Saved by the Cell

May 10th, 2014

“Probably came from Old Man Sack when he was in Boston,” said Ron Bourgeault, referring to legendary Americana dealer Israel Sack, when this circa 1760 Boston Chippendale carved mahogany blockfront kneehole dressing table, 30¼" high x 32½" wide, came to the block. Estimated at $22,000/28,000, it sold on one bid by a collector, in house, who paid $26,400.

A bid of $69,000, placed by a collector, was enough to win John James Audubon’s Great American Cock Male, a circa 1826 double elephant folio hand-colored engraving by William H. Lizars of Edinburgh, 39" x 25¾". According to the Web site of The Old Print Shop in New York City, this plate is often found with damage as it was the first plate in the first volume.

Tiger maple gate-leg drop-leaf table with a scrubbed top and one drawer sold to a phone bidder for $5040, well above the $600/900 estimate.

The Boston Sheraton inlaid-satinwood and mahogany worktable by Thomas Seymour, estimated at $8000/12,000, sold to a phone bidder for $40,800. The two-drawer table had an altered top with outset corners and inlaid triangular banding, bird’s-eye maple panels, satinwood banding, a work bag, reeded stiles, and ring-turned and reeded legs with brass casters. It measured 28¾" x 19" x 15¾". In 1996 at the Meyer sale at Sotheby’s, a similar table sold for $189,500.

The 1779-95 silver sugar bowl and cover by Boston maker Benjamin Burt (1729-1805) sold for $10,200 to a phone bidder on the line with Northeast’s Rebecca J. Davis. The underbidder was Portsmouth, New Hampshire, dealer Jonathan Trace. The inverted pear-form footed sugar bowl, 11 oz. and 6" high, with a domed cover with a berry finial, was engraved “1790” and marked “B * BURT.” Burt, born into a prominent family of silversmiths, led the procession of goldsmiths and jewelers during George Washington’s visit to Boston in October 1789. (The procession was in alphabetical order: “Goldsmiths and Jewellers” were sandwiched between the “Glaziers and Plumbers” and “Hair-Dressers.”) Burt led another procession in 1800 in memory of Washington.

Northeast Auctions, Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Photos courtesy Northeast Auctions

On the second day of Northeast Auctions’ May 10 and 11 sale in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, owner Ron Bourgeault took to the microphone and started to explain to the assembled crowd that 12 lots, including some of the highest-estimated objects of the day, were going to be withdrawn because of a misunderstanding with a consignor.

Then his cell phone rang.

Bourgeault excused himself, left the podium briefly, and then returned. “All the lots are back in,” he said, smiling.

He had reason to smile, as did his consignor. The 12 lots included a Boston Sheraton inlaid-satinwood and mahogany worktable by Thomas Seymour that sold for $40,800 (includes buyer’s premium), a silver sugar bowl with cover by Boston maker Benjamin Burt (1729-1805) that made $10,200, and a Boston circa 1760 mahogany blockfront kneehole dressing table that sold for $26,400.

The two-day sale began on Saturday at 10 a.m. with 194 lots of Currier & Ives and historical prints. There was solid reason: the American Historical Print Collectors Society’s annual meeting was being held May 8-10 in York Beach, Maine, practically across the river from Northeast’s Portsmouth location. Sale day saw many members of the AHPCS attend the sale.

The prints brought in a total of $124,410, with the highest being $6000 paid for Currier & Ives’s Landscape, Fruit and Flowers, a large folio hand-colored lithograph published in 1862, Conningham 3440, and #48 on Conningham’s “The Best Fifty” large folio Currier & Ives prints. (Conningham refers to Currier & Ives Prints: An Illustrated Checklist by Frederic A. Conningham.)

Other high-flying Currier & Ives prints were The Road—Summer, C-5165, $5760; The Old Homestead in Winter, C-4563, $5520; Mount Washington and the White Mountains, From the Valley of Conway, C-4242, $3840; Camping Out—“Some of the Right Sort,” C-777, $3000; Ice-Boat Race on the Hudson, C-3021, $3300; A Midnight Race on the Mississippi, C-4116, $4320; General Butler, and Dexter. In their Great Match for $2000, Two Mile Heats, to Wagons, C-2243, $2160; and Fast Trotters on Harlem Lane, N.Y., C-1907, $3600.

Non-Currier & Ives prints included a view of Gloucester, Massachusetts, after Fitz Henry Lane, a tinted lithograph by L.H. Bradford & Co., published by Proctor Brothers, Boston, circa 1855, $5100; Alexander Hamilton, Major General of the Armies of the United States of America, Secretary of Treasury, Etc., a stipple engraving by William Rollinson after Archibald Robertson, 1804, $4080; and two French engravings of General Washington and Lafayette, Le General Washington and Conclusion de la Campagne Liberte de 1781 en Virginie…the Marquess de La Fayette, each engraved by Noel Le Mire after J. Le Paon, Paris, 1785-90, $2880.

When the prints were finished, the remainder of day one was filled with a general auction that was not included in the full-color catalog. Selling from a non-illustrated list, Bourgeault and his staff sold another 300 lots. No lot topped $1000 and a few went for as little as $6. (This reporter picked up a $6 lamp.) As in auctions of old, each object was held by a runner, and smalls were delivered to winning bidders where they sat. It was a fun, fast-paced sale, and members of the trade still in attendance picked up many lots with plenty of profit left in them.

Day two was the more serious day, with a wide breadth of material, everything from jewelry to Americana to historical blue Staffordshire. A pair of portraits by Robert Feke (1707-1752) of James and Hannah Flagg as children sold for $21,600 after failing to sell at Northeast’s August 2013 sale with a higher $40,000/60,000 estimate. The oil on canvas portraits are half-length, each measuring 18" x 14¼". The portrait of James had a note on the back that read “James Flagg, a son of Gershom Flagg.” Gershom Flagg IV, a builder and architect, was married to Hannah Pitson Flagg. In 1754, he built Fort Western in Augusta, Maine, and in 1761 completed the Pownalborough Courthouse in Dresden, Maine, which still stands. It’s the only pre-Revolutionary War courthouse remaining in Maine. Gershom and Hannah had a total of seven children. These portraits passed to Grizzell Apthorp Flagg (1753-1827), the sister of the sitters and the mother of the poet Hannah Flagg Gould (1789-1865). They entered a private collection in 1948 and were at Vose Galleries in 1982.

The total for the weekend was $680,631. For more information, contact Northeast Auctions at (603) 433-8400 or (www.northeastauctions.com).

It was the second go-round for this pair of portraits of James and Hannah Flagg of Boston by American artist Robert Feke (1707-1752). They were offered in August 2013 with a $40,000/60,000 estimate and didn’t sell. With a lower $18,000/28,000 estimate, they sold to a phone bidder for $21,600.

A phone bidder paid $16,800 (est. $8000/12,000) for the circa 1780 New England tiger maple graduated- drawer chest-on-chest standing 74" high x 40½" wide x 21" deep.

A New England historical society consigned the late 18th-century 12¾" x 8" watercolor portrait of lawyer Philo Ruggles (b. 1765) by Reuben Brownson of New Milford, Connecticut. It was estimated at $400/600, and an absentee bidder had to pay $2640 to win it. Ruggles and Brownson were delegates of the St. Peter’s Masonic Lodge of New Milford in 1799.

The stunning examples by Bellamy included this large pine example of an eagle with two draped flags under a center shield. It’s from a private collection, courtesy Allan Katz Americana, Woodbridge, Connecticut.

The Bold and Brash

A trip to Portsmouth should include a stop by Discover Portsmouth to take in Bold & Brash: The Art of John Haley Bellamy, an exhibition that will be up until October 3. The retrospective marks the centennial of Bellamy’s death and is highlighted by the release of a new book, American Eagle: The Bold Art and Brash Life of John Haley Bellamy, by exhibit curator James Craig.

Discover Portsmouth is located at 10 Middle Street and is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily with extended hours until 8 p.m. on the first Friday of each month. Admission to the exhibit is $8 and free to Portsmouth Historical Society members, children under 12, and active military personnel and their families. Group discounts are available. For more information, call (603) 436-8433.

This Bellamy eagle plaque is from a private collection, courtesy Hyland Granby Antiques, Hyannis Port, Massachusetts.

Bellamy’s tools and toolbox, courtesy the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts.

“God Is Our Refuge and Strength” (top), eagle plaque, painted and gilded pine, 1872-1900, and “In God We Trust,” painted pine, 1872-1900, courtesy Northeast Auctions.

This Bellamy stained and gilded pine pilot house eagle (on the pedestal) is from the collection of artist Jamie Wyeth. The label claims it’s the “most realistic eagle carving by Bellamy known to exist.”

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