Dog lovers walk Shannon’s results to $2.3M

Percival Rosseau (American, 1859-1937), Pointers on the Hunt, 1927, oil on canvas, signed and dated, 23” x 32-1/4”, was top lot at $100,000.

MILFORD, CT. – A lively round of bidding from dog lovers, sporting art collectors and collectors of the American South pushed a rare hunting scene by Percival Leonard Rosseau to $100,000 and top-lot status at a recent sale by Shannon’s Fine Art Auctioneers.

The Rosseau painting is probably a depiction of Percy Rockefeller’s hunting grounds at Overhills, North Carolina, and was one of many lots that caused an exciting night at Shannon’s in general when a full room of bidders, a bank of twenty telephone bidders and participation from online bidding platforms kicked off a robust auction that resulted in $2.3 million in sales and more than 76 percent of the 266 lots sold.

John George Brown (American, 1831-1913), The Flower Girl, 1878, oil on canvas, signed and dated, 30” x 22”, sold for $87,500.

Another top seller was John George Brown’s The Flower Girl from 1878, which went for $87,500. All four lots by Brown sold well, including the smallest, Ready for Biz, an 8- by 6-inch portrait of a shoe-shine boy, that sold for $7,500 against its $3,000-5,000 estimate.

American landscape paintings from the 19th century also did well including Alfred T. Bricher’s Grand Manan, Maine that sold for $68,750, Hugh Bolton Jones’ Early Spring, Near Sheffield, Massachusetts that sold for $32,500, Edmund Coates View Along the Hudson that sold for $17,500, Ferdinand Richard American Falls at Niagara that sold for $15,000 and Edward Moran’s Clam Diggers that sold for $20,000.

“We see it again and again, clients are still buying 19th century landscapes and Hudson River School paintings if the works are by leading artists, of good subjects, in good condition and with provenance,” said Shannon’s managing partner, Sandra Germain.

There were also impressive sales in American Impressionism. Pennsylvania Impressionism had a strong night with Fern Coppedge’s Winter in Bucks County selling for $81,250, doubling the low estimate.

One of the most exciting lots in the sale was a sculpture by Abastenia St. Leger Eberle, Windy Doorstep. Loosely associated with the Ashcan School, Eberle worked in New York City and in Woodstock. In 1910, Windy Doorstep won the esteemed Helen Foster Barnett Prize at the National Academy of Design. Of the 20 castings, four were purchased by museums in 1910 and by 1917, fifteen were sold. Competitive bidding resulted in a $68,750 purchase price, the highest price achieved for the artist since 2006, and the third highest price overall.

For the full results, visit www.shannons.com.

Abastenia St. Leger Eberle (American, 1878-1942), Windy Doorstep, 1910, bronze, signed and dated, inscribed with foundry mark “S. Klaber and Co. Founders, NY”, 14” h, $68,750.