Bradford Painting, Burl Bowl & Silver Lead At Cottone Auction

A wide range of quality materials ranging from Tiffany, Steuben and contemporary glass to paintings to folk art and rare Native American items attracted a large crowd for an action-packed sale at Cottone Auction on March 24.

Comprising more than 500 lots, the auction featured items from the estate of Thomas Buechner, a former director of the Brooklyn Museum and the founding director of the Corning Museum of Glass, as well as items deaccessioned from the Strong Museum, the Rochester Historical Society and items from the former collection of the Campbell-Whittlesey House Museum. Naturally, a complement of freshly picked quality merchandise from local homes was also presented.

Preview for the auction was packed in the days leading up to the sale, with a great deal of interest expressed in the paintings, many of which had come directly from local families. The list of works was impressive, including artists such as William Bradford, Thomas Buttersworth, Frederick Judd Waugh, William Aiken Walker, Ogden Pleissner, John James Audubon, Charles Sprague Pierce and Jules Joseph Lefebvre.

Other categories within the auction included an assortment of Asian materials consigned from a private collection, silver, bronzes, Native American items and advertising items.

Come sale time on Saturday morning, every one of the 250-plus seats in the spacious gallery was filled, and a good-sized crowd lined the walls of the room. Auctioneer Sam Cottone got things rolling right off the bat, and maintained a brisk and steady pace throughout the day. The sale kicked off with close to 30 lots of sterling, beginning with a Tiffany bowl with foliate decorated edge that sold above estimate at $1,150. Sterling flatware sets included a Tiffany Audubon pattern service, 54 pieces total, that opened for bidding at $3,000 and sold moments later for $6,095, a Gorham set in the Old Medici pattern at $5,060, and a Towle service that for 12 sold at $2,875.

The action heated up when a small silver spout cup by colonial Boston maker John Coney (1655/56–1722) was offered. The rare piece listed a single family provenance descending from Martin Brimmer (1697–1760), a politician and prominent businessman, member of the House of Representatives, the mayor of Boston and the first president of the Boston Museum of Art. Lineage continued through the family, with ties to Harriet Wadsworth by marriage in the early Nineteenth Century, and on down through the family to the present day.

Coney was considered one of the most important Boston silversmiths of his day, an engraver of the plates used for paper money in 1702. Coney's apprentice at the time of his death was Paul Revere's father. The classic spouted cup, fitted with an elegant handle and lid, carried an estimate of $30/50,000; it opened in the room at $30,000. A bid of $35,000 came from one of several telephone bidders, and then another at $40,000. A moment later, a phone bidder claimed the rare and important piece of colonial silver at $74,750. A similar example of the cup is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

The top lot of the auction came as an untouched, original condition painting by William Bradford was offered. Consigned from a Buffalo, N.Y., family, the painting depicted several sailing vessels amid icebergs towering above a land mass. "It's untouched," said Cottone of the painting during preview. "It has the original stretcher and there has been no in-painting or restoration at all."

Measuring 18 by 30 inches, the painting attracted the interest of all of the major dealers, with at least six ready for action on the telephones. Bidding came primarily from two of the phones, with the painting opening below the $60/80,000 estimate at $50,000. Moving in $5,000 advances the whole way, the rare Bradford more than doubled expectations when it sold moments later to a telephone bidder for $166,750.

Another painting in the auction that attracted a great deal of attention had come from the Buechner estate, an oil depicting Diana, the goddess of hunt, perched on a rock with a bow in her hand and a crescent moon on her head. Cataloged as an "original condition" work, the painting by Jules Joseph Lefebvre listed a provenance of Schweitzer Gallery in New York City and was estimated at $20/40,000.