This month’s featured auction lots include paintings by Jacques Martin-Ferrières, Andrew Wyeth and TV personality Bob Ross, along with a yellow gold wristwatch that Max Schmeling gave to Jack Dempsey and a pair of small Louis XVI urns from the collection of President Eisenhower’s granddaughter Anne.
Bonhams
Snowy Cabin with Three Mountains
Sold for: $17,920
Part of Bonhams’ Americana auction, this Bob Ross oil painting on velvet sold for just under $18,000. Ross first began painting in the early 1960s. He became the host of “The Joy of Painting” TV show, for which he painted over 1,000 works, in 1983. Throughout his career, Ross, who died in 1995 at the age of 52, is said to have completed around 30,000 paintings, but not many have made it to an auction. The Alaskan landscape was one of this favorite subjects.
Christie’s
Yellow Gold Wristwatch from Max Schmeling to Jack Dempsey
Estimate: $1,000–$1,500
Sold for: $20,320
This yellow gold jump hour wristwatch from around 1930 sold for over 13 times its high estimate in an online auction of lots from the Dr. G.B. Espy Collection. The watch was given to Jack Dempsey, world heavyweight champion from 1919 to 1926, by fellow boxer Max Schmeling. It is inscribed: “Berlin-Germany / 4-7-33 / To my Pal Jack Dempsey / From / Max Schmeling.”
Doyle
Pair of Louis XVI Ormolu-Mounted Bloodstone Covered Urns
Estimate: $3,000–$5,000
Sold for: $6,400
This pair of late 18th-century Louis XVI urns, eight and a half inches tall, are from the collection of New York-based interior designer Anne Eisenhower, granddaughter of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Freeman’s
Le Pont Saint Michel et Notre Dame de Paris
Estimate: $15,000–$25,000
Sold for: $35,200
This oil painting by French artist Jacques Martin-Ferrières, from a private collection in Maryland, depicts the Saint Michel Bridge and Notre Dame. The painting is signed but undated. Born in 1893, Martin-Ferrières was the son of second-generation Impressionist Henri Martin. He died in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1972.
The Potomack Company
Fox Hunters at Andress House, 1938
Estimate: $200,000–$300,000
Sold for: $175,000
This large early watercolor by Andrew Wyeth shows a group of fox hunters on horseback heading through a snowy landscape toward a Pennsylvania farmhouse, the John Andress House in Chadd’s Ford. The 1938 work, from a private collection, is painted from the point of view of Kuerner’s Farm, which was a short walk from Wyeth’s studio.
