Schwenke’s Woodbury Auction sells jade panel for $392,000

WOODBURY, Conn. – A Chinese carved two-sided jade panel sold for an astonishing $392,000 at Schwenke’s Woodbury Auction Fall Fine Estates Auction on Sept. 29.

LiveAuctioneers.com provided Internet live bidding.

Seven phone bidders, multiple Internet bidders and three bidders in the room competed for the carved jade landscape panel. Auctioneer Tom Schwenke commented that the lot had drawn tremendous interest during the three weeks prior to the auction. Immediately the lot opened with an Internet starting bid of $90,000 and within just a few moments Schwenke had knocked the lot down for $330,000 hammer to a bidder present in the room, acting as agent for an absent buyer from China.

After selling the jade panel Schwenke related that it had been discovered in the drawer of a chest sold at one of the firm’s Opportunity Auctions in August. The panel, roughly 6 inches high and 8 inches wide, had a carved mountain landscape scene on one side and a carved scene of boaters on a lake on the other.

Silver-related lots fared well in the sale, also attracting international interest, with a sterling silver mounted boar’s tusk cigar clipper from a local Southbury estate hammering down to a West Coast phone bidder for $7,200 against a presale estimate of $700-$900. Two silver fire trumpets from a local consignor, estimated at $2,000-3,000, also went to a phone bidder for a $4,320 bid.

Jewelry lots saw active competition, with a vintage diamond encrusted brooch being claimed for $3,480 by a phone bidder, and other jewelry lots also selling well. A cameo glass vase was won by an Internet bidder for $3,130, and the Internet also succeeded on a rare pair of Royal Vienna steins fetching $2,875, with an estimate of $700-$900.

Two other lots featured were a William Van Zandt oil on canvas painting of a sulky and rider, signed and dated 1897 and remaining in the original frame, which was claimed by an Internet bidder for $6,875. The driver of the sulky had been identified as Walter Harrison Cornell of upstate New York, and three related portraits of family members were offered but failed to find buyers. A sideboard attributed to Thomas Seymour, from the same estate as the Van Zandt, went for $4,500 to an Internet bidder.

A rare pair of American folk art portraits were claimed by a phone bidder for $3,120. The portraits were signed and dated “Martin E. Clark, Ridgefield Connecticut – 1847” and were still in their original frames.

The auction included several mid-century modern lots. The feature lot was an Italian modernist satellite-form brass chandelier, made by Artfluce, which was knocked down for $6,000 to a bidder in the room. Other items from the estate of Ada Louise Huxtable, noted New York architectural critic, also fared well. The top lot of several art glass groupings was a group of six signed Louis C. Tiffany Favrile glass shades, which sold for $6,000.

The sale included over 200 lots of framed and unframed artworks. A framed etching by Paul Cadmus “Two Boys On Beach, No. 2” was a late addition to the sale but claimed top price among the artworks, selling for over $4,000 to an Internet bidder in Seattle, Washington. The work had been inherited by the private consignor from ancestors who purchased it from the Albany Institute of Art in the 1930s.

There was a large assortment of Oriental rugs in the sale, and the top rug lot was a room-size Persian garden design rug that went to an Internet bidder in Texas for $2,900.

Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium.

Woodbury Auction’s next sale is the annual Holiday Fine Estates Auction, scheduled for Sunday, Dec. 8, at 1 p.m. Consignments are still being accepted for that sale, with the consignment deadline set for Monday, Nov. 19. Contact the gallery at 203-266-0323 to discuss consigning to that sale, or email photos to info@woodburyauction.com.

Click here to view the fully illustrated catalog for this sale, complete with prices realized.

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ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

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