Select Auction Brings In $2.6 Million For Millea Bros – Antiques And The Arts Weekly

Review by Carly Timpson

BOONTON, N.J. — Over a three-day period, May 15-17, Millea Bros Auctioneers conducted its flagship, twice-yearly Select Auction. The sale’s first day featured modern and contemporary art and design; the second day included Asian art, American and British art and antiques and Native American art; the third day covered Continental art and antiques, carpets, African and Oceanic arts, books and historical letters and other assorted antiquities. With 1,098 lots in total, the sale realized $2,623,000 and had a 90 percent sell-through rate. David Halpern, Millea Bros’ head of sales and senior cataloger, shared that it was a good sale for the company: “It was 20 percent above the high estimate, and we found all areas to be somewhat strong.”

The top finisher across all three days was a malagan, or funerary carving, from the northern New Ireland people of Papua New Guinea. The Nineteenth Century sculpture was carved from wood and, with white and red pigment, depicted a mythological figure. Standing at 53 inches tall and 13 inches wide, the carving was paired with a custom metal stand and came from the estate of Oceanic collectors Martin and Faith-Dorian Wright. Exceeding its $80,000 high estimate, the symbolic figure brought $100,000 on the final day of the auction.

From the same collection came another Oceanic carving, this one a wooden female figure from Nauru, a small island south of the Equator in Micronesia, northeast of Papua New Guinea. Though the figure’s exact history is unknown, it was cataloged as “possibly collected in situ” during Joseph Ritson Wallace’s (1805-1895) voyage aboard the Zeno in the early 1830s, then in the collection of The Cumberland Museum in Distington, England, until around 1899. Measuring just under 2 feet tall, the dark wooden female was depicted standing atop a carved stool and had inlaid shell eyes. Going to a European collection, the carving traded hands for $85,000. A third item from the Wright collection was a Nineteenth Century dance paddle from the Massim people of the Trobriand Islands, Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea.

The intricately carved and pigmented paddle depicted stylized birds with elaborate plumage and was sold to a US buyer for $23,750. The piece, which once belonged to Augustus Henry Lane Fox-Pitt Rivers, a British archaeologist and anthropologist, was exhibited in the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Farnham, Dorset, U.K., from 1898 to around 1965, and was included in the sixth volume of General Fox-Pitt-Rivers, Catalogues of his Collections.

Also crossing the block on the auction’s third day was the highest-achieving painting of the sale. “La Molendera,” a 1922 oil on canvas cataloged as after Diego Rivera, was signed and dated to the lower left and had an old auction sticker affixed to the back. In 1996, the work was offered in Christie’s, New York’s Important Latin American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture auction. Depicting a woman in a white dress kneeling to roll dough, the painting went out at $53,700 against an estimate of just $1/1,500.

Halpern said, “There were a couple of Impressionist paintings cataloged as ‘after’ that we didn’t really have much information about — the bidders really examined them and thought they were worth taking a chance on.” Another one of these paintings was “Nature morte a la grenade,” after Pierre-Auguste Renoir. According to Halpern, “It had some old provenance to some major auction galleries but had not been reviewed by a specialist in over 40 years.” Despite this, bidders took their chance on possibly winning a Renoir and took the still life painting to $37,500, ultimately going to a Parisian buyer.

Two late 1980s gorilla sculptures by Daisy Youngblood with provenance to an “important private collection in New York City” and Tom Cugliani Gallery, New York City, will be staying together. Earning $47,500, was a seated gorilla titled “Pig,” while the other, “Standing Gorilla,” finished at $41,250. “Standing Gorilla” was on a metal artist’s plinth and was exhibited in the “Daisy Youngblood” exhibition at Beaver College Art Gallery, Glenside, Penn., in 1992.

Other sculptures in the sale included the 1973 cast metal “Knuckle Hybrid,” attributed to Richard Hunt, which was sold to an East Coast buyer for $22,800, and a Japanese bronze tengu — a supernatural humanoid being with wings, claw-like feet and a beak, that are known to be disruptive or mischievous — possibly from the Muromachi period (1330s-1573). Standing more than 2 feet tall, the large cast sculpture had verdigris patina and showed some remnant gilding. The tengu was depicted holding a vial in one hand and with robes draped around its waist. Returning to Asia, the bronze flew to $47,500 against a modest high estimate of just $1,500.

Asian works were further represented by a Nineteenth Century Tibetan Buddhist thangka, or painted tapestry, depicting the Siddha Milarepa and the Arhats Kanakavasta, Vajriputra, Kanaka-Bharadvaja and Bhadra. After the matted tapestry exceeded its $500/700 estimate to achieve $42,500, Halpern noted that “it was very finely painted, clearly very old and beautifully done.” A pair of Japanese Arita lacquered porcelain covered vases from the Edo period went to a London buyer for $21,250. Heavily detailed with black, red and gilt lacquered detail over blue and white underglaze, the vases had matching domed lids with gilded qilin — a single-horned beast — finials.

Notable home furnishings included a Tiffany Studios table lamp, several pieces attributed to Jean-Michel Frank, a pair of George II pier mirrors and a pair of George IV wooden pedestals. The Tiffany lamp, a Double Poinsettia leaded glass shade on a bronze Queen Anne’s Lace base, had six electrified sockets and came from a private New Jersey collection. The shade’s name comes from the two rings of poinsettia flowers, in shades of red, orange and light pink, against a green background with leaf details and lighter green trim. A private buyer on the East Coast claimed the Tiffany lamp for $38,750.

The highest lot attributed to French interior designer Jean-Michel Frank was a pair of brass guéridons. The small tripod tables had round tops mounted with brass ring handles and were possibly executed by Chanaux & Co., Paris around 1930. The pair had provenance to a stately Eighteenth Century estate, Château de Comte Cornet d’Hunval in Normandy. The guéridons will be returning to France with a buyer who claimed them for $35,000. A slightly larger circa 1940 guéridon of similar form, though this one was painted metal with a straw marquetry top, sold alone to a Parisian buyer for $21,250 ($2/3,000). Also attributed to Jean-Michel Frank was a circa 1935 dark sanded oak and parchment desk with a matching chair. Over two frieze drawers with ring pulls, the rectangular top of the desk was inset with cream-colored parchment and the chair was similarly upholstered with cream-colored fabric. Both were on square legs and a French buyer bought the set for $23,750.

The George II pier mirrors, which were likely from the now-demolished Cadland House in Hampshire, U.K., each measured 8½ feet tall by 4 feet wide and dated to the Eighteenth Century. In the manner of Benjamin Goodison, the giltwood mirrors had “large shell finials over a portrait medallion and a rectangular mirror plate within a stop-fluted surround above a foliate swag and ram’s head pendant,” according to the auction catalog. Despite some oxidation and old repairs to the wood, bidders were impressed and the pair was taken to $25,000.

Estimated at just $700-$1,000, an unusual pair of George IV painted pine pedestals that came from a private Fifth Avenue, New York City collection, found a buyer, from London, for $22,500. These, according to Halpern, were “interesting, clearly old, pencil signed and dated, from the early Nineteenth Century. We were very curious as to how people would respond to them, and it was obviously very robust — we thought they would have potential but were surprised with how far they went.” After a design by Thomas Chippendale, these cream and green painted wood pedestals were signed “John Japponer 1835” to the underside of the bases.

Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, www.milleabros.com or 973-377-1500.