Pook & Pook set a new house record on April 20′1 when it auctioned the collection of Dr and Mrs Donald A. Shelley for $9,765,454, including premium. The total is more than double Pook’s previous single-owner sale tally, achieved in June 1999 when it auctioned the estate of William Koch for $4.3 million.
Shelley, the late director of Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, and his wife began collecting in the 1930s, filling their Oley Valley farmhouse with Pennsylvania furniture and accessories. Many pieces had been off the market for half a century.
Pook’s top lot was a Philadelphia William and Mary dressing table, which sold in the room for $585,000.
Other highlights included a dated 1803 Berks County decorated dower chest, sold to David Wheatcroft for $561,600; a circa 1750 six-slat Pennsylvania ladder back armchair, knocked down to C.L. Prickett Antiques for $491,400; a Lancaster County compass-decorated box with one drawer, to C.L. Prickett Antiques for $374,400; a 14½-inch-tall Schimmel eagle, to a Pennsylvania collector for $234,000; and a Philadelphia pewter flagon attributed to Johann Phillip Alberti, to Don and Trish Herr for $49,140.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art acquired a carved and inlaid walnut schrank dated 1760 for $343,000.
A complete report will appear in a future issue.
