Flying to $4,920 and the top of the sale was this owl-form painted cast iron garden lantern, which measured 36 inches high and sold to a buyer bidding online ($200/400).
Review by Madelia Hickman Ring; Photos Courtesy Meander Auctions
WHIPPLE, OHIO — When a well-known and well-respected folk art dealer, whose musician son is a member of a Grammy-award winning rock duo, asks you to sell his collection, any self-respecting auctioneer would immediately and enthusiastically say “Yes!” Such was the scenario when Chuck and Dan Auerbach called Andrew Richmond, who was in the process of launching his fledgling Meander Auctions (formerly Ohio Company Antiques). Richmond pulled the sale together on October 28, offering more than 200 lots that found new homes for nearly 90 percent of the lots and surpassed the cumulative low estimate for the sale.
“I’m feeling good! It was a fun sale,” Richmond reported. “Chuck was super to work with. He has a great eye. For things that are interesting and quirky, the market can be a little less predictable and there were several surprises. We worked hard for him, and he is happy.”
“The top lot, and the biggest surprise, was the owl garden lantern, which sold to a buyer on LiveAuctioneers for $4,920,” confirmed Richmond. The lot in question was made of painted cast iron in the form of an owl perched on a stump. It dated to the early Twentieth Century and stood 36 inches high.
A tinsmith’s trade sign in the form of a coffee pot that was one of the more highly anticipated lots in the sale met expectations and sold for $3,540. Richmond cataloged it as attributed to Ohio based on where Chuck had discovered it and dated it to the second quarter of the Nineteenth Century. The piece featured several different methods of tinsmithing so Richmond thought it could also have been a sample piece because of its small size — just 18 inches tall. It will be staying in Ohio, purchased by a trade buyer there bidding on the phone.
Topping off a second-place finish at $3,540 was this coffee-pot-form tinsmith’s trade sign that was probably made in Ohio in the mid-Nineteenth Century. It sold to an Ohio dealer ($3/6,000).
Also from Ohio was a stoneware pig flask that was catalogued as from Portage County and dated to the late Nineteenth Century that won a third-place ribbon at $2,242. A young collecting couple from Northeastern Ohio outbid competitors, telling Richmond “It is never leaving our collection!”
Furniture in the sale was led at $1,845 by a mid-Twentieth Century chair with leather sling that reminded Richmond of campeache chairs popular in Louisiana in the early Nineteenth Century. In relatively poor condition, and with a leather sling that was in need of repair or replacement, it had been estimated at just $50-100 so Richmond was pleased that it brought so much, confirming it sold to a Southern dealer bidding online.
Rustic furniture was an area of interest for the Auerbachs, as the two dozen lots in the sale would suggest. The aesthetic is more commonly seen in the Adirondacks and Richmond said results were “up and down” but he was very pleased with the $1,046 achieved by a rustic 29-key piano from Dan Auerbach’s collection. It sold to a dealer, bidding online, who Richmond said purchased “lots of rustic.”
“It was a great quilt. Such a simple design but the turkey track stitching was a nice detail,” Andrew Richmond explained about why this early Twentieth Century Mennonite quilt finished at $1,003 ($700-$1,200).
Folk textiles were an area of specialization for Auerbach and the sale had several examples, including quilts and rugs. Of the eight Navajo rugs on offer, a red Mesa example earned the highest price and sold to an online bidder for $1,722. More than a dozen quilts, which included Amish and African American examples, was sewn up at $1,003 by a 77-by-68-inch Western Pennsylvania Mennonite quilt, first half Twentieth Century, that sold to a dealer bidding on the phone.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, 740-760-0012, info@meanderauctions.com or www.meanderauctions.com.
