The overall top lot in the auction was this Connecticut River Valley chip-carved spoon rack in dark blue paint with double lollipop finials that went for $35,670 to a phone bidder ($6/12,000).
Review by Andrea Valluzzo
DELAWARE, OHIO — Amelia Jeffers, Auctioneers & Appraisers recorded its highest grossing sale to date at $1.9 million on May 1-2, with a 99.5 percent sell-through rate, as 699 of the 703 lots found new homes. The auction featured items from the lifetime collection of the late Nancy Goff, who was a passionate collector for decades, filling her Alliance, Ohio, home with thousands of fine examples of Americana. She traveled around the country, buying stoneware, burl, folk art, painted furniture, butter prints, baskets, samplers and weathervanes, and was a regular at Crocker Farm, Pook & Pook, Garth’s and other auction houses.
After the sale, Jeffers said that while she knew the quality was good, she didn’t quite expect the results they achieved. “I knew that it was great stuff and really wonderful material. I had a good sense that the stoneware was going to do well. Nancy was really well-known for stoneware, and the stoneware market is hot, so I had a good feeling that the selection was going to do well,” Jeffers shared, “We left Friday knowing that we had just crossed a million dollars on the first day [with just over 300 lots]. So on the second day, we got started and I thought, ‘Well, you know, we might be able to do $300,000 or $400,000 today.’ But about halfway through the day it dawned on me, like, ‘I think we’re going to have a $2 million sale.’”
This sale was conducted in the Old Garth’s Barn, which had hosted auctions for 50 years and never saw a $2 million sale, so Jeffers was pleased to approach that milestone. “It’s exciting! To be just four years into my own company and to already be operating at the level we are is pretty incredible. We have a great team of people, and I’m thrilled with their efforts.”
This scarce 10-gallon cobalt-decorated stoneware churn with cornucopia decoration by Gurdon B. Purdy (Atwater, Ohio) drew fierce bidding before selling for $31,980 to a buyer in the room ($5/10,000).
Besides the final tally, the auction was also notable for attracting a sizeable in-house crowd, despite the ease and prevalence of online and phone bidding these days. The first session, which was dominated by Goff’s stoneware, drew about 100 people into the salesroom, many of whom competed heavily for important pieces. The second session saw a smaller crowd, about 50, but still a good number in this era of auctions.
Jeffers was also pleased to report that the majority of the items sold through her own website platform, in house or via absentee/phone bidding — only $134,000 of the sale’s total was sold on third-party online platforms.
In addition to being surprised to close in on $2 million in total, Jeffers said a key moment was selling a run of items in the high four figures to the $10,000 range late on the second day. “I auctioned a lot of the sale myself, and at some point on Saturday, I remember thinking, ‘How many $10,000 items can I auction in a row?’ That just doesn’t happen very often,” she said.
This early New England slant-lid candlebox with drawer and in original red paint sold for $18,450 ($2/4,000).
Those deep into collecting know it’s as much about the objects as the people and personal connections made along the way. Jeffers knew Goff well and first visited her home in 2024 to listen to Goff’s stories about her objects and collecting path. She said a special moment of the auction weekend was having three of Goff’s four adult children in the saleroom during the sale and at a kickoff barbecue/preview the night before. The family is in the pie business, so they brought pies to the event and chatted with Jeffers. “They got to meet all kinds of friends of their mom’s that they had never met. I asked them what it felt like to be there — and I think this is true for other clients’ kids — but this was really well put when one of the daughters said, ‘I guess I just didn’t realize that her things were actually important.’”
They were indeed important and desirable to other like-minded collectors. The sale kicked off in the first session with choice examples of stoneware, such as a scarce ten-gallon cobalt-decorated stoneware churn with cornucopia decoration, made by Gurdon B. Purdy (Atwater, Ohio). Estimated at $5/10,000, the churn attracted fierce bidding and sold for $31,980 to a buyer in the room. The underbidder was also in house.
Given the state’s storied history with stoneware, this piece could have easily gone into Jeffers’ Ohio Valley Auction, but she wanted to keep as much of Goff’s stoneware together as possible. “What made this special is its great large size, wonderful form and the freehand decoration, which was just absolutely meticulously painted. It’s like looking at a still life painting right on stoneware,” she said. “On a utilitarian object, for someone to have taken that kind of time and decoration and signed it, it’s really beautifully done.”
Also performing well the first day was a rare and important four-gallon jar by the enslaved potter David Drake (Edgefield, S.C.), having a rotund form with applied tab handles and its body in a pale olive-green glaze. The jar sold just over estimate at $26,880.
This important 4-gallon jar by David Drake (Edgefield, S.C.) sold just over estimate at $26,880 ($10/20,000).
Easily besting its $4/8,000 estimate was a rare and diminutive Morgantown, W. Va., freehand cobalt decorated stoneware crock with a large folksy deer, probably by David Greeland Thompson, Nineteenth Century, that attained $24,600. Other stoneware highlights were a large Hamilton & Jones (Greensboro, Penn.) cobalt-decorated 12-gallon jar with a spread-winged eagle flanked by stars that earned $20,910, and a folksy and patriotic field or harvest jug with decoration of a snake, eagle and George Washington selling for $9,225.
Polychrome paint-decorated furniture was also a favorite category of Goff’s, and crossing the block in the first session was an exuberantly decorated Berks County, Penn., miniature blanket chest with original polychrome paint decoration that bested its $3/$6,000 to realize $23,370. The mid Nineteenth Century piece had a dovetailed case on turned feet with unusual yellow ground with vibrant allover green, brown and red compass design. Its provenance included dealer Greg Kramer of Robesonia, Penn., whom Jeffers said was in the room and fought hard to get it back, but he lost out to a determined online bidder. “He told me afterward that this was one of his all-time favorite paint-decorated objects — just unusual, like a tie-dye effect,” she added.
Burl was another category Goff collected passionately, and a first day standout was a rare and early Eighteenth Century turned burlwood toddy plate that brought $9,532.
Burl highlights were led by a rare and early turned burlwood toddy plate, Eighteenth Century, that brought $9,532 ($2/4,000).
The parade of objects that brought big bucks continued into the second session, transforming what Jeffers hoped would be a total of a few hundred thousand dollars into a yield of about $900,000.
The top lot of the auction overall crossed the block less than an hour into the May 2 session. It was a Connecticut River Valley chip-carved spoon rack in dark blue paint that went for $35,670 to a phone bidder, underbid by another on the phones. The early Nineteenth Century piece attracted many bidders with Jeffers noting that it “is super unusual to find something like that in original paint, if you can find it.” It had a tombstone top, double lollipop finials with a lollipop drop finial, pinwheel bands of diamonds, sawtooth carvings and three four-spoon racks.
Folk art was well represented in the auction and high flyers included an important carved and painted figure daredevil man in a barrel, in the vein of those who attempted such feats over Niagara Falls in the early Twentieth Century, with original paint that made $25,830.
As Jeffers mentioned, there was a run of items throughout the second session that hit the $10,000 mark, including a full-bodied “Ranger” dog weathervane, possibly by Cushing & White, in original condition, that realized $22,140; an Eighteenth Century Native American burl bowl with open handles that tripled its high estimate at $19,680; an early New England slant-lid candlebox with drawer and in original red paint that sold for $18,450; and an unusual circa 1820 Albany, N.Y., carved and painted folk art book-form box that went for $14,760. Also, an important Southeastern Pennsylvania redware teapot with folksy and unusual polychrome glaze more than doubled its high estimate to fetch $11,070.
This important Southeastern Pennsylvania redware teapot with folksy and unusual polychrome glaze realized $11,070 ($2/4,000).
A number of folksy bird carvings by Cape Charles, Va., carver Frank Finney were offered, led by a large carved and painted bird tree with 24 birds that sold within estimate for $12,915. Additionally, several individual bird carvings by Finney sold around the $10,000 mark.
Rounding out the auction were several baskets that Goff displayed in her kitchen and around her home, including a diminutive woven splint mustard-painted basket sold for $9,532 ($1/2,000).
Items from the Goff collection will continue to be featured in upcoming Amelia Jeffers auctions, including the America250 auction July 22-23.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, www.ameliajeffers.com or 740-362-4771.
