Kaminski Auctions
April 22 at 11 am
44 Garden Street, Danvers, MA 01923
www.kaminskiauctions.com
978-927-2223/2228 fax

DANVERS, MASS. — Kaminski Auctions will present a one-day auction on April 22 featuring the personal scrimshaw collection of the iconic restauranteur Anthony Athanas of Anthony’s Pier 4 fame. The auction includes various items from his restaurants, Anthony’s Pier 4, General Glover House in Swampscott, Mass., and Anthony’s Cummaquid Inn in Yarmouth Port, Mass., and his Swampscott home. The auction will take place at the Athanas family warehouse at 44 Garden Street in Danvers, starting at 11 am Eastern Time.

Highlights of his scrimshaw collection include a historically significant Nineteenth Century sailor-made scrimshaw polychrome sawfish rostrum depicting scenes from the sailor’s voyages from New Bedford to Liverpool, England, and other travels through the years 1821-1854, as well as the names of his family members. At the top of the rostrum are a compass and an inscription that reads “Any Road is Good if it Leads to Home,” signed and dated “George Culmer 1821 Sandwich Town.” This important piece of maritime history measures 31½ inches in length.

There is also a rare pair of antique scrimshaw walrus tusks depicting whales, three-masted ships flying American flags, Hare of the Sea, and various seals, including the marbled seal, grey seal, common seal of Scotland, seal of Lepechin and Felid seal. They are monogrammed at the base and measure 28 inches in length. Another antique walrus tusk, one of several, is intricately carved with various mammals and sea life, including halibut, hare, duck, narwhale, stag and bear, and measures 17 inches in length. There is also an antique scrimshaw bone jagging wheel or pie crimper, carved with a swan-form handle inlaid with baleen or ebon, with a dental-edge wheel. There are more than a dozen pieces on offer from the collection.

Furniture highlights include a Nineteenth Century Italian classical carved table with marble top and an Eighteenth/early Nineteenth Century Welsh yew wood cupboard and hunt board.

There are also several leather tufted armchairs, sofas, Oriental rugs, assorted tables and other items that Athanas collected to decorate his restaurants over the years.

Nautical collectors will take note of a cased wooden ship model of the Flying Fish, a Nineteenth Century brass telescope on a wooden tripod, several vintage brass sextants, some marked “Heath & Co. London” and dated 1941, and a pair of paintings, oils on canvas, depicting ships at sea and attributed to Louis Dodd.

The preview hours for the Anthony Athanas collection are Monday through Friday, April 17-21, 10 am to 5 pm, and the day of the sale starting at 8 am. The preview is open while the auction is live.

For additional information, www.kaminskiauctions.com, 978-927-2223 or 508-367-4311