Rafael Osona's 40th Nantucket Auction Features Maritime Theme

The top lot in the day 1 sale is this Ralph Eugene Cahoon Jr. (1910-1982) oil on Masonite “Sailor’s Surprise,” a Chinese export interior scene with a sailor and his mermaid sitting at her chinoiserie dressing table, 24-1/2" x 20-3/4" overall. Estimate: $50,000-$60,000. All photos are courtesy of Rafael Osona Auctions.

NANTUCKET, Mass. - Rafael Osona is sailing into its 40th two-day Nantucket Auction that will feature private collections of Americana, fine art and jewelry, 18th- and 19th-century scrimshaw, artifacts, whaler-made crafts and more.

Day 1's sale at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 8, features the estate of Linda Loring, with additions, that will benefit the Linda Loring Nature Foundation. More than 400 lots offered for bid include old Boston and historic Nantucket material, Americana, fine art, fine jewelry, Continental and American furnishings and décor.

Another day 1 highlight is this Tiffany Studios Banded Dogwood table lamp, circa 1910, the leaded glass shade stamped, “Tiffany Studios New York,“ on a Wild Carrot or Queen Anne Lace patina bronze base stamped, “Tiffany Studios New York 325," shade is 5-1/4" diameter, base height is 12-1/2". Estimate: $10,000-$15,000.

Highlights include a scarce and intimate China Trade interior scene by American painter Ralph Eugene Cahoon, an artist and furniture decorator, who was also a chanteyman of sorts and a weaver of painterly yarns; charmingly itinerant American children's portraits; many fine art offerings that survey 18th and 19th century European and American tastes: works by father, John Joseph Enneking, and son, Joseph Eliot Enneking, Severdonck’s farmland animals and a pair of noble portraits depicting “Dorothea Agusta Leonora and Friederich Hermann von der Streithorst; several important Nantucket paintings including three by Wendell Macy, three paintings by William Ferdinand Macy, and three scarce Nantucket scenes plus notable woodcarvings by James Walter Folger; new-to-market Nantucket material descended in the family of Captain James Cary, master and half-owner of the ship, Rose: 21 lots include sea chests, ship’s gear, Ewer and Godfrey maps, tea caddies, and the family progeny’s well-worn schoolhouse slates; early Nantucket Quaker-made furniture including a rush seat ladderback and a Federal tilt top candlestand circa 1805; works by Gustav Stickley and Tiffany Studios; and plenty of bling: Loring’s appetite for fine jewelry does not disappoint and includes three Seaman Schepps designs and a 18k white gold over 18k yellow gold diamond brooch.

One of the lots in the day 2 sale is this scrimshaw whale tooth, Daniel of London by the Britannia engraver, first half of the 19th century, titled along the edge “Daniel of London,” obverse depicts a starboard portrait of the Daniel in full sail; the verso engraved with the Daniel half engulfed in fire and rigging breaking free, all within four wrap-around borders; 5-1/2" l, 2" w. Estimate: $10,000-$12,000.

Day 2's sale at 10 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 9, is the marine auction featuring the estates of Harold P. Genvert, M.D., and Jack Magee, with additions. More than 800 lots include 18th- and 19th-century scrimshaw, artifacts, logbooks, portraits, whaler-made crafts and paintings.

Another standout lot in day 2's auction is this 1930 first edition of Herman Melville's Moby Dick, limited edition of 1,000, with illustrations by Rockwell Kent, Lakeside Press, Chicago. Estimate: $5,000-$7,000.

Highlights include a 1930 first edition of Herman Melville's Moby Dick or The Whale, published by Lakeside Press, and the first Rockwell Kent-illustrated edition; 18th and 19th century paintings by Antonio Jacobsen, two by Timothy Thompson as well as original works by Benjamin Russell, Gilbert Gaul and others; engravings by W.J. Huggins and others; more than 160 lots of scrimshaw and whalemens’ crafts that offer the full range of 19th century themes – representing both ingenious contrivances and naïve imagery – and the material is full of surprises: symbolic patriotic figures, Naval prowess, portraiture, fashion plates, ethnic diversity, the Napoleonic mystique, and the whale hunt itself; collectors will seek out a new-to-market Britannia Engraver’s tooth, descended in the Franklin Starr family; and a singular sperm whale tooth, “The Wiscasset of Wiscasset, circa 1836” flying the American flag; an important logbook for the whaling ship, Levi Starbuck as well as a fine Portrait of Captain Starbuck, himself; marine instruments and gear, ship’s portraits, ship models; and scrimshawed walking sticks, ditty boxes, busks for the lady’s dressing room, tools, and domestic implements for the workshop, sewing room or kitchen.