More than 1,300 bidders from around the world eagerly vied for the 487 lots that comprised Briggs Auction Inc.'s Fine Estates Auction on June 5. The auction featured items from several prominent Main Line, Pa., and selected Delaware Valley estates and collections, including a wide range of period French antiques, modern furnishings and decorative arts, primitives, 18th and 19th century fine and decorative arts, fine Asian export porcelains and glassware, silver, fine jewelry, and much more.
The showpiece of the auction was an 1894 Steinway & Sons concert grand piano. The piano was originally purchased by Mrs. Thomas A. Scott of Philadelphia, wife of then president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, who commissioned Daniel Cottier of Cottier & Co. to add decorative inlay and painted classical decoration to the entirety of the piano's exterior and some of the interior. The ornate decoration included mother-of-pearl inlay and painted cherubs, putti, mythological scenes with maidens, floral bouquets, faux-leather finishes with the names of famous composers and music staves, and more. A matching bench hewn from one piece of wood accompanied the piano. After heated bidding from the floor, the Internet, and the telephone, the piano realized $61,950. All prices include either an 18-percent or 21-percent buyer's premium.
Other notable lots included a colorful oil-on-canvas by renowned artist Laura Knight, titled “Oriental Clowns,” which realized $24,200, and a fine Tiffany Studios "Lily" lamp featuring a bronze base decorated with lily pads supporting 10 gracefully-arched arms capped with the distinctive Tiffany favrile glass shades, which sold for $15,340. A pair of French marble urns with gilt-bronze mounts and removable lids sold for $6,490. Two other pieces of fine art were also top sellers, including an interesting 17th century Dutch school oil painting portrait of a gentleman in a large giltwood frame with ornately carved faces and classical-form busts ($13,310) and a Marie Langureau genre scene oil painting of a mother with her children, which sold for $8,850 to a determined Internet bidder.
"The Steinway piano may have been the centerpiece of this auction, but it was only part of this exciting and varied collection of merchandise. We are very proud the auction saw a range of buyers as well, from private collectors to dealers at all price ranges. This is validation that the right merchandise will find the right buyers," said Steve Turner of Briggs.
Other interesting lots in the sale were to be found in various categories. An unusual mid-century Arredoluce modern-design easel lamp was bid up to $4,114; a 19th century Vienna regulator wall clock with chime realized $2,242; a framed scenic copperplate print on cotton textile depicting "Penn's Treaty With the Indians" generated much interest before realizing $2,124; three pieces of vintage Louis Vuitton luggage including a steamer trunk sold for $2,057; and two hard-sided suitcases saw strong bidding before selling for $1,534 each. A Hamilton & Jones five-gallon stoneware jug with elaborate cobalt decoration brought $1,888.
Many pieces of furniture saw strong prices, including a nicely-carved Louis XV chest of drawers on cabriole legs ($3,540); a pair of charming walnut Clark's spool cabinets on custom stands, with red-glass drawer panels ($2,596); an 18th-century Pennsylvania walnut tall chest-on-frame ($2,360); an Old Hickory Adirondack twig-form settee and matching chair with woven seats ($2,057); and a modernist rosewood desk on square legs ($1,573).
The auction also featured several exceptional pieces of fine porcelain and glassware, including a delicate and finely-detailed Mount Washington Royal Flemish vase with enamel decorations of mallards, suns and stars ($4,840); an interesting Chinese export porcelain bowl with burled-wood glaze and gilt decoration ($3,068); and a Chinese export "Rockefeller" pattern centerpiece bowl ($2,596). Three Tiffany Studios favrile glass vases saw strong bidding, including a baluster-form ($4,956), a leaf-decorated ($4,012), and a floriform design ($2,006). Two pairs of Bohemian cranberry-glass candle lustres with alternating painted portraits and floral medallions realized $2,178 and $2,360, respectively.
Fine art, jewelry, and silver helped round out the evening, with several pieces in each category seeing standout prices. A Thomas Sully oil-on-canvas, "kit-kat" portrait of Mrs. J. Burk sold for $5,900; a 19th-century oil-on-board genre scene with children playing on the seashore sold for $5,808; a John Dull oil-on-canvas depicting the Philadelphia skyline with the Schuylkill River and Philadelphia Art Museum sold for $3,872; and an unusual pair of miniature portraits depicting President Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln sold for $1,331. A man's 18 carat yellow gold Patek Philippe & Co. wristwatch sold for $3,304. Diamonds are always in fashion, with a lovely platinum and diamond circle brooch of apx. 3.8cts realizing $2,832 and a contemporary three-piece diamond and 18-carat parure selling for $2,124. Three sets of sterling flatware defied falling silver prices, including one group of 169 pieces of Gorham in a massive fitted campaign-style chest ($3,068); 74 pieces of Stieff Rose pattern ($1,573); and 117 pieces of Stieff also in the Rose pattern, which realized $2,006.
Briggs Auction Inc.'s next catalog auction is scheduled for early fall and will showcase a variety of fine estate antiques, decorative and fine arts, a collection of contemporary Outsider art, fine export porcelains, and much more.
For further information on this or future sales, call 610-566-3138 or visit www.BriggsAuction.com.