Auction Highlights
In Jackson’s International’s Dec. 2-3 sale, a group of four 19th-century German school oil-on-canvas paintings led the list of online purchases. The quartet comprised a sequence of scenes from Lohengrin, a Wagner opera based on German Arthurian legend. Each canvas measured 31¾ inches by 59 inches, and together they earned $7,350 against an estimate of $1,500-$2,500.
The first contract the Beatles signed with manager Brian Epstein set a record as the highest-grossing item ever sold outside the United States through LiveAuctioneers. The 1962 legal document, auctioned on Nov. 27 by England’s The Fame Bureau,bore the signatures of all parties directly involved in the transaction, as well as the fathers of George Harrison and Paul McCartney, who were under the age of 21 at the time. The historic contract was purchased online for an incredible $211, 597.
On Nov. 22, Kamelot Auctions held a sale of Philadelphia architectural elements and Victorian antiques. A charming circa-1900 Black Forest carved bench with three bears carved into the back and two larger bears serving as the end supports nearly doubled its high estimate to sell online for $5,880.
In Millea Bros.’ Nov. 21 and 23 Fall Estates & Collector’s Silver auction, a superb antique Chinese lacquer table screen inlaid with white jade, hardstone and applied cloisonné decorations replicating scholar’s objects shot to $30,000 through LiveAuctioneers.
Noel Barrett’s Nov. 15-16 auction titled Toys & Other Things included one of the best of all steam traction engines made by premier German toymaker Marklin. The 14-inch-long example swept past its $7,000-$9,000 estimate to settle at $15,600.
Green Valley Auctions sold 410 lots through the Internet at their Nov. 14-15 sale of glass, Americana and decorative arts. A pair of circa-1900 Loetz Phanomen Gre. 358 multicolor metallic art glass candlesticks in their Nov. 14-15 sale to an online bidder, for for $7,800.
In Skinner’s Nov. 14 art sale, a Theodore Robinson (American, 1852-1896) oil-on-board painting titled The Shaded Gate, surpassed expectations to settle at $9,800 online.
A Russian work that might easily have passed for New Hope school, a 15½-inch by 20-inch oil on canvas titled Trees in Winter, was actually painted by the Russian artist Stepan F. Kolesnikoff (1879-1955). It sold in Skinner’s Nov. 14 art sale through LiveAuctioneers for an above-estimate price of $9,087.50.
