“Beechwoods” by Soren Emil Carlsen (1853-1932) was the highest priced item in the sale, finishing at $30,000.
Review & Onsite Photos by Rick Russack
THOMASTON, MAINE — Between June 28-30, Kaja Veilleux and Thomaston Place Auction Galleries’ Summer Splendor auction sold more than 1,450 lots. Ten items each earned in excess of $10,000, with fine art and jewelry leading the way. The sale included more than 150 lots from the Deer Isle, Maine, estate of Dan Fogelberg, including his collection of Native American weavings, beadwork and pottery. Auctions at Thomaston Place always include a wide selection of jewelry and fine art and it was an impressionist painting by Soren Emil Carlsen that topped the sale, bringing $30,000. There were more than 30 pieces of midcentury studio pottery by Benedictine monk Brother Thomas Bezanson that had been unseen for more than 40 years as well as European and American furniture, Asian items, leaded glass shades, to name just a few of the offerings.
The $30,000 “Beechwoods” by Soren Emil Carlsen (Danish/American, 1853-1932) was a 44-by-39-inch pastel Impressionist landscape of a grove of trees. Carlsen trained as an architect in Denmark and emigrated to the United States in 1872. After a few difficult years, he became accepted and successful, having works included in several exhibitions. Carlsen was a friend of William Merritt Chase (American, 1849-1916), whose portrait of a blue-eyed young woman brought $14,400. “The Grand Tetons at Dawn” by Albert Bierstadt (German/American, 1830-1902) also exceeded expectations, earning $10,800.
This Duncan Phyfe mahogany dining table earned $5,400. With the included two leaves, it would extend to almost 6 feet in length.
Bucking a recent trend, Veilleux did well with furniture. A Nineteenth Century Duncan Phyfe double pedestal mahogany dining table finished at $5,400. With the included two leaves, it could open to nearly 6 feet in length. It, as well as some other furniture in the sale, were from the estate of Thomas Watson Jr, the former chairman of IBM. From the same collection, a mahogany four-day Scottish tall case clock, with an engraved brass dial inscribed, “Thos. Pringle, Dalkeith,” sold for $1,680. Pringle was active for only six years, from 1830 to 1836. A Federal period cherry bowfront four-drawer chest, with tiger maple veneered front panels, sold for $3,300. Bidders also liked a Seventeenth Century 77-inch-long Spanish baroque trestle table with lyre-shape trestle supports that had a 1¼-inch thick two-board top; it sold for $3,600.
Thomaston Place sales usually include several pieces of Nineteenth Century brass-bound camphor-wood furniture and this sale was no exception. A two-part campaign chest with a drop-down front that revealed a fitted, leather covered desk realized $1,680. In addition to smaller pieces, there was also a red-painted camphor-wood trunk on a custom-made base which sold for $960.
An effectively publicized selection of about 30 pieces of midcentury studio pottery by Benedictine monk Brother Thomas Bezanson (Canadian/American, 1929-2007) all came from the collection of the Benedictine Priory in Weston, Vt., and did quite well. The grouping was part of about 60 pieces left there by Brother Thomas, as he was known, who was a member of that community from 1959 to 1983, when he withdrew from the order. We reached out to Bernie Pucker, a noted scholar and dealer in Bezanson’s works, who shared additional information about the potter: In 1984, about a year after he left the order, Bezanson went to live in a Benedictine monastery in Erie, Penn. Although he was no longer a member of the order at that time, he lived there for the remainder of his life and continued making pottery; about 150 pieces of his pottery are permanently on display in a dedicated gallery in Pennsylvania.
This vase was part of a selection of 30 lots of midcentury studio pottery made circa 1965-70 by Benedictine monk Brother Thomas Bezanson while he was at the Benedictine Priory in Weston, Vt. The 15-inch-tall vase had a copper-red glaze and finished at $4,200.
Chris Lawrence, the inventory manager for Thomaston Place who picked up the collection from the monastery, commented that Brother Thomas was well known to have been very selective in the works he kept. If he was not satisfied when a piece came out of the kiln, he destroyed it. The 31 pieces included in the Summer Splendor sale totaled more than $60,000. After the sale, Veilleux noted “we had so many bidders that we had to put extra people on the phone lines for the pottery. There were also two bidders on the floor, one of whom bought several pieces.” The collection included several oversized pieces and was led by an 18-inch-tall Meiping form (wide-shouldered with a small mouth) porcelain vase, in a circa 1970 Tenmoku glaze with wax resist, that was signed on the base with the artist’s cipher and “Benedictine Monks, Weston, Vermont.” It made $8,400. A canteen shaped vase, with the same glaze, also circa 1970, sold for $5,700. Another of the large pieces, an elliptical 17-inch-wide vase, with a bright copper red glaze, a difficult color to master, realized $3,900. A circa 1970 ovoid vase that stood more than 10 inches tall, with a copper-green glaze, went out for $2,520.
The remaining 30 or so pieces of Brother Thomas pottery that were in Weston will be included in the August auction at Thomaston Place.
Dan Fogelberg, a soft-rock icon of the 80s and 90s, was perhaps best known for his 1981 hit, “Leader of The Band.” He died of prostate cancer in 2007, at the age of 56, at his Deer Isle home; about 150 lots from his personal collections were included in this sale. An artist as well as a singer/songwriter, Fogelberg’s collection featured numerous paintings as well as Native American items, which included several beaded items from Plains tribes, sepia photogravures by Edward Sheriff Curtis (American, 1868-1952), textiles and pottery.
From the Dan Fogelberg estate, this Sioux child’s vest, beaded front and back, sold for $1,680.
“Plains Warriors” by Curtis earned $3,000 and “Watching for the Signal – Apsaroke,” a heliogravure, brought $1,560. Earning $1,680 was a beaded Sioux child’s vest, while a Sioux beaded and quilled pipe/tobacco bag brought $2,040. The bag brought only slightly less than the $2,160 realized by a hide sinew-sewn Sioux or Arapaho possible bag with tin cones and dyed horsehair. Two Arapaho parfleche painted and incised storage containers, sold together, realized $540. Textiles from the collection included a Germantown Navajo blanket that earned $4,200. The auction house printed certificates of authenticity for each of the items in the Fogelberg collection so that, in the future, the provenance would be known.
After the sale, Veilleux noted, “This sale went really well. The Dan Fogelberg collection appealed to a wide range of buyers and reflected his various interests. I didn’t know that he was also a painter himself until I talked to his widow. We’ve sold Brother Thomas several times over the years — that was the reason that we got this collection — but I’ve never before seen the amount of interest that there was in this offering. I’m not sure but we may have achieved the highest price for a piece of his work at auction. I’m glad we have another 30 pieces for our August sale. And I certainly can’t complain about the final result, which was over $1.2 million dollars.”
Thomaston Place Auction Galleries will host its Summer Grandeur auction August 23-25. Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For additional information, 207-354-8141 or www.thomastonauction.com.
