Thomaston Place Auction Galleries, Thomaston, Maine
Photos courtesy Thomaston Place Auction Galleries
Thomaston Place Auction Galleries, Thomaston, Maine, held a late winter three-day auction February 21 to 23. When the last gavel came down, the gallery had taken in a cool $1.5 million. Only one lot hit the hundred-grand mark, but there were plenty more in the five-figure range.
The oil on linen abstract work by Ram Kumar (1924-2018), 40" x 20", signed in Hindi and dated upper right “64,” with a newspaper clipping and a sketched label attached to the back topped the sale at $137,500 (est. $100,000/150,000).
Ram Kumar (1924-2018) is credited by some as being one of India’s most celebrated artists. In 1946 he studied economics at St. Stephen’s College in New Delhi, and in 1950 he left India for Paris, France, where he studied with Andre Lhote and Fernand Leger. His style evolved through abstraction and Modernism, and many of his works evince somber overtones of depression and disillusionment. The urban abstract oil on linen canvas in this sale was signed in Hindi and dated upper right “64.” A newspaper clipping and a sketched label were attached to the back. The price of the 40" x 20" untitled painting towered over everything else in the sale, finishing at $137,500 (including buyer’s premium). It was the only lot in the sale to break into six figures.
This enormous 12' x 22' Civil War fortress flag flew proudly for $11,250 (est. $10,000/15,000).
A gargantuan 34-star flag, measuring 12' x 22', was described as “fortress sized.” The 34-star canton indicated that it dated from January 1861 to September 1863, between the admissions of Kansas and West Virginia to the Union. Several ink notations indicated that it came from the Johnson family of Germantown, Pennsylvania, known abolitionists and Quakers. Their home was a station on the Underground Railroad and is now a National Historic Landmark. It was further reported that the flag might have come from Fort Mifflin on the Delaware River, which became a POW prison in 1863. With some minor losses and repairs, the monumental banner took in $11,250.
“Reproduction” isn’t always a discouraging word. This Pennsylvania flintlock bearing the signature “C Welshantz York Pa” in homage to an 18th-century gunsmith was made around the 1970s to the 1980s. It hit the mark and more, finishing at $16,250 (est. $1500/2000).
Conrad Welshans was a York, Pennsylvania, gunsmith, born in 1761. His name is recorded in several variations as Welshants, Welshantz, and others. A Pennsylvania flintlock in the auction, however, was probably made in the 1970s or 1980s in careful homage to the Welshantz style. With a 39" long octagonal barrel, tiger maple stock, silver inlaid escutcheons, engraved patch box, and other decorations, it bore the signature “C Welshantz York Pa.” Clearly sold as a reproduction, it crushed the $1500/2000 estimate and landed at $16,250.
Magnificent 16th-century German bellows, walnut and bronze, dated 1587, 30 1/2" long, sold for $2875 (est. $2000/3000).
Even though it was far from the priciest lot in the sale, you’ll travel far and wide before you find another fireplace bellows to match the one in this sale. A full 30½" long, it was graced with fully three-dimensional carved black walnut allegorical figures, a cornucopia, a devil’s head handle, a monkey’s head on the spout, and other embellishments, along with a carved date of 1587. The original leather had long since crumbled, and the auction house hired a professional restorer to bring it back to full working order. It sold for $2875, and even that seemed modest given the extraordinary age and rarity.
For more information, visit the website (www.thomastonauction.com) or call (207) 354-8141.
Auctioneer Kaja Veilleux hammers down a 19th-century full-body copper running horse weathervane with a cast-zinc head. With a repaired tail, gilding loss, and body dents, including possible bullet holes, it still won by a nose at $1250, with a $1000/2000 estimate. Sisco photo.
“I’ve been after this for twenty-five years trying to get this to be sold,” Kaja Veilleux noted, “and we finally got it!” It was worth the wait. This 85" tall paint-decorated 18th-century country Chippendale corner cabinet with red and black paint on an ocher background, a molded cornice on top, and a relief-carved frieze below sold for $2375 (est. $3000/5000). Most of the glass lights appear to be original; three of them are replacements.
Maine’s own “favorite son” artist Waldo Peirce (1884-1970) painted Black Eyed Susans with Sketch Book, 23½" x 19½" (sight size), oil on canvas, initialed and dated “WP ‘69” on the sketchbook in the painting. It sold for $6250 with a $5000/7000 estimate. Peirce was a rugged Bohemian and a friend and fishing companion of Ernest Hemingway. Once in 1910, Peirce boarded a ship in Boston bound for Europe, then changed his mind, jumped overboard, and swam back to shore.
Here are two works by contemporary multimedia pop artist Peter Max (b. 1937). Vase of Flowers, Series II, Ver. II, #3, a 21" x 29" (sight size) mixed-media work on paper, is signed “MAX” upper left and inscribed on the back in marker to the buyer who purchased it in 2005. It came with a certificate of authenticity from the Wentworth Gallery. In a ribbed gilt frame, it sold for $6250 with an $8000/12,000 estimate. Profile Series IV, Ver. II, #1, acrylic on paper, 19½" x 15½" (sight size), signed upper right, in a gilt cove frame and black mat, sold for $4687.50 with a $5000/7000 estimate. Sisco photos.
The heavy 18k gold open-face pocket watch, with dual time and date dials and guilloché engravings with the affixed crest of Abdul Hamid II, the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1876 to 1909, cleared the $2000/3000 estimate and finally stalled out at $40,625, despite needing some service to bring it to full working order.
This 9¾" x 13¾" (sight size) oil on a mitered mahogany panel is signed and inscribed in pencil on the back “North Conway, New Hampshire” and thus was attributed to Jasper Francis Cropsey (1823-1900), well known for his similar scenic autumn landscapes. With no signature on the front, it still surpassed the $3000/5000 estimate and closed for $6875. Sisco photo.
The work of French artist Auguste Herbin (1882-1960) ranges from Cubism (he had a studio in close proximity to that of Pablo Picasso) to Impressionism and Fauvism and ultimately to geometric abstraction. This simple abstract work, 35½" x 28" (sight size), reflects his love for intense bright colors and simple forms. Signed and dated lower right “herbin 1948” and in a bleached wooden frame with a gold liner, it came with a $50,000/70,000 estimate and left for $37,500. Sisco photo.
A robustly decorated mid-Atlantic two-gallon stoneware pitcher with cobalt swags, flowers, and foliage, standing 13" high, took in $562.50 with an $800/1200 estimate. The price was held in check by a hairline crack or two. Sisco photo.
This oil on canvas portrait of the schooner Fred W. Chase by Reginald Eugene Nickerson (1915-1999), 22" x 36" (sight size), managed to stay afloat at $2125 with a $2000/3000 estimate. According to a New York Tribune newspaper clipping dated February 5, 1887, the Fred W. Chase collided with the steamship City of Atlanta while the Fred W. Chase was in tow by the tug Monarch. The ship foundered in the breakers off Folly Island a day or two later; it is believed that all hands were rescued. Sisco photo.
The rare child-size pine chair table, measuring only 24" high to the table surface and 29½" diameter, in old red paint, sold for a mildly disappointing $750 (est. $800/1000). Sisco photo.
This 29" x 24" (sight size) oil on canvas portrait of a fair-skinned young lady, circa 1750, holding roses and a sprig of edelweiss, was listed as “school of Anton Raphael Mengs” (German/Italian, 1728-1779). Bidders showed plenty of confidence as they chased it far past the $3000/4000 estimate to seal it at $22,500.
In the catalog this 25½" x 20" stretched but unframed and unsigned oil on linen of a young nude was titled Tahitienne and described as having been modeled on the style and palette of French artist Paul Gauguin (1848-1903). It was diminished by a number of tears and punctures, but the listing further speculated that it might be a portrait of a Tahitian named Pau’ura, with whom Gauguin is known to have fathered two children. That was enough to bring it up to five figures at $12,500 but not enough to catch the $20,000/30,000 estimate. Sisco photo.
Numerous well-known artists painted views of Black Head on Monhegan Island, Maine, including Edward Hopper, N. C. Wyeth, Rockwell Kent, and many others, drawn by the towering rocky headland that falls off steeply to the water. This 19" x 23½" (sight size) oil on canvas by John Marin (1870-1953) focuses on an unusual closer view of where the rocks meet the water. Signed and dated “37,” it finished at $27,500, within the $20,000/30,000 estimate.
Originally published in the May 2025 issue of Maine Antique Digest. © 2025 Maine Antique Digest
