Achieving top-lot status overall was this carved marble bust of George Washington by Italian sculptor Carmelo Fontana in the Neoclassical style that made $75,000 ($10/20,000).
Review by Andrea Valluzzo
MOUNT CRAWFORD, VA. — Americana is the bread and butter of Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates’ auctions, and in its 50th Semiannual Premier Americana Auction, three days of standout items ranging from glass to redware to artwork resonated with audiences, bringing in just under $1.7 million. The June 25-27 event kicked off with Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century glass and lighting on day one, followed by the first installment of the Patsy Martin collection among other selections of country accessories, stoneware and earthenware on day two. On the final day, the highlights included Americana from several estates and deaccessioned material from notable institutions.
“We were extremely pleased with the auction results and the performance of what we would call the middle of the market,” said vice president Will Kimbrough, who heads up the Americana, fine and decorative arts department. “As this marks our 25th year as a leader in the Americana marketplace, it was particularly gratifying to highlight the occasion with a strong sale. What’s more, we gained a large number of new customers over the weekend, and we look forward to continued growth in this segment of the business. This was a strong sale for us, but it wasn’t owing to one or two six-figure pieces. Instead, it was strong in the $1,000 to $5,000 range, and that’s really where the heart of the sale was.”
Sales ran the gamut from candlesticks and vases to whale oil lamps and open salts in the first session, from clear to brightly colored pieces. Selling well over its $500/800 estimate and earning the highest price for the day was a pressed four-printie block vase in a brilliant deep emerald green hue, which attained $6,600. The Boston & Sandwich Glass Company vase had a deep conical bowl with a gauffered six-petal rim and stood 11½ inches tall.
This pair of pressed hexagonal socket candlesticks is the first example in peacock green to sell with Jeffrey Evans. Estimated at $1/2,000, the pair lit up the block at $5,700.
Bidders also liked a diminutive pair of pressed hexagonal socket candlesticks that outperformed its $1/2,000 estimate to sell for $5,700. The candlesticks, probably Boston & Sandwich Glass Company, were vividly colored in a deep peacock green. This is the first pair of its kind in this color to be sold at auction with Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates. Asked what drove bidding, Kimbrough said, “I think it was a combination of the rare color and the form itself. All the stars just aligned there.”
Another pressed glass hexagonal pair of candlesticks, in a deep emerald green, did well at $3,900. Standing 9 and 9⅛ inches tall in a master size, the candlesticks were the first large-size examples of this type in emerald green to make their auction debut here.
Day two opened with decorated stoneware from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, and about ten minutes into the session, the day’s top-selling lot clrossed the block. Estimated at $8/12,000, the molded and decorated earthenware/redware cat figure fetched $21,600. Listed as “probably S. Bell & Son, Strasburg, Va., circa 1890,” the cat had a distinctive feature: the eyes, ears and mouth were all stamped with the same ovoid, eye-shaped device. This figure closely paralleled an unglazed example with all-over punched decoration discovered and sold by Jeffrey S. Evans in November 2008 that joined the collections at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley in Winchester, Va. “The glaze seen on the cat offered here is identical to that often seen on a cylindrical pitcher usually bearing an S. Bell & Son stamp … The eye-like decorative device seen on this cat and the example sold by us in 2008 can also be seen on numerous other earthenware figures attributed to the Bell family,” catalog notes explained.
The top-selling lot in the second session was this rare Strasburg, Shenandoah Valley, Va., molded and decorated earthenware/redware cat figure that fetched $21,600 ($8/12,000).
Another Shenandoah Valley stoneware highlight was a Rockbridge Company decorated stoneware pitcher. Stamped “Rockbridge,” the pitcher had a brushed cobalt floral vine extending almost all around the shoulder and six wavy parallel lines on each side of the spout. The pitcher had an approximately 2-gallon capacity and sold within estimate for $6,600.
Martin mostly bought directly from dealers and had a keen eye for collecting; many lots handily beat estimates, ranging from a lot of 26 antique cloth-covered books, mostly printed cotton, which wrote up $7,200 ($200/300) to a group of five small American wallpaper-covered oval boxes that made $5,400 ($150/250). The second-smallest box had repeating interior script reading “Quarrelsome persons are dangerous company,” and the largest retained a Lebanon, Penn., German newspaper lining the interior and bottom.
A tall English carved limestone staddle stone, thought to be Nineteenth Century but possibly earlier, in a two-piece mushroom style form made $5,100 ($150/250). Staddle stones have been used in groups to support grain buildings in Europe for centuries, and their design prevents wood rot while also thwarting rodents from being able to climb into the buildings.
Selling well over estimates was this English carved limestone tall staddle stone that realized $5,100 ($150/250).
Other pieces with Martin provenance that sold well included a Nineteenth Century rectangular wooden footed candle lantern with a colorless glass pane and nail construction, going out at $5,100 ($200/300) and an American painted turned treen bowl retaining original blue over sage green paint surface at $4,500 ($300/500).
Most of the sale’s heavy hitters sold in the final session, including the top lot overall — a carved marble bust of George Washington by Italian sculptor Carmelo Fontana in the Neoclassical style that handily beat its $10/20,000 estimate to take $75,000. The bust depicted Washington draped in a Romanesque toga and was in the style of similar busts by sculptor Jean Antoine Houdon. A private collector left the winning bid, triumphing over an online buyer. “It was definitely a surprise to wake up Saturday morning and see a $60,000 left bid. Sometimes you get a huge left bid but you gotta have someone to bid against it, so it worked out well that a bidder on LiveAuctioneers wanted it just as badly,” Kimbrough said.
Fine art was well represented with an unsigned rare British School Eighteenth Century group portrait of three wigged and formally dressed gentleman seated at a marble top table laden with wine glasses and newspapers that sold for $21,600 ($3/5,000).
Paintings on offer were led by this rare British School group portrait of three gentleman that sold for $21,600 ($3/5,000).
A recently discovered oil on board painting by Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait also crossed the block. The portrait of a standing majestic stag in a landscape with a doe laying down near him more than doubled its $6,000 high estimate to bring $15,600. An early label listed the title as “The Monarch,” a term that was commonly used for stags in the Nineteenth Century. Adding historical interest to this painting was the period inscription with the artist’s name and a notation for “N.Y. Fair for U.S. Sanitary Com.,” indicating that it was created for one of the many exhibitions in New York City in spring 1864 under the sponsorship of the US Sanitary Commission. As described in the catalog notes, “Recently discovered and completely fresh to the market, the present painting is a classic example of the artist’s work, executed in his prime, that bears additional historical significance.”
Another fine art standout was a miniature portrait of Anna Burton George (Richmond, Va.), unsigned but attributed to Thomas Sully (1783-1872), depicting the sitter in a dress with a bonnet tied in a blue bow. Estimated at $800-$1,200, the portrait made $13,200.
The furniture category also saw several standouts trumping their estimates, led by a classical mahogany sideboard, attributed to Edward Priestley, that sold for $16,800 ($1/2,000). The sideboard had a large single-piece two-pedestal form and retained the original silverplated Sheffield knobs by A. Atkinson.
Estimated at $3/5,000, a Virginia Chippendale carved walnut open armchair achieved $14,400. The circa 1790 chair had a shaped crest rail with unique spiraled or scrolled ears, a splat with vertical lobate piercings intersected by a medial band and probably was made in a school or shop in Alexandria, Va. As the catalog noted, similar examples, known as the Alexandria Chairs Group, are included in the MESDA database, all with “nearly identical crest rails, splat design and stretcher arrangement.”
Furniture standouts included this fine Virginia Chippendale carved walnut open armchair that realized $14,400 ($3/5,000).
The final session featured examples of early material culture and historical items. One such lot was a historical 1776 copy of The Virginia Gazette, the first issue of the paper printed after the Williamsburg Convention declared Virginia’s independence on May 17, 1776. Estimated at $1/2,000, it sold for $16,800. “In this edition, the publisher Alexander Purdie deleted the Colony of Virginia royal coat of arms masthead and swapped in ‘The Thirteen Colonies. / United, we stand —Divided, we fall.’ Weeks later, he introduced a new heraldic engraving with a rattlesnake and the words ‘Don’t Tread On Me,’” the catalog explained.
Rounding out the third session were a John A. Mooney (1843-1918) nature morte still-life oil painting at $8,400 in the trompe l’oeil style with ducks and other wildfowl suspended against a brick wall ($500/800), and a rare signed Martin Sheetz, Shepherdstown, Shenandoah Valley, Va. (now West Virginia), Kentucky-style flintlock long rifle that fired at $9,000. Martin Sheetz, who was part of the renowned Sheetz family of gunmakers, died young at 31, so only a few of his rifles have survived.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates’ next auction will be Summer Nineteenth-Twentieth Century Ceramics, Glass & Lighting on July 22-24. For information, www.jeffreysevans.com or 540-434-3939.
