| Press Contact: | Stephen Fletcher, Director | Catherine Riedel, Director |
| American Furniture & | Marketing & Public Relations | |
| Decorative Arts | Skinner, Inc | |
978-779-6241 x228 |
978-779-6241 x231 |
SKINNER TO HOLD TWO-DAY AMERICANA AUCTION
IN BOSTON AND BOLTON
BOSTON, Mass. - January 28, 2005 – www.skinnerinc.com - Skinner, one of the nation's leading auction houses, will host a two-day/two location auction of American furniture and decorative arts on Saturday, February 19th, and Sunday, February 20th. The Saturday auction will take place in Bolton, Mass., and the Sunday auction in downtown Boston. There is an especially wonderful selection of furniture on both days, in all price ranges.
On Saturday, the Bolton sale, beginning at 10 a.m., will offer approximately 380 lots of Country Americana including furniture, paintings, and decorative arts. Highlights will include a California collection, trade signs, weathervanes, duck decoys, country furniture, portraiture, folk art, and basketry.
On Sunday, the Boston auction begins at 11 a.m., and will open with offerings from the Estate of Grace S. Grossman of Nantucket, which includes furniture, decorative arts, and a 1999 Mercedes Benz coupe automobile. Additional highlights in this sale of approximately 670 lots include early glass, Chinese export, clocks and timepieces, quilts, folk art and tinware. Especially noteworthy is the tinware collection of Robert and Cornelia Keegan, folk art collectors from Ohio.
Saturday Auction in Bolton
Both the Bolton and Boston sales feature paintings attributed to Vermont portrait artist Thomas Ware (1803-1829) of Pomfret, Vermont and Whitehall, New York. Of Ware's approximately fifty known paintings, most were accomplished in Vermont, although a few were done in Whitehall, New York, about 45 miles west. Portrait of a Gentleman (lot 101, $1,500/2,500) will be offered in Bolton, while Boston's selections feature portraits of Ware's niece and sister. The first of these, Portrait of Prudence Elizabeth Ware Thompson (b. 1816), depicts the artist's four-year-old niece, the great-great grandmother of the consignor (lot 318, $2,500/3,500); and the second, Portrait of Mary (Polly) Ware Thompson (b. 1795), presents his older sister (lot 319, $1,200/1,800). Both descended in the family of the consignor.
Additional highlights on Saturday include a late 19th century carved and polychrome painted wooden female Indian tobacconist trade figure (lot 125, $6000/8,000), and a varied selection of country furniture, including a Connecticut Chippendale cherry carved desk bookcase (lot 154, $8,000/12,000), and a Connecticut Chippendale cherry fall-front desk from the Barber Family in Lisbon, Connecticut, descendants of Connecticut state senator Welcome A. Browning (lot 155, $3,000/5,000). An aesthetically appealing piece, an early 19th century Pennsylvania painted, carved, and glazed poplar step-back cupboard includes red paint and freehand black designs highlighted by white, the doors in the lower section with yellow painted hearts with scallop and line borders (lot 195, $6,000/8,000). From a California collection, the auction features a New England William & Mary maple, sycamore, and pine gate-leg table (lot 111, $15,000/20,000), a Chippendale maple carved chest-on-chest from southeastern New England (lot 182, $8,000/12,000), and a New England Queen Anne tiger maple and pine slant-lid desk (lot 156, $3,000/5,000). Also from this collection is a gilt cast iron and sheet iron rooster weather vane from the Rochester Iron Works in Rochester, New Hampshire, dating to the second half of the 19th century (lot 145, $4,000/6,000). A similar example is illustrated in A Gallery of American Weathervanes and Whirligigs, by Robert Bishop and Patricia Coblentz, New York, 1981, p. 34.
Sunday Auction in Boston
The first 178 lots in the Boston auction feature property from the Estate of Grace S. Grossman. Mrs. Grossman was a longtime resident of Nantucket. Her husband, Bernard was a Boston area building supply executive whose family founded the Grossman's lumber and hardware stores. Mr. and Mrs. Grossman amassed their substantial collection of formal New England furniture and decorations primarily during the 1950s and 1960s, in many cases forming relationships with well-known dealers in Boston, Nantucket, and New York City.
The sale will open with a black 1999 6-cylinder Mercedes CLK320 Coupe automobile, with an odometer reading of 3,341 miles (lot 1, $14,000/18,000). Thereafter, a particularly fine selection of Queen Anne furniture includes a tiger maple and maple desk on frame (lot 40, $8,000/12,000), a tiger maple dressing table (lot 57, $15,000/25,000), a maple high chest of drawers (lot 58, $8,000/12,000), a tiger maple high chest of drawers made in southeastern Massachusetts (lot 59, $8,000/12,000), and a maple tea table (lot 55, $3,000/5,000). Decorative arts from the estate include a set of four George III Rococo sterling silver candlesticks by Jonathan Gould of London, circa 1752, each with stylized shell motifs on the bobeche, mid-shaft swelling, and a conforming petal-form base (lot 110, $6,000/8,000).
Furniture
Most noteworthy in the selection of furniture in the Sunday auction is a Shaker cherry and tiger maple stand with original red surface, possibly by Abner Allen (1776-1855) of Enfield, Connecticut, or Hancock, Massachusetts, bearing an inscription on the drawer side "April 12 1818" (lot 275, $50,000/75,000). Allen was a Shaker cabinetmaker who worked in both the Hancock, Massachusetts, and Enfield, Connecticut, communities. Some signed furniture with tapered drawer sides exist that has been identified as his work. Other Allen construction techniques found in this stand include a heavily chamfered back edge of the drawer, and distinctive extended and chamfered top supports.
Additional highlights include a New England William & Mary figured maple butterfly table (lot 186, $15,000/25,000), and a William & Mary maple carved couch (lot 184, $8,000/12,000). The auction features a varied selection of Federal furniture, as well, including a mahogany inlaid sideboard (lot 220, $15,000/25,000), a walnut inlaid tall chest of drawers (lot 557, $6,000/8,000), and a set of six mahogany inlaid shield-back dining chairs (lot 221, $6,000/8,000). Other examples include a Federal cherry inlaid slant-lid desk by Samuel S. Noyes of East Sudbury, Massachusetts, c. 1810, the top drawer bearing the original label "House Furniture, of the most fashionable kind, made, sold, and exchanged, by Samuel S. Noyse[sic], Cabinetmaker, East Sudbury, near the Causeway" (lot 230, $3,000/5,000). The lead classical furniture offering is an elaborately veneered carved and highly figured rosewood round dining table which descended in the John Harway family of Bayside, New York to the consignor (lot 419, $5,000/$
7,000). Another highlight is a classical rare Classical mahogany carved and mahogany veneer child's work table (lot 242, $5,000/7,000) also will be offered. The auction's tall case clocks are led by a Chippendale mahogany carved tall case clock by Edward Spalding, 1770-85, of Providence, Rhode Island, with a case attributed to Daniel Goddard of Newport, Rhode Island (lot 391, $30,000/40,000), and a Federal cherry inlaid tall case clock by Joseph Mulliken of Concord, Massachusetts, c. 1805 (lot 222, $15,000/25,000).Decorative Arts
One of the most fascinating objects in the auction is a 22kt gold and intaglio-carved onyx George Washington memorial ring, made in Birmingham, England in 1858-59 (lot 192, $18,000/22,000). The ring has an oval hinged bezel, set with a white onyx stone, intaglio-carved with a bust-length profile portrait of George Washington, which opens to reveal a fragment of George Washington's coffin, shaped in the form of a coffin and studded with thirteen small gold disks set under crystal. The ring exterior is impressed with hallmarks including "C.G.," a crown, an anchor, a date mark, and "22." The history of this ring was discussed in a newspaper article from the New York Sun dated February 20, 1942, by William Currie who inherited two of these memorial rings. In the article, Mr. Currie relates that a stone-cutter named John Struthers donated two marble tombs to re-inter the remains of George and Martha Washington after the originals were found to be in bad repair. Mr. Struthers was present at the time of the re-entombing and obtained a piece of the original wooden casket. A Philadelphia Gazette newspaper article at the time of re-interment reports a description of the event. A few days later Mr. Struthers sent a piece of this coffin fragment to a friend of his, Mr. Currie's grandfather William, in Scotland and a Washington admirer, accompanied by a letter in his handwriting, "John Struthers presents to Mr. Currie a piece of the coffin of George Washington. Philadelphia October 18, 1837." After a time the family preserved the memento and had three gold rings made, each containing a small piece of the Washington coffin wood. The younger Mr. Currie also stated in the article that the third ring was presented to Abraham Lincoln while he was President of the United States, which was revealed to him in a note in his uncle's handwriting. All of the original documents mentioned above accompany this ring.
Also well documented is a late 18th century hexagonal mahogany and white pine cellaret made in Boston (lot 193, $8,000/12,000). Family descent of the piece is described in a note found in the cellaret by its owner. The transcription reads: "By Mrs. Mary Swett's will you are to receive a brass banded wine refrigerator which belonged to (your) father's grandfather Gray and given to me (Mrs. Swett) by Colonel S. Swett." Colonel Samuel Swett of Boston and Cambridge was a writer on maritime affairs who married Lucia Gray, daughter of William Gray, a Boston merchant. The wine cooler was passed to Lucia Gray Swett who was the wife of Francis Alexander, the well-known and highly respected portrait artist, and thence to the consignor.
A silver butter plate by Samuel Edwards (1705-1762) of Boston, c. 1730 (lot 218, $4,000/6,000) is mentioned in the publication American Silver 1655-1825 in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Vol. I, plate 199, by Kathryn Buhler. Buhler pictures, describes, and gives the provenance of an identical plate, which, together with this lot, formed a pair. The museum publication described them as "a pr. butter plates," as listed in the inventory of Edward Jackson's estate taken in 1747. According to this museum publication, "the second is still in the family." This lot is from the Guy Lowell family. Mr. Guy Lowell, designer of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, gifted the other of the pair to that Museum in the 1950s. Additional highlights in the sale include a pair of engraved brass and iron urn-top andirons, probably made in Philadelphia during the last quarter of the 18th century (lot 191, $10,000/15,000), which once belonged to William Marshall Prescott of South Carolina (b. 1808), and descended in his family to the present owner. A Federal giltwood mirror by Hosea Dugliss of New York, rounds out the selection. The backboard of this mirror bears the label of the maker, "Hosea Dugliss Looking Glass, Manufacturer, 11 Chatham Row, between Ann Street and the Park Theatre, New York" (lot 223, $3,000/5,000).
Portraiture and Paintings
Two 19th century Chinese School paintings in the auction will undoubtedly attract attention. The first is View of Whampoa Anchorage and Island, c. 1810, depicting several vessels displaying American, British, and European flags, some with masts lowered while waiting to be loaded with cargo, the nine stage pagoda in the town of Whampoa at the center of the painting (lot 216, $15,000/25,000). The second is View of the Factories at Canton, which can be dated between 1826-1832. The painting shows a pagoda which was added to Chun Qua's factory sometime around 1826, and depicts the factories, one flying the flag of the Netherlands, which was replaced by the French flag in 1832 (lot 217, $15,000/25,000). Other paintings include Portrait of Timothy Brainard Egerton, attributed to Benjamin Greenleaf, who painted in northern New England (1786-1864), a reverse painting on glass depicting a bust-length portrait of Egerton when he was twenty-six years of age (lot 276, $18,000/22,000). A penciled and ink inscription on the reverse reads: "Timothy Brainard Egerton/Born August the 10: 1790/Painted by Benjamin Greenleaf at Randolph, Vermont/March 31, 1816/Died in Manchester N.H. 1845 in October."
Quilts
The auction features an extraordinary group of well-documented quilts, all deaccessioned from the Pennsylvania Quilt and Textile Museum, of varied sizes and designs, offered in sequence. Leading the selection is an appliquéd cotton Civil War era quilt made by Margaret Hazzard, Bainbridge Township, Berrien County, Michigan, in 1864 (lot 283, $30,000/40,000). History of the quilt passed down through the Hazzard (later Hazard) family relates that the quilt was made by Margaret Hazzard for her husband Philetus to take with him when he left home to join the Union army in February of 1864. It features buildings familiar to Philetus, including a schoolhouse, which is purportedly still standing, and a house with a water pump beside stitched on both sides of the quilt, which may have been Philetus' own home. Philetus died within a couple of months of joining, in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he was buried, and the quilt was returned to Margaret. The following lots include an appliquéd cotton Baltimore album quilt with birds, inscribed Annie D. Morrison, c. 1845, formerly in the Peto collection (lot 284, $20,000/30,000), a cotton appliqué Baltimore album heart-in-hand quilt, dated "1850" on one of the blocks (lot 285, $20,000/30,000), and an appliquéd cotton peacock quilt from southeastern Pennsylvania, c. 1850-70 (lot 286, $15,000/20,000). Oral history relates that the last quilt mentioned was of Moravian origin. It was illustrated on the cover of PLAIN & FANCY: COUNTRY QUILTS of the PENNSYLVANIA-GERMANS, by Anita Schorsch (Sterling Publishing Co.Inc., New York, 1992), which is included in the lot with this quilt. Other examples include a pieced cotton hexagon medallion quilt, from Chambersburg, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, from the first quarter of the 19th century (lot 287, $10,000/12,000). The history of this quilt, passed down through the Hazard family and subsequent owners, relates that it came from the Nead family of Chambersburg, Franklin County, Pennsylvania. It is not established who actually made the quilt, though it was purportedly made for Catherine Nead, born in 1793 to Daniel Nead and his wife Anna Mary (Polly) Hoefligh. Closing the selection is an early 19th century stenciled and stamp decorated woven cotton bedspread (lot 288, $4,000/6,000). A handwritten note accompanying the spread reads: "This Homespun hand painted spread property of Josephine Kerr. Brought from New Jersey in 1811 by great great Grandmother Walters to her daughter - Mary Walters Emery, who came with her husband Judge John Emery to Loveland O. in 1811 - The trip from New Jersey to Ohio was made overland by carriage. Mrs. Emery was Mrs. Kerr's Great Grandmother."
Previews and Special Event
Previews for the Bolton auction will be 12 to 6 p.m. Thursday, February 17th, 12 to 5 p.m. Friday, February 18th, and 8 to 9:30 a.m. Saturday, February 19th. Previews for the Boston auction will be 12 to 5 p.m. Wednesday, February 16th and Thursday, February 17th, 12 to 8 p.m. Friday, February 18th, 12 to 5 p.m. Saturday, February 19th, and 8 to 10 a.m. Sunday, February 20th. On Friday, February 18th, there will be a gallery walk at the Boston gallery featuring Stephen Fletcher and Martha Hamilton, who will discuss highlights of the upcoming auction in Boston. Reservations are limited for the event, which will begin at 6 p.m. All those interested in attending should R.S.V.P. to 617-350-5400.
Catalogue Information
Illustrated catalogues #2267 (Boston) and #2268 (Bolton) are available by mail for $32 each ($39 each for foreign requests) from the subscription department at 978-779-6241 x240. They are also available at the gallery for $29 each. Prices realized will be available at www.skinnerinc.com. during and after the sales. For more information on the auctions, auction preview times, and the gallery walk, visit Skinner's website at www.skinnerinc.com.. Skinner's site also allows users to view all lots in the auctions, leave bids, and order catalogues online.
Note to Editors: Photos available upon request. Contact Catherine Riedel at 978-779-6241 x 231.
About Skinner:With galleries in Boston and Bolton, Mass., Skinner is a full-service auctioneer and appraiser of antiques and fine art. Regularly seen on the PBS series, Antiques Roadshow, Skinner is one of the nation’s leading auction houses. Skinner conducts auctions year-round and has received world-record prices for many pieces sold at auction. Departments include American Furniture & Decorative Arts, Paintings & Prints, English & Continental Furniture & Decorations, Fine Ceramics, Jewelry, Couture, 20th Century Furniture & Decorative Arts, Fine Musical Instruments, Asian Art, Fine Judaica, Toys, Dolls & Collectibles, Science & Technology, Oriental Rugs & Carpets, American Indian & Ethnographica, and Discovery. For more information on upcoming auctions, visit Skinner’s web site www.skinnerinc.com.