Pent-up Demand from New Collectors Drove Lark Mason Associates Sale of Fine and Decorative Arts from the Property of an Aspen Estate and Other Owners to Ring up Over $300,000
New Braunfels TX: A selection of fine and decorative arts from the estate of an Aspen collector, property from two New York-based collections of French art glass and European porcelain, and several collections of paintings and sculptures achieved $304, 119 including buyer’s premium at Lark Mason Associates’ online sale–on igavelauctions.com–which closed on December 2nd.
According to Lark Mason a surprising number of purchases were made by buyers in the metropolitan areas of New York, San Francisco, San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas. “The strong participation from these regions is a welcome sign of interest in categories that in recent years had been overlooked at auctions,” says Lark Mason. “It’s an encouraging sign that pent-up demand is bringing new collectors to the market.”
The sale showed strong results through several categories, including antiquities, paintings and sculpture from the 18th through 20th centuries, Rookwood pottery, Art Nouveau and Art Deco glass by Daum Nancy and Émile Galle´, ceramics and other decorative arts.
“There was a very good selection of small works that in total realized over $30,000, surpassing their high estimate. A collection of Baroque carvings and works of art similarly performed well, realizing around $35,000 in total,” says Lark Mason. “Both areas showed surprising strength in categories that have in the recent past struggled.”
Among the top lots that collectors snapped up was a Russian bronze sculpture, by Nikolai Iwanowitsch Lieberich called The Chase, which brought $27,500; and a 20th century sculpture in stainless steel of a horse, by Arturo Di Modica (best known for Charging Bull) sold for $25,000. A surprise was the top antiquity lots: a Roman Marble Funerary Plaque dating to the 1st-2nd century that brought $32,500 surpassing it original estimate of $1,000-2,000 and 3 Marble heads, Hellenistic, Egypt 1st-2nd century BC that sold for $4,500, 8 times over their $500-800 estimates. “In the current market, antiquities with a strong history of ownership sell well,” says Mason. “These items were all documented as purchased from the 1960-80 period.”
Among the other lots that sold was Bougainvilleas for Sale, 2004, by the Cuban artist Julio Larraz ($7,813) a European silver figure of St. Catherine with Stone Mounts ($5,236), a 19th century porcelain plaque with Beauty and a Horse ($4,075), and a 17th century, a watercolor and pencil on paper of a Biblical Scene by Luigi Ademello ($3,875), Queen Esther and King Ahaseurus, a European School oil on canvas ($5,125).
About Lark Mason
With locations in New Braunfels, Texas and New York City, Lark Mason Associates, the eponymous, auction house specializing in Asian, ethnographic, and ancient works of art, was founded by Lark Mason after many years as an expert at Sotheby’s New York.
Mason served as a General Appraiser from 1979 until 1985, and as a Senior Vice President and specialist in Chinese art with Sotheby’s Chinese Works of Art Department from 1985-2003. From 2000-2003 he concurrently was a Director of Online Auctions for Sothebys.com. He also served as a consulting curator at the Trammel and Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art in Dallas, Texas from 2003-2009. He is a generalist in American and European works of art and paintings, as well as an expert in the field of Chinese art and has valued and advised many private collectors and institutions.
Lark Mason Associates regularly hosts auctions on the iGavel Auctions platform and has an established history of record sales of Chinese and other works of art and holds the record for the highest price achieved for any work of art in an online sale, for a painting sold in May 2014 that realized close to $4.2m. Mason, the owner and CEO of iGavel Auctions, is noted for his regular appearances on “The Antiques Road Show.” For more information visit: www.larkmasonassociates or www.igavelauctions.com.
