The elaborately framed oval picture of a mermaid hanging onto the stern of a rowing boat, bottom right, another undated oil on masonite, made $27,000 (£14,850).
Posters, prints, etc. cater to the demand for Cahoon's work - and there is even a special line in pillows that reproduce his folksy seaside scenes - and the fine 18th century house in Cotuit, Massachusetts, that for nearly 40 years was the home and studio of Ralph Cahoon and his wife Martha, whose own paintings focus on fantasy, children, animals, the changing seasons and the country way of life, is now the Cahoon Museum of American Art.
The mermaid and the balloon
AN Americana sale held by Eldreds of East Dennis on August 5-6 included a number of works by Ralph Eugene Cahoon Jr. (1910-82), a Cape Cod artist for whom mermaids and sailors, lighthouses and balloons were key themes, and the picture top right, a late addition to the catalogue, proved one of the Massachusetts sale’s greater successes, at $40,000 (£22,000).