Garth's Americana Auction

Garth's, Delaware, Ohio

by Don Johnson

Photos courtesy Garth's

Fresh off Garth's 49th annual Thanksgiving Americana auction, company president Jeff Jeffers didn't speak as if the season ahead were some winter of discontent. Instead, he spoke of the antiques market, including the November 27 and 28, 2009, sale at the company's historic auction barn in Delaware, Ohio, showing flashes of positive things to come. Or at the very least, adjustments being made.

"I feel like we're in early spring. It's coming; it's a little warmer," he said. Some of those adjustments are brought about by buyers rethinking their options. "I think that we might be at a place like we have been since 2001…in that it's changed. Some of what we're talking about is not unique to 2008 and 2009. A lot of what we're talking about is a phenomenon of 2001. We are just a different people since 2001. Some of the free-for-all spending dried up then and just never recovered. And so I think if you understand or believe or agree that that's the new economy, you have to make your adjustments and either continue to be tight with it or make some changes and do some spending…I'm more encouraged about 2010. People are saying it's not changing right now, this is where it's at, let's just do our plan."

That plan is putting buyers back in the market. Maybe not at the level they once were, but people are coming out for auctions.

"Those who were gone for a while are back. They may be more cautious, they may be looking at different objects, but they're back," said Jeffers.

Included are larger crowds at Garth's Eclectic auctions, which Jeffers attributes to not only the lower prices of merchandise in those sales, which appeal to buyers with less cash to spend, but also to the fact that collectors still want to participate. They want to buy something.

That same motivation came through at the Thanksgiving auction, always one of the highlights of Garth's year, where buyers once again packed the gallery. "As a whole, it was as expected," Jeffers noted. "What that means to me today is stability." The strength of the market remained in the basics. Jeffers used words such as "purity," "decoration," and "extraordinary" to describe the attributes that are making a difference.

The top lot of the sale was a 19th-century paint-decorated Pennsylvania corner cupboard with vinegar graining in reddish brown over yellow that simulates curly maple that sold for $36,425 (includes buyer's premium). The cupboard was previously sold at Garth's 2004 Thanksgiving sale, where it realized $37,375, coming out of the collection of former Garth's owners Tom and Carolyn Porter.

At least two other pieces of furniture were noted as selling at Garth's in the past. A 19th-century Rhode Island continuous-bow Windsor armchair with a five-spindle crest and nine-spindle back brought $6756. At the 2007 Thanksgiving auction it brought $5750.

Among the closing lots of the 2009 sale, a decorated ladder-back rocker with a writing arm and dovetailed drawer in the base, from Crawford County, Ohio, first half of the 19th century, in old black-over-red graining with yellow line borders, ex-Garth Oberlander, sold for $1410. It brought $2415 at the 2004 Thanksgiving auction when it came out of the Porters' collection. Jeffers noted that the writing-arm rocker was one of the good buys of the weekend.

"There are some very acceptable things today bringing not the money they did," he said. "The more things go, the more it appears this is the adjustment. The more I hear, and the more I talk to people, the more people are accepting that and wanting to readjust."

Comparisons aside, furniture pieces were among the top lots of this year's holiday auction, including a one-piece stepback cupboard attributed to the Hudson River valley, New York, late 18th or early 19th century, that sold for $12,338, nudging over its upper estimate. "In a good market, that could be a fifteen- to twenty-thousand-dollar cupboard," Jeffers noted.

A decorated blanket chest, possibly from the Lykens Valley area of Dauphin (now Lebanon County), Pennsylvania, the front with its original design of three arched panels containing hearts and stylized flowers on a red ground, the center section lettered "Elizabeth Schafferin 1808," sold within estimate at $8813.

Among the smalls were the usual variety of Americana and also a selection of jewelry to entice buyers for the Christmas season. The best piece was a late Victorian diamond cluster ring having a center old-European-cut diamond, approximately 2.4 carats, surrounded by two rows of white old-European-cut diamonds, approximately 2.6 carats total, that sold for $9988, just below its upper estimate.

One of the most highly publicized portions of the sale was a selection of 33 lots of original photographs and silver gelatin prints of the Kennedy family. Taken by Bob Davidoff and published in 2008 in The Kennedy Family Photo Album, the images may have had more value as a curiosity factor than for their historical nature. At $264, the top lot was a pair of 8" x 10" silver gelatin prints, one of President John F. Kennedy on the tarmac of Palm Beach International Airport, November 18, 1963, leaving on his ill-fated trip to Dallas where he was assassinated four days later, and the other of the First Family's luggage arriving in Palm Beach, November 1963. For many of the images, there was little to no interest. Seven lots sold for $59 each. Nearly half were passed.

Jeffers wasn't disappointed. "They performed reasonably close to how we thought they would perform," he said. "They weren't owned by the family, signed by the family, and you weren't buying copyrights. Some of the photos were maybe interesting, but not ownable. The best images did great."

There were other oddball lots, so to speak, including a Babe Ruth signed baseball from 1936 or 1937 that sold for $4113. While not Garth's typical fare, it fit in well with the rest of the auction. Other interesting items included a portrait of George Washington by Rembrandt Peale, a lithograph on paper that, according to the catalog, was one of fewer than 15 examples known, that sold for $5288, and a miniature mirror from the late 18th century, believed to be New England origin, in a carved curly maple frame supported by a pierced and scrolled wrought-iron hanger, with replaced glass, that sold for $4113.

Garth's will celebrate its 50th Thanksgiving Americana auction this year. Despite the company's ongoing plans to move to a new location, Jeffers said the Thanksgiving sale will likely be held at the current site. "I'm relatively convinced that the fiftieth will be here," he said.

For more information, phone Garth's at (740) 362-4771 or visit (www.garths.com).

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