A Passion for Collecting: Part I of the Estate of Candice B. Groot
February 6th, 2016
Treadway Toomey Auctions, Oak Park, Illinois
Photos courtesy Treadway Toomey Auctions
When John Toomey of Treadway Toomey Auctions hired John Walcher, Toomey asked him to build a new sale category. Long celebrated for a depth of Arts and Crafts auctions plus period fine art and 1950s/contemporary sales, the Oak Park, Illinois, gallery wanted to expand into larger single-owner sales. We’re here to tell you that the first one, held February 6, was a whopper, realizing about $1.4 million, with fewer than a handful of 531 lots unsold. That was just for Part I, involving a 30-some-year collection of notable and varied erotica in forms carefully curated by the owner.
Bidders pre-registered and participated online and by phone from “all over” (worldwide) said Walcher. Standing next to the phones, we could not believe the constant activity. “We had more interest online than in recent sales,” he added, and most winning bids came from online and phones. Many were new to the house.
When approached by the family of a longtime client known to the house and in advanced collecting circles as a consummate collector, Walcher listened. The result was a decision for two sales notable for specialized content.
The part covered here had pocket watches, wristwatches, and clocks of all kinds. Most involved erotica, as did most other objects in the sale. But there was so much more. All lots were collected by Evanston, Illinois, and Holland, Michigan, resident Candice B. Groot, who died at age 61 on April 5, 2015. A ceramic artist with an MFA, she was raised in a rigid Dutch Reformed Church setting and became a teacher and ceramic artist. In 1988 she founded the Virginia A. Groot Foundation, which gives an annual international grant named for her mother, established to be awarded to artists who work in three dimensions.
Note the yin/yang of her background—rigid versus artistic. Fortunately, the collecting was easy for her because generations ago, the family founded a highly successful hauling business. Candice Groot contributed a unique vision. Groot’s obituary stated, “She was also a collector of many unique objects, her focus and expertise being in figurative and ceramic sculpture.”
This $12,200 “Swimming Turtle” mystery clock of green marble, brass, pewter, and ceramic stands only 5" high.
On April 16 in Oak Park, Treadway Gallery along with Toomey will sell Part II of the Groot collection. “Fire & Form: Fine Art & Ceramics” will offer what Walcher called one of the most important and comprehensive collections of modern and contemporary ceramics to come to auction. You can view online catalogs for both sales along with results for Part I at (www.treadwaygallery.com).
The February sale offered Groot’s private collection of whatever took her fancy. What she fancied was strange and wonderful. Divided into six categories it covered: “Lover’s Eyes; Fine Timepieces & Jewelry; Automata; Taxidermy; and Fine Canes & Decorative Arts.” Another session offered “Ivory Canes & Decorative Arts” to Illinois residents only. More on that later.
Bidding opened with 25 lots of lover’s eyes, the 19th-century mementos featuring portraits, each of a single eye, in varied jewelry settings. Considered mysterious yet erotic, the conceit was much loved by Victorians. Presale catalog viewing was heavy online; Instagram, especially, proved a bonanza.
Estimated at $600/800, this 19th-century lover’s-eye bracelet of 12k gold with turquoise cabochons and a miniature painting of a brown eye sold for $7930. It is an unusual form.
Next were 222 lots of fine timepieces and jewelry. Almost all featured some level of erotica or fetish. There were skeleton watches with nudes in erotic positions, sailors in threesomes, a robed judge enjoying a nude woman, and a cook and scullery maid whipping up something in a kitchen. Three wristwatches featured Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky in action. Devils did it to angels, and 24 open-face pocket watches showed everyone from a barber to a Hasidic Jew and Count Dracula in the act.
A penis with testicles tie tack with bezel-set faceted diamonds sold with buyers’ premium for $1037 (it was small). Erotic rings ranged from 1st-century Roman to an 18th-century swivel intaglio. “Times/5,” an Andy Warhol for Movado wristwatch from 1988, sold for $8540, and there were pages of googly-eyed clocks.
Automata had 22 lots ranging from classic 19th-century smoking figures to contemporary masters. According to Walcher, automata collectors exhibited very little crossover interest. Some liked antique classics; others wanted contemporary automata.
There were nine articulated mannequins in the sale including one life-size one shown elsewhere in a horn chair. This French one was the priciest at $5490. Note what was cataloged as “mystery” articulations and ring-segmented neck and torso. The face is polychrome painted.
When it came to taxidermy, “It’s not for everyone,” admitted Walcher. Unlike standard mounts of big game animals or fish, Groot’s collection focused on household pets and the unusual.
Starring were displays that Groot bought in 2003 when Bonhams London sold off the contents of Mr. Potter’s Museum of Curiosities in England. A master of Victorian sentiment, Walter Potter (1835-1918) was a taxidermist who set up dioramas and small scenes that put small animals into human-type situations. His “Kittens’ Tea and Croquet Party” diorama sold for $169,500, and “The Kittens’ Wedding” diorama brought $121,500.
Highest price in the sale was $169,500 for Walter Potter’s taxidermy diorama “Kittens’ Tea and Croquet Party.” Thirty-seven kittens populate the late 19th-century scene. The underbidders were Christopher English and Stephen Shin of Antediluvian Antiques & Curiosities, Lake Placid, New York.
Considered the height of Victorian taxidermy, the works of Walter Potter (1835-1918) are still revered in certain circles. Done in 1890, the taxidermic diorama “The Kittens’ Wedding” features 20 kittens dressed in period outfits. It looks a little tatty today—wouldn’t we all at that age?—but is amazingly intact. Peering in, we spotted bustles, bead earrings on the ladies, miniature parasols, and such finery. Formerly exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum, it sold for $121,500. The buyers were Christopher English and Stephen Shin of Antediluvian Antiques & Curiosities, Lake Placid, New York.
For sheer outré imagery, canes, especially ivory canes and accessories, were standouts. Cane handles included draped nude females, a masturbating nun, pooping men, women, and children, a variety of sex acts, varied sexual organs and orifices, sword and music box canes—an amazing variety. The ivory at first posed a problem for Treadway Toomey. With endangered species laws in flux and after extensive consultation with game and Federal agencies, it was decided by the family and gallery to limit sales involving ivory and other endangered species only to Illinois residents with a valid ID.
“Spring in Bloom,” a vintage 5¢ peepshow vending machine, sold for $6100 (est. $1000/2000).
“We probably could have sold higher if we opened to national and international buyers,” admitted Walcher. All involved are comfortable with the final decision.
“She was the collector’s collector,” Jeff Cohen said after the sale. “I wanted to buy the stuff,” said the Chicago seller/dealer of vintage and antique jewelry and watches. “This was the largest collection of good erotica that I know of to come to auction in the past decade.”
Seated in the audience next to another seller, Cohen raised his paddle again and again, only to be outbid by the phone bidders. Not until lot 27, a “Two Blacksmiths” erotic pocket watch that sold for $5490 to someone in the audience, did an in-house buyer succeed. The feat earned a big round of applause and “I knew it had to happen sometime” from auctioneer Walcher.
Top lot in the pocket watch division sold for $73,200. It was this James Cox concealed three-layered erotic open-face watch made in London, circa 1775. Of 18k gold with a paste-set face and varied enamels, it was made for the Chinese market.
In the long run, Cohen did OK. “I paid competitive market price,” he told us. “People bidding were aggressive collectors.” It was collectors that drove prices.
We asked if, down the road, good old erotica will appreciate in value. Cohen does not think so. “Buyers today are fifty-five to eighty. I don’t think a younger crowd perceives this as a desirable collectible. It’s not for a younger audience.”
How could it be, when titillating sex and downright porn, not to mention sexting, is available 24/7 to anyone with a digital device?
For more information, call (708) 383-5234 or see the website (www.treadwaygallery.com).
The brass and steel French mystery waterwheel ball bearing industrial clock, estimated at $800/1200, sold for $6710. The 17½" x 17" x 8½" waterwheel came in its rosewood and glass case.
Originally published in the April 2016 issue of Maine Antique Digest. © 2016 Maine Antique Digest
