:"The fun's not over," Skinner's chief auctioneer Stephen Fletcher
promised after a recent sale of American furniture and decorative
arts that tallied $1,947,440 including premium at the firm's Park
Plaza location. Fletcher was alluding to the tantalizing mix of
bargains, nice buys, surprises and rarities that keep bidders
coming back to his well-edited sales for more.
Adding heft to the 700-lot auction were consignments from private
collections in New Hampshire and Rhode Island, plus a key piece
deaccessioned by a historical society in Massachusetts.
The day's cover lot was a beautifully proportioned Massachusetts
red-painted cherry high chest of drawers that crossed the block
at $226,000 including premium.
"It was faultless from a design standpoint," Fletcher said of the
beautifully preserved 89-inch-tall fan carved, bonnet-top case
piece, which descended for 240 years in the family of Reverend
Jonathan Livermore of Wilton, N.H. From the same unheated summer
house came an Aaron Willard of Boston tall case clock with a
well-preserved paper label.
"The dial needs to be repaired, but I've always wanted a Willard
clock like this one," pleased buyer Bruce Medley of Portsmouth,
R.I.., said of the $47,000 timepiece dating to circa 1800. Also
auctioned was a circa 1810 French Dubuc gilt mantel clock
surmounted with the figures of George Washington and an American
eagle. With a replaced right foot, a missing olive branch and
other minor evidence of wear, it sold to the phone for $76,375.
Skinner Americana specialist Martha Hamilton's favorite lot was
this colorful mid-Eighteenth Century laid-stitch "Shepherdess"
initialed "S.C." Probably made in the Boston area and consigned
by a local historical society, the 11-by-17-inch work went to
Old Saybrook, Conn., dealers Stephen and Carol Huber for
$149,000 ($30/40,000). The underbidder was on the phone. The
embroidery is one of five known with the same bold, upright
shepherdess. The most similar example, in the collection of the
Museum of Fine Arts Boston, is illustrated in Betty Ring's
American Girlhood Embroidery. The painted architectural
element, right, sold for $881.
Regional appeal propelled a Federal cherry desk and bookcase
with meandering vines and crisscross inlays characteristic of
Kentucky furniture.
"It's likely to end up near where it was made," said Walter
Bailey, a dealer who traveled from Owingsville, Ky., only to be
the disappointed underbidder. Notwithstanding refinish, the
secretary sold to the phone for $127,000 against an estimate of
$30/50,000. An interior drawer is inscribed "George Carlyle, born
May 31st 1756."
Carlyle was a Revolutionary War soldier in Virginia who, by the
Federal era, had moved to Woodford County, Ky. "A half dozen
people expressed interest in this piece. It spoke loudly of its
regional origin," said Skinner American furniture specialist
Martha Hamilton, who traveled to the Museum of Early Southern
Decorative Arts in Winston-Salem, N.C., to study documentation
there compiled by Southern furniture experts Brad Rauschenberg
and Frank Horton.
From a single New Hampshire collection came two of the day's top
lots. Both were in a the relatively undisturbed old state that
purists love. A New Hampshire chest-on-chest, $105,000,
attributed to Samuel Dunlap, had a characteristic heart and
scroll valance on its skirt and bandy legs. A Queen Anne
tiger-maple Spanish-brown painted high chest of drawers
attributed to John Kimball of Derryfield or Concord, N.H.,
fetched $76,375. At 64 inches tall, its petite size was its draw.
"It's likely to end up back home," said Owingsville, Ky.,
dealer Walter Bailey, the underbidder on behalf of a private
collector for this Federal cherry inlaid desk and bookcase,
$127,000 ($30/50,000) from Kentucky. Documented in MESDA files
by Brad Rauschenberg and Frank Horton, and published in an
article on Kentucky furniture in The Magazine Antiques, the
eagle and trailing vine inlaid piece is inscribed with the name
of George Carlyle.
Dealers complained that high estimates kept them from bidding
on a group of watercolor and ink on paper New Hampshire family
records from the same collection. Bought in at $17,000 was the
Davis Family Record by the "Heart and Hand Artist." It had charming
pictorial detail but an unfortunate water stain. A Quaker family
record attributed to George Melvill of Farmington, N.H., passed at
$9,500.
It is hard to understand why a local historical society would
have consigned a colorful, whimsical mid-Eighteenth Century wool
and silk on linen laid-stitch embroidery of shepherdess, but it
did, first bringing it into Skinner during one of the firm's
"Lobby Day" appraisals. Initialed "SC," the 11-by-17-inch
needlework in its original frame caught the eye of top dealers
David Wheatcroft, Bill Samaha and Stephen and Carol Huber. The
folk-art treasure sold to the Hubers for $149,000.
"It's not a 'Fishing Lady' and its not canvas work," Carol Huber
said afterwards of the textile that is reminiscent of Boston's
high-style "Fishing Lady" embroideries. "It's from the Boston
area. A very similar one is in Betty Ring's book,American
Girlhood Embroidery. All five known have the same bold,
upright shepherdess." The Hubers also acquired a silk embroidery,
for $15,275, attributed to Sarah White, under the instruction of
Abby Wright, South Hadley, Mass., of a Goddess of Liberty holding
a staff with a liberty cap.
"We paid $25,000 for the last one we had like it," said Carol
Huber, satisfied with her purchase.
A private Rhode Island collection produced the day's top
weathervane, a 28-inch-high molded and gilded copper rooster,
$49,938; two Nineteenth Century painted Parcheesi boards of
superior quality, $5,875 and $6,463; and a small blue corner
cupboard with a salmon-colored interior, $6,463, that years ago
belonged to Cape Cod dealers Suzanne Courcier and Robert Wilkins.
Prints accounted for much of the last hour of the auction.
Highlights included Currier & Ives' "Yacht Squadron at
Newport," $7,638; Nathaniel Currier's "Wild Duck Shooting. A Good
Day's Sport," $5,875; "The Last War Hoop," $7,050; and "The Life
of A Fireman," $4,406.
Made for the American market, this circa 1810 Dubuc of Paris
cast-brass and mercury-gilded mantel clock with George
Washington and an American eagle sold to the phone for $76,375
($40/60,000). Skinner sold a similar clock in pristine
condition for $314,000 in November 2004.
The session opened with a sand picture in a bottle, $10,575,
complete with American eagle and flag by Andrew Clemens of
McGregor, Iowa. A deaf-mute born in 1857, Clemens earned a living
making sand bottles. One example came up at Cowan's in Cincinnati,
Ohio in 2004, where it sold for $12,075. Other examples by the
artist crossed the auction block at Cowan's and Jackson's recently.
Since moving to downtown Boston, the Internet has become
increasingly important to Skinner's business model.
"Our online catalogs with accompanying condition reports have
opened the doors to new audiences," says Fletcher.
Breaking with tradition, Skinner will skip its August Americana
sale. The auctioneer's next big Americana event is November 5,
coinciding with the Ellis Memorial Antiques Show and Boston's
antiques week.
Says Fletcher, "We have a wonderful collection from the Midwest
that contains miniatures, hat boxes, tin and other country items,
along with an interesting estate from Troy, N.Y."
Prices include the buyer's premium. For information contact
Skinner at 617-350-5400 or www.skinnerinc.com.
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