: Arthur Spector bought his first antique, a butter churn, in 1959.
By the late 1970s, he and his wife Miriam were seriously
collecting folk art and country furniture.
Over three decades, the Spectors filled their Philadelphia area
home with bold, colorful, whimsical, imaginative painting,
sculpture, furniture and textiles. Not everything had a
Pennsylvania provenance, but every piece possessed irrepressible
joie de vivre.
The Spectors followed age-old advice: "Buy the best, and buy it
from reputable dealers."
Their wisdom was rewarded at Northeast Auction on Saturday,
August 7, when their 331-lot collection grossed about $1.7
million including premium. Sources say the couple, who is
furnishing a new home in an entirely different taste, were as
pleased with results as they were with Northeast's handsome,
well-designed catalog.
"A few years ago, when we sold the collection of Virginia Cave,
Arthur Spector said to me, 'I want a Northeast Auction some
day,'" auctioneer Ron Bourgeault announced shortly before the
pyrotechnics began.
Over the years, the Spectors bought heavily from Olde Hope
Antiques. Returning their loyalty, Olde Hope's Pat Bell bought
back several star lots, including the iconic hooked runner known
as "Domestic Zoo." Estimated at $25/35,000, the small textile (it
is only 24 by 72 inches) incorporating a pleasantly chaotic array
of animals and plants brought $71,500.
The New Hope, Penn., dealers also claimed a vividly decorated
early Nineteenth Century blanket chest cataloged as a Vermont
piece, $96,000 ($25/25,000); an early Nineteenth Century eagle
decorated sign for the Birdsey Hall tavern in Goshen, Conn.,
$68,500 ($25/45,000); and, for $23,000, three of the five
decorated Nineteenth Century redware pottery bowls attributed to
Pennsylvania potter John Bell. The bowls last sold at Horst
Auction's 1997 sale of the contents of the Snow Hill Nunnery.
There, 40 Snow Hill bowls reached $345,000, with individual
prices ranging from $5,500 to $15,500.
Philadelphia dealer Amy Finkel bid on several lots that she sold
the Spectors. The most impressive was a silkwork memorial to John
J. Marselis, a New Yorker who died at age 17 in 1808. The fully
realized pictorial needle-work combines a detailed architectural
rendering of a church in an imaginative landscape with four
figures whose faces are painted on ivory. Carrying an $45/65,000
estimate, it went to M. Finkel & Daughter for $96,000.
Collector Eric Maffei carried away this graphic portrait of a
woman for $85,000.
The Spectors loved hooked rugs. In contrast to the compact
energy of "Domestic Zoo," was a sprawling, room-sized rug that was
lushly decorated with birds, flowers, dogs, butterflies and
trailing vines. The Spectors bought the floor covering five years
ago from Baltimore dealer Stella Rubin. Northeast resold the piece
for $79,500 ($15/25,000).
"It's just an extraordinary rug. I know of nothing comparable.
It's well worth every penny," said Rubin.
Dated "March 1852," a hooked hearth rug with the profile portrait
of a horse enclosed in a geometric border of stylized flower pots
and roses collected $9,200.
Paintings
New York collector Eric Maffei claimed the graphic, colorful
portrait of a beribboned woman carrying a red book for $85,000
($35/45,000). Well-known and widely exhibited, the picture was
formerly in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art
in New York.
Purchased from Berry-Hill Galleries, a pair of
three-quarter-length watercolor por-traits of a couple by Jacob
Maentel went to Massachusetts dealer David Wheatcroft for
$18,400. Also from Berry-Hill was a pair of Erastus Salisbury
Field oil on canvas portraits of a man and a woman that sold to
the phone for $25,300.
Attributed to Milton W. Hopkins, a three-quarter-length portrait
of an Ohio boy, Edwin William Freese, sold to an absentee bidder
for $23,000.
To New York dealer Sidney Gecker went the buoyant watercolor
"Picking Apples," $33,350. Once part of the celebrated Garbisch
collection, the painting has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum
and the National Gallery of Art.
Large and arresting, an oil on canvas mountain landscape of
Vermont or New Hampshire left the room at $31,625. The Spectors
bought the work from New Hampshire dealer Peter Sawyer.
Retailed by Donald Sack, an oil on canvas view of Lake George
with a paddle-wheeler sold for $28,750.
A pastel on paper New England townscape, $23,000, surmounted by a
fruit filled cornucopia was a charming reminder of Russell
Carrell, who owned the picture for many years.
Sculpture
A gilded and red-painted copper rooster from the Spector
collection tied with a Goddess of Liberty vane in Sunday's
various-owners session as most expensive weathervane of the
weekend. Each brought $61,900. The rooster once belonged to the
noted collector of American folk sculpture Bernard Barenholtz.
Ex-Courcier & Wilkins, a 351/2-inch-long gilded copper
codfish weathervane, possibly by Fiske, crossed the block at
$25,300.
Estimated at $9/12,000, a charming carved and painted bust of
Henry Colt, owner of the ship Richard Mitchell of
Edgartown, Mass., sold in the room for $18,400.
Furniture
New Jersey dealer James Grievo looks over this Birdsey Hall
tavern sign from Goshen, Conn., circa 1810, but it sold to Olde
Hope Antiques for $68,500.
Philadelphia Antiques Show patrons should recall a petite New
Hampshire bonnet-top secretary bookcase of stained birch offered by
Massachusetts dealer Peter Eaton in 1997. It was acquired by the
Spectors and resold to an absentee bidder for $32,200 ($25/35,000).
Olde Hope Antique claimed a pair of Philadelphia bamboo-turned
bow back armchairs, ex-H.L. Chalfant, $25,300, and a Pennsylvania
step back cupboard in soft, gunmetal grey paint, $31,050.
Two New England Queen Anne maple corner chairs - one handled by
Wayne Pratt and Israel Sack, the other from H.L. Chalfant -
secured a phone bid of $21,850.
"The curvier, the better," said Arthur Spector, describing his
taste in Delaware Valley ladder back armchairs. His two favorites
from a group of nine included one chair on high disk and spire
feet. Purchased from David Geiger, it fetched $10,350. Another,
from Phil Bradley, brought $5,175.
It had been Arthur Spector's custom to give Miriam an antique
paper valentine every February 14. "Constant Affection" read one
that sold for $518. A husband's tribute to his wife, the
valentines were also a fitting token to the couple's lifelong
passion for collecting.
