Silver Rules The Roost In Neue Auctions' Online-only Summer Estates Auction

By Author: Cynthia Maciejewski
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Silver ruled the roost in Neue Auctions’ online-only Summer Estates auction held July 24th, as five of the top ten lots were silver. The sale’s top seller was a Whiting sterling flatware service in the Lily pattern, 112 pieces, with various monograms on most pieces and no monograms on 16 pieces, weighing a total of 129.90 oz. troy. The service brought $9,225.

The auction featured more than just silver. Also sold was fine art glass, lighting, modern and antique furniture, fine carpets, porcelains, glassware, garden sculptures and planters, fine jewelry and decorative objects for the home. Online bidding was via Liveauctioneers.com, Invaluable.com and BidSquare.com. Telephone and absentee bids were also accepted.

It was an eclectic sale, with items ranging from a 2.5 carat solitaire diamond ring prong set in 14kt white gold ($8,610); to an “Okkintok” squared oval form stoneware vessel with cylindrical neck by Claude Conover (American, 1907-1994) ($5,228); to a lovely Chinese hand-painted five-panel wallpaper screen, circa 1800, decorated with a flower and bamboo garden ($4,920).

The other four silver ...
... lots that made the top ten included the following:

- A Reed and Barton sterling silver tea service, pattern 910, with a matching sterling silver tray measuring 18 ¼ inches by 27 inches and totaling 287.0007 oz. troy ($6,765)

- A Tiffany & Co. George Paulding Farnham designed Aztec pepper mill, rare form, circa 1905, cast with Aztec designs and stamped “Tiffany & Co.”, 3 ½ inches tall ($3,321).

- A Gorham sterling silver tea service, pear-shaped form with gadrooned rims and urn finials, plus carved wood handles, monogrammed “S”, total 138.3768 oz. troy ($3,075).

- An English Victorian silver tea service (John Angell II & George Angell, London, 1847), with foliate cartouches centered by monograms (“TMS”), total 82.23 oz. troy ($2,829).

Following are additional highlights from the 378-lot auction. All prices quoted include a 23 percent buyer’s premium.

Several Bernhard Rohne for Mastercraft Mid-Century Modern furniture pieces appealed to bidders, who rang up $5,228 for a bronze etched credenza with a brass panel top over three pair of hinged doors, raised on squared legs; and $1,722 for an etched brass chest of drawers, the rectangular form with rounded corners fitted on the top, sides and front with brass inset plaques.

Other noteworthy furniture pieces included an early 20th century Northern Italian (or German) fruitwood commode, with serpentine top, parquetry inlaid, and a conforming case with three long drawers ($2,337); and a mid-19th century English Regency secretary bookcase, 84 inches tall by 72 inches wide, the pediment top set with gilt metal flowerhead over Gothic style doors ($1,968).

Lamps and lighting featured a Tiffany Studios desk lamp with a gilt bronze harp form base with ribbed circular foot and a (cracked) Tiffany favrile glass damascened shade in gold, signed “LTC” ($4,612); and a Handel boudoir lamp with reverse painted scenic landscape shade, the domed shade in ice chip finish reverse painted with a moonlit river landscape, signed ($2,337).

Glass included a George Bucquet cast glass sculpture with wide heavy bowl form on opalescent lavender glass, with cast copper iridescent handle forms, signed “Bucquet ‘03’, 8 ¾ inches tall; and a Stefano Toso Murano blown glass sculpture in the form of a cube balancing on a clear glass pyramidal base, decorated in translucent white, cobalt blue and ultramarine (both $1,968).

Persian carpets were plentiful and included a thick plush wool on cotton weft Kermin palace runner, about 5 feet by 20 feet, overall cream in color with a muted palette of floral sprays ($1,845); and a handwoven wool antique Sarouk carpet, 14 feet 7 inches by 9 feet 5 inches, with floral urns on a deep red field, in navy, red and cream, and having a floral scroll border ($1,845).

One of the more visually arresting lots in the sale was a carved marble bust of Apollo Belvedere, unsigned and raised on a small marble socle, in very nice condition, 21 inches tall ($2,091). Also sold was a nice patinated metal figure of a Deco girl balancing balls atop an agate orb lamp on a square metal base, aesthetically appealing and having utilitarian appeal, 20 inches tall ($1,353).

Clocks featured a Louis XV style bouille and ormolu mounted shelf clock with blue and white porcelain hour and second markers, a figural front panel and topped with an angel blowing a horn ($1,722); and a Rene Lalique “Moineaux” clock, arch form in clear and frosted glass molded with birds in flowering branches, refitted for battery use ($1,353).

A set of ten Royal Crown Derby Old Imari soup bowls went to a determine bidder for $2,460, while a three-piece set of Royal Copenhagen Flora Danica, comprising two dinner plates and a covered pot de crème on a stand, the plates depicting “Potentilla Aridentata” and “Geranium Pusillum”, the pot de crème with “Veronica Verna”, the plates 10 inches diameter, hit $1,845.

To learn more about Neue Auctions, please visit www.neueauctions.com. Updates posted often.