Oil on board portrait attributed to Sheldon Peck, $46,750.
Ohio or Pennsylvania wall cupboard, $19,800.
Punched tin coffeepot attributed to Uebele, $4,125.
DELAWARE, OHIO – On March 16, Garth’s Auctions held its second Americana auction of 2002. The 565-lot sale consisted of everything from furniture and firearms to Pittsburgh glass and paintings.
The top-selling lot was an oil-on-board portrait of a dour-looking woman wearing a reddish-brown dress with a lace collar and a white bonnet. Attributed to Sheldon Peck (1797-1868) from his Vermont period (pre-1828), the painting fetched $46,750.
Bidders seemed to favor the females in their portrait buying. Another painting of a woman wearing a black dress, gold necklace and dangle earrings, attributed to the Prior-Hamblin school, more than doubled its high estimate by bringing $6,270. A painting of a young man, attributed to William Matthew Prior (1806-73), sold for $1,760, while another, attributed to Ohio, made $1,375.
Bidders were also ready to buy furniture. A phone bidder went to $19,800 for a two-piece wall cupboard from either Ohio or Pennsylvania. But the highest priced piece of furniture was the catalog’s cover lot — a small decorated one-drawer blanket chest on bracket feet. The chest retained its original deep red and green vinegar sponging over a mustard ground and sold for $23,100.
A cherry Chippendale four-drawer chest from Lebanon County, Penn., went to a phone bidder for $7,700, while a Chippendale drop-leaf table from either Eastern Pennsylvania or Maryland made $6,600.
As for glassware and ceramics, the top seller was a spatterware 81/4-inch plate with a four-color pinwheel design that sold for $9,900, more than six times its high estimate. A green spatterware handleless cup and saucer with a peafowl went for $632, while a Pittsburgh blown glass covered sugar bowl was a sweet deal at $7,150.
Other rdf_Descriptions of note that crossed the block include a collection of 150 Civil War letters and a photo of Capt William Broughton of the 16th Maine Volunteer Infantry. Against a $3,500 estimate, the group sold for $4,950. An engraved powder horn from the French and Indian War, dated 1758, made $3,575.
For $4,125, a buyer got a punched-tin coffeepot attributed to the M. Uebele of Berks County, Penn. A phone bidder shelled out $3,410 for a cherry Hepplewhite candlestand in its original dark surface, while a Queen Anne side chair, attributed to Philadelphia, went for $3,300.
All prices include a 10 percent buyer’s premium.
