The highest price overall went to this oil on canvasboard landscape with figures cooking beneath a mango tree by Fernando Cueto Amorsolo (Filippino, 1892-1972), 1940, 25 by 31 inches framed. It was bid to $95,250 during the second session ($40/60,000).
Review by Kiersten Busch
DOWNINGTOWN, PENN. — Pook & Pook’s two-day Americana auction series spanning June 11-12 was a celebration of all things American in preparation for the country’s upcoming 250th birthday, now less than one month away. After the dust settled, the auction earned a 97 percent sell-through rate, realizing $1,911,332 and surpassing the auction’s $811,100-$1,505,075 estimate.
“I thought the sale did fantastic,” explained president Deirdre Pook Magarelli. “Both days came in above the projected estimate, so I was elated with the results.” Magarelli was also pleased with the bidding pool, explaining, “We had about 300 new bidders, which is about double what I usually see for this type of sale.”
Another successful part of the auction series was a luncheon preceding session one where Lisa Minardi, executive director of Historic Trappe, lectured on folk art painted boxes of Southeastern Pennsylvania. Magarelli commented, “The luncheon the day before the first auction session with Lisa Minardi was well attended and, in my opinion, very successful. We had about 50 people attend, almost all of whom had RSVP’d for the event. Minardi put together an engaging presentation and many attendees stuck around afterwards to ask questions and preview the sale.”
Session one was led by a late Eighteenth Century painted poplar dower chest from Lehigh County, Penn., which far surpassed its $5/8,000 estimate to make $50,800. Retaining its original floral decoration against a dark ground with sponge-decorated drawers, the chest was inscribed “Magthalena Knaussin” and had provenance to Harry Hartman and The Lake Lea Farm collection of York, Penn.
Session one’s top lot was this late Eighteenth Century painted poplar dower chest, Lehigh County, Penn., 28¾ inches tall by 48 inches wide, which was inscribed “Magthalena Knaussin” and surpassed its $5/8,000 estimate to make $50,800.
Just under ten additional dower chests sold during session one, ranging in price from $254 for a Lancaster County, Penn., painted pine example inscribed “Catherine Gibbel,” to $6,985 for a late Eighteenth Century Berks County, Penn., painted example with its original tulip and heart decorations.
While larger chests were certainly popular with bidders, a selection of smaller boxes also turned heads. A Berks County, Penn., painted dome-lid Bucher box from the early or mid Nineteenth Century captured the most attention, eclipsing its conservative $4/7,000 estimate at $30,480. In pristine condition, original tulip and landscape decoration on black ground was well preserved, and the box had provenance to a Pequea, Penn., estate.
Around 20 clocks were sold during session one, with prices ranging from $635 for a Christian Huber (Reamstown, Penn., d 1789) Queen Anne walnut tall case clock with a 30-hour movement, to $22,860 for a Samuel Breneisen, Sr (Adamstown, Penn., 1772-1837), Federal cherry tall case clock with an eight-day movement with an inlaid case with tulip vines and fans.
More than 120 lots of furniture crossed the block, including a mid Nineteenth Century Pennsylvania painted settee that made close to four times its $9,000 high estimate at $35,560. The 69½-inch-long piece came from the same Lake Lea Farm collection as the top lot, with additional provenance to Greg K. Kramer & Company. It had a half-spindle back with five floral painted roundels and grained decoration on its crest and seat.
With a half-spindle back displaying five floral painted roundels, this mid Nineteenth Century settee, Pennsylvania, 37¼ inches high by 69½ inches wide, more than tripled estimates to make $35,560 ($6/9,000).
The just-under 60 lots of fine art was led by a pair of pastel cutout profile portraits by Ruth Henshaw Bascom, which realized $35,560. The sitters were identified as Daniel and Lydia Thompson of Phillipston, Mass., and were documented in Bascomb’s diary entries from the summer of 1832, when she traveled to the couple’s home to create portraits of them and their six children, according to catalog notes.
Portrait pairs proved to be popular with bidders during session one, as a few others took top prices, such as a pair of Revered Henry Young ink and watercolor fraktur birth certificates for Abigail and John Hartman of Lycoming County, Penn., which earned $19,050. Abigail and John were the daughter and son of Christopher and Julia Ann (Bickel) Hartman, and were born on September 10, 1823, and December 28, 1817, catalog notes explained.
Oil paintings were topped by Ben Austrian’s oil on canvas depicting a hen and 13 chicks, which was dated to 1917 and had provenance to Schwarz Gallery and The Lake Lea Farm collection. It was previously sold at Pook & Pook during the 2008 sale of the Americana collection of Richard and Rosemarie Machmer for an undisclosed price but came back to sell for $27,940 this time around.
Session two brought in the top price of the sale with an untitled oil on canvasboard landscape by Fernando Cueto which sold for $95,250. The work, signed and dated “1940,” depicted figures cooking beneath a mango tree while others worked in the fields behind them. It was purchased in Riverside, Calif., by the consignor circa 1992.
“Fuller’s Country Store Norwich, Connecticut” by Louis Comfort Tiffany (American, 1848-1933), watercolor, 24½ by 28¼ inches framed, had extensive exhibition history and changed hands for $25,400 ($8/12,000).
Following the Cueto painting in the fine art category was “Fuller’s Country Store Norwich, Connecticut” by Louis Comfort Tiffany, a watercolor landscape which earned $25,400. It was previously exhibited at the American Society of Painters in Water Colors (New York City) in 1874, as well as the Museum of Contemporary Crafts of the American Craftsmen’s Council’s 1958 exhibition “The Louis Comfort Tiffany Retrospective.”
Three-dimensional artwork also attracted bidders, with two painted bronze works depicting Native Americans by Dave McGary selling one after another for $22,860 and $19,050, respectively. The former, titled “Trophies of Honor (Kangi Yatapi)” was numbered “25/30,” while the latter, “Bounty of Gray Hawk,” was numbered “19/30.” Following the two McGary works was a carved and gilded eagle wall plaque by John Haley Bellamy which flew far past its $1/2,000 estimate to perch at $17,780. It had an early inscription which read, “This eagle was given to my grandfather who as a boy worked for John Bellamy off Kittery Point Maine, John Prince Essex, MA.”
A selection of weathervanes were also standouts during session two, led by a swell-bodied copper Lady Liberty vane with its old verdigris surface made in the Nineteenth Century, attributed to A.L. Jewell & Company of Waltham, Mass. Previously sold at a 2017 Skinner auction offering property a New York collector, the vane sold at Pook for $45,720. Directly behind at $38,100 was a swell-bodied copper Massasoit Native American weathervane, depicting one Indigenous man with a headdress holding a bow and arrow. It retained an old gilt surface and was sold in the same Skinner sale as the Lady Liberty vane. Flitting to $12,065 was a Nineteenth Century sheet copper butterfly weathervane possibly by J. W. Fiske.
Pointing to a $45,720 finish was this swell-bodied copper weathervane of Lady Liberty attributed to A.L. Jewell & Company, Waltham, Mass., Nineteenth Century, 36 inches tall, which retained its old verdigris surface ($8/12,000).
Session two also saw slightly more than ten samplers cross the block, ranging in price from $254 for an early Nineteenth Century New England silk on linen needlework sampler, probably New Hampshire, to $30,480 for a Burlington County, N.J., silk on linen sampler dated “1823.” Wrought by Sarah Ann Hartman, the latter sampler featured a verse on friendship, surrounded by assorted animals, flowers and Quaker motifs over a depiction of a school and a lawn filled with various figures and animals. It was previously exhibited in the Museum of American Folk Art in 1978 and sold to Stephen and Carol Huber (Connecticut) in the 1981 Sotheby’s auction of the Theodore H. Kapnek collection.
Delftware was also popular, with a pair of Dutch delftware portrait vases from the late Seventeenth Century earning almost nine times its $1/2,000 estimate at $17,780. Each vase had bust-length images on them, one with King William and the other with Queen Mary. It was followed at $9,525 by a circa 1705 English delftware blue-dash charger depicting Queen Anne that had provenance to a New York collector and Pook & Pook’s January 2023 sale of the collection of Margaret Berwind Schiffer.
To close, Magarelli shared, “Our next auction is July 8 and 9, an online only decorative arts auction. We are also having a big Americana auction with some wonderful material at the start of October and a coins and jewelry auction at the end of October.”
Prices quoted include buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, www.pookandpook.com or 610-269-4040.
