CRANSTON, R.I. – Bruneau & Co. Auctioneers will ring in the new year in grand fashion with a 379-lot Winter Antiques & Fine Arts Auction on Saturday, January 6th, featuring fine items pulled from several prominent New England homes. The sale will be held online as well as in Bruneau & Co.’s gallery located at 63 Fourth Avenue in Cranston, beginning at 11 am Eastern.

Kicking off the auction will be 100 lots of fine art from several estates, including pieces from a gentleman’s collection out of Dorchester, Mass. Art will be followed by 19th and 20th century decorative arts, to include fine bronzes, elegant and unusual chandeliers and Part 1 of a collection of more than 60 lots of Chinese Export porcelain out of New York.

The furniture category will feature many large pieces of French furniture, plus several large armoires, marble-top stands and dressers, an extensively carved three-piece parlor set and more. Items of interest will include a circa 1900 strand of pearls by Tiffany & Co.

“This auction holds a sweet spot close to my heart,” said Kevin Bruneau, company president and auctioneer of Bruneau & Co. Auctioneers. “It was exciting to be able to handle and catalog such an extensive collection of fine Chinese Export. Asian antiquities are my favorite category.”

The Part 1 Chinese Export collection (Part 2 will be offered in early 2018) features an armorial blue Fitzhugh porcelain teacup, made circa 1800 for England’s Duke of Gordon and Marquees of Huntley (est. $300-$500). The teacup, formerly in the collection of Helena Woolworth McGann, sits on a finely ground foot rising into a flared bowl. It’s decorated with the Gordon family crest.

Also from the collection is a set of three Chinese Export American sailor sweetheart porcelain articles, consisting of two teacups and a lobed plate decorated with a sailor’s homecoming scene of a woman standing on a shore near a large anchor, awaiting a clipper ship flying an American flag. All three pieces retain paper labels from David Overall Chinese Export (est. $400-$600).

A strong candidate for top lot of the sale is a fine bronze sculpture of a female nude by Mexican-born realist Enrique Alferez (La./Tex., 1901-1999), titled The Bather (1983), 8 ¼ inches tall (est. $10,000-$15,000). “It will be exciting to see how the sculpture performs, seeing that it’s been off the market for over seven years,” said Travis Landry, a Bruneau & Co. specialist and auctioneer.

A French late 16th or early 17th century oil on board allegorical mannerist painting, depicting the conversion of St. Paul while traveling on the path to Damascus, is expected to hit $3,000-$5,000. It’s believed to be Huguenot (Protestant) in origin, relating to the School of Fontainebleau (1530-1610). The art comes with extensive research and paperwork from several respected institutions.

Original artwork will also feature an oil on canvas still life table-top painting of fruit by Robert Spear Dunning (Mass., 1829-1905), a founder of the Fall River School and a revered still life painter (est. $2,000-$3,000); and an oil on canvas laid on Masonite study painting of dogs in a landscape attributed to Henry Bernard Chalon (English, 1770-1849), framed (est. $300-$500).

Wonderful French Art Deco furniture pieces, from an estate in Newport, R.I., will be highlighted by a pair of circa 1920 figural servers being sold as single lots, each with an estimate of $2,000-$3,000. Both servers are burl veneer and mahogany, standing on reeded bun feet, supporting a shapely body. One is elephant themed, while the other shows birds and foliate and has a mirror.

From the same estate is a late 19th century French three-piece Louis XV gilt and white painted wood parlor set, consisting of two armchairs and a matching sofa, with shapely frames and the upholstery in amazing condition (est. $800-$1,200). And speaking of elephants, a late 19th or early 20th century European Moorish cast iron marble-top elephant pedestal, 40 ½ inches tall, of the finest quality and an exposition-worthy example, has a pre-sale estimate of $2,000-$3,000.

Other lots to watch include a fine and rare Italian Baroque carved walnut figural table stand, made circa late 18th or early 19th century, 35 inches tall, beautifully carved with figured busts of wolves, blossoming bellflowers, putto and more (est. $3,000-$5,000); and a pair of Egyptian Revival bronze bookends by the American sculptor Ephraim Keyser (Md., 1850-1937), titled The Wireless, depicting a nude male whispering into the ear of a Sphinx (est. $1,500-$2,500).

Internet bidding will be made available through Bidlive.Bruneauandco.com, Invaluable.com, LiveAuctioneers.com and Bidsquare.com. Phone and absentee (left) bids will also be accepted. Previews will be held on Thursday, January 4th, from 9-5; on Friday, January 5th, from 12 noon until 9 pm; and on Saturday, January 6th, the date of the auction, when the doors open at 8 am.

Bruneau & Co. Auctioneers is announcing a new schedule for 2018. There will be no pre-sale with the estate auctions, as before. They will always be on the first Saturday of each month and will start at 11 am Eastern. Monday night auctions will be held the third Monday of every month.

To learn more about Bruneau & Co. Auctioneers and the Saturday, January 6th auction, visit www.bruneauandco.com. To contact Bruneau & Co. via e-mail, use info@bruneauandco.com.