Joint Auction Reports

Boston, Hillsborough, Thomaston

John Koch (1909-1978), Manuscript I. Oil on canvas, 36 x 54 in., signed lower left: ‘Koch’, titled on a label from Kraushaar Galleries, New York. Courtesy Bonhams Skinner. Estimate: $30/50,000 SOLD: $176,775

Boston, MA
Bonhams Skinner
January 25
American Art
Bonhams Skinner held the winter edition of its American Art sale this January. Leading the sale was an oil painting titled Manuscript I by John Koch (1909-1978), an important figure in 20th-century realism. The piece achieved more than five times its $30,000 estimate when it sold for $176,775. Koch’s attention to objects, set and figure arrangement, cropping, and lighting creates a dynamic tension that draws a viewer into the ungraspable narrative, as demonstrated in Manuscript I. Additional highlights in the sale included Anna Mary Robertson “Grandma” Moses’ Farm in Autumn, which sold for $28,050, and Mary Elizabeth Price’s Nantucket Flowers, which achieved $19,125.

Gertrude Abercrombie (1909-1977), Leaf and Chaise Lounge. Oil on masonite, signed lower left and dated ‘56’. Courtesy Thomaston Place Auction Galleries. Estimate: $20/30,000 SOLD: $51,250

Thomaston, ME
Thomaston Place Auction Galleries
February 24-26
Winter Enchantment
$1.7 million
Thomaston Place Auction Galleries’ Winter Enchantment sale saw strong results and aggressive bidding. The sale brought in nearly $1.7 million in sales and an 85 percent overall sell rate.

Modern art attracted strong interest, with highlights including a 1956 modernist painting by Gertrude Abercrombie titled Leaf and Chaise Lounge. The painting soared past its $20,000 to $30,000 estimate when it sold for $51,250. Additionally Andy Warhol’s 1968 serigraph on paper Campbell’s Soup (Cream of Mushroom) fetched the second-highest result, achieving $42,000 against a presale estimate of $20,000 to $30,000. Shipboard Girl, a 1965 offset lithograph by Roy Lichtenstein sold for $31,250. Several works by Maine artists also attracted interest, including an Andrew Wyeth watercolor painted on a “Benner Island, Maine” letterhead that achieved $10,000. The piece, titled The Pirate Flag, is framed back-to-back with a personal letter from Wyeth.

Ned Burgess (1868-1958), Published Redhead, ca 1930. Carved and painted wood, 16½ in. SOLD: $15,000

Hillsborough, NC
Leland Little
March 2
Spring Sporting Art Auction
Leland Little’s Spring Sporting Art Auction on March 2 achieved strong results across all categories. Leading the sale was a pre-1900, Harkers Island, North Carolina, Egret decoy out of the Guthrie family, which sold for $46,000 (not including buyers premium). A rare redhead by Ned Burgess also brought strong bidding, achieving $15,000. “The early Southern duck decoy is becoming accepted in the art collecting world as an important form of art,” says Robbie Smith, sporting art director of Leland Little.The auction house’s Summer Sporting Art Auction is currently scheduled for early June.