Pook & Pook – Americana & International Auction
September 25, 26 & 27, 2024 at 9AM
463 East Lancaster Avenue Downingtown, Pennsylvania 19335
www.pookandpook.com

DOWNINGTOWN, PENN. — Pook & Pook will conduct its largest Americana & International sale ever, spread over three days, September 25, 26 and 27. The sale features important single-owner collections, as well as many items from private collectors and institutions.

Day one encompasses two important private collections. The first is the folk art collection of Albion P. Fenderson of Modesto, Calif. Al and Florence Fenderson were avid collectors in southeastern Pennsylvania before moving to California in the 1960s. Paintings include a pair of William Matthew Prior husband and wife portraits, a colorful Samuel Miller portrait of a boy in a red dress with a hobby horse and a rare Isaac W. Nuttman still life with a bird and an abundance of fruit. A rare Samuel Folwell Philadelphia watercolor silhouette of the Reverend Absolom Jones is of historical importance. The first of several in the sale, a Wilhelm Schimmel spread-winged eagle is outstanding for its vibrant original painted surface and imposing size. The highlight of the collection is a highly important ink and watercolor fraktur Taufwunsch by the Sussel-Washington artist.

Pook & Pook will offer the American pewter collection of Dr Melvyn and Bette Wolf of Flint, Mich. The foremost of many highlights is an important Philadelphia William Will coffee pot, which is considered to be one of the finest pieces of American pewter in existence. Other rare pieces include the only Robert Bonnynge church cup in private hands, a Semper Eadem quart tankard, a Frederick Bassett egg-shaped teapot and a Johann Heyne ciborium. The Wolfs’ love of Americana went well beyond pewter and included New England furniture, decorative arts and folk art paintings. A few to mention are a set of 10 Pennsylvania painted treenware lidded canisters, a collection of New England burl bowls and folk art paintings, including two Hudson River landscapes attributed to Thomas Chambers, and two Jonas Welch Holman portraits, of Mary Ann Bassett and of the Bassett children.

A Maryland theme is found in a Historic Blue collection featuring a Baltimore tea service and pieces in the rare Arms of Maryland pattern. A rare pair of Thurmont, Md., redware vases is attributed to James Mackley.

Day two opens with the collection of Rebecca Roberts of York, Penn. Roberts was a passionate collector of local antiques. Furniture includes a blanket chest with vibrant paint decoration by William Heindel and tall case clocks signed Jacob Spangler and Peter Schutz Urmacher. Textiles include samplers, needlework and quilts. Featured coin silver is by Godfrey Lenhart. There are many fraktur, including York County examples by Francis Portzline, Daniel Peterman and Adam Wertz. Among the Jacob Maentel watercolor portraits are York County residents.

Next up are 38 lots of American glass, including a Stiegel-type deep amethyst flask and many with provenance from collectors such as Walter Douglas, Lowell Innes and John Tiffany Gotjen, the latter including a New York blown aquamarine lily pad compote.

Furniture highlights of the day include a Chester County, Penn., tall case clock with works signed Ellis Chandlee Nottingham, and a graceful Bermuda Queen Anne cedar blanket chest. Great painted furniture includes a Pennsylvania blue-painted hard pine schrank, circa 1770, a diminutive Mahantongo Valley school masters hanging desk, a Virginia dower chest and a Berks County blanket chest attributed to Jacob Blatt, with original salmon fan and circle paint decoration.

Day three begins with the collection of Walter Pyle Smith and Jeannette Chaffee Smith of Gettysburg. The Smiths’ life-long love of antiques resulted in an exceptional collection of Pennsylvania German decorative arts. One of many highlights is a compass artist paint-decorated dome lid box retaining its original rare salmon surface. Not to be missed are two Jonas Weber painted pine dresser boxes and two Wilhelm Schimmel spread-winged eagles. Other carvings include an important Aaron Mountz large bird. The Smiths also collected redware, including a southeastern Pennsylvania sgraffito charger dated 1811 with eagle decoration, a Snow Hill Nunnery bowl, a Solomon Bell, Strasburg, Va., mixing bowl and two large Hagerstown, Md., bowls, one possibly from the Bell family. A menagerie of redware spaniels, poodles, lions and birds includes a dog holding a fruit basket attributed to Jesiah Shorb. A Bristol County, Mass., bean pot is one of several items with a Dr and Mrs Donald A. Shelley provenance. A pair of North Carolina Moravian redware squirrel bottles is attributed to Rudolph Christ, Salem. The Smith’s Pyle and Wyeth heritage is evident in artworks by Howard Pyle in watercolor, oil and ink, and an Ann Wyeth McCoy watercolor. Rounding out the collection are works by Edward Moran and Frank Earle Schoonover.

The fine art category includes Taos Art Colony co-founder Ernest Blumenschein and his landscape “Autumn with Storm.” A panorama of landscapes includes several by Maryland/Washington, DC painter John Ross Key, a Max Weyl Washington, DC landscape “The Little River, Georgetown,” a Jack Wilkinson Smith California coastal scene, a Peter Sculthorpe watercolor on paper of a moonlit winter homestead, a Gladys Young street scene, and other landscapes by John Prentiss Benson, Thomas Curtin, Hugh Bolton Jones and others.

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

John Prentiss Benson
Thomas Chambers, attributed
Samuel Lancaster Gerry
John Ross Key
William Matthew Prior
Clam digger weathervane
Joseph H. Davis
Civil War ledgers
Agnes Martin
Connecticut redware crock
Semper Eadem pewter
Massachusetts redware pot
Massachusetts weathervane
Samuel Danforth pewter
New England chest
New Hampshire desk
Trade sign
New England dressing table
New England chest
463 East Lancaster Avenue Downingtown, Pennsylvania 19335 P: (610) 269-4040 info@pookandpook.com www.pookandpook.com ONLINE BIDDING ON: PookLlVE, Bidsquare & Invaluable