CLEVELAND – The Gray’s Auctioneers and Appraisers sale on Tuesday, June 30, features paintings, furniture and decorative works of art from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide absentee and Internet live bidding.
The auction features a number of fine paintings including Lot 14, Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait’s The Last Shot; Lot 15, William Trost Richards majestic Seascape; Lot 11, Alfred de Bréanski’s gorgeous Scottish Highland scene; and Lot 13, Eugène Verboeckhoven’s pastoral Cattle at Rest in an Evening Field (above).
Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait’s The Last Shot is the most dramatic of the 22 paintings in his 1850s Western series. Tait’s ability to capture the conflict and challenges faced by both the trail blazing pioneers and the native population they encountered made his Western series hugely popular. The Last Shot, from the collection of John C. Myers, was exhibited at The Near East Foundation in New York City, and was mentioned in an article published in the New York Times on April 16, 1952, referred to there as being by Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait and the source of the Currier and Ives engraving published circa 1858.
The Victorian British photographer Gambier Bolton was the first celebrity animal photographer, gaining recognition for his candid images of wild animals in nature and in captivity. Lot 52 is a mural-size carbon print of Majesty, a majestic male lion at the London Zoo.
Decorative art highlights include Lot 117, a magnificent George II epergne by Thomas Gilpin, London, circa 1757-58. It features an oval cast openwork structure of scrolls, foliage, flowers and other ornamentation, complete with eight branches each ending in a silver-mounted circular cut-glass dish and central detachable basket, with a very clear maker’s mark of Thomas Gilpin.
For more information contact Serena Harragin at 216-458-7695 or by email at info@graysauctioneers.com.
