Selling for $42,500 and the highest price of the sale was this 130-page, leather bound, handwritten compendium of Shaker hymns, poems and musical notes, which had been gathered from various communities and dated to the early 1840s, the time of the Era of Manifestations.
Review & Onsite Photos by Rick Russack
DUXBURY, MASS. — Willis Henry, along with his wife Karel, conducted their first auction of Shaker material in 1982. Their auctions, with nothing but Shaker-made items, have taken place almost every year since. Willis said, “I think there have been about 40; I know we skipped a couple of years because we didn’t have enough material for a sale.” As a result of this long involvement with the community of Shaker collectors, he knows the material and the buyers. He has seen enough Shaker material to know the difference between good, better and best, and recognizes common items from those he hasn’t seen before. When he uses the word “rare” in a catalog description, which isn’t often, there’s a reason for it. Much of the material he offers for sale comes from collections assembled 40, 50 or 60 years ago. At that time, collectors and dealers were buying directly from the surviving Shakers and the Shaker communities, so the authenticity of the items was assured. His June 22 sale featured 186 lots, only six of which failed to sell, and totaled $295,568.
The top lot of the sale, earning $42,500 and well over its estimate, was a compendium of Shaker hymns, poems and musical notes and included “spirit drawings,” which had been gathered together from a number of Shaker communities, including Mount Lebanon (New Lebanon, N.Y.), Enfield (Enfield, N.H.) and Canterbury (Canterbury, N.H.), Union Village (Warren County, Ohio) and Whitewater (Harrison, Ohio) and others. Several of the original authors were identified and several had connections to Native Americans. All had been transcribed by the same hand, in blue ink on approximately 130 pages, between 1840 and 1845.
Photographed at the preview of their June 22 sale, Karel and Willis Henry have been conducting Shaker Auctions since 1982.
This time period was known as Era of Manifestations and the volume included songs that were spiritual messages from the deceased Mother Ann Lee, the founder of the Shaker movement, as well as from other early leaders of the church. The hymnal was bound in leather-covered boards with the name “DeWitt C. Brainard” in gilt lettering on the spine. Brainard, who entered the church at the age of two, was a trustee and elder of the Mount Lebanon Shakers and the book is cataloged as from that community. His death was noted on the front page of The New York Times, May 12, 1897. The book was bought by dealer Drew Epstein, Swampscot, Mass., and will be for sale.
It wasn’t a surprise that bidders actively competed for Shaker items in untouched, original, paint. A circa 1860 mustard-yellow-painted Shaker pail earned $16,250. It was initialed in black ink on the bottom, “E.J.N.,” for Sister Emma Jane Neale (1847-1943), who lived at Mount Lebanon for 88 years, became at the age of 35 a trustee in 1882 and who founded the cloak manufacturing business, E.J. Neale & Co. A chrome-yellow four-fingered oval box, slightly more than 8½ inches long, brought a little less: $15,000. Another oval box, slightly smaller, in old red paint, sold for $5,625. The four fingers on this box were unique in that they were shaped and unusually elongated; it also bore the $135 price tag of early Shaker dealers, Ed and Celeste Koster, Old Chatham, N.Y.
This four-fingered chrome-yellow painted oval box, with the price tag of one of the early Shaker dealers, Ed and Celeste Koster, sold for $15,000.
Interest in original painted surfaces extended beyond oval boxes. A two-step stool made for Shaker sisters, in original yellow paint, earned $5,313. A tailoring counter measuring 67 inches long with four drawers featured old blue paint over chrome yellow paint and had a red-painted top, sold for $6,875. Two pieces of furniture with “Ministry blue” surfaces were sold; one was a circa 1840 two-drawer lift-top blanket chest that Henry had sold in 2007, which earned $4,688. The other was a small circa 1850 lift-top blanket box that made $4,375; it utilized a unique Shaker feature-attached cutout boards at each back foot to keep the chest from the wall. A work counter, measuring more than 9 feet long, with a yellow surface and a red interior behind sliding doors, reached $3,750. It was expected to bring more but its size may have been a deterrent to bidders.
The sale included numerous chairs and stands. A tall Harvard (Mass.) rocking chair, circa 1840-50, had four ladders and was the most sought-after, finishing at $6,875. The rockers were attached with hand-forged nuts and bolts, it was made of cherrywood, had an old finish and tall finials. An elder’s tall rocking chair, circa 1840, from Mount Lebanon and retaining what appeared to be its original ash splint seat, earned $3,125. As Henry was selling a small child’s rocking chair, he commented that its shawl bar was an unusual feature on a child’s rocker. It was produced in the Mount Lebanon community, circa 1880, had the Mount Lebanon trademark and was also marked with the number “0”, indicating its small size; it sold for $1,625.
There were several more chairs, as well as tables. A pine and maple table with a two-board top and breadboard ends and a single drawer, measuring more than 7 feet long, sold for $6,875. It was signed and dated on the underside “Feb 3rd 1822, E.W.” A simple turned-leg one-drawer table, probably from Canterbury, circa 1840, earned $5,938.
This maple tripod stand was probably made at Mount Lebanon, N.Y., circa 1850. It went out for $5,625.
The sale also included numerous “gadgets” that the Shakers devised for use in everyday life and for use in the chores they needed in their various commercial enterprises. They preferred to make their own things, as much as possible rather than relying on buying things from the “outside world.” The attention to detail, for which the Shakers are famous and popular, is apparent in some of these everyday items.
One of these items, an apple corer or slicer demonstrated this attention to detail It measured 32 inches long, was made of cherrywood and had steel cutters to peel the apple while a turned handle was used to push the apple through the implement. The underside was chamfered for no discernable reason and the assembly was entirely screwed together. All the screw heads were uniform, with the screw slots facing the same way. The well-made piece sold for $1,063.
The sale included many labor-saving devices, for which the Shakers are also known. This adjustable bottle filler, was designed to simplify filling pill bottles for their medicinal business and sold for $531.
Another unusual item in the sale was a device made to simplify filling medicine bottles with pills. Made of maple, it had a turned, adjustable pole with threaded thumbscrews, a Shaker-made tin funnel and a turned finial for carrying; it brought $531. There was also an ash or hickory rolling pin, measuring just short of 4 feet wide, that was intended to be used by two Shaker sisters at the same time, which also sold for $531. A birch and maple turned armrest sold for $1,188; the auction catalog noted it was probably made for guests while watching Shakers dancing. A small cheese press brought $313 while a horseradish shredder sold for $375.
After the sale, Willis Henry said, “This was a really interesting sale. I especially liked the assortment of smaller items that they made for themselves. We had plenty of bidders and some of the things will be shipped to a buyer in China. We ended up a bit under $300,000 which is about where I thought we’d be.”
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house.
For additional information, www.willishenryauctions.com or 781-834-7774.
