Brunk Auctions, Asheville, North Carolina
Photos courtesy Brunk Auctions
The March 20 auction at Brunk Auctions in Asheville, North Carolina, of deaccessions from the Brooklyn Museum in New York City included architectural woodwork from four period rooms along with furniture and decorations made in the 17th through the 20th centuries. Most were gifted to the museum by notable collectors, scholars, and dealers, including Luke Vincent Lockwood, Colonel Edgar W. and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Mabel Brady Garvan, Israel Sack, Charles F. Montgomery, and J. A. Lloyd Hyde. The 154 lots of period and modern furniture, ceramics, Chinese export, glass, lighting, fireplace equipment, and four architectural interiors brought a total of $833,970 (including buyers’ premiums). The sale was 99% sold by lot, and a dozen lots sold for more than ten times their very conservative estimates.
Catherine L. Futter, the Brooklyn Museum’s director of curatorial affairs and senior curator of decorative arts, explained the necessity for deaccessions. “Collection refinement brings to market objects that have never been on view, duplicates, and pieces that need conservation,” she said. Futter said the City of New York funded $50 million to upgrade the museum’s heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems, and to get it installed some period rooms needed to be removed. “When revaluating the spaces, we decided we could tell the narrative of decorative arts in a new way with fewer objects,” she said. “We are no longer primarily interested in who owned the piece; we want to tell who made it and how it was made. Some works stamped or labeled by a craftsman were made by many hands.” Futter said the new installation will open October 4 and “will have a wow factor and get visitors to think about art in new ways.”
Futter said she sent the deaccessions for sale to Asheville because of her long friendship with auctioneer Andrew Brunk, not because half a dozen pieces of furniture and some of the woodwork came from the South.
Brunk posted a flipbook catalog and an online listing. Some lots had as many as 36 illustrations plus extensive descriptions and condition reports. The architectural elements from four period rooms, including a spiral staircase, remained installed at the Brooklyn Museum or in storage in New York or New Jersey and could be viewed by appointment in New York; the rest was sent to Asheville, where a small group of dealers and collectors looked them over. Most bidders have become used to previewing and bidding remotely. In the last four years since the COVID-19 lockdown, more bidders have relied on descriptions, condition reports, photographs, and phone calls to the auctioneer. There was plenty of phone bidding as well as bidding on online platforms and about a dozen bidders in the salesroom. It took four and a half hours of sometimes spirited bidding to sell 154 of the 155 lots.
“The sale was a lot of fun,” said Andrew Brunk. “The interest was amazing in things off the market for a hundred years—the phone rang off the hook. I was surprised at the enthusiasm for the architectural elements from the four period rooms.” They sold well over their conservative estimates for $73,800, $67,650, $59,040, and $44,280.
Virginia walnut cellaret with a slide, yellow pine and poplar secondary woods, attributed to the Rappahannock River Valley, Virginia, 1750-70, 29½" x 28¼" x 19", sold for $116,850 (est. $30,000/40,000). A rare early form with a finely fitted interior with fittings for 20 bottles and a removable decanter caddy opening to additional fittings, scalloped front and side skirts, and deeply shaped cabriole legs with stylized paw feet, it was purchased through Luke Vincent Lockwood in 1916. It is in very fine condition overall and appears to retain the original dividers and fittings; it is lacking one small divider, and the central caddy has been refinished. The drink slide facing is original, but the slide is likely replaced. The catalog noted, “This rare cellaret has design precedents in Irish furniture of the period” and referred to “Irish Influences on Cabinetmaking in Virginia’s Rappahannock River Basin” by Ronald L. Hurst in American Furniture, 1997. An eastern North Carolina cellaret with a related fitted interior is in Southern Furniture 1680-1830: The Colonial Williamsburg Collection by Ronald L. Hurst and Jonathan Prown, p. 538.
Virginia Queen Anne walnut dressing table, Rappahannock River Basin, 1740-70, 28" x 30¼" x 20¼", with a molded top over two dovetailed drawers, engraved brasses, scalloped front and side skirts, attenuated cabriole legs, raised slipper feet, the rear board with an incised “IV,” dovetailed construction, and yellow pine secondary wood. It was purchased in Baltimore by Luke Vincent Lockwood in 1916. Lockwood was a pioneer American furniture scholar, a lawyer, and the president of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences (which merged with the Brooklyn Museum in 1943). The dressing table sold for $61,500 (est. $30,000/40,000). It is in excellent condition overall; the brasses appear to be early replacements; one drawer has an old tin patch correcting mouse chew; it is lacking one front knee return; and it has minor loss at the top of one drawer lip and some stains and abrasions.
Southern furniture continues to be a strong segment in the market for American furniture. A walnut fitted cellaret with a slide, the gift of Luke Vincent Lockwood to the museum in 1916, sold for $116,850 (est. $30,000/40,000). A Virginia Queen Anne scalloped walnut dressing table from the Rappahannock River Basin, 1740-70, with Lockwood provenance, sold for $61,500 (est. $30,000/40,000).
Pair of Federal engraved brass andirons, 1790-1810, with urn finials, engraved floral decoration, and ball-and-claw feet, 27¼" x 22" x 12½". They provoked a lot of bidding and sold well over expectations for $39,360 (est. $400/600).
Pair of Matthew Boulton Old Sheffield plate Argand lamps, English, late 18th/early 19th century, each with gadrooned borders, an acanthus foliage post, two arms with burners and glass chimneys, wire scroll decoration, a central urn-form oil reserve, the reserve and base with the heraldic device of a lion and crown for the Duke of Northumberland, both with marks, both marked with a double sunburst for Matthew Boulton, 24½" high, with J. A. Lloyd Hyde provenance, sold for $23,370 (est. $500/800).
It has been a long time since a pair of Federal brass andirons sold for $39,360 (est. $400/600). A pair of Old Sheffield plate Argand lamps went for $23,370 (est. $500/800).
When the catalog was first posted, this 25½" x 48" x 20¼" chest was called a New York Pilgrim-century lift-top chest and had a $500/1000 estimate. A week later it was cataloged as a “Very Rare New York Pilgrim Century Lift Top Chest,” deemed perhaps the earliest New York chest known, and the estimate was changed to $25,000/35,000. After auctioneer Andrew Brunk had its woods tested, scholars convened in Asheville to look it over, and then it was called a Dutch chest with very early restoration. Its riven cedar boards are American wood, but the paneled construction is probably Dutch. It is joined with wrought nails, has applied bosses and moldings, is inlaid with unusual applied tracery decoration largely obscured by early grain paint, and has its original wrought-iron carrying handles. With its estimate back to $500/1000, it sold for $5842.50 to a collector who got a Dutch chest with a long American history. It has a long history in the van Kleeck family and was a gift of Mary van Kleeck of Woodstock, New York, to the museum in 1951.
In the weeks before the sale, a 17th-century chest was the most talked-about lot. First cataloged as a New York Pilgrim-century lift-top chest with a $500/1000 estimate, it was cataloged a week later as a “Very Rare New York Pilgrim Century Lift Top Chest, perhaps the earliest one known, mid-late 17th century” with a $25,000/35,000 estimate. By sale time, it was “Dutch 17th century chest with very early New York History,” and the estimate was back to $500/1000. It sold on the phone for $5842.50 to a collector who now owns a piece of furniture with a long history of New York ownership and with some very early restoration.
Brunk said there was so much interest in the chest that he had its woods tested. Furniture scholars traveled to Asheville to study its construction, and they concluded the chest was brought to New York by early Dutch settlers. “The gumwood top is original, but the bottom boards are riven cedar—an American wood. An early 18th-century restoration,” said Brunk. “The chest is an important rare thing brought here in the 17th century.”
According to the catalog, its paneled construction is joined with wrought nails, and it has applied bosses and moldings and is inlaid with unusual applied tracery largely obscured by early grain paint. It has its original wrought-iron carrying handles, very early repairs, and a long history in the van Kleeck family. Mary van Kleeck of Woodstock, New York, gave it to the museum in 1951. A large ebonized Dutch kas was brought from Holland to New Netherland by the van Kleecks, and it is mentioned in Dean F. Failey’s book Long Island Is My Nation (catalog number 36). The 18 photographs of the chest posted in the online catalog demonstrate why Brunk has become a major seller of historical Americana.
Andrew Brunk said he made a recent decision to hold small weekday sales instead of his traditional long two-day weekend sales of 1000 or more lots. The small weekday sale has become the new format for a number of auction houses, leaving weekends free to attend shows, visit museums, and enjoy the great outdoors.
For more information, visit the website (www.brunkauctions.com) or call (828) 254-6846.
Architectural woodwork elements (partially shown) from the dining room of Cane Acres Plantation, Summerville, South Carolina, 1789-1806, shown installed at the Brooklyn Museum. The wood crown molding with Federal design elements, carved and painted fireplace surround, painted windows with dentil molding, lower paneling, and floorboards, illustrated in 36 photographs in the online catalog, sold for $67,650 (est. $2000/4000). The dining room is scheduled to be dismantled in late May or early summer. According to the catalog, “The Cane Acres Plantation House of Summerville, South Carolina, was a grand, two-story structure resting on a high brick foundation. The swampy land made it necessary to raise the rooms above the flood level, and the hot, humid climate dictated plenty of windows to catch the breeze. The dining room of the house exemplifies the Federal style in its furnishings, restrained architectural detail, and unified taste.” The decorative furnishings in the photo were not included with this lot; many were offered as separate lots in the auction.
Architectural elements (partially shown) from the Abraham Harrison house, circa 1820, formerly located at 1109 Stuyvesant Avenue, Irvington, New Jersey, included two wood mantels and stone fireplace surrounds, eight wood windows, three wood doorways (including one double doorway), two wood pilasters, two wood closets with doors, wood baseboards, wood floorboards (approximately 894 square feet), a wood entrance hall arch, two carpets, multiple sets of curtains (four red, four gold, and eight green), and four carved, gilded wood curtain rods. The lot sold for $73,800 (est. $2000/3000). The Harrison rooms were uninstalled in 2004. The decorative furnishings in the photo were not included with this lot.
Southern yellow pine “turkey breast” corner cupboard, Delmarva Peninsula, probably Eastern Shore of Virginia, 18th century, single-case construction with a dentil-molded cornice over two glazed doors and two panel doors, with rosehead nails, brass H-hinges, fluted side panels, and fixed interior shelves. Measuring 83" x 48" x 29", it was a gift to the museum of Colonel and Mrs. Edgar W. Garbisch in 1951. It sold for $10,455 (est. $1000/3000) despite being refinished and having hinges reset or replaced, scattered associated patches at framing elements, door glazing restored, the feet ended out, minor bumps and losses at the cornice, and other scattered minor repairs.
Pilgrim-century paneled chest dated 1697, Massachusetts, 29¾" x 49½" x 20½", sold for $7380 (est. $5000/7000). It is oak throughout with a hinged lid, an interior till, a single side-hung long drawer with a false triple front, double-paneled sides, and a skirt with relief-carved and ebonized drop panels with the initials “E” and “T” and “1697.” It was purchased by the Brooklyn Museum in 1917. The original lid lacks hinge pins, the till lid is replaced, numerous applied moldings and bosses have been restored, and it has extensive pest damage at one rear stile, other cracks, wear, and distress consistent with age.
New England William and Mary figured walnut high chest, probably Boston, circa 1710, with highly figured veneers, engraved brasses, the original ebonized legs and feet with shaped stretchers, and white pine secondary wood, 61½" x 40¾" x 22¼". It was the gift in 1914 of Charles B. Pratt, son of the Standard Oil magnate who founded Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. In good condition, with replaced brasses, minor pest damage, and repairs, it sold for $17,220 (est. $8000/12,000). Another Boston high chest (not shown), with replaced legs and stretchers, sold for $3997.50 (est. $1000/2000).
Large Federal inlaid mahogany knife urns, British or American, late 18th/early 19th century, each faceted urn form with a sliding central support, a divided interior, and an urn finial, on a square plinth, 32¾" x 13½", sold for $8610 (est. $2000/3000). They were the gift of Frederic B. Pratt of Brooklyn, New York, in 1916. They had been donated by Pratt as a set with a Baltimore sideboard (not shown) that sold for $3997.50 (est. $1000/2000).
Rare walnut cellaret attributed to eastern North Carolina, possibly the “W.H.” school of cabinetmaking, circa 1800, 36¼" x 24½" x 15", sold for $22,140 (est. $8000/12,000). It has a hinged lid over a single dovetailed drawer, a dovetailed case with brass handles with snake decoration, and yellow pine secondary wood. It was the gift of Brooklyn-born Laura L. Barnes, wife of collector Albert Barnes of Merion, Pennsylvania. Closely related cellarets attributed to the “W.H.” cabinetmaker, possibly William Sey, have been well documented by the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA). For a very closely related example sold at Brunk, see lot 253 of the sale of the collection of Thomas A. Gray, March 29, 2010, which sold for $165,000. This cellaret has been refinished; the brasses are period but likely replaced.
LC4 lounge chair, pony hide, leather, and chrome, manufactured in 1972 in Italy for Atelier International, Ltd., designed in 1928 by Le Corbusier (Charles-Édouard Jeanneret), Pierre Jeanneret, and Charlotte Perriand, an ergonomic lounge chair with a hide-upholstered cushion and leather headrest, rubber slats, a chrome frame, and a patinated base, 33½" x 23¼" x 63½", a gift to the museum of Atelier International, Ltd., New York, 1972, sold for $4305 (est. $1000/2000).
Philadelphia Queen Anne mahogany dish-top candlestand, circa 1760, with a tilt top, turned standard, and tripod base with pad feet, 28½" x 16¼", in an old dark surface, the top with minor cracks and an old patch repair, the legs somewhat loose at joints, the top slightly loose from its standard, and other general wear and imperfections expected with age. A bequest to the museum in 1964, it sold for $3444 (est. $300/500).
Rhode Island Queen Anne mahogany porringer-top table, Newport, 18th century, in a mellow old surface, with a single-board top, tapered legs, and pad feet, 26" x 34½" x 23¼", sold for $13,530 (est. $7000/10,000). Purchased by the museum in 1929, it is in excellent condition, with minor stains and surface distress, batten supports at the underside with some pest damage, and a crack at the top of one leg. Another Rhode Island mahogany porringer-top table (not shown), resurfaced, sold for $3690 (est. $800/1200).
New York mahogany five-legged card table, 18th century, its deeply shaped top opening to a baize-lined playing surface with chip recesses, the conforming frieze with vine-carved molding, on cabriole legs with ball-and-claw feet, 27½" x 34¼" x 16½", sold for $11,070 (est. $5000/7000). The interior has a metal tag reading “Property of Mrs. J. Amory Haskell.” It had been in the Brooklyn Museum since 1941. It has some repairs at the rear leg attachments with associated cracks, veneer patches, and two plugged screws, other distress, bumps, and wear to the legs and knees, and scars on the back of the top from a previous hinge now removed, and it is lacking an interior hidden drawer.
Eighteenth-century Connecticut Valley door surround, the pine frame components consisting of a rusticated surround with pilasters with fluted columns, an architrave, and a pulvinated frieze, surmounted by a dentiled cornice, outer dimensions 114" x 78½", interior door dimensions 86 5/8" x 44", door not included, sold for $8610 (est. $100/1000).
Queen Anne cherry drop-leaf table, 18th century, with two demilune drop-leaf ends, a scalloped apron, tapered legs, and pad feet, 28" x 46¾" x 41", a gift of Mabel Brady Garvan in memory of Francis P. Garvan in 1941. Resurfaced some time ago, it is structurally sound, with minor thin cracks, minor separating at the gates, scattered accretions on the underside, and other general wear and imperfections expected with age and use, and it sold for $1230 (est. $400/600).
Dorflinger Brilliant period cut glass pitcher, late 19th century, Hollow or St. Louis Diamond pattern, with engraved monogram “MB,” 9¾" x 8¾", purchased at Tiffany’s in New York City October 21, 1874, and gifted to Mary Eliza Backus on the occasion of her marriage to John Howard Lever of Newtown (now Elmhurst in Queens, New York City). In 1944 the pitcher was a gift to the museum of Mary E. Lever and H. Randolph Lever of New York. It sold for $984 (est. $100/300).
Queen Anne figured walnut high chest of drawers, Boston, 1740s, with highly figured book-matched figured walnut veneers and probably original engraved brasses, dovetailed construction with white pine secondary wood, 61¼" x 38" x 20". A gift to the museum in 1949, it is in very good condition overall, with shrinkage cracks at the front skirt, some associated veneer distress, and one small loss, minor wear and water damage at the bottom of the foot pads, one backboard off but present, and distress at one rear leg attachment. It sold for $13,530 (est. $3000/5000).
Originally published in the May 2024 issue of Maine Antique Digest. © 2024 Maine Antique Digest
