Ohio dealers David Good and Clark Garrett had at one time owned the sale’s top seller, this 38¼-by-40-inch double-sided tavern sign, which sold for $102,000 to Robesonia, Penn., dealer, Greg Kramer, who had handled it previously ($40/80,000).
Review by Madelia Hickman Ring
DELAWARE, OHIO — It would be hard to imagine a steeper upward trajectory than the one Amelia Jeffers has experienced in the past 12 months. At the end of 2023, she and her eponymous auction house had sold about $950,000 “basically out of [her] garage.” A year and nine auctions later — four of which were conducted from Garth’s Barn in Delaware, Ohio — Jeffers is looking at a total for the year of $6.5 million. The proverbial cherry to top her year would be the $1.4 million she realized in the firm’s Thanksgiving weekend sale, November 29-30, which, she reported, earned the most money ever transacted in an auction at the Barn.
“Holy cow, it’s been an amazing year! It’s so gratifying. I’ve never had a work environment that has been more supportive and collaborative than the one I’m working with now. I’ve worked with several of my colleagues before and rehired them because they know the industry. I’m really pleased to be able to say we boot-strapped it; I never got any start-up money, and we are a debt-free company with cash in the bank and consignments in the warehouse; it feels like a great thing.”
The lifetime collections of Robert Horn (Eaton, Ohio), Carol Schulman (Chesterland, Ohio) and Joanne & Dr David Woodyard (Granville, Ohio) anchored the 999-lot two-day event, within which were sprinkled lots from a few smaller collections from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Indiana.
A private collector in New England prevailed at $66,000 for this American painted and chip-carved box that measured 8½ inches high by 14½ inches wide. It had been featured in a 1993 publication celebrating Israel Sack’s 90th anniversary ($8/12,000).
The $102,000 realized on the first day for an 1851 tavern sign for the Western Inn was the undisputed top price and it sold to Pennsylvania dealer, Greg Kramer, who was bidding in the room and saw competition from two other attending bidders and one who was on the phone. The exceptional sign was one Kramer had previously handled and was likely made for what was once known as the Stage Coach Inn in North Georgetown, Ohio, before it burned down and was rebuilt as the Western Inn.
Achieving $66,000 and a second-place finish was a circa 1800-20 painted and chip-carved maple box that boasted provenance to Richard L. Mills of Exeter, N.H., and Israel Sack of New York City. When Jeffers was on the podium, she quipped, “We’ll deliver that to you.” A private collector in New England will be taking her up on that.
A few other choice lots were snapped up by far-flung bidders. Among these was a late Eighteenth Century bonnet-top tiger maple tall case clock by Reuben Ingraham (1743-1811) of Plainfield, Conn., that was published in an article on Ingraham that appeared in the September 1940 issue of The Magazine ANTIQUES. It will be returning to Connecticut, bought for $20,400 by a collector there.
This Connecticut Queen Anne dressing table with a dynamic shaped top was refinished and had replaced brasses, but provenance to Florene Maine and Sotheby’s Parke Bernet helped drive interest and it sold to a buyer in Maine for $12,000 ($5/10,000).
Maine is the end destination for both a Connecticut Queen Anne dressing table with shaped top attributed to Benjamin Burnham (1729-1773) and a New England theorem on velvet that related to an example in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Collection at Colonial Williamsburg. Going to different buyers, the dressing table sold for $12,000 and the theorem for $11,400.
A Southern buyer paid $12,000 for a paint decorated folk art corner cupboard that was attributed to the Ralph Family of Susssex County, Del., which had provenance to the Preston, Md., collection of George and Carol Meekins.
Many of the top lots are staying local, sold to buyers in Ohio or nearby states. Such was the case with a Massachusetts Chippendale mahogany blockfront chest of drawers that had once been handled by Ridgefield, Conn., dealer, Florene Maine, and came to sale from the Woodyard’s collection. Jeffers told Antiques and The Arts Weekly, “I’ll be delivering that one personally, too”; the private collector who won it for $31,200 is in central Ohio.
One of the most eagerly anticipated lots on the second day was a circa 1810 American School full-length folk art portrait of a mariner’s daughter. Provenance to Litchfield, Conn., dealer Peter Tillou and inclusion in his 1973 book, Nineteenth-Century Folk Painting: Our Spirited National Heritage. Works of Art from the Collection of Mr and Mrs Peter Tillou gave it additional cachet, and Jeffers noted that “handling her was pretty special.” One of her good clients — a private collector in the Midwest — prevailed against competitors and won her for $18,000.
“The buyer, who is a Midwest private collector and good client of mine, fell in love with her,” Amelia Jeffers said of this American School portrait of a mariner’s daughter. Estimated at $10/20,000, the 35½-by-27¼-inch oil on canvas mounted on board brought $18,000.
Camden, Ohio, dealer David Good, Dinah and Stephen Lefkowitz and Northampton, Mass., dealers Don Walters and Mary Benisek were recorded as earlier owners of a diminutive New England Queen Anne tavern or tea table that easily surpassed its high estimate to finish at $16,200. It will be staying in Ohio.
The big price of $15,600 was realized for a small — just 12 inches long — carved and inlaid folk art slide-lid box or etui (needle case) made in Union Township, Penn., by gunsmith John Nicholas Matthesiee (1805-1880). Previously owned by Columbus, Ohio, dealer Tom Delach and New Oxford, Penn., dealer Kelly Kinzle, it will be staying in Ohio.
One of the biggest surprises of the day was a lot of two large — each about 8 inches long — carved maple butter paddles that dated to the mid Nineteenth Century and were distinguished by bird-carved handles. Like the etui, the paddles will stay in-state.
Following an online-only Annual Year-End Warehouse sale on December 30, Jeffers has three single-owner lifetime collections she will sell in the first half of 2025: those of Audree Chase, Neil Zuehlke and Cindie Hodel. Also coming up will be part two of a 40-year collection of an Ohio couple, the first part of which Jeffers sold in May 2024.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, 740-362-4771 or www.ameliajeffers.com.
