New-York tribune., 1921-05-29

don. These art sales totalled 1886, ,203.
They embraced wilderness Of items
besides paintings. The sales began
early in November and 1t was not until
January that collection composed en-
tirely of pictures was reached. Then q
combination sale, disposng of the
paintings collected by Mrs F. s. Smith
ers, Helen c. Bostwick, John H. Holmes
and others, brought s139,240. The re-
markable group Of paintings by Degas
belonging to M. jacques Seligmann,
sold late in January, obtained $226,800,
Another combination sale, early in the
following month, brought $88,855; one
late in February brought $28 $50, and
the W. G. Peckham sale in March
brought s11 1,4O5.
Apart from paintings, the sales at
the American Art Galleries fall into
three categories. They signalized, in
the first place, the growing Importance
of American antiquities. Mrs. William
D. Bowie's Colonial furniture brought
$21,513. The L. G. Myers extraordinary
assemblage of early American and
English furniture, ceramics, etc,
brought $89, ,o68 All through the sea-
son American furniture and ceramics
rose to good figures. But the outstand-
ing sensation was supplied. of course,
when the Henry c. Lawrence stained
glass, tapestries, furniture and other
masterpieces of the Middle Ages were
brought to the hammer. The sale in
January netted $451 ,057. 1t scared, in
respect to the glass, to fairly fantastic
heights. There were no precedents, no
records from which buyers could infer
probabilities. A new market was to be
made and nobody knew what influences
would control in the making of it,
There was a rumor before the sale that
the Duveens were the likeliest bidders,
and whether they would get bargains
or not was a matter entirely on the
knees of the gods. Surprise ensued.
Mr., Raymond Pitcairn turned up, from
Philadelphia, the benefactor of a new
Swedenborgian cathedral in that neigh
borhood. Mr.. A. P Raymond, from the
same city, also sprang into the compe-
tition. For one thirteenth century
English panel this gentleman paid the
respectable sum of S700 900. Panels we're
sold for $4,000, $4,000, S13, 700, $12,-
600, sto,80O, $500, and SO down to
$4,000. Fragments went for trifling
sums, but the important pieces carried
the bidding up into the thousands.
Nothing quite like this has ever hap
pened before, either here or abroad.
The Lawrence episode does more, for
our present purpose, than point to
cult in. this country for medieval
French and English glass. 1t leads
straight to the third of the categories
into which we would classify the in
cidents of the auction room. What the
American buyer wants nowadays, and
is willing to pay for, is decoration. The.
architects have done much to bring
about this development of taste. They
have promoted interest in what we
may call the eclectic interior, the hall,
drawing room, dining room and bed
room, furnished with the loot of Europe
and the Orient. They have shown their
clients how to make use OF French cup
boards, Spanish chests, Florentine cab
inets, Venetian lanterns and the chairs
tables and hangings of Europe gem
orally. The clients have turned coll
lectors on their own hook. AS a result,
America Ncan absorb, so to say, in
single season, an almost unbelievable
mass of antiquities. AS the Almoneda
sale showed, there is a market here
not only for the picturesque movable
of modest size, but for decoration in
wrought iron, grilles and the like, that
are fitted to become part and parcel
of building. How popular these
things are may be indicated in "a list