Pook & Pook Inc. Americana & International Auction
Thursday, April 21st, 2022 at 6pm & Friday, April 22nd, 2022 at 9am
463 East Lancaster Avenue Downingtown, Pennsylvania 19335
www.PookandPook.com
info@PookanDPook.com
P: (610) 269-4040

DOWNINTOWN, PENN. — The Americana and International sale on April 21-22 at Pook & Pook will feature the estates of three noted collectors, together with a variety of antique furniture, pottery, folk art, jewelry and firearms.

The late Peter Tillou, of Litchfield, Conn., was an internationally known art and antiques dealer, scholar and authority in a wide range of fields. Descriptions of him invariably included words such as “Renaissance man” and “polymath.” The true element of genius in his collecting was an eye for the importance and relevance of each item. There is a carving of a spread-winged eagle, caught exactly at the moment of maximum torque as it alights on a rocky crag, another ruffled eagle clutching a copy of the Declaration of Independence and a portrait of a defiant patriot. A well-fed coterie of sewer tile spaniels beseeches silently with their eyes. Fat olive green fish swim along the walls on their carved plaques and signs, hanging alongside old flintlock rifles and fowlers.

One of Tillou’s favorite items was a large carving of a pig, who looks out the door of his comfortable house as if in greeting. Folk art still life paintings in pastels on paper, oil on velvet and watercolor tempt with heaped fruits, with one small strawberry watercolor theorem so delicate it appears to have been painted with the essence of the fruit itself. A white cat smiles sheepishly from the velvet of a classical recamier; and an Eighteenth Century groom proudly shows off his lordship’s white Arabian stallion. In an early Nineteenth Century ink and watercolor fraktur family record, guardian angels watch over John and Catherine Gilmore and their 14 children (The fraktur artist has optimistically left room at the bottom for one more). A long-lost portrait by Charles Peale Polk is the result of a successful application of Tillou’s collecting philosophy.

Many of Tillou’s other passions are represented by a collection of early German stoneware, pearlware coffee pots and pitchers, Toby jugs and Dave McGary western bronzes from his former home in Sun Valley, Idaho. In furniture, a Berks County, Penn., painted dower chest blooms with its original panels of potted tulips, watched over by tall case clocks from Connecticut, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Elegant Chippendale slab tables from New York and Philadelphia mingle with other equally fine Chippendale: a Philadelphia dressing table, a Pennsylvania secretary and, from Connecticut, a cherry oxbow and tiger maple serpentine chests of drawers.

Christopher Rebollo was a highly respected antiques dealer who began his career with Philip H. Bradley Antiques in Downingtown. His estate collection of Nineteenth Century portraits includes four lively children, caught both scissoring each other’s hair and avoiding being scissored. Attributed to Thomas Sully, a portrait of Mary Anne Heide Morris (1803-1865), inscribed TS 1830 verso, is possibly the 1839 portrait Sully recorded painting of the same sitter. Among the collection of Chinese export porcelain are the provenanced Breck family bowl and pair of covered vegetable dishes, early Nineteenth Century, both monogrammed SJB. Samuel (1771-1862) and Jean Breck were prominent in early Pennsylvania history. Breck served as a member of the US House of Representatives and the state senate in the early Nineteenth Century.

Furniture includes a Pennsylvania Queen Anne walnut armchair, circa 1760, and walnut semi-tall chest, circa 1755, with raised panel sides. Federal period furniture includes a set of eight Philadelphia mahogany dining chairs, each with a scrollwork back, carved urn and rosettes, over-upholstered balloon seats and turned and fluted legs; a Baltimore mahogany desk and bookcase attributed to John Needles; and a Federal mahogany sewing stand, circa 1810, with an astragal top and brass animal paw casters.

The Estate of Pete Lengel, of Robesonia, Penn., features a collection of Pennsylvania Shenfelder stoneware with cobalt floral decoration, Hattie Brunner landscapes, a Joseph Lehn painted wooden saffron cup and a collection of glass to include Stiegel cobalt glass table wares, Pittsburgh cobalt glass and English glass.

Several highlights in the folk art category are a Jacob Maentel (American, 1763-1863) large watercolor double portrait of Elizabeth and Philip Wolfersberger of Lancaster, Penn., standing in front of their farm, Elizabeth holding a book and Philip his hat, provenance from the Halpert collection; a Johann Adam Eyer (Bucks County, Penn., active 1755-1837) ink and watercolor fraktur for Maria Magdalena Walterin (Walters), dated 1787, with text encompassed by a heart, with repeated miniature portraits, winged angels and various birds and tulips; a rare Lancaster painted poplar Weber slide lid box, mid-Nineteenth Century, the front with a large house flanked by trees, the sides and lid with colorful flowers, all on a blue/green ground; and a Lancaster painted poplar Compass Artist dome lid box, early Nineteenth Century retaining its original vibrant pinwheel flower decoration on a blue ground, provenance from the Pook & Pook Machmer collection, 2008.

Pook & Pook is at 463 East Lancaster Avenue. For information, www.pookandpook.com or 610-269-4040.

Antonio Jacobsen (American, 1850-1912)
Arthur F. Tait (American 1819-1905)
Franz Hans Johnston (Canada 1888-1949)
Walter Stuempfig (American 1914-1970)
RI mantel clock, ca. 1834-1850
The Collection of Peter Tillou
S.A. Smith, Brattleboro, Vermont eagle ride-on toy
Massachusetts ink and watercolor fables and drawings
Early and Important Broderie Perse quilt, dated 1814
Serapi carpet, ca. 1900
Massachusetts Chippendale blockfront chest of drawers, ca. 1770
Collection of 125 lots of antique firearms, including dozens of European examples
Large collection of fine jewelry
Online bidding on Bidsquare, Invaluable, and PookLive!