Date: Fri 12-Jun-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: JUDYC

Quick Words:

NorthEast

Full Text:

$2.36m English and Continental Sale at Northeast

w/32 cuts

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. -- Ron Bourgeault of Northeast Auctions conducted an English

and Continental auction on May 17 with a nucleus drawn from two significant

collections.

The sale was held beneath a tent behind the Treadwell House in Portsmouth,

where a crowd of 650 visitors gatheredy. Of the 635 lots offered, bidders

snapped up 97.5 percent, and total sales were $2,363,698.

The auction underscored the position of Northeast Auctions as a major New

England source of European antiques. Each of the past two years the firm has

included up to a million dollars of English and Continental merchandise within

the three major sales in Manchester. However, this was the first Northeast

auction offering primarily English and Continental wares. There were

approximately 400 European lots versus about 50 American and 50 Chinese lots.

The core of Continental wares came from the estates of Evelyn and Frederic

Bartlett. When Frederic Bartlett married Evelyn Fortune Lilly in 1931,

Frederic Bartlett had already achieved artistic distinction. The twice

widowed, 48-year-old Bartlett had already received major architectural art

commissions, including a commission to complete the Arts and Crafts stained

glass windows for the University Club of Chicago and a commission to create

murals of medieval games at the University of Chicago.

Bartlett also owned a collection of Impressionist paintings that included

major works by van Gogh, Gauguin, Seurat, Cezanne and Rousseau. This

collection, which Bartlett had amassed with Helen Birch Bartlett, was donated

to the Art Institute of Chicago after Helen's death in 1925. At this time

cataracts were affecting Bartlett's vision and his ability to paint on canvas.

He turned his energies instead to collecting.

The marriage of Evelyn and Frederic Bartlett blended personal devotion and

plentiful collecting, reminiscent of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. The

flavor of their lives was conveyed in the book Reflections of a Legacy, The

Bonnet House Story by Jayne Rice. Bonnet House, now a 35-acre museum of

subtropical elegance in Fort Lauderdale, was their private winter residence.

The Bartlett's primary home, Whitehall, was in Beverly Farms, Mass., and they

also owned a recreational farm called Bothways Farm in nearby Essex, Mass.

The three Bartlett homes became focal points for their collections.

Furnishings used to decorate the homes originated in England, Northern Europe,

and to a lesser extent, from America.

Denise Cunningham, curator of Bonnet House, characterized Evelyn as "a careful

shopper who negotiated prices and always had a place for items she bought." In

contrast, Frederic was a self-described collector. He sometimes bought an

appealing object, placed it into a warehouse, and eventually created a space

to accommodate it. Following Evelyn Bartlett's death last year, most

furnishings were passed on to heirs, others went to the Bonnet House Museum,

and the remainder were consigned to Northeast Auctions. The remaining pieces

formed the nucleus of the May 17 sale.

One of the most successful European furniture lots was a pair of Georgian

console tables with central eagles, which sold for $32,200. Other impressive

sales included a rectilinear Chippendale carved table, which sold for $27,600,

a rectilinear pair of George III sidechairs, which went for $16,100, and a

constrained Baroque Italian kneehole desk, $16,100.

The American furniture in the Bartlett collection generally was from the

Federal period and featured eagles in the design. Frederic Bartlett's

decorating scheme for rooms often included repeated geometric tile floors,

Federal furniture blended with Classical, and decorative arts objects which

featured eagles or George Washington. Some of the impressive Americana prices

included a pair of giltwood mirrors, topped with eagles, which flew off at

$33,250, a New York marbletop drum table that brought $22,425, and a New York

pier table that fetched $15,525. Sculptural lots with possible American

origins included a pair of Federal era female figures composed of white pine,

painted to look like stone, that were estimated at $12/18,000 but brought

$76,750.

Most of the Bartlett paintings in the sale were found in the attic and needed

some cleaning. A few paintings, such the painting of Turks, had

turn-of-the-century subjects and palettes. Cunningham suggested many of these

may have been collected before the marriage of Frederic and Evelyn. Highlights

in this area were a pair of Dutch landscapes that sold for $19,550, a

Continental early Nineteenth Century family portrait, bought for $16,675, and

a pair of Italian paintings depicting the gatherings of Turks, which sold for

$10,63.

Also included in the collection was a small selection of rugs. A French

Aubusson carpet executed primarily in russet and ivory featured a fierce,

life-size lion as the central medallion. The rug sold for $34,500. Other

Oriental rugs that sold included a Karabagh palace carpet, which went for

$31,050, and three other rugs, which sold for $18,400 or more. Topping the

textile field at $41,400 was a Flemish tapestry from the Baroque period found

rolled up in the attic. A late Gothic tapestry attracted a $25,300 bid. All

tapestries and rugs were skillfully catalogued by New York consultant Jim

French.

In the Bartlett spirit, Carl Crossman decorated the Treadwell house with

Bartlett drapes. This touch enhanced the ambiance of the event, and provided

an excellent presentation of the curtains, which were later auctioned.

The core of Americana items in the auction actually came from the estate of

Fox Hill, Margaret Fuller's summer home in North Hampton, N.H. In 1904, the

Fullers, successful Manchester, N.H., industrialists, commissioned architect

William Rantoul to design their home and the Colonial Revival interior

furnishings. Most of Rantoul's commissions had been for splendid homes on

Boston's Gold Coast centered around Manchester-by-the-Sea and Magnolia.

The Colonial Revival furniture by Rantoul did very well in the auction, mainly

because Rantoul selected fully developed examples of each style while avoiding

both transitional pieces and the temptation to enhance the original with later

innovations. Well figured and aged woods were selected so that almost a

century later the furniture was still in fine condition. Stylistically the

inspiration for the furniture ranged from Colonial to Federal.

Highlights of the sale of Rantoul furniture included a pedestal based dining

table, which fetched $14,375, a set of 16 shield back chairs, $17,250, a

stepback flat-top highboy, $3,335, and a bonnet top highboy, $2,760. A Paine

furniture tall clock brought a surprising $10,350.

Period Americana attracted major dealers including Albert Sack, Rick

Jorgenson, Marguerite Riordan and Georfe Spiecker to the preview.

The big surprise among the Fuller paintings collection were three florals by

the French/American artist Paul DeLongpre. They sold for $21,275, $18,400 and

$10,925. Ron Bourgeault commented, "One of these is signed `Los Angeles,' and

his American paintings bring much better prices than paintings he did in

Europe." Mrs Fuller's Arts and Crafts accessories also did well.

When asked if Northeast Auctions will conduct a major English and Continental

sale every May, Mr Bourgeault responded, "Hereafter, you can look for a large

sale at the Treadwell House every May. It could be Continental, but you never

know what will come in. At Northeast we like to put together an exciting sale

of fresh merchandise. English and Continental works well in the spring for

garden ornaments and furniture, and the New England summer is better for

Americana."

Bourgeault has announced that the remnants from the Bartlett and Fuller

collections and also remnants of the Edgar Bingham collection will be sold at

a July 12 auction in Byfield.