SKINNER'S NOVEMBER AMERICANA SALE RINGS OF SUCCESS
BOSTON, Mass. - November 14, 2007
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www.skinnerinc.com - Skinner, one of the nation's leading auction houses for antiques and fine art, today announced that its recent American Furniture and Decorative Arts sale, held November 3rd and 4th in its Boston gallery, generated results to the tune of $4,000,000 making the event Skinner's second-highest grossing Americana sale to date.
There was enthusiastic interest from those in the room, hundreds of phone and absentee bid requests, as well as from countless participants partaking in the auction live over the internet. The two day sale offered a wide-range of collectibles, from lighting and pottery to formal furniture and folk art.
Leading the sale were two truly spectacular pieces of local folk art. The first, a Molded Copper Touring Car with Driver Weathervane (lot 641) made in Boston c. 1910 by the W.A. Snow Iron Works Company (as identified by a label on the car's front grille) sold to a well-known collectors Susan and Jerry Lauren for $941,000. The weathervane, from the collection of an eastern Massachusetts cultural institution, had a completely untouched surface with traces of the original gilding.
The second highest-price lot in the sale was the early 19th century soon-to-be iconic oil on panel portrait of Edward Reed Dorr, a 6-year-old Bostonian, by an unknown itinerant painter. An orange tree forms an arch above him, and his dog's front legs are perched on his lap as he sits in his fancy-painted chair. The pristine, but very dirty painting, taken from the house on Savin Hill Avenue in Dorchester where the Dorrs lived until recently, sold after competitive bidding between several phone bidders for $886,000. The piece is the most expensive folk portrait ever to be sold in New England.
Other folk art highlights included a painted wooden wall pocket (lot 373) for $29,375; two Chambers paintings (lots 416 and 417), which sold for $44,063 and $21,150 respectively, the first securing the third highest price for the artist at auction; a John Paul Jones memorial, (lot 471) for $32,900; and an Andrew Clemens sand bottle (lot 590) for $29,375, setting a record for the artist. Other important pieces included a scrimshaw tooth (lot 589) for $9,400; a carved wooden walking stick (lot 674) for $18,800; and a decorated tinware trunk (lot 699) for $9,988.
The Jacquelin Patterson Collection of Lighting, representing 112 lots, sold for nearly $95,000, significantly more than the presale aggregate high estimate of $62,000. Skinner set a new world record for a pair of pewter lamps at $5,287 (lot 54).
Prints and paintings did astonishingly well with a Currier & Ives large folio piece THE "LIGHTNING EXPRESS" TRAINS. "Leaving the Junction." (lot 184) going for $7,050. The much anticipated Portrait of the Volunteer, c. 1887 (lot 588) by James Edward Buttersworth, sold for $160,000, well over its estimate high of $125,000.
A group of very nice American and English pottery was highlighted by two pieces of green-glazed redware, a covered jar and a pitcher (lots 230, 231), which sold for $11,750 and $7,050 respectively. Also bringing in premium prices for pottery was a stoneware jug decorated in a compact arrangement showing four perched birds (lot 281) for $7,050 and by a marked Bennington Pottery figure of a lion (lot 308) for $12,925.
Furniture offerings made significant waves with a William & Mary maple gate-leg dining table (lot 400) bringing in $16,450; a Chippendale mahogany carved block-front desk bookcase (lot 432) going for $116,000; and a Chippendale mahogany reversed serpentine bureau (lot 413) selling for $52,875. Other furniture highlights included a McIntire-carved federal mahogany side chair (lot 470) for $15,275; a Queen Anne cherry dressing table (lot 422) for $17,625; a Bermuda high chest of drawers (lot 863) for $18,800; and a David Wood shelf clock (lot 512) going for an astounding $70,500.
Outsider art warranted bidding wars with the Man Encircled by a Serpent with Figures (lot 950) by Elijah Pierce landing at $11,750 and a mid-twentieth century carved and painted wooden "EVA" Possum Trot doll (lot 951) by Calvin and Ruby Black going for $18,800.
Finally, White House China did not disappoint; the whole group, carrying a presale high estimate of $24,900, sold for a total of over $39,500. Selling particularly well was a turkey platter from the Rutherford B. Hayes administration's set (lot 497), which sold for $15,275.
Skinner's next auction of American Furniture & Decorative Arts will be held in Boston on Sunday, February 17, 2008, beginning at 11:00 a.m.
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About Skinner
Skinner, Inc. is one of the nation's leading auction houses for antiques and fine art and the only major auction house headquartered in New England. With expertise in over 20 specialty collecting areas, Skinner draws the interest of buyers from all over the world and its auctions regularly achieve world record prices. Skinner provides a broad range of auction and appraisal services, and it is widely regarded as one of the most trusted names in the auction business. Skinner's appraisal experts regularly appear on the PBS-TV series,
Antiques Roadshow, and its specialty departments include American Furniture & Decorative Arts, Paintings & Prints, English & Continental Furniture & Decorations, Fine Ceramics, Jewelry, Couture, 20th Century Furniture & Decorative Arts, Fine Musical Instruments, Asian Art, Fine Judaica, Toys, Dolls & Collectibles, Science & Technology, Oriental Rugs & Carpets, American Indian & Ethnographic Art, and Discovery. Skinner galleries are located in Boston and Bolton, Mass. For more information on upcoming auctions and events, visit Skinner's web site
www.skinnerinc.com.
