Aesthetic Movement pieces, French period furniture, Old Master paintings at Nye’s November 1st auction

Press Release (ePRNews.com) - Bloomfield, N.J. - Oct 30, 2017 - Nye & Company Auctioneers’ upcoming Fall Estate Treasures Auction on Wednesday, November 1st, will feature French furniture and decorative items from a private collection on Park Avenue in New York City, a large group of American Aesthetic Movement furniture and decorations from a former Manhattan dealer, and a pair of Old Master oil paintings.

Some other items in the auction – 123 lots of the 818 up for bid – will be sold to help fund the restoration of buildings and water features at Greenwood Gardens, an historic mansion home and the 28 acres of cultivated grounds surrounding it, located in Short Hills, N.J., along the western ridge of the Watchung Mountains. Greenwood Gardens was open to the public in spring of 2013.

The auction will be held in Nye’s showroom, located at 20 Beach Street in Bloomfield, as well as online, through the bidding platforms Invaluable.com and LiveAuctioneers.com, starting at 10 am Eastern. Phone and absentee bids will also be taken. The full catalog, with all lots, can be viewed now, in color, at the Nye & Company Auctioneers website: www.nyeandcompany.com.

Putting together an auction with three major components, like this one, isn’t always easy, said company president John Nye. “The auction market is more unpredictable today than it was several years ago,” he said. “The secret to gaining confidence in an upcoming sale is the quality of the property being offered. I feel very confident about the quality of the pieces in this sale.”

French period furniture from the Park Avenue (and Southampton, N.Y.) private collection will be led by a Louis XVI-style giltwood marble-top console table with glass inset, circa late 19th or early 20th century, 31 inches tall by 5 feet 3 inches wide (est. $7,000-$10,000); and a pair of Louis XV-style marble-top side tables, gilt bronze mounted, same period (est. $5,000-$8,000).

Fine art from the collection will feature a watercolor and pencil landscape work by French artist Henry Labasque (1865-1937), titled Paysage Ave. Maison, 11 inches by 17 ¾ inches (sight) and with a label verso (est. $3,000-$5,000); and two European School still life paintings with fruit, signed lower right, 12 ½ inches by 15 ½ inches (sight), offered as one lot (est. $2,500-$3,500).

Decorative items will include an English George IV gilt bronze ebonized mantle clock, made in England in the 19th century and signed Noble and Chivers (Bath), 15 ½ inches tall (est. $4,000-$6,000); and a pair of German Meissen porcelain figural covered urns, made in the 18th or 19th century and mounted on a base of a later date, each urn 16 ½ inches tall (est. $3,000-$5,000).

The Aesthetic Movement was a literary and artistic phenomenon that flourished in England in the 1880s and eventually spread to the United States. It stressed “art for art’s sake” and rejected the notion that art should have a social or moral purpose. Its exponents included Oscar Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley, Max Beerbohm and others associated with the journal the Yellow Book.

The production of Aesthetic-style furniture was limited to just the late 19th century and was characterized by common themes, which included ebonized wood (painted or stained to a black ebony finish), a Far Eastern influence, the prominent use of nature (especially flowers, birds, ginkgo leaves and peacock feathers), and blue on white on porcelain and other fine china.

Aesthetic Movement pieces in the auction from the Manhattan dealer’s collection will feature an American 19th century ebonized display cabinet in two parts, 6 feet tall by 4 feet 3 inches wide (est. $1,500-$2,500); and a Minton porcelain pitcher with matching vase, both a bright turquoise blue with a black flying birds pattern, circa 1870, being offered as a single lot (est. $300-$500).

Other Aesthetic Movement lots will include a pair of brown porcelain platters, one depicting a bamboo pattern and palace scene, the other a Japanese Doulton transfer decorated platter (est. $300-$500); and a Meriden sugar bowl and coffee pot, hand-hammered silver plate Japanese ovoid form with apple, grasshopper, flowers and birds decorations on both (est. $300-$500).

The Old Master oil paintings are portraits with estimates of $10,000-$20,000. One is a portrait of an artist from the Circle of Caspar Netscher (Heidelberg 1639-1684, The Hague), half-length, with a palette, marble busts and an orange tree, 16 ½ inches by 13 ½ inches, signed “Netscher f.”

The other is an oil on panel attributed to Nicolaes Maes (Dordrecht, 1634-1693, Amsterdam), of Sir Constantijn Huygens I, Lord of Zuilichem (1596-1687), also half-length, in painted oval and signed lower right “N. MAES.” The work was exhibited at the London Royal Academy in 1888.

Furniture pieces in the Greenwood Gardens portion of the sale will include a Federal inlaid mahogany dining table made in Baltimore circa 1790-1810, in three parts: two D-shaped ends and one rectangular middle section with attached drop leaves (est. $2,000-$4,000); and an assembled set of 12 Federal dining chairs of inlaid mahogany, same period (est. $1,200-$1,800).

Also from the Greenwood Gardens portion are a pair of Chippendale carved mahogany side chairs, made in Massachusetts around 1780, both 38 inches in height (est. $400-$600); and a pair of 20th century rock crystal and gilt metal two-arm candelabra, depicting an urn issuing a floral spray with two candle nozzles, on a vase-shaped support and plinth base (est. $2,000-$4,000).

The mansion home on the site of Greenwood Gardens was built in 1949 by Peter P. Blanchard, a lawyer for IBM, and his wife, Adelaide, a pediatrician at New York Hospital. They razed the original home that was built in 1906 by real estate magnate Joseph P. Day and his wife, Pauline. The Days called the estate Pleasant Days, but over time it fell into disrepair and was crumbling.

The Blanchards replaced Pleasant Days with a smaller, Georgian Revival-style home and named it The Greenwoods. Greenwood Gardens refers to the house and grounds. In 2003, honoring his father’s wishes, Peter P. Blanchard III and his wife Sofia established Greenwood Gardens as a non-profit conservation organization. It is listed as one of 16 exceptional gardens in the U.S.

John Nye had a long and fruitful career at Sotheby’s before he and his wife, Kathleen, acquired Dawson’s in 2003 and started Dawson & Nye. With the move to Bloomfield seven years later, they renamed the business to Nye & Company (Auctioneers, Appraisers, Antiques). The firm is nationwide, but the vast bulk of the business comes from trusts and estates in the tri-state area.

For more information about Nye & Company Auctioneers and the Collectors’ Passion and Estate Treasures Auction scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 1st, please visit www.nyeandcompany.com.

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