An absentee bidder won — for $60,000 and the sale’s highest price — this vintage 18K white gold and diamond ring with 6.54-carat center stone that dated to circa 1920. It had been appraised at $90,000 but offered with an estimate of $35/45,000.
Review by Madelia Hickman Ring; Photos Courtesy Thomaston Place Auction Galleries
THOMASTON, MAINE — “This sale seemed to have something for everybody, and we saw lots of bidding across the broad diversity of items presented in the sale,” noted Kaja Veilleux, owner and auctioneer of Thomaston Place Auction Galleries. He was referring to the auction house’s three-day “Winter Enchantment” sale February 23-25, in which about 83 percent of the 1,076 lots found new homes and a total just short of $1.1 million traded hands.
The top lot was a vintage 18K white gold and diamond ring dated to circa 1920 that was set with a 6.54-carat circular brilliant-cut diamond flanked with diamond baguettes. It was accompanied by a GIA appraisal that placed its retail replacement value at $90,000 so even though it exceeded its $35/45,000 estimate, the final price of $60,000 seems like a comparative bargain. It sold to an absentee bidder.
Gilbert Stuart’s (American/British, 1755-1828) most famous sitter would certainly be President George Washington, who Stuart painted in just a few but iconic portraits that inspired numerous copies. Two such copies were offered on the second day of the sale and both sold high enough to take the top two prices of the day, second and third overall. Crossing the block first was a 51-by-35-inch oil on canvas copy of Stuart’s “Washington on Dorchester Heights,” which sold to an online bidder for $33,750. The catalog noted that the original is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and other copies hang in Boston’s Faneuil Hall and Mechanic’s Hall in Worcester, Mass.
“Washington on Dorchester Heights” after Gilbert Stuart, 51 by 35 inches (sight) in a heavy cove molded gilt frame, more than quadrupled its high estimate and sold, to an online bidder, for $33,750 ($5/7,000).
Moments after “Washington on Dorchester Height” was gaveled down, a 29½-by-24½-inch oil on canvas copy of Stuart’s “Atheneum” type bust portrait sold for $32,400, to a bidder on the phone.
More recently painted works by American artists also did well. A colored lithograph titled “Snowy Owl” by Pennsylvania artist Carroll Sargent Tyson Jr (1877-1956) flew high and long, going to an online bidder for $8,125, nearly four times its estimate. From New England, “By Winter Moonlight,” an 1881 oil on canvas by Wesley Elbridge Webber (1841-1914) had labels connecting it with two Boston galleries: Hastings & Davenport and Child’s Gallery. After some stiff competition, it rode out at $7,500, to a buyer bidding online. “Boats in Harbor, Monhegan Island, ME,” a charming watercolor on paper painted in 1917 by Maud Briggs Knowlton (1870-1956), had been previously auctioned in Thomaston. Under Veilleux’s hammer, it sailed to $7,200, won by a phone bidder.
Fine art from other countries was also popular with Thomaston Place bidders. “Walled Castle with Three Travelers and Dog” by Flemish artist David Teniers the Younger (1610-1690) earned a sizeable $31,350 despite being just 7¾ by 9¾ inches, framed. A paper label on the back that read “Hamilton Palace N. 63” may have helped generate interest and an online bidder walked away with something to find space for on their wall.
“Walled Castle with Three Travelers and a Dog” by David Teniers, the Younger, oil on panel, sight size 4½ by 6½ inches, sold within estimate to an internet buyer, for $31,350 ($25/35,000).
The category of modern art saw considerable interest and strength. Achieving $15,600 from a phone bidder was an untitled (yellow creature) gouache on illustration board inscribed on the back “A Tante Amitee” by Joan Miró (Spanish/French, 1893-1983). The second of two works in the sale by the artist, it was preceded across the block by another untitled gouache, this time from the artist’s “Constellation” series, that also sold to a phone bidder — the auction house wouldn’t confirm if the same buyer bought both — for $14,400. Both of the Miro works were consigned by a descendant of Miguel Salvat Papasseit (b 1898).
A Cubist portrait of a woman by Mario Sironi (Italian, 1885-1961), was dated to the late 1920s and more than tripled its high estimate before selling to an online buyer for $9,375.
Mid-Twentieth Century art saw its apex at $10,625; an online buyer paid for that an untitled mixed media Abstract Expressionist painting on board, circa 1950-60, by Jean-Paul Riopelle (Canadian, 1923-2002). It was followed by another abstract — an untitled geometric composition in oil on board by Geneviève Claisse (French, 1935-2018) that a phone bidder acquired for $9,000.
The boundaries established by the Treaty of Paris are depicted in Joseph Frederick Wallet des Barres’ map of Northeast Canada. It found a new home with an online bidder for $17,500 ($10/15,000).
A rare late Eighteenth Century map of Northeast Canada titled The Coast of Nova Scotia, New England, New-York, Jersey, The Gulph and River of St. Lawrence. The Islands of Newfoundland, Cape Breton, St. John, Antecosty, Sable &c. and Soundings thereof; by Joseph Frederick Wallet des Barres charted strong interest and sold to an online bidder for $17,500, more than expected. The hand-colored copper engraving on two joined sheets was published in 1780 by the Royal Navy and measured, in its frame, 34½ by 48½ inches.
Results for early American furniture — offered on the second day — were mixed overall. Leading the selection at $13,200 was an Eighteenth Century American Chippendale table. Unusual elements of the table included its single drop leaf and its small size: the top measured just 32 by 28½ inches when the leaf was raised into place. A phone bidder pushed it to more than 10 times its high estimate. An Eighteenth Century American cherrywood bonnet top highboy had only a few excuses and sold — to a phone bidder — for a respectable within-estimate $6,600. An online buyer took an early Nineteenth Century Federal bowfront chest from Portsmouth, N.H., nearly double its high estimate, going to an online bidder for $6,875. Two miniature case pieces, a tiger maple chest and a tiger maple highboy, were offered consecutively and realized $2,520 and $2,880 from phone bidders. A floor bidder had the top bid at $1,400 for a Chippendale tiger maple slant-lid desk, cataloged as Eighteenth Century New England.
Some fun results abounded on the first day of the auction, which saw its apex in the very first lot: a rare miniature Louis Vuitton salesman’s sample trunk that measured a charmingly small 4½ by 11 by 5½ inches; estimated at $800-$1,000, it will be shipped off for $9,375. It was followed at $7,500 by a Meiji period Japanese articulated bronze model of a lobster that measured 18 inches long.
Thomaston Place will sell Asian works of art in its “Eastern Elegance – Thomaston Light Auction” on March 20.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, 207-354-8141, 800-924-1032 or www.thomastonauction.com.
