THOMASTON, MAINE — Thomaston Place Auction Galleries’ August 25–27 sale was topped by Marsden Hartley’s “Landscape,” an oil on canvas that brought $169,650. It had been purchased from Edith Gregor Halpert’s Downtown Gallery in New York City, circa 1950, by Lee Ault, publisher of Art in America magazine.  

According to the auction catalog, it depicted “the sun breaking through clouds over a Maine harbor.” The 306-page catalog offered about 1,400 lots and included a wide selection of works by Maine artists, weathervanes, folk art, American furniture, Asian porcelains and several marine paintings by artists such as Percy Sanborn, Antonio Jacobsen, Elisha Taylor, S.E.M Badger and others. 

Crossing the block were outstanding trade signs, hooked rugs, Tiffany lamps, cased ship models, clocks, Oriental rugs, and more. An extensive archive of correspondence by philosopher, poet and author George Santayana, some of it with original illustrations, brought $18,135.  

A full report on the auction will follow in an upcoming edition.