Treasures from a Tavern

Mark Sisco | December 1st, 2012

Superb cobalt-decorated J. & E. Norton water cooler, with blue rings and a central panoramic scene, $23,575.

This unsigned and unframed oil on canvas portrait, 20" x 30", of a man and his horse is solidly attributed to Maine animal and landscape artist Scott Leighton (1849-1898) because of its style and subject matter. It brought $1265.

There was no doubt that this block-base candle- stand was very early. The catalog described it as William and Mary period, but others suggested that it could be a Pilgrim-Century piece. With a hexagonal top and a narrow shaft with two ring-turned bands, and with an extremely dry and unpainted surface, it sold for a solid $5175.

A good old Maine harvest table, simple and straightforward, 6'7" long, and worth $4312.50.

Gould Auction Company, Gardiner, Maine

Sometimes things of great value can be hiding in plain sight. Prior to the start of his December 1, 2012, auction in Gardiner, Maine, Timothy Gould related how he had acquired some of the best items for the sale. He received a referral to a possible consignor in Boylston, Massachusetts, who asked him to come to look at the contents of what used to be known as the Silas Hastings tavern, built in 1817 or 1818, on the site of the original settler’s home. According to a document I located from the Boylston Historical Society, it was last used as an inn in 1839. Gould’s information, though, suggested that the building was used as an inn or a tavern by a Hastings descendent for a number of years beyond that date.

Gould said, “I didn’t suppose that this was possible in 2012...So we get there, and we drive into the dooryard, and there’s an open porch, and sitting there on the porch is this piece of stoneware. I looked at Christopher [Chapman] and said, ‘Are we supposed to try and buy this, and then be on the eleven o’clock news?’...It was right in plain view from the street.”

Gould was referring to a spectacular cobalt-decorated stoneware water cooler. To use a Maine idiom, it was “stove up,” and yet it still brought one of the day’s highest prices. Actually, it had only one serious crack, which didn’t penetrate any of the blue. When it comes to cobalt-decorated stoneware, the form and rarity of the decorations can easily trump the condition of the pottery behind it. The three-gallon water cooler was imprinted “J. & E. Norton/ Bennington Vt.” It was lavishly decorated with an encircling panoramic scene of a house, a large tree, a leaping deer, and a bird perched on a branch. With two competing book bids, Gould opened and closed the crock with a single stroke, and it sold for $23,575 (includes buyer’s premium). He called it “the very best piece of blue-decorated pottery that I’ve held in my hands in thirty-eight years.”

About 100 more lots came from the untouched contents of the tavern turned private dwelling, still occupied by descendants of the original builders. Among the finds was an early 19th-century wooden candle lantern with decoratively arranged drilled air holes, its original dry and dusty surface, and a delicately scalloped candle socket. It sold for $3335. “Boy, that thing created a stir,” Gould mused after the sale. “We had seven or eight phone lines on it...Even had three people from outside of New England that drove up to see it.”

The high-water mark of the sale came for a rare Woodlands Indian hooded woolen coat, complete with matching leggings, a sash belt, and moccasins. The leggings and the hood and stitched armbands of the hand-loomed coat were festooned with tin cone decorations that contained dyed moose or caribou hairs. The loomed sash and shoulder bands were intricately decorated, and the hide moccasins had their original wool liners. It was a spectacularly complete ensemble, and the fact that it came from eastern Maine suggests a Passamaquoddy origin. After a long bidding battle, it found a new home with the Maine State Museum for $37,950.

Gould makes great use of the ultimatum “or we’ll pass it by.” It almost invariably pulls a response, and often the end result is a price that is many multiples of the opening bid. A primitive family portrait came in late to the auction from a Wisconsin family, but it wasn’t too late for a big score. It showed a mother and her two young children posed before a heavy maroon curtain drape. Unsigned and unattributed, the 21" x 16½" oil on wood panel was in untouched, original condition with virtually no paint loss. “It may have been a midwestern piece,” Gould said later. “I tried very hard to come up with something solid, but I couldn’t...Everybody said that thing would have brought a hundred grand with a little different coloring on the kids and the mom.” Bidders stubbornly sat on their hands until Gould uttered the magic words “a thousand or we’ll pass it by!” That opened the flood gates, and by the time the gates were shut, the painting had sold for $17,250.

For more information, visit (www.gould auctions.com) or call (207) 362-6045.

This walnut Queen Anne lowboy in original dry surface with original brass pulls and escutcheons was helped to $4025 by the recessed fan carving and untouched pad feet. Beneath it is a yellow and black “feather eye” paint-decorated flat-top bottle box. The pattern resembled zebra stripes, and the iron lock was the original, marked “J. TERRY & CO. TERRYVILLE CT.” It dated from the mid-19th century and sold for $2300.

Tall Chippendale chest in cherry with six drawers and a cutout bracket base, $1725.

Competition was intense for this 16¼" diameter burl bowl, with at least seven phones and two absentees in play. It opened at $3100 and finished at $4255.