The sale’s top lot was this large Chinese blue-and-white porcelain dish consigned from the Mitropoulos estate; it sold to a New York-based Chinese buyer for $62,220 ($800-$1,200).
Review by Andrea Valluzzo
MIDDLEBOROUGH, MASS. — Breaking the million dollar mark, White’s Auctions achieved its highest grossing auction to date on May 17, in a sale that featured just under 200 lots from the estate of a local veteran political operative Nicholas Mitropoulos along with 300 lots of antiques and arts from other estates. The sale drew heavy interest online and realized a total of $1,014,000.
“It was great, and this was our best auction,” said John White, who along with his partner, Kathryn Black, runs the auction house. Mitropoulos was well known in the area with a keen nose for politics as well as an eye for collecting, as evinced by his eclectic collection of fine arts and antiques by noted artists and photographers featured in the sale. Most of the standout lots in the auction came from his estate and sold to the phones, giving internet bidders stiff competition all day long.
The top lot was a large Chinese blue-and-white porcelain dish that came out of the Mitropoulos estate and was estimated at $800/1,200. “We had a low estimate on it, and obviously it went through the roof,” White said. Black commented that interest was immediately high for it; she had posted a dozen photos of different views and close-ups of the dish in their online catalog but kept getting calls for more images. Both the successful bidder and the underbidder were Chinese, and when the dust was settled, the dish attained $62,220. The 28-inch-diameter dish was decorated with a blue dragon and had a blue underglaze Guangxu mark.
John White is tall, but he was dwarfed by the size of Larry Poons’ “Cats Eye” painting that made $47,560 ($8/12,000). Photo by Andrea Valluzzo.
Artwork was also quite popular with buyers, and the firm sold four paintings by Larry Poons, a Japanese-American artist whose 1960s OpticalArt paintings are highly sought after, according to White. The examples in this auction all sold within or above estimate to different buyers. Leading the grouping at $54,610 was a 1982 acrylic on canvas painting, titled “Arcadia,” that sold just over estimate. A close runner-up was “Cats Eye,” a monumental painting at 89 by 131 inches, which clawed its way past its $8/12,000 to realize $47,560 from a phone bidder. Earning $36,600 was an untitled tall and skinny abstract painting by the artist that also went to the phone.
Mitropoulos’ tastes ran towards modern and contemporary art, as exhibited by a signed 1962 painting by Indian artist Laxman Pai. Estimated at $4/6,000, the oil on canvas, which depicted a reflection on water, went to $26,840 thanks to a phone bidder. Renowned New York City artist Marcia Marcus (1952-2025) was represented in the collection with a large oil and sand collage work on canvas that depicted a male nude; it quadrupled its high estimate to earn $24,130 from an online buyer. The frame, which was part of the painting, was made in Sweden. The artist was known for her figurative paintings and she summered in the art colony of Provincetown, Mass., for more than 25 years.
Not surprisingly considering his Grecian heritage, the collector also favored Greek artists. Handily outperforming its estimate in this auction was a heavily textured abstract oil painting by Yannis Gaïtis. The untitled work soared past its $2/4,000 estimate to fetch $11,000. Instantly recognizable for his paintings and sculptures of repeating men dressed in hats and plaid jackets, Gaïtis’ subjects represented the men of the modern society — “alone, homogeneous and interchangeable,” according to the catalog description.
Three-dimensional Greek art was also represented in the form of nine bronze sculptures by Dimitri Hadzi. Leading the grouping was a large helmet bell sculpture in original untouched patina that sold over estimate to the phones at $19,520. Mitropoulos bought the work directly from the artist’s studio and its image graced the cover of a 1992 book on the artist.
This Yannis Gaïtis (Greek, 1923-1984) oil painting sold for $13,970 ($2/4,000).
A trio of artworks — two colorful paintings and one drawing — by Greek artist Alekos Fassianos also crossed the block early on in the auction. First up was a painting of two figures seated in chairs that sold for $19,050, immediately followed by a large watercolor of a man colored in vivid yellow hue with a feather in his hand and what looked to be a cloud of blue smoke near his face, selling for $17,080.
Famous for his equestrian-themed statues, American sculptor Cyrus E. Dallin was represented in the auction with an original plaster sculpture of “The Medicine Man,” standing 31 inches tall. It sold within estimate at $7,620.
Mitropoulos was also interested in photography and highlights from his collection included a signed Herman Leonard photograph portfolio, identified as volume 1, containing figures of prominent Black musicians, including Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker and others. Estimated at $2/4,000, the limited edition portfolio, 12/30, took $14,640. Leonard (1923-2010) was an American photographer known for his distinctive images of American jazz greats. His camera gave him unparalleled access into New York’s jazz scene, where he befriended and photographed illustrious artists. Another portfolio, more focused on documenting the civil rights movement, was Ernest C. Withers’ 1994 I Am A Man, which sold on the phone for $11,590.
Pairs of items are typically popular at auctions, shown in this sale by an early pair of royal doors from an Iconostasis, likely Sixteenth-Seventeenth Century. Boasting carved filigree birds eating grapes and floral carvings with gilt, the doors swung past their $3/5,000 estimate to close at $6,600. Also offered together were two early telephone receivers, one wood and one hard rubber or gutta-percha, that sold for $10,160 to an online buyer who already had the phone the receivers went with. Both were signed “Bell Telephone.”
Highlights from other estates in the auction were led by a 90-piece Georg Jensen sterling silver flatware service in the Pyramid pattern at $9,760, and an 18K gold Patek Phillippe & Company watch that outperformed its $3/4,000 estimate, fetching $10,795. The latter was a vintage Calatrava model with teardrop lugs from the 1940s, likely reference 1461 or 1509.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, www.whitesauctions.com or 508-269-9275.
