Cut Glass Urn Stars at Tremont Sale
June 19th, 2016
Tremont Auctions, Newton, Massachusetts
For the June 19 summer sale in their Newton, Massachusetts, gallery Tremont Auctions’ principals Brett Downer and Douglas W. Stinson, both seasoned professionals in the business, rounded up solid material from Boston-area estates and collections. Bidders filled most of the seats in the gallery, with many others standing to watch and bid. The star was a large, 29¼" high, 20th-century Empire-style cut glass urn with gilt bronze mounts that was categorized as Continental or Russian. It stirred up the phones and the Internet and sold online for $28,290 (including buyer’s premium). It was decorated with cherubs and had been used as a lamp, and it is headed to Ukraine. It came from a Beacon Street, Boston, home.
The star of the day was this large, 29¼" high, 20th-century Empire-style cut glass urn with gilt bronze mounts that was categorized as Continental or Russian. It stirred up the phones and the Internet and sold online for $28,290.
Georg Jensen silver was in high demand throughout the sale, and prices were solid. The action began with a large Jensen sterling compote with cast grape decoration and a swirled stem (63.8 troy ounces) that brought $8700. A large sterling centerpiece (65.5 troy ounces) supported on an openwork base sold online for $6765. A Georg Jensen 96-piece flatware service in the Acorn pattern (96.5 troy ounces) sold for $5520 and is headed to Ketchum, Idaho, while another Acorn flatware service of 100 pieces (105.6 troy ounces) brought $5040. Two Jensen sterling gravy boats with bellflower decoration sold for $1320 and $720. A Jensen necklace, earrings, and bracelet in the Pod design by Bent Gabrielsen (b. 1928) sold online for $2706 (est. $1000/1500).
This Georg Jensen large sterling centerpiece (65.5 troy ounces) supported on an openwork base sold online for $6765. Tremont photo.
A Tiffany and Co. sterling silver round tray, 14" diameter, in the Chrysanthemum pattern showed signs of having been subjected to the removal of a monogram. At 42.3 troy ounces, it brought $3240. An Aesthetic Movement silver creamer and sugar (9 troy ounces) by George W. Shiebler & Co., New York, sold for $2040 (est. $600/800). A Victorian sterling covered soup tureen by Boston and later New York silversmith John R. Wendt and retailed by Henry T. Brown of Providence, Rhode Island, sold to the trade for $2880.
A 19th-century Grand Tour Italian alabaster Classical column, 17¼" high, estimated at $300/500, elicited $2706 from the Internet. An early 19th-century theorem on velvet, 14" x 18", painted by Henrietta Harlow Morse Day (1810-1902) of Bath, Maine, sold for $1680. The theorem was accompanied by its history.
Area paintings attracted attention from buyers. A 25" x 30" oil on canvas Cape Ann scene of boats at a dock by Rockport artist Anthony Thieme (1888-1954) had a few condition problems but should clean up nicely. It realized $5040 on the phone. Work from farther afield also drew interest. A Polish oil on panel scene of a Cossack soldier at rest with three horses, 6¼" x 8" (sight), was signed “A Kowalski” and sold for $6000. A typewritten card on the back noted the name T. Wigglesworth, who was a Boston collector, and it had the label of Richard Wurm, a Munich gallery. A Cubist gouache still life by Russian artist Alexandre Yevgenievich Iacovleff (1887-1938) was signed with a red chop seal and sold for $5040. It retained a Vose Galleries label, probably from its 1948 Iacovleff exhibition. The woodblock print Begonia by early Cubist and Provincetown artist Agnes Weinrich (1873-1946) brought $3936 online. A 19th-century pair of oil on canvas double portraits, one of a boy and a girl and the other of two girls, each 24" x 20" (sight), was attributed to Thomas Sully (1783-1872) and sold online for $3444 (est. $3000/5000).
This 36" x 24" oil on canvas portrait of a woman by American Impressionist Robert Lewis Reid (1862-1929), a member of The Ten, is dated 1919 and sold on the phone for $3120.
A Grueby vase, 11½" high, in green with molded leaves and yellow flower buds in an alligator glaze was signed on the base. It realized $15,000 (est. $2500/3500) from the trade. An 18th-century Queen Anne two-part mirror in red paint with a shaped crest and black floral decoration, a beveled mirror, and the original backboard was probably American and sold for $5520 (est. $800/1200). It came from the Nash estate of Duxbury, Massachusetts.
An Internet bidder paid $4920 for a signed military appointment by Abraham Lincoln for 1st Lt. Henry Baker of the 5th Cavalry Regiment that was dated April 13, 1863. The document was found under a bed on a house call; half the proceeds will go to organizations that benefit homeless people.
This bronze sculpture of a mounted Cossack, 7¾" x 10½", by Russian sculptor Evgeni Alexandrovich Lanceray (1848-1886), cast at the F. Chopin foundry in St. Petersburg, drew $4182 (est. $600/800) from an Internet buyer. Tremont photo.
The bronze Running Elephant from Senegal by Antoine-Louis Barye (1796-1875) with a dark green patina was signed on the base and bore the F. Barbedienne foundry mark. Perhaps an original casting, it brought $2640. A cast brass bell from a steam locomotive, circa 1890, was numbered 6678 and accompanied by the cast-iron yoke mount that was numbered illegibly. The lot brought $840. The bell came from a locomotive owned and used by the Nash family of Duxbury to haul goods made at their southern textile mills to northern markets.
For information, visit the website (www.tremontauctions.com) or call (617) 795-1678.
A 19th-century pair (one shown) of Russian Classical satinwood arm-chairs with ebony inlay, scrolled arms, and saber legs sold for $3120.
The crests of this pair of Aesthetic Movement ebonized and gilt armchairs, in cherry or mahogany and attributed to Herter Brothers, are carved with foliage and incised. Each chair is numbered 625. The pair sold for $6600 to a bidder on the phone from a French village.
This 19th-century Gamewell Indicator gong in a walnut case is marked on the brass works “The Gamewell F.A. TEL CO.,” and it sold for $3120. Tremont Auctions is located in the old Gamewell factory in Newton, Massachusetts.
The Irish-born Liverpool artist Charles J. Waldron (1836-1891) painted ships passing through Liverpool, particularly American vessels. His oil on canvas portrait, 34" x 48", of the clipper Florence, built by Goss & Sawyer in Bath, Maine, for Charles Davenport & Co. and launched in 1877, brought $4560. The painting descended in the family of the shipbuilders.
Originally published in the September 2016 issue of Maine Antique Digest. © 2016 Maine Antique Digest
