LOUISA, VA.- On Saturday, September 17, Quinn’s Auction Galleries Central Virginia will hold its first Fine & Decorative Arts Auction of the fall season.

“We’re really excited about this auction,” said the gallery’s managing director, Skip Usry. “It includes an oil-on-canvas by Lucy May Stanton, and it’s the best American painting we’ve ever had the honor of offering.”

Lucy May Stanton (1875-1931) was an important American Impressionist best known for her fine miniatures and later landscapes, still lifes and portraits that represented her Southern heritage in exquisite detail. Her works are held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, the United States House of Representatives, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Georgia Museum of Art.

The highlight of the auction is Stanton’s large oil-on-canvas titled Uncle Jesse, which portrays an elderly African-American gentleman in three-quarter view. He gazes at the viewer over his wire-rimmed glasses in an authentic, informal manner. This magnificent portrait is conservatively estimated at $30,000-$50,000.

Another featured lot is a Tiffany Studios table lamp in the Colonial pattern. Its striking green lead glass shade rests on a double-scroll bronze base impressed with Tiffany markings. The estimate on the lamp is $8,000-$12,000.

Also offered is a Hepplewhite demilune table originally owned by the Tayloe family of Mount Airy in the Northern Neck of Virginia. The Tayloes, friends and confidants of George Washington, were colonial statesmen and soldiers whose descendant Phoebe Ogle Tayloe bequeathed her considerable estate to the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1882. The Corcoran deaccessioned the table in the 1950s; it was then purchased by its current owner and loaned to Mount Vernon where it was displayed until the late 1970s. This lovely and well-traveled table carries an estimate of $6,000-$8,000.

The next highlighted lot is a watercolor by the noted French symbolist Odilon Redon. This piece is a study in contrasts. The muted sky is separated from the vivid blue sea by a seemingly stationary sailboat. Its estimate is $4,000-$6,000.

Truly a one-of-a-kind item, a large Empire Gothic breakfront secretary entered in the auction was formerly used by Governor Rufus Bullock of Georgia. Bullock, the state’s first Republican governor, was in office during Reconstruction and promoted political and economic equality for all citizens. Interestingly, he is referenced in Gone with the Wind as an instrument of Northern subjugation of the South. Deeply unpopular with his white constituents, he was forced to resign by the Ku Klux Klan in 1871. This monumental and historical piece of furniture is estimated at $6,000-$8,000.

The auction also includes many other fine paintings, period American and European furniture, Tiffany decorative items, Continental and American silver (including an exquisite 18th-century Russian silver gilt and enamel brandy cup); and a diverse collection of Asian ceramics. Of particular note is a pair of Qian Long peacock blue-lidded baluster vases.

Quinn’s Central Virginia’s September 17 Fine & Decorative Arts Auction will be held at 8845 Three Notch Road, Louisa, VA 23093 and will commence at 10am EST. Those who cannot attend in person may leave absentee bids, bid by phone, or bid live online via LiveAuctioneers.com or Invaluable.com. Items may be previewed Monday, September 12 through Friday, September 16 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. On auction day, doors will open at 9 a.m.