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Folk Art Leads Americana Auction at Skinner
Highlights Include Carousel Figures, Asahel Lynde Powers Portrait, Game
Boards, and Trade Signs
BOLTON, Mass. - August 14, 2001 – Skinner, Inc., a leading full-service
auctioneer and appraiser of antiques and fine art, held an auction of American
Furniture and Decorative Arts on August 12, 2001. Highlights included a group
of three carousel figures by the Gustav A. Dentzel Carousel Company of Philadelphia,
all made c. 1905: a carved and painted rabbit and a carved and painted cat with
a bird of prey in its mouth that garnered $63,000 and $37,375 respectively,
and a carved and painted pig that sold for $11,500. "Everyone was taken with
the rabbit in particular," said Skinner’s Americana director, Stephen Fletcher.
"It was a great piece of folk art sculpture, with untouched surface, beautiful
color and a subtlety of form that appealed to both carousel enthusiasts and
lovers of folk art and painted sculpture." All of the Dentzel figures were part
of the same estate. According to oral history, the figures were purchased when
a Coney Island carousel was dismantled 40 years ago. The consignor paid $250
for each of the animals; he would have purchased more but couldn’t afford to
at the time.
Furniture sold in the auction was led by a Federal mahogany inlaid serpentine
sideboard by John Shaw of Annapolis, Maryland that realized $74,000. Other furniture
included a late 18th century Massachusetts painted sack-back Windsor
chair that garnered an impressive $68,500. "It was perfect," was Fletcher’s
comment on the piece. A Queen Anne walnut dressing table and a tiger maple and
maple gate-leg table sold for $14,950 each, and a Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Chippendale mahogany serpentine veneer chest of drawers for $13,800. Sleepers
included a French Canadian black painted table that soared past expectations
selling for $10,925, and a Queen Anne looking glass from the Concord, New Hampshire
area with olive green-painted and parcel-gilt frame that fetched $16,100. "It
was as untouched as you’ll ever find," said Fletcher of the mirror. From the
same consignor came a pictorial hooked rug that brought $10,350.
Auction highlights also featured a primitive portrait of Rollin Richmond of
Barnard, Vermont offered as attributed to Asahel Lynde Powers. It sold for $57,500.
The work was a previously unknown folk portrait, unrestored and in near perfect
condition. It had come directly from the home of the sitter, having been discovered
in the rafters during a recent project to re-roof the house.
Trade signs and folk art from the collection of Alvin and Chris Schachter attracted
substantial interest. A mid-19th century polychrome-painted wood
"Railroad House W. Bursley" sign drew intense competition, ultimately selling
for $48,875. A historic piece with rich color, and in extraordinary condition,
it had all the hallmarks of an exceptional trade sign, including the signature
of its maker (it was signed "Richmond and Whittle, Painters") and specific information
about the Cape Cod features depicted on it: Barnstable Depot and CCBRR (Cape
Cod Barnstable Railroad). From the same collection came nine carved and painted
wood grotesque architectural masks originally from the Crary Mansion in Binghamton,
New York, 1897 (Elfred H. Bartoo, architect). Sold together, the group brought
an impressive $28,750.
There was also strong interest in the game board collection of Selby Shaver
of Dallas, Texas. This auction featured over 50 of Shaver’s boards; additional
examples will be offered at Skinner’s October 28th auction. A favorite
was the polychrome-painted heart game board that garnered enough competition
to require 12 telephone bidders who vied with a host of other absentee bidders
and many in the audience. It eventually sold for $18,400, as did a polychrome-painted
Parcheesi game board. Nearly all of the game boards in the collection exceeded
expectations, further demonstrating the widespread and ongoing interest in game
boards from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Skinner
sold several from the folk art collection of Peter Brams in February of 2001,
including a Parcheesi board that tied the existing auction record for a game
board, selling for $46,000.
The auction included some fine examples of needlework, as well. A wonderful
Wisconsin memorial dated 1866 was extraordinary. "What was fascinating about
the piece," according to Fletcher, "was the fact that its stitching techniques
and style could have dated it to the late 18th or early 19th
century." It sold for $16,100. Other examples included an early 19th
century silk needlework picture, an allegory, "The Death of Sylvia’s Stag, Wrought
at Mrs. Saunders and Miss Beach’s Academy," that fetched $14,950.
Prices realized at the auction are available at www.skinnerinc.com.
Skinner’s next auction of American Furniture and Decorative Arts will be held
on October 28, 2001 in Bolton, Massachusetts. For more information, call 978-779-6241,
or fax 978-779-5144.
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