BLOOMFIELD, N.J. – A two-day Estate Treasures Auction highlighted by the Phillips “Pete” Hathaway collection of fine items pulled from his historic Greek Revival home Ragamont House in northwestern Connecticut, will be held Wednesday and Thursday, April 25-26, by Nye & Company Auctioneers, at 10 a.m. Eastern both days. Absentee and Internet live bidding is available through LiveAuctioneers.
The auction will include merchandise from other estates and collections. The April 25 session will be a live auction, featuring 439 lots. The following day will be a timed auction, with 222 lots.
The Phillips “Pete” Hathaway collection (lots 255-601, spanning both auction days) is befitting of a man who was raised in a Baltimore home that was filled with gorgeous 18th century English furniture and decorative arts, attended college in Lugano, Switzerland, trained at Christie’s in London and served as head of the 18th century continental furniture department at Sotheby’s.
Hathaway presided over many of Sotheby’s famous and record-breaking “celebrity auctions,” such as the estates of Andy Warhol, Greta Garbo, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and Gianni Versace. In 2002 he purchased Ragamont House, in Salisbury, Connecticut, and embarked on a two-year renovation of the derelict historic landmark.
He designed the home with the same discerning eye he used to outfit his opulent New York City apartment. The many fine appointments included an exotic portrait of the Newhab of Arcot, a watercolor of an Italian Grenadier and his dog (purchased from the Bill Blass collection), figural and abstract drawings, fine Georgian furniture and silver, and Turkish and Bessarabian carpets.
Noteworthy lots up for bid from the Hathaway collection include a partly ebonized pair of 19th century English Regency brass-bound campaign chests, 39½ inches tall by 43½ inches wide (est. $4,000-$6,000); and a pair of cast-bronze angel wings (below) made in Argentina in the 19th or 20th century (and acquired by Hathaway in Buenos Aires), 44½ inches long (est. $3,000-$5,000).
Artwork from Ragamont House will include a watercolor on paper by Allen Blagden (Amereican, b. 1936), depicting moose antlers and titled Locked Horns (est. $2,000-$3,000); an oil on canvas marine rendering of a sinking ship by Carl W. Peters (American, 1897-1980), artist-signed (est. $1,200-$1,800); and a graphite on paper by Matt Wood, titled Goya’s Dog (est. $800-$1,200).
The auction will also feature property from a private collection in Montclair, New Jersey, to include a late 17th/early 18th century Baroque inlaid walnut desk and bookcase (below), probably northern Italian, 7 feet 8 inches tall (est. $8,000-$12,000); and an American 20th century Gothic Revival mahogany tall-case clock with Westminster-Whittington musical movement, 8 feet 5 inches tall and, though unmarked, is of the quality, size and composition of clocks bearing the Tiffany moniker (est. $3,000-$5,000).
Also offered will be property from a New York City man (lots 127-203) that will include two artworks, both estimated at $3,000-$5,000. One is a KPM painted porcelain plaque, 19th or 20th century, depicting Gen. Paul von Hindenburg (below), 9 inches by 6 inches. The other is an oil on canvas painting by Paul Brach (American, 1924-2007), titled Chamber.
The auction will also feature a pair of oil on canvas portraits, possibly painted by Patrick Henry Davenport (1803-1890), being offered as one lot (est. $3,000-$5,000); an Empire cherrywood tall-case clock, made in America in the first half of the 19th century and having a white painted dial signed Emanuel Meyli of Lebanon, 8 feet tall (est. $2,500-$5,000); and an oil on canvas painting titled Interior of Our Lady in Zwiefalter, Germany, signed “P. Andover” (est. $1,500-$3,000).
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