A white-washed finish augmented this Nineteenth Century Continental sideboard, which brought the sale’s top price of $21,250 from a private collector bidding online ($400/600).
Review by Madelia Hickman Ring, Photos Courtesy Rafael Osona Auctions
NANTUCKET, MASS. – Antique painted European furniture – Scandinavian to be exact – reaped competitive bidding from American and International bidders in Rafael Osona Auctions’ Daffodil Weekend sale April 24. The auction featured the contents of a designer-decorated Nantucket waterfront estate, with Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Gustavian Swedish hand-painted furniture, including mirrors, case pieces, tables and chairs, which added a splash of color to more than 500 lots that crossed the block. The sale was conducted on three online platforms and grossed $586,000, to both new and repeat bidders.
“This Daffodil Weekend Auction was the best April sale in our 41 years of auctioning on Nantucket Island,” Gail Osona said after the sale.
A Nineteenth Century Continental sideboard with white-washed finish brought the top price of the day, selling to an online buyer for $21,250 and dwarfing its $400/600 estimate. The four-drawer piece had paneled and reeded cupboard doors that opened to a shelved interior with five small drawers. A vivid blue-painted Swedish Gustavian Mora tall case clock with gilt swirled pediment, round Arabic numeral painted enamel dial and balloon-form case realized $18,300, the second highest price in the sale. It sold to a private online collector in Florida.
The second highest price in the sale — $18,300 — was shared by two lots, one of which was “View from Himmelbjoerget, Sun Streaming Through the Trees” by Danish painter Peder Mork Monsted (1859-1941). Measuring 36½ by 44½ inches, the painting sold to a buyer in the Rocky Mountains who outbid two phone bidders from Germany ($5/7,000).
“Painted Gustavian Scandinavian furniture is in high demand,” Osona said. “The high prices realized are partly due to the demand and the current challenges of importing such from Sweden. The variety and selection of painted Gustavian furnishings was top shelf, and went mainly to private collectors.”
A Nantucket collector, bidding online, paid $16,250 for a Nineteenth Century blue-painted Scandinavian oak slant front desk with diamond paneled doors, while a pair of lime-washed two-drawer dressers sold for $6,875 to a collector in Pennsylvania.
The result achieved by the clock was matched by that realized for Peder Mork Monsted’s (Denmark, 1859-1941) “View from Himmelbjoerget, Sun Streaming Through the Trees,” a mountain landscape with bold lighting coming from the upper left corner. Monsted was one of the leading Danish landscape painters of his time, known for his photo-realist style. He trained at the Copenhagen Academy from 1876 to 1879 and worked under both Peder Severin Kroyer and William Adolphe Bouguereau. According to the catalog note, Monsted was widely traveled and became adept at capturing the mood and atmosphere of the locales that he visited, whether it was the towering peaks of the Swiss Alps or the tranquility of the woods in his home country. The seller had acquired the 1926 oil on canvas work from Adelson Galleries; it sold for $18,300 to a phone bidder from the Rocky Mountains who was bidding against two phone bidders in Germany.
Bringing the most of ten lots of colorful Swedish folk art bonads was this lot of two tempera on paper portraits of a man and woman in colorful period clothing, dated 1849. It sold to an online buyer for $17,780 ($3/4,000).
The sale featured ten lots of Swedish bonads – or colorful wall hangings – that depicted religious or everyday scenes. These brought a range of prices, from $1,220 for a tempera on homespun fabric example depicting the armed Saul approaching the sleeping David, to $17,780 for a pair of tempera on paper portraits of man and woman dressed in colorful period clothing, both dated “Anno 1849.” A New York City fashion industry collector, bidding online, took the pair.
A dozen different Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Swedish mirrors sold in individual lots for a cumulative price of $37,084. All but one sold to an antiques dealer, who had said they would probably add them to their private collection.
Rafael Osona Auctions’ next sale will be July 3, featuring American and English antique furniture, furnishings and decor, fine art, Nantucket art and baskets, estate jewelry, carpets and more.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium.
For additional information, www.rafaelosonaauctions.com or 508-228-3942.
