Though comparatively small at just 6 ½ by 9 ¾ inches, John Constable’s watercolor and sepia wash of fishing boats earned the biggest price of the two-day sale: $93,750 to a phone bidder ($5/8,000).
Review by Madelia Hickman Ring; Photos Courtesy Pook & Pook
DOWNINGTOWN, PENN. — Only a baker’s dozen of the 772 lots Pook & Pook sent across the block in it’s October 5-6 Americana & International Auction passed, giving the sale a sell-through rate of more than 98 percent, and a total of $1,420,712, beating its expected high estimate of $1,036,100. Approximately 180 lots sold to buyers in the room, telephone bidders were successful on 70 lots and the remaining lots were won by buyers bidding online, 64 percent to those on PookLive, nearly 20 percent to bidders on Bidsquare and the remaining to Invaluable bidders.
“Once again Pook & Pook delivers strong results for folk art and Americana which has always been a cornerstone of the success of the company. The company also delivered some fantastic results for material outside of this realm with the sale of the John Constable watercolor and sepia wash of fishing boats leading the auction,” said vice president Jamie Shearer.
A blue chip artist if ever there was one, John Constable (British, 1776-1837) continues to be popular with collectors nearly 200 years after his death. The sale offered collectors of all ilks the opportunity to acquire one related to time the artist spent in Brighton, between 1824 and 1828. Constable moved to Brighton with his family to restore his wife Maria’s health with fresh sea air and sunshine; he was drawn to its scenes of humble life, which became the subject of his work. A watercolor and sepia wash that measured 6½ by 9¾ inches from this period that came to Pook from a Delaware estate also had provenance to the collection of Sir Bruce Ingram (1877-1963), the publisher of the Illustrated London News and philanthropist. When Sotheby’s London sold Ingram’s collection in 1965, the picture realized £140.
According to Deirdre Pook Magarelli, Pook’s president, “There was lots of interest in the lot leading up to the auction; we had several absentee bids.” In the end, it brought top-lot honors for Pook, selling to a phone bidder who prevailed against online competition, for $93,750.
This oil on wood panel portrait of a bearded gentleman, 8 ¾ by 6 ½ inches, attributed to Dutch artist Hans Bol, soared to $30,000 and sold to a New York buyer, underbid by an international bidder ($2/3,000).
A Delaware estate was also the source of an oil on wood panel portrait of a bearded gentleman that was attributed to Hans Bol (Dutch, 1534-1593). Estimated at $2/3,000, it saw competition that took it to $30,000; a buyer in New York outbid an international bidder to win it in the end.
Most of the remaining top lots were American. In third place at $27,500 was “Redwoods, Humboldt County California near Scotia” by Gunnar Widforss (American, 1879-1934), which sold to a buyer in California making their debut purchase at Pook & Pook. It was one of two works in the sale by the artist who moved to the United States in the 1920s and began painting scenes of National Parks. His “Rocks and Cliffs Zion National Park, Utah” went out at $11,250. Not only did both works descend in the family of Theophil Fritzen of San Francisco, who was a friend of the artist but both are included in Alan Peterson’s catalogue raisonné for the artist.
The top lot of American furniture was a Pennsylvania walnut spice cabinet, circa 1770 with a tombstone panel door and interior fitted with 10 drawers, which went out at $21,420, more than double its high estimate. It was followed at $12,500 by a circa 1780 Pennsylvania bowback Windsor chair, that had been in the collection of Mary Ann McIlnay of York, Penn.
Topping the American furniture category at $21,420 was this circa 1770 Pennsylvania walnut spice cabinet that measured 17 ½ inches high by 11 ¼ inches wide. Though a longtime Penn., collector fought hard for it, a collector in Virginia prevailed ($6/9,000).
American folk art saw strength and interest, too. History in an exhibition of fraktur by Christian Strenge (Lancaster, Penn., active 1787-1820) boosted interest in a scherenschnitte by the artist and went for more than a snip at $20,000. A J. Howard & Co cast zinc rooster weathervane that retained an old verdigris and gilt surface flew past its high estimate to land at $13,860. An 1806 silk on green linen needlework sampler with house that had been worked by Margaret Kibbes, referenced in Ethel Stanwood Bolton and Eva Johnston Coe, American Samplers (1921) and provenance to the sampler collection of Theodore H. Kapnek Sr, traded hands at $12,500.
A sleeper of the day had to be an oil on canvas illustration of children and Santa Claus that earned $12,600 against an estimate of $500/800. It was signed “Johnson” and had provenance to a Coopersburg, Penn., private collection.
Pook & Pook will auction Native American & Ethnographic works in an online-only sale November 15, and, in the same online-only format, antique toys on December 1. The firm’s next Americana & International auction is scheduled for January 18-19.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, www.pookandpook.com or 610-269-4040.
