Date: Wed 28-Jun-1995

Publication: Ant

Author: CHRISL

Quick Words:

herter-slawinski-butterfield

Full Text:

(5)AWEB/CITADEL/BUTTERFIELD/BUTTERFIELD/SLAWINSKI

STEAMSHIP 'LIVINGSTON' WHEEL BRINGS $3,000 AT CITADEL SALE W/5 cuts

PORT HURON, MICH. -- The Citadel Gallery included nautical features in its

June 2-4 weekend auction. The sweetheart of the nautical items was a steering

wheel with the original brass column from the steamship Livingston. The

successful bidder was a Minnesota collector, who, on a hunting trip in South

Dakota, gained the use of the only phone within 30 miles and executed his

$3,000 bid from the wooden porch of a mobile home behind a Western bar.

A 1930s mahogany dinghy sold for $1,100 and will be used as a coffee table in

the family room of a large Grosse Pointe home. Two frigate flags saw energetic

bidding conclude with $410 for the American and $475 for the British. An

eight-foot half boat freighter model sold for $1,025. Prints and originals by

Crevier, Kushel, Clary and other marine artists made the day complete for

nautical enthusiasts.

A collection of 55 pieces of R.S. Prussia enticed collectors and sold from $35

for a luncheon plate to $450 for a scenic celery server. A Royal Bayreuth

collection sold between $20 and $200 each.

A Regency sofa with pink moire upholstery was won with a $1,100 bid. Two

unframed watercolors of flowers by Theresa Hegg were wrestled between two

telephone bidders and concluded with $1,000 and $1,250 prices. Two oil on

canvas French street scenes brought $950 and $1,050. A Moe Bridges scenic lamp

was taken home for $1,100. A faux bamboo dresser and highboy were bought for

$700 and $1,600 respectively. A Hutchenreuther all white porcelain plateau of

two running horses concluded with an $1,100 bid.

The sale was rounded out with jewelry, Oriental rugs, toys, glassware,

sterling silver, furniture, and pottery.

For information call 810/985-4690.

ANGEL MICHAEL SLAYS ESTIMATES AT BUTTERFIELD'S SILVER SALE W/4 CUTS

LOS ANGELES, CAL. -- Butterfield & Butterfield's simultaneous silver auction

on May 18 showed results consistent with recent market trends. Continental

offerings drew the most enthusiastic response from buyers and earned solid

prices for unique items with fresh provenance.

Slaying the auction dragon was an Italian gilt-bronze and silver figural group

of the Archangel Michael slaying the prostrate Lucifer. Made in Naples in

1715, this statue garnered the auction's top price of $41,400, nearly six

times the high estimate. Examples of Baroque Continental silver are rarely

found in the United States and his stunning example was apparently rare enough

to inspire a European buyer.

Also of interest was a Roman Nineteenth Century oil lamp which sold for

$4,500, over twice the estimate, notwithstanding the fact that it had been

modified to an electric bridge lamp. Jensen lived up to expectation with a

pair of post-1945 two-light candelabra bringing a strong $11,500 and a covered

bowl in the "Blossom" pattern, also post war, fetching $5,175. Among German

items, an 800 standard silver and cut glass figural centerpiece by B & Z,

circa 1895-1915, realized $8,625. A Nineteenth Century Continental cow creamer

sold for the unusually high price of $2,875, likely due to superior modeling

and the unusual feature of a lid in the shape of a blanket.

Highlights in English silver included a George IV silver pair of salvers,

Robert Garrard II, 1828, which brought $9,200; a pair of Victorian shield-form

roundels centered with scenes depicting a Trojan war story by Daniel & Charles

Houle, 1868, which sold for $6,900; and a George III silver set of four entree

dishes, by Augustin Le Sage, 1775, which achieved $5,462.50. A Victorian

silver clock in the Art Nouveau taste by the Goldsmiths and Silversmiths Co.,

circa 1900, sold at $3,450, well over estimate.

The star of the American section was a beautiful Art Nouveau glass punch bowl

by T.J. Hawkes & Co., cut with irises and mounted with an applied floral

silver collar and lip by Gorham with an inscription dated 1905. This example

of the "Brilliant" period in American cut glass realized $12,650, almost

double the estimate. Also of note was a figural double centerpiece marked

"English Sterling," retailed by M.M. Fredericks of Virginia City, Nev., circa

1870, which sold for $4,887.50. An interesting pair of Tiffany dessert dishes,

with a special mark for the Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1900, garnered

$2,185. Far exceeding expectations, a late Eighteenth Century tankard by

Freeman Woods, circa 1791-94, fetched a surprising $21,850.

HERTER BROTHERS CONSOLE SELLS FOR $288,500 AT BUTTERFIELD'S w/5 cuts

SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. -- With a standing-room-only audience and phone and

absentee bids by the score, the first of a two-day, three-session auction of

European and American furniture and decorative Arts took place Wednesday

afternoon, June 7, in Butterfield & Butterfield's San Francisco gallery. The

lure for bidders, a carved oak console executed by Herter Brothers, New York,

1881-1882, was commissioned by the then-richest man in the world, William H.

Vanderbilt, for the ground floor atrium of his palatial Fifth Avenue

residence.

This apotheosis of workmanship and provenance sold for $288,500, establishing

two world auction records for any piece by Herter Brothers, and a record for

any example of post-1840 American furniture.

Estimated at $40/60,000, the console was purchased by a Bay Area collector ten

years ago for $4,000 for an antiques shop in the Midwest. It is considered

unique in its form as well as in the corporation of Neo-Pompeiian, Beaux Arts,

Aesthetic and Art Nouveau motifs; it is also one of the few surviving pieces

of furniture commissioned for the Vanderbilt mansion known to exist outside of

museum collections.

The piece has been the subject of intense interest, stimulated by the focus on

the firm of Herter Brothers proper, acknowledged to be the finest and most

popular cabinetmaker and interior decorator of the late Nineteenth Century.

"Herter Brothers: Furniture and Interiors for a Gilded Age," a traveling

exhibition which is currently at the Metropolitan, has also been responsible

for generating significant attention.

Until this sale, the most important piece by Herter Brothers ever sold at

auction was the inlaid and ebonized cherry wood salon table commissioned for

the Mark Hopkins Nob Hill residence in San Francisco, sold by Butterfield &

Butterfield in 1989 for a record $280,500 to Margot Johnson, a prominent

dealer of Nineteenth Century American furniture in New York. After today's

almost relentlessly competitive participation from other phone bidders, she

eclipsed her own record by a winning bid of $288,500.

Other highlights included a silk needlework "Adam and Eve" sampler, possibly

Boston, circa 1752, which exceeded its estimate to realize an impressive

$7,475, and a mahogany inlaid bowfront chest, Baltimore, circa 1800,

deaccessioned by the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. It surpassed its estimate to

establish a west coast auction record of $27,600 for a Federal chest of

drawers.

Important pieces also included a monumental Doulton Burslem China Exhibition

vase, 1893, deaccessioned by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and sold

for the benefit of its Acquisitions Fund, which quintupled its estimate to

realize $10,350, and a late Nineteenth Century pair of Sevres-style

gilt-bronze painted porcelain urns realized $16,100, also five times the

estimate, to benefit the Portland Art Museum. A Dutch Delft blue and white

pewter-mounted jug, late Seventeenth early Eighteenth Century, sold for

$6,325.

In the evening session, prices soared for English furniture and decorations,

making it one of the best sales of this specialty Butterfield & Butterfield

has had in a decade. Exemplary property, with significant provenance and

directly from the estate of Marilyn M. Hills, Hillsborough, Cal., achieved

major prices, all over estimate. A pair of Queen Anne walnut upholstered

stools, first quarter of the Eighteenth Century sold for $18,400; a George I

inlaid walnut concertina action games table, from the first quarter of the

Eighteenth Century, brought $31,625; pair of George III mahogany upholstered

window seats in the French taste, third quarter of the Eighteenth Century

realized $54,625; a set of eight George III carved mahogany armchairs with

four later copies, circa 1785 achieved $71,250; a pair of George III mahogany

library armchairs in the French taste, circa 1770, garnered $46,000; and a

Regency four-pedestal mahogany dining table, first quarter of the Nineteenth

Century fetched $63,000.

A selection of other highlights included a mid-Nineteenth Century William and

Mary-style carved basswood mirror which went for $20,700, almost seven times

the estimate; a mid-Eighteenth Century George II carved giltwood mirror, which

sold for $28,750; a George III inlaid ivory tea caddy, which brought $4,025;

and a George III octagonal green tortoiseshell and ivory inlaid tea caddy

which achieved $4,600.

French decorative arts and furniture were highlighted by a Louis XVI style

gilt-bronze three-piece clock garniture, Paris, circa 1900, which sold for

$18,400; a set of four Louis XVI patinated and gilt-bronze figural

candlesticks, which brought $21,850; a pair of Empire-style patinated and

gilt-bronze urns which realized $27,600; a suite of Louis XV style giltwood

and Aubusson tapestry-upholstered seat furniture which achieved $20,700; a

Regence-style large giltwood mirror, from the last quarter of the Nineteenth

Century, which fetched $13,800; a pair of Louis XVI carved walnut upholstered

fauteuils a la reine, second quarter of the Eighteenth Century, which garnered

$9,775; and a pair of Louis XVI style gilt-bronze mounted breche violette

marble columnar pedestals, third quarter Nineteenth Century, which sold for

$29,900.

Continental decorations and furniture on June 8 featured a carved Italian

Breccia marble bust of Augustus Caesar, Nineteenth Century, which brought

$16,100; a pair of Italian Baroque polychrome and parcel-giltwood angels which

fetched $16,100; and an Italian late Renaissance carved walnut credenza which

achieved $10,925; and an Italian Baroque walnut inlaid desk that garnered

$12,650.

BIDS FOR STEREOPTIC VIEWER SURPRISES SLAWINSKI AUDIENCE, W/5 CUTS

FELTON, CAL. -- At a Slawinski auction filled with Victorian furniture, the

surprise of the day was a much less conspicuous stereoptic viewer which,

according to the auctioneer, generated more calls than any other lot in the

auction. When it opened at $300 two bidders in house and one on the phone held

steady all the way to $2,500, where it sold to the trade. The May 29 auction

had a number of items that attracted long distance attention, with over 20

different phone bidders participating and several successful from as far away

as Louisiana and Iowa. The cataloged sale was previewed over the holiday

weekend by approximately 2000 people and, according to the auction staff,

generated more absentee bids than any previous sale.

A standing room only crowd competed for the early offerings a Victorian puzzle

of a paddle wheeler at $150, a Roseville "pinecone" jardiniere and stand at

$650, and fine Nineteenth Century campaign desk with secret drawers at $450. A

66 inch oak regulator by Waterbury sold a buyer in Salt Lake City for $3,000

while a 44 inch rosewood cased Seth Thomas calendar clock brought $1,100.

A Vienna single weight regulator was a good buy at $500. A Bradley & Hubbard

Victorian banquet lamp with a Cupid supporting the front generated heavy

bidding, selling for $1,500. A lovely 12 inch by 16 inch landscape by Edgar

Payne was purchased by a California dealer for $3,500 and a Tiffany Studios

harp desk lamp was also a bargain at $1,100.

Anticipation was heavy when the half tester bed attributed to Prudence Mallard

came to the block. The bed had been refinished and cut down, but was still a

tremendously impressive piece. Opening at $3,000 it jumped quickly to about

$6,000 where it continued among three phone bidders (including two in New

Orleans) to a selling price of $10,000 to a California collector. A fine

rosewood and marquetry side cabinet was a great buy at $1,250 while a set of

148 pieces of "Grand Baroque" sterling sold for just above a number of

absentee bids to a dealer in house at $3,250. A Louis XV writing desk needing

some restoration earned $2,250 from the phones and a Victorian gilt mirror

sold for $1,400.

Bargains were had on many of the fancy Victorian parlor tables, particularly a

rosewood center table with black veined marble in pristine condition which

sold for a paltry $1,000. Two large scale curved glass oak china cabinets with

mirrored backs and paw feet were good buys at $1,600 and $1,400 while

bird's-eye maple vanity with nice style was battled up to $750 by two

determined bidders.

A Howard open face pocket watch with skeleton back earned $450 as other

jewelry and watches fared well. An unusual mahogany rocker with Art Nouveau

inlay in the manner of Majorelle was hotly contested, selling for $650 to a

happy collector. A large Maxfield Parrish "Rubiyant" print in pristine

condition was a good buy at $400 while a 1940s Coca-Cola advertising clock was

hammered for $200 to the trade.

A set of almost 120 pieces of Rose Medallion china was broken down into about

20 lots and grossed over $6,000. A Stickley Brothers slat-side rocker sold for

$900 while a William Hogarth engraving and a Hunzinger rocker were both good

buys at $150. One of the last lots of the sale was an antique 22 caliber rifle

which surprised all but the two men who bid it to a selling price of $625.

Slawinski reported it as one of its best sales ever. Its major sale is

scheduled for August 5 and will include another selection of Victorian

furnishings and accessories. Call 408/335-9000 for information.