The top lot in the Fine Art auction was “An Old Street in Taos (Kit Carson House, End of Green Fence and Group of Indians)” by Joseph Henry Sharp. The 16¼-by-24¼-inch oil on canvas was bid to $76,800 ($40/60,000).
Review by Carly Timpson
OAKLAND, CALIF. — Clars Auctions had an extra event on its May calendar, auctioning Property from the Estate of Senator Dianne Feinstein and Richard C. Blum on May 14 ahead of its monthly Gallery Auction on May 15, which included a “commanding important fine art section” to lead the sale.
Property from the Estate of Senator Dianne Feinstein & Richard C. Blum
On May 14, Clars Auctions presented a second session of Property from the Estate of Senator Dianne Feinstein (1933-2023) and Richard C. Blum (1935-2022), following the successful first iteration in December 2025. This edition offered 138 lots of decorative arts, Asian works of art and personal memorabilia from Feinstein and Blum’s Sea Drift Pacific Heights (San Francisco) properties, reflecting “the refined taste and legacy of one of the most influential figures in modern American political history,” as described in the auction catalog.
Leading the Feinstein and Blum collection at $10,880 — well beyond its $150/250 estimate — were these four framed Indian miniature paintings with royal and mythological scenes, 14 by 18 inches (largest).
“Senator Feinstein was an icon of San Francisco — of California — and her home reflected a life of extraordinary public service, personal elegance and genuine cultural passion,” shared Suzy Pai, senior specialist, furniture & decorative arts. “We are honored that her family entrusted a local Bay Area auction house to steward these pieces back into the community she loved and served for decades. It felt less like a sale and more like a celebration of a remarkable life.”
The unexpected sale-high result of $10,880 was achieved by a set of four framed Indian miniature paintings that rose well beyond its $150/250 estimate. The paintings depicted royal and mythological or allegorical scenes, such as one featuring Lord Ganesha enthroned and surrounded by female attendants; the largest of the four framed works measured 14 by 18 inches.
At $8,820, a seven-piece group of Chinese porcelain table articles, comprising six moulded cups and a teapot, earned the session’s second-highest price. What Clars cataloged as a “refined expression of taste and tradition,” the Eighteenth Century set’s cups were of floral form — lotus, chrysanthemum, peony, magnolia, hibiscus — with leafy branches to form the foot, and the teapot was modeled as a squash with a cicada-form spout.
Each in flower form, these six Eighteenth Century Chinese famille rose porcelain moulded cups and squash teapot, steeped to $8,820 ($1/1,500).
Other Chinese porcelains included a charger detailed with a central motif of a blue dragon and phoenix among clouds and with a multicolored Greek key border. This 19-inch dish was marked in traditional script and was taken well beyond its $150 high estimate to finish for $6,400.
An 88-piece Mottahedeh porcelain dinner service in the Tobacco Leaf pattern also exceeded estimates, realizing $7,205. The vibrant service, characterized by a small phoenix bird perched on the leaves of a colorful flowering tobacco plant, included dinner plates, luncheon plates, side plates, soup bowls, cups and saucers. As described by Clars representatives, “the iconic Tobacco Leaf pattern reflects a tradition of exceptional craftsmanship and timeless design, long favored by collectors for its rich palette and intricate detail… Once part of the refined personal surroundings associated with Dianne Feinstein — a figure known not only for her historic decades of public service as the longest-serving female US Senator and former Mayor of San Francisco, but also for her appreciation of culture, art and distinguished design — this service speaks to a life lived at the intersection of public leadership and private elegance.”
The leading piece of furniture from the estate was a German carved chest. Crafted in the Renaissance style, the Eighteenth Century chest had three long drawers, each centering a carved open-mouthed mask surrounded by scrolling foliate details. Additionally, four beast masks were lined up on each side column. Bidders pushed the chest to $4,913, more than quadrupling its high estimate.
This Eighteenth Century carved chest in the Renaissance taste, German, 56 inches wide, found a new home for $4,913 ($800-$1,200).
Of local interest, a patinated bronze seahorse balustrade commissioned for the Steinhart Aquarium in Golden Gate Park swam to a new home. The 22-inch-tall seahorse was designed by Edgar Walter and cast by C. J. Hillard and Company circa 1923. Later, this casting was presented by the California Academy of Sciences to Feinstein and Blum. Its new owner won it at $4,095.
Important May Fine Art & Gallery Auction
The 714-lot Important May Fine Art & Gallery Auction on May 15 opened with a “thoughtfully curated group of works spanning American, European and contemporary art.”
While Clars cataloged all of the sale as important, one lot in particular stood out to bidders: “An Old Street in Taos” by Joseph Henry Sharp. The oil on canvas was signed to the lower right and was signed and titled with the inscription “Kit Carson House, End of Green Fence and Group of Indians” on its cardboard backing. According to the catalog note, the painting’s subject was “Santa Fe Trail, now Kit Carson Road (Highway 64), as viewed from artist’s home which is now Lunder Research Center at Couse/Sharp Historic Site.” Bidders took the early Western work, described in the catalog as a “richly atmospheric oil on canvas capturing the historic Taos landscape and its people during a pivotal era in American art history,” to $76,800, besting its $40/60,000 estimate.
“La Lavandera” by Fernando Amorsolo (Filipino, 1892-1972), 1937 oil on board, 13 by 17 inches, finished for $64,000 ($80/120,000).
Finishing for $64,000 was Fernando Cueto Amorsolo’s 1937 oil “La Lavandera.” In this painting, the nude titular figure is shown seated on the shore, washing her clothes. Capturing a romanticized glimpse of rural Filipino life, the work was signed and dated to the lower right. It was given to the consignor’s grandfather, Harry Lester Terwilliger, as a departing gift from Ingersoll Rand’s Pacific division, from which he retired in the early 1950s.
The strength of the sale’s offerings continued to prove itself with Japanese-American artist Chiura Obata’s four-panel “Monterey Cypress.” The large wall mural was commissioned from the artist by a former chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley (where Obata was a professor in the art department), and president of University of California, circa the 1960s. The mural was signed to the lower left of the far left panel and grew, just past its high estimate, to $26,460.
A woven tapestry after Pablo Picasso also found a new owner after doubling its high estimate and selling for $18,340. The circa 1960-65 “Jacqueline” tapestry was woven with hand-knotted wool and had extensive provenance, including Charles E. Slatkin Galleries, New York City, 1965; the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1965-66; and a private collection in Berkeley, Calif., acquired 1966. The blue and beige tapestry was sold with its original 1965 exhibition catalog from Charles E. Slatkin Galleries and the 1966 bill of sale from the California Palace of the Legion of Honor.
This hand-knotted wool “Jacqueline” tapestry, after Pablo Picasso, 1960-65, 72½ by 89 inches, sold to an online bidder for $18,340 ($6/9,000).
With provenance to the Beverly Hills, Calif., collection of film producer Julian Blaustein — known for such titles as Broken Arrow (1950), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Bell, Book and Candle (1958) and Khartoum (1966) — British abstract artist Patrick Heron’s “Dark Green Disc in Violet (Lemon in Indigo)” brought $14,080. The gouache on paper, done in 1968, was signed, titled and dated to its reverse.
Doubling its high estimate to reach $10,701 was an untitled study of trees by Albert Bierstadt. Depicting bare branches against a gray-blue sky, the small oil on Russell’s canvas board hung in an ornate whitewashed gilt frame measuring 10½ by 12¼ inches.
Clars’ June auction series begins June 18 with The Summer Antique Jewelry Salon, followed by the June Gallery Auction on the 19th and The Warehouse Auction on the 20th.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, www.clars.com or 510-428-0100.
