Oil Paintings By Avercamp (an Attribution) And Bordone Will Headline Aces Gallery's Sept. 29 Auction

By Author: Alex Fonarow
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An oil painting attributed to Dutch landscape artist Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634), an oil painting by Italian artist Paris Bordone (1500-1571), and a Wedderien, Inc. (N.Y.) finely carved obsidian jeweled bear are a few of the many featured lots in a Fall Estates Auction planned for Sunday, September 29th, by ACES Gallery, starting at 1 pm Eastern time.

The catalog features nearly 400 items sourced from local estates and private collections, none of which are dealer merchandise. Lots include fine art, jewelry, silver, studio design and antique furniture, Asian art and collectibles, including dollhouse miniatures and an extensive collection of bear figurines. This is an online auction, but phone and absentee bids will be also be accepted.

“We’re excited to bring to market some rare and unusual material, including samplings diligently curated by the lifelong focus of our consignors,” said Alex Fonarow of ACES Gallery. “Beyond our headline items in the catalog, I feel there are also wonderful opportunities for the blossoming connoisseur to enrich their environs and build their collection at more-than-reasonable ...
... prices.”

The oil on board winter village scene attributed to Hendrick Avercamp is 18 inches by 30 ½ inches and is housed in a 38 inch by 25 inch frame. The work, an attribution, has an estimate of $5,000-$10,000. Avercamp worked during the Dutch Golden Age of painting. He was one of the early landscape painters of the Dutch school, specializing in scenes of the Netherlands in winter.

The oil on canvas by Paris Bordone is titled L’Automne (Venus, Bacchus and Diana). It’s 42 ½ inches by 63 inches on the stretcher and 78 inches by 57 ½ inches as framed. It is expected to change hands for $15,000-$25,000 and was identified in a 1913 Sedelmeyer Gallery (Paris) catalog of 100 paintings. Paris Bordone was an Italian painter of the Venetian Renaissance who, despite training with Titian, maintained a strand of Mannerist complexity and provincial vigor.

Both the Bordone painting and the Avercamp attribution were inherited in the early 1900s by a woman named Johanna Ransahoff, who brought them with her to the United States in the early years of World War II. They have been descended through the family to the current owner, a lady in Somers, N.Y. A few other items in the auction were also consigned by the same Somers lady.

The finely carved Wedderien, Inc. obsidian jeweled bear is depicted in the standing position, and has a Wedderien label on one foot and is signed with cojoined initials (“WD”) on the opposite foot. It’s accompanied by a newspaper clipping showing a picture of the identical carving with the caption “Obsidian bear worth $500”. The 5¼-inch-tall bear should gavel for $500-$1,000.

The more than 50 lots of estate jewelry will feature an exquisite size 9 diamond ring designed as a central Old European brilliant cut diamond boasting G-H color and VVS2 clarity, prong set in a 14kt white gold ring with an openwork chevron pattern head. It should finish at $4,000-$6,000.

A late 19th century German tankard by Carl Frey & Sohne (Breslau), 20 inches tall and weighing 90.1 troy ounces, carries an estimate of $3,000-$5,000. The tapering form tankard with a squat base and hinged lid mounting 27 antique silver coins is marked “Frey & So./ 800” at the base.

A matched pair of early 20th century Koken “round seat” barber chairs will be sold as individual lots, each with an estimate of $1,000-$1,500. The chairs are 44 inches long by 28 inches wide by 47 ¾ inches tall. The original enamel finish on both functioning chairs is in excellent condition.

Two very different lots were pulled from the same estate in Rye, New York. One is a set of four late 19th or early 20th century French side chairs by L. Alavoine & Cie. (a company that Armand-Abert Rateau was involved with early in his career). The chairs have a curved square backrest over tapering receded legs terminated in pointed feet, decorated with rosettes. The other lot is a Lion & Healy (American) Model 413 harp, 65 inches in height by 18 inches wide and regilded.

A vintage Piaget 18kt gold tiger’s eye wristwatch having a quartz face with painted Roman numerals and spade hands on a conforming 18kt gold Piaget flat woven bracelet is expected to achieve $2,000-$3,000. The marked and monogrammed watch comes with the original box.

A set of eight circa 2001 Stephen Swift ash and cherry high back dining armchairs, signed on the bottom, should fetch $4,000-$6,000. The chairs were custom ordered for a Briarcliff, N.Y. lady.

A patinated bronze sculpture of a bull by Jean Baptiste Clesinger (French, 1814-1883), inscribed on the front of the base with the title (Taureau Romain), rendered in 1857, is expected to earn $800-$1,200. The work was discovered in a storage unit, untouched for more than 30 years.

Asian items will include a Chinese silk embroidered robe, 41 inches by 60 inches (47 inches by 68 inches as framed) (est. $500-$700).

The large collection of dollhouse miniatures will feature a Pollie Simpson chinoiserie secretary desk, signed on verso and dated May 1980; a Natasha chinoiserie dollhouse card table; a group of three Mary McGrath hand-painted miniature display objects, including a bird display and two painted eggs, each piece signed and dated; a custom-made Japanese style Linda Wexler miniature dollhouse floor screen with overall black lacquer and gilt hand-painted decoration, signed on verso and dated 1980; and a dollhouse miniature vertical harpsichord signed on verso “Davey Jone” and dated 1981, hand-painted with papier maché, with nylon strings behind a hinged door.

Internet bidding will be provided by LiveAuctioneers.com, Invaluable.com and Druout.com. Previews will be held by appointment only, on Friday September 27th (12pm-5pm), and Saturday September 28th (10am-5pm) in ACES Gallery’s gallery and offices located at 85 Old Long Ridge Road (#A4) in Stamford, Conn. For an appointment, call (475) 500-7118; or send an email to gallery@ACES.net. All items will be on display prior to auction day, Sunday, September 29th.

To learn more about ACES Gallery and the Fall Estates Auction on Sunday, September 29th, at 1 pm Eastern time, visit www.aces.net. Updates are posted often.