OAK PARK, IL.- Toomey & Co. Auctioneers concluded the first year under its new brand with two very successful auctions on December 2. Tradition & Innovation, an inaugural auction of important works from the 19th century through today, was followed by Art & Design, with nearly 700 prominent fine and decorative artworks including furniture, paintings, pottery, sculpture and lighting. The two sales combined realized $2.2 million.
For Tradition & Innovation, Toomey & Co. presented an exceptional selection of items across a variety of artistic movements and media by painters, furniture makers, designers, ceramicists, silversmiths, sculptors and architects who have helped define the world of art and design for more than a century.
Tradition & Innovation had a 94% sell-through rate and its 66 lots brought $1.3 million. This auction will now take place annually in early December.
Among the Fine Art highlights in Tradition & Innovation were a Sol LeWitt sculpture and an Edgar Payne painting, which each sold for $125,000. Four works by Chicago artist Gertrude Abercrombie, who was featured in a recent retrospective at New York’s Karma Gallery, sold for $77,500 total. A painting by Gladys Nilsson, a member of Chicago Imagist group, “Hairy Who”, currently showing in a group exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago, sold for $21,250, the second highest price ever realized at auction for a Nilsson work. Other Chicago artists with strong results were Ed Paschke, with a painting selling for $18,750, and Richard Howard Hunt, with a bronze sculpture that achieved $26,250. Fine Art also included two Keith Haring screenprints ($16,900 each), a Mimmo Paladino terra cotta sculpture ($31,250), and an Edward Sheriff Curtis orotone ($22,500).
19th and Early 20th Century Design also had strong results. Two furniture pieces brought $100,000 each: a print cabinet by Frank Lloyd Wright and George Mann Niedecken; and a dining table by California Prairie School architects Greene & Greene, which sold for four times the high estimate. A large-form Teco vase designed by Fritz Albert sold for $93,750, one of the highest records to date for Arts and Crafts pottery, and a Tiffany Studios / Grueby Faience Company table lamp brought $22,500. Two distinctive Charles Rohlfs items performed quite well: a rare revolving music stand ($37,500) and a carved and pierced-back hall chair ($22,500). An architectural drawing by famed architect Louis Sullivan, one of the few in private hands, achieved $26,250. Among the silver items featured were a Paul Storr soup tureen that brought $8,750 and a pendant necklace by The Kalo Shop offered from The Collection of Paul and Terry Somerson that sold for $5,850.
In Modern Design, a deep-relief cabinet by Paul Evans sold for $40,625 and two sets of chairs from the Chandigarh Administrative Buildings in India by Swiss designer Pierre Jeanneret brought $21,050 total. Other significant results included a limited-edition tapestry by Alexander Calder ($10,000), Rose and Erni Cabat’s group of 23 vases ($8,750), and an iconic rocking stool by Isamu Noguchi ($6,250).
Overall, 2018 was very exciting for Toomey & Co. Auctioneers with sales totaling over $5.7 million. Building off this success, consignments are currently invited for the Art & Design auction on Sunday, March 10, 2019 at 10 a.m. CDT. Photos may be sent to info@toomeyco.com. Preview for this sale will be open to the public and held at Toomey & Co. Auctioneers, 818 North Boulevard, Oak Park, Ill., from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. CST beginning March 4 through 9, with extended hours on March 7 (10 a.m. to 7 p.m.).
