SUDBURY, MASS. — On February 25, Tremont Auctions sold a selection of Old Master Prints, all from the Winfield Robbins Collection, which included works spanning the Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Centuries and a selection of Japanese woodblock prints. Earning $36,830 and top-lot honors was a 1710 mezzotint portrait of On Nee Yeath Tow No Riow, a Mohawk chief and one of four who traveled to England to seek Queen Anne’s military aid in combatting the French forces in the Great Lakes region. She commissioned paintings of each of the four chiefs and mezzotints from the portraits. “Thirty Six Ghosts,” a complete album of 36 Japanese woodblocks by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, realized $20,320; it was one of a few other complete albums by the artist. The sale included the first mezzotint published in America: a portrait of Cotton Mather that was done in 1727 by Peter Pelham and brought $5,334. The collection included works by Rembrandt and Durer, as well as a wide variety of American and European subjects. Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house; watch for a more extensive report in an upcoming issue.
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