Pook & Pook Americana & International Auction
Thursday, January 13th, at 6pm &
Friday, January 14th, at 9am
463 East Lancaster Avenue
Downingtown, Pennsylvania 19335
www.pookandpook.com

DOWNINGTOWN, PENN. — On January 13-14, Pook & Pook will offer rare and important works of American folk art and fraktur, as well as a group of tall case clocks and fine art in its Americana and international sale.
The sale is strong in American folk art, highlighted by a rare large carved and painted pine figure of a tiger devouring a soldier by Wilhelm Schimmel (1817-1890). Carved circa 1880, this subject matter is unique for Schimmel, whose art was typically of local animals and pets ($40/60,000).
Another folk art highlight is a rare large John Scholl (American, 1827-1916) floor-standing sculpture. Typical of his best work and standing more than 6 feet tall, three tiers of colonnades support elaborate decorated cornices, all painted red, white and blue, resting on a pedestal supported by a shelf and four downward-sloping brackets and shoe feet ($20/40,000).

A tiger maple shelf, mid-Eighteenth Century, with scalloped sides retaining old patina and four shelves, holds an instant collection of vibrant color and form: a collection of around 34 Pennsylvania German small wallpaper boxes, pin cushions and carvings begun by Mr and Mrs Paul Flack of Bucks County, Penn., and added to by noted artist and collector Barry Cohen ($15/20,000).
A selection of fraktur, highlighted by the Engraver Artist (active 1791-1804), an ink and watercolor fraktur of a husband and wife flanking a pair of flintlock pistols and a sabre, all within a floral vine border, the man and woman each with a faint German inscription around them translated on back as the woman: Ah my love, have mercy. Come and kiss me, the man: I have no time for love. I must practice soldiery ($8/12,000); and a Christian Alsdorf (active 1789-1821) ink and watercolor birth certificate for Judith Alsdorff (b 1799, $6/9,000). Fraktur will also include a Daniel Otto “Flat Tulip Artist” Centre County birth certificate, a rare Hanovertown Artist printed and hand colored birth certificate and examples by the Blousy Angel Artist, Reverend Henry Young and others.

Needlework will include a silk on linen coat of arms of the Pratt family of Connecticut, circa 1800. William Pratt (1609-1675) was the founder of Hartford. This coat of arms is typical of work executed at the Patten School, which is noted for raised and padded metallic embroidery. A spread-winged eagle hovers above a shield, surrounded by a rampant lion and containing three boar heads, above a banner labeled The Pratt Arms, and initialed E.P. ($7/9,000). Also offered is a Lititz School, Penn., silk chenille, and paint on silk embroidery, dated 1816, depicting a young man and woman in pastoral setting.

Weathervanes will have a strong presence with a Nineteenth Century copper horse and sulky with cast zinc head and an old verdigris surface, a late Nineteenth Century swell-bodied copper hackney horse with an old gilt and verdigris surface, a swell-bodied cockerel and Angel Gabriel examples.

Other Americana lots not to miss are a collection of Nineteenth Century fire helmets; a collection of American flags; trade signs; quilts, coverlets; and a carved and painted carousel horse, circa 1900, attributed to the Dentzel Company, Germantown, Penn., retaining an old paint history and a Harry Hartman provenance. Also noted is a pair of large wrought iron andirons, early Twentieth Century in the manner of Samuel Yellin, with bronze figural tops, tulip engraved plinth and large dragon heads.

A wide assortment of early tall case clocks will include a Boston Federal signed Aaron Willard Jr, a Philadelphia Queen Anne signed Joseph Wills, a Philadelphia Federal signed David Weatherly, a Delaware Chippendale signed Thomas Crow and more early American clocks from the estate of Charles West Wilson of Red Lion, Penn., including examples by Philadelphia clock makers Benjamin Rittenhouse, John Wood and William Huston, and a Massachusetts clock signed John Rogers Newton. The highlights are a Philadelphia Queen Anne walnut tall case clock, mid-Eighteenth Century, signed Thos. Stretch Philadelphia ($8/12,000), and a Charleston, S.C., mahogany bracket clock, circa 1790, signed Jas Jacks Charlestown No 513 ($8/12,000).

Pennsylvania furniture will feature a Berks County painted pine dower chest, dated 1806, retaining its original lid decoration and a number of added features like spread winged eagles, birds, and roosters ( $12/18,000).

A modern art lot that will turn heads is a Dame Elisabeth Frink (British, 1930-1993) patinated bronze “Midas Head,” signed and numbered 3/10 ($25/35,000). Also not to miss is a Harry Bertoia (American, 1915-1978) beryllium copper and brass sonambient sound sculpture, inscribed B1266.
Painting highlights include a pair of Severin Roesen (American, 1815-1891) oil on board still life paintings of fruit on a slab table ($15/20,000); and a large oil on canvas still life of fruit on a slab table ( $5/10,000).
Other listed artists include a large Charles Morris Young (1869-1964) oil on canvas of a spring landscape ($5/8,000), an Albert Bierstadt (American, 1830-1902) oil and pencil on paper butterfly, signed and dated June 21/92 ($8/12,000) and a Francis A. Silva (American, 1835-1886) oil on canvas “An Old Connecticut Port” ($8/12,000).
For additional information, www.pookandpook.com or 610-269-4040.

DOWNINGTOWN, PENN. — “Tyger Tyger, burning bright/In the forests of the night/What immortal hand or eye/Could frame thy fearful symmetry?” —William Blake, “The Tyger,” Songs of Experience, 1794.
On December 21, 1792 in the Bay of Bengal, a small party fatefully disembarked the ship Shah Ardaseer to hunt deer on Saugor Island, resulting in an event that would resonate for decades to follow. In the words of party member Captain Henry Conran:
“I heard a roar, like thunder, and saw an immense royal tiger spring on the unfortunate Munro, who was sitting down. In a moment, his head was in the beast’s mouth, and he rushed into the jungle with him, with as much ease as I could lift a kitten, tearing him through the thickest bushes and trees, everything yielding to his monstrous strength… The human mind cannot form an idea of the scene; it turned my very soul within me. The beast was about 4½ feet high and 9 feet long. His head appeared as large as an ox’s, his eyes darting fire, and his roar, when he first seized his prey, will never be out of my recollection.” (Munro, Colin, Thus were the British defeated, London Review of Books, Vol. 40, No. 1, 4 Jan. 2018)

Hector Sutherland Munro wasn’t just any young Scotsman; he was the son of General Sir Hector Munro, commander-in-chief of India. Gen. Munro was a rising star and key player in the East India Company’s effort to subjugate India. He was the bitter enemy of Tipu Sultan, ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore. As a field commander, Gen. Munro led the battle in which Tipu’s father, Sultan Hydar Ali, was killed. For all of his brief lifetime and reign, Tipu was locked in a life-or-death struggle against the British. Two of Tipu’s sons were taken as diplomatic hostages to coerce his cooperation. Adopting the emblem of the tiger to represent his strength and ferocity, Tipu Sultan fought back, winning victories, and became known as the Tiger of Mysore. When word arrived of Munro’s death, it is believed to have inspired court artisans to create an extraordinary life-size automaton of a tiger mauling a British soldier. The internal mechanisms included both movement and sounds of the struggle, with anguished cries and roaring to delight the sultan.

By mid-1793, news of Munro’s savaging reached the London papers. The tale spread quickly and was published many times over. The burgeoning mass media had found perfect material to feed the Georgian public’s fascination for exotic animals and growing appetite for sensation. Stories, poems and plays were written, images were printed and cautionary tales for children were fulfilled. What enshrined the story in cultural immortality, and launched a thousand images, was the 1799 discovery of the tiger automaton during the sack of Tipu Sultan’s summer palace. Transported to London in 1800, Tipu’s Tiger was exhibited in the East India Company Museum, where it enthralled viewers for decades with its gruesome charm. Today, it is the top attraction of the V&A Museum. Fascination with tiger maulings and Munro’s death continued throughout the Nineteenth Century as tales from the British Empire circled the globe. “Death of Munro” merchandise continued to be prevalent, including, around 1810, the production of pearlware figures by Staffordshire potteries.

Far, far away, and at the close of the century, in Pennsylvania’s quiet agrarian Cumberland Valley, an unlikely candidate set his hand to framing the tiger’s fearful symmetry. Wilhelm Schimmel (1817-1890) was one of the more colorful residents in the region of mainly Scotch-Irish and German farms surrounding the town of Carlisle. A German immigrant, he washed up on the shores of the Conondiguet Creek sometime after the Civil War. With limited English, he depended upon sympathetic farmers for survival. These families provided Schimmel food and shelter in exchange for his labor and woodcarvings.

Schimmel tramped up and down the valley, moving from farm to farm, sleeping under bridges and looking for work. He was an alcoholic, and had an established pattern of patronizing the saloons, terrorizing the town and drying out in the lockup. Many of his alcoholic escapades were reported in the newspaper. Perpetually hung over, he had a reputation for being surly — and was characterized as such even in his obituary. Dwelling on the fringes of civilization, Schimmel’s only trusted companions were the farm families, especially their children, whom he entertained with his art. Directly carving a found piece of soft pine wood with a pocket knife, his particular gift was to magnify the personality of his subject, usually a local animal. It is probable that at some point, in the parlor of some farm, Schimmel was shown a Staffordshire Death of Munro figure and learned the ghastly tale. Perhaps he was commissioned by a patron to carve the tiger, or beseeched by a child enthralled by the gory scene; at any rate, Schimmel created his own.

“The Death of Munro” is atypical of Schimmel’s oeuvre, the only one of its kind. Schimmel carved other lions and tigers, but this narrative piece is unique for its finished quality and detail. Carved from a single piece of pine, with an added tail and free-moving figure, the tiger is a Schimmel masterwork. In spite of whatever quantities of spirits he used to ease his existence, his carving technique is clear and lucid. The tiger’s black-clawed feet seem to grow out of the slight curve of the base. The legs are sculpted for power. Schimmel’s intuitive cuts form planes and facets of a sinewy strength. Every subtractive cut of his pocket knife contributes to the art, none takes away. The tiger is powerful and athletic, ready to spring off its base and bound away. With a noble mien it crunches the flailing figure, the great nose wrinkling in disgust at the human taste. Dwarfing the figure in its jaws, each tooth is the size of a man’s hand. Carefully gessoed and painted, the fangs are lined with blood. The tail has been expertly restored, its twitchy form conveying the bristling energy of a Schimmel beast. Clearly here, the tiger is king, a result that would gratify Tipu Sultan himself.

“The Death of Munro” is Wilhelm Schimmel at the top of his form. There exists only one, which is set to cross the auction block on January 14, at Pook & Pook. Many collectors of American folk art will be interested in catching this tiger by the tail.
Pook & Pook Auctioneers and Appraisers is at 463 East Lancaster Avenue. For additional information, 610-269-4040 or www.pookandpook.com.

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