August 14–15 Auction Grosses $660,027
Review and Onsite Photos by R. Scudder Smith
Catalog Photos courtesy Conestoga Auction Company
MANHEIM, PENN. — Conestoga Auction Company, a division of Hess Auction Group, had a spanking good auction on Friday and Saturday, August 14–15, when it sold the third and fourth sessions of the estate of the late Harry Hartman, the popular and well-known antiques dealer from Marietta, Penn. A total of 969 lots crossed the block, consisting of pottery, baskets, woodenware and ironware, glass, fabrics, paintings and certificates, decoys, boxes of all sizes and shapes, weathervanes, folk art and furniture. “Harry was a great dealer and collector, and both his shop and his ‘inner sanctum’ were loaded to capacity with things, mostly objects of Pennsylvania origin,” Oliver Overlander, his business partner, said.
For the most part, the selection of redware took up the major portion on the table to the right front of the gallery.
“I was thrilled with the sale; there were some surprises, and the collection brought out a much larger crowd than the last sale,” Oliver said a few days later while taking a gardening break behind Harry’s house. The first two sessions of the Hartman estate, 743 lots on May 15–16, brought $702,000, including the buyer’s premium, and the second two sessions had 969 lots, bringing in a total of $660,027, also including the buyer’s premium. “This last sale included a good number of contemporary lots of redware, mocha and some carvings,” Oliver said, noting that there will be none in the November auction.
Harry’s taste and sharp eye for antiques apparently appealed to many people, for 2,277 bidders registered online over the two-day period, representing 31 different countries, and by the end of the auction 30 percent of the lots went the Internet way on Friday, while on Saturday 26 percent of the lots were purchased online.
About 200 people came to the gallery on Friday, and that number increased to more than 275 on Saturday. In-house registered bidders totaled 250, causing Jeffrey C. DeHart to comment, “That was the largest crowd we have had in the gallery in several years.” He added, “Three times on Saturday we had to set up extra chairs, and we still had some visitors standing.” Jeffrey is responsible for the auction catalog and was working on the last two sessions of the Hartman estate while this sale was in progress. That catalog of the final sale, set for November 20–21, will be online about six weeks before the auction and the printed catalog will be mailed out about four weeks in advance.
One of the top lots in the auction was a large Persian Nineteenth Century multicolor geometric and floral pattern room-size rug, very good condition with light wear, 15 feet 1 inch by 21 feet 5 inches, that brought $33,630 from a bidder in the room.
John M. Hess, president of the Hess Auction Group, noted, “It has been a real pleasure working with Oliver and his family on this auction” and he started both days off by calling the sale, beginning on Friday with two Breininger redware pottery hanging planters with brushed manganese glaze, marked L.B., that sold for $324. It was followed by 54 lots of contemporary redware pottery in various forms, all of it selling under $300 except for one piece, a Schooner redware pottery tulip decorated verse bowl, dated 1997, 9 inches in diameter, that brought $324.
Following the pottery, a David Ellinger-signed basket of fruit theorem in an original paint decorated frame, 17¾ by 22¼ inches overall, brought $1,003, and a large oil on board folk art painting of 11 cats, by Barbara Strawser, 1979, sold for $2,950.
A life-size figure of a carved and painted turkey, mounted on wood, by Keith Collis, 27 inches high, brought $885; a contemporary carved and painted Simmons-style parrot went for $383; and a Dan and Barbara Strawser 1979 parrot on branch, carved and polychrome painted, signed, sold for $442.
Among the wrought iron pieces, a Nineteenth Century miniature grid iron, square with flattened handle with penny end, made $206; a tripod base bowl skillet, same period, flattened hook handle, went out at $165; and a Pennsylvania swivel toaster, tripod base, sold for $188.
A crowded auction gallery on Saturday, with most every seat taken and some opting to stand at the back of the room.
An early Nineteenth century Philadelphia cast iron fire mark, embossed FA with painted decoration, 11½ inches high, brought $295, and the same price was paid for a large Nineteenth Century copper kettle, wrought iron ball handle, 20 inches in diameter and in good condition. A yellowware water pitcher with white and brown band decoration, signed Green & Co., England, 8½ inches high, sold for $224, while a woven oak splint market basket, carved bentwood handle, 12 inches wide, brought $153.
A Gaudy Dutch soft paste china butterfly pattern toddy plate, 55/8 inches in diameter, very good condition, realized $1,003; a blue spatter ironstone china tulip pattern paneled cup plate, red and blue flower with green leaves, 51/8 inches in diameter, brought $442, and a Don Carpentier reproduction tobacco leaf and cat’s-eye pattern mocha decorated china water pitcher, 7½ inches high, $885. Another Carpentier piece, a reproduction seaweed pattern mocha chine coffee pot, 11 inches high, sold for $2,950.
Among the selection of glass was an emerald green blown glass expanded diamond candleholder, 3 inches high with folded rim, $236, and an early Nineteenth Century blown amber glass carboy bottle, tapered spout, ovoid body, 18 inches high, that sold for $442.
When not bidding, these two ladies caught up with the world of antiques by reading Antiques and The Arts Weekly.
Fabrics, including coverlets, quilts, cotton rag rugs, hooked rugs and Persian rugs, filled more than four pages of the catalog, with an early Nineteenth Century Pennsylvania floral and geometric patchwork quilt with chintz border going for $590, and a mid-Twentieth Century Lancaster County Amish center diamond pattern patchwork quilt bringing $708. A Nineteenth Century pumpkin and brown geometric pattern two-part overshot coverlet, 78 by 96 inches, went for $501, and a Persian Nineteenth Century multicolor geometric and floral room size rug, 11 feet 8 inches by 14 feet 10 inches, brought $5,900.
An Ives “Phoenix” cast iron horse-drawn fire pumper, black with gold highlights, red spoke wheels, drawn by two horses, 18½ inches long, sold for $1,062, and a Hubley Mammy cast iron doorstop, red and white and measuring 9 inches high, went for $442.
A German Noah’s Ark, 10½ inches high by 21½ inches long, with 70-plus carved and painted animals, realized $1,062, and the selection of 44 German kugels at the end of the first day of selling included a rare red blown glass cluster of grapes, 4¾ inches high, very good condition, that brought $4,425, while several lots later a rare red ribbed blown glass ball-form German kugel, 3¾ inches in diameter, went for $1,670.
This bed, minus the mattress, as it appeared in Harry’s bedroom.
The Saturday session got off to a fine start with a Willoughby Smith redware plate, going for $2,360, followed a few lots later by a glazed redware pottery Spaniel still bank attributed to George Wagner, Carbon County, Penn., circa 1860. The seated figure, with applied coleslaw head and tail, 67/8 inches tall, brought $1,888.
Dating from the Nineteenth Century was a rare Pennsylvania redware bird figural whistle, green and orange mottled glaze, an oval slab with a central basket flanked by two large birds and four smaller birds on each side. It measures 4 inches high, 7½ inches wide, and sold for $1,416. A Pennsylvania Nineteenth Century slip decorated redware pottery plate, manganese and yellow stylized flowers and crisscross line decoration, 77/8 inches in diameter, went for $1,770, while an Ohio sewer tile brown glazed pottery pig, impressed signature on the base “National Sewer Pipe Co., Akron, Ohio,” 9 inches high and 14 inches long, garnered $2,478.
An unsigned stoneware pottery cobalt blue foliate and floral decorated water cooler, attributed to Richard C. Remmy, Philadelphia, 1870–1880, applied ear handles, raised spigot hole and molded base, 15½ inches high, sold for $2,242, while an important Nineteenth Century signed Strasburg 2-gallon stoneware pottery crock with cobalt blue brush decoration was incised on the side “Made in Hickinson’s Shop on 10th day of Sept. 1875, by T. Irvin Esy Strasburg, Shenandoah County Virginia L D Fleet Proprietor J. Irvin & Geo W. Fleet.” It measures 11¼ inches high and went for $3,422.
The sale ended on the first day with a collection of 44 German kugels; the highlight was lot 465, an extremely rare blue blown glass ribbed pear-form kugel, 4 inches high, very good condition, which sold for $21,240.
A Nineteenth Century Pennsylvania circular-form covered rye straw coil basket, 17½ inches in diameter, brought $590, and a Nineteenth Century Shaker bentwood pantry box with the original red paint, lapped finger joints supported by copper tacks, 9½ inches in diameter, sold for $1,770. Two other Nineteenth Century Shaker pantry boxes followed; one in the original blue paint, 3½ inches high, 10¼ inches wide and 6¾ inches deep, showing minor wear, brought $1,888, while one in original red paint, 8 inches wide, very good condition, sold for $1,180.
Wooden boxes found strong interest among the bidders, resulting in a bid of $2,478 for a Nineteenth Century softwood hanging softwood seed box in the original red paint, hinged slant lid enclosing a compartmented interior above a single row of ten graduated drawers. Measuring 28 inches wide and 8¼ inches high, the provenance listed the Merritt sale. Also dating from the Nineteenth Century was a green painted softwood hanging box, lower full width drawer, 14¾ inches high, 7½ inches wide and 6½ inches deep, that went for $1,180. With green paint and black trim was an Eighteenth Century Pennsylvania softwood bible box, molded base with turned feet, 11½ inches high, that brought $4,130.
A large pair of Nineteenth Century iron hogscraper candlesticks with brass wedding bands, 13 inches high, with traces of white paint, sold for $3,068; a Nineteenth Century molded copper lion head architectural piece, 37 inches wide, went for $1,534, and a Nineteenth Century blacksmith-made iron figure of a snake, weighing in at 18½ pounds, 24 inches long and if outstretched, 56 inches long, brought $3,540. A 48-piece partial set of Stieff Rose pattern sterling silver flatware, 47.5 troy ounces, sold for $1,003, and a cast alloy double-sided owl figure, signed “Swisher & Soules, Decatur, IL, Pat Pend,” circa 1930–1940, originally made to frighten off other birds, brought $1,416. It measures 12¾ inches tall.
The first weathervane to be sold on Saturday was this Nineteenth Century zinc and copper jumping stag, attributed to J.W. Fiske, 26 inches high and 26 inches long, good condition, full-bodied, at $10,030.
A Nineteenth Century watercolor on paper of a girl in blue dress holding a rose with tabby cat, signed in ink on backboard “Our Blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ worked by Pheby Louisa Bonner, 1842,” measuring 6½ by 8 inches sight, in period frame, realized $2,006; an oil on Masonite board by Walter E. Baum, titled “Twin Gables,” signed lower right and measuring 11½ inches by 15½ inches sight, in molded frame, brought $2,124, and a pair of folk art oil on canvas portrait paintings, mounted on artist board, unsigned lady and gentleman in gilt molded frames, 22¾ by 17¾ inches overall, went for $4,130.
A Pennsylvania country Sheraton mixed wood one-drawer stand, molded top and turned legs with turned X stretcher base, 27½ inches high, 14¾ inches wide and 14¼ inches deep, brought $3,835, while a few lots later a Chippendale inlaid walnut tall case clock, Bentley Darlington, Chester County, Penn., with broken arch pediment and carved floral rosettes and brass finials, arched hood with 1771 mother of pearl inlay on the door, went to $7,670. It has an eight-day movement with engraved brass dial, Roman numerals and date dial with applied floral and scroll spandrels, 30-hour movement, and the provenance lists both Dr Donald Shelley Collection and Joe Kendig Collection.
A number of Windsor chairs were in the sale, including lot 902, a Philadelphia low-back continuous armchair, Eighteenth Century, with scrolled arm, saddle seat, bulbous H stretcher, turned legs with blunt arrow feet, in old black and red overpaint. With some wear to the seat, the chair brought $4,425. Two lots later, a Lebanon County, Penn., early Nineteenth Century softwood primitive stepback cupboard, old red paint, measuring 73 inches high, 38 inches wide and 19¾ inches deep, went for $3,776.
Case pieces and hooked rugs lined the walls of the gallery, and the running horse weathervane in the foreground, full-bodied copper with cast iron head, sold for $9,440.
An impressive Nineteenth Century walnut stretcher-base harvest table with a massive single board plank top with shaped cutout X-form leg supports was on the second floor of Harry Hartman’s shop, and dominated the room where it was shown. Oliver Overlander said, “The bends in the staircase were such that we could not get the table up there, so we ended up bringing it in through a second story window.” He added, “It went out the same way.” The single-board table measured 180 inches long and sold for $2,478. A bid of $3,068 took an early Nineteenth Century softwood bench table with scrub top showing traces of the original blue/gray paint, the top measuring 63 by 41½ inches.
An Eighteenth Century softwood stretcher base tavern table with three-board pine top, canted corners and painted stretcher base with beaded skirt and turned legs sold for $3,068, and a New England country Federal red and black grain paint decorated softwood mule chest with two false upper drawers and four graduated drawers below, molded bracket feet, 54 inches high, 39 inches wide and 19 inches deep, sold for $1,298.
The auction ended with a Pennsylvania Nineteenth Century softwood mortise leg bench, 35½ inches wide, old green/blue paint over the original red, selling for $236.
The final two auction dates for liquidating the estate of Harry Hartman are November 20–21 at Conestoga Auction Company, 768 Graystone Road.
For additional information, www.conestogaauction.com or 717-898-7284.
