HIGHLIGHTS FROM OUR MOST RECENT AUCTION

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It was a beautiful day for our Art and Antique Auction on Sunday, August 1, 2021. We had limited seating but all the seats were filled with eager bidders. Some highlights in the sale included a rare journal of Captain Benjamin Beal of Hingham, Massachusetts from March-December 1776. It also included a ledger, and a transcription of the entire journal by Solomon Lincoln, Hingham’s first historian. Our staff were on the telephones with bidders, along with online bidders at the ready. The lot brought $87,500.00 (Lot 46B).

Another piece that brought a lot of attention was a 19th c. Chinese Celadon K’u vase which was brought to Salem, Massachusetts from China by William Franklin Spinney (1853-1929), graduate of Harvard, and Director of Customs for the Chinese Government off and on from 1874-1905. The vase was rectangular in form, with a tapered cylindrical neck and high relief Trigrams on all sides. It descended through the Brooks family of Salem, Massachusetts and sold for $30,000.00 (Lot 177A).

An exceptional oil on canvas painting of Lady Liberty holding the Emancipation Proclamation in her left hand, in front of an American flag held by a freed male slave, and another female wrapped in the flag, signed lower right “M. Horburg” sold for $31,250.00 (Lot 150).

There were a number of Civil War items in the sale. One that stood out was lot 40. It was a collection of Civil War belts and buckles, child’s boots, a cartridge case marked “T.W.” for Thomas Welles, two tooled leather wallets, a bronze stamp for “T.W. Welles”, and a brass letter opener with Roman soldiers and “T.G.W.” in script on copper blades. All of these pieces were located in a 19th c. dome top hide covered trunk (Lot 39) which belonged to Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy under President Lincoln. Thomas Welles was his son. Lot 40 brought $23,750.00. The sale had 339 total lots and a lot of happy, successful bidders. The above prices include the buyer’s premium.