Fall Fine and Decorative Art Auction

Cowan's, Cincinnati, Ohio

by Don Johnson

Photos courtesy Cowan's

Wes Cowan didn't make it to the end of his company's fine and decorative art auction on October 2 and 3, 2009, in Cincinnati, Ohio. "I didn't feel well the whole auction," he said. "I couldn't tell if it was because of the prices, or if I was coming down with something."

Not that the prices were terrible. With just over $1 million in sales, it was Cowan's highest grossing of three fine and decorative art auctions this year, but there were some weak spots.

It wasn't just the prices that made Cowan sick. "I have to also say that I didn't realize it on Friday. I was on the block and really struggling to sell and went home and got up the next morning and came in and wasn't feeling on top of the game, and left the block at one o'clock and went home and had the flu for two weeks."

At least someone was feeling well, as indicated by the 1045 bidders from 17 countries who competed for the 922 lots. Throughout the auction, prices were mixed.

"It was a very, very curious sale. I thought in terms of what we had, it was a really good-looking sale," said Cowan. "Overall, it was a pretty soft auction. Why? I don't know. Is it because unemployment is at ten percent, and people are sitting on their money? I don't know."

There were some bright spots, including modern art, scrimshaw, and a collection of items related to the first African-American jockey to win the Kentucky Derby.

The highlight of the auction was a 1959 mixed-media sculpture, The Unaccountable by Horace Clifford Westermann, that sold for a record $85,187.50 (includes buyer's premium) to George Wanlass for the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art at Utah State University. The previous record for Westermann's art was a mixed-media sculpture that brought $68,712 at Sotheby's in 2002. "It's not something we've typically sold," said Graydon Sikes, Cowan's paintings specialist.

It helped that much of the 20th-century art came from the collection of the late Betty Asher of Los Angeles. Asher was once called a "triple threat" as an influential curator, collector, and dealer. Although much of her art collection was donated to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, some pieces also passed down within the family. The Unaccountable was among the works consigned by Asher's granddaughter, a resident of Columbus, Ohio.

Interest in Westermann's sculpture was deep and wide. "We had a ton of bidders from Chicago, which is where he is from. Nearly every gallery that works with twentieth-century art was on the phone," said Sikes. "His work is almost all three-dimensional, and it's all whimsical. No two pieces are alike. It's very difficult to assess his intentions with any of his pieces."

The Unaccountable consisted of a gold-colored metal sphere with a die-cut head of Dick Tracy atop the globe, several spouts on the sides, and a pulley near the bottom that held a chain ending in a miniature version of the Empire State Building, all on a shaft above a wooden stepped base in green paint.

"It's not something we're necessarily known for selling," Sikes added. "If we can break the record for it, we should always feel like we can confidently work with that material…For us it was a rousing success."

Cowan agreed. "For our first foray into selling modern art, I think we did OK," he said.

That assessment was based on more than just The Unaccountable. Other modern art from the Asher collection included Man with Figurines by ceramicist/ sculptor Viola Frey, a 1983 oil on canvas, 78" x 54½", that sold for $9987.50, and Specimen G 2310.03 by Ken Price, a 1963 acrylic on a fish-shaped board with stand, 4½" x 4½", that sold for $4700.

Traditional art offered during the two days included An Arab Bride by Louis John Endres, a 1927 oil on canvas showing two women sitting on a hillside above a Middle Eastern city, 29½" x 39", that sold for $32,900 to a collector in Paris. "It was probably the one other big highlight," said Sikes. "The subject sold that painting."

Although Endres was a Cincinnati artist who spent time in North Africa and Spain, local buyers weren't interested. "There wasn't a person on the floor who gave a damn about the artist, a Cincinnati artist," Sikes said. It all came down to the motif. "I'm hunting for [that subject matter] everywhere I go. They're looking for North African or Middle Eastern subject matter. That subject is just rocking. I think it's because of the amount of money that's available. We see it most with Italian artists. Italian watercolors with guys and girls flirting and monks drinking bring ten to fifteen thousand now, where they brought two to three hundred before."

For the artwork, there were some rough spots along the way. "I was pretty disappointed with the nineteenth-century paintings," Sikes noted. An 1850's southern portrait attributed to Louis Bahin of Natchez, Mississippi, showing a young child with a pet squirrel and a small dog standing in a landscape, oil on canvas, 51¾" x 35½", sold for $6462.50, well under its $8000/ 12,000 estimate. "I thought that painting would bring twenty to thirty thousand, but it just died at the sale."

Nor did buyers show much enthusiasm for Country Grocery in Kennebunkport, Maine by Abbott Graves, a 42" x 60" oil on canvas depicting a busy general store. Estimated at $30,000/ 50,000, it was initially passed on the block but sold after the auction for $52,875. That amount was down slightly from when Cowan's sold the painting in May 2004 for $54,625. "That's a perfect little example of what the economy has done," said Sikes. While the economy affected bidding both days, things have improved during the past year.

No boost was needed for bidding on a handful of items related to William "Billy" Walker, the first African-American jockey to win the Kentucky Derby, doing so on Baden-Baden in 1877, which was the derby's third year. Leading the way was a Kentucky coin silver racing presentation pitcher by John Kitts & Co., Louisville, 1859-78, with a design of a running horse within a floral wreath. The 11¼" pitcher realized $25,850, more than five times its upper estimate. A sixth-plate tintype of Walker, along with a few minor horseracing collectibles, brought $6462.50. An oil on canvas painting of Baden-Baden, 8½" x 11½", heavily restored, was $3055.

Another strong grouping was a collection of scrimshaw, including a number of pieces acquired from Paul Madden Antiques, Sandwich, Massachusetts. A whale's tooth with a polychrome whaling scene of fully rigged ships, a pod of whales, and whale boats, the other side with a ship flying the Stars and Stripes, 1840-60, 6½" long, ex-Madden, realized $15,275; a whale's tooth showing a boy, dog, and squirrel on one side, a portrait of a woman named Isadora on the other, Continental, 1840-60, 5½" long, made $8225; and a whalebone sewing basket with a picket fence design and brass tacks, circa 1850, 6" diameter, brought $5875.

"I think prices were good for what we had there," said Cowan. "I was probably aggressive on some of those things, but some went way over the estimates. That's just the case today with everything. The scrimshaw market is a lot like the powder horn market. They are two classes of folk art that are underpriced, and they have been forever.

"They're underpriced because people have been faking the stuff for years, and that has depressed the market because people can't be sure of what they're buying unless it has great provenance or the collector can be sure the dealer or auction house can assure they know what they're doing. Everybody knew Paul Madden, and that made everybody confident."

Other top lots throughout the sale included a Georg Jensen sterling coffee and tea service in the Blossom pattern for $17,625; an Abraham Lincoln state service porcelain soup bowl for $17,625; a Whiting sterling Art Nouveau sleigh centerpiece for $9400; and a Regency mahogany library bookcase for $8225.

For more information, phone Cowan's at (513) 871-1670 or visit (www.cowanauctions.com).

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