Antique Italian Sculpture Sells For More Than Nine Times High Estimate at Morphy's $2.7M Fine & Decorative Arts Auction

Tempting terracotta: a circa-1906 rendering of a chauffeur-driven car raced to $184,500 against an estimate of $5K-$20K, while a Villeroy & Boch Santa figure was bid to $79,950

DENVER, July 8, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The most exciting aspect of attending an auction is the suspense. Will any new trends emerge, will there be any surprising prices, and what will end up being the top seller of the day? At Morphy's June 11-12 Fine & Decorative Arts Auction, which totaled $2.7 million, a total "dark horse" emerged from the more than 1,400 lots to cover all of those bases, not only crowning the overall prices realized but also leaving some to wonder how they could have missed its potential.

Catching many off guard, the big winner of the day was a circa-1906 terracotta sculpture created by Italian sculptor Salesio Lugli (1869-1936). Measuring more than two feet long, the artwork depicted a 1905 automobile with figures of a chauffeur turning around to watch an elegantly-dressed woman passenger step down onto the running board. Estimated at $5,000-$20,000, the genre sculpture attracted 65 bids before coming to a full stop at $184,500. Why the sculpture outdistanced the rest of the day's luxe offerings was a lively point of discussion. It had size, fine artistic execution and wonderful attention to detail going for it, but Salesio Lugli is not a household name, so what else was there to know about it?  

Morphy Auctions' founder and principal auctioneer, Dan Morphy, went straight to the heart of the matter when asked his thoughts. "It all came down to two bidders who decided prior to bidding that they wanted to own it. That's all it takes for something to hammer an exceptional price." As it turned out, the sculpture was not won by a person known primarily as a buyer of fine art. "It's now with an automobilia collector in Europe," Morphy confirmed, in a testament to the power of crossover bidding.

Although it did not bear an advertising slogan or message, a Villeroy & Boch terracotta Santa figure was another decorative artwork that elicited crossover interest from antique advertising fans as well as collectors of Christmas antiques and European ceramics. The 52-inch-tall figure appears in the German manufacturer's 1900 catalog and is believed to have been made for a department store to display in its window during the holiday shopping season. With scrupulously detailed facial features, the Christmas gift-giver holds a fir tree and stands atop a custom-made wood base. One of few known examples, it sold for $79,950 against an estimate of $20,000-$30,000.

In the realm of 19th-century American paintings, depictions of children often bring a premium, as the subjects are typically dressed in colorful clothing, perhaps holding a pet or endearing object, in contrast to the period's somber portraits of adults in black attire. The visual factor came into play at Morphy's when John Bradley's (New York, active 1832-1847) Portrait of a Young Girl in a Green Dress took the spotlight. An oil-on-canvas signed J. Bradley, 128 Spring St. New York and stamped on verso with the phrase PREPARED BY THE O'KEEFE NEW YORK, the artwork portrayed a child in a lace-trimmed silk dress with pantaloons, wearing gold hoop earrings and a double-strand red-stone necklace, and holding a floral basket. Closely related to Bradley's circa-1840 Little Girl in Lavender, which is in The National Gallery of Art's collection, the auction entry was bid to $73,800 against an estimate of $20,000-$50,000.

Online: www.morphyauctions.com 

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SOURCE Morphy Auctions