Pook & Pook – Americana & International Auction
Thursday, October 5th & Friday, October 6th, 2023 at 9AM
463 East Lancaster Avenue Downingtown, Pennsylvania
www.pookandpook.com

DOWNINGTOWN, PENN. — Featuring consignments from five noted collectors and several institutions, the October 5-6 Americana and International sale at Pook & Pook offers a wide assortment of mochaware, redware, fraktur and Pennsylvania, Southern and New England furniture, clocks and decorative arts, alongside Chinese export porcelain and international and American works of art.

The first day of the sale begins with a selection of redware from the collection of Ellen and Richard Levine of New York. Among the highlights are two Nineteenth Century chargers. One, a rare Pennsylvania or Maryland example, has an unusual and vibrant cream and brown slip decoration involving two crossed vines and a dazzling array of leaf medallions; the other is Pennsylvania, with striking yellow and green slip decoration that appears almost three-dimensional. A scarce New York redware bottle, circa 1830, is attributed to the Mormon leader Heber Kimball of Mendon. The amber bottle has blurred concentric bands of green and brown, and a glassy lead glaze. In the 1820s Kimball worked as a potter in Mendon, purchasing the works from his brother. Soon after creating this bottle, circa 1830, Kimball was baptized and headed West, eventually becoming one of the first pioneers to settle in Salt Lake City. Another of his bottles is exhibited there in the Museum of Church History.

The collection holds many New England examples in a range of colors. Many of these pieces are washed in glazes that bring to mind the effects of dappled sunlight on the pebble bed of a clear stream. The colors are of the earth: lead reds, iron ochres, ambers and oranges, copper greens and manganese and iron dark purple browns. The greens range from teal to olive, from apple to jade, to a translucent glaze so pale it resembles celadon. Single fields of glaze contain a multitude of colors, mottled, dappled and dripped together. These were utilitarian objects, their production limited to local resources and minerals, with no objective other than to be used for prosaic tasks. Yet each has a graceful, hand-formed curvature, a beauty of proportion and a depth of glaze that raises them into the realm of art.

The collection of David and Barbara Mest features Pennsylvania decorative arts and painted furniture. Top lots include a wrought iron straining ladle and flesh fork, dated 1836 and 1835, respectively, with brass and copper inlaid handles; a collection of miniature redware; and a New York or New Jersey stoneware jar with double-sided incised cobalt bird decoration. Another standout is a Pennsylvania painted pine two-part cupboard, early Nineteenth Century with an old red surface and scalloped pie shelf.

The focus of a Mid-Atlantic Educational Institution’s collection is mochaware, including earthworm, cat’s eye, fan, banded, marbleized and seaweed patterns, appearing on everything from small chamber pots to pepper pots, plates, pitchers and mugs large and small. Windsor chairs of interest include a Southern long leaf pine and walnut writing armchair, and a rare, signed Philadelphia lowback Windsor settee, circa 1790, branded I. Miller.

The collection of MaryAnn McIlnay, of York, Penn., features a Baltimore, Md., Federal mahogany lady’s cylinder front secretary desk, circa 1810, with intricate veneer. A Christian Strenge ink and watercolor scherensnitte liebesbrief valentine is designed to capture hearts. A painted pine dower chest, circa 1790, Berks or Lebanon County, has a vibrant potted tulip panel design. A Northampton County, Penn., Chippendale inlaid walnut tall case clock has a brass dial inscribed John Miller and extensive tulip and foliate inlay.

Two giltwood girandole mirrors with eagle crests hail from a Pennsylvania educational institution. Among the most colorful items is a herd of caparisoned carousel horses and a collection of Nineteenth Century turned and painted barber poles. Rare and special items include a Francis Portzline ink and watercolor fraktur birth certificate, specially made for her own daughter; a Pennsylvania walnut spice cabinet, circa 1770, with a tombstone panel door and a 10-drawer interior; a Philadelphia Sheraton mahogany pier table attributed to the workshop of Haines and Henry Connelly; a rare pair of J.W. Fiske cast zinc “Spitz” recumbent dogs; and two Civil War-era painted regimental drums. From a Lancaster, Penn., collection are two gemlike Stiegel Glass Works cologne bottles, one in amethyst with diamond daisy pattern and one pink amethyst in the 12 diamond pattern.

Session I ends with the collection of Dr Garrett I. and Bonnie Long, of Romney, W.Va. Two clocks of note are a Massachusetts Federal mahogany shelf clock, circa 1810, dial signed Aaron Willard, and a Massachusetts pine dwarf clock, early Nineteenth Century, with dial signed Reuben Tower, Hingham. A Southern Federal mahogany Pembroke table, probably Charleston, has bellflower inlays. Diminutive furniture includes a rare miniature Pennsylvania painted drysink, Nineteenth Century, and a stepback cupboard, both with original surface decoration, a miniature painted settee and a New England Chippendale birch child’s slant front desk. An imposing English silver epergne, 1761-62, bears the touch of Daniel Smith and Robert Sharp. A collection of Chinese export porcelain includes choice famille vert, famille rose, Rose Medallion and Canton pieces.

Session II begins with art. A collection from a Delaware estate includes a John Constable brush and gray wash of fishing boats, a Thomas Gainsborough chalk drawing of a man and horse, a Mary Cassatt sketch of a mother and child, two interior mother and child scenes by Jozef Israëls, a harvest landscape in pastels by Léon-Augustin L’hermitte, a School of Peter Paul Rubens chalk drawing of a kneeling woman and an oil on panel portrait of a man, attributed to Hans Bols.

Other marquee artworks include two iconic images of national parks by Gunnar Widforss, a pair of fruit and flower still lifes by Severin Roesen, a riverscape by Edmund Darch Lewis and a number of Hudson River School works. Other artists include Benjamin West, Robert Street and Jacob Eichholtz. Nineteenth Century animal paintings include two Victorian cats caught admiring themselves in a mirror, an Edward Clarkson portrait of a trotter, two Ben Austrian chick paintings and a portrait of a terrier by John Emms. Sculptures include works by Andre Harvey, Harry Bertoia and Frank Finney. The sale features more than 20 fraktur and theorem works by David Ellinger.

For more information go to www.pookandpook.com or call 610-269-4040.

Gunn Collection
Redware from the Collection of Ellen & Richard Levine
New England Sampler
Gunnar Widforss
Folk Portrait
Edward Clarkson
Maine Seascape
Christian Strenge
Thomas Gainsborough
John Constable
Large group of mocha from a Delaware Educational Institution
John Constable
S. Willard
J. Miller
J.W. Fiske cast zinc dogs
463 East Lancaster Avenue Downingtown, Pennsylvania 19335 P: (610) 269-4040
INFO@POOKANDPOOK.COM
WWW.POOKANDPOOK.COM ONLINE BIDDING AT PookLive