: Freeman's handily exceeded its low presale estimate of $923,000
this past Saturday, April 24, logging an impressive $1.9 million,
a record for an Americana auction at the Chestnut Street firm.
Leading the sale was an 1801 Centre County, Penn., fraktur by
Reverend George Geistweite, whose only other known work is at the
Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Freeman example brought $366,750,
a record price paid at auction for a fraktur, selling to
Massachusetts dealer David Wheatcroft.
The underbidder, Olde Hope Antiques, successfully bid a
two-handled slip decorated redware jar decorated with tulips and
inscribed "1799" at $56,400. Both lots were consigned by a
Reading, Penn., collector who acquired the pieces at the George
Horace Lorimer sale in 1944 through Pennsylvania dealer Hattie
Klapp Brunner.
Other top lots included a cutwork picture that sold to a local
private buyer for $32,500, a Pilgrim Century oak chest with
replaced top $51,700, and a carved cartouche and pediment
pictured in Horner's Blue Book was snapped up at $44,650.
A complete review will appear in a future issue.
