Auction Highlights

This rare, Scottish thistle-form sterling silver vinaigrette is marked EHS for Edward H. Stockwell. The mid- to late-19th century curiosity drew 22 bids before selling through LiveAuctioneers for $4,600 in Dirk Soulis’ Dec. 28-29 auction.

In Dirk Soulis’ Dec. 28-29 sale an antique gilt and polychrome-painted cast-bronze Buddha seated on a lotus throne, measuring 24 inches tall by 24 inches, more than doubled its high estimate to change hands online for $19,262.50.

A superb 82-inch-tall by 66-inch-wide English breakfront made by H. Sacks & Sons, Sewall, with a tooled-leather serving slide above the silverware drawer, was bid to $4,800 through LiveAuctioneers.com in Kaminski’s Dec. 27-28 Pre-New Year’s Holiday Estates Auction.

At any one point in Morphy Auctions’ Dec. 11-13 sale, as many as 120 bidders were watching a single lot. Among the blue-chip toys including in the 881 lots that sold online was this Vindex cast-iron John Deere combine toy with original driver, which realized an above-estimate price of $7,200.

National publicity generated in part by a TV Guide Channel segment organized by LiveAuctioneers helped boost prices realized in Profiles in History’s Dec. 11 Hollywood Auction 33. A cloak-and-helmet costume worn by Colm Feore in the film The Chronicles of Riddick, sold via the Internet for $18,000.

Very impressive prices were achieved online in Wright 20’s Dec. 9 and 11 Important Design, Postwar and Contemporary Art sale. A set of four highly desirable George Nakashima Conoid chairs, made in 1960 of black walnut and hickory, topped out at $19,600 online.

A big winner in John Moran’s Dec. 9 Antiques & Fine Furnishings auction was a monumental 1903 Scottish sterling silver Arts & Crafts centerpiece with hallmarks identifying it as the work of George Edward & Sons, Glasgow. A LiveAuctioneers bidder is its new owner after paying $36,750.

Those with a taste for 18K gold were well satisfied by the pair of London tumblers In John Moran’s Dec. 9 sale. Impressed with a maker’s mark SJD and weighing in at 640 grams, the 4-inch tumblers sold through LiveAuctioneers for $17,250.

At David Rago’s Dec. 6-7 Furniture, Jewelry, Silver, Decorative & Fine Art sale, a pair of George Hunzinger salon chairs with yellow silk brocade upholstery earned $7,350 online.