Bundy Oil at July Auction

JE Bundy, 24x19, O/C

BUNDY PAINTING EXCEEDS ESTIMATE

Purchased by Richmond museum for permanent collection

CARMEL, IN- In today’s unpredictable antiques and art market, one thing is true; quality still sells, and is still in great demand. 

 

This truth is evidenced by the sale of a painting entitled “A Hillside in Winter”, by John Elwood Bundy (IN, 1853-1933), which exceeded auction estimate of $3000-$5000 when it hammered for $9,500 at Wickliff Auctioneers’ summer estates and antiques auction on Saturday, July 15.

A late, last-minute addition to the auction catalogue, the painting had a label attached verso which claimed that the piece had been exhibited in the National Academy of Design.  The ‘National Academy’, as it is now known, was founded in 1825 and is a professional honorary organization, school, and a museum.   Paintings juried into the Academy’s annual exhibition are considered to be of the best quality, and the Academy’s archive indicates that a painting entitled “A Winter Hillside”, by John Elwood Bundy, of Richmond, IN, was exhibited in their annual show in 1916.  Although a slightly different title is recorded, in conflict with the frame tag on the painting, the painting offered is believed to have been the canvas exhibited in 1916.

All available phone bidding lines at Wickliff were reserved for this item, and other absentee bidders were offered the opportunity to bid live, online, or to present an absentee bid.  When the hammer fell, the winning bidder was the Richmond Art Museum, Richmond, IN, who purchased the piece for the museum’s permanent collection.  According to Shaun Dingwerth, the museum actively collects important pieces through purchase, as well as from donations.  Dingwerth said, regarding the Bundy, “This is the kind of painting we want in our great collection.”

Wickliff Auctioneers specializes in the sale of fine art at auction, and conducts monthly sales at their Carmel, IN, salesroom.  More information is available at www.wickliffauctioneers.com or by calling 317-844-7253. 

Woolsey Brothers Art Finds Indiana, New Mexico Fame

The November 10, 2012, auction at Wickliff Auctioneers' gallery in Carmel, IN, features an estate collection from the daughter of artist Carl Woolsey, Rhonda Woolsey Wolverton.  The following is a biography which details the history of the Woolsey brothers art and experiences, in Indiana, the American southwest and in juried shows across the nation. 

Raised in Danville, Illinois, Carl Woolsey moved with his family to Indianapolis in 1921 and then to Long Beach, California in 1922. By this time, Woolsey had taught himself to paint, but he also received brief instruction from the artist Henry Richter in Long Beach. In 1925 Woolsey's father, Charles, moved the family back to Indianapolis where Carl continued his self-instruction in fine art.

from LtoR: Jean, Charles (father), Carl and Wood Woolsey in Taos studio

Woolsey became intrigued with Taos after viewing an exhibition in Indianapolis of paintings by Walter Ufer, a founding member of the Taos Society of Artists. He soon started a correspondence with Ufer who invited him to Taos. Woolsey arrived there with his wife and two children in 1927 and immediately started to work painting in Ufer's studio, under the mentorship of the older artist.

Woolsey's skills blossomed under Ufer's informal instruction, and he enjoyed almost immediate critical success. His paintings were juried into the Hoosier Salon in 1927 and into the National Academy of Design Winter Show in 1928. In the following years he showed in twelve more Hoosier Salons, and participated in most National Academy exhibitions until 1936.

Woolsey's quick success in Taos enticed his brother Jean to leave for Taos in the summer of 1928. The brothers rented the former studio of Kenneth Adams where Carl painted and Jean operated a frame shop. Later that summer, their older brother, Wood, arrived with their parents and younger sister. Wood had been working in Indianapolis as a commercial artist but saw Taos as an opportunity to become a "real" artist. Charles Woolsey saw the promise in both young artists and became their manager while also assisting in Jean's frame business.

Carl and Wood Woolsey's careers flourished together in Taos. From 1928 to 1930, they sold seventy-five of the eighty paintings they made. In addition to the Hoosier and National Academy shows, Charles arranged exhibitions for the brothers in Chicago, Indianapolis, and the Milwaukee Art Institute. Carl also showed at the Corcoran Gallery, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, the Museums of Art in Akron and Dayton, and the Stanford Gallery in Palo Alto, California. Carl won many prizes while still in his 20s and 30s including the National Academy's prestigious Hallgarten Award.

Throughout his career Carl Woolsey painted landscapes almost exclusively, with even small figures rarely appearing in his work. He used naturalistic color and painted in a traditional, representational style but his often complex compositions clearly owe a debt to Walter Ufer and to the eastern modernists. With a dappled brush and careful control of light and shadow, Woolsey emphasized shape, contour and texture which also gave his best paintings a slight modernist edge.

Feeling the economic pinch of the Depression, Charles decided to move back to Indiana, perhaps because most of his sons' work was sold in the Midwest. Carl followed in 1934, being ever obedient to his father's wishes. After his divorce in 1940 he followed his parents again when they moved to Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania. Returning from service in World War II, Carl rejoined his parents and brother, Wood, now living in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. He tried painting for a time in New Haven, Connecticut, but returned to East Stroudsburg in about 1950 to share a studio with Wood.

In the years following the War, Carl continued to paint but did little in the way of exhibitions. Modernism and abstract expressionism were receiving the attention, and his style of regionalist realism was no longer in demand in the large museum and gallery shows. In the last years of his life, Carl applied his dappled brush technique to miniature paintings, expanding his subjects to include portraits, figure, and genre scenes. Carl Woolsey died in East Stroudsburg in 1965.
(republished from the archives of AskArt.com, 
Biography from Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery Santa FeTucson)

A Resurgence in the Antique Market?

Following our January, 2011, auction of art, antiques and decorative arts, many of us, staff and customers, wondered if the increased bidding, attendance and prices realized were just a ‘hiccup’ of market conditions, or indicative of a trend.

Our February 19 auction seemed to confirm that there is a noticeable increase in demand for quality antiques and decorative arts. Our assertion is based on a higher-than-normal number of new bidder registrations, and better than average online page views via our catalogues posted to both our site and to our live bidding facilitator, Live Auctioneers.

A noticeable difference in bidding results showed that onsite bidders (bidders in our gallery during the auction) purchased a higher percentage of the items than their online, live bidding counterparts. The percentage of winning bidders via Live Auctioneers was reduced by 5.2%, based on an average of the last six month’s totals. We attribute this change to a surge in local buyer interest, again, illustrated by the number of onsite, first-time registrations to our auctions.

Of the categories which have suffered significantly over the last 5 years, mid-level antique furniture (items formerly selling between $500 and $2500), had taken a large reduction in sale prices. These items have been, and remain, a tremendous value when compared to the poor quality seen in new decorator furnishings. Perhaps the public is beginning to recognize that the high-end name brand furnishings have all suffered in quality in the last ten years, while their pricing remained consistent with the quality previously offered. Maybe, just maybe, the public is beginning to explore the option of vintage and antique furniture, given the solid wood, handmade, high quality of most pieces, as an alternative to pressed wood and laminate.

Further verification of an increasing market was told to me secondhand; a friend who exhibited at the Miami Beach Antique Show (one of the largest in this country) in early February shared that he thought the show was a raving success. He sold every single item he took to sell, and commented that the attendance was excellent, and that several dealers were extremely pleased with their sales.

Our market commentary through the change in buyer demographics and the effect of the down economy, has been that the best quality items have, and will continue to find, a receptive market, no matter the category- art, rugs, jewelry, decorative arts or furniture.

We are often asked, “When is the best time to sell?” The answer is qualified by what the client is offering for sale. As we have seen over and over, if the item to be sold is properly marketed, represents a very high quality and is exposed to the correct market, the date of the offering is of little consequence. Today’s buyer/collector wants the best quality they can find, whenever they can find it, and the accumulative nature of the previous generations’ collectors no longer defines or influences today’s market.

However, based on our buyer responses to the last two auctions’ content of better quality furniture, art and decorative arts, the best time to sell may be right now.

NO SIGN OF RECESSION AT WICKLIFF’S JANUARY AUCTION

A new Indiana art auction record was set January 19, 2010, at Wickliff Auctioneers’ Fine Art and Estates auction when a Claude Curry Bohm painting entitled “Sunday in Vermont”, a featured painting in an estate collection of Bohm’s work, realized $29,000. (prices listed do not include Buyer’s Premium)

The auction featured the estate property of Elenita Bauer, who, along with her husband, Dr. Tom Bauer, was personal friends of Curry Bohm and Bohm’s wife, Lillian, sometimes accompanying the artist on painting trips to New England. In addition, the Bauers were patrons of the arts in Indiana, active in the Indianapolis Ballet Society and the Hoosier Salon, and as charter members of the Brown County (IN) historical society.

Darin Lawson, CAI, Auctioneer, stated “This group is, without question, the finest, and most complete, single owner collection of Curry Bohm’s work ever offered.” The collection included a variety of Bohm subject matter and styles, ranging from a Bohm oil painting shown in the first exhibition of the Brown County Art Gallery in 1926, to a rare bromide photograph from 1922 with multiple exhibition tags from the 1920’s, to an emotive pastel from 1935 entitled “Man’s Inhumanity to Man”, depicting a depression era homeless shelter.

The Bohm collection also featured a New England scene entitled “Off for the Mackeral Run”, which set a new record for a Bohm harbor depiction, doubling high estimate at a sale price of $12,000.

The auction also included decorative arts, Americana and antique furnishings, and the quality of the items available drew considerable interest from across the globe. The Wickliff site, including the online, photo catalogue received over 50,000 hits in just the week preceding the auction, with over 500 live and online bidders including registrants from China, Japan, Taiwan, Turkey, Lebanon, several countries in Europe, and all of North America.

“This auction solidified our opinion over the last few years that, even in times of a struggling economy, quality items, offered in a pure setting and properly exposed, will continue to find a strong market,” said Lawson. The auction also featured the estate collection of William Shirley, an Indianapolis resident with ties to the Shirley Brothers central Indiana mortuaries. “The Shirley estate and the Bauer estate blended so well together, as the primary items collected in both estates were 19th century American, so the focus of the auction, combined with quality items in all categories of the merchandise, received lots of attention and pre-auction ‘chatter’.”

Other highlights of the sale included a turn-of-the-last-century Regina Corona Model 35 disc changer music box. The disc-changing mechanism was inoperable, but the Regina exceeded high estimate by $500, selling for a hammer price of $8,500. A unique and early 19th century sugar chest, with a later, painted red finish, drew considerable pre-auction speculation regarding the origins, had phone, live and online bidders and sold for $4,000.

The Bauer collection also included Native American decorative arts, acquired during a time of residence in the American southwest. Featured was an 11”, paint-decorated Zuni bowl, which sold at $1,300.

The first category in the Saturday auction included over 100 lots of fine and antique jewelry, including the Bauer collection of Victorian carved stone cameos. The top-selling lot was an oval stone cameo brooch selling with a coordinating, cupid-motif stone bracelet, at $800.

There were still bargains to be had, however, in early American pattern glass, Victorian furnishings and oriental rugs. A large collection of Seneca Loop pattern glass sold at low-estimate values, which were, according to Lawson, admittedly conservative. A late 19th century, nice quality Chippendale style dining room group including table, eight chairs, buffet and two linen chests with a pre-sale estimate of $2,500-$4000, sold to a happy buyer for $1,750. A 12' x 22' 1920's/1930's Persian Sarouk oriental rug was indicative of the current market for traditional-style rugs, selling just above low estimate at $3,500.

“Mid-level, ‘brown’ antique furniture is still struggling to find buyers,” Lawson said. “I don’t believe we’ll see a change in demand for mid-level Victorian and American antique furniture for several years, and the only factor that may spur an increase in demand will be a change in decorating styles for the next generation of buyers, which, I believe, is a low-percentage possibility.”

Wickliff Auctioneers began in 1991, and their auction showroom is located in Carmel, IN. The company conducts catalogued auctions from its location approximately 10 times per year. More information is available by calling 317-844-7253, or by visiting www.wickliffauctioneers.com.

WHY BUY FURNITURE AT OUR APRIL AUCTION?

In last week's "Current in Carmel" weekly newspaper, one of the weekly columnists discussed the lack of value in furniture marketed by national chains. In the article, she referenced a study completed by Smart Money Magazine in 2006 which revealed the lack of quality construction techniques and materials used in home furnishings sold by trendy "lifestyle" retailers. The article was titled "Pottery Barn Unstuffed".

Also referenced in the article are items sold by Restoration Hardware and Crate and Barrel. To summarize the article, buying furniture at the aforementioned stores is not neccessarily "smart" use of your money.

Poor quality veneers, low-grade adhesives, cardboard (yes, cardboard!) frames on upholstered furniture...this stuff is made to be thrown away after it's life expectancy, which gets shortened considerably if you use the furniture for any purpose other than to just look at. In addition, the slickly-created advertising for these items is a total misrepresentation of the contents and materials.

Our April auction is replete with the polar opposite of these items, as home furnishings are concerned. Much of it was produced in either North Carolina or Grand Rapids, MI, using American hardwoods and hardware, hand-assembled by American craftsmen. After an international exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876, Grand Rapids became recognized worldwide as a leader in the production of fine furniture. National home furnishing markets were held in Grand Rapids for about 75 years, concluding in the 1960s, then moved to North Carolina, probably for better weather.

This auction includes high-quality furniture by companies such as Baker (pre-Kohler), Henredon, Kittinger, Statton, Davis Cabinet Company, Drexel/Heritage/Morganton and a few others. An auctioneer friend of mine uses the term "antiques of the future" as a cheesy sales line, but these quality items in our April sale do, in fact, represent generational furniture. Produced with quality and sold via select decorators and high-end retailers, these are the type of items that, with proper care, can actually be passed from generation to generation.

For less than the cost of a made-in-China, Crate and Barrel leather sofa, a buyer at our April 18 auction will likely obtain a Henredon dining room table with eight chairs that was made in America in the 1980's, using the finest quality solid-brass hardware, kiln-dried, solid grade-one hardwoods, thick veneers and quality control that didn't allow sub-par objects out of the factory to benefit the bottom line for shareholders.

Anyone, from younger couples on a budget furnishing a first home, to a second-home buyer looking to furnish the large family home, to a downsizer needing just a few quality items to accentuate the space of a condo or townhome, will appreciate the quality, craftsmanship and timeless style of furnishings made in the mid to late 20th century in the United States.

Why spend money on items that are made overseas by companies using shoddy materials assembled with unskillled labor, when fewer dollars can be spent to acquire pre-owned, finest quality furniture that will outlast the owner's desire to use it? And, those dollars stay in the United States, at a time when our government is giving 'bailout' money to companies that are servicing overseas debt with our tax dollars. In addition, buying pre-owned items at auction is 'greener', as another motivation for you.

Come see the selection we have in this April 18 auction, and be open to the idea of avoiding trendy, national retail stores when a new end table, area rug or dining room suite is needed. Quality is all around us this month, and some wise bidders are going to take home some treasures for less than will be spent on a stainless steel spoon rest at Crate and Barrel.

Make a point to visit our showroom this Friday for our gallery preview from 2-7 pm, or preview our catalogue here.

JANUARY ART AUCTION RESULTS

Standing-room only in our gallery, phone and internet bidders from the UK, Scotland, Spain, the Netherlands and all over the United States, combined with the most per-item page views on our web catalogue since we began tracking, indicated the global marketplace that is present for fine art at auction.

This auction was a testament to sellers who believed in the auction method, had assembled a desirable collection of domestic and European art (including many paintings by historic, Indiana artists), and trusted our company to effectively market this collection to a worldwide audience.

Active bidding by numerous bidders on nearly every piece resulted in most of the paintings selling within estimate, and while no auction records were set, the market responded positively, even considering the state of the national economy.

Sale results from the January sale can be found here- Wickliff January Sale Results

We are equally as excited to present the furniture, porcelain, antique Oriental rugs, wicker, patio furniture, lighting and decorative accessories from the Verble Collection at our February 21 auction. Bidders may preview that catalogue here.

Additionally, we are pleased with the exposure gained by our partnership with Artfact/Invaluable. The site has long been an excellent resource for determining values on fine art and antiques, and the company, which formerly was service provider for ebay Live Auctions, now has it's own proprietary live bidding platform. We have committed to Artfact to broadcast all our auctions for 2009 using this service, and hope that our bidders will find value in the convenience of online bidding. Their service fee is only 3%, making the total Buyer's Premium only 15%, a tremendous value when compared to other auctioneers' 20%-25% online buyer premiums. Check out http://www.artfact.com for more details. Currently, they are offering an Artfact Basic membership, an excellent price/value resource, free for new users.

VERBLE ART COLLECTION IS QUALITY AND VARIETY

At this point in our marketing of our January sale, many of our patrons are surprised to learn that nearly every painting in our January 24 Art Auction comes from one home. It is true, and the collection represents decades of collecting Indiana, American and European art.

One of the sale highlights, at least from our perspective, is the group of paintings by Brown County artist Varaldo Guiseppe (VJ) Cariani. Many times throughout the year, we will offer one or two large Cariani oils in our art auctions, but this collection has three large still life paintings, two large landscapes and two smaller landscapes, each well-presented and ready to hang.

Another favorite of our staff are the pair of William Aiken Walker (South Carolina 1838-1921) oils depicting cotton harvesting in the old South. While these paintings are unsigned, a letter of provenance from the Indianapolis Museum of Art, referencing Ellwood Parry as consultant who authenticated the paintings, is attached. Rarely are Walker’s paintings sold outside of the southeast United States, and these paintings represent a real opportunity to own a piece of Americana.

Also featured are three great paintings by George Ames Aldrich. Aldrich is claimed by Indiana as affiliated in this state, as he exhibited regularly in the Hoosier Salon in the 1920’s and 1930’s, and was involved heavily in the South Bend art scene in the 1920’s, but he was classically trained in Europe as early as the 1890’s, and then in the early 1900’s, attended Academies Julian and Colarossi, and later joined the Societe des Artistes Francais. We are pleased to offer three outstanding examples of Aldrich’s work in this auction.

The Verbles also appreciated and decorated their home with historic European paintings. Many 19th century oils graced the walls of their large, waterfront home. Some are historic paintings by artists with little or no biographical information, but several are by listed artists, featuring a Petrus Kremer (Antwerp, Belgium, 1801-1888) oil on canvas, 39 x 31, entitled "In Her Studio", depicting acclaimed artist Maria Van Oosterwyck in 1660, painting in a studio setting, and presented in an ornate gold leaf frame .

In all, over 80 paintings from the Verble collection comprise this rare offering of such a pure, fresh-to-the-market group of art. Visitors to our gallery will also have the opportunity to preview our February auction, also comprised of the Verble collection, featuring period and period-style French furnishings, antique and semi-antique oriental rugs of high quality, a large collection of Dresden porcelain and a fantastic selection of period decorative accessories and decorative arts.

See our catalogues for upcoming auctions here!