Daniel Buck Soules poses in his store in Lisbon in 2018 holding some of the tickets given to participants on the PBS television show “Antiques Roadshow.” Sun Journal file photo by Andree Kehn
At a quick glance, the portrait doesn’t look all that special. The painting portrays a young red-cheeked boy standing on a path surrounded by tall grass and flowers. In one hand the lad carries a basket, in the other, a whip.
The top lot of the sale was this Prior-Hamblin School portrait that sold for $101,750. It sold to Rockport, Maine, dealer Scott Fraser, who called it a masterpiece. He believes it may be by George Hartwell, and if so, it would be an auction record for the artist. The work came out of an estate in Rhode Island, where it had passed down through four generations since the 19th century. Fraser believes the initials on the boy’s whip, C.F.C., may stand for Charles Franklin Carter, born 1840 in Leominister/Worcester, Massachusetts. The painting was in original and immaculate condition. Daniel Buck Auctions
No big deal, right? But when Daniel Buck Soules, of Daniel Buck Auctions in Lisbon, put the painting out to bid, nobody was prepared for the amount of money the artwork fetched. So much was forked over for the painting, in fact, that it may have set a record, according to Antiques and the Arts Weekly.
Even Buck, an auctioneer for nearly five decades and a regular on the popular Public Broadcasting show “Antiques Roadshow” for 11 years, was a little bit stunned by the sale. The painting, which came out of an estate in Rhode Island after it had been passed down through four generations, was not expected to be such a popular item.
We caught up with the legendary auctioneer this week and asked him about his most recent auction — an event in which that enigmatic, rose-cheeked boy found a new home when the painting was sold to a Rockport art dealer for a staggering amount of moolah.
How did the June auction go? Our auction on June 27th went amazingly well. Prices were strong, we had about 100 people bidding by telephone and we had thousands, yes thousands, of online bidders from all over the world. I attribute this to the fact that every auction we have is filled with estate-fresh paintings, antiques, silver and collectible items. . . . Especially the rare, unique and unusual such as the Prior/Hamblin School painting and Levis jackets that we have become known for. Also, because of the number of people who like to go to auctions but have been unable to in the past several months, people are itching to buy good quality items and seeking them out online. We are very fortunate to have a very good reputation in the industry, which allows us to have thousands of followers online. We had consignors in this auction from the Chicago area, Yuma, Arizona, Memphis, Tennessee, Rhode Island, Maine and Massachusetts.
(According to the National Gallery of Art, “Prior-Hamblin School designates paintings that cannot be definitively attributed to any individual artist, but resemble the work of William Matthew Prior, Sturtevant Hamblin, and/or several other artists identified within this stylistic group, all active in the mid-19th century.”)
What were the big surprises? The Prior/Hamblin School painting was certainly the biggest surprise. I knew that it was a very good early American folk art portrait, but the interest in the painting was overwhelming. We had a very conservative pre-sale estimate with expectations of the painting bringing between $20,000 and 40,000. But because this painting was fresh to the market, had never had any restoration work done to it, and had all of the “bells and whistles” that one looks for in a painting such as this, it just took off; almost $102,000 with the buyer’s premium, (it) appears to be a world record for this artist. The Levis items still remain strong with one jacket from the 1940s bringing almost $9,000. We also had a very rare and unique jeweled mannequin that brought $4,400.
What do you make of the amount of money that was spent on the portrait? Because of all of the bells and whistles in this painting; the painting was one of the top three ever offered that was painted by a Prior/Hamblin School artist. It had everything going for it along with its wonderful condition.
What’s next for your auction house? We have several auctions planned at this time, including one of the largest single collections of late 19th/early 20th century glass items to come on to the market in years — approximately 2,000 pieces. That will probably be at least three to four auctions. Then we have several estates that we are dealing with presently throughout New England that will bring a large quantity of good rare, unique and unusual items to market, and again, all being estate fresh. It is going to be a very busy 2020-2021 for us.
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