: "Even the most exciting and personally fulfilling adventures must
come to an end."
Those are the words of Jon and Becky Zoler, taken from the short
piece they wrote about their collection of American folk art that
was sold at Sotheby's on Saturday, January 22.
They went on to say, "We bought from a large and diverse group of
dealers..." and that is evident after reading the provenances
listed with the objects. A great many of our prominent present
day dealers are there and, for some of us "old timers" in the
business, it had to shake a few cobwebs loose when we came on
names of those who had handled many of the pieces over the years.
Names ringing a familiar bell include Mary Allis, Jean Lipman,
Stewart Gregory, Edward Grosvenor Paine, John Bihler and Henry
Coger, Maura Wallace, Roland Hammond, Nina Fletcher Little,
Hillary Underwood, Edmund Fuller and David Pottinger.
"With a clear emphasis on rarity and distinctiveness, as well as
visual qualities to dazzle the eye, the Zolers also share an
aesthetic preference for simplicity. The preference runs through
their collection, regardless of medium, and helps give it a rich
cohesiveness," so writes Gerard Wertkin, director emeritus of the
American Folk Art Museum.
Top honors also went to a carved and painted eagle by Wilhelm
Schimmel, Cumberland Valley, Pa, circa 1865-75, which sold for
$180,000, well above the high estimate of $75,000.
Without a doubt many other dealers and collectors share the
direction the Zoler collection has taken and a standing room only
audience was in the gallery to vie for the pieces.
The first lot of the sale, a watercolor, pen and ink on paper of
eight black Tom cats sitting on a fence, American School, circa
1920-30, probably done in Virginia, 103/8 by 23 inches, original
black frame, went for $8,400, over a $½,000 presale estimate,
setting the pace for the one-owner sale. Two lots later a hooked
rug showing three cats and two birds, probably Pennsylvania,
Nineteenth Century, 20 by 31 inches, sold for $1,680, more than
twice the high estimate. A wrought iron heart design door mat,
Pennsylvania origin, Nineteenth to Twentieth Century, flexible,
221/2 by 291/2 inches, estimated to sell for $3/500, went for
$2,700.
Among the many pictures was a double mourning watercolor, ink and
pen on paper for the Fletcher family, sold together with a family
record. The watercolor, by Harriet Moore, circa 1820, measures 13
by 14 inches and sold just over the high estimate at $66,000.
J.H. Davis was represented by several works, including a portrait
of two boys, Charles Henry Furber and Edwin Peirce Furber, and
their dog, watercolor, ink and pen on paper, 8 by 10 inches, that
sold for $24,000 to David Wheatcroft, who is also listed in the
provenance.
Furniture was, for the most part, painted, but that was not the
case of a Federal inlaid and figured mahogany Pembroke table
attributed to Matthew Egerton Jr, New Brunswick, N.J., circa
1795. The table appears to retain the original cast brass
hardware and measures 28 inches high and 21 inches wide closed.
The high presale estimate was $30,000, and the table sold for
$48,000 to a phone bidder. Lot 635, a miniature turned maple rush
seat great chair, New York, last quarter of the Eighteenth
Century, rich brown color, 81/4 inches high, appears to retain
the original rush seat, sold for $27,600 against a high presale
estimate of $6,000.
A watercolor, pen and ink on paper portrait of Sarah Elizabeth
Virgin with her gray cat and doll by Joseph H. Davis sold for
$30,000 to antiques dealer David Wheatcroft, who was also
listed in the provenance.
A number of pieces of stoneware was offered, the first lot a
one-gallon salt glazed cobalt blue, slip decorated "Bird with
dotted breast and floral spray," J&E Norton, Bennington, Vt.,
circa 1850-59. According to Leder and Cesana, only about three of
this design are known and this one, 111/2 inches high, came from
the personal collection of Betty and Joel Schatzburg. The high
estimate was $10,000, and it sold for $20,400.
A portrait of a young girl with black braids, wearing a gray
dress and holding a green apple, Sturtevant Hamblin, oil on
academy board, circa 1840, 133/8 by 91/4 inches, sold to a phone
bidder for $36,000, in the middle of the presale estimate. Also
selling within estimate was a portrait of a dark-haired,
blue-eyed gentleman wearing a frilled white stock, posed before a
red drape with yellow fringe, Sheldon Peck, 241/2 by 20 inches,
for $84,000. This portrait, oil on poplar panel, was painted in
Vermont and is in a period frame.
From the collection of Howard and Jean Lipman was a carved cedar
eider drake decoy, Bailey's Island, Friendship, Maine, dating
from the Nineteenth Century. It measures 73/4 inches long, is
missing one glass eye and had a high presale estimate of $10,000.
The hammer fell at $22,800.
The phones were very active during this sale, partly because of
the forecasted blizzard for the city, and that is the direction a
molded copper and zinc stag leaping over a shrub weathervane by
Harris & Co., Boston, circa 1880, went. It measures 26 inches
high by 311/2 inches long and carried a high estimate of $50,000.
It sold for $114,000. The provenance starts out with Edmund
Fuller and ends with Steve Miller. A very high price was paid for
a gilded copper rooster weathervane, J.W. Fiske, circa 1885, with
red-painted comb and wattle, 20 inches high, when the hammer fell
at $20,400. A realistic presale estimate was at $2/3,000.
Among the nicest lots of painted furniture was a set of six
mustard painted and polychrome decorated thumb back Windsor side
chairs, Daniel Stewart, Farmington, Maine, circa 1820. The
underside of each chair was chalk-inscribed with the signature of
Henry Noyes, or simply Noyes, a well-known seller of painted
chairs in Belfast, Maine. The chairs have been through a number
of Americana dealers - Barbara Pollack, Frank Miele and Sam
Herrup - and sold within estimate at $20,400.
A red painted sack back Windsor armchair, attributed to William
Seaver, Boston, last quarter of the Eighteenth Century, 38 inches
high, sold for $19,200, above the $12,000 high estimate.
A painted cast iron dove, called the "Corbin Dove" from its
part in the collection of antiques dealer Harold Corbin,
probably from Pennsylvania, circa 1850, sold to an absentee
bidder for $24,000. It was exhibited at The Newtown (Conn.)
Historical Society and at the Shelburne Museum. Its provenance
names Jeff Orcutt, Carol Pflumm and David Schorsch.
Ending the sale was a complete set of bound copies of The
Magazine Antiques, 1922-2002, estimated at $2/5,000, which sold
for $15,600.
The final total of this sale, 160 of the 177 lots sold, came to
$2,859,600. Nancy Druckman, head of the folk art department,
said, "It was a very solid sale with no great surprises and most
of the lots either within or close to estimate."
Jon and Becky Zoler noted in their piece in the catalog that "we
were mere custodians of such beautiful objects" and echoing many
collectors before them, "It is our fondest hope that these folk
art pieces will find new owners who will treasure them and derive
as much enjoyment from them as we have."
All of the prices noted include the buyer's premium (20 percent
on the first $200,000, and 12 percent on anything over that
number).
