In the late 1950s, a man named Robert Grant visited a friend to play billiards at his home. Norman Rockwell’s September 6, 1919, cover painting for The Saturday Evening Post hung on the wall next to the table, not considered valuable at the time. The painting featured a teenage boy asleep against a tree, his mouth agape under his rosy cheeks, his hoe resting against his legs and tattered pants and his good dog asleep at his side. As long sticks are bound to do, Grant’s pool cue went through the painting during the heat of the game, and for his trouble, he paid his friend between $50 and $100 for the work and took it home, about $800 in today’s currency. It would hang in Grant’s home until 1976, when burglars entered his house, taking with them a television, a coin collection and “Lazybones.” The FBI did not have an art crime division back then, but many years after the painting was stolen, the Grants picked the search back up and the FBI circulated a press release. An antiques dealer happened to see it and instantly recognized a torn painting with a distinctly lazy boy that hung in his kitchen. He notified the FBI to return it to its rightful owners. It didn’t stay in their hands for long, as it now heads for the block at Heritage Auctions American art sale, joining other notable lots from around the United States in this week’s picks.

HERITAGE

Sale Date: November 3, 2017
Lot 69166
Norman Rockwell (American, 1894–1978)
“Lazybones,” The Saturday Evening Post cover, September 6, 1919, oil on canvas, 26 by 24 inches
Estimate: $1/1.5 million

HUMLER & NOLAN

Sale Date: November 4-5, 2017
Lot 75
Roseville Futura Tank Vase
Shape 412-9, marked with a black Roseville Pottery sticker on the bottom, 9-5/8 inches high.
Estimate: $8/10,000

BUTTERSCOTCH

Sale Date: November 5, 2017
Lot 177A
Shaker Pewter & Tin Teapot
Mount Lebanon, N.Y., circa 1820, oval form with lid and oval pewter finial, ear-shaped hollow pewter handle, with museum deaccession numbers on bottom and lid, 7¼ inches high.
Estimate: $1,5/2,500

CLARKE

Sale Date: November 5, 2017
Lot 40
Ernest Crichlow, “Waiting”
Oil on board, 1955, signed and dated lower right, titled verso, measures 25 by 12 inches.
Estimate: $3/5,000

ELDRED’S

Sale Date: November 2–3, 2017
Lot 156
Johann Jaunbersin Oil Painting
French, late Nineteenth to early Twentieth Century, palace interior, likely Schönbrunn Palace, Vienna. Signed lower right, 27½ by 43½ inches sight.
Estimate: $3/5,000

GROGAN & COMPANY

Sale Date: November 5, 2017
Lot 51
John Singer Sargent (American, 1856–1925)
“Candelabra with Roses,” circa 1885, oil on board, 21 by 16 inches.
Estimate: $50/100,000

DIRK SOULIS

Sale Date: November 4, 2017
Lot 31
1824 Hester Bateman Sterling Tea Caddy
The oval form with domed lid, bands of bright cut engraving above and below engraved designs of draped garland that encircle the body intersecting oval reserves front and back: one oval with the family crest and one oval with a monogram, hinged lid, period and perhaps original key, stamped hallmarks under the base, 5½ inches high, 10.47 ozt.
Estimate: $1,5/2,500

CLEMENTS

Sale Date: November 5, 2017
Lot 64
Pair of French Regency Dore Bronze Torchieres
Four light torchieres, having three C-scroll arms with fleur-de-lis gas cocks with lion head surmounts and floret tassel vines resting on acanthus scroll and lion paw feet, circa 1840, 91 inches high.
Estimate: $30/60,000

SLOTIN FOLK ART

Sale Date: November 11-12, 2017
Lot 200
Friedrich Schröder Sonnenstern
“Des Teaufels Himmelsfahrt (The Devil’s Ascension),” 1950. Signed, dated and titled. Colored pencil on card stock, 29 by 20 inches.
Estimate: $10/20,000