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BIGGER WAS BETTER AT WOLF'S AUCTION

By Rita Easton

CLEVELAND, OHIO -- Property from prominent collections, estates, and

institutions, including the collection of the late Horace Potter, and the

40-year decorative arts collection of an Ohio connoisseur, was auctioned at

Wolf's Fine Arts Auctioneers on October 23 and 24.

The first session featured art glass, Art Nouveau, works on paper and

paintings, musical boxes, clocks, rugs, silver, and jewelry. On the second

day, paintings, sculpture, furniture, decorations, porcelain and glass,

Americana, and architectural antiques crossed the block.

The auction was characterized by the preference for "monumental" works.

Sculptures, monumental urns, monumental porcelain, and an entire paneled room

were the subjects of vigorous competition among the 300 bidders present, in

addition to phone and absentee buyers. A gross of approximately $2,000,000 was

realized.

Fetching the high bid of the day, a rare and important pair of life-size

bronze and marble busts reached $66,125. Sculptured by Pietro Calvi (Italian,

1833-1884), the works were signed and inscribed "Milano." The pieces,

estimated at $40/60,000, depicted Sheik Benaly Ben Ladiar and Ale-y-dah.

One of the most contested lots, a 42-inch high bronze figural group of "Glory

Victis" by A. Mercie (French, Nineteenth Century), generated bidding from 11

phone lines. Doubling its high estimate of $8,000, the lot went out at

$16,100. A life-size pair of lions on painted plinths doubled its low

estimate, going to an Ohio couple at $17,825.

Of earlier pieces of furniture offered, a set of four late Seventeenth Century

William and Mary carved walnut side chairs from a collection with provenance

that included the collection of the late John L. Severance, sold at $7,475; a

Sixteenth/Seventeenth Century Italian painted walnut credenza, decorated with

grotesque terms and masks, floral urns, and other decorations, sold above the

low estimate at $9,200; a large and finely inlaid Georgian mahogany sideboard

fetched $6,900, slightly above the low estimate of $6,000; and a set of 12

Georgian style dining chairs brought $8,050, well over the high estimate of

$5,000.

Porcelain included fine examples of Royal Vienna from the sophisticated Ohio

collection. Among the lots were a pair of Vienna porcelain covered urns on

stands, 18« inches high, heavily decorated in rouge and gilt with scenes of

Greek mythology, which sold at $6,900; and a pair of Vienna porcelain covered

urns on stands, decorated in amethyst, blue, and gilt, and scenes including

Helen of Troy, Cupid and Venus, and with applied bacchic mask handles,

standing 24« inches high, estimated at $6/9,000, sold at $13,800.

A monumental Sevres urn, 44 inches high, decorated with two girls, sold at

$9,775; and two fine Continental miniature painted porcelain plaques,

estimated at $1/2,000 each, sold at $6,035 and $6,900. Reaching $21,850 from a

collector, was a Regina automatic interchangeable disc musical box which came

with 23 discs housed in an oak case, and featured cabriole legs and spiral

turned columns. The piece was estimated at $15/25,000.

A French Provincial painted boiserie paneled room from the former Juilliard

School of Music in New York, Eighteenth Century or later, complete with

paneled cabinet doors, bookshelves, pull-out writing surfaces, inset mirror

and an Eighteenth Century oil on canvas of the Toilette of Venus, after Simon

Vouet, within the paneling above the fireplace, sold at $15,000 to a prominent

Ohio collector.

Intense bidding drove up the price of an Acoma Indian pot decorated with

stylized horses, ten inches high, originally estimated at $1/2,000, which

hammered down at $8,050; and a rare Steinway parlor grand piano, dated 1912,

estimated a $4/6,000, sold at $12,075. Later the same day the underbidder,

through a Wolf's representative, negotiated the purchase of the prize lot for

$16,000.

Prices quoted include a required buyers premium.