Blue Transfer-Decorated Staffordshire Ceramics Bullish

March 6th, 2016

Northeast Auctions, Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Photos courtesy Northeast Auctions

Ron Bourgeault’s Northeast Auctions’ “Spring Weekend Auction,” held March 5 and 6 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, offered a series of specialized collections along with furniture and decorations from various owners, estates, and some museum deaccessions. The sale began on Saturday at noon with Chester Creutzburg’s and David Martin’s collection of historical blue Staffordshire ceramics, transfer-printed with American architecture, scenery, states’ arms, and portraits of heroes. In 2015 Martin and Creutzburg moved from Doylestown, Pennsylvania, to Florida, but after they packed up their collection, they decided not to take it south and sent it to Northeast Auctions for sale. Ron Bourgeault suggested that it be sold in two parts; the first selection of 130 lots was offered in March, and the other half will be offered in August.

The two-day auction was bookended with other collections of Currier & Ives prints and pewter, categories that, like historical blue ceramics, once were the mainstay of the Americana market. In between, along with furniture and decorations from various owners including some fine creamware and delft, there was a small collection of antiquities deaccessioned by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston that brought some surprising prices, and 25 paintings from the gallery and personal collection of Russell W. Kiernan and his wife, Elizabeth, whose Marine Arts Gallery was located next to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, for 60 years.

Historical blue Staffordshire has been avidly collected for over a century. Books have been written about it, and collectors formed the Transferware Collectors Club, which publishes a bulletin and has a website. At the annual meeting of the Transfersware Collectors Club, collectors visit collections, attend lectures, and trade among themselves.

Since the legendary auction of the Haskell collection at Parke-Bernet Galleries in 1944 and ’45, when an overabundance of plates, soup plates, cup plates, platters, teacups, tureens, pitchers, and coffee and teapots decorated with the iconography of the United States in the 19th century was sold, there have been other landmark sales. Most recently, the Freeman’s sale of the Fleisher collection in April 2007 and the Pook & Pook sale of the Goldberg and Brown collection in October 2013 will go down in blue Staffordshire history. The Northeast Auctions sale of the Creutzburg and Martin collection will join the list.

More than a dozen collectors and specialist dealers came to the sale, and others were on the phones or bid online. Prices were solid. Chet Creutzburg, reached by phone after the sale, said he was pleased with the results at a time when the Economist and the New York Times were reporting that luxury goods and antiques are trending downward.

One phone bidder bought 19 lots and underbid others, including the 21" long “Arms of Pennsylvania” platter that sold to another phone bidder for $31,200 (including buyer’s premium), an auction record for an “Arms of Pennsylvania” platter and an auction record for historical blue transferware. The hammer price, $26,000, was the same as that paid for the “Arms of Pennsylvania” platter that sold at Pook & Pook in 2010, but the purchase price topped Pook’s record price of $30,420 because Northeast now charges a 20% buyer’s premium, and back in 2010 Pook charged just 17%. Creutzburg and Martin paid $17,600 for it at the Conestoga Auction Company sale of the Chris Machmer collection on November 4, 2000, in Manheim, Pennsylvania.


Two phone bidders competed for this 21" long Staffordshire dark blue transfer-printed “Arms of Pennsylvania” platter from the “Arms of the States” series by Thomas Mayer, Stoke-on-Trent, 1826-35, with printed eagle and banner mark in underglaze blue. Estimated at $10,000/15,000, it sold on the phone for $31,200, underbid on another phone, to make an auction record price for the form and an auction record for any piece of historical blue Staffordshire. The print of the “Arms of Pennsylvania” was taken from the John Binns printing of the Declaration of Independence, published in 1819.

Creutzburg and Martin had paid $17,600 for it on November 4, 2000, at Conestoga Auction Company’s sale in Manheim, Pennsylvania, of the Chris Machmer collection. The last “Arms of Pennsylvania” platter sold for $30,420 (est. $4000/ 7000) in January 2010 at Pook & Pook in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, when the firm’s buyer’s premium was 17%, not the 20% that Northeast Auctions now charges; the hammer prices, $26,000, were the same. Other states’ arms platters do not bring as much.

Transferwares, including a group of Liverpool jugs, were followed by a collection of middle-market material from the estate of Marblehead, Massachusetts, dealer Patricia Jennings. It did not do as well as Bourgeault had hoped. “I should have sent it all to Dover,” he said when some lots were passed, referring to his uncataloged auctions at the Dover (New Hampshire) Elks Lodge on Route 108.


Two phone bidders and Pennsylvania dealer William Kurau competed with a collector in the salesroom for this Staffordshire dark blue transfer-printed “Catskill Mountains, Hudson River” sauce ladle with a shell border by Enoch Wood & Sons, Burslem, 1819-46, in fine condition. It sold to the collector for $3000 (est. $700/900).


The 7½" high Staffordshire dark blue transfer-printed “Four Medallions” jug by Ralph Stevenson & Williams, Cobridge, 1825-27, was printed under the spout with identified portraits labeled “Jefferson,” “President Washington,” “Welcome Lafayette The Nations Guest,” and “Governor Clinton,” all on a foliate scroll and stippled ground. Even though it has restored chips and cracks to the spout, inpainting on the interior, and restoration to the base, it sold in the room for $8400 (est. $4000/6000).

Dealers who came to Portsmouth to set up at Nan Gurley’s Sunday five-hour market at the Frank Jones Center on Route 1 did some buying. A few lots took off. A wing chair with molded straight legs and flame-stitch and tapestry upholstery sold on the phone for $1020 (est. $300/500), and a Jacobean joint stool sold for $1200 (est. $300/500). Stephen Corrigan of Stephen-Douglas Antiques, Walpole, New Hampshire, paid $720 (est. $200/400) for a lot of turned wares, including a wig stand and a wig that he offered at Nan Gurley’s show on Sunday. A lot comprising four folk art carved book boxes, one a trick box with a snake inside, sold for $660 (est. $350/550).


This 26" long carved and white-painted eagle plaque with a polychrome “Don’t Give Up The Ship” banner by John Haley Bellamy (1836-1914) of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Kittery, Maine, sold on the phone for $31,200 (est. $16,000/24,000).

 Saturday was the better day. A Jacob Hurd silver cann sold for $4560 (est. $1800/2400). A Roman carved marble mask surprised Ron Bourgeault when it sold for $13,200 (est. $900/1500). “It’s either first or second century or a fake, but there is one like it at the Met,” Bourgeault announced from the podium. It was once the property of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. A Serapi carpet sold for $15,000 (est. $8000/10,000). A classic Bellamy eagle in white paint with “Don’t Give Up The Ship” on the banner, 26" long, sold on the phone for $31,200 (est. $16,000/24,000)—the same price as the “Arms of Pennsylvania” platter. They were the top lots of the sale.


The Roman marble portrait head of Demosthenes, 1st/2nd century, carved with a high forehead, wavy hair, a mustache, and a beard, 7¼" high, sold on the phone for $10,080 (est. $2000/4000).


This Roman carved marble mask of a tragic hero, either 1st/2nd century or a modern fake (there is one like it at the Metropolitan Museum of Art), 14" high x 9½" wide, sold on the phone for $13,200 (est. $900/1500).


The English delft polychrome tulip and lily bluedash charger, London or Bristol, circa 1700, 13½" diameter, painted in blue, green, yellow, and red with three tulips and two lilies, spiral buds, and flat leaves, sold on the phone for $5640 (est. $1500/2500).

Furniture was not a strong suit. A Weare, New Hampshire, tiger maple and cherry high chest went to a phone bidder at $21,600 (est. $18,000/26,000) on one bid. Three phone bidders competed for a Pennsylvania carved walnut drop-leaf dining table with ball-and-claw feet, and it sold for $7200 (est. $800/1200). A Massachusetts Queen Anne maple drop-leaf dining table with rounded ends, 48" wide and with a Francis and Mabel Brady Garvan provenance, sold for $3900 (est. $3000/5000). However, a large Marblehead, Massachusetts, mahogany blockfront desk on bandy legs with ball-and-claw feet, 1770-71, got no bids (est. $40,000/60,000).


This Pennsylvania carved walnut drop-leaf dining table with a 29" x 48" rectangular top with two drop leaves with notched corners (48" x 53" when open), a shaped apron, cabriole legs, and bold ball-and-claw feet, sold on the phone for $7200 (est. $800/1200).


“Wooding Up” on the Mississippi, 31¾" x 40½" (frame size), sold online for $9120 (est. $4500/6500). A large-folio two-color lithograph drawn by Fanny F. Palmer, hand colored, published by Currier & Ives, New York, 1863, Conningham 6776, it is #23 of the “New Best Fifty Large Folio Currier & Ives Prints.”


American Hunting Scenes. “A Good Chance,” a large-folio two-color lithograph after a painting by Arthur F. Tait, hand colored, published by Currier & Ives, New York, 1863, Conningham 173, 32" x 49" (frame size), sold on the phone for $6480 (est. $2000/3000).

There was plenty of interest in the Currier & Ives lithographs; 23 of the 52 offered sold for $1000 or more, and five of those sold for more than $5000. Some English creamware and delftware sold over estimates.

Most of the pewter seemed to be a bargain. A pair of New England mugs, estimated at $200/400, provoked competition and sold for $4560. An English tankard by Phillip Matthews, London, sold for $1200 (est. $600/900).

Pewter plates and lamps were bargains. A pair of plates with flat rims sold for $390 (est. $600/900), and an assembled communion set made by members of the Boardman family in Connecticut and New York sold for $780 (est. $1000/1500). A full-bodied covered pitcher by Roswell Gleason, Dorchester, Massachusetts, sold to a collector for $570 (est. $250/450). Modest prices make it fun to collect.


The pair of 4¾" high New England pewter mugs with fishtail handles, possibly by a pre-Revolutionary War Boston maker, sold online for $4560 (est. $200/400). An identical mug with marks of John Skinner is published in An American Pewter Collection: The Collection of Dr. Melvyn & Bette Wolf (2006), No. 400.

Of the 955 lots offered, all but 116 sold for a total of $1,013,000, giving an 87.9% sell-through rate. Northeast Auctions will have another auction on Sunday, May 15.

Ron Bourgeault was the cover story of the week for the March 11 issue of Antiques and The Arts Weekly. Rick Russack chronicled Bourgeault’s life in the antiques business, beginning when Ron was seven. He told about Bourgeault’s days as a show dealer, as advisor to Eddy Nicholson, and then as an auctioneer (his first million-dollar sale with an illustrated catalog was in 1988). Bourgeault purchased the Treadwell Mansion in 1992 and turned the former Elks Lodge into his corporate headquarters where he holds auctions and presale exhibitions that overflow into an 18th-century house across the street.


This 10" long Paris porcelain oval platter with the Great Seal of the United States, 1820-40, printed and painted in the center “E Pluribus Unum,” sold on the phone for $3360 (est. $800/1200).


The Serapi Heriz carpet, northwestern Persia, last quarter 19th century, 11'2" x 8'5", sold to a phone bidder for $15,000 (est. $8000/10,000).

Bourgeault said he has a good sale lined up for August but has not announced the dates. The second half of the Creutzburg and Martin collection of historical blue Staffordshire will be featured, and there will be much more.

For more information, call Northeast Auctions at (603) 433-8400 or check the website (www.northeastauctions.com).

Dinner at Cornelius Dubois’s by Howard Pyle (1853-1911), a 9¼" x 15½" watercolor and gouache on paper illustration from the article “Old Catskill” in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, May 1880, is signed “H. Pyle, Del” and dated 1879. From the collection of Francis Patrick Garvan and Mabel Brady Garvan, it sold for $12,600 (est. $12,000/15,000). Not shown, a group of five 1909 watercolors by Howard Pyle of theater costume designs, ex-Garvan collection, sold for $14,400 (est. $6000/9000).


This Salem, Massachusetts, Sheraton carved mahogany sewing table, 1800-10, with a 20¾" x 15¾" rectangular top with a notched edge and canted half “cookie” carved corners, above a frieze with a drawer and bag drawer, and raised on acanthus-carved, reeded, and tapered legs, sold on the phone for $6000 (est. $1000/1500).


Deaccessioned by the Museum of the City of New York, the American Hepplewhite inlaid mahogany bowfront card table, circa 1810, probably New York, 29¼" x 34¾" x 16¾", sold for $5520 (est. $700/1200) to a bidder in the room.


Originally published in the May 2016 issue of Maine Antique Digest. © 2016 Maine Antique Digest

comments powered by Disqus
Web Design By Firefly Maine Maine Web Design