Celebrated Collection
International interest in the Collection of Dorrance “Dodo” H. Hamilton pushes Freeman’s single-owner sale to $4.9 million
It was an evening of celebration on April 29, as Freeman’s in Philadelphia brought the collection of Dorrance “Dodo” H. Hamilton to market in a single-owner sale. Not only was the room buzzing with reminiscences of the wellknown philanthropist who had ties to the city, but also there was talk and awe of her collection that included American and European paintings.the sale, which featured 139 lots, yielded a robust $4.9 million and saw all but one artwork find a new home.
Alasdair Nichol, chairman of Freeman’s, explains there was a lot of private interest in the sale that was only magnified through the catalog they created and the presale exhibitions the auction house held around the world. “because the works were from Dodo Hamilton, they wanted to have a part of that history and that provenance,” he says, noting there were a number of bidding wars on works, allowing prices to soar above or within their presale estimates.
Topping the auction was Paul Cézanne’s La Vie des Champs (est. $1.2/1.8 million) that sold within estimates at $1,450,000.The next two highest earners were works by famed American Impressionist Childe Hassam: The
Walk Around the Island
(est. $200/300,000) at $430,000 and White
Church, Provincetown (est. $250/400,000) at $370,000. Nichol shares that while collectors who went to the previews came to view the Provincetown painting, they “became enchanted by The Walk Around the Island” leading to it more than doubling its low estimate. Maurice Brazil Prendergast’s The
Point, Gloucester (est. $100/150,000) nearly tripled its low estimate when it sold for $292,000 and became the fourth highest selling lot. “We had a lot of interest in the Prendergast; [the painting] was interesting,” Nichol says. “It presented really well and when people saw it in the room they fell in love with it.”
Other American art paintings rounding out the top 10 lots were Martin Johnson Heade’s Sunset – A Sketch (est. $100/150,000) at $156,250 and Daniel Garber’s Water Birch – Springtime that brought in $137,500 against a presale estimate of $120,000 to $180,000.Additional standouts of the sale included Martha Walter’s Children in the Garden, which sold 10 times its low presale estimate of $2,000 when it achieved $21,250, and a Rhode Island seascape by William Trost Richards that sold for $81,250, well above its high estimate of $30,000. “Everyone enjoyed the sale, and it felt great because people were wanting to bid,” Nichol says. “it was an exciting sale to take.”