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The Cobbs' January 3 auction in
Peterborough, New Hampshire, was one of those auctions where there was
lots of good stuff eclipsed by one truly great item.
The first lot up was a 1930-40
room-size Sarouk rug with a wide floral border and an open rose-colored
center field with a central medallion. It sold for a solid $5750
(including buyer's premium).
Some fine lots of European
silver were headed up by a "Tiffany & Co. pat. 1878 M" sterling silver
dessert set with 12 cake forks, 12 ice cream forks, two serving pieces,
five citrus spoons, and two demitasse spoons that sold for $4025. A fine
English silver coffeepot with a stepped dome lid, gadrooning around the
edges, a smooth black-stained mahogany handle, applied shell decorations
around the base of the spout, an engraved coat of arms over a banner
reading "DEO. REGIQUE. DEBEO," Latin for "I owe to God and the king," and
hallmarked "LC" and "M" with a rampant crowned lion brought $1955.
But the lot leading all the rest
by an order of magnitude was "one of the best paintings we've ever had an
opportunity to be selling," as auctioneer Charlie Cobb announced it. It
was a misty morning portrait of a bull moose trumpeting in the foreground,
signed in the lower right "C. Rungius."
Good Carl Rungius (1869-1959)
works frequently crack the $100,000 mark, and Cobb confirmed before the
sale that he was confident this one wouldn't disappoint. "I think it's
going to go for over one hundred thousand dollars," he confirmed, adding,
"It started out there [at the Fogg Art Museum]. Then it was sold into a
private collection. Then there was an estate settlement in the '90's. From
there it was sold to my client...it's got pretty good provenance. I
think...it's been relined, but there's no real inpainting. A couple of
little spots."
The strikingly large (32 inches
x 46 inches) wildlife portrait, in what appeared to be its original frame,
sold for a commanding $126,500 to a buyer in the trade.
Born in Berlin, Germany, Rungius
attained a reputation as one of North America's premier outdoor and
wildlife painters of the 20th century, with his bold brush strokes and
color schemes that seem to intimately link his animal subjects to their
scenic environs. Rungius spent most of his active career between Wyoming
and Canada, painting in New Brunswick, the Yukon, and the Canadian
Rockies. |
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Nearly eclipsed by the Rungius were several
other serious artworks, including a 7 3/4 inches x 9 1/2 inches (sight
size) watercolor by California artist Edward Borein (1872-1945), signed
lower right, of a mounted cowboy riding herd, selling for $16,100. Borein
lived much of what he saw and painted, and he regarded himself as an
accurate artistic recorder rather than an interpreter. He rarely used
models, often painting his compatriots in minute detail entirely from
memory while working as a drover in California or as a vaquero in Mexico,
and is regarded by many as the last cowboy artist to record the Old West
from firsthand experience.
Another item of Western
art was an oil on canvas of a southwestern scene signed "R. Farrington
Elwell" for self-taught artist Robert Farrington Elwell (1874-1962). The
Boston-born Elwell began sketching Buffalo Bill's Wild West show as a
reporter for the
Boston Globe and was fascinated by the performances—so
much so that Buffalo Bill invited him to spend summers at the Cody ranch
in Wyoming, and the course of Elwell's career was set. He became the
manager of the ranch and of other Cody affairs, while meeting and painting
the great Western personalities of the day—Frederic Remington, Annie
Oakley, Diamond Jim Brady, and others.
This painting showed four
cowpokes with their evening mess from the chuck wagon. The middle figure
had a significant repair in the canvas, but there was no other obvious
damage, and it brought a solid $4887.50.
Foremost among the
furniture was a mahogany Chippendale side chair attributed to Philadelphia
maker Thomas Affleck (working circa 1763, died 1795) via a reference to
plate 81 in John Kirk's American Chairs: Queen Anne and Chippendale (Knopf,
1972). It had a pierced carved splat, molded stiles, the original slip
seat over a carved skirt, and cabriole legs with carved returns and
ball-and-claw feet.
The provenance leads back to the
founding family of the Merchant's Bank of Boston and Lucius Beebe & Co.
Lucius Beebe (1810-1884) left his native Connecticut and relocated to New
Orleans, where he and his brothers began a cotton brokering business. The
chair started out at $3500 and cruised slowly up to a big $15,525.
For more information, call
(603) 924-6361; Web site (www.thecobbs.com).
© 2004 by Maine Antique Digest |
