Cleveland Play House

Small fountain sets table for Gray's Auctioneers' sale, June 30

CLEVELAND – A diminutive 19th-century Italian bronze tabletop fountain was discovered by auctioneer Deba Gray earlier this year in a lush but overgrown garden where it had been ensconced for more than 80 years. Gray’s will be offering the little fountain at Lot 46 in their Thursday, June 30, auction with an estimate of $6,000-$8,000. LiveAuctioneers will provide Internet live bidding for the 400-lot auction, which begins at 8 a.m. Eastern.

In remarkably good condition coated with a rich green patina, the little fountain, which measures just 10 1/2 inches high by 9 1/2 inches wide, was modeled after the stunning Fontana Delle Tartarughe in the Piazza Mattei in Rome. This show-stoppingly beautiful 16th-century fountain was designed by Rome’s foremost architect, Giacomo della Porta, himself a disciple of Michelangelo, and sculpted by Taddeo Landini between 1580 and 1588. It is said to be Rome’s most charming fountain. In 2008 Christies sold an almost identical fountain for $10,257, including premium.

The explosion of manufacturing in the 19th century is reflected in the magnificent George III-style mahogany long-case clock from John Creed Jennens & Sons (London, circa 1875-1881). Gray’s is offering this clock at Lot 84 with impeccable provenance. It is the property of the Cleveland Play House, America’s first professional regional theatre founded in 1915 by a group of eight prominent Clevelanders, among them Charles and Minerva Brooks, who sought to bring plays of substance to the people of Cleveland in an era dominated by vaudeville.

Many lots in this auction are being sold to benefit the Cleveland Play House. Most notable of these is Lot 47, a bronze bust of the great American actress Katherine Cornell by sculptor Malvina Hoffman, the brilliant American sculptor and author who died July 10, 1966. Hoffman studied with Rodin in Paris, and by 1915 had started her own foundry, becoming a master founder and writing the definitive work on historical and technical aspects of sculpture Sculpture, Inside and Out , which was commissioned by Stanley Field for the Century of Progress International Exposition, the Chicago World's Fair of 1933 that celebrated the centennial of the city.

Cleveland Play House will be celebrating their centennial in 2015, but this September they move into Cleveland’s prestigious PlayhouseSquare, the nation’s largest performing arts center outside New York, where a $32-million renovation of the Allen theater complex will unite CPH, Cleveland State University’s Dramatic Arts Program and PlayhouseSquare under one roof. Many donors have made this move possible and this auction is the second in a series of auctions Gray’s is holding to generate funds to benefit CPH.