AUCTION PREVIEWS: DENVER, EAST DENNIS, LOS ANGELES, PLYMOUTH, SANTA FE, THOMASTON
PLYMOUTH, MA
COPLEY FINE ART AUCTIONS
JULY 19-20
The Sporting Sale Leading off session one of Copley Fine Art Auctions’ annual Sporting Sale on July 19 is the Donal C. O’brien
Jr. Collection of Important American Sporting Art and Decoys, Session III. Making up 150 lots, included are sporting art,audubon prints, bronzes and books.the sale continues the next day with works from other collections and single owners, including the Davison B. Hawthorne Collection and the Ronald S. Swanson Collection of Decoys and Fish Models Among the twodimensional highlights in the sale is a hand-colored etching with aquatint and engraving of a long-billed curlew after John James Audubon. The piece is estimated to sell between $40,000 and $60,000.Two other birdthemed sporting works are of note: Alarmed (est. $2/3,000) by Lynn Bogue Hunt and Milton C.weiler’s Randy (est. $5/7,000).
In the decoy category, the major highlight is the Earnest-gregory Dovetailed Canada Goose that was dubbed by O’brien as the finest decoy in his collection. It has an estimate of $500,000 to $800,000.A pair of pinch-breast pintails by the Ward Brothers is also notable, carrying presale estimates of $80,000 to $120,000 each.
EAST DENNIS, MA ELDRED’S
JULY 19-20
The Marine Sale Eldred’s two-day Marine Sale will take place July 19 and 20 with sessions kicking off both days at 10 a.m. Featured in the auction will be important scrimshaw, ship models and other maritime art. Nearly
150 paintings will cross the block during the auction—the vast majority of which are fresh to the market.
Highlights of the sale include two classic portraits of boats out at sea. Elisha Taylor Baker’s Sloop Yacht Below Hudson Highlands is estimated to sell between $30,000 and $50,000. Antonio Nicolo Gasparo Jacobsen is represented in the auction by his work The S.S. Mineola at sea, which is dated 1893.The painting, which prominently shows off the boasts large sales has a presale estimate of $10,000 to $15,000.
LOS ANGELES, CA BONHAMS
AUGUST 7
California and Western Paintings and Sculpture More than 100 lots of artwork by names such as William Wendt, Joseph Raphael,
Armin Hansen, Edgar Payne, Birger Sandzén, Millard Owen Sheets and Grace Carpenter Hudson will cross the block during Bonhams’ august 7 California and Western Paintings and Sculpture sale. Among the noteworthy items coming to market is Sunset glow by Alfred R. Mitchell.the work, which was previously in the collection of Gerald E. Buck, depicts the El Montevalley with El Cajon Mountain— colloquially known as El Capitan—in the distance.
One of the artist’s largest scale paintings to come to auction, it is expected to sell between $40,000 and $60,000.There will be two other paintings by Mitchell available in the sale. California Impressionist Wendt is represented in the auction by his 1928 painting The Mansion (est. $30/50,000),
which was included in the 2009 retrospective In Nature’s Temple,the Life and Art of William Wendt at Irvine Museum.the painting, as the auction house explains, “depicts the Susanna Bixby Bryant Ranch House in Santa Ana, California, designed by architect Wallace Neff.” The Ranch House no longer exists, but the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden that Bixby Bryant founded at the location was relocated in 1951 to Claremont, California.
Jules Eugene Pages’ Window Shopping, Chinatown, San Francisco (est. $15/20,000), which was previously exhibited at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, features one of artist’s well-recognized scenes of the hustle-and-bustle of the famed district.
SANTA FE, NM
ALTERMANN GALLERIES & AUCTIONEERS
AUGUST 10-11
August Auction Altermann Galleries & Auctioneers will host its next Santa Fe, New Mexicobased sale August 10 and 11, featuring important Western and Native American art. There will be both historic and contemporary items represented, providing a range of items for collectors.
One of the standouts is Theodore Van Soelen’s Gathering for Vespers (est. $50/70,000).The artist, who was born in St. Paul Minnesota in 1890 and moved to Santa Fe after 1922 and remained in the state until his death in 1964.Also available will be Kenneth Riley’s Absaroka, a painting of a Native American with his horse, which is estimated to reach $70,000 to $90,000. Fremont Ellis’ luminous painting The Golden Day, featuring trees dappled with golden leaves, is another notable piece, with a presale estimate of $25,000 to $35,000.
THOMASTON, ME
THOMASTON PLACE AUCTION GALLERIES
AUGUST 24-26
Summer Feature Auction August 24 to 26,Thomaston Place Auction Galleries will host its Summer Feature Auction featuring important American artwork from New England and Florida homes. Many of the pieces will come from the Coral Gables Estate of Arthur and Ruth Sokoloff, including six works by Milton Avery in a wide array of subjects. One is a seabird painting titled Eight Birds Resting that has a presale estimate of $90,000 to $125,000.The painting, from 1962, is one of the last works that Avery painted.
Old Mill Dam, Passing Showers (est. $10/15,000) by Howard Chandler Christy is another notable item, as are two by Sigmund Menkes, including his bold still life Poppies that is expected to sell between $8,000 and $12,000. A seascape by Alfred T. Bricher titled Sunrise Coaster (est. $6/8,000) painted around 1890 is also available.two sculptures by William Zorach will also cross the block, including the cast bronze Figure of a Woman measuring 16 inches tall, which has an estimate of $5,000 to $7,000. The auctions will begin at 11 a.m. on all three days of the sale, while previews will take place between August 20 and August 23.
DENVER, PA MORPHY AUCTIONS
AUGUST 29-30
Fine Art & Decorative Art
August 29 to 30, Morphy Auctions will host its Fine & Decorative Art sale featuring a number of quality paintings as well as antique furnishings and ephemera.the sale will begin at 9 a.m. both days, with online and hardbound catalogs available mid-july. One of the standouts in the sale is the painting Boulevard de la Madeleine by Edouard Leon Cortes.the piece comes in its original frame that is marked on verso with “1960 H W Neuman Paris.”the current owner purchased the work in Paris in 1960.The painting has a presale estimate of $12,000 to $18,000.