Sue Fuller’s (American, 1914-2006) string and Lucite “String Composition #210,” dated “1962,” was signed and titled. It earned the highest price of the day, more than quadrupling its high estimate to achieve $44,800 ($7/10,000).
Review by Carly Timpson
MARION, MASS. — Marion Antique Auctions conducted its April Adventure Sale on April 12, featuring 599 lots from the estate of Newport, R.I., collector and dealer Alan Gaines and other local collections. Nick Taradash, junior partner at Marion Antique Auctions, shared, “About 20 to 25 percent of the sale was from the Gaines estate, but we had some collections from Florida, Cape Cod, Rhode Island, Boston, and a few other local collections. Overall, we’re pretty happy with how the sale went. We felt it was a big success, especially considering what was going on out of our control, things like the economy and stuff like that. We were thrilled.” In total, the sale realized more than $550,000 and had a 97 percent sell-through rate. Taradash said, “The sale did towards the higher end of our pre-sale estimate, so we were thrilled with that. Like any sale, people were able to get a few bargains, and some things really did fabulous.”
Achieving the sale-high price and soaring past its $7/10,000 estimate was a 1962 string and Lucite wok by American artist Sue Fuller. Titled “String Composition #210,” the black and white string art was hung in a metal and plexiglass frame, measuring 36¼ by 36¼ inches. The piece came from a private collection in Dartmouth, Mass., and sold, for $44,800, to a private collector in the UK.
Similarly geometric was a yellow and black tessellation of squares by German-born Hannes Beckmann. The oil on canvas, “Summation,” which sold to a trade buyer in New York for $4,920, was signed, dated “1965/66” and titled on the reverse. The work had provenance to Kanegis Gallery, Boston, and the same Dartmouth, Mass., collection as Fuller’s string composition.
“Summation” by Hannes Beckman (American, 1909-1977), 1965, oil on canvas, 41 by 41 inches framed, sold to a trade buyer in New York for $4,920 ($3/4,000).
Other notable paintings included several seaside or marine scenes, led by William Bradford’s Arctic seascape, “Rescue From The Rocks.” This 1864 work, which depicted two boats by the rocky coast and an iceberg in the distance, was signed and dated to the lower right and bore a label from Boston’s Vose Galleries and a Haley and Steele price label on the reverse. In a modern carved and gilded frame with artist’s plaque, the treacherous-looking composition is headed to safety with a private collector, who paid $8,100.
Bruce Crane’s much calmer oceanfront beach scene sold to a trade dealer for $7,200. The coastal landscape, painted with vibrant blues and greens, was signed by the artist to the lower left in the grassy dunes. In a carved and gilded frame, the oil painting showed no evidence of inpainting or restoration under ultraviolet examination.
Cataloged as a “very well detailed depiction of a viewing session in a famous artist’s studio,” Louis Tielemans’ oil on wooden panel “Titian’s Studio” was another painting highlight. Signed to the lower right, the work was in an “exceptional high quality carved and gilded frame” and sold to a trade dealer for $4,080.
The second-highest priced lot in the auction — a Georgian silver repoussé tea kettle — was one with a significant story. According to Taradash, the piece “came from local collection and the consignor received the teapot as a gift from a British ambassador at her wedding. We believe the ambassador was David K. E. Bruce, but we aren’t positive about that, though he was an ambassador at that time.” Dated to 1817, the silver kettle was made by Edward Farrell in London, and it had highly detailed Neo-Classical repoussé relief designs of animals, a Dutch tavern scene, vines and other foliate details. It was paired with a triangular footed tray with openwork birds, flowers, dragons, faces and shells. It sold to a trade bidder for $17,400.
This 1817 Georgian silver repoussé tea kettle by Edward Farrell (1780-1850), London, was 16 inches high overall and sold to the trade for $17,400 ($20/30,000).
Finishing at $6,600 was another silver lot. This one, a 246-piece sterling silver flatware set by Gorham. The Twentieth Century service was in the Lyric pattern and all housed in a custom fitted case on stand. Many of the pieces were monogrammed, and, in total, the set weighed more than 215 troy ounces, not including the 51 weighted handles.
The most expensive piece of furniture in the sale just may have sent a record, though that distinction was unconfirmed at press time. The piece was a circa 1970s acid-etched brass and enameled bronze sideboard designed by Bernhard Rohne for Mastercraft. According to Taradash, it “sold to a private collector and may have been a record for a Mastercraft sideboard.” With a Brutalist design on square legs, the piece was in good condition and came with two pages from the Mastercraft catalog; it achieved $6,300.
Bidders took a liking to several sculptural elements offered in the sale. The selection was led by a figural bronze garden fountain after the “Pan of Rohallion” sculpture by Frederick MacMonnies. The Greek god is depicted playing musical pipes and standing on a sphere supported by fish. Though the fountain’s working mechanisms were untested, it was in outdoor-weathered condition consistent with its age and use. A collector in the Midwest won the garden Pan for $5,040.
More than doubling its high estimate to achieve $5,040 was this Nineteenth Century Classical Grand Tour bust of Ephebe, bronze mounted on a marble base, 19 inches high ($1,5/2,500).
A Classical bronze bust of Ephebe, another Grecian figure, was mounted on a brown marble base and sold to a trade dealer for $5,040. According to the catalog, “Ephebe was a military adolescent in ancient Greece” and this Nineteenth Century bust was from the Grand Tour.
Possibly from a ship’s pilot house or an architectural element on a building, a Nineteenth Century American-made gilded copper eagle soared to $4,992 and will be heading home with a collector in Tennessee. The 21-inch-high figure was perched on a large sphere and mounted on a modern stand, together measuring 34 inches high. With a 48-inch wingspan, the eagle had a “wonderful old patinated surface” and was “unusually large,” according to the catalog.
Two separate sets of Twentieth Century propaganda posters exceeded estimates and stood out to Taradash as great successes. Achieving $4,800 against a high estimate of just $500 was a set of six World War I posters. He said, “One of the posters in that lot, we had another copy of in our December sale, and it sold for around $5,000 by itself. This one had a little damage, so we just put it with the others.” That notable poster was a circa 1918 US Marine Corps recruiting poster by James Montgomery Flagg depicting a US Marine riding backward on a leopard holding a rifle. The poster read, “Travel? Adventure? Answer — Join the Marines! Enlist today for 2-3 or 4 years.” The lot included two other Marine recruitment posters by Flagg and one by Clarence Underwood, a 1914 Army poster designed by I. B. Hazelton and a 1918 Navy poster by Henry Reuterdahl.
These six recruitment posters from World War I sold together for $4,800 — more than nine times their high estimate ($300/500).
The other propaganda lot dated to 1941 and included 10 Hadassah fundraising posters, all relating to relief efforts in Palestine including health, labor and education. Made by an unknown designer, the posters were printed by the Color Displays Company in New York City and sold with their original mailer box addressed to Temple Beth-El, Fall River, Mass. Of the set, Taradash noted, “those were found in an estate sale and purchased for $5, so they did pretty well, and the consignor is happy!” The set sold together for $2,816, besting their $500 high estimate.
Taradash concluded: “We’re getting ready for our next sale, which will be either late August or early September — the date has not been set yet, but we are accepting consignments. Overall, this was another successful sale for Marion Antique Auctions and we’re looking forward to the next one!”
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, www.marionantiqueauctions.com or 508-748-3606.
