Press

Asheville, North Carolina– Brunk Auctions, the Southeast’s premier auction house, announces the expansion of operations into Virginia. Since in 1983, Brunk Auctions has been a privately owned regional auction house serving a national and international clientele. With a presence in Asheville, North Carolina, Nashville, Tennessee, and now Richmond, Virginia, Brunk Auctions will provide its bespoke auction services to clients throughout the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.

The Richmond location will host biannual auctions featuring fine art, jewelry, modern design, and traditional antiques and will open its doors as well for previews, appraisal events, and connoisseurship lectures. The inaugural auction in the ‘River City’ will be held at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden at 9am on November 9th, 2019. Brunk Auctions welcomes all to preview the sale on November 8th, 2019 from 11am-7pm in Richmond and Wednesday, October 30th, 2019 from 5pm-7pm in Asheville.

Bolstered by considerable growth in recent years, Brunk Auctions’ decision to expand operations was a logical step in its business growth strategy and a natural extension of its existing services. “We have a long history of representing Virginia collectors, estates, and museums and many of our clients are located within close reach of Richmond. The Richmond venue will allow us to better serve our existing Virginia clients and connect with new ones.” remarked Brunk Auctions President, Andrew Brunk.

Brunk Auctions has achieved record-setting sales in categories such as Asian Art, Fine Art, Jewelry, Silver, and Maps. Recent highlights include the sale of a very rare Bishop James Madison Map of Virginia (1749-1812), which sold for US $252,000, and an important Cartier Platinum and Diamond Bracelet which sold for US $204,000. Brunk Auctions is delighted now to invite consignments in these and all categories of art and objects for upcoming sale seasons.

Post-Auction Press Release and Prices Realized – May 16-18, 2019 AUCTION

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Consigned from an important Southern Collection, WILLIAM AIKEN WALKER’S Man Holding Possum SOLD FOR $52,500

ANTONIO NICOLO GASPARO JACOBSEN’S Paddlewheel Steamship, St. Johns, SOLD FOR $24,000, offered on behalf of an Important South Carolina Estate.  The estate was 98% sold and totaled $515,550

A COLLECTION OF JAPANESE SCROLLS OFFERED ON BEHALF OF THE WEATHERSPOON MUSEUM OF ART SOLD FOR $18,420

OBJECTS FROM HISTORIC BREMO PLANTATION, Fluvanna County, Virginia, generated spirited bidding with 15 HORSE BREEDING BROADSIDES and SOLD FOR a total of $34,400

FINE JEWELRY AND WATCHES ACHIEVED HIGHEST POST-AUCTION CATEGORY TOTAL AT $437,580, and included special offerings from the Estate of Dr. Colleen Conway-Welch

SILVER INGOT FROM THE NUESTRA SEÑORA DE ATOCHA SHIPWRECK, CA.1621, 85 troy pounds, finished at $43,200

A LIFELONG COLLECTION OF LALIQUE (OVER 160 ITEMS) SOLD FOR A TOTAL OF $154,380, offered from the Collection of Dr. Phillip George, Memphis, Tennessee

FLOOR BIDDERS FOLLOWED BY PHONE BIDDERS accounted for the largest bidding action

BRUNK AUCTIONS CHARITABLE INITIATIVE FOR THE JULY SALE RAISED $3,500 to support the Asheville Area Arts Council Veterans Program

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Asheville, North Carolina, 31 May 2019 — A wide variety of fine jewelry from the Estate of Dr. Colleen Conway-Welch surpassed its estimate of $120,700 – $178,650, selling at an impressive $225,350. Featured was an 18kt. Gold and Gemstone Necklace which sold for $19,200 –toppling its $3,000-$5,000 estimate.

A rare Virginia Chippendale Walnut Dressing Table, ca. 1760-1780, was among the fine selection of American furnishings offered. It finished as the top lot in the American Furniture category, garnering an impressive $55,200. A rare 1795 Federal Inlaid Mahogany Architect’s Table from New York drew significant attention, selling at $15,600.

We’re still enamored of keeping time as the Federal Aaron Willard Tall Case Clock, ca.1800-1810, encouraged lively bidding, finishing at $31,200. The Massachusetts signed “Aaron Willard/Boston,” tall case clock descended through the Reid and Settle families of Reidsville, North Carolina.

Collectors responded enthusiastically to the offerings from the historic Bremo Plantation of Fluvanna County, Virginia. The illustrated Bremo Horse Broadsides realized a collective $34,400, while the Robert E. Lee memorabilia sold for $14,400. Other successful highlights from the plantation included the 19th Century Federal Reserve Proof Notes which sold for $15,600, and a set of 14 Gothic Revival Mahogany Dining Chairs which finished at $14,400.

Seven Charleston Renaissance works by artists Alfred Hutty, Elizabeth O’Neill Verner and Alice Ravenel Huger Smith, together realized $103,500.

Additional successful sale highlights included a Chinese, Six Panel Porcelain Table Top Screen which well-exceeded its $800- $1200 estimate, selling at $32,500. The strong and enthusiastic bidding for this Brunk auction closed with the sale of a Monumental Boehm Golden Eagle which exceeded its $800 – 1200 estimate, selling at $12,500.

PRIVATE COLLECTIONS NOW SOLD:

Property from a Southern Institution – Collection of Dr. and Mrs. Joseph R. Gabriels – An Important Southern Collection – Estate of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Fleischer – Property from an Important Private South Carolina Estate – By Descent in the family of Governor Manning, South Carolina – Private Collection, Highlands, North Carolina – Collection of Clint Paul and Lois B. Herring, Post, Texas – Private Collection, Williamsburg, Virginia – Collection of Marion and Theodore Gore, Williamsburg, Virginia – Private Southern Collection – Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Proceeds to Benefit the Acquisitions Fund – Estate of Alice Carter Middendorf – Private Collection, Winston-Salem, North Carolina – Private Collection, Charlotte, Vermont – Estate of Dr. Phillip George, Memphis, Tennessee – Private Collection, Wilmington, North Carolina – From the Collection of Salem Academy and College,

Winston-Salem, North Carolina – Historic Bremo Plantation, Bremo, Virginia – Private Collection, Cary, North Carolina – Private Collection, Nashville, Tennessee – Private New England Collection – Property from a Southern Institution – Property from the Estate of Dr. Colleen Conway-Welch – Willard R. Sparks Estate, Memphis, Tennessee – Private Collection, Fearrington, North Carolina – Collection of James B. MacNeill, North Carolina

UPCOMING AUCTIONS & EVENTS:

June 6 / Online Photography Auction

July 17 / Connoisseur’s Circle Preview

July 19-20 / Emporium & Premier Auction

September 12-13-14 / Emporium & Premier Auction

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World Class Consignments and Exceptional Results– Founded in 1983

Results are listed in USD and include buyer’s premium

Complete results from sale available at https://brunkauctions.com/auctions/past

For media, photography and other public relations inquiries please contact Marketing team:

marketing@brunkauctions.com / BrunkAuctions.com / 828-254-6846

Based in Asheville, North Carolina, Brunk Auctions has grown from a small regional auction house to a national auction service with significant international clientele.

Founded by Robert Brunk in 1983, Brunk Auctions became well known for its integrity and professionalism. Bob brought to bear his experience as an anthropologist, writer, and professional woodworker, an unmistakable combination of skills that continues to illuminate catalog entries and inform auction-goers. He is now a valued consultant. Andrew Brunk joined his father in 2005. His curatorial experience has brought additional depth and expertise to the company. His experience as the head of the American Furniture Department at one of the world’s largest auction houses has allowed Brunk Auctions to align itself with the best in the business. Brunk Auctions employs a full-time staff of 22 with experience in New York and Boston auction houses, galleries, and museums.

Press Release – February 1, 2019

ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA — Idyllic, Iconic, Italian, Icy: What a Rare Devotional Panel, a Long-Unseen Icon, an Italian Bertuzzi Shotgun, and the Pennsylvanian Schuylkill River Have in Common.

Etching formative lines in the historic landscape, these four items claim Brunk Auctions’ top lots in the Premier and Emporium Auction January 25-26, gathering total sales of $1,679,799.50.

A highlight from a private collection in Florida was one of three known paintings by Master H. B. of the Griffin Head to exist– Christ Blessing the Children, circa 1550. Estimated at $80,000-$120,000, this tender scene flew to an incredible $192,000 including buyer’s premium to another private collector, who intends to restore the panel. Hanging over the enthusiastic crowd in gilt is the German inscription of Matthew 19:14– “Lasset die Kindlin zu mir komen . und weret in nicht . Denn solcher ist das Reich Gottes”, or “Let the Children come to me, forbid them not, for such is the Kingdom of God.” This subject, which was rarely depicted before the 16th century, “occupied a central role in reformation iconography” according to the Lucas Cranach Digital Archive. Only two other signed and documented works by this artist are known to exist, one is held by the Episcopal Cathedral and Diocesan Museum in Mainz, Germany and the other by The Louvre, Paris, France.

“If you can call an icon painter an innovator, Angelos was exactly this,” reports Laura Crockett, Fine Arts Specialist at Brunk Auctions. Angelos Akotantos (pronounced Eng-uh-lohs) is considered to be the most important painter bridging the late Byzantine period and the beginning of the Renaissance. When the center of art shifted from Constantinople to Crete amidst sieges and war, Angelos was perfectly positioned for his art to expand into Europe. He became extremely significant as a painter, setting standards of iconography that would be followed in subsequent centuries. So revered was his painting that Domenikos Theotokopoulus, better known as El Greco (1541-1614), was one of many artists to be influenced by his paintings. Until now, only twenty-two icons were known to have been signed by the artist. This rare piece Anastasis (Descent into Hell) was reviewed by scholar Maria Vassilaki, who confirms that this is a “completely unknown Angelos icon”– until now. Selling for $144,000 (with an estimate of $10,000-$15,000), this important piece of early art illuminates the immense hand, concentration, and parameters of the bridging of two eras.

“Ingenuity. Investment Beyond Currency. Elegant.” With an estimate of $75,000 – $125,000, the Fine and Rare Flli. Bertuzzi Gullwing Shotgun was sealed and delivered to a regional buyer for $96,000.  All existing F.Llli. Bertuzzi shotguns are of remarkable technicality and stunning detail. This is in part due to the tight intergenerational lineage of brothers Elio and Remigio following in the footsteps of their mastercraftsmen father and grandfather. In addition to family tradition, this workshop was small– just two brothers– which allowed for exquisite quality and control over each shotgun. This piece is a stunning example of engraving by Giancarlo and Stefano Pedretti, with semi-relief engraving of game bird scenes and a retriever on underside.   

Philadelphia was a center of skating in the mid-nineteenth century, drawing much artistic attention. William H. Willcox (American, 1831-1929) captured Skating on the Schuylkill in a most attractive, frigid moment in 1875. Totaling a grand $66,000, this painting crossed a line for Willcox, becoming his highest grossing piece ever at auction. a fine selection of skating posters also from the Dick Button collection drew in $46,200, many of which commemorate the visual revolution of the Belle Époque. Sublime combinations of font and color became possible with Jules Cherét’s “three stone lithographic process,” achieving every color of the rainbow by using three stones in red, yellow, and blue. Quite extraordinary considering the particular constraints and materials of the time– even reproductions today do not carry the same textural appeal as these original posters.

Other highlights to note included:

• Matched Pair J. Purdey & Sons Shotguns Consecutive S/N : $36,000
• E. J. Churchill Premiere Over Under Shotgun : $22,800
• Connecticut Shotgun Co. by Galazan Half-Scale Model 21 : $16,800
• Ice Skating Hooked Rug : $8,400 (estimate $1,000- $2,000)
• Louis John Rhead  : $7,200 (estimate $1,500 – $2,000)
• William and Cluer Dicey – Map of North America : $6,600 (estimate $400 – $600)
• Joan Miró (Spanish, 1893–1983), Les Deux Amis (The Two Friends), 1969 : $12,000
• Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French, 1864-1901), La revue blanche : $10,800

With 250 floor bidders, along with our three online bidding platforms and two banks of phone bidders equally active, the January 25th and 26th sale was memorable.  All prices listed include appropriate buyer’s premium.

Brunk Auctions’ next Premier and Emporium Auction will be March 21-23 in Asheville, North Carolina and online via three platforms (BA Live!, LiveAuctioneers, BidSquare).

Rare bronzes and paintings highlighted a major two-day sale at Brunk Auctions over the weekend of September 15. Among the top lots were works by Frederic Remington, Henry Moore, Nicolai Fechin, Eugène Boudin, and Jane Peterson.

Leading the charge in the sale was Frederic Sackrider Remington’s iconic bronze, The Bronco Buster. As both Remington’s debut cast as a sculptor and one of his most iconic works of art, castings of the Bronco Buster are prized by institutions and collectors alike. Over the weekend, Brunk Auctions offered an 1899 casting by the Henry-Bonnard Bronze Foundry, numbered 51 of an approximate edition of 64. The rare casting was consigned by a Private North Carolina Family, who acquired it in 1966. Initially estimated at $150,000 to $250,000, serious interest from dozens of bidders brought the final sale price to $510,000. Brunk Auctions is happy to note that the buyer of the bronze is the Wadsworth Atheneum, the oldest public art museum in the United States.

From the same private collection, Henry Moore’s Maquette for Spindle Piece, from 1968, sold for $312,000. The staff at Brunk Auctions had a cell phone in one hand and a land line in the other assisting phone bidders with this lot. An anonymous private phone bidder was the successful bidder of the lot by the important British Modernist.

Two works by Russian-American artist Nicolai Ivanovich Fechin from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Tooley of Brevard, North Carolina crossed the auction block in the sale. Both paintings brought exceptional prices. The first, a still life with Hollyhocks, sold for $264,000. The second, a portrait of Baby Eya, the artist’s daughter, completed in Russia, sold for $144,000. Also from the Tooley Collection was a Jane Peterson painting entitled Fishing Boats, Gloucester Massachusetts, selling for $120,000, Indians at Taos by Laverne Nelson Black, selling for $60,000, and Conversation by Julius Gari Melchers selling for $38,400.

Overall, the sale brought $3.36 million during the Friday and Saturday auction. Other notable results include $288,000 for a Eugène Boudin painting entitled Fécamp, Le Bassin from 1892 and a rare 9.82 carat Padparadscha Sapphire Gemstone selling for $90,000. In total, 91.7% of lots sold at auction. All prices listed include appropriate buyers premiums. Brunk Auctions next sale will take place over three days on the weekend of November 11.