Drink If You Can puzzle jug, late Nineteenth Century.

Bid of $40,700 a Drop in the Bucket for Pook & Pook Top Lot

LUDWIGS CORNER, PA. – On December 1 and 2, Pook and Pook, Inc. held an 861-lot auction, during which a Pennsylvania tole decorated wooden pail with a vibrant, pristine surface sold for $40,700.

The pail was purchased in the mid 1970s at a country store auction in Milford Square, Pa., and features red flowers and berries, yellow and green leaves, and trailing vines on a blue/green base. The Nineteenth Century piece, of stave construction, bears a wood handle supported by iron grommets and a white interior. It measures some nine inches high and 11 inches in diameter. A similar example can be seen in The Pennsylvania German Collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Camden, Ohio antiques dealer David Good was the high bidder.

A full report of this auction will appear in an upcoming issue of Antiques and The Arts Weekly.