This pair of Val d’Osne cast iron urns on J.L. Mott cast iron plinths logged the highest price of either sale at $7,500. They came from the Elemental Garden collection, stood about 60 inches tall overall and had some recent paint ($4/8,000).
Review by Madelia Hickman Ring
BRANFORD, CONN. — Fred Giampietro, the dealer turned auctioneer behind New England Auctions, is best known for Americana: folk art, furniture and related decorative objects. But when a collection of garden ornaments — a category he likes personally and wants to sell more of — came along, he jumped at the opportunity to host an auction. The 324-lot sale of the collection of the Elemental Garden — a Woodbury, Conn., destination for lawn or patio ornaments — was timed perfectly as blossoming trees and increasingly warm temperatures draw people out-of-doors. It followed on the heels of nearly 450 lots of furniture from a Florida estate that had a preponderance of Twentieth Century design. With more than 95 percent of all the lots gaveling down successfully, Giampietro reported a two-day total of $530,000. The sale attracted about 11,000 registered bidders, the second largest audience he has ever had, with numerous first-time buyers.
“Both sales brought new clients out; we do these with that in mind. The draw for me on the first day was a selection of Nineteenth Century jewelry and quilts, many of which had been purchased from Blanche Greenstein and Tom Woodard. My take on the garden is that most of what you see in the United States is American, where it is a little more cost-friendly and where buyers sometimes are not as sophisticated as the European market is because there are so many reproductions here. You can have the look for not as much money.”
The top price of either day at $7,500 was a pair of circa 1870 melon-form gadrooned urns with fixed lion’s-mask ring handles marked on the bases, “Fonderies du Val d’Osne, 50 Bd Voltaire Paris,” that stood on cast iron plinths stamped “J.L. Mott.”
“Those are very high end, very European in taste,” Fred Giampietro said about this pair of Eighteenth Century carved Yorkstone campana-form urns that had once been owned by the Duke of Marlborough and at his Oxfordshire residence, Cornbury Park. Dated to circa 1780, a bidder topped them off at $6,250 ($4/6,000).
The higher prices were largely seen in the Elemental Garden sale, which also included an exceptional pair of stately Eighteenth Century hand-carved Yorkstone campana-form urns that retained their original tiered plinths. Boasting the equally exceptional provenance to the gardens at Cornbury Park, a National Trust property and the Oxfordshire, U.K., residence of the Duke of Marlborough, the pair were further embellished by a mossy patina that helped bidders overlook some minor losses. The pair sold above estimate, for $6,250.
A group of three Twentieth Century French cast stone planters signed “La Vieille Jarre” and dated to circa 1980, rounded out the top three highest selling lots from the Elemental Garden sale. Estimated at $400/600, the group found a new home or garden for $5,250, just ahead of the $5,000 achieved for a circa 1940 French faux bois curved bench described as “rare.”
Winning best-in-show in the May 9 auction was a pair of portraits of dogs by Henriëtte Ronner (Belgian, 1821-1909) that charmed bidders to $4,625, more than doubling the high estimates. Each oil on wood panel painting were in gilded frames measuring 14¾ by 13½ inches. The canine motif was present in the second-highest lot, a 17-inch-tall bronze sculpture of a mother dog with three puppies by Charles Valton (French, 1851-1918) that bidders let run to $4,250.
Charles Valton’s 17-inch-tall bronze of a mother dog with three puppies won the “second best” price of $4,250 ($400/600).
The same price of $4,250 was earned by an 81-inch-tall, circa 1900 wrought iron palm tree that had what the catalog described as “moderate signs of surface wear due to age and material.”
A group of four brass sconces with blown green glass shades was dated to the late Nineteenth Century, had minor imperfections but no damage to the shades had been noted. Despite not having been tested, interest lit them up to $3,500, nearly 10 times the lot’s high estimate.
New England Auctions will sell the Americana Collection of Frank Gaglio on June 6.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, www.newenglandauctions.com or 475-234-5120.
