Richard Stedman Estate Services – Gertrude Vanderbilt Witney Archive Auction
Online Only Live Auction Saturday, July 22nd at 12 noon
5566 64th Way N., St. Petersburg, FL 33709
727.515.5985
Bid on LiveAuctioneers & Invaluable

TAMPA, FLA. — Richard Stedman Estate Services will offer an important Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney bronze and monumental stone sculpture by the Whitney Museum founder and great-granddaughter of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt from her landmark Old Westbury, N.Y., studio on LiveAuctioneers on Saturday, July 22, at noon ET.

Featured will be the “Arlington Fountain,” an often-photographed American private garden statue and the centerpiece of the studio and grounds. Three nude males support a garland rimmed bowl above a stylized floral banded basin, 46 inches high by 44 inches diameter with a verdigris outdoor garden patina. The personal example was kept by its creator Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, with two other examples being at McGill University in Montreal and in Lima, Peru.

The functional fountain’s installation linked the swimming pool via an aqueduct and was surrounded by Roman antiquities of which two lots survive and are also in the sale. The composition, of which a larger version was exhibited at the 1913 Paris Salon and the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exhibition in California, has its own Wiki page detailing its commission for the Arlington Hotel in Washington DC, before a remodeling change and lists several alternate names. This example carries an opening bid of $200,000 ($400/800,000).

A second 81-inch-high pedestal basin fountain from the studio entrance by John Bateman, a sculptor rarely seen on the market, of a water nymph carries an opening bid of $ 20,000 ($40/80,000). Bateman also created monumental sculptures for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exhibition where he exhibited alongside Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney.

Bracketing the vista as one approached the studio was a monumental pair of bronze Chinese Qing or Japanese Meiji 56-inch-wide lotus urns ($10/50,000).

Even older than the Asian urns is a pair of verdigris patina copper basins identified in a Smithsonian-sponsored garden survey publication as Roman, fitted in the early Twentieth Century on tripod bases for display on the Beaux Arts Italianate villa’s portico and estimated at $1/10,000. Perhaps the most curious and charming garden discovery is the heroic Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney large stone sculpture “Youth” that looms as a guardian presence from the far end of the garden, interestingly sitting atop a dated DIV for 504 CE identified by the family as a Roman stone urn. The two have been displayed together for many decades and the heirs insisted they remain together for their next owner ($70/140,000).

The largest sculpture that remained on the grounds at the time of real estate listing of the property prompting this downsizing event was the 7-foot-high World War I-era stone sculpture “Blinded,” weighing in at an estimated excess of one ton. As a volunteer nurse in a World War I French hospital, Whitney channeled the medical horrors of war into not only a memorial to the fallen but a dialogue on the atrocities of men and their equal potential for harmony. The poignant focal motif of a soldier blinded by poison gas being escorted through a ferocious battle walking upright as if guided by an unseen light of divine providence as soldiers around him variously contort their torsos in the midst of the shell-shocked violence takes center stage as a three-dimensional juggernaut of living rock ($10/50,000).

A treasure trove of never-before-seen Vanderbilt and Whitney family ephemera discovered in studio storage will include more than a dozen soiree costumes worn by Gertrude and others, including a numbered vintage Balenciaga lace gown likely created for Flora Whitney Miller ($1/10,000) and Gertrude’s $339,000 estate jewelry appraisal document from 1942 personally conducted by Witherbee Black of Black, Starr & Frost ($300-$3,000). Ten, 20, 50 and even 100-piece correspondence suites and single recipient letters with their original stamped envelopes variously emanating and arriving at Gracie Square, the Knickerbocker Club, the Breakers in Newport and aboard ship, occasionally on Tiffany stationery, paint a collage from privilege to practicality and sport to romantic whimsy. Repeated riding invitations, Metropolitan Opera progress and cold dormitories, together with the holiday well-wishing and inevitable condolences that color family histories of all walks and prominence are transparently presented a century on with lot estimates from $100/500 to $200-$1,000. Stunningly preserved, a few suites of gilt-edged heavy stock Yale 1890s baseball, football and architectural photographic cabinet cards from Harry Payne Whitney and his brother William’s alma mater by Pach Bros. of Broadway in Manhattan are estimated in similar ranges.

The auction is additionally offering several lots of Vanderbilt Whitney family gold jewelry and eight other partial estates, including Chapellier Galleries Rosenberger heirs artworks, items from the late mayor of Sarasota and Modern art from several Palm Beach County collections. Some lots are available for Florida preview at Stedman’s St Petersburg offices, while the garden items are sold from storage during the studio’s $4.75 million real estate marketing with Tri-state pick up coordinated by Richard Stedman’s upstate New York warehouse.

The firm may be reached at www.museumappraisers.com, info@museumappraisers.com or 212-327-2616

Richard Stedman Estate Services LLC of Florida’s Tampa Bay presents:
GERTRUDE VANDERBILT WHITNEY NY STUDIO GARDEN SCULPTURE & FAMILY ARCHIVE
Plus 8 Additional NY & FL Estates & Collections at Online Only Live Auction Saturday, July 22nd at 12 noon et on LiveAuctioneers & Invaluable
Richard Stedman Estate Services LLC of Florida’s Tampa Bay will be featuring important Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney bronze and monumental stone sculpture by the Whitney Museum founder and great granddaughter of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt from her landmark Old Westbury, Long Island, NY Studio together with the Vanderbilt and Whitney family Private Archive as the focal point of their Saturday, July 22nd 12 Noon ET online only auction of 9 NY & Florida estates. A treasure trove of never before seen Vanderbilt and Whitney family ephemera discovered in Studio storage will include over a dozen soiree costumes worn by Gertrude and others together with Vanderbilt letters, photographs and several lots of family gold jewelry. Also being sold are the partial contents of eight other NY & FL estates including Chapellier Galleries Rosenberger heirs’ artworks, items from the late Mayor of Sarasota and modern art from several Palm Beach County collections. Some lots are available for Florida preview at Stedman’s St. Petersburg offices in Florida while the garden items are being sold from storage during the studio’s staging for sale of the real estate with Tri-State pick up an hour from Manhattan coordinated by Richard Stedman’s upstate NY warehouse staff.
Lot 309: Pre Civil War 26 Star 68″ American Flag Michigan Statehood Folk Art Ex Mayor of Sarasota
Lot 55: Important Hawaiian Surfing Photos in Album Duke Kahanamoku on Beach w/ Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney
Lot 207: Picasso Madoura Pottery Ed200 Lamp Femme To Fix
Lot 38: Fine Art Photographer Jean de Strelecki 1919 WWI Photographic Survey Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney Sculpture Exhibition
Lot 332: Rufus Ogundele 1994 Nigerian Abstract Oil 3 In Sale
Lot 26: Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney Bronze Arlington Fountain from her Studio Gardens
Lot 201: Samuel Lancaster Gerry Hudson River School Fox Painting ex Rosenberger possibly Chapellier
Lot 25: Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney Youth Monumental Stone Statue w/ dated 504 Roman Urn
Lot 19: Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney Est Over 1 Ton Monumental 7ft WWI Stone Sculpture
Lot 349: Large Harold Anderson WWII Plane & Child Illustration Oil Painting
Lot 67: Wallace Nutting Vanderbilt Estate Tiger Maple Chest
Lot 99: Robert C Sands 50pc Suite 1890s Letters To Gertrude Vanderbilt + Many More V-W Paper Lots
Lot 6: Vanderbilt Family Balenciaga Lace Gown
Lot 41: Carl Rungius Big Horn Sheep Etching Lot 45: Vanderbilt Fredric + Bear Lot 40 Soldwedel America’s
Lot 20: Huge Pr Vanderbilt Chinese Qing or Japanese Meiji Bronze Lotus Urns Shown In Situ
Lot 23: Vanderbilt Estate John Bateman Bronze Nymph Fountain
Lot 22: Pr Smithsonian Project Identified Vanderbilt Roman Copper Urns on Later Garden Stands
Lot 200: Charles Rollo Peters Arts & Crafts Framed Cornwall Oil St Ives & California Artist
Lot 216: Purvis Young 69″ Outsider Art Portrait + Horseback Lot 217 both Ex Hindman Lot 27: Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney 7ft Lusitania Memorial Sculpture Maquette

Additional Vanderbilt Whitney Estate items: Tiffany 18K crocodile motif solid gold pill box, 9 Franklin Voss equestrian prints including Man O’ War, paintings by Michael Rodde, Wing Howard, Jo Davidson, Paul Sarrut, Warren Davis, Paul Lipp, exhibited Genevieve Cowles, August Jacobsen, Gerta V. W. Conner, additional Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney bronze and plaster sculptures, petite period American Chippendale desk, Edmond Richards tall case clock, WWII era Vanderbilt & Whitney estate jewelry, antiques & art appraisal inventory documents w/ some annotated as to distribution, scarce 1894 Metropolitan Opera silk banner, antique photography incl. 1906 Columbia electric car, 1890s Yale baseball, football, track and architecture, many suites of letters to Gertrude from suitors, opera friends, riding partners and relatives in NY and at the Breakers in Newport, Gertrude’s fish, matador and Bohemian soiree costumes & more. Additional items, 8 partial estates: Large Roy Spreter lemonade advertising illustration oil, published Harold Rabinovitz WPA artist drawing, paintings by Francois Claver, 3 Rufus Ogudele, Gertrude Barrer, Robert McCane, 2 Gino Hollander, 3 Igor Pantuhoff, 2 lots Dutch 19C genre, Lucretia old master nude oil, 3 Lucien Biva, Ludwig Fuger, JJ Enwright (FH McKay Emerson Amundsen Ward), 2 Charles P Gruppe Rockport Gloucester Cape Ann Emile nephew, attrib Frederick James Aldridge, Laddie John Dill orig work on paper, Lichtenstein triptych to fix, sculpture incl. Degas, Chiparus, Erte, Wyland lucite w/ bronze, Robert Bateman Mill Pond Press duckling bronze, Ron Lee 19inch ltd ed Disney Mickey Mouse, Casa DeVail Brutalist wall art, Ebano/Vidal bronze & natural quartz, 2 Ig L Soprani sterling overlay, Laszlo Ispanky dore bronze, 5 Michael Ricker pewter, signed editions by Henry Moore, Claes Oldenburg, Rockwell Kent Moby Dick, Wyland Orcas giclee P/P, ceramics incl. Steidel ZNAIM majolica, 3 lots autographed Fergie Dutchess Sarah Ferguson and/or Baron Piers Wedgwood, Otagiri, Sevres scenic lamp & Napoleon cup & saucer, McCarty, 15in ltd ed Leonardo Da Vinci capodimonte 3-D Cortese Last Supper diorama, glass incl. Steuben boxed pyramid to fix, Ig Czech Medieval panorama Art Deco enamel art glass bowl, John Van Koert Drexel Parkwood MCM laminate table, Fantoni Raymor jug, Ig pairs 20C gilt mounted hp urns & marble candelabrum, Atmos clock, Moet champagne bowl, Singer Featherweight, 1953 Yankees team autographed baseball PSA DNA, santo, LFC cast iron coffee grinder version with unique oiling instructions, blue decorated stoneware incl. Cowden Wilcox, Lyons, Swank and 2 Norton, 5 pietra dura Italian hardstone plaques, 2 estate Persian carpets, Theodore Teddy Roosevelt autographed photo, massive 140g total weight solid 14K Italianate hunter case pocket watch.
Additional Chinese antiques incl: 3 scroll paintings, decorated bottom cloisonne jars, blue & white jar, Junyao tripod censer, reticulated bamboo brush pot.
Richard Stedman Estate Services LLC
Mail & Shipping: 301 W. Platt St. #87, Tampa, FL 33606 Preview & Pick Up By Appt 5566 64th Way N., St. Petersburg, FL 33709 Limited FL preview by appt of specific items by advance request as items are stored off site in multiple locations outside of preview hours. Cell/Text 9am-9pm ET7 days/week 727.515.5985 Email/Web info@museumappraisers.com Garden items & Ig furniture photo preview only NY-NJ-CTTri-State storage appt pick up 1 hr. from Manhattan, remainder appt pick up/shipping from Tampa Bay.