Strong Prices and New Records Distinguish Rago’s September Auction of 19th/20th Century Fine Art

Sept. 24, 2007

Lambertville, NJ – Buyers turned out in force for a sale of 19th and 20th Century Fine Art at Rago’s Sept. 15. Despite August’s stock market dip and the sale’s coincidence with quarterly tax payments, the house was full and hundreds more bidders participated by phone, online and by absentee bid, buying over 90% of the sale by lot. As with all Rago auctions, LiveAuctioneers.com supplied live online bidding for the sale.

Rago’s sale included many of the great names associated with the New Hope School: Edward Willis Redfield, George William Sotter, Walter Emerson Baum, Alfred Nunamaker, Fern Isabel Coppedge, Charles Rosen, BJO Nordfeldt, Lloyd Ney, Antonio Pietro Martino and Joseph Barrett among them. The Nunamaker, lot 38. sold for $20,400, the second highest price yet paid for a work by this artist. (All prices include a buyer’s premium of 20%.) The oils by Baum, large and fresh to market, also did exceptionally well. Lot 9, a 25½” x 30” oil on canvas sold for $45,000 and lot 40, a small, but luminous oil on board for $8,400. Strong prices were also garnered for work by Martino (Lot 35, $16,800), Charles Rosen (lot 45, two studies in oil, $10,200), a gouache by Nordfeldt (lot 43, $7,200), a watercolor by Ney (lot 50, $5,100) and Barrett’s oil, Canal House, lot 86, for $7,800. New records were set for New Hope artists Bernard Badura (lot 2, $7,800), Joseph Crilley (lot 81, $2,280) and Anthony Michael Autorino (lot 89, $4,200).

Strong selling prices were not limited to this grouping. They were achieved throughout the sale as exemplified by the sale of a small work by Charles Warren Eaton (lot 13, $11,400); an oil by John R. Grabach (lot 28, $7,800), a portfolio of ten collotypes by Andrew Wyeth (lot 71, $19,200) a fine and small oil by Jasper Francis Cropsey (lot 107, $45,000) and two works by William Aiken Walker (lot 141, $33,600 and lot 142, $16,800). New records were set for work by Thomas Rathbone Manley (lot 17, $6,000), Raymond Granville Barger (lot 67, $4,800), Franklin Benjamin DeHaven (lot 108, $8,400), Bruce Braithwaite (lot 96, $15,600) and John B. Lear (lot 147, $7,800).

This well-defined auction, held in September and February, is fast developing a secondary market for contemporary artists of the Delaware Valley working in a range of styles and media. Virtually all artists new to the auction sold within estimate or higher. Barry Snyder, Erie Jackson, Jane Gilday and Colette Sexton all achieved notable prices.

“We love that this sale appeals to collectors of art – historic and present day – locally, nationally and internationally,” said Meredith Hilferty, Director of Fine Art. “The results have been just amazing, particularly for a sale that is relatively new to the field. It’s our intention to keep building on this success, offering a range of work in each sale that varies in price point, but not quality.”

To view the complete auction catalog, with prices realized, visit www.LiveAuctioneers.com.