Courtesy of Antiques and the Arts Weekly
Review by Madelia Hickman Ring
MARION, MASS. — Marion Antique Auctions’ September Splendor auction on September 7 lived up to its name, raking in about $476,000 with more than 97 percent of the 562 lots crossing the block successfully.
“We had a great presence online and a number of new bidders; more than half of our online bidders were new to us. We also had a pretty good crowd here, mostly local folks, for preview and for the auction. Unlike a lot of auctions, we still have a large facility in a historic building and we encourage people to come. We were very pleased,” co-owner, Frank McNamee, told Antiques and The Arts Weekly after the sale closed.
Some of the highest prices of the day were for silver, which was a sizeable portion of the sale, accounting for more than 70 lots. A 126-piece set of Tiffany sterling silver flatware, in the Chrysanthemum pattern, blossomed to $13,800, the highest price of the day. According to assistant manager, Nick Taradash, it was bought “by a local private collector who has homes here and on Saint Thomas and Sanibel (Fla.); it will be used regularly in Sanibel.”
“Extraordinary” was a word used to describe a 22-inch-tall English sterling silver epergne that had marks for E. & J. Bernard of London, circa 1865. A “major” gallery in London bidding on the phone, topped it off at $9,600.
A trade buyer in London paid $9,600 for this mid Nineteenth Century sterling silver epergne made by E. & J. Barnard in London ($6/10,000).
The UK is also the destination of a portrait of Sir Joseph Banks, painted in the Eighteenth Century by Francis Hayman (British, 1708-1776). A label on the back of the Eighteenth Century — and possibly original — frame read “Thomas Agnew and Sons Fine Art Publishers to His Majesty, London.” Taradash pointed out the portrait had descended in the family of the sitter.
Several lots in the sale featured paper currency and silver certificates, some of them were purchased for the collection of an 8-year-old boy. The highest selling of these, however, was a group of 11 Black Eagle silver certificates dated 1899 that a Connecticut collector won for $6,900.
A stereo optic viewer that was accompanied by 93 cards was one of the lots that received the most pre-sale attention. Included among the cards were views of the Central Pacific Railroad in California that were taken by Alfred A. Hart, a contemporary of Carleton Watkins. McNamee noted they had been in a Marion home, set aside in a pile.
Desmond “Desi” Lewis lives in Assonet, Mass., and is McNamee’s 11-year-old grand-nephew; he is also a budding auctioneer. He took the podium in the middle of the auction to sell a few lots that included a Black Forest carved umbrella stand in the form of a bear, ($2,040), a fossilized Wooly Mammoth tusk ($4,992) and a circa 1950 speckled trout carving attributed to Charlie Mangus of Nantucket ($384).
This fossilized Woolly Mammoth tusk had been unearthed in Alaska and sold to a collector in Bourne, Mass.; upon his death, his family consigned it to Marion’s. It was cataloged as from the Pleistocene era and sold to an online buyer in the Midwest for $4,992 ($1,5/2,500).
A Martha’s Vineyard estate was the source of several choice pieces, notably an early Nineteenth Century Kentucky flintlock rifle that had a barrel marked “H. Gibbs” and was made by Henry Gibbs. The gun — a dated 1710 powder horn with engraved floral decoration — had been purchased from Pennsylvania dealer, Joe Kindig, Jr, in the 1960s for $325. This time around, the two brought $3,840 and sold to a descendant of Gibbs who was bidding on the phone. Lewis was also wielding the gavel for that lot.
A Nineteenth Century Navajo child’s blanket was from the same Martha’s Vineyard estate. A West Coast collector, bidding online, prevailed against their competitors and won it for $3,968, nearly its high estimate.
Given Marion’s proximity to the coast and Cape Cod, nautical antiques is a strong and plentiful category for the auction house, which has recently hired Jordan Berson, previously with the Steamship Historical Society of America, as its maritime specialist. A set of five whaling prints by Benjamin Russell had provenance from the estate of Adaline Havemeyer Perkins and sold to a local collector for $3,968. The same price was realized by a Nineteenth Century single sailor’s valentine that was once owned by collector Richard Mellon Scaife and previously auctioned in 2014 by Rafael Osona. It will be traveling to a new home in the Mid-Atlantic region.
Marion Antique Auctions is still accepting property for its next sale, which is scheduled for Saturday, December 7.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house.
