More than 800 lots of fresh-to-the-market merchandise, in a broad array of categories, will be sold at a two-day Historic Hillsborough Auction the weekend of June 13-14 by Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales, Ltd. It is the grand opening event for the firm at its new, 10,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art gallery facility, located at 620 Cornerstone Court in Hillsborough.
Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales – New Hillsborough Building
“We spent ten very successful and productive years at our previous location on South Nash Street,” said Leland Little of Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales, Ltd., “but this new gallery is a wonderful venue for showcasing fine and decorative arts. We are offering a professional and safe environment for buyers and sellers to view items from our regional collections that come to market.”
The June 13-14 sale will be preceded by a week-long preview, highlighted by an Opening Night Gala on Thursday, June 11, beginning at 6 p.m. Then, on Friday, June 12, at 3 p.m., a special lecture will be presented by Johanna M. Brown, Director of Collections and Curator of Moravian Decorative Arts (the topic of her lecture) at the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (www.MESDA.org).
The Saturday, June 13 sale will begin promptly at 9:30 a.m., with a session dedicated to English and Continental silver. Included will be a beautiful Irish sterling silver tureen with an 1821 date letter. The day will conclude with another session of silver, only American, to include a 132-piece modern hammered flatware service by California artist Allan Adler. In all, 482 lots will change hands that day.
Sandwiched in between the silver sessions on Saturday will be hundreds of other lots, starting with European and Continental fine art. Included will be four original paintings by the British artist Christiane Klitgaard-May (1876-1954), and a watercolor by Giuseppe Aureli (It., 1858-1929). After that, a Staffordshire collection will be sold, to include historical blue and white Lafayette pieces.
A star of the American furniture category promises to be a Southern cherry sugar chest (circa 1830s). Local art will also be offered, to include etchings by Louis Orr (1879-1961). A collection of around ten garden and architectural items will cross the block, to include a Scottish architectural bench (circa 1850). Asian art will feature large (17-1/2”) Japanese Satsuma vases from the Meiji era (1860s).
English and Continental furniture will be sold both days. On Saturday, a star lot will be a nice 18th-century French walnut armoire. Decorative arts will include a terracotta bust of Benjamin Franklin, after the French sculptor Houdon (1741-1828). Also offered will be a fabulous selection of clocks and pocket watches, including a mid-19th-century Raingo Freres French figural mantle clock.
Lighting and chandeliers will illuminate the room, with lots like a signed Tiffany Studios counterbalance desk lamp, marked “Tiffany Studios, New York, 417” (16 inches tall). A nice selection of fine art by noted American artists will be headlined by an original oil on canvas painting by Louise Cox (1865-1945). The work was deaccessioned from the Granville County Historical Society Museum in Oxford, N.C.
From the Native American category, a beaded bandolier pouch, made around 1900, is expected to draw strong interest, as is a solid group of American tiger maple wood furniture from the collection of the late Charles Smith of Chapel Hill, N.C. A top lot will be a 19th-century corner wash stand. And from textiles and needlework, offered will be a rare and important Pennsylvania Lititz girls’ school needlework. The piece was pictured in the book Girlhood Embroidery (Vol. I, p. 448), by Betty Ring.
Additional American art will come up for bid in the form of the Mead Corporation Art Collection. The collection was begun in 1955 and works were actively acquired until the early 1980s. Two works of note from the group are an original oil on canvas by Judy Lodge (Mich., b. 1951), titled The Table; and an oil on canvas by Frank Roth (N.Y., b. 1936), titled Lady McGowan’s Dream.
A collection of around 25 portrait miniatures and silhouettes will include a mourning miniature with hair brooch, attributed to Samuel Folwell (S.C., 1802). Also, estate jewelry will be sold both days. The Sunday auction, June 14, will begin at 11 a.m. Featured will be Southern folk and art pottery (to include Lanier Meaders and Burlon Craig face jugs); about 15 estate antique rugs from prominent Southern homes; and nearly 50 decoys, many from the estate of the late Charles Smith of Chapel Hill.
Previews will be held on Saturday, June 6, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Wednesday and Friday, June 10 and 12, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Thursday, June 11, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Saturday, June 13, from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. (start of sale); and Sunday, June 14, from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. (start of sale). Internet bidding will be facilitated by LiveAuctioneers.com, the firm’s provider of choice for about five years.
To get to the new gallery facility, take I-85 to exit 165 toward Hillsborough, then make a left on Cornerstone Court. Hillsborough is conveniently situated, about two hours by car from Charlotte, 2-1/2 hours from Richmond and about five hours from Atlanta. The gallery is 2/10 of a mile off Interstate 85. A packed house is expected, so plan to get there early. Phone and absentee bids will also be accepted.
Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales, Ltd.’s next two big cataloged auctions will be held the weekends of Sept. 19-20 and Dec. 5-6, also in the new gallery facility at 620 Cornerstone Court. The guest speaker for the December event will be another MESDA curator, June Lucas, the museum’s Director of Research. Her talk will center on Southern decorative arts, with a primary focus on painted Piedmont (North Carolina) furniture pieces.
Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales, Ltd., is always accepting quality consignments for future sales. To consign an item, estate or collection, you may call them at (919) 644-1243, or e-mail them at [email protected]. To learn more about the company and its calendar of upcoming auctions, log on to www.LLAUCTIONS.com. The June 13-14 sale online catalog has been posted.