Queen Anne giltwood girandole mirror, circa 1710 ($7/9,000), a Tiffany Studios split harp floor lamp, with a leaded favrile glass shade in the Acorn pattern ($5/7,000), a Swiss chased silver and enameled singing bird box purchased at Parke-Bernet Galleries in 1953 ($2/3,000) and a Gallé crystal cruet jar, gilt and enamel decorated with insects ($2/3,000).

The sale also features a range of estate jewelry, including an antique diamond and sapphire line bracelet ($10/15,000), several 2-plus-carat antique cut diamonds and other designs from important makers, including Tiffany, Garavelli, Cartier and more. “I was fortunate to spend some time on 47th Street recently, and it was refreshing to see so much activity — we are excited to have the opportunity to offer some truly unique finds to a reopening world!” said Alexander Fonarow, the gallery’s jewelry specialist.

A midcentury De Sede “Non-Stop” sofa, covered in rare red leather, was discovered in a Mount Kisco, N.Y., estate ($3/5,000). Additional contemporary designers are well represented, including Willy Rizzo, Breuton, Arne Jacobsen, Vladimir Kagan and Hans Wegner.

A mahogany server attributed to Duncan Phyfe headlines a selection of antique furniture ($3/5,000). Very similar in form to a dressing table advertised in Antiques Magazine October 1987, this piece originates from New York, circa 1810-15, and is supported by a curule trestle-form base, its drawers retaining the original mushroom screw pulls. An early Nineteenth Century English Regency penwork sofa table also warrants attention, decorated with ornate overall penwork on a black ebonized ground ($3/4,000). From a Purchase, N.Y., home comes a gilt carved gueridon side table attributed to Armand-Albert Rateau (1882-1938) with a rectangular clover-shape top of inset olivewood ($500-$1,000).

Leading the selection of Asian Arts is a pair of Louis XV-style Chinese porcelain jardinieres of octagonal flowerhead shape, decorated in famille rose enamels ($3/5,000). Brendan B. Ryan, Butterscotch’s fine and Asian arts specialist, said he is most excited about an early Tibetan thangka formerly owned by Walter Liedtke (1945-2015), American art historian and former curator of Dutch and Flemish paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York ($800-$1,200).

This auction with more than 750 lots will be conducted at 608 Old Post Road beginning at 10:30 am, with live, online and phone bidding. For information, www.butterscotchauction.com, 914-764-4609 or 914-595-6749.

Already consigned: Fine art, including paintings, sculpture, and more Mid-century modern furniture & design. A collection of early and rare books, including Audubon Sterling silver & fine jewelry

View catalogs and bid online at www.butterscotchauction.com

Serving Westchester and Fairfield Counties Since 1987

We are now accepting consignments for future auctions.

Specializing in Fine Art, Jewelry and Estates

Springfield US Model 1878 Trap-Door
Carbine & Bayonet | Est. $500-700
John Whorf (American, 1903-1959)
Mixed media
Faneuil Hall Market Place, Boston, MA
Est. $5,000-7,000
Gean Smith (American, 1851-1928)
Oil on canvas
Race Along the Harlem River
Est. $3,000-5,000
(11vol) Audubon,
John James (1785-1851)
Including The Birds of America
(1840-1844) in seven volumes
and The Quadrupeds
of North America (1849-
1854) in three volumes; plus
Catalogue of a Collection of
Books on Ornithology in the
Library of John E. Thayer
Est. $28,000-36,000

A Queen Anne Giltwood
Girandole Mirror, c. 1710
Est. $7,000-9,000
Henry Ward Ranger (American,
1858-1916), Oil on canvas
Est. $6,000-8,000
Joseph Wood (American, 1778-1852)
Oil on canvas
Est. $5,000-10,000
Gallé Enameled Crystal
Cruet Jar, h. 8 in.
Est. $2,000-3,000
Large Belgian Tapestry, Late 16th Century
Garden of Maximilian II | Est. $4,000-6,000
hundreds of lots sourced from
local estates & collections