New Buyers for Americana

Cowan's, Cincinnati, Ohio

by Don Johnson

The figures fell out where expected during Cowan's spring Americana sale of fine and decorative art, held March 15 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Approximately 550 cataloged lots sold for a little more than $700,000, averaging about $1275 per lot.

Compared to the spring 2007 sale, it was a smaller auction with a higher per-lot average. You could analyze this one to death, factoring in the economy with its soaring gasoline prices on one hand and the promise of economic stimulus checks on the other. All that number crunching aside, Diane Wachs, one of Cowan's specialists in decorative arts, might have found a subtle difference between this sale and any others. It was the buyers.

"I'm seeing buyers that are relatively new to the market and don't seem to have that pretense about someone else putting their golden stamp of approval on what they buy," she said. "If they want it, they go after it. It might not be pure. I find that very exciting. That bodes well for the market."

New buyers who aren't purists? That might be better than cheap gas and a handful of stimulus checks. What those buyers, old and new, were waving their bid cards for during the auction was about as varied a mix as Cowan's offers. There was no dominant category within the wide-ranging sale.

A Regency mahogany wall clock brought the top money of the day at $34,500 (including buyer's premium), well above its $6000/8000 estimate. The clock had a back story of its own. Because of the engraved names on the dial, Cowan's originally cataloged the clock as being made by Thomas Mudge and William Dutton, who had a partnership in London that began in 1759 and ended when Mudge died in 1790. But the clock was also cataloged as dating to around 1790 to 1810.

"We had someone come in on the eleventh hour and say someone had over-engraved it--it wasn't a Mudge and Dutton," said Wachs. The person theorized that since Mudge died in 1790, the clock couldn't have dated to the Regency period. Cowan's quickly rewrote the catalog description, putting the clock at circa 1810, stating that the engraved names on the dial couldn't be correct "as Mudge died in the 1790's, the engraving was added later, likely in England to an anonymous period clock." The Web site was updated, and an announcement was made at the time of the sale, leaving prospective buyers to draw their own conclusions.

Bidding indicated that at least two people saw something special in that clock. Wachs agreed with their analysis. She still thought the clock could have come from Mudge and Dutton. "The market told us the clock was right," Wachs said. "It's very possible that face could have been stamped out before Mudge died." The difference between a Regency clock by a noted maker and an anonymous example can be substantial. "Good English Regency clocks by known makers just scream," she added. And this one was definitely a screamer.

The other top lots came from varied categories and included an orchestrion figure of a female bandleader that sold for $25,300, more than a few octaves above its $4000/6000 estimate. Serving as the cover lot for the catalog, the 5' tall Continental piece dated to about 1880-1900 and was possibly made by the Gavioli Factory. The carved and painted figure with a movable head and arms still had its mechanism intact, though there was some damage, most noticeably a patch on one arm.

Patched, however, was far better than trashed. "When those things apparently broke down, they were probably kindling," said Wachs, who noted that this particular automaton would have directed an orchestra led by a pipe organ. Interest, as indicated by the selling price, was strong. "Apparently there is more than one collector out there."

The same held true for a set of 12 sterling silver dinner plates in the Castles pattern, which sold for $22,800. "Silver dealers were saying that stuff was going to go for scrap," said Wachs. "Guess what? It didn't."

The variation among the top lots carried throughout the auction. "Trying to get your arms around the shape of a sale and call it Americana or call it mid-19th century or whatever, we continue to have pockets of strengths in many areas," Wachs said.

Paintings certainly had their place. As in the other categories, variety was the common denominator. There were signed and unsigned artworks, pairs of portraits, and single images, attractive folks, and some homely characters. "You couldn't spit without hitting three portraits," said Wachs. "They all seemed to sell and do better than expected."

A pair of Prior-Hamblen school portraits led the way. The circa 1845 oil on paperboard artworks, possibly by William Kennedy, sold for $13,800. Still life and other genres did fine too with a folky unsigned 19th-century oil on canvas of a sliced watermelon and a knife selling for $8050 (est. $1000/1500).

Also doing well was a pair of Egyptian Revival candelabra, made by Rogers, Smith & Co. of New Haven, Connecticut, between 1862 and 1877. They sold for $9200. The figural standards showed full-bodied male Egyptians in royal attire.

Among the furniture, highlights included a pair of Stanton Hall rosewood armchairs by Meeks at $7475. Regional furniture sold well. There was a 3-piece Hepplewhite dining table from Charleston, South Carolina, that sold for $6325. That table could be configured several ways using the three pieces. A Woodford County, Kentucky, cherry three-drawer stand with lightwood and mother-of-pearl inlay brought $6000.

Rounding out the sale was a strong selection of Bennington and Rockingham pottery from the collection of the late Dr. David Schwartz of Indian Hill, Ohio. In this category the top item at $6037.50 was a Rockingham presentation ice pitcher attributed to Swan Hill Pottery, South Amboy, New Jersey.

C. Wesley Cowan, president and principal auctioneer, spoke of his mixed emotions about selling the Schwartz collection. "There was a sense of sadness on my part for that sale, because we were selling part of a great collection of Bennington and Rockingham pottery that was assembled by a doctor whom I got to know years ago," Cowan said. "He died. It wasn't sudden, but he didn't tell very many people he was sick, and then he was gone. And I miss him. It was bittersweet to offer his collection. It was sad for me to do that, but I was thrilled to see the prices that were paid. He collected with a sense of rarity and condition, and the prices reflect that," he said.

In addition to Internet and phone competition, the Bennington and Rockingham items drew bids from 26 people on the floor, according to Wachs. "Most of it went to the floor. That pleasantly shocked us," she said.

Those types of surprises keep Wachs pushing forward. "Always you want to be reaching. Always it's a shifting market," she noted. "That said, I think, to tell you the truth, we are still figuring out our market. There are things that never cease to amaze and amuse me that do very well here that don't necessarily fly somewhere else. I'm talking about mid-century Revival styles, certain high-end Aesthetic Movement furniture, and Cincinnati furniture that seems to do very well here. Cincinnati artists are getting stronger and stronger, and it sort of feeds itself."

Cowan was pleased with the auction as a whole. "It was a solid sale. There was no struggling to get people to bid. We had a room full of people, and they came to buy. We had a crowd to the end of the sale," he said. "I'm pleased with it because it reflects our position with auction houses in the Midwest."

For more information, phone Cowan's at (513) 871-1670 or visit (www.cowans.com).

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