Peeking Ahead
to
August 1st
Americana, Continental, Maritime & Fine Art Auction



This Auction is, indeed The One, folks!
We offer some highlights here.

Visit our website for more.

Rare Nantucket Basket, circa 1910, with carved heart staves, rim wrap, and circular handle.            Height 3 ½ in. Diameter 7 ½ in.

 A similarly woven basket sold by our gallery set a world record price of $115,000. in 2005 with one important difference: the current basket has a swinging ring woven just below the rim (presumably for hanging).  The only other baskets known with loose rings are currently on exhibit at the Nantucket Lightship Basket Museum. 

       Important Carved and Scrimshanded Whale Ivory Walking Stick, circa 1850;    A serpent within and wrapped around a perfect clenched fist; stone eyes, scrimshawed body and extended forked tongue; carved shirt cuff with mother of pearl inset button on a tapering tree branch shaft, ending in a 2 ¼ in. whale ivory ferrule of the same deep patina and color as fist.

A walking stick by the same great craftsman was sold by our gallery in 1994 for a world record price of $48,400., and more recently at Christie's, N.Y., from the Carpenter collection sold for $46,600.  (Illustrated: The Decorative Arts & Crafts Nantucket by Charles and Mary Grace Carpenter, p. 178)

Louisiana Folk Art Carved and Decorated Statue of Young Louis Armstrong at the mike, passionately singing in a white suit, holding his horn and handkerchief.  Height 40 in.

Ralph Cahoon (1910-1982)

"Descended from 17th century Scottish immigrants to Cape Cod, Ralph Eugene Cahoon, Jr.  was essentially a self-taught folk artist. His only formal training consisted of a two-year course at the School of Practical Art in Boston. In 1932, Ralph met and married Martha Farham (1905-1999), the daughter of Swedish immigrant parents. Martha's father, Axel, was a talented furniture decorator who had learned the art of painting furniture (rosemaling) in Sweden and taught this craft to Martha.

Upon marrying, the couple set up home in Osterville where they established a business decorating and selling furniture and antiques. In 1945 they  moved their family and business to Cotuit, purchasing the 1775 Crocker building for that purpose.

Around 1953, one of the Cahoon's customers, art patroness Joan Whitney Payson, convinced them to frame some of their designs for her to exhibit in her Long Island Country Art Gallery. The transition from furniture to easel painting was a successful one and the years that followed were very productive. During the 1960s, Ralph's hallmark mermaids helped to establish his own unique style; set in a typical New England backdrop of ocean, lighthouses, clipper ships, and perhaps a hot air balloon or two in the sky.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s Cahoon's folk art regularly sold out exhibitions at the Lobster Pot Gallery on Nantucket and Palm Beach Galleries in Florida. Famous people who visited the Cotuit gallery included members of the Mellon and DuPont families, Josiah K. Lilly III, as well as First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.

Today Ralph Cahoon is widely regarded as the most famous folk artist Cape Cod has produced. His work is highly collectable."

Excerpted from the Cahoon Museum of American Art, Cotuit, MA                http://www.cahoonmuseum.org/cahoon-museum-art.php

For more Nantucket Artist Biographies visit

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