Maria De Hoa LeBlanc iris vase, $28,750.
Massachusetts mahogany flame birch chest of drawers, circa 1800, $15,525.
NEW ORLEANS, LA. – Vigorous bidding energized the atmosphere at Neal Auction Company’s Holiday Estates Auction. The December 8-9 sale featured a selection of Southern, American and European art, Southern silver, American furniture and porcelain from Southern collections.
Newcomb pottery sold well. A rare high glaze vase decorated with an iris motif by Maria De Hoa LeBlanc sold for $28,750; a “Moon and Moss” matte glaze vase decorated by Anna Frances Simpson, $4,025; a narcissus-décor-ated semimatte glaze vase, also by Simpson, $9,200; another “Moon and Moss” matte-glaze vase by Sadie Irvine sold for $10,350; and an unglazed vase, circa 1899-1906, by George Ohr, brought $5,980 after active bidding.
A Depression-era canvas by Louisiana artist Clarence Mil-let (1897-1969) titled “Old Gateway New Orleans” sold for $11,500; two paintings by self-taught Louisiana artist Clementine Hunter sold well above their auction estimates. Hunter’s “What is This? Two Women After One Man” sold for $9,487.
Dale Nichols’ 1955 painting “Dolphin Island, Alabama” brought $12,057 and Robert Wadsworth Grafton’s 1916 canvas “French Quarter Courtyard” sold above its estimate at $8,625. Two John Gutmann (American, born 1905) photographs from 1937 of Mardi Gras subjects brought a total of $4,485.
A rare Federal mahogany and flame birch chest of drawers with finely carved eagles in a patriotic motif from Massachusetts, circa 1800, sold for $15,525. A Federal games table from Portsmouth or North Shore, Mass., came to $18,975. A rosewood settee, circa 1850 in the “Hawkins” pattern attributed to New York maker J.W. Meeks sold for $9,200.
A rare mint julep cup by Kentucky silversmith Antoine Dumesnil sold for an impressive $7,250. A coin silver mint julep cup by Benjamin Mc Kenny Riggs brought $2,300 and a julep cup by John Kitts sold for $2,070.
A Royal Worchester porcelain desert service painted by Richard Sebright from a Plaquemine, La., estate sold for well above the auction estimate at $19,550. A large Sevres Napoleonic vase and pedestal from a New Orleans house brought $8,625. Staffordshire pottery from a Kentucky collection brought impressive results: a Staffordshire pottery figural group “The Marriage Act,” circa 1825, sold for $2,300 and Holy Family group, circa 1830, sold for $1,955.
Meissen porcelain from a Southern Louisiana collection also received a good amount of interest: a group of five late Nineteenth Century figurines of children sold for $2,530 and a pair of Oriole figures sold for $2,070.
A fine Nineteenth Century Aubusson carpet of classicized design from Fairvue Plantation in Tennessee brought $23,000.
Paintings sales were highlighted by “Portrait of a Young Girl Crossing a Stream” by James J. Sant (England, 1820-1916), which sold for $13,800.
