: - Strategically poised just before the big antiques week in New
Hampshire, Jim Cyr held a folky auction that featured the
property of one collector, Jean Curtin. Curtin had been
collecting folk art, toys, paintings and other Americana for more
than 50 years when she decided to sell her collection at Cyr's.
The auction hall was packed with customers, many retail
collectors and a great many dealers, no doubt looking for "merch"
to take to the plethora of shows coming up.
Curtin liked her folk art direct, and simple, and of good
quality. There were many fine and unique pieces at this auction.
Early in the sale came a fantastic pair of watercolor portraits,
probably from the early part of the Nineteenth Century, of a man
and his wife holding their child. With an oral history that
pointed to a Virginia history, the pair of paintings opened at
$5,000, and sold to a phone bidder for $24,725. Another group of
paintings, a very folky early Nineteenth Century grouping of
eight oval watercolor portraits of the Lewis Family, brought
$5,175 from the phone.
There were some very good buys at this sale. A Nineteenth Century
wool on burlap hooked rug, with a recumbent deer, sold to Hudson,
N.Y., antiques dealer Ken Polinski of Kendon Antiques for $402.
Polinski also went home with the unusual large size, full-bodied
tin plate spaniel pull toy, 14 inches tall, which sold for
$1,840, as well as the full-bodied tin plate parrot push toy,
with mechanical wings, measuring seven inches high, which brought
$920. A very folky and appealing Nineteenth Century hooked rug of
a cat family brought $460, and a Nineteenth Century hooked rug of
a lion brought $690.
A painted sheet tin American flag weathervane reached $6,325.
There were several crisp and clean Nineteenth Century
watercolor on paper family records offered for sale. One, an early
record of the Clapp Family, with demilune pane and a three-mast
sailing vessel, brought $3,737. The same buyer, bidding on the
phone, bought the late Eighteenth Century watercolor on paper
family record of The Fellers/Fellows Family with demilune painting
of a yellow church and stylized trees for $2,875.
A very early needlework sampler and family record, "Wrought by
Lucy Hildreth Bath-September 4 AD 1810," with a house and a young
girl sold for $3,967. Curtin apparently was fond of simple,
appealing watercolors of young girls with toys or dolls. One of
these Nineteenth Century paintings, a watercolor of a girl in a
blue dress holding a ball, and measuring six by five inches,
brought $3,162.
Antiques dealer Shirley Chambers, who shares a shop in the summer
months with Pat Stauble in Wiscasset, Maine, went home with the
simple watercolor portrait of a girl with a flower basket. It was
a charming painting with a young girl in a black dress and
pantaloons, with a coral necklace, which brought $1,150. Another
of these distinctive watercolor Nineteenth Century portraits was
a painting with a girl with long hair and blue dress, holding her
doll. It sold for $1,667.
Furniture offered at the auction included a fine Eighteenth
Century barrel back pine corner cupboard with butterfly shelves,
measuring 481/2 by 14 by 85 inches. It opened for bidding at
$1,000, and sold for a very fair $2,012. A simple cherry
graduated four-drawer Chippendale chest with fluted quarter
columns and ogee bracket base brought just $1,092. Another good
value for the furniture dealers and collectors was the graduated
four-drawer Queen Anne chest in birch with cabriole legs and
21/2-inch overhang, which sold for $1,322. A Queen Anne highboy,
with walnut and maple, with shell carving sold for $4,600.
A wood banded wallpaper band box labeled Hannah Davis sold for
$3,162.
Westborough, Mass., antiques dealer David Wheatcroft bought
the charming watercolor on paper portrait of a girl holding a
squeak toy, which opened for bidding at $1,000 and sold to
Wheatcroft for $4,312. Wheatcroft also went home with the very
folky full-length portrait of a well dressed gentleman, which
brought $11,500, with one phone active.
Midway through the sale a Nineteenth Century pair of portraits,
on ivory, of a gentleman and a lady was offered. They went off
the block for $4,485. Another pair of portraits, this one
attributed to American folk artist James Samford Ellsworth,
measuring 5 by 31/4 inches each, sold for $2,300.
Late in the sale, a pair of watercolors on paper, a Nineteenth
Century depiction of a gentleman and a lady, in oval mats,
brought a very strong $5,750; a watercolor on paper of a lady in
a red dress, in an oval mat, brought $7,762, and a watercolor
paper portrait of a gentleman in a paint decorated chair,
attributed to J. Evans, brought $4,312.
There was much to recommend this sale, with plenty of fresh, real
folk material, collected by the discerning Jean Curtin. The
dealers and collectors were out in full force, and the prices
were solid for the folk paintings. The furniture at the auction
seemed a little soft, and a good value.
All prices cited include the buyer's premium.
