"Mountain Lake" by Sandzen Tops Massachusetts Auction

February 21st, 2015

The highlight of the sale was Mountain Lake by Birger Sandzén (Swedish-American, 1871-1954) that sold for $33,825.

An equine lot brought impressive results. A late 19th- or early 20th-century full-body weathervane with some sheet metal in the highly detailed form of a horse being led by a groom or a stable boy retained some original gilding and sold for $30,000. The 29" x 21½" vane was mounted on a metal base. It came from a South Shore Massachusetts home, where it had been acquired in the 1960s, and went to the trade.

The 19th-century Qing vase, 14½" tall, had been drilled as a lamp and was decorated with scenes of a procession on horseback. It sold online for $3382.50.

Pasture, Cattle and Woman, 17¾" x 23¾", an oil on canvas by Jean Ferdinand Monchablon (French, 1855-1904) was signed and dated 1890 and sold online for $17,220. The painting, estimated at $2000/3000, went to a buyer in France whose intention it is to open a museum of Monchablon’s work there.

Le Cirque (Circus), a 38¼" x 51½" oil on canvas by Edouard Legrand (French, 1882-1970), was one of three by the artist and brought $7200.

Two pages from a 15th-century French illuminated manuscript book of hours were painted in northern France between 1480 and 1500 and consigned from a Westchester County, New York, estate. One page is two-sided and contains text; the second is single-sided with an image of Jesus on the cross. The lot includes the 1954 translation and notes on the work by classics professor Bernard M. Peebles of Catholic University, who was also one of the World War II “Monuments Men.” The pages sold online for $3998.

Carl W. Stinson, Inc., North Reading, Massachusetts

Fresh estate material drew the intrepid to the Carl W. Stinson sale February 21 in North Reading, Massachusetts. Stinson sales are held most frequently at the Hillview Country Club, where the parking areas were cleared but where greens with towering mounds of snow recalled John Greenleaf Whittier’s Snow-Bound: A Winter Idyll.

The star of the event was the 24" x 29½" oil on board Mountain Lake, a scene in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado by Birger Sandzén (Swedish/American, 1871-1954) that sold for $33,825 (includes buyer’s premium) against the $10,000/20,000 estimate after an Internet bidder beat out four phone bidders. The painting was dated 1944 and had been given by the artist to Trygve Lie, first secretary-general of the United Nations, who passed it to New Haven judge Herbert Emanuelson, in whose family the painting descended to an area consignor. It went to the trade.

Three paintings by Edouard Legrand (French, 1882-1970) sold. Le Cirque (Circus), a 38¼" x 51½" oil on canvas, brought $7200 against the estimated $2000/3000. The picture bore a label of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and that of the Lawrence Rill Schumann Art Foundation. Legrand’s gouache under glass Famille d’acrobats (32" x 39") bore the same labels as Le Cirque and the same estimates. It realized $5400. A third Legrand work, an 1899 oil on canvas given the title Girl in Green Dress (39¾" x 31") and depicting a heavily made-up young woman, had some condition problems and sold online for $2091, still above the high estimate.

Blossom Time, a 20" x 28¼" oil on canvas by Alois Heinrich Priechenfried (Austrian, 1867-1933), depicts a woman playing the piano in a room with a door open to the outdoors and sold online for $2460. The artist is known particularly for his portraits, mostly of Jewish subjects. Thoroughbred with Owner, an oil on canvas (24½" x 36¾") by John Paul (English, 1804-1887), was signed and dated 1861. It had come from a Westchester County estate and sold on the phone for $3600.

Stinson sales are nearly always a family affair, and the most recent event was no exception. Doug Stinson auctions while his father, Carl, mother, Brenda, brother, Ned, wife, Claire, and son, William keep it all running. The sale was less well attended than usual for a Stinson sale (they are usually packed), but the weeks and weeks of snow that had piled up over the heads of most citizens deterred some. But, as Doug Stinson informed your reporter, “Snowflakes are the butterflies of winter.” For some, maybe.

Several bidders in the gallery pursued a 19th-century Maine bird’s-eye maple three over three chest (43½" x 45" x 19½") with vigorously turned legs that sold for $1680 against the $200/400 estimate. Other case pieces sold. An 18th-century Salem Chippendale maple and birch oxbow desk (44½" x 42¼") with an interior fitted with five drawers over two interior drawers sold mid-estimate at $780. It had been purchased at Friendship Antiques in Essex, Massachusetts, in the 1970s. One buyer in the gallery made a wise purchase when he or she took a circa 1800 Chippendale flame birch chest with four graduated drawers and a beautifully formed dovetailed base (38" x 37" x 15½") for $300. Another in-house bidder paid $300 for a Hepplewhite mahogany chest of four drawers (38½" x 42" x 21") with secondary poplar and hard yellow pine framing with the original stamped oval brasses.

Style prevailed when a 19th-century New York walnut pair of Georgian-style gaming tables (27½" x 28" x 14") with acanthus-carved knees, ball-and-claw feet, and concertina actions sold online for $1476 despite some fading and discoloration.

A New York or Pennsylvania Sheraton cherry drop-leaf breakfast table, circa 1820, 29½" x 39½" x 21", with reeded legs and a cloverleaf top sold in the gallery for $90, leaving a number of bidders rueful that they had not bid on it. Then there was a cherry drop-leaf table with block turned legs on brass casters (29" x 46" x 22") that sold in the gallery for $54.

A six-piece sterling silver tea set (189.32 ounces) by the Sanborn brothers of Mexico was monogrammed and sold online for $2767.50. A similarly decorated pitcher from Bigelow Kennard of Boston and weighing 35.82 ounces also sold online for $738. An English Georgian sterling caster (6¼") with hallmarks for 1717 went to the Internet for $430.50.

Speaking after the sale, Doug Stinson observed that several silver pieces including Georgian are headed to China. So too is a Steinway & Sons ebonized series S grand piano and bench (56" x 62") that sold online for $5535. The instrument was purchased by an agent in Georgia for a client in China.

A 56" English Enfield muzzle- loading rifle marked with the royal warrant for Queen Victoria on the lockplate was made in 1862 at the London Armoury and was so marked on the stock. The brass buttplate was engraved “E. Lombard Jr / Sept 16th 1865.” It sold for $2400.

The highlight of the Staffordshire pieces across the block was a lot of six historical plates (Enoch Wood & Sons’ 10" Cadmus at Anchor, Chief Justice Marshall Troy Line steamer plate, the 9" Nahant Hotel, Mitchell & Freeman’s China and Glass Warehouse 10" plate, the 10" Bank of the United States of Philadelphia, and the Old Sun Tavern at Faneuil Hall) that sold for $840. Can you guess what drove the lot?

A 19th-century Qing vase (14½" tall) that had been drilled as a lamp (27" tall) was decorated with scenes of a procession on horseback and sold online for $3382.50. It came from the Westchester County estate.

Two Chinese export vases converted to lamps sold for $2700. One, 15¼" tall on a bronze base, was decorated with four Rose Mandarin medallions of court scenes, circa 1880; the other, a 16" ku-form example, was decorated with flowers, foliage, and birds. Two Rose Medallion covered vegetable dishes sold for $360, while a lot of 24 Rose Medallion plates fetched $600.

Sharp-eyed bidders homed in on a selection of mid-century 1900s walnut furniture by Dunbar. A pair of armchairs, circa 1960, was in need of reupholstering and sold for $2700. One phone bidder paid $1080 for a Dunbar walnut server with four drawers over four doors, two of which opened to interior drawers and shelves. The same buyer took a low table with doors for $360.

For information, check the Web site (www.stinsonauction.com) or call (781) 944-6488 or (617) 834-3819.

A Revolutionary War field bed, 73½" x 31½" x 39½", made of white oak and white pine descended in the Stevens (textiles) family of North Andover. It sold to a left bid for $2400.

Clocks attracted interest. An English chinoiserie George III tall clock with a gilt brass face was inscribed “Marmd Storr, London” for Marmaduke Storr, who was active between 1724 and 1775. It has Roman and Arabic numerals and a separate second hand and a calendar dial. The clock stands 83¾" tall but had been altered to accommodate a lower ceiling, and notes on its provenance were attached. It sold for $4200. Not shown, a 38" Howard & Davis banjo clock sold online for $2091.

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