This Week’s Top Lots: May 15 – 22

Editorial Staff Art

*  Prices were down at the May 15 sale of American and European paintings and prints at Skinner in Boston. The top lot was Picasso’s Portrait of Ambrose Vollard with His Cat, which sold for $308,500 (estimate $450,000-650,000), and the next highest prices paid were $118,500 for the Henri Matisse drawing Seated Woman in Oriental Dress (estimate $150,000-250,000), and $41,475 for Salvador Dali’s The Annunciation (estimate $40,000-50,000).

Croissance by Francois Stahly, 1963; courtesy of Rago Arts.



*  The top lot at Rago’s sale of 19th and 20th century American and European art on May 15 was an untitled canvas by Fern Isabel Kuns Coppedge that sold for $42,000 (estimate $30,000-50,000). Another top selling lot was the 1890 sculpture, Pan of Rohallion, by Frederick William MacMonnies that brought $19,200 (estimate $10,000-15,000). At the May 16 sale of Contemporary art the top lot was an untitled canvas by Wojcieck (Voy) Fangor that sold for $42,000 (estimate $30,000-50,000). Also notable were two Francois Stahly sculptures that sold well above their estimates: Croissance brought $25,200 ($4,000-6,000) and Le Petite Hydra brought $18,000 ($3,000-5,000).

The Urgent Hour by Gerome Kamrowski; courtesy of Freeman’s Auctions.



*  The top lot of Freeman’s sale of modern and contemporary art in Philadelphia on May 17 was The Urgent Hour by Gerome Kamrowski, which sold for $85,000, well above its $4,000-6,000 estimate. Other notable sales were Jean Dufy’s Les Battages (estimate $30,000-50,000), and an untitled painting by Mübin Orhon (estimate $12,000-18,000), that each brought $61,000.

* At the May 17 sale of decorative arts at Northeast Auctions in Portsmouth, New Hampshire was a seventeen-light cut-glass chandelier that brought $56,160, well above its estimate of $5,000-8,000. Another top lot was a rock-crystal, cut-glass and gilt-metal eight-light chandelier that was sold for $51,480 (estimate $20,000-30,000). Also notable was a Massachusetts Queen Anne highboy that sold for $25,740 (estimate $7,000-12,000).

*  At the Doyle New York sale of modern and contemporary art on May 19 the top lot was Jean Metziner’s Paysage from 1917 that was sold for $722,500 (estimate $700,000-1.5 million). Next was a painting by Rufino Tamayo that sold for $338,500 (estimate $300,000-500,000).

Sketching by the Sea by Milton Avery, 1944; courtesy of Christies’ Images, Ltd. 2009.

*  The May 20 sale of American art at Christie’s New York totaled $16.8 million, with 88 of 141 lots sold. The top lot was Milton Avery’s Sketching by the Sea that sold for $2.2 million estimate ($600,000-800,000). Other top selling lots included Thomas Cole’s View in Kaaterskill Cove that brought over $1 million (estimate $800,000-1.2 million), George Bellows’ Cloud Shadows that brought $962,500 (estimate $600,000- 800,000), and William James Glackens’ Wickford Harbor, Rhode Island that brought $458,500 (estimate $200,000-300,000).

*  Sotheby’s New York sale of American art on May 21 sale of American art at Christie’s New York totaled $15.3 million, with 66 of 107 lots sold. The top lot was Childe Hassam’s Paris, Winter Day that sold for $2.3 million estimate ($1.5-2.5 million). Other top selling lots included Country Fair by Anna Mary Robertson (Grandma) Moses that brought over $1 million (estimate $700,000-900,000), a sculpture by Harriet Whitney Frishmuth that brought $962,500 (estimate $400,000- 600,000)—an auction record for the artist—and Newport by Childe Hassam that brought $902,500 (estimate $400,000-600,000).

Tureen from the Hamilton service, made by Paul Storr, London, 1806; courtesy of Christies’ Images, Ltd. 2009.

*  Today’s sale (May 22) of silver and objects of vertu at Christie’s New York totaled just under $2.4 million, with 198 of 243 lots sold. The top lot was a Paul Storr soup tureen that sold for $182,500 (estimate $90,000-120,000). Other top selling lots included a German parcel-gilt silver cup and cover that fetched $110,500, and an enamel and gem-set snuff box that brought $88,900 (both were estimated at $15,000-25,000).

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