Stories for January '22
(Issue Story)The Stories They Tell
A Book Review
When collectors write books about their collections, other collectors are intrigued. They love a tour of a private collection by the collector. More often, collections of Americana are described by others in “Living with Antiques”articles in The Magazine Antiques or illustrated features in Antiques & Fine Art or ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Auction Prices Realized, January 2022
Here are a few notable prices of antiques sold recently at auction, as provided by press releases. All prices include the buyer’s premium when charged. We’re always looking for news of prices realized at auctions, particularly unusual or top lots. Send pictures, complete descriptions, and information to A.P.R., Maine Antique ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Making Memories
Beneath the Surface
Why are the winter holidays so stressful? Sure, there are all the additional obligations, like school programs and various holiday parties for the organizations in your life, and all the additional expenses, like gifts for coworkers and the mandatory Christmas gift-card exchange with people you don’t know what ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, Sampler Acquired by Museum
An 1826 needlework sampler has been put on display at the Thomas T. Taber Museum of the Lycoming County Historical Society, Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The piece was created by Jane Morison, who likely was born in 1811 and lived in the Pine Creek Township section of the county. Her sampler inscription ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)January in New York City
On Wednesday, January 19, Sotheby’s will sell the collection of American furniture, silver, brass, and Chinese export porcelain of the late Peter Pfaffenroth. “Peter was a great collector, and he had some special things,” said Erik Gronning, chief of Americana at Sotheby’s. “It will be a live sale with an ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)American Historical Print Collectors Society Announces 2021 Newman Award
The American Historical Print Collectors Society has selected Laid Down on Paper: Printmaking in America, 1800-1865 as the winner of the 2021 Ewell L. Newman Book Award. The book contains papers presented at a symposium held at the Cape Ann Museum in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in 2017 in conjunction with the ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Letter from London, January 2022
There are some very expensive things in this month’s “Letter,” among them an elaborate ceremonial hat that made well over a thousand times its estimate in a Spanish sale—not to mention one of Napoleon’s distinctive and much more familiar hats—along with some really quite modestly priced items, but the general ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Bath Antique Sale Returns
After a long hiatus due to COVID-19, the Bath Antique Sale Bath, Maine, is returning, according to Gurley Shows. The first sale will be held on Sunday, January 23. Two more dates will follow, March 13 and April 24. The show will resume again in the fall, usually on or ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Hanging with Christopher and Bernadette Evans
It’s a family affair for Christopher and Bernadette Evans, a young couple from Waynesboro, Virginia, who conduct their antiques business the old-fashioned way. They travel for hours to exhibit at shows, notably the New Hampshire Antiques Dealers Association (NHADA) show in August and to auctions and other fairs, restocking and ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Failey Grants Awarded
Author Caitlin Meehye Beach, Historic Rock Ford, and the New-York Historical Society have been awarded Failey Grants by the Decorative Arts Trust.
The Failey Grant program provides $25,000 in support for noteworthy research, exhibition, publication, and conservation projects through the Dean F. Failey Fund, named in honor of the trust’s late ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Join Up and Chime In
In mid-November I had the opportunity to speak at the annual luncheon meeting of the Maine Antiques Dealers Association (MADA) in Yarmouth, Maine. It was an honor to address the venerable organization. (And I’m never one to pass up a free lunch.)
M.A.D. has always held dealer organizations in high regard. ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Exhibitions, January 2022
Dutch tile panel showing scenes from daily life, 1620-40, artist/maker unknown. Tin-glazed earthenware with blue decoration, 26 7/8" x 21½". Gift of Mrs. Francis P. Garvan, 1979. Probably made in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
—Ongoing —Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Dutch potters started making ceramic wall tiles in the late 1500s, answering the call for ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Shaker Sewing Desk Stitches Its Way into the Record Books
It is just 18 miles from Enfield to Plainfield, New Hampshire, but it took over 100 years for the journey of a special sewing desk.
Enfield was the site of the Enfield Shaker community from 1793 to 1918. Today its grounds and many buildings are a museum. Plainfield is the home ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)O’Keeffe’s Crab’s Claw Ginger Hawaii Brings $7.7 Million
A live auction that took place on the evening of November 17 in the new Park Avenue space at Phillips, New York City, included a 1939 work by Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) making its auction debut. Nestled in the 20th-century and contemporary art sale, which offered 46 lots (lots 14 and ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Flags and More: Americana at Freeman’s
Freeman’s, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Photos courtesy Freeman’s
Freeman’s Americana sale on November 10 began with flags from the collection of Dr. Jeffrey Kenneth Kohn, an early collector, scholar, and dealer in American flags. Of the 50 lots of flags, related stands, and uniforms offered, 30 sold for some of the highest prices in ... (Read More)
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(Show)Raleigh Returns: The Antiques Extravaganza
Raleigh, North Carolina
The November 2020 Antiques Extravaganza in Raleigh, North Carolina, was a show without much of an audience. Poor attendance and the fear of COVID-19 by patrons and dealers led the promoters to cancel the March and July 2021 Extravaganzas. By November fear had lessened, and with 52 dealers ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Pacific Trade and Americana
Doyle, New York City
Photos courtesy Doyle
The first week of November was Americana week at Doyle in New York City. American paintings, prints, silver, furniture, and accessories from more than two dozen consignors were offered in five sales in two days. American prints and paintings, marine paintings, and Outsider art filled ... (Read More)
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(Auction)American Paintings
Doyle, New York City
Photos courtesy Doyle
Offering 181 lots of 19th- and 20th-century marine paintings, folk art, portraits, topographical prints, Hudson River school works, Western and regional landscapes, still lifes, and a collection of Outsider art, Doyle’s November 2 sale totaled $1,384,891 (including buyers’ premiums) with a sell-through rate of 90%. ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Mimi Adler’s Americana at Nye & Company
Nye & Company, Bloomfield, New Jersey
Photos courtesy Nye & Company
In the old days, collectors of Americana would haunt city shops and country markets and bid at fancy on-site estate auctions and at farm sales. Some even made the rounds of tag sales. Now collectors browse the Internet in their pajamas ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Brewster Portrait Stands Tall Among Americana
CRN Auctions, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Photos courtesy CRN Auctions
Emile Gruppé (1896-1978), Sugaring Vermont, 1972, 30" x 36" (sight size), oil on canvas, signed and titled on the stretcher, sold for $12,200 (est. $5000/7000).
The October 24 sale at CRN Auctions, Cambridge, Massachusetts, brought a wide range of material from many different collections and ... (Read More)
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(Show)New Show for MADA
MADA Fall Antiques Show, Topsham, Maine
On a chilly October 23, the Maine Antiques Dealers Association launched a new one-day antiques show in Topsham, Maine. The first annual MADA Fall Antiques Show saw 28 dealers set up in two barns at the Topsham Fairgrounds. The show was a no-frills affair that ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Doyle’s $7.4 Million-plus Jewelry Auction
Antique Jewelry & Gemology
Photos courtesy Doyle
Doyle in New York City held a 199-lot jewelry sale on October 21 that was 97% sold and realized a total of $7,468,398 (includes buyers’ premiums), significantly beating presale estimates of $3,603,700/5,563,300. The sale showcased “prominent estates and distinguished collections” and had an abundance of ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Handwritten Journal Leads New Haven Auction
New Haven Auctions, Branford, Connecticut
Photos courtesy New Haven Auctions
Something for everyone was the order of the two-day autumn Americana sale held October 16 and 17 at New Haven Auctions in Branford, Connecticut. Fred Giampietro gathered enviable antiques from a variety of collections and estates that buyers snapped up easily. While ... (Read More)
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(Show)Fall 2021 Ohio Country Antiques Show
Ohio Country Antiques Show, Wilmington, Ohio
It’s not necessarily been easy for Jennifer Sabin, but she’s made it work. Sabin had a less-than-glorious start after she acquired the Ohio Country Antiques Show in 2020 from Bruce Metzger. The Roberts Centre, a hotel and convention complex in Wilmington, Ohio, has hosted the ... (Read More)
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(Show)Yes, “Strings” Attached at Rhinebeck
Fall Antiques at Rhinebeck, Rhinebeck, New York
Yes, “Strings” Attached at Rhinebeck
by Fran Kramer
Musical strings from a violin could be heard at the October 9 and 10 Fall Antiques at Rhinebeck’s opening in the usual place, the Dutchess County Fairgrounds, buildings A, B, and C, in the small historic village of ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Western Art Sells at Heritage
Heritage Auctions, Dallas, Texas
Photos courtesy Heritage Auctions
Colorful landscape vistas, sculptures of Native Americans, and paintings of the majesty of life in the American West were popular with bidders in Heritage Auctions’ October 8 “Art of the West Showcase Auction.”
Landscape paintings by art professor Birger Sandzén and the bronze sculptures of ... (Read More)
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(Auction)African American Art Sale
Swann Auction Galleries, New York City
Photos courtesy Swann Auction Galleries
For the third time in 18 months Swann Galleries held its African American art sale online because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This time the sale, held on October 7, resulted in the auction house’s highest-grossing event.
At the end of the six-and-a-half-hour ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Little Objects Were a Big Deal
Selkirk Auctioneers & Appraisers, Saint Louis, Missouri
Photos courtesy Selkirk Auctioneers & Appraisers
Joyce Schoedinger of Columbus, Ohio, had the right idea. Collectors love to collect, but ardent acquirers eventually run up against this hobby’s greatest roadblock—space. Just how much stoneware can one house hold? Yes, there’s always room for one more ... (Read More)
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(Auction)The Atten Collection of Pilgrim-Century Objects
Skinner, Marlborough, Massachusetts
Photos courtesy Skinner
Pilgrim-century and early 18th-century antiques gathered by Marion P. Atten of DeWitt, Illinois, came to market on October 6 at Skinner’s gallery in Marlborough, Massachusetts. Atten (1944-2020) was a collector and a knowledgeable dealer in early decorative arts who owned Antiques at Hillwood Farms in DeWitt.
Speaking after the sale, Stephen L. Fletcher, who ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Collectors Appreciate Whitman’s Scholarly Focus on Block Prints
Rachel Davis Fine Arts, Cleveland, Ohio
Photos courtesy Rachel Davis Fine Arts
Collecting interests are limitless. From vintage carrot bags (yes, it’s a thing) to works by old world masters, there are as many collecting areas to delve into as there are people collecting.
For Robert Whitman (1934-2020), a Wisconsin scholar, American block ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Early 20th-Century and Modern Design Sales
Rago/Wright, Lambertville, New Jersey
Photos courtesy Rago/Wright
“We don’t have a $3.7 million Tiffany Dandelion lamp to make this another $10 million sale like our sale in May, but in just four months we put together works made of even greater quality than our spring sale,” said David Rago as he watched ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Americana, Decorative Arts, and Fine Jewelry
Garth’s Auctions, Columbus, Ohio
Photos courtesy Garth’s Auctions
Garth’s Auctions held a sale of Americana, decorative arts, and fine jewelry September 9-19. The online-only event was unusual because of its large size (874 lots) and the diverse mix of material, from Windsor chairs to Haitian paintings.
Chinese porcelain vase and bowl, both with ... (Read More)
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