This 1969 Porsche 912 Targa brought $45,600 and sold to a local S.C., collector despite interest from around the United States. It was the top price in the sale ($40/60,000).
Review by Madelia Hickman Ring, Photo Courtesy Wooten & Wooten Auctioneers
CAMDEN, S.C. – “Everything was really consistent, and it was a great sale with some really good results.” Such was the feedback Jeremy Wooten of Wooten & Wooten Auctioneers shared after his firm’s January 29 Winter Catalog Auction. The sale, which just exceeded 450 lots, yielded a gross total of $226,595 at press time.
The first lot out of the gate – a 1969 Porsche 912 Targa – went from zero to $45,600, reaching the sale’s highest price in a matter of moments. The five-speed manual transmission car had just 53,000 original miles and was cataloged as without accidents, a clean record and in good running condition. It came from a private South Carolina collection and attracted interest and bids from Rhode Island to Texas to the West Coast but, at the end of the day, it will be staying in-state, with a collector in Rock Island, S.C.
One of the finest horse portraits Wooten said the firm has ever handled realized $7,200, leaping over its estimate. “The Flying Dutchman,” which British artist Harry (Henry) Hall (1815-1882) painted in oil on board, had come from a private Atlanta institution and sold to a collector of sporting art, who prevailed against a South Carolina family that owns a midlands plantation.
An antique French mahogany and bronze vitrine, dated to circa 1900 and attributed to Francois Linke, achieved silver medal status, bringing in $9,000 and exceeding expectations. Wooten noted that it was a wonderful piece, and far and away the nicest thing from a Florence, S.C., estate. It sold to a buyer in New York City.
“It was a wonderful piece,” Jeremy Wooten said of this circa 1900 French mahogany and bronze mounted vitrine with glazed side cabinets and a painted center door. It brought $9,000 from a buyer in New York City ($3/5,000).
Seemingly, New York City buyers were on the hunt for French antiques. Another buyer from Manhattan paid $6,000 for a pair of French Empire neoclassical red marble urns with gilt bronze mounts. Dated to circa 1850, the pair stood 21 inches tall, a size Wooten said was “not too big, not too small.” It was a bigger price than that paid for a slightly smaller pair of turquoise glazed and gilt bronze mounted French urns that achieved $2,640.
The consignors of the red marble urns also consigned a Nineteenth Century upright Regina coin-operated music box that had been owned by the same family from the time it was made. Jeremy Wooten thought it had once been in a tavern in the seller’s town, which is in the Columbia, S.C., area. It nearly tripled its high estimate, playing to $5,760.
An institution in South Carolina bought a Nineteenth Century hand painted botanical book for $3,120. Arranged and mounted by Aug. Toedteberg of Brooklyn, N.Y., it came from the collection of a private Southern scholar.
Two works by South Carolina artist Jim Booth (1945-2021) were in the sale; both depicted seascapes. A large composition depicting Folly Beach at Sunrise had been purchased by a friend of the artist in 1977; it measured 32 by 56 inches and realized $3,120. The other work, measuring 18 by 22¾ inches, realized a more modest price of $1,560. Wooten noted that with the artist’s recent passing, his works are increasingly popular.
Wooten & Wooten’s next sale will be March 26, when the firm will sell American and English furniture and sporting art from the collection of Mary Wooten du Pont.
Prices include buyer’s premium. For additional information, www.wootenandwooten.com or 866-570-0144.
