The original blue paint on this Swisegood corner cupboard can be seen under its orange and red painted surface. With rope-carved quarter columns, original brasses and original bracket feet, the cupboard sold for $120,750, a probable new record for a Southern corner cupboard. Image courtesy Brunk Auctions.
ASHEVILLE, N.C. – It appears that a circa 1820 walnut Swisegood corner cupboard set a record for the regional form at Brunk Auctions on Feb. 20. Auctioneer Andrew Brunk announced the record from the podium after the towering one-piece cupboard sold for $120,750, more than double the high estimate.
All selling prices include a 15 percent buyer’s premium.
“We may have missed one, but at this point it seems to be a record,” said Bob Brunk, company president, after the sale. The cupboard by one of the South’s premier furniture makers descended in a Forsyth County, N.C., family, not far from where it was originally crafted in the early 19th century.
The cupboard’s success may be a sign that spring is in the air. “The market seemed energetic and vibrant again,” said Bob Brunk. “We saw people at this sale we haven’t seen for years.”
There were other hopeful signs: Sales of Chinese porcelain, Russian paintings and Oriental rugs were strong.
In the large Chinese porcelain category, 10 of the 25 lots from the Thomas English Cody collection exceeded estimates. Three were bowls in colors other than celadon, red or blue. It was an auspicious sign that a pair of yellow-green Imperial bowls with a Qianlong mark appeared on the cover of the sale catalog. The pair opened at $40,000 and sold to a phone bidder for $97,750. That winning bid was slightly above the high estimate. A pair of pale yellow glazed bowls with marks for the Zhengde period started at $2,000 and escalated to a startling $86,250 (est. $2,000-$4,000), the second highest Cody lot. Another bowl, this one in stunning pink with a Yongzheng mark, sold for $41,400, far above its $4,000 high estimate. A yellow lidded jar with an impressed Daognang seal, also from the Cody collection, turned a $6,000 opening bid into a $36,800 close.
Among the Chinese porcelain lots from other private collections none did better than the meiping vase that descended in the Ferdinand Howard family of Ohio. The 18th-century blue and white vase, possibly Yongzheng, opened at $10,000 and sold for $43,700 (est. $15,000-$30,000). Blooming trees, rocks, roses, butterflies and bamboo – all in blue underglaze – surrounded the white human-form vase.
Of the 135 paintings in the sale, 96 percent sold. The stars of this long category were two paintings by Serge Poliakoff (Russia, 1900-1969). The abstract expressionist was a major influence in post-World War II School of Paris and in Tachisme, an art movement devoted to the absence of form itself. Both paintings were oil on wood panel, signed lower right and reflected Poliakoff’s mature style. The brightly painted Composition (1955-1956) sold for $368,000 making it the top lot of the entire sale. The other Poliakoff, a more sober, darker and later (1960) composition, brought $264,500. It was the sale’s second highest lot.
Another 20th-century painting, Andrew Wyeth’s watercolor, The Road to Holiday’s Barn, completed when he was only 18 and given to a family nurse, sold within estimate for $36,800. Wyeth added an inscription, signature and date (1935) to the front of the watercolor. Also selling within estimate was the sale’s earliest painting, a portrait of Thomas Broughton (1668-1737), a wealthy Indian trader and South Carolina land owner, by Henrietta Johnston (1670-1728). Her pastel portrait of Broughton on blue laid paper with signature label verso sold for $25,300.
Soon after the February catalog was published and mailed, Brunk began receiving calls and visits from potential bidders from overseas. The object of their interest was a 15th- century Florentine triangular wood panel of a kneeling angel holding an olive branch. Each side of the panel was 12 5/8 inches. The visitors, who later participated in the sale by phone, believed it to be the top of an altar and worth far more than its $1,500-$3,000 estimate. The carved gilt and tooled panel was the sleeper of the sale. It rose from an opening bid of $1,000 to $52,900. The winning bidder was from outside the United States.
The total with buyer’s premium for the two-day sale was $2.67 million.
For more details visit www.brunkauctions.com or call 828-254-6846.
Click here to view Heritage Auction Galleries’ complete catalog.
ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE
This Andrew Wyeth painting was given as a gift in 1935 to a nurse who worked for the Wyeth family. She then gave it to a friend in the 1950s. It sold for $36,800. Image courtesy Brunk Auctions.
A handwritten letter from artist Serge Poliakoff (1900-1969) dated June 23, 1969, attesting to the authenticity of ‘Composition,’ accompanied the 1955-1956 signed painting. At $368,000, Composition,45 3/4 inches by 35 inches, was the top lot of the sale. Image courtesy Brunk Auctions.
At least three books have been written about Serge Poliakoff (Russian, 1900-1969). They accompanied his dark abstract composition dated 1960. The 45 3/4- by 35-inch painting sold $264,500, making it the sale’s second highest lot. Image courtesy Brunk Auctions.
These Imperial bowls are slightly different. One is 2 inches by 10 5/8 inches, the other 2 1/8 inches by 10 1/2 inches. They are decorated front and back and have underglaze blue seal marks for Qianlong (1736-1795). The bowls sold for $97,750. Image courtesy Brunk Auctions.