KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — 20th-century fine art provides a vivid backdrop for an array of more than 1,200 lots at Case’s Summer Auction, set for Saturday, July 8 and Sunday, July 9. Standouts include large estate collections of fine jewelry and luxury fashion, as well as a treasure trove of flags and other Civil War Navy relics that descended from Rear Admiral John Ancrum Winslow, who commanded the USS Kearsarge to victory against the CSS Alabama. Absentee and Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers.
Mid-20th-century paintings dominate the art category, led by a colorful oil by French-Vietnamese painter Le Pho of three young women arranging flowers. It dates from circa 1960, was sold through the Wally Findlay Gallery of Chicago and now carries an estimate of $88,000-$92,000. A George Hughes oil illustration of beachgoers, used as the cover image for the August 2, 1952 issue of The Saturday Evening Post, provides a festive summer vibe. It has an estimate of $18,000-$22,000.
Southern art choices include a 1975 painting of a figure seated on the porch of a rural post office and café by Carroll Cloar and a landscape with a white-columned Southern home by Bill Sawyer, both of which date from around the 1970s and portray typical Southern scenes through a slightly surrealist prism. An 1846 landscape by Thomas Worthington Whittredge delivers one of the earliest known views of the Shaker Ferry landing near Pleasant Hill, Kentucky, while an unsigned yet highly detailed mid-19th-century landscape depicts a covered wagon traveling through a still-unsettled area of western North Carolina. There are also pre-World War II Southern landscapes by Thomas Campbell, Charles Krutch and Gilbert Gaul, and abstract works by mid-20th-century Southern painters George Cress, Carl Sublett and Philip Perkins.
Works by contemporary Southern artists include a Todd Murphy mixed media portrait of a nude woman, an Alan Shuptrine painting of sheep grazing amid light and shadow, and a large Ed Moulthrop turned burlwood chalice vase. Works from self-taught artists include a Wash Day scene, estimated at $3,000-$3,400, from Mississippi painter Clementine Hunter; a dramatic flood scene by Helen Lafrance of Kentucky; a Bessie Harvey found-objects sculpture; and works on paper by Purvis Young and John Henry Toney.
Commanding the historical category is an important collection of flags and other naval items from the USS Kearsarge, which helped turn the tide of the Civil War by sinking the CSS raider Alabama in 1864. The items have descended through the family of Kearsarge captain John Ancrum Winslow through his grandson, US Army Brigadier General E.E. Winslow, who retired to Memphis, Tennessee. They include a 13-star flag and 35-star flag, both believed to have flown on the Kearsarge during the battle with the Alabama, accompanied by reports from flag experts James Ferrigan and Greg Biggs. The 35-star flag, in particular, has an estimate of $18,000-$22,000. The July 8-9 sale represents the first time any flags from the Kearsarge have come to auction; all other known examples are in museum collections.
Other Civil War items on offer include one of the sale’s most fascinating lots — a small patriotic-themed bottle of colored sand made by Andrew Clemens (1857-1894), a deaf artisan who created these works to sell to riverboat passengers who visited his small Iowa hometown. It is estimated at $10,000-$14,000. There is also an early 19th-century hat box depicting then-General Andrew Jackson as Old Hickory, returning victorious from the Battle of New Orleans, and a 19th-century watercolor portrait of Jackson after the 1819 oil painting by John Vanderlyn.
More than 200 lots of estate jewelry add sparkle to both days of the auction. There are several rings featuring GIA-graded diamonds measuring between two and five carats, led by an example that centers a 2.71-carat stone in an 18K gold band estimated at $16,000-$18,000. Equally worthy of mention is an 18K gold Bulgari-style pigne choker necklace and matching earrings containing more than 15 total carats of diamonds. The jewelry is complemented by more than 150 lots of luxury fashion items from a Tennessee estate, including handbags by Chanel and Hermes and pristine clothing by Prada, Dior, Burberry, Gucci, Chanel, and Tom Ford, with many items retaining their original sales tags and boxes.
Southern Pottery is a staple at Case. This sale’s marquee items include a scarce 19th-century Great Road earthenware jug with incised initials TIM, attributed to Thomas Myers of Southwest Virginia; Southern whiskey jugs; and three scarce pieces by George Ohr (American, 1857-1918): a vase with what’s known as an “in-body” twist at the shoulders (estimated at $4,400-$4,800), a snake-handled mug, and a bottle-form vase.
Buyers looking for furniture have an array of periods and styles from which to choose. Prize regional pieces include a Tennessee Sheraton sugar chest, estimated at $3,400-$3,800, and a Kentucky Sheraton sugar press, along with a Federal triple bow-front Sheraton sideboard, which has been cataloged by the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts and matches one in the Old Governor’s Mansion in Frankfort, Kentucky.
Pair of Qing dynasty Chinese Famille Verte palace vases, estimated at $16,000-$18,000. Image courtesy of Case
A pair of Qing Famille Verte porcelain palace vases with figural and landscape decoration, estimated at $16,000-$18,000, are the star items in the Chinese category, which also includes a Hasui Kawase woodblock print depicting the Zojoji Temple from his Twenty Views of Tokyo series, and a drawing of the deity Jurolin attributed to Hokusai, formerly owned by Ernest Fenollosa (1853-1903), a curator of Oriental Art at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
For more information, or to consign objects for a future auction, call Case’s gallery in Knoxville at 865-558-3033, or call the company’s Nashville office at 615-812-6096, or email info@caseantiques.com.
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