A private Shenandoah Valley collector prevailed to win for $106,250 the Stirewalt family painted yellow pine child’s or diminutive blanket chest that was the cover lot for the Benny Long collection ($20/30,000).
Review by Madelia Hickman Ring
MOUNT CRAWFORD, VA. — Single-owner auctions are a standard component in Jeffrey S. Evans’ sale structure. For his Fall 2025 Premier sales, about 170 lots from the collection of Benny Long were in the spotlight, scheduled alongside another 335 or so lots on November 21. This auction was in between a 457-lot sale of glass, ceramics and lighting on November 20 and a 535-lot various-owners Americana sale on November 22. Of the nearly 1,500 lots that crossed the block, fewer than 10 failed to find homes, earning the week a 99 percent sell-through rate.
“We were very pleased with the results for this auction — from start to finish,” noted Will Kimbrough, the firm’s vice president and department head of Americana and fine art. “There was rare and desirable material across multiple categories, much of it completely fresh to the market and we gained many new customers over the course of the weekend. The Long collection was particularly well-received and demonstrates the sustained viability of the single-owner-sale model in today’s auction environment. When you sell 1,500 lots, you’ll always have some good surprises and disappointments, but this sale was strong from start to finish. We have always felt the best auctions have both diversity and depth; this sale fell in line in that respect and it paid off.”
“Benny had a great eye,” he continued. “He knew the things that were not just good but great and which would appeal across time and place.”
This Shenandoah Valley paint-decorated yellow pine blanket chest is part of a group of furniture from Page County, Va., that bears similarities to the work of Johannes Spitler, which is undergoing further study. More details may eventually come to light, and it sold to an advanced New England collector, for $106,250. It was the second lot from the Long collection to earn that price ($8/12,000).
It was this eye with which Long assembled his collection, and most of the highest prices of the week were achieved for objects once owned by him, including two Shenandoah Valley of Virginia painted blanket chests that sold within minutes of each other, both for $106,250. The first to hit this level was a diminutive or child’s example that was decorated with eagles, Virginia parrots, four- and eight-point stars and stylized foliage. This example had parallels to the Stirewalt family of New Market, Va., based on similar construction, materials and decoration. It will be staying in the Shenandoah Valley.
Also from the Long collection, the second lot to realize $106,250 was one of three known examples “part of a very small emerging group of paint-decorated blanket chests originating in the Page Valley (Va.)” An advanced collector from New England, who purchased an early Boston chair from the house over the summer, was the buyer.
The second-highest price from the Long collection was $91,500, a figure achieved by three lots. The first to do so was a Shenandoah Valley sulphur-inlaid walnut hanging cupboard touted for its rarity of form, untouched original condition and thoroughly documented provenance and descent in the Foltz and Waggoner families. An institution had the prevailing bid.
Checking most connoisseurship boxes was this sulphur-inlaid walnut hanging cupboard, made circa 1770 for members of the Waggoner and Foltz families, who were German Reformed Lutherans. An institution prevailed at $91,500 ($20/30,000).
Continuing the streak of Shenandoah Valley furniture from Long’s collection was a “extremely rare and important” cherrywood punched-tin-paneled table-top valuables safe attributed to Augusta County, Va., circa 1835. The safe was included in the 2014-15 exhibition “Opening the Door: Safes of the Shenandoah Valley” at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley in Winchester, Va., and the accompanying catalog was written by two Valley of Virginia furniture scholars, Kurt Russ and Jeffrey Evans himself. It also made $91,500 and sold to private collector from Pennsylvania who had not previously purchased from Evans.
A Shenandoah Valley blue-painted pewter cupboard with punched-tin panels in the lower part also had provenance to Long and exhibition history to the “Opening the Door” show; it sold for nearly double its high estimate, at $26,840.
Long collected in several other categories, and a unique press molded figural turtle-form bottle or flask, made by the Moravians in Salem, N.C., was an important “fresh-to-the-market” example in the smallest of three sizes made by potter John F. Holland. The auction catalog’s description noted that it is the first “small” Moravian turtle bottle recorded. It more than tripled its high estimate, topped off at $91,500 by an institution.
Other ceramic highlights from Long included a stoneware pitcher, made and decorated at the Zigler Pottery in, Rockingham County, Va., which was also something Jeffrey Evans had researched and published, alongside Scott Suter, in A Great Deal of Stone & Earthen Ware: The Rockingham County, Virginia School of Folk Pottery (Shenandoah Vallery Heritage Center, 2004); bidders topped it off at $25,620, with a Shenandoah private collector having the winning bid.
A related cream pitcher made at the Zigler Pottery in Timberville, Va., that Jeffrey S. Evans sold in June 2013 is on display at the Mariner Ceramics Gallery at MESDA. This 10⅜-inch-tall example will not be joining it, having been purchased by a private Shenandoah Valley collector for $25,620 ($8/12,000).
Singular examples were hallmarks of Long’s collection, and under that heading, one would find a previously unrecorded paint-decorated bentwood box in a small size that had never been seen but belongs to a “small but important group” of painted boxes and chests made between the 1780s and the 1830s by multiple generations of the Barb family in Shenandoah County. Other examples from this group are at the Philadelphia Art Museum and Colonial Williamsburg; this one is going to a private collector in Virginia, for $18,300.
The third and final day saw several strong results, led at $48,800 by an 18K yellow gold presentation chalice made by Tiffany & Company that had been given to University of Virginia professor Dr James L. Cabell in 1887 and descended in his family.
Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates’ next Americana sale is schedule for March 4-6, details TBA. Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, 540-434-3939 or www.jeffreysevans.com.
