Top-lot status was awarded to this woodblock print by Hiroshige, possibly Nineteenth Century or earlier, 13¾ by 32½ inches in a late Nineteenth to early Twentieth Century oak Oriental-style frame, which cascaded past its $100/500 estimate to make $10,625.
Review by Kiersten Busch
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. — Hyde Park Country Auctions closed out the month of March with its Country American & Fine Decorative Arts sale on March 29. The 529-lot sale featured property from part three of the William Sadler and Marni Bakst collection of Verbank, N.Y., several Duchess County, N.Y., estates and the Walker family of Kent, Conn. A sale total was not disclosed; however, the sale had an 89 percent sell-through rate.
Leading the day at $10,625 and besting its $100/500 estimate by more than double was a Hiroshige woodblock print, complete with a printed signature and seal. Depicting a river and mountain scene, the print was noted as possibly being in two sections and done in the Nineteenth Century or earlier.
Art continued to be popular with bidders, as an original abstract landscape pastel on paper by Wolf Kahn earned the second-highest price of the sale, making $8,750. Signed “W. Kahn” and professionally framed and matted, the work was consigned directly from a friend of Kahn’s in Brattleboro, Vt., per a note on the back of the frame.
This original abstract landscape by Wolf Kahn (1927-2020), pastel on paper, 14⅝ by 17⅛ inches framed, was consigned by a friend of the artist and made $8,750 ($2,5/4,500).
Also grabbing bidders’ attention were an oil on canvas portrait of a woman in red from the school of Thomas Sully ($1,625), an Impressionistic oil on canvas landscape by Alexander Theobald Van Laer ($1,000) and a watercolor on canvas illustration of a beach scene by French illustrator and humorist of fashion, Louis-Henri Fournier ($813).
Stoneware was led by a two-gallon ovoid stoneware jug decorated with an incised cobalt blue leaf, made in the early Nineteenth Century, most likely in New York State. The 14¼-inch-tall piece far surpassed its $300/500 estimate to make $7,500. Realizing $438 was another two-gallon jug, this one marked “Lehman & Reidinger / Poughkeepsie NY,” which was decorated with a cobalt blue double flower.
Transitioning from stoneware to glassware, an iridescent Loetz vase in the Phenomen Genre 1/4 pattern was bid to $6,875, leading selections from the William Sadler and Mari Bakst collection. The vase had feathered decorations, applied red and gold drops on its body and was signed “Loetz Australia” on its base. Following after was a pair of modern Murano glass white swirl egg lamps, made circa 1970, which cracked open for $1,750, as well as a circa 1925-30 yellow-brown acid-etched glass vase decorated with stylized flowers signed “Daum Nancy / France,” which also came from the Sadler and Bakst collection and earned $1,063.
Cataloged as “exceptional and rare,” this iridescent Loetz vase in the Phenomen Genre 1/4 pattern, 5 inches tall by 5¾ inches wide, was signed “Loetz Austria” and glistened for $6,875 ($1/2,000).
Selections from Tiffany were bid up to $5,000, thanks to a Tiffany & Company sterling silver match shooting trophy engraved “Don-Monte Trophy / Rifle and Pistol / Annual Competition / Camp Fire Club of America Vs Troop ‘K’ N.Y State Constabulary.” Dated with the years 1940-43, the cup was also marked on its base “Tiffany & Co. / Quality 925-1000 / Union Square.” Two Tiffany Studios desk clocks also did well, selling separately for $1,625 and $1,375, respectively. The former was made circa 1910-15, was coal-painted and was done in the Bookmark pattern, which was originally used in the Fifteenth through Sixteenth Centuries. The latter, made sometime in the early Twentieth Century, was in the Venetian pattern and contained a “frieze-like row of sculptural ermine animals” on its stepped base, according to catalog notes.
Folk items were led by a large, wooden dome-top game board, most likely for a Nineteenth Century bowling game. Appearing to be decorated with original paint, the 43¼-inch-long board had a red and white harlequin diamond pattern on a blue ground below a bowling pin form arrangement. According to catalog notes, the board “Likely had a drawer at the lower end for holding pins/balls, but it is no longer functional” and was “used by the consignor as a colorful architectural wall display.” Despite a conservative estimate of $200/400, the board was won for $4,750.
Five more game boards sold, ranging in price from $125 for a circa 1920-30 hand-painted board with red and black squares and a yellow border, to $813 for an early hand-painted presentation game board from the Civil War era with turquoise and black squares.
Furniture was led at $2,375 by a pair of molded plywood low chair wood (LCW) lounge chairs designed by Charles and Ray Eames for the Herman Miller Company. Believed to be first generation, the pair were made circa 1946-47 and came from the Sadler and Bakst collection.
Prices quoted include buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, www.hpcountryauctions.com or 845-471-5660.
