Auction Highlights

In Cheffin’s Feb. 9 auction of Ceramics, Glass, Silver, Jewelry & 20th Century Design, this 14½-inch Chinese transitional blue-and-white double-gourd vase stormed past its $2,000-$3,000 estimate to sell through LiveAuctioneers for $23,000.

Sloans & Kenyon’s big Feb. 9-11 Estate Catalog Auction was a smash, with 329 lots selling through LiveAuctioneers for more than $350,000. Bidding ran hot for a Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973) owl-form, hand-painted ceramic vase. It flew away for an above-estimate price of $6,655.

333 Auctions’ Feb. 10 sale of 19th and 20th Century American & European Art, an untitled but artist-signed 19 7/8 by 24 inch oil-on-board landscape by Orrin Augustine White (American, 1883-1969) achieved $19,600 online against a presale estimate of $8,500-$12,500.

The two-day online-sales total for Brunk’s incredibly successful Feb. 17-19 auction of 18th- and 19th-century Antiques & Decorative Arts was $342,576. A quartet of finely enameled Chinese porcelain panels depicting various birds and trees attracted 36 bids worldwide, with only two bids coming from the auction floor. Estimated at $400-$800, the lot of magnificent framed panels sold to a LiveAuctioneers bidder for a staggering $66,000.

Cowan’s Historic Americana’s Feb. 17 sale recorded $166,866 in Internet sales, with 131 lots changing hands through LiveAuctioneers. A very special timepiece, an English 1757-1758 gold pocket watch presented by Benjamin Franklin to his nephew Jonathan Williams – engraved The Gift/of Benjamin Franklin L.L.D., F.R.S./to Jon – attracted 12 bids to sell above estimate at $36,000.