YORK, MAINE — Hap Moore had a standing-room-only crowd at his June 27 auction here. Moore runs a fast-paced auction and this sale had a wide variety of fresh merchandise. All of Moore’s material is from estates, private collections and old households. A few items from his personal collection crossed the block as well. All in all, the sale totaled more than $191,000.
The star of the sale was this 18K gold Patek Philippe pocket watch, which finished at $14,375.
Jewelry brought strong prices with a Patek Philippe 18K gold pocket watch leading the day at $14,375. Two items tied for second place, in terms of selling price. One was very small, a miniature Hingham bucket in old green paint, while the other was a full-size piece of furniture-a leather topped Gustav Stickley #636 library table. Both brought $8,050, which seemed like a very strong price for the 3¼-inch-tall Hingham bucket. The sale also included original comic strip art, World War II concentration camp drawings, folk art, silver, American and European furniture, paintings and ceramics.
One of the highest priced lots of the day was a very clean Gustav Stickley #636 library table with a leather top. It achieved $8,050.
Besides the Patek Philippe watch, Moore had several lots of estate jewelry. An 18K gold and enamel leaf brooch made $546, while a 14K Elgin lady’s pocket watch achieved $805. A 14K lady’s link bracelet ended up at $1,063, and an 18K Henry Hoffman pocket watch brought $690.
The buyer of the Stickley table also bid on a scarce piece of Grueby pottery. Sean Bears said that he collects and sometimes sells Grueby, Weller and other art pottery. He was the underbidder on the 7¾-inch yellow inverted leaf vase, which went for $1,725 but won the Stickley leather-topped library table, for which he paid $8,050. He was also successful on a 4-inch-square redware Grueby tile at $115. Bears said that his collection concentrates on Arts and Crafts items from about 1900 to about 1915. The sale included other art pottery, including a rare piece of Dedham pottery; an unrecorded Dedham frog which made $373.
Four fruit-form redware banks, offered as a group, did well at $977, and a 6-inch double earthworm decorated mocha tankard went out at $1,840. There were several lots of reasonably priced Quimper. A 23-inch fish platter with plates went for $230, and a blue and white fleur-de-lis tureen finished at only $40. Two platters, one 14 inches and one 15 inches, together sold for $63.
Four fruit-form redware banks, grouped together in one lot, went out at $977.
As one might expect from a Maine auction, there were several folk art items and good country woodenware, some from Moore’s collection. In addition to the strong price for the miniature Hingham bucket, other woodenware also did well. A 14-inch center-handled firkin, in old green paint, brought $460 and a 5¾-inch green oval Shaker box with two fingers fetched $661. A stack of four green pantry boxes, 8½ inches to 14½ inches in diameter, made $920, and a small 4½-inch green pantry box, with the date 1764 incised, brought $661.
A three-mast wooden ship weathervane, representing the Lottie. K. Friend, realized $2,875, and a 27-inch Blackhawk weathervane, with a gilt and verdigris surface, with directionals, finished at $4,600. An oil on panel of the B.L. Locke Tavern, possibly from Epsom, N.H., earned $2,530. An interesting hooked rug, depicting the Allen farmhouse in North Berwick, Maine, made by A.A. Chadbourne, took $690. The farmhouse still stands. A circa 1930s hooked rug with three dancing rabbits brought $345.
The sale included American and European furniture. An English Seventeenth Century carved oak bible box went out at $460, and a pair of French gilded armchairs made $1,610. Some of the American furniture seemed like bargains. A four-drawer Chippendale chest brought only $258, while a walnut Queen Anne slipper-foot drop leaf table made $1,035. A Chippendale inlaid Eighteenth Century mahogany dressing table went out at $575, while a five-piece bedroom set of Peter Hunt decorated furniture finished at only $115.
A well-carved Seventeenth Century English oak bible box brought $460.
A number of unusual items rounded out the auction. A small three-drawer chest with applied sea shells and acorns sold for $575, while a Maine sampler, made by Louis Hitchings, dated 1784, brought $1,265. It seemed like a very good buy for an Eighteenth Century sampler made by a boy, and dealer Paul DeCoste, Newbury, Mass., said that he was delighted with it. A surprise was a 29-inch wicker table lamp which went out for $690. Moore also had an eight-piece group of soldier-drawn colored illustrations of life in a Nazi concentration camp. They were framed and sold in one lot, bringing $747.
Four lots of original Sunday comic strip art may have been very good buys. Each was around 14 by 20 inches and framed. Blondie did best, going for $327, while a Lil’ Abner and a Snuffy Smith each went out for $115. Some of the books did well. A 1798 edition of the American Coast Pilot, by Edmund Blunt, finished at $1,437. The early editions are quite scarce, and did not have maps. There are none as early as this one listed on the Internet. First published in 1796, the book went through 18 editions, the last being published in 1858. Also doing well was an 1814 copy of The Charters and Laws of Massachusetts Bay, which ended up at $460.
Sir William Pepperrell, a native of Kittery, Maine, was a prominent military leader during King George’s War and the French and Indian War. He held a number of important colonial posts, was made a baronet by King George in 1746 and given a Colonel’s commission in the British army to raise his own regiment. The auction included some papers from Pepperrell’s estate, including a signed 1728 letter discussing ships’ masts. Framed, it sold for $690. A 1724 copy of A Grammar of The English Tongue owned by Pepperrell, with his signature, was sought-after by a phone bidder competing with an absentee bid. The winner paid $805. Another good autographed letter, from American poet Cecelia Thaxter to a Miss Abbot brought $345.
All prices reported include the buyers’ premium. For more information, 207-363-6373 or www.hapmoore.com.
