What is it with porcelain cabbage tureens, anyway?
Two of them, dating from the 18th century, were among the top 10 sellers at the auction of Richard Mellon Scaife’s estate, which concluded Wednesday after a two-day auction at Christie’s in New York City and netted a total of $3.9 million.
While an enormous inlaid cabinet fetched the single highest price of $347,000 — including taxes and fees — the cabbage tureens went for nearly $53,000, eight times their estimated value. Last fall, in contrast, three similar tabletop cabbages from Rachel “Bunny” Mellon’s estate went for a mere $7,500 at a Sotheby’s auction.
While Mrs. Mellon’s taste was famously exquisite, even quirky, Mr. Scaife’s taste — guided by his decorators, including Pittsburgh’s Louis Talotta and New York’s “Sister” Parish, and documented in the Christie’s catalog — reads like a road map of American WASP culture in the 20th century. The mahogany breakfronts and Majolica platters, the painted chairs, the Tole lamps, the Staffordshire and Chinese export porcelain all speak to a certain sensibility that could be found in the home of any American captain of industry — or his heirs.
However, given the resources available to the billionaire newspaper publisher, who died on July 4, 2014, he could and did purchase very dramatic one-of-a-kind objects. A silver-gilt dinner service made for the engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge, Washington Augustus Roebling, went for $293,000, and a single Strasbourg faience pigeon went for $40,000.
And that enormous 7-foot cabinet-on-chest of drawers — or, rather, a “South German Ormolu-Mounted Ebony, Ebonized and Pietra Dure Cabinet... with... panels depicting birds perched in flowering trees, flowers and fruit... and cabochons of semi-precious stone...” — and lapis-lazuli surely was a show stopper at Mr. Scaife’s home in Pebble Beach, “Wit’s End.”
That piece was previously for sale at auction in December, but no one bit. This time, someone did, along with a lot of other people, including someone who paid $16,500 for a lobster Majolica dish and shell vases that was estimated to sell for between $2,000 and $3,000.
“Some of it went for far higher prices than it should have,” said Graham Shearing, an art critic and collector who once advised Mr. Scaife on some of his purchases, “but there were some very good things and their prices went through the roof.”
As a result, the Scaife estate — currently under a legal challenge by Mr. Scaife’s heirs — is richer by about $4 million, about twice the amount the auction house predicted.
Mackenzie Carpenter: mcarpenter@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1949 or on Twitter @MackenziePG.
First Published: July 1, 2015, 8:13 p.m.
Updated: July 2, 2015, 3:11 a.m.