Over 100 lots of notable Nantucket art and fine art will share the stage with estate jewelry, Period American, English and Continental furnishings and decor, Nantucket baskets, Sterling silver and collectibles in Rafael Osona’s 41st Annual Independence Weekend Auction on Saturday, July 3.
For the collector of Nantucket fine art, the auction features over 70 lots of sought-after art by Robert Stark Jr., Donald Demers, James Cromartie, Joseph McGurl, Frank Corso, John Austin, Illya Kagan, Jan Munro, Jan Pawlowski, John Austin, Sybil Goldsmith, Robert Perrin, David Lazarus, Joan Albaugh, William Lowe, June Owen, J.B. Reid, and Doris and Richard Beer, to name a few. Besides Nantucket Art, there are works by Antonio Jacobsen, Brian Coole, Louis Dodd, Tom Holland, and Michael Matthews.
Many Nantucket grand estates include a work or two by Robert Stark Jr. This sale happens to feature two of his works, an iconic oil-on-canvas “Red Sail with Rainbow Fleet” alongside a canvas from his Irish period featuring a trawler off the Ireland coast.
Four works by esteemed artist Donald Demers include “Sailing Lesson” and “Sailing off Nantucket by Sankaty Light.” Two acrylics by the notable James Cromartie display his vision of “Nantucket’s Great Point Lighthouse.”
Illya Kagan, a talented plein-air artist and son of the late modern furniture designer Vladimir Kagan, holds court with two very large canvases featuring “Yachting Day – Nantucket Harbor” and “Panoramic View of Nantucket Harbor and the Jetties”
Estate jewelry in a range for all pocketbooks includes Bvlgari, Cartier, Tiffany & Co., Hermès, Ilias Lalaounis, and anonymous South Sea and Akoya Pearl necklaces.
Estate jewelry selections also include two Bvlgari “Tubogas” diamond cuff bracelets in steel and 18-carat yellow gold and Hermes enamel bangles, as well as a Tiffany & Co. 18-carat yellow gold sea urchin pin, ca. 1960s. A 14-carat gold Nantucket basket pendant-necklace with scrimshawed blue hydrangea by island goldsmith Diana Kim England is a work of art and a definite choice for that special Nantucket lady.
A monumental International Sterling silver flatware service comprising a 14-piece place setting for 12 (192 pieces) in the Puritan Pattern is presented in a serpentine mahogany box with multiple drawers which lock when closed.
Coveted works by the late Nantucket craftsman Stephen Swift lead the furniture lineup with 10 high-back cherry dining chairs and trestle dining table and also a period 18th century American flat top highboy will be sold.
An English chest-on-chest, ca. 1800; tiger maple, mahogany and bamboo chests of drawers; and contemporary dining chairs including three sets of English elm and fan-back Windsors, one set designed and retailed by the Late Wayne Pratt, round out the selection of furniture.
Michael Vienneau scrimshaws only one panbone (whale’s jaw) per year. His 2001 panoramic harbor view characterizes the island’s economic and cultural swing from a gritty, seafaring community, with its camels, whaling bark and shipyards, to a chic summer colony’s iconic skyline, her steamship ferry and the Yacht Club’s 1926 inaugurated Rainbow Fleet.
Decorators and collectors will note Regency and Georgian tea caddies, rare Steuben animal forms including a clear crystal dragon designed by Bernard X. Wolff amongst 19th century blue and white Canton, Famille Rose and Rose Medallion porcelains, Majolica, Inuit soapstone carvings, doorstops, Diamond and Baratta for Stark needlepoint carpets and hand-knotted wool oriental rugs.
World-renowned local handicraft first made by sailors stationed on the Nantucket Lightship and Nantucket baskets made by veterans Stephen Gibbs, Sherwin Boyer, and Jose Reyes will be sold. A William Sevrens nest of seven round swing handle baskets will be offered among other works by contemporary makers.
With its early 19th-century architecture, cobbled village lanes and historic Main Street mansions, Nantucket, once the whaling capitol of the world, has a 140-year tradition as a summer colony of sea salt-sprayed, privet hedged estates which embody a truly unique material culture.
“Nantucket Island has long housed a treasure trove,” said Rafael Osona. “What better time to share the bounty collected by generations of Nantucketers than during the islanders’ favorite holiday week?”
Browse the July 3 sale catalog online. Bidding will be live online, telephone or by absentee.
Preview will take place at the American Legion Hall, 21 Washington St., Nantucket Island, Mass.
To learn more, call Rafael Osona Auctions at 508-228-3942.