Auction Highlights

In Rich Penn’s Nov. 2-4 sale of the Lewis Sundries & Country Relics Museum, 530 lots changed hands through LiveAuctioneers, including a Shepard Hardware Circus bank depicting a clown riding in a horse-drawn cart. After 46 bids, the cast-iron mechanical novelty became the property of an Internet bidder who paid $32,400 – more than six times the high estimate.

Sollo Rago Modern Auctions chalked up another blockbuster on Oct. 27-28, with 124 lots selling online. An exceptional George Nakashima 108-inch-long walnut Conoid dining table with free-edge top and five inlaid rosewood butterfly keys ignored its $40,000-$60,000 estimate to finish online at $104,125.

Concept Art Gallery sold 114 lots in its Oct. 27 auction of modern and contemporary art. A Marc Chagall (Russian/French, 1887-1985) pencil-signed 1980 lithograph titled Magic Flute, no. 32 from an edition of 50 earned $23,900 through LiveAuctioneers.

John Moran’s Oct. 23 auction of California and American fine art attracted 238 online bidders, one of whom purchased this 10 inch by 12 inch Frank W. Cuprien (1871-1948) oil on board titled Evening Magic, Laguna Beach, Calif. Offered in its original frame carved by Cuprien himself, and fresh from a private Los Angeles collection, the signed artwork flew past its $4,000-$6,000 estimate to sell online at $36,000.

Phillips de Pury’s Oct. 17 auction featured outstanding contemporary photographs, including a Cui Xiuwen (b. 1970) digital color coupler print depicting a group of young women dressed in white, against a sky-blue background. Signed and dated on verso, numbered 2 of 8, it sold online for $26,950.