Eldred’s Summer Living Auction
July 7 at 9:30 am
1483 Route 6A, East Dennis, Mass
www.eldreds.com
508-385-3116
Preview July 6 from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

EAST DENNIS, MASS. — Eldred’s annual summer sale will feature a variety of fresh-to-market material, ranging from a Newport Chippendale tea table and Imperial Russian Faberge silver to Blanche Lazzell white-line woodcuts and an A.E. Crowell lesser yellowlegs carving. The auction will take place at the firm’s headquarters on Cape Cod on Tuesday and Wednesday, July 26 and 27, both sessions starting at 9:30 am Eastern.

This year marks Eldred’s 75th year in business, all under the ownership of the Eldred family and at the same location, an antique sea captain’s house on Cape Cod’s historic Route 6A.

“This particular sale came together in a perfect way to represent our 75 years of summer auctions,” said Josh Eldred, president of the firm and grandson of the founder, Robert C. Eldred Sr. “The majority of the sale was sourced from storied New England estates and private collections, and it has wonderful balance. I hope collectors have as much fun at the sale as we did putting it together.”

Just over 400 paintings and prints are included, with “On the Terrace at Rolleboise,” an oil on canvas by Daniel Ridgway Knight (1839-1924), an American artist working in France, carrying the highest estimate, $150/250,000.

Other notable lots include “The Gazing Globe” by Abbott Fuller Graves (1859-1936), who blended Boston School realistic style with Impressionism ($20/25,000), “Overlooking the Valley” by Allen Tucker (1866-1939) ($18/22,000) and “Hollyhocks, 1928” by Konrad Cramer ($15/20,000). In an important pair of American School portraits, estimated at $12/18,000, the husband is seated in a yellow painted chair, and both he and his wife are wearing matching yellow in their outfits.

A sizable number of the artworks are by Provincetown or Cape Cod artists, including three white-line woodblock prints by Blanche (Nettie Blanche) Lazzell (1878-1956), six paintings by Ralph E. Cahoon Jr (1910-1982) and several pieces by John Whorf (1903-1959), Arthur Vidal Diehl (1870-1929) and William R. Davis (b 1952). Highlights include Cahoon’s “Widows and Scrimshaw” ($40/60,000), Lazzell’s “The Town Home” ($30/40,000) and Ross E. Moffett’s (1888-1971) “Ice in the Harbor” ($7/9,000).

A wide array of Nineteenth Century paintings, North Shore examples, contemporary abstracts and European pieces are also included in the sale.

“It’s wonderful to have an auction with such a broad selection of art, from early American portraiture all the way up to contemporary works by living artists,” Eldred said. “We love the past, but we are also proud of our vibrant local art scene and enjoy bringing the work of our contemporary local artists to market.”

Both auction sessions kick off with single-owner collections, Tuesday with items from the estate of Antoine Volkoff, a consul general of the imperial Russian government in Chicago in the 1930s, and Wednesday with an important New England collection.

Volkoff’s estate includes Nineteenth Century gold coins, Faberge and other European silver and icons. The New England collection is highlighted by “A Quiet Summer’s Afternoon,” an oil on canvas attributed to the school of Asher Brown Durand (Nineteenth Century), estimated at $6/9,000, a William Hare (1815-1865) portrait of the schooner Abbott Lawrence, a collection of gilt-bronze mantel ornaments and an interesting Chinese porcelain hat stand with figural and calligraphic decoration ($300/500).

Other featured collections include the estate of Rev. Trevor E.G. Thomas of Westerly, R.I., which includes several rare pieces of Georg Jensen silver, and the Robin and Laurie Young collection of Eldred Wheeler furniture. The Youngs are donating the proceeds from the sale of their collection to the award-winning Osterville Village Library and will make an additional matching donation of the total up to $25,000.

Top furniture lots include the Newport Chippendale tea table in mahogany, with open talons on the claw and ball feet ($25/50,000), a circa 1780 serpentine-front bureau, probably Boston or Charlestown ($6/8,000) and Dunlap School two-part highboy with a fan carving and scrolled skirt ($5/7,000).

An important historic highlight is a serpentine-front mahogany bureau, circa 1760-80, that belonged to and descended in the family of Revolutionary War General Benjamin Lincoln, who was notably involved in three major surrenders: the Battle of Saratoga, the Siege of Charleston and at Yorktown. The sale also includes a letter written by Lincoln dated March 13, 1776, asking for the Dorchester and Milton militia to be called up to protect the harbor. The bureau carries a $2/3,000 and the letter, en suite with a portrait of the general, is estimated at $700-$1,000.

Underlining the auction’s variety is an orotone print “Canyon de Chelly,” Edward Sheriff Curtis’ famous photographic image of a landscape sacred to the Navajo nation in what is presently Arizona ($6/8,000), a ceramic pitcher in the abstracted figure of a woman by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) ($5/7,000), a nearly 7-by10-foot hooked rug with detailed depiction of

Camden, Maine ($5/10,000), and a circa 1900 whimsical “bicycle” hand carved with animal motifs ($7/10,000). It was possibly used as movie prop, and another example is in the collection of Heritage Museums & Gardens in Sandwich, Mass.

For more information, 508-385-3116 or www.eldreds.com.

Fun and quirky, coastal and cottage, casual and chic auction finds to decorate your summer