CINCINNATI – With a packed auction house and phone banks at capacity, the economic recession seemed far from everyone’s mind at Cowan’s Auctions Winter Fine and Decorative Art Sale held on Feb. 7, 2009. More than 1,050 registered bidders from 22 countries vied to take home one or more of the 667 lots offered at the auction.
Online bidders through LiveAuctioneers had a significant impact, as well. The 488 approved online bidders prevailed on 78 of the sale’s lots, including a woven tapestry of a sheep-shearing scene, which was purchased via the Internet for $6,600 against a presale estimate of $1,000-$1,500.
Decorative Arts Director Diane Wachs was elated with the outcome. “The auction did very well. We had the biggest in-house audience we’ve ever had at Cowan’s.” Wachs described the bidding as “aggressive,” both from retail buyers and dealers.
The highest selling item of the sale was the painting titled Robbing The Eagle’s Nest, by Robert Scott Duncanson (1823-1872). The large oil on canvas sold for $105,750 (all prices quoted are inclusive of 17.5 percent buyer’s premium), more than doubling its high estimate of $50,000. The painting was originally acquired directly from the artist, and descended from the buyer to the present owner.
A bust of Minnehaha by Edmonia Lewis sold well above its estimated price and grossed $52,875. Lewis was the first African-American and Native-American woman to gain international recognition as a sculptor. In October 2007, Cowan’s set an auction sales record with the sale of another Lewis sculpture, The Bride of Spring, for $138,000.
Minnehaha is a character in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic poem, The Song of Hiawatha (1855), the single best-selling poem in the English language of the entire 19th century. To date there are five known signed and dated originals of Lewis’s Minnehaha bust housed in public and private collections. This previously unknown example adds one more to that number.
One of the biggest surprises of the sale occurred when a floor bidder purchased a piece of her own family history. A late-19th-century Ohio stoneware jar, which brought in $3,525, depicts a portrait and the name Mr. Charles Hammack, Lancaster O on its front and the initials C.H. on the underside. The jar was sold to a floor bidder who was the great-great-granddaughter of Charles Hammack. Hammack operated a natural gas company in Lancaster, Ohio, and is shown on the jar working with a pipe.
“We are always happy to see a piece purchased by the family of the original owner,” commented Maureen Buri, a department specialist.
A typically stern portrait of woman and child with dog, attributed to Sheldon Peck, sold for $22,325, well above its estimate. The work likely dates from Peck’s Illinois period (post 1835) when he began painting in a larger format on canvas. Although Peck did not sign his work, his paintings are distinctive and easily recognized by his subjects, who often have piercing eyes and serious expressions.
After much presale interest, a rare Chinese rhinoceros horn libation cup doubled its estimated price to sell for $18,800. Due to laws protecting the rhinoceros, the supply of rhinoceros horn has diminished, and some estimate there are less than four thousand examples of ancient rhinoceros horn carvings remaining, making this libation cup highly valued among collectors. The cup stands 4.25 inches with stand and depicts beautiful mountain landscape scenes with arching conifers on a rocky landscape.
The next Fine and Decorative Art Auction is slotted for June 6, 2009. For further information, please call Diane Wachs at 513-871-1670 ext. 20, or e-mail diane@cowans.com.
ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE
