Great Estates: Antique European to Post Modern

By Ripley Auctions & Appraisals February 13, 2025

We proudly welcome you to our February Live, In Person art & design auction.

This edition of our Great Estates Series showcases art & design ranging from antique to Post Modern, including fine French and European furniture & additional items from the James Family of Carmel, IN.

The furniture in this auction involves armchair sets in the Queen Anne style, a lighter, more elegant alternative to the ornate Baroque, influenced by Dutch furniture and popular in the US until around 1800. Further offerings include French armchair sets in the Louis XIV, XV, and XVI styles respectively, as well as 2 stunning Model 574 Le Chat lounge chairs by Pierre Paulin for Artifort.

Featuring 7 lots featuring Wallace Grande Baroque sterling silver flatware.

A brief history of Wallace Grande Baroque:

Robert Wallace apprenticed at Meriden Brittania, but left in 1833 to found his own spoon company. In 1875, he launched his first sterling silver flatware lines. After his death in 1892, his sons and sons-in-law expanded the business. The company further expanded its silver designs in the 1930s and 40s with lines like Rose Point, Grand Baroque, and Romance of the Sea.

We proudly present a selection of 18 comprehensive works from a lifetime collection of American studio pottery by Laura Andreson, (1902-1999.)

Laura F. Andreson was born in California on October 7, 1902. Andreson studied at Columbia University and UCLA. She taught at UCLA from 1933 to 1970. She died in Los Angeles, CA on August 16, 1999. Laura Andreson is known for making and refining simple vessel forms. Initially Andreson worked in low-fired earthenware with brightly pigmented glazes of yellows, reds and turquoise-greens with an undercoating of oxide stains.

According to Andreson, early work was handbuilt until 1940, then wheel thrown. In 1948 she began using stoneware for which she developed a range of stoneware bodies and glazes. In 1957 Andreson began work in porcelain. Her creative process radically differed from that used by most potters. She typically started with a glaze and then decided what kind of vessel to create for it. After retiring she continued her pioneering research developing new firing techniques, clay bodies and glazes, providing future generations of clay artists with valuable technical information.

(sources: askart.com, themarksproject.org)

Prominent featured prints include La Sorciere, a 1969 etching with aquatint (Edition 41/75,) a signed Henri Matisse lithograph titled Danseuse au Tabouret, and a signed etching by Picasso titled Sculpteur, Modele Accroupi et Tête Sculptée (one of 15 artist proofs.)

We are proud to offer in this sale an incredible 1953 oil on canvas by New York Abstract Expressionist, Yvonne Thomas, (1913-2009), titled Devotion, with exhibition history.

Also included is a 1951 Abstract by Mary Lee Abbott and Hreppholar VIII, an intaglio construction in black made in 1991 by Richard Serra.

Works by 3 Indiana artists are also up for auction: 6 paintings by Mae Alice Engron, 7 paintings by George McCullough & 7 paintings by John Strickland.