Important Americana crossed the block at Sotheby’s on Thursday, September 30, bringing in a total of $3,646,000. The sale was 55 percent sold by lot, 72 percent by value (corrected numbers from October 8 issue of Antiques and The Arts Weekly) and featured the first 41 lots from the collection of Frank and June Barsalona. All prices noted include the buyer’s premium.
“We offered a smaller selection than in the past this fall, 1,187 lots, and the lots that were fresh to the market, and estimated right, did very well and we were pleased. We also kept an eye on condition, which is so important these days,” Leigh Keno, head of the American furniture department, said.
Lot 5, a rare assembled stack of eight oval lidded bentwood Shaker boxes dating from the Nineteenth Century, included a red-painted one, a red-painted example with green top, a large chrome-yellow box with five swallowtails, two natural finish, two grey-green and a natural finish one. All had finely cut swallow tails fasteners with copper pins and came from Willis Henry Auctions and other sources.
Lot 22, a lady with hands at her hips, carved limestone by William Edmundson (1882‱951), 14½ inches high, sold for just over the $50,000 high estimate at $53,125. The provenance lists the well-known folk art dealer Gerald Kornblau.
Woodbury, Conn., dealer David Schorsch was the successful bidder for lot 33, the Erastus Salisbury Field portrait of a young man seated in a red chair, oil on panel, 14 by 11 inches, for $12,500, within the $10/30,000 estimate. Schorsch had sold this painting to the Barsalonas in the 1980s.
A painted wood and tin black musician, probably New England and dating from the Nineteenth Century, sold within estimate for $10,000. It measured 13 inches tall, the hat had been replaced, and the provenance listed Marguerite Riordan, dealer from Stonington, Conn.
The oil on canvas portrait of General Gershom Burr of Bushwick (Brooklyn), New York, 1789, 36 by 33 inches, by Ralph Earl (1785/88‱838), sold for just under the high estimate at $59,375. A Queen Anne carved and figured mahogany dish-top tilt-top tea table attributed to John Goddard, Newport, R.I., circa 1765, sold within estimate at $20,000. Four times the high estimate was paid for a rare classical ormolu-mounted and rosewood marble top pier table, Boston, circa 1815, appearing to retain the original marble top, when it was sold for $28,125.
Falling in the middle of the presale estimate at $46,875 was a fine Federal figured maple and mahogany writing desk and bookcase, Boston, circa 1805, that appears to have retained the original hardware and old finish. Among the silver that was sold, lot 148, an American flatware service by Tiffany & Co., New York, circa 1885, Wave Edge pattern and comprising 252 pieces in a fitted Tiffany oak box brought $32,000, just over the low estimate.
Looking Ahead To 2011
“We are pleased to announce a single-owner sale, more than 350 lots, on January 23 during Antiques Week in New York City when we will be selling the Hascoe Family Collection,” Leslie Keno said. Highlighting the collection is an assemblage of 24 New York Chippendale tassel-back dining chairs, one of the Hascoes’ most remarkable collecting achievements in Americana.
The Colonel Guy Walker Queen Anne companion high chest and dressing table will also be featured in that sale.
Items from the Hascoe Collection will also be sold in other auctions, both in New York and London, including Old Master paintings, American Indian art, Modern British paintings and European paintings, among other sales.
