A Moorish bronze jeweled fire screen, attributed to Tiffany Studios and featuring rope twisted brass with insert art glass and stones, sold for $60,000 at a two-day estates sale held May 18 and 19 by S & S Auction Inc. in the firm's southern New Jersey gallery. The facility is located at 62 Repaupo Station Road in Repaupo, N.J. The fire screen, measuring 27.5 inches tall and 35.5 inches wide, was the top lot of the sale.
The May 18 session consisted of 430 lots of antiques, artwork and decorative accessories. May 19 featured 460 lots of 19th- and 20th-century Modern and Design pieces. The Tiffany fire screen sold on May 18, to a Baltimore, Md., collector. The screen descended from a Baltimore family with ties to Hecht's, the Baltimore department store.
Overall, the auction grossed just over $800,000, which pleased Glenn Sweeney of S & S Auction Inc. "We expected the Saturday session to do well because of the quality that had been consigned," he said. "Sunday was a nice surprise and showed me that better examples of antique furniture are still in demand. We had a wide variety of pieces, in many of the styles and periods."
About 400 people attended the event live over the course of the two days. Online bidding was facilitated by LiveAuctioneers.com, attracting 562 registered bidders on May 18 and 442 registered bidders on May 19. Phone bidding was very brisk both days and absentee bids were also recorded. About 2,500 uncataloged lots also came up for bid.
The following are additional highlights from the May 18 session. All prices quoted include a 20 percent buyer's premium.
A pair of lots posted identical selling prices of $15,600. The first was a monumental pair of 19th-century gilt French mirrors, fashioned from carved wood and gesso and standing 97-by-53-inches. The second was an 18th-century Dutch burl walnut tall case clock, marked Gerrit Knip & Zoon of Amsterdam and in very good condition, impressive at 102 inches tall.
A Jansen French commode, ebonized with bronze boulle and gilt bronze mounts, in very good condition and an example of the finest quality, rose to $8,400, while an unsigned and unframed oil-on-board painting of a woman seated at a piano with a child, titled “The Piano Lesson,” 16.5-by-12-inches, went to a determined bidder for $8,100.
A patinated and gilt bronze French figural clock, signed "A. Calmels" by the French sculptor Celestin Anatole Calmels (1822-1906), went for $6,900, and a French gilt wood panel featuring a 12-inch Sevres porcelain plaque with a hand-painted portrait of the Duchess of Devonshire (signed "Ullman"), with 12 surrounding 3-inch Sevres porcelains, made $4,800.
A Danish rosewood tambour (sliding shutter) door sideboard, 31.75-by-78.75-inches and in good condition, commanded $4,500 despite the fact that it was missing two interior drawers, and a Modern queen-size Lucite canopy bed, crystal clear and in good shape save for some crazing in the Lucite, measuring 84-by-85-inches, topped out at $2,400.
An oval Arne Vodder Danish rosewood dining table, missing some mounting screws for the legs but still in overall very good condition, changed hands for $2,760, and a Johannes Andersen Smile teakwood coffee table, showing some wear to the finish on top but in otherwise good condition, rose to $2,160.
A set of six Hans Wegner teakwood sawbuck chairs exhibiting some light wear to the finish but in overall good shape went for $3,000; a pair of Eames (for Herman Miller) black leather aluminum chairs, in very good condition, hammered for $2,280; and a two-piece Borg Mogensen leather parlor set, in only fair condition, with wear to the leather and finish, still made $2,400.
S & S Auction Inc. has another major sale planned from Sunday, July 27, to Monday, July 28. Sunday's session will featured antiques, art and decorative accessories, while Monday will showcase 20th-century Modern and Design. Cataloged sessions will begin at 1 p.m. S & S Auctions holds bi-weekly sales every other Monday and typically conducts two large cataloged auctions per year.
To learn more about this or the upcoming July 27 and 28 sale, call 856-467-3778 or visit www.ssauction.com.