Auction Reports

Plymouth, Thomaston

Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait (1819-1905), Steady. Oil on canvas, 14½ x 21 in. Courtesy Copley Fine Art Auctions. Estimate: $50/80,000 SOLD: $73,800

Plymouth, MA
Copley Fine Art Auctions
July 14-15
Sporting Sale 2022
$3.05 million
The 17th annual Sporting Sale at Copley Fine Art Auctions brought in more $3 million in total sales, including buyer’s premium. The 675-lot sale was one of the company’s largest to date and had a 95 percent sell-through rate. It also set several new world records, with every category from antique and contemporary decoys to paintings, prints, folk art and Americana seeing lively bidding.

The top lot of the 2022 Sporting Sale was the Harmon Hollow Nantucket Curlew (est. $150/250,000), which sold for $228,000, nearly doubling the previous world record for a Nantucket decoy. Exceptional canine art led the paintings category. Both major Edmund Henry Osthaus dog paintings broke well past their high estimates, with the artist’s oil of setter puppies (est. $60/90,000) selling for $102,000; and a late addition work bringing $78,000 against a presale estimate of $55,000 to $75,000. Another popular dog painting in the sale was Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait’s oil Steady, depicting two setters pointing at quail. The piece achieved $73,800 against a presale estimate of $50,000 to $80,000.

John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), Sir William Headworth Williamson, 10th Baronet. Charcoal on paper. Courtesy Thomaston Place Auction Galleries. Estimate: $50/75,000 SOLD: $72,000

Thomaston, ME
Thomaston Place Auction Galleries
July 8-10
American Art
$2 million+
Thomaston Place Auction Galleries’ summer American Art sale saw energetic bidding, bringing in a total of more than $2 million. The auction featured items from the estate of the late collector and dealer Gary R. Haynes, as well as pieces from other important collections.

Andy Warhol’s iconic image of Marilyn Monroe—one of a series of ten serigraphs from a portfolio published in 1967—was one of the major highlights of the sale, bringing in $93,750. Additionally, a number of works from the Haynes estate achieved strong results, including a charcoal on paper portrait titled Sir William Headworth Williamson, 10th Baronet by John Singer Sargent that achieved $72,000, as well as Sargent’s graphite on paper study of a reclining nude that brought in $19,200. A profile bust portrait oil painting of a young woman by Norman Rockwell sold for $25,000, and his graphite on paper portrait Alice reached $21,875. Winslow Homer’s Spring: The Shepherdess of Houghton Farm (plus a framed handwritten letter by Homer) sold for a total of $15,600.