The overall top lot of the auction was Marshall Maynard Fredericks’ “Leaping Gazelle,” a lifetime cast from the sculptor’s own collection that attained a world auction record price of $545,600 ($60/90,000).
Review by Andrea Valluzzo
DETROIT — Decorative and fine art dominated bidding at DuMouchelles’ October 15-17 auction series, but strong performers also included jewelry and silver and Asian arts. In three short days, more than 1,000 lots crossed the block and nearly 90 percent sold. The total realized across the three days topped 180 percent of the firm’s combined low estimates.
Fine art was among the categories that bidders drove up prices beyond estimates for, but none as much as the sale’s top lot overall, which crossed the block on day two during the session’s first half hour. Marshall Fredericks’ bronze “Leaping Gazelle” has graced Belle Isle, a sweeping 900-plus-acre island park in Detroit, since 1936. Also known as the Levi L. Balbour Memorial Fountain, the original fountain features a gazelle surrounded by woodland animals native to Belle Isle. In this auction, a lifetime cast of the bronze from the sculptor’s own collection made a leap of its own. Bidders in the saleroom, online and on the phone pushed the 31-inch-tall bronze to $545,600, nearly five times its $60/90,000 estimate and setting a world auction record for the artist. A Michigan buyer, bidding online, was the determined winner.
“Leaping Gazelle” was the first commission for which Fredericks was paid. In 1936, it won first prize in a national competition and launched his career as a public sculptor. The 31-inch cast offered in this sale sat on a white marble base and matching pedestal. After the artist’s death in 1998, his family gave the sculpture to attorney Thomas W. Payne in recognition of 40 years of friendship and service. The artist’s son, Carl Fredericks, installed it in Payne’s law office, and it remained with the family until this sale.
Even small Marshall Maynard Fredericks bronzes drew buyers. This “Mouse” from “Lion and Mouse” was an early cast tied to the artist’s J.L. Hudson Company commission for Eastland Mall in Harper Woods. The 6-inch-long bronze brought $34,100 ($4/6,000).
A much smaller Fredericks work drew a crowd too. His “Mouse” was an early cast from “Lion and Mouse,” tied to the artist’s J.L. Hudson Company commission for Eastland Mall in Harper Woods. The original gold-plated mouse was stolen not long after the 1957 dedication. Estimated at $4/6,000, the 6-inch-long sculpture brought $34,100, a world auction record for an example of “Mouse.” It also went to a Michigan phone bidder.
A one-eighth-scale bronze of “Christ on the Cross” earned $105,400. Fredericks spent four years on the monumental full-size corpus for the Cross in the Woods shrine in Indian River, Mich. This reduced cast came from a lifelong friend of the artist, who acquired it from Fredericks’ private collection circa 1985.
“This sale told the story of Michigan: its artists, its industrialists and the families who collected them — from a Fredericks ‘Gazelle’ to paintings from the Fisher family who lived with them for decades,” said Bob DuMouchelle, general manager. “Fresh-to-market, with provenance that close to the source, they drew serious bidders from around the world. Two world records for Marshall Fredericks show how much that history still matters. We’re grateful to the consignors who trusted us with these collections, and proud that many of these pieces will stay right here in Michigan.”
DuMouchelles staff were kept busy with lively bidding during the sale of Marshall Fredericks’ “Leaping Gazelle.”
Fredericks’ strong ties to Michigan was a trend that continued throughout the sale. Many of the strongest results traced back to Michigan artists, industrialists and collecting families. Serious bidders competed from as far away as Hong Kong and the Caribbean, yet local buyers kept many of the top Michigan pieces close to home.
Ties between or intersection of Michigan artists can often be traced to the influential Cranbrook Academy of Fine Art in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Fredericks went to Cranbrook in 1932 at the invitation of his mentor Carl Milles. Sculptor Harry Bertoia followed in 1937. Bertoia’s scuplptural work titled “49 Cattail Sonambient” (1972-77) sold within estimate in this sale for $62,000. The consignor, a Bloomfield Hills collector, bought it from the artist’s estate through the Birmingham, Mich., Robert Kidd Gallery in 1979. It stood in the same spot in her home for more than four decades.
Two paintings came by descent from the collection of Charles T. Fisher, co-founder of the Fisher Body Company (later a division of General Motors), and his wife, Sarah. Both paintings hung in the couple’s Boston Boulevard home in Detroit.
The first, Montague Dawson’s “The Lofty Clipper Lightning,” brought $55,800. Built in Boston for the Australian gold rush, the Lightning set several speed records under sail.
From Charles T. and Sarah Fishers’ Detroit mansion came Montague Dawson’s “The Lofty Clipper Lightning.” It went out at $55,800 ($40/60,000).
Selling a few lots later, Eugene Iverd’s oil on canvas “Faith,” circa 1930-34, depicted a boy and his dog on a grassy hill. The image was widely distributed as a premium print by the Iodent Toothpaste Company, which was then based in Detroit. The Fisher family long believed the boy resembled Charles and Sarah’s son Everell as a young boy. Estimated at $10/20,000, it sold for $37,200.
The Fisher name carried into a third result. Dean Cornwell’s “Straight Steer by Fisher,” circa 1943, was the fourth in a series of 14 that were commissioned by General Motors’ Fisher Body division in support of the war effort. The painting showed a B-17 bombardier and featured instruments designed by Sperry and Fisher Body. Consigned from a Grand Rapids collection, the climbed past its $40,000 high estimate to $55,800.
Muskegon, Mich.-born Haddon Sundblom created the grandfatherly Santa Claus image that Coca-Cola made famous. His oil on canvas “Santa” example in this auction drew 24 bids and brought $51,600, double its high estimate. It came from a Birmingham, Mich., collection.
The second session also included three early watercolors by Mary Chase Perry, co-founder of Detroit’s Pewabic Pottery. Painted between 1890 and 1905, they likely dated to her studies with Franz Bischoff, Detroit’s “King of the Rose Painters,” before she turned to clay. All three came from the collection of Thomas W. Brunk and were removed from his Indian Village home. “Hydrangeas” drew 43 bids and sold for $19,840 against a $1/3,000 estimate. “Spring Roses” followed at $13,640.
A well-known image famous from Coca-Cola ads was created by Michigan’s own Haddon Hubbard Sundblom. His related oil on canvas “Santa” brought $51,600 ($10/20,000).
Glanton Dowdell’s 1957 watercolor “Window Shopping” showed an elegant woman looking into a shop window. Raised in Detroit’s Black Bottom neighborhood, Dowdell is best known for his mural at the Shrine of the Black Madonna. From the collection of a retired Cranbrook instructor, the “Window Shopping” brought $3,100 on a $1/2,000 estimate.
Sporting art also fared well. Two Edmund Henry Osthaus paintings from the Toledo collection of Judith Finkel led the category. “Two Pointers in a Hunting Stance,” circa 1890, sold for $49,600, and “Pointers,” 1893, brought $40,300.
Angel Botello’s still life of sunflowers in an open window made $25,800. The Katz family bought it at the Caribe Hilton in San Juan, where they vacationed every year from the resort’s opening. Fittingly, a Puerto Rico-based bidder won it online.
Silver, Asian art, clocks and decorative arts were also highlights in the series. A French bronze doré and rouge marble mystery clock by Eugène Farcot and Eugène Laurent, consigned from a Grosse Pointe Park, Mich., collection, sold to an online bidder in Hong Kong for $18,060. Its 23-inch figure of Urania, muse of astronomy, held the clock’s conical pendulum.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. Approaching its 100th year, DuMouchelles will present its next auction November 12-14. For information, www.dumoart.com or 313-963-6255.
