There were two Mahantango
chests of drawers on the floor. This one, priced $250,000 at
Olde Hope Antiques, had eight birds and sprays of flowers.
Decorated by Johannes Mayer in 1830, it was last in the Dittmar
Collection.
Review and photos by Laura Beach
PHILADELPHIA, PENN. -- Once humble, the painted furniture and
whimsical folk crafts of Pennsylvania Dutch country led sales at
, a top venue for Americana. Now in its 42nd year, the 57-dealer
fair boasted brisk attendance during its first three days, before
closing at the 33rd Street Armory on Wednesday, April 9.
"We sold out of tickets at the Friday night opening again this
year," said Karen Mullen, chairman of the show benefiting the
University of Pennsylvania Medical Center. "We had record
attendance for the New Collectors Evening on Saturday."
The show's exuberance owes much to the vivid red, green and
yellow of many of its exhibits. Jim and Nancy Glazer's display
case -- what Massachusetts dealer David Wheatcroft nicknamed the
"tower of power" -- was full of redware, chalkware, Schimmel
carvings, bright red toleware and a selection from Jim Glazer's
newest passion, rare occupational shaving mugs. Much of the
case's contents, along with a diminutive red and black Soap
Hollow corner cupboard, sold in the Villanova, Penn., dealers'
booth opening night.
Wheatcroft himself had barely taken the blankets off of a green
Mahantango chest decorated with two pairs of angels -- a rare and
desirable attribute -- before the chest sold to a collector for
an undisclosed price. Consecutively owned by Titus Geesey and
Colonel Edgar and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, the chest, a former
Christie's cover lot, was auctioned in 1997 for $211,500.
Olde Hope Antiques of New Hope, Penn., offered the other
Mahantango four-drawer chest on the floor. Also green, with pairs
of birds flanking flowers on each drawer, the chest, attributed
to Johannes Mayer (1794-1883) and dated 1830, was $250,000. The
chest was one of 14 pieces offered by Olde Hope from the
collection of Florence and George Dittmar, Jr, of New Jersey.
Sales from the group included a carousel prancing horse by
Dentzel Company of Philadelphia, 1900, in early park finish,
$48,000.
Marietta, Penn., dealer Harry Hartman sold an architectural
Pennsylvania decorated dower chest. Lightly cleaned, with
original feet, it was $125,000. Elliott and Grace Snyder parted
with a yellow and red stenciled and grained double-step back New
England Sheraton dressing table with Sandwich pulls. It sold
opening night, along with a Rhode Island Anne dish-top
candlestand, circa 1780, in the South Egremont, Mass., dealers'
display.
A robustly decorated Berks County, Penn., architectural corner
cupboard was $38,5000 at Greg Kramer/John Newcomer. The
Robesonia, Penn., Penn., dealers paired it with the $350,000
Coates Family Philadelphia highboy, circa 1765-1772, ornamented
by the renowned Garvan Carver.
Courcier & Wilkins built their booth around a Berks County,
Penn., Dutch cupboard, $36,000, of circa 1830. The New York and
Massachusetts dealers sold their Rhode Island Balch School
needlework on day one.
"Every flower is identifiable -- delphinium, hyacinths, roses and
carnations," Boston dealer Stephen Score said of a charming circa
1820-30 New England portrait of child in bright red shoes with a
vase of flowers that he bought on the floor from Colchester,
Conn., dealer Arthur Liverant and immediately resold.
This rare circa 1845 Philadelphia tin omnibus, $75,000, sold
preview night at Gemini Antiques, Bridgehampton, N.Y.
An icon of Pennsylvania painting, a "Peaceable Kingdom," circa
1822-26, by Edward Hicks, held its own at The Schwarz Gallery.
The $1.5 million oil on canvas descended in the Hicks family and
was exhibited at Colonial Williamsburg in 1999.
Folk painting also ruled at Hirschl & Adler Galleries, where
offerings included a pair of Ralph Earl portraits, dated 1790, of
Thomas Tucker and his wife, and a ship's portrait by Captain
Charles P. Noyes of the whaleship S.H. Waterman of
Stonington, Conn., 1851.
Dating to 1730, a dramatically primitive oil on canvas portrait
of a young woman attributed to the Pollard Limner of Boston was
$48,000 at Samuel Herrup Antiques. The Massachusetts dealer also
featured a Chinese export reverse painting on glass, "The
Kidnapping of the Sons of Tippo." The intriguing bit of Anglo-Raj
social commentary, $32,000, was shown with a Boston shell carved,
drop front desk, $65,000, circa 1770.
Other notable folk paintings included Erastus Salisbury Field's
circa 1830 portrait of Enos Adams of Heath, Mass., at Peter and
Jeffrey Tillou; and a pair of portraits of Mr and Mrs David B.
Lewis, 1841, of Scottsville, N.Y, attributed to Noah North,
$42,500, at Gemini Antiques.
On the academic side, no Philadelphia show would be complete
without some very good Peales. At Hyland Granby Antiques, Charles
Wilson Peale's signed and dated 1787 portrait of James Josiah,
captain of the St Croix Packet, was $495,000. Debra Force
Fine Art exhibited Raphaelle Peale's "Odalisque" of circa 1845,
price on request.
Philadelphia is a place for unveiling important discoveries, such
as the portrait of a young girl and her framed needlework that
Arthur Liverant recently uncovered in Hampton, Conn., and sold on
opening night. Based on both inscriptions and stylistic evidence,
the girl has been identified as Rebecca Warren and the painter as
John Brewster, Jr, who was born in Hampton. Inscribed "Fair
Musicians" on its reverse-painted glass mat, the silk embroidery
appears to have been worked at Mrs Royce's School in Hartford,
circa 1810.
Native American art dealer Marcy Burns found buyers for a Navajo
pictorial weaving inscribed "Hogback Trading" of 1930 and many of
her Nez Perces cornhusk bag, including a particularly appealing
bag decorated with a strawberry and vine motif. Visitors were
dazzled by Burns' Germantown Moki in the Hubbell Revival style,
$20,000.
"Only four of this size are known," Gemini's Leon Weiss said of
the omnibus toy manufactured by the Philadelphia firm Francis,
Field & Francis, circa 1845, $75,000, that he and his twin
brother sold.
Early furniture ranged from a carved oak panel two-drawer
"sunflower" chest attributed to Peter Blin of Wethersfield,
Conn., $325,000 at Nathan Liverant and Son, to the $265,000
draw-bar table from the Etting-Beekman shop, Kingston, N.Y., at
Leigh Keno American Antiques. Metropolitan Museum of Art curator
Peter Kenny wrote about this rare group of tables in the 1994
edition of American Furniturepublished by Chipstone
Foundation. Keno topped a New Jersey step back cupboard with an
architectural cornice with a huge, covered burl that he bought
from Ohio dealer David Good just after Philadelphia's Navy Pier
show opened on Friday. Keno first saw the bowl more than 30 years
ago in the "burl room" of an upstate New York dealer.
Two Lancaster County, Penn., schranks, both massive, were for
sale in the booths of Mark & Marjorie Allen and Michael
Flanigan. The Allens' example, $39,000, featured pronounced crown
moldings and arched panel doors. Flanigan's schrank, with fluted
pilasters and rectangular panel doors, was $125,000.
Newburyport, Mass., dealer Peter Eaton did things by twos,
offering a pair of Queen Anne walnut side chairs from coastal
Massachusetts, $33,000; and a pair of card tables attributed to
Langley Boardman of Portsmouth, N.H., with bowed and
canted-corner tops, stringing, inlays and tapered legs, $36,000.
Matching looking glasses and compotes complemented the look
Ambler, Penn., dealer F.J. Carey III sold a walnut desk from
Chester County, Penn. Bryn Mawr, Penn., dealer Diana Bittel's
sales included a figured maple Chippendale chest-on-chest from
North Shore, Mass., or southeastern New Hampshire, $32,000.
Highlights of C.L. Prickett Antiques' exhibit included a
Goddard-Townsend, Newport, R.I., Queen Anne slipper foot tea
table, circa 1740-60, $110,000. West Chester, Penn., dealer Skip
Chalfant had the best of many Windsor chairs on the floor, a
painted comb back writing armchair with a lift lid. Made for Dr
Enoch Hazard of Newport, R.I., it was $55,000.
"Somebody actually saw the Philadelphia chest of this kind but
reinterpreted the form for a vastly more localized market,"
Baltimore, Md., dealer Michael Flanigan said of a fascinating
four-drawer chest in his booth. Of Kentucky or Tennessee origin,
the chest has Philadelphia-style "mum-my" supports of the kind
made famous by Quervelle.
Other Southern furniture of note included, at Sumpter Priddy III,
a Richmond, Va., inlaid cherry sideboard of 1800-1810, $135,000;
and an Eighteenth Century Virginia corner cupboard of walnut and
pine with a complex, baroque arched top, shaped shelves and
glazed double doors, $78,000.
M. Finkel & Daughter, Philadelphia.
"It's nearly identical to a New York sideboard attributed to
Duncan Phyfe that I've admired for years at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art," said New York City dealer Carswell Rush Berlin of
the $125,000 case piece and matching sarcophagus cellaret in his
stand. A pair of elegant Philadelphia recamier couches in the
Grecian plain style, possibly by Cook & Parkin, were $36,000.
A pair of Philadelphia games tables with dolphin-carved supports,
possibly by Quervelle, were $58,000.
Other notable Classical pieces included a circa 1837 library
bookcase, possibly from the H&A Jenkins shop of Baltimore,
$45,000, at Harriet and Jim Pratt's Estate Antiques, Charleston,
S.C. Gail Serfaty, director of the Diplomatic Reception Rooms at
the US Department of State, admired two Philadelphia klismos side
chairs with dolphin-carved front legs from a set of 24 first
owned by President James Monroe. Michael Flanigan, who bought six
from the group, offered two for $40,000.
John Alexander Ltd, the show's only specialist in proto-modern
decor, arrayed furniture designed by George Jack for Morris &
Co., circa 1890. The show-stopper was a circa 1890 display
cabinet, configured as a breakfront and desk. The lavishly carved
piece with silver-plated brass hardware was $85,000. An armchair
and settee by the designer were $8,500 and $14,500.
"Collectors had probably a half-dozen great painted clocks to
choose from," said Woodbridge, Conn., dealer Allan Katz, who had
sold his, a circa 1815 Riley Whiting of Winchester, Conn., tall
case with a flamboyantly painted case. Another Whiting clock just
across the aisle in Washington, D.C., dealer Guy Bush's booth
also sold.
Formal tall-case clocks included a John Wood, Sr, of Philadelphia
timepiece, circa 1730-40. Dover, Del., dealer James Kilvington
sold it on opening day. Another Philadelphia tall clock, a walnut
example by Anthony Ward, circa 1720, with eight-day works, a
tiered, architectural bonnet, and profuse, shallow carved detail,
was widely admired at Philip H. Bradley, Downingtown, Penn.
"As always, this has been an extraordinary show," said Amy
Finkel, who sold her most engaging pictorial samplers first. Of
special interest was one by Catharine Boas of Reading, Penn.,
depicting a girl at her easel with a palette and a brush painting
what is probably a portrait of George Washington. The sampler was
worked at Mrs Meguire's School in Harrisburg, Penn., in 1812.
Silk on silk embroideries were the ticket at Stephen and Carol
Huber of Old Saybrook, Conn., where a new England piece, "Hector
and Andromache," was $17,500, and a Balch School, Providence,
R.I., memorial to Joseph Bradford and Enoch Butts, circa 1800,
was $19,000.
Knockout quilts included a circa 1850 Lancaster, Penn., album
quilt, $48,000 at Stella Rubin, Potomac, Md.; and a Baltimore
Star quilt by Lucy Shepherd Loomis, of Wetheredsville, Md., at
Stephen Score, Boston (price on request).
The three rarest textiles on the floor may have been a New
England bed rug, inscribed and dated 1775, $19,000 at Olde Hope
Antiques; Elliott and Grace Snyder's embroidered Connecticut
bedcover, circa 1800-20, $27,000; and Peter Pap's Seventeenth
Century Anatolian prayer rug made for the Transylvanian market,
$95,000.
David Wheatcroft, Westborough, Mass.
Folk ceramics included three Nineteenth Century face vessels, two
slave made, from Edgefield, S.C., at The Stradlings. Chinese
export porcelain dealer Elinor Gordon offered a five-piece
famille rose mantel garniture, circa 1780, $25,000. Other
outstanding famille rose wares included two plates for the Anglo
Indian market and a tureen, cover and stand of the "Western
Flowers" type at Philip Suval, Inc.
"It's mate just sold at Sotheby's," said Allan Chait, one of two
Asian art dealers on the floor, referring to the pair of Tang
dynasty horses, one strawberry colored, the other black, that
recently sold for $1.576 million. Strawberry-colored and
remarkably like the one at Sotheby's, Chait's Tang horse,
ex-collection of Mona, Countess of Bismark, was $580,000. At
E&J Frankel, an early Tang dynasty gray pottery Bactrian
camel with a Chinese rider and a Fourteenth Century Chinese
carved wood Bodhisattva were each $75,000.
"Patterns of Pride: Historical Blue Staffordshire," the 2003 loan
show, featured historical blue Staffordshire from the collections
of Dr Luther Brady and Dr Robert Campbell, curators of the
exhibition. The show emphasized rare Pennsylvania views, such as
Philadelphia's Pennsylvania Hospital, Fairmont Waterworks and the
Schuylkill River. Organized by collectors Bob and Kathy Booth,
next year's loan show, "Folk Art on Fire," will look at
Philadelphia and its firefighting societies.
The 2004 Philadelphia Antiques Show is planned for Friday, April
16, through Wednesday, April 21.
