Some Big Hits in the Big Easy

New Orleans Auction Galleries, Inc., New Orleans, Louisiana

by Karla Klein Albertson

Photos courtesy New Orleans Auction Galleries

Sales at New Orleans Auction Galleries (NOAG) are always a diverse mix of continents, periods, and styles. The auction on October 10 and 11, 2009, however, had some interesting blocks of merchandise—a designer closet full of couture, a jungle of big jade, a flourish of American Rococo Revival furniture, and splashes of silver and gems—which drew specialized collectors.

Auctioneers and specialists worked hard for their money. The 1200-lot sale netted a modest total, around $1.7 million, but a legion of interested parties fought hard over attractive offerings. For two days the staff kept track of bidders in time zones around the world on up to 11 phones, watched the floor, and monitored Internet offers on two computer stations.

"We're all beat up—it was intense," president Jean Vidos said after the sale. "It wasn't a record-breaking sale, but it was a clear indication that people are starting to spend money again. It's been a rough year. This time, the volume of customers and bidding really surprised me. We had a thousand registered bidders—people in the room, the Internet, the phones, and absentee. People are still so concerned about the state of the economy, so that's really amazing.

"The local market has never been as strong as the outside market. Over the past several years, the international market has just blossomed. The Internet has leveled the playing field when we're competing for dollars against the big boys. Not a whole lot of stuff is slipping through the cracks any more. We had Asian buyers bidding on Asian stuff in New Orleans, and that's a great change from ten to fifteen years ago."

Vidos was referring to the Asian material auctioned on Saturday, which included objects from a collection formed by Second World War-era Major General Hugh John Casey, a single-owner collection of 19th-century Chinese jade carvings, and individual consignments. Bidders abroad knew exactly what they were looking for. One of the simplest jade carvings, a traditional theme of a hermit on mountain ledge with deep cleft, bore a modest $1800/2500 estimate but went back to China at a final bid of $16,800 (includes buyer's premium).

Meeting expectations, an evenly toned spinach green jade planter brought $18,000, and a nephrite jade coupe of pale celadon green, carved with a group of four ducks, went at $8400. Two Tang Dynasty sancai-glazed pottery horses sold within estimates for $8400 and $9000. Doubling its estimate, a mostly green and yellow glazed tile depicting four enlightened monks or arhats brought $16,800.

Vidos said, "Even during the recession, the Chinese have been vigorously bidding on stuff. Although the downturn has affected the economy worldwide, the Chinese have apparently figured out a way to buy. They're very aggressive buyers, and this sale happened to be really heavy-duty with Asian."

Sunday's schedule presented many of the auction's most interesting lots, opening with a single-owner couture collection strong in fashions from the 1950's to 1980's. Well-known textile expert and conservator Bryce Reveley (East Coast collectors know her from sales at Doyle New York) cataloged the costumes and manned a phone during the bidding. She and her husband, Alan Caspi, have a house near New Orleans. Reveley has done conservation and exhibition projects for the Louisiana State Museum located in the historic Cabildo on Jackson Square. The museum has an important textile collection, including vintage Mardi Gras material.

Among the well-known designers represented in the couture lots were Valentino, Chanel, Scaasi, Givenchy, Blass, Estévez, Hermès, Parnis, Trigère, Galanos, Beene, and Halston. The anonymous New Orleans socialite bought her clothes from firms that were outfitting Hollywood stars and White House first ladies at the time, and she took good care of her elegant costumes. Reveley explained, "In all the pocketbooks, there would be a card stating where she bought it or who gave it to her. A lot of the clothes are from Neiman Marcus. She may have had a personal shopper."

Reveley was faced with a time-consuming task in preparing the couture for sale. "My job was to go through the lots and analyze condition and crowd appeal. When I came in and said 'I'll do this sale, but people can't try on the lots,' they were surprised." The owner, especially in early years, had been quite petite. Allowing bidders to squeeze into vintage outfits made of delicate fabrics would have been risky. Reveley continued, "I went through more than four hundred fifty items, and I narrowed it down to fewer than a hundred."

As might be expected, the floor was filled with a predominantly female crowd when the sale opened at 11 a.m., but they were challenged by strong bidding from collectors around the country on the phones. Estimates and reserves were quite reasonable, so costumes sold in lots of two to ten pieces for $100 to $500.

More easily adapted for everyday wear, purses and handbags brought estimate-crushing figures. A lot of three Hermès bags went at $4320; a Judith Leiber leather clutch, $480; and a Leiber brass minaudiere, shaped like a Marrakesh lantern, $1080.

Wearing fur may be as dead as the pelts, but strong prices were realized for the fashion fur lots. A black mink coat made $4320; a long mink cape, $1320; and a mid-calf sable coat, $7200. An extraordinary Scaasi fur suit of black broadtail trimmed with bands of silver fox came with a book about the designer and brought $1080. Considering the warm temperatures in New Orleans, the owner must have traveled in colder climates when wearing her fur coats and hats.

Vidos, on the podium for the costume lots, was generally pleased about the gallery's major foray into the vintage clothing market. "I thought the couture did really well. That's not big money, but it's exciting to have it. People like to see something new and fresh."

The auction house broke up the couture block with the fine jewelry lots that often appear in the pre-Christmas months, but buyers definitely picked and chose what they wanted. Easily worn pearls were winners. A graduated strand of golden South Seas pearls went at $5520, and pearl and diamond drop earrings fetched $4320. A very brilliant three-diamond ring, around 5½ carats total, went at $58,800 (est. $60,000/90,000).

Great fun to try on, a massive segmented snake bracelet of yellow sapphires and diamonds—perfect for a wealthy diva on stage for Aida at the Met—did not reach its reserve (est. $70,000/100,000). A bit too much flash for a down economy, perhaps. On the other hand, floor bidders had to drop out on a very wearable Art Deco emerald and diamond brooch, which sold to a buyer on the phone for $5040.

In the realm of Rococo Revival furniture, the top lot was a rosewood half-tester bed with elaborate basket-of-flowers crests on the headboard and canopy edge, which sold for $45,600. The bed is closely related to a similar, but not identical, example at Lansdowne Plantation in Natchez, Mississippi. Sold for $13,200 was a "matching" armoire with a single mirrored door, also topped by a basket-of-flowers crest.

These two items were attributed to the famous warerooms of French-born Prudent Mallard on Royal Street. The shop retailed furniture, ordered from French and American cabinetmakers, as well as all the high-end accessories needed to furnish a grand house-brocades and passementerie for curtains and upholstery, carpets, china, sculptures, and mirrors.

If not a cabinetmaker himself, Mallard certainly selected, commissioned, perhaps even embellished pieces to suit the taste of his clientele. Certainly, New Orleans was a lucrative market for makers in the other parts of the country. NOAG furniture specialist Thomas Halverson pointed out, "The two most common ports of call for Philadelphia furniture that was shipped out were New Orleans and Havana."

Concerning the exceptional half-tester bed, Halverson said, "Arguably, this is the icon of Mallard beds. The preponderance of evidence seems to be that this was retailed by Mallard—although that's not even a definitive thing. There is clearly a family of these beds and armoires that go together. These seem to only show up in the South. These are never labeled." Certain ornate furniture pieces favored by 19th-century consumers in the region may not have been made in the South but were certainly made for the South.

Halverson continued, "This may be the most fully developed of these beds to come on the market in the last several years. The sophisticated details give it an exceptional refinement and elegance. This bed has maybe the most highly developed crest of the six or seven in the 'Lansdowne' pattern. Of the two different footboards that appear on this type of bed, this is more sophisticated and certainly rare."

An interesting pastime at the New Orleans auctions is to chat with buyers of this special type of American furniture and discover what they plan to do with it. Galveston, Texas, pathologist Marylee Mueller Kott and her husband, Edward, were lucky enough to secure several choice pieces, including a simpler rosewood armoire with ribbon molding, also said to have passed through Mallard's shop, for $10,200. Then they picked up for $10,800 a well-documented double-door mahogany bookcase that had truly belonged to Mallard. The merchant had used it for his own library, and then it descended through his family.

The Kotts fell in love with their 1880's house in Texas and are gathering appropriate antiques to furnish it. Dr. Kott said, "Right now we're having to do a lot of structural restoration, so the rooms are not quite ready for us to do the decorating," but she added, "We have a very nice collection so far."

Among American flatware lots, a soup ladle in Tiffany's early Persian pattern sold for $1440; a rare set of 12 Dominick & Haff sterling ice cream forks made $1560; and group of nine sterling asparagus tongs realized $1680. A nice coin silver Medallion pattern condiment set by Albert Coles brought $840.

Who were the bidders? NOAG silver specialist Charles Cage said, "A lot of the English are buying back English silver now, because they can get it so much cheaper over here. Big Mannerist, over-the-top French pieces, a lot of the high-end decorators are buying. People from the Middle East really like this style. Americans still buy American silver. We continue to get a good response to nineteenth-century American silver-Gorham, Tiffany-very strong market."

Fine art of regional interest included a group of paintings by William Aiken Walker, who worked in New Orleans 1876-1905. A cabin scene on wash day with a large live oak in the background sold for $28,800 to a buyer on the floor. Art specialist Michelle Castro was on the phone with the purchaser of View of Farmers Working near a Country Road, Shinnecock Hills, a circa 1895 work by Mississippi painter Kate Freeman Clark. It sold for $14,400.

Turning to more recent works, a long round of competitive bidding took Mythic Series #7, a 1984 mixed media on canvas by New Orleans artist Ida Kohlmeyer, to $31,200. Louisiana artist George Bauer Dunbar's Coin du Lestin, circa 2000, sold for $10,200. And a very appealing member of George Rodrigue's "Blue Dog" series went to a phone bidder at $8700.

In conclusion Vidos said, "We had a couple big hits with jewelry, a couple big hits with art, a couple big hits with furniture. I'm pleased with the fact that it was across the board. It was a very small sale for us with only twelve hundred lots; we're the king of the eighteen-hundred-lot sales. But it felt like it was five thousand lots because it was so intense. It's been a while since I've felt that kind of energy. So to me this is like a huge turnaround."

New Orleans Auction Galleries is located at the corner of Julia and Magazine Streets. The area has become increasingly interesting with the opening of more independent galleries, loft conversions, nice hotels, and those charming New Orleans restaurants everyone talks about. Anchors are the Ogden Museum of Southern Art and the newly expanded National World War II Museum not far from NOAG.

For more information, call (800) 501-0277 or visit (www.neworleansauction.com).

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