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Tiffany Studios fitted this four-arm electrified candelabra form lamp with Favrile glass shades. The estimate is $5,000-$8,000. Image courtesy Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales Ltd.

Leland Little gathers a cornucopia of antiques, art for Dec. 5 sale

Tom Hoepf
Tom Hoepf
Tiffany Studios fitted this four-arm electrified candelabra form lamp with Favrile glass shades. The estimate is $5,000-$8,000. Image courtesy Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales Ltd.
Tiffany Studios fitted this four-arm electrified candelabra form lamp with Favrile glass shades. The estimate is $5,000-$8,000. Image courtesy Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales Ltd.

HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. – Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales Ltd. will sell nearly 750 lots of high quality antiques and fine art – most of them fresh to the market items from prominent local estates – on Dec. 5. The auction will begin at 9 a.m. Eastern in the firm’s new facility at 620 Cornerstone Court. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.

An array of categories will be represented, to include period American furniture; Continental furniture; American portraits and traditional American art; European art; bronzes and statuary; Southern pottery; estate jewelry and watches; vintage lamps and art glass; Americana; vintage musical instruments; first-edition books; over 70 lots of Asian art; and gold and silver coins.

June Lucas, the director of research at Old Salem Museums and Gardens in Winston-Salem will give a lecture titled Wood as Canvas: the Paint-Decorated Furniture of Piedmont, N.C., on Dec. 4 at 3 p.m. at Little’s auction facility. Lucas’ talk will focus on the late 18th- and 19th-century furniture makers in the Piedmont region of North Carolina and their use of paint decoration.

Previews are scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 28, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.; Thursday, Dec. 3, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; and Friday, Dec. 4, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. An evening reception will be held Thursday, Dec. 3, at 6 p.m.

Furniture will abound at the sale. Examples of period American furniture include a Southern Chippendale walnut step-back cupboard, circa 1800-1820, made in western North Carolina; a walnut early 19th-century Southern chest on frame, Rowan County, N.C.; an early 19th-century mahogany New York Federal tilt-top candlestand; and a circa 1800 fine Southern mahogany Hepplewhite inlaid cellaret.

Classical American furniture will feature a nice diminutive pier table, circa 1830, mahogany and mahogany veneers, with a marble top, Corinthian columns and mirrored base on carved paw feet; a carved sofa, Philadelphia or New York, dated on the back in chalk 1827, mahogany over white pine; and an early 19th-century recamier in the Baltimore manner, mahogany and mahogany veneers.

Continental furniture pieces will include a Renaissance Revival dressing table, circa 1860, fruitwood and wood veneers with light and dark inlay; a Belle Epoque French escritoire, Louis XV style, mahogany with ormolu mounts; and a lovely Irish 19th-century Chippendale-style triple-back settee, mahogany, with a shaped crest in a carved eagle motif.

Traditional American art will include a still life oil on canvas of fruit by Paul Lacroix (New Jersey/New York, 1827-1869), signed lower left and housed in the original gilt wood frame; and an oil on canvas rendering titled Moonlit Snow, by Aldro T. Hibbard (Massachusetts/Vermont, 1886-1972), framed and signed. A nice selection of European art will feature an oil on canvas work by Patrick Hennessey (Irish, 1915-1980), titled Summer.

Antique American portraits will also cross the block. Some stars of the category include a framed oil on canvas of William Bicker Walter (1796-1822) by Sarah Peale (Michigan/Pennsylvania, 1800-1885); a miniature, possibly ivory, of Robert Brooke (1770-1821) attributed to Thomas Cummings (New York/Connecticut, 1804-1885); and a pair of watercolor on paper portraits by the renowned New England artist James S. Ellsworth (1802-1873).

Southern pottery pieces will include a rare Edgefield District Dave the Slave 5-gallon ovoid form jug, with applied ear handles and an even medium brown alkaline glaze, with wide mouth and rolled rim, inscribed and dated (1857); and a Jugtown (North Carolina) Chinese blue Tang vase, Oriental translation form, with applied extruded handles and strong deep wine allover the glaze.

Examples of Americana are sure to impress the crowd. Highlights include a large American eagle carved in New England in the late 19th century; a 19th-century Virginia leather key basket, oblong form, hand-stitched brown tinted leather; a rare Joseph Farr Bass surveyor’s compass, New York; and a Northampton County, Pa., needlework sampler dated Oct. 7, 1832, by Susanna Lerch.

Bronzes and statuary will include pugilists in pose by Eberhard Encke (German, 1881-1936); four putti in drunken revelry by Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (French); a bronze titled Bear by Anna Hyatt Huntington (1876-1973); a 19th-century marble statue of a girl and dog by J. Roulleau; a pair of gilt bronze dancers by Agathon Leonard (French, 1841-1923); and a bronze greyhound dog by Eli Harvey (American, 1860-1957).

Sterling will feature an important Southern coin silver footed silver cup by Leinbach with an applied handle, a beaded border to the foot and mouth and a body with an elaborately hand-engraved landscape scene; a 125-piece King pattern Dominick & Haff sterling flatware and Kings III Reed & Barton, retailed by J.E. Caldwell & Co.; and an important American coin silver beaker owned by William Walker, rector of Trinity Church and Christ Church in Boston prior to and after the Revolutionary War.

Rounding out the top lots will be vintage musical instruments, including a 1915 Gibson F-4 mandolin, serial no. 24534, with red sunburst spruce top and oval sound hole; vintage books, including a true first-edition copy of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, published by J.B. Lippincott Co. in 1960; and around 45 lots of antique gold and silver coins, most of them late 19th and early 20th century.

For details call 919-644-1243 or e-mail info@LLAuctions.com.

View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet during the sale at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

Click here to view Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales Ltd.’s complete catalog.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

Rare Edgefield District pottery by Dave the Slave, like this 5-gallon jar, is rare. This piece dated 1857 and has a $20,000-$30,000 estimate. Image courtesy Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales Ltd.
Rare Edgefield District pottery by Dave the Slave, like this 5-gallon jar, is rare. This piece dated 1857 and has a $20,000-$30,000 estimate. Image courtesy Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales Ltd.

This gilt bronze figure, one of two dancers by Agathon Leonard (French, 1841-1923), is inscribed with the sculptor’s name. Image courtesy Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales Ltd.
This gilt bronze figure, one of two dancers by Agathon Leonard (French, 1841-1923), is inscribed with the sculptor’s name. Image courtesy Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales Ltd.

Paul Lacroix (New Jersey/New York, 1827-1869) signed this still life oil on canvas lower left. The estimate is $15,000-$25,000. Image courtesy Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales Ltd.
Paul Lacroix (New Jersey/New York, 1827-1869) signed this still life oil on canvas lower left. The estimate is $15,000-$25,000. Image courtesy Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales Ltd.

Auctioneer Leland Little expects this early 1800s Chippendale step-back cupboard from western North Carolina to sell for $10,000-$15,000. Image courtesy Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales Ltd.
Auctioneer Leland Little expects this early 1800s Chippendale step-back cupboard from western North Carolina to sell for $10,000-$15,000. Image courtesy Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales Ltd.

James S. Ellsworth (New England, 1802-1873) used thin pink paper for this watercolor portrait, which is estimated at $2,000-$4,000. Image courtesy Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales Ltd.
James S. Ellsworth (New England, 1802-1873) used thin pink paper for this watercolor portrait, which is estimated at $2,000-$4,000. Image courtesy Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales Ltd.