Date: Fri 08-May-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: JUDYC

Quick Words:

Alderfer

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Alderfer Auction

W/CUTS

By J.M.W. Fletcher

HATFIELD, PENN. -- Alderfer's Auction Gallery's spring catalogue sale

Thursday, March 12, featured a fine selection of paintings from the New Hope

School, Bucks County, Pa., as well as Oriental rugs, furniture, silver, pewter

and decorative arts.

Concurrent with that sale, a large, non-catalogued auction of furniture,

silver and accessories was held in an adjacent gallery.

A non-catalogued, fine art auction was also held the previous evening, on

Wednesday, March 11, offering a large selection of more than 200 lots of oils,

watercolors, etchings and lithographs. With hammer prices ranging from $25 to

$3,000, the variety enabled the large crowd -- made up of retail buyers as

well as the trade -- to bid for and buy quality art.

A fine, approximately 30-lot, single-owner collection of spatterware pitchers

and bowls and Flow Blue plates, chargers and platters made up the morning

opening for the Thursday gallery sale. Prices generally ranged from the low

hundreds to $750. A seldom-seen brass Tobacco Honor Box, coin-operated, with

carrying handle, created a lot of interest and sold at $1,000.

In the fine art category, it was interesting to watch an oil on board,

"Tohickon Church, Bucks County, Pa., 1938," by artist Francis Speight

(1896-1938), sell to one of four phone bidders for $3,800. Works by Speight

are rarely seen at auction, and this lot received more inquiries than any

other item in the sale.

A canal scene with tow path, oil on canvas, dated 1929, set what is believed

to be an auction record for its artist, A.P. Martino, when it sold for

$26,000. An oil on canvas titled "Gloucester Dock," by another Bucks County

artist, Fern I. Coppedge (1888-1951), also sold well at $13,500.

A pair of beautiful oval paintings on silk and needlework, in pristine

condition, probably French, one depicting a sailing ship at sea, the other

showing a winged female blowing a trumpet, sold to the Philadelphia trade at

$1,350. A large, 25 by 32 inch painting on silk and needlework, with black

reverse painted oval mat surrounding three figures in a landscape with a

castle, also sold to the same buyer for $3,700.

A large grouping of Eighteenth to Twentieth Century hollowware and flatware

lots brought respectable bids. A number of Georgian stuffing spoons, sugar

nips and sauce ladles attracted prices ranging from $120 to $350, the price

paid for for a T. & W. Chawner 1763 skewer. A Rococo style salver by John

Carter, 1768, sold at $700, and an 1866 sauce frame with four cut glass

containers, by Hunt & Roskell, made $550.

The phones claimed each of ten fine handwoven Oriental rugs, which included a

Sarouk carpet with a navy blue ground, 12" by 12'4", that sold at $9,500 and

Bidjar carpet, circa 1920, 8'9" by 11'10", that sold for $9,000.

A set of six Windsor plank seats and seven bamboo turned spindle back chairs

sold at $225 each; a Renaissance Revival chess table of burl walnut left the

floor at $1,200; and featuring 36 drawers, a softwood apothecary dovetailed

chest went for $1,050.

A group of seven lots of portraits on ivory brought from $110 to $1,050, the

price of a 4 by 3¬ inch oval portrait of Napoleon, signed "Renault," in an

oval relief decorated frame with crown pediment.

Prices quoted do not include a ten percent premium. The next Alderfer

catalogue sale is June 11. For information, 215/393-3000.