Queen Anne walnut highboy, $27,500.
God bless America – a Statue of Liberty cookie cutter brings $2,475.
By Rita Easton
DELAWARE, OHIO – Garth’s held a July Friday the 13th and 14th antiques auction of early American furniture and accessories in July. The collections of Martha and the late Bernard Harter of North Canton, Ohio, Nellie and the late Charles Momchilov of Jeromesville, Ohio, Lawrence and Marguerite Schreiber of Delaware, Ohio, and select additions were offered.
Bringing the starring bid of the day, a Queen Anne walnut highboy went for a healthy $27,500. Easily making the five-figure bid, a carved Philadelphia Chippendale side chair, ex-Bill Samaha, reached $14,300, with another transitional side chair, Queen Anne to Chippendale, sold for $6,600.
The audience was in a fun mood, giving a round of thunderous applause after auctioneer Tom Porter sold a large tin cookie cutter in the shape of the Statue of Liberty for $2,475 and exclaimed, “God Bless America!” The lot sold for four times its high estimate. A half dozen or so cookie cutter enthusiasts in the audience entered a bidding battle, but the final showdown came between two collectors, one on the phone and one on the floor. The bidder in the audience eventually won out.
A rare aqua glass lamp sold at $1,540; a Zoar, Ohio, cupboard was purchased for $13,200; a transitional side chair realized $7,425; a New York City dealer paid $15,400 for an Ohio decorated poplar blanket chest with red and brown flame graining and the date “1861”; an Ohio Fraktur dated 1831, with yellow, red and green flowers and parrots sold at $1,980; and an oak two-piece wall cupboard, attributed to new Bremen, Ohio, made $7,425.
Mocha and Staffordshire included a 14-piece Staffordshire tea set in dark blue with decoration of a bird sitting on a nest garnered $3,300, quadrupling its estimate; a mocha pepper pot brought $1,155; and a yellowware pepper pot did $1,980.
Saturday’s session began with Oriental rugs ranging in price from $1,320 to $550; an inlaid Sheraton four-drawer chest in cherry and poplar fetched $5,060; a jelly cupboard in old red paint reached $3,080; a Chippendale Ohio tall-case clock signed “Samuel Best,” (working in Cincinnati in 1802-1818) went for $9,900; and a two-piece step back cupboard made $3,300.
Three rare cutouts by Seymour Lindsay (Lexington, Ohio, 1848-1927) all more than doubled their estimates by bringing $4,620, $2,970, and $2,860; a framed oil on canvas of a young girl in a white dress and yellow shoes reached $3,630; a pair of watercolor portraits of brother and sister, “Jabus and Ann Townsend,” went for $2,420; and more than doubling its estimate, a cast iron rabbit doorstop in old black paint escalated to $770. A molded cat on an oval base with a brown and ochre glaze leapt to $2,090.
Prices quoted reflect a required 10 percent buyer’s premium.
