The top lot of Eldred’s annual Summer Americana, Paintings and Maritime Art Auction was a spectacular sand art bottle featuring a sailing vessel and an eagle and American flag by 19th Century artisan Andrew Clemens of eastern Iowa. Other top lots, conducted July 29, 30 and 31, include two works by Ralph E. Cahoon, Jr., which sold for a combined $77,400, a Gloucester Harbor scene by John Frederick Mulhaupt, which sold for $25,000, and a moonlit mountain scene in the manner of Alfred Bierstadt, which also sold for $21,600.

Spirited competition between two floor bidders drove the price of the sand art bottle to $72,000, six times the lot’s pre-sale estimate and far surpassing earlier world record prices for the artist. This was the second Andrew Clemens bottle Eldred’s has sold this year, although its estimated only fifty works by the artist still exist. Clemens, deaf and mute nearly his entire life, created painstakingly detailed artworks with naturally colored grains of sand he collected from the Pictured Rocks area of Iowa. The sand was inserted into glass bottles using homemade wood and wire tools, but no glue—the compression alone holds the image together. The bottle, height 7”, descended in the family of Clara Schaum, whose name is incorporated into the design.

A large crowd was on-hand all three days of the sale, particularly during the second day when items from the estate of award-winning actress Julie Harris were on the block. Lots of theater memorabilia, paintings and home furnishings drew interest from Cape Cod, where Harris lived for many years, to her fans on Broadway and in Hollywood. Top lots from the Estate Collection include a winter logging scene by Canadian artist Marie Cecile Bouchard and a Louis Vuitton overnight bag.

Paintings continued to be a strong sales category for the firm. In addition to the Cahoon, Mulhaupt and Bierstadt sales, other highlights include a ship portrait attributed to Joseph Heard, which sold for $20,400, “Washington Square Park” by Colin Campbell Cooper, which sold for $18,750, a view of a tugboat by William Gaye Yorke, which sold for $18,000, and “Blue Day, Provicetown”, a dock scene by Gerrit Albertus Beneker, which sold for $15,600.  

An encouraging number of bidders also hotly pursued antique American furniture, an area that has been soft in the auction market over the past few years. Queen Anne furniture was particularly popular: A Circa 1760 Rhode Island highboy brought $16,800, doubling its pre-sale estimate, and a Circa 1730 Connecticut River Valley area lowboy also sold above estimate for $15,600. Other top lots include a Chippendale oxbow desk, which sold for $8,400, Circa 1810 sideboard, which sold for $7,200, and a Chippendale dish-top stand, which sold for $6,000.

“It was great to see so many people in the audience, particularly the number bidding on furniture,” said Joshua Eldred, company vice president. “The whole sale saw lots of active bidding, from floor bidders, phone bidders and online bidders. Each sale sees an almost exponential growth of online buyers, many of them bidding in an auction for the first time. It’s hearting to see so many new customers.”

Other lots of note include four groups of Norman Rockwell sketches, which sold for a combined $23,700, an Imperial German Naval Dagger, which sold over estimate for $6,600, and a collection of wooden whale carvings by Charlie Sayle of Nantucket, which sold for $5,700, more than seven times the pre-sale estimate.

The Robert C. Eldred Co.’s next auction is the Contemporary Paintings sale, scheduled for Wednesday, August 12 at 6:30 p.m. Part of the proceeds from that auction will benefit the Turlough Meehan Research Foundation, which funds pediatric leukemia research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. The company will conclude its summer auction season with its 47th Annual Summer Asian Art auctions the week of August 24-29. The auctions will all take place at the company’s main facility located at 1483 Route 6A, in East Dennis, Massachusetts. Interested bidders can visit www.eldreds.com for complete sale listings and to register to bid via phone, absentee bid or online. Those wishing to bid live in the audience may register at the offices the day of the auction.

Eldred’s, New England's oldest established antiques and fine arts auction house, holds approximately 25 auctions per year encompassing Americana, paintings, Asian art, European decorative art, maritime antiques and collectibles. It was recently named one of the top auction houses in North America by Blouin Art Info.