Press Release

Atlanta, GA, USA, November 22, 2023 -- A pair of early 20th century French Empire (or Neoclassical-style) bronze 12-light Victory candelabra sold for $27,225 at a two-day, two-session auction of the estates of prominent Atlanta area figures Fred Bentley, Sr. of Marietta, Ga., and Vectra Orkin Barnette of Atlanta, held November 10th and 11th by Ahlers & Ogletree, online and live in Ahlers & Ogletree’s Atlanta gallery.

Fred Bentley, Sr., was a cherished local politician, art collector, patriarch and philanthropist. His estate boasted important American paintings, fine antique furniture, decorative arts, Chinese export porcelain, antiquities from Rome and Greece, and gorgeous paintings by Thomas Worthington Whittredge, Herman Herzog, Charles Peale, Thomas Sully, Hugh B. Jones and Edward Hopper.

Items from the Bentley estate were offered on November 10th. More items from his estate will be sold at future Ahlers & Ogletree auctions. Day 2, November 11th, featured the estate of Vectra Orkin Barnette, an avid lifetime collector of fine antiques and decorative arts from Italy, France and China. The 12-light figural candelabra came out of the Vectra Barnette estate.

The candelabra ended up being the overall top lot of the two days, as bidders were drawn to the figural depictions of a standing winged Victory with outstretched arms holding two torches, each supported on a cream marble base having repeating bronze wreaths and raised on a gilt metal plinth. The candelabra were apparently unmarked and measured 55 ½ inches tall by 23 ¾ inches in width.

Following are additional highlights from the 843-lot auction, which attracted around 50-100 live bidders, while online bidding was made available on Ahlers & Ogletree’s popular online bidding platform, bid.AandOAuctions.com, plus LiveAuctioneers.com and Invaluable.com. Approximately 50 phone bids were also recorded. All prices quoted in this report include a 21 percent buyer’s premium.

Another Day 2 lot also sold for $27,225. It was a pair of large 18th century Chinese Export famille rose enameled porcelain jardinieres having lion mask handles and decorated with blooming florals and birds, the interiors decorated with koi. The jardinieres, apparently unmarked, stood on wooden stands. Together, the jardinieres and stands were 29 ½ inches tall; the jardinieres were 16 ½ inches.

A large Chinese Export, gilt bronze mounted, blue ground porcelain jardiniere, having reserves decorated with birds in a flowering garden, the underside stamped '51165', 24 ½ inches tall (excluding the handles) made $24,200.

A late 19th century pair of French Louis XVI style six light gilt and patinated bronze figural candelabra in the manner of Michel Claude Clodion (French 1723-1814), depicting a male and female satyr each holding a cornucopia transforming into acanthine arms, and raised on foliate and wreath decorated round bronze plinths, unmarked, 50 ¾ inches tall, changed hands for $20,570.

A late 18th to early 19th century Chinese Export Mandarin palette porcelain punch bowl, having Rococo reserves decorated with figures in a landscape alternating with roosters and other birds, the well with a figural scene, having no apparent marks, perched on a wooden stand, realized $11,495.

A set of four Sevres (French), gilded soft paste porcelain plates, 1784, having a gilded Bleu Celeste lip with reserves containing various floral sprays encircling a maroon roundel framed by a band of pearls surrounding three roses, likely from a 288-piece dinner service presented by Louis XVI to his brother-in-law Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, Governor of Lombardy, in 1786, brought $10,890.

A pair of Henry Dasson (French 1825-1896) attributed Louis XVI Revival gilt and patinated bronze and malachite veneer Athenienne brule-parfums, each having a foliate and fruit finial, reticulated band, the bowl supported by three female hern with monopodia holding floral garlands, resting on a gadrooned concave plinth, and rising on toupie fee

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