Antiques Week in New Hampshire, the destination for antiques lovers and collectors across the country, routinely gets off to a fast start with the Summer Americana Auction by Ron Bourgeault’s Northeast Auctions. This year the three-day sale began on Friday, August 6, and ran through Sunday, culminating with the Foster-Lemmens Collection, three generations of Pennsylvania antiquarians.
By the time lot 1,637 crossed the block on August 8, the sales totaled $4,177,695. Broken down, the Fine Collection brought $1,421,000, the Foster-Lemmens Collection $855,000, and the various owners portion, $1,901,652. Those numbers include the buyer’s premium of 19 percent up to and including $200,000, and ten percent on any amount above $200,000.
The first 36 lots were from the collection of Betty Willis Barenholtz and included a miniature Shaker room and furnishings by Guy Schwerdtfeger, New Gloucester, Maine, late Nineteenth Century, 9 inches high and 9 inches wide, that sold for $1,534. Three turned and varnished pine spire-form mantel ornaments, together with a walnut and glass display cabinet, went for $3,540, and an American Chippendale lowboy in mahogany, possibly Litchfield County, Conn., 32 inches high and 38 inches wide, cabriole legs and ball and claw feet, brought $2,478.
An “Adam and Eve” American sampler, wrought by Mary Gibbs, born “Nov. 20th, 1812,” 16½ by 12 inches sight, silk on linen with fine cross stitch, sold for $3,068; a Pennsylvania slip decorated glazed redware loaf dish, mid-Nineteenth Century, 13 inches long, went for $2,360; a pair of portraits of a brother and sister with their pets, oil on canvas, 28 by 24 and 28 by 22 inches, the boy’s portrait inscribed on the stretcher “Henry Hingman Wheaton, Oct. 12, 1845, Winchester, N.H./Painted by Mrs L.B. Chapman,” brought $3,068; and a hooked rug depicting two chickens and an upside-down heart within a checkerboard border, 21 by 34½ inches, made $6,785 against a high estimate of $4,000.
A pair of George III brass push-up candlesticks, Edward Kendrick (active 1782‱801), 73/8 inches high, brought $3,422; an American copper full-dimensional locomotive and tender weathervane, late Nineteenth Century, 39 inches long, went for $5,900; an American molded copper and zinc cow weathervane, attributed to Cushing and Sons, Waltham, Mass., circa 1875, 28 inches long, brought $10,030; and a still life on a marble top table with oval Sheffield wirework basket, Rubens Peale, oil on canvas measuring 20 by 24 inches, fell within the $40/60,000 estimate, selling for $47,200.
Among the furniture from the collection of David Brooks Gendron was a Boston Queen Anne walnut and walnut veneer highboy, circa 1725‱735, flattop with delicate cabriole legs with bulged knee brackets and platformed feet, 69½ inches high, that sold within the $75/150,000 estimate at $147,000. Several pieces from that collection were passed, including a Massachusetts Chippendale blockfront chest of drawers, a Newport dish-top tea table, Townsend-Goddard School, circa 1750‱770, and a Newport Hepplewhite mahogany Pembroke table, circa 1780‱790.
Selling just under the low estimate was a Philadelphia Queen Anne walnut chest on frame, circa 1750‱760, cabriole legs ending in stocking feet, 64½ inches high with an Israel Sack provenance, at $11,800, while selling just over the low estimate at $14,160 was the Hazard family Rhode Island mahogany slant lid desk, Newport area, Townsend-Goddard School, 41 inches high and 38¼ inches wide, the interior with triple shell carved doors.
A group of four Pennsylvania painted and fruit decorated half-spindle plank seat side chairs crossed the block at $472, while $5,605 was paid for an assembled set of five Queen Anne side chairs, each with shaped crest and notched ears and platform pad feet. Bringing $53,100, just under the high estimate, was a Massachusetts Chippendale carved mahogany oxbow chest of drawers, dark surface and ball and claw feet, 32 inches high and 38 inches wide, while a Philadelphia Queen Anne tilt-top dish-top birdcage candlestand in mahogany, 25¾-inch diameter top, sold for well over the $18,000 high estimate at $29,500. The table had a ring-turned and suppressed ball standard, with cabriole legs and padded shoe feet.
The various owners portion ended with four portraits, the last by William Morris Hunt of a young girl in red dress, oil on canvas, 19 by 19 inches, for $3,540.
