Reaching the auction’s apex at $24,375 was this gelatin silver print of “Mount Williamson from Manzanar, California” by Ansel Adams (American, 1902-1984), circa 1944, which measured 15⅜ by 18½ inches and was probably printed 1963-70 ($15/20,000).
Review by Carly Timpson
EAST MORICHES, N.Y. — The April 1 Fine Art, Antiques & Garden Auction conducted by South Bay Auctions was a 204-lot affair spanning the titular categories, as well as photography, furniture, collectibles, jewelry and more. Sarah Reynolds, the firm’s gallery director, reported that it was a strong sale, with a sell-through rate of 97 percent. Of the most notable lots, the majority were sold online, though the phones were also active.
A gelatin silver print photograph by Ansel Adams was bid past its high estimate to earn top-lot status. “Mount Williamson from Manzanar, California,” taken circa 1944 and probably printed between 1963 and 1970, hit its peak at $24,375. Signed in ink on mount to the lower right and having the artist’s studio handstamp with title and dates on the reverse, the print had provenance to Dan Berley, a collector and pioneer publisher of fine art photographs.
The surprise second-highest finish of the day was achieved by a small 10K gold Eagle medal from the Society of the Cincinnati. Decorative arts cataloger Olivia Elber discovered information about the medal via the American Revolution Institute, indicating that the Society’s Eagle medal is one of the most historic American medals, having been worn for more than 200 years. “Designed in 1783 by Pierre-Charles L’Enfant — a French-born artist, Continental Army officer and original member of the Society — the Society’s insignia, known as the Eagle, is a double-sided medal in the shape of an American bald eagle suspended from a light blue-and-white ribbon — the latter representing the alliance of France and the United States that helped to win American independence.”
This Society of the Cincinnati enameled 10K gold eagle medal, made by Bailey, Banks & Biddle, Philadelphia, late Nineteenth/early Twentieth Century, 4¼ inches long overall, flew to the sale’s second highest price of $16,250 ($1/1,500).
The example in this sale came from the estate of Joseph “Jay” St Mark, PhD (Newtown, Conn.), who was a historian, appraiser and collector of Americana. Made by Philadelphia-based jeweler Bailey, Banks & Biddle, the late Nineteenth/early Twentieth Century medal featured the Eagle with olive branches in its talons, a laurel wreath around its head and a central scene from the life of Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus on either side. Inscribed around the images were the phrase “Omnia Relinquit Servare Rempublicam” (obverse) and the Society’s name and founding date in Latin (reverse). Against a high estimate of just $1,500, the historic medal was bid to $16,250.
Medals continued to intrigue bidders, as a collection of 16 achieved $4,480. These, mostly from Long Island or elsewhere in New York, included six that were awarded to Robert T. Hawthorne for saving Elsie Handworth from drowning at a beach in Long Island in the summer of 1922. These six were a silver Lifesaving medal from the US Coast Guard, a sterling silver Comptroller’s Award from the State of New York, a sterling silver US Volunteer Life Saving Corps Non-Member Rescuer medal, a bronze medal made by Tiffany & Company for The Life Saving Benevolent Association of New York, the City of New York Life Saving Service medal and a Ralston Purina Hero Medal. The collection also included medals from the Holy Name Society, the Public Schools Athletic League and the Knights of Columbus. The final seven pieces were religious pendants, two marked “sterling.”
The auction’s leading furniture lot was a modernist sofa by Polish-Brazilian designer Jorge Zalszupin, who was famously quoted as saying, “I can’t live well with too much rigidity. The 90-degree angle, for example, is something I love, but I can’t do it. The things I do end up being a little lyrical, a little sensual.” As it is, his Amoeba sofa, in leather and rosewood, has curved features with unexpected peaks where one may not expect. In comfortable, worn condition, the sofa rested for $12,032, more than doubling its $5,000 high estimate.
This leather and rosewood Amoeba sofa by Jorge Zalszupin (Polish/Brazilian, 1922-2020), 82 inches long, was bid to a plush $12,032 ($3/5,000).
Another exceptional result was the $6,656 achieved by Long Island artist Dennis Puleston’s watercolor of three American black ducks on a sandy shore. Having a high estimate of just $500, each of the ducks had a different jewel-toned wing feather and the work was signed “D. Puleston” to the lower right in pencil. With the Bainbridge illustration board tape-mounted to the mat back, the work was framed under glass and only had very slight toning and foxing.
Several watercolors by Mary Abbott, one of the notable women of abstract expressionism, acquired by the consignor directly from the artist, were included in this auction. Three of the four lots of her works were groupings, with the leading price being awarded to a selection of three painted in 2005. At the high price of $6,250, the set of three watercolors on paper included “Shinnecock Inlet” and two other untitled works; all were signed and dated. A set of two — one in earth tones and the other in blues, perhaps like a mountainous sky — went for $5,375. These two were also signed, and one was inscribed “Rima” to the reverse.
Surpassing its high estimate nearly four times to achieve $4,500 was an untitled 1950 ink on paper illustration by Lithuanian-born French-American artist Jacques Lipchitz. Framed under glass, the work bore several labels on its reverse, including one from Stephen Radich Gallery (New York City) that identified it as “Drawing for Exhibition Catalogue” and another from Kulicke Frames (New York City). The work was sold with a copy of the catalog for the Portland (Ore.) Art Museum’s 1950-51 exhibition “Jacques Lipchitz: An Exhibition of his Sculpture and Drawings, 1914-1950,” which featured a variation of this drawing.
Done in in ink on paper, this untitled 1950 work by Jacques Lipchitz (American/French, 1891-1973) measured 9 by 6 inches and realized $4,500 ($800-$1,200).
A sketchbook titled Sketches of Ruhleben Camp by Interned British Civil Prisoners of War: 1914-1915 had 38 pages of illustrations and was bid to $5,750. The book included a signed 1915 watercolor titled “Keep Smiling” by Charles Freegrove Winzer (British, 1886-1940) and two caricatures by Henry Masterman Mist (Canadian, 1871-1954), both dated 1915. Other works in the book were signed “P. P. Woods,” “D. James,” “G. Tooby,” “Fred Silberman,” “G. __ Goodchild,” “Robert Walker,” “A. Rose,” “Sylvio De Mayo,” “W. Ehrenbach” and “Ernest Hotopf.” Additionally, the lot included a typewritten booklet, “Notes – Sketch Book,” with annotations on the artworks and was paired with a separate 1916 watercolor and ink cartoon from Ruhleben by Robert Walker. Depicting a well-dressed man with a set of golf clubs standing outside in the rain, talking through a window to a man in striped pajamas, the work was inscribed to the bottom left “7.0. A.M. / I Say Old Chap Come Along, The Very Morning For A Game. We Shall Have The Whole Field To Ourselves.”
Three-dimensional or sculptural art was led by an abstract glazed ceramic work by Japanese-American artist Jun Kaneko. Small, compared to the artist’s better-known works that can be found in institutions such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, DC) and the Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Museum of Art, this work resembles pieces from his “Densities, Constructions and Chunks” series, which is described on his website as “abstract sculptures…evolved from his interest in a conscious exploration of spatial relationships.” This example was detailed with light blue stripes, outlined in red, against a bronze-colored ground. Its underside was signed and dated “Kaneko ’89.” Departing from the estate of Arthur C. Danto and Barbara Westman Danto, the work was bid to $6,656.
Also standing tall was Nikolai Ivanovich Lieberich’s brown-patinated bronze “Standing Bear (Siberian Grizzly) Killed by Alexander II.” A plaque at the sculpture’s base was signed and inscribed in Cyrillic and the work was affixed to a hexagonal stepped serpentine marble base. The bear, standing on its hind legs over a felled tree, finished well overestimate, making $5,120 against its estimated $300/500.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house.
For information, www.southbayauctions.com or 631-878-2909.
