Aberdeen-Auctions’ December sale attracts international audience
Dec. 18, 2006
CLEARWATER , Fla. – Aberdeen-Auctions exotic mixture of European treasures and American antiques and arts attracted a global bidding audience for its Dec. 7 sale. The event included important Russian icons and art, selections from a collection of American art pottery and a wide assortment of silver and jewelry from a number of consignors and estates, both European and American. Bidding in the 393 lot sale was facilitated online by LiveAuctioneers.com, with approximately 120 registered Internet participants.
Top lot of the sale was an important work of art by French painter Edouard L. Dubufe (1820-1883), a renowned painter of the French and Russian courts of the 19th century. The subject of the portrait was the Russian Prince Victor P. Kochubey, an important minister in the ultimately futile reformation attempts of Czar Alexander I in the early 1800s. The painting, an artist signed oil on canvas, 37½ by 34¾in in frame, came with an attribution by the sitter. Presale estimate for the high-quality, historically important work was $65,000/$75,000. The portrait generated 251 bids, with intense competition coming from the Internet. The lot ultimately sold to a Russian private collector, for $94,530.
Other Russian artifacts garnered respectable bidder attention, as well. A bronze sculpture, “Cossacks at Campsite” by Russian artist Vassili Yacovlevitch Grachev( 1831-1905), sold for $2,990. A rare Russian icon of the Bogolubskaya Mother of God, circa 1760, hand painted with egg tempera on gesso on wood panel, showed architecture of the 15th century but was based on a miracle vision of the Virgin by Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky in 1157. The icon, in excellent condition, sold online for $3,000; while a pair of ornate Russian silver candlesticks, circa 1896 with maker’s mark, sold through LiveAuctioneers for $1,560.
But only a portion of the sale was Russian. Two Oriental bronzes exceeded expectations. Two consecutive lots estimated at $300/$450 each went to the same online bidder in Hong Kong. A gilt bronze Buddha form the early 1800s, 8¾in tall, went for $1,930; and a 19th-century bronze Tibetan incense holder brought $1,200. Western Europe was represented by a bronze figure of a nude holding a bird, signed by La Faguays. The 21½in tall figure mounted on a marble base earned $2,280 online.
American work appeared in the sale in the form of an oil on canvas laid on board, 22 by 36in, by American painter Maximilen E. Sand. Titled “Lake in the Catskill” the painting is considered to be an important luminist Hudson River School work. It sold online for $3,840. Art pottery sold solidly within estimates, especially Roseville. A Roseville Moss #290-6 two handle bulbous vase, pink and green in great condition, just over 6in tall, sold within estimate for $207, a Roseville Moss #775-6 two-handle green urn vase, 6 ⅜ tall by 5½in across brought $173, and a rare Roseville Banada Green Flaring Vase, unmarked, in excellent condition, 12⅜ tall by 6⅝in across, brought a winning bid of $1,035.
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