This is a multi-estate sale. We have selected from several estates and downsizing situations a broad range of antiques and collectibles from household furnishings to art, jewellery, silver and gold, studio design, toys, and carpets.
Each estate or downsizing tells a story. It tells the choices people made in decorating their homes. It shows how collectors added to their knowledge and sophistication, in building their collections.
This auction has a strong emphasis on art, particularly Canadian art. There are the classical Sampson-Matthews prints done to promote the Group of Seven and their contemporaries. Some of the art has been brought back from trips. Paintings from Florida, California, Paris and Wales were purchased directly from the artists and brought home as mementos of their travels. Some collectors had an eye for earlier works by established Canadian artists like Clara Hagarty and her still life of flowers that had gone through a vetted exhibition.
One of the bigger discoveries in this auction is the very large photo by Canada’s own Dr. Roberta Bondar. She is an incredibly gifted person – a neurologist, head of international space medicine for NASA, Canada’s first female astronaut, an author, consultant, public speaker, and even a photographer-artist. Her very large Winter Forest Scene is a dramatic image that would go very well in a modern home looking for that dramatic airy focal piece.
There are two bright, colourful and collectible pieces from Quebec artist Claude Langevin whose paintings have been sold through all major art houses in Canada.
One last worthy art selection is the David Blackwood aquatint – The Nickerson Passing. Blackwood has an international reputation as a visual storyteller. He has many works showing the beauty of Newfoundland and the stories of life at sea or under it.
In addition to adorning the walls this auction has many personal adornments. There is a handcrafted 18KT gold cocktail ring with a diamond by Vancouver designer Cavelti. There are numerous gold bracelets, chokers, and rings to treat yourself or gift a loved one.
The floors are covered as well. There is the usual grouping of quality Persian carpets like Hamadan, Belouchi, Indo-Kirman. One collector added exotic pieces like bag faces, tent strips, antique kilim that are prized collector pieces.
Canadian studio pottery is an emerging collectibles area. Several potters are already highly sought after like Deichmann, Lorenzen, Strawberry Hill. In our current auction there are several striking examples of studio pottery by lesser known but equally talented potters like Richard and Susan Surette, John Bergen, and Walter Dexter.
Some of the estates had extensive collections of sterling, especially flatware. In addition there are 2 highlight lots of early 19th C holloware by Pelletreau, Bennett and Cooke. Similar holloware pieces by these makers are in major collections like the Brooklyn and Metropolitan Museums. Two other notable lots are a George III sterling salver and a tiny sterling pap bowl c1759. The pap bowl trumps the motto of being born with a silver spoon in one’s mouth.
Finally, we have a selection of tin lithographed toys and even a salesman’s sample of a cook stove.
Whether you want to add to your toy collection or wish to wear some bling or want to decorate your walls or floors we have you covered.
