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AA:SET JUNE 23

CONTINENTAL AT CYR - EWM

By Rita Easton

GRAY, ME. - Following a day of sale preview, Cyr Auction Company held a May 6

Continental sale at their gallery. The 800 lots offered were gathered by "an

army of pickers, with a few things from a prominent Maine home," said

consignment manager John Morrison.

The auction gross reached $247,000. Country-wide competition included phone

action from New York, Florida, California, and Virginia.

Approximately 100 pieces of early Meissen dinnerware, including serving pieces

in the "Crossed Swords" motif, went to a Massachusetts collector at $5,000,

which tied for the high bid of the day with an unsigned 36 by 22 inch oil on

canvas of maidens, an Eighteenth Century English rendering.

An unusual mahogany kidney-shaped desk, with a brass gallery surrounding the

leather top, having four drawers on each side, the drawers having fronts that

swing away, the left four drawers each recessed slightly more than the one

above, fetched $2,500; an English Queen Anne highboy in fumed oak reached

$3,250; a KPM portrait plaque made $1,900; and a French gilt barometer brought

$1,700.

Cherubs depicted in a pair of 18 by 22 inch oils on canvas, sold as one lot,

achieved $2,400; a lacquered dressing table with a Chinese motif realized

$2,000; a Neo-classical green velvet high backed sofa with continuous arms,

having heavy fringe trim all around, was a good buy at $1,800; an oil on

canvas depicting a religious scene, was purchased at $2,000; and a pair of

Venetian candlesticks brought $1,650.

A pair of Italian side chairs, Nineteenth Century, reached $1,900; a pair of

garden urns, 24 inches high, reached $1,200; a drop lid French desk with a

marble top sold at $1,400; a four-drawer English chest with a classical look

fetched $1,200; a Gothic glass topped display cabinet achieved $1,250; and a

large gold gilt frame, 36 by 42 inches, was purchased at $1,200.

"Frames are really hot now," noted Morrison. "We get huge money for them. We

think that the decorator market and all the European furniture and accessories

right now are super hot. We can't seem to get enough of the stuff here for our

clientele."

"One thing that we noticed with this crowd is that they stayed right to the

end, the entire crowd," he continued. "We had people drive great distances and

they seem to have an appetite for everything."

Prices quoted above do not reflect a required premium.