Lamps Light Up, but Big Bird Doesn’t Fly
Mark Sisco | October 15th, 2012
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A 25" x 30" oil on canvas of the rocky Maine shoreline by Newell Convers Wyeth was the top seller at $48,750.
Tiffany Studios Venetian table lamp with a black-eyed susan shade, with a Tiffany Studios impression on the base, and a shade tag reading “Tiffany Studios New York” that the catalog described as “spurious,” first quarter 20th century, sold just over the $6000/9000 estimate for $9375.
A Scottish shipbuilder’s half-model of an iron merchant clipper ship was 80" long (¼" to 1' scale) and in a glass case. It was black-painted above the waterline and unpainted below the waterline, had a carved figurehead, three truncated masts, and full deck details. It sold for $2250. |
Bonhams, Portsmouth, New Hampshire
by Mark Sisco
The Bonhams auction in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on October 15, 2012, consisted of a high-end collection of marine art, paintings, and glass lamps, all from a single collection. There were fewer than 100 bidders in attendance, but Internet bidding was unusually strong, accounting for a high number of purchases, mostly in the first few hours.
Bidding overall seemed lackluster. Numerous unreserved items sold well below their estimates. Of the 500 lots offered, 330 came without reserves. Nevertheless, the final total was about $900,000, and more than 92% of the lots sold successfully. In reference to future sales from the same client, Bonhams’ CEO and auctioneer Malcolm Barber confirmed later, “The on-line bidding was strong…and we’re pressing on with some other sales, which is good.”
Through an outside source, we learned that the consignor was Charles Cawley, a founding member of the MBNA Corporation, the world’s largest issuer of credit cards, owned by Bank of America since 2006. The entire sale came from one of his Maine locations. Without revealing the consignor, Alan Fausel of Bonhams’ fine art department said, “Most of this is from Maine, from a collector that we had done his collection of maritimes…We were looking at doing it in Maine in the summertime, but that didn’t work out, so we thought we’d bring it down here a little closer to Boston in leaf-peeping time.”
Top honors went to an oil on canvas seascape (25" x 30") by Newell Convers Wyeth (1882-1945), signed on the lower left “N.C. Wyeth.” It had been given to Carolyn Wyeth, then it was in the Frank Fowler collection until 1975, and it remained with his family until 2006. It was listed in C.B. Podmaniczky’s N.C. Wyeth: Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings(2008). The painting was the lead seller at $48,750 (includes buyer’s premium). The winning bidder was Philip Crawford, a Maine and Florida boat dealer and a newcomer to the art market.
Two other Wyeth family paintings failed to move. An oil on canvas by Jamie Wyeth (b. 1946) titled Me and My Vulture was acquired by the consignor directly from the artist in 2005. It was on display at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine, in the 2005 exhibition titled Gulls, Ravens and a Vulture: The Ornithological Paintings of James Wyeth, and was the frontispiece of the show catalog. He produced the painting in 1994 and reworked it in 2005. It may depict a vulture that he nurtured from its nestling state beginning around 1991. Barnyard fowl, seagulls, and other birds are frequent subjects painted by Jamie Wyeth, and this composition is reminiscent of his Dawn Gull painting. The young bird is perched on a shirtless arm (presumably the artist’s) with the fingers spread in a pose mirroring the bird’s feathers. The catalog called it “a masterwork among Jamie Wyeth’s ornithological paintings.” But for all its dramatic composition, it went unsold with an $80,000/120,000 estimate.
Like the vulture painting, Jamie Wyeth’s oil on canvas titled Julia on the Swingwas also acquired by the consignor directly from the artist and is included in a database of Wyeth’s work being compiled by the Farnsworth Art Museum. This one remained unsold with a $150,000/250,000 estimate. It showed a young child in the overarching shadow of a large evergreen tree, backlit by a brilliant sun behind gathering storm clouds. The catalog likened its dramatic qualities to the style of Wyeth’s grandfather Newell Convers Wyeth. Bidding approached $100,000, but there wasn’t quite enough interest to sell it. Auctioneer and CEO Malcolm Barber confirmed later, “We got quite close on that, but we needed a shade more.”
The strongest segment of the sale was 50 glass-shade lamps, many of which were by Tiffany Studios. A Tiffany Favrile glass and patinated-bronze amber geometric table lamp, with the shade marked “Tiffany Studios New York 1469” and the base marked “Tiffany Studios New York 528,” sold for $10,000 against a $12,000/18,000 estimate. Two other Tiffany lamps, one with a Turtleback Favrile glass shade on an artichoke base, the other with an amber-hued shade in stacked brick patterns on an unsigned four-legged claw-foot base, each finished with a solid $27,500.
For more information, visit Bonhams’ Web site (www.bonhams.com) or call (212) 644-9039.
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Left, a Tiffany Studios Turtleback Favrile glass lamp with a patinated bronze base in the form of an artichoke stem. the shade had a partial tag marked for Tiffany Studios, New York, and the base was impressed “Tiffany Studios New York 438D S1568.” Right, a Tiffany Studios amber-hued Favrile glass shade in a geometric pattern, on an unsigned patinated bronze base with four legs and claw feet. Both lamps finished at $27,500. |
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This contemporary bronze sculpture, The Foreman by Harry Jackson (1924-2011), sold for $5000. Jackson was known primarily as a sculptor of Western figures. This one was signed and numbered with a copyright date of 1974.
A Wurlitzer 1015 “One More Time” jukebox, somewhat ambiguously listed as a “period 1015 jukebox,” fourth quarter 20th century, sold for $2625.
A carved and parcel-gilt painted eagle, late 19th or early 20th century, with a “Live and Let Live” banner and a stars and stripes shield, sold for $5250.
A rare 36-star Centennial flag with a Lady Columbia figure between an eagle and a shield sold for $10,625. Bonhams photo.
Large oil on panel by Andrew Winter, titled Burnt Head on Monhegan Island, 24" x 40", sold for $9375.
Carved and polychromed demilune stern board with an eagle in raised relief, holding a stars and stripes shield, while balancing on a globe hemisphere, brought $10,625. Bonhams photo.Originally published in the January 2013 issue of Maine Antique Digest. © 2013 Maine Antique Digest
