Everard’s Eclectic Sale Led By A Man’s Rolex & Bahamian Art – Antiques And The Arts Weekly

Review By W.A. Demers; Photos Courtesy Everard Auctions

SAVANNAH, GA. — Everard Auctions conducted an eclectic online sale on June 20-21, seeded with material from Southern estates and collections across a wide range of fine and decorative art. Highlights included choice men’s timepieces, Asian art, jewelry, sterling silver and more. With 3690 bidders participating on four online platforms and seeing an 80 percent sell through rate, the sale achieved a total of $585,189, within its $461,700-699,050 pre-sale estimates.

A man’s Rolex watch was a standout lot, a gold and stainless steel Oyster Perpetual Date Submariner, boxed and accompanied by its manual, which sold for $15,360, securing top lot status.

The sale’s first day included a large collection of Outsider art. It was led by Amos Ferguson’s (Bahamian, 1920-2009) “Bahamian Scene,” 1991, an oil on cardboard depicting figures on a beach, presented in a wood frame, which more than doubled its high estimate to bring $13,750. A folk artist who turned out colorful paintings of island life and Bible stories. Now an Outsider art staple, he was a late starter, dropping the house painting brush for a more artistic tool in his 40s. A 1972 exhibit gave him his start and he debuted at the Wadsworth Atheneum. Reverend Howard Finster (1916-2001), the prolific and self-proclaimed ”Man of Visions,” was represented among top highlights by “Bull Headed and Stubborn,” 1995, a mixed media of a white bull with red horns and hooves, signed in the bull, upper right and in text, dated “Oct. 25, 1995” on verso. A typical Finster medley, the painted wood bull mounted to board was accessorized with a jar lid moon, plastic wheels, a block with sermon and a red-painted border lined with Coca-Cola bottle caps, the bull reading “Small Braine Big. Head.”

There were some Asian art highlights in the sale, most notably two Chinese archaic form brass tripod censers that slipped their $150/250 estimate to finish at $8,125. From a Savannah estate, both were of circular form, one bearing ring handles and incised decorations. Each measured 3½ inches high and 12½ inches in diameter. A Chinese embroidered tapestry from the Nineteenth Century also proved desirable on the sale’s second day, leaving the gallery at $7,500. Decorated with animals, birds, dragons and flowers with silk and metallic thread designs, the 7-foot-9-inch-by-7-foot textile had a silk border and was presented on a hanging rod.

Fetching $5,000 against its $800-$1,200 estimate was a Samurai sword, Kanenaga, 1937, the sword with a wood sheath and wooden handle overall measured 39½ inches long. Its curved blade was inscribed on both sides and it came with a fitted wood box inscribed with characters on the lid.

Furniture highlights on Day One included a circa 1780 stained beechwood settee attributed to Thomas Chippendale Jr. It doubled its high estimate, bid to $6,250. It was from a Savannah estate and featured an upholstered back, sides and seat within a beaded frame, the top rail later carved with a ribbon, the out-scrolled armrest front with a flower head within a beaded surround, raised on tapering fluted legs ending in casters.

A newly discovered and authenticated waterscape by Sanford Robinson Gifford (American 1823-1880) and John J. Audubon’s “White Heron” were the expected premier fine art lots; however, they passed at auction and were after-auction sales, according to Amanda Everard. “Hudson River Scenery,” an 1858 oil on canvas on board by the Luminist and landscape painter Gifford had been recently inspected and authenticated by the leading Gifford scholar, Dr Ila Weiss and sold to a private collector. A trade buyer purchased the Audubon print titled “White Heron” (and Horned Agama) was a hand-colored, watermarked aquatint on elephant folio paper from an 1837 Havell edition.

Nevertheless, traditional fine art was not left out of the bidding action. An oil on canvas by Pal Fried (Hungarian/American, 1893-1976) of a winsome “Woman in Blue” garnered an above-estimate $3,625. The auction also included a contemporary oil on canvas, an untitled work (Loner) by David Delong (1930-2001), which realized $2,625, and a Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) litho, “The Prodigal Son,” which depicted a man approaching an abandoned house and went out at $2,125.

There were many examples of sterling silver in this auction, including a continental silver plateau and a centerpiece, which found a buyer at $2,875, and a pair Georgian Sheffield plate wine coolers, circa 1840, which brought $2,625.

Choice decorative arts rounded out the sale’s highlights, with a five-piece Meissen blue and white set of “The Five Senses” seated figures selling for $4,688. Depicted were Scent holding a bouquet to her nose, Sound playing a pianoforte, Sight gazing at her reflection in a mirror, Taste bringing a biscuit to her mouth and Touch petting a bird in a cage.

An Italian rococo giltwood mirror from the Eighteenth Century housed a rectangular mirror within a molded frame, surmounted by a pierced cresting centered by an etched glass mirror plate depicting flora within a tapered cartouche, the pierced sides with foliage and scrolls. It sold for $3,625, while a Russian jasper and gilt metal box made $2,750, having come to auction with an appraisal document from Jan Skala Antique Watches, New York City, dated October 1977 with value of $1,500 and noting “Very fine quality workmanship; one-of-a-kind piece, which belonged to the Czar’s family.”

Everard Auctions’ next sale will take place in late September or early October.
Prices given include the buyer’s premium as stated by the auction house. For additional information, www.everard.com or 912-231-1376.