A Virginia private collector came to the sale and went home with its top lot, this Rockingham County Shenandoah Valley of Virginia salt-glaze decorated stoneware covered sugar bowl made by Andrew Coffman with unusual button-top finial. A recent discovery, it brought $34,800 and was underbid by an online private collector ($10/20,000).
Review by Madelia Hickman Ring
MOUNT CRAWFORD, VA. — Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates welcomed summer with four sales — June 19-22 — in which the house presented 2,201 lots of Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century glass, lighting silver, textiles, ceramics, Americana and the collection of Katharine “Kitty Sue” Pease. More than 97 percent of the lots gaveled down successfully and Will Kimbrough, the firm’s auctioneer, vice president and department head for Americana and fine art, was tired but happy to talk to Antiques and The Arts Weekly following the marathon event.
“It was a very good sale and we’re feeling good. It was very strong and exceeded our expectations, with many more pleasant surprises than disappointments. The Kitty Pease collection was very well received, as was the Julia Roe spatterware collection that followed it, which went through the roof with prices being very, very strong.”
Many of the sale’s highest prices were realized on the fourth and last day, in a 565-lot session. The largest price of the entire event — $34,800 — was realized by one of the smallest single objects on offer, a 5½-inch-tall covered salt-glaze-decorated stoneware sugar bowl stamped “A. Coffman / Rockigham (sic) Va.,” that had descended in the family that acquired it from potter Andrew Coffman (1795-1853). Coffman worked in eastern Rockingham County from 1840 to 1853 and the bowl is one of just three signed examples known, though it varied from the other two in both form and decoration.
A private Virginia collector prevailed to win for $22,800 this late Eighteenth Century Tidewater Virginia Chippendale walnut bottle case or cellaret that had provenance and publishing history with Colonial Williamsburg ($8/12,000).
Kimbrough shared that the bowl had been recently discovered as part of an estate sale box lot that sold for just $46; he also confirmed it was purchased by a Virginia private collector, bidding in the room, who prevailed against another private collector bidding online.
Topping off at $22,800, a Chippendale walnut bottle case or cellaret from the Tidewater area of Virginia was the second-place finisher. Made in two pieces — a hinged-top divided box on a stand fitted with mixing slide and two short drawers — the piece retained an old surface and original brass pulls and hinges. Provenance to both Carter’s Grove Plantation and Colonial Williamsburg undoubtedly contributed to interest in the handsome piece, which was also published in Ronald L. Hurst and Jonathan Prown’s Southern Furniture, 1680-1820 (1997). Kimbrough said it sold to a private collector from Virginia who was bidding online.
“Very fine” was how the catalog described a Federal inlaid mahogany valuables box, made in Baltimore or Annapolis, Md., circa 1795, that sold to an online bidder for the sale’s third-highest price of $20,400.
This folk art portrait of Mary C. Barnes by John James Trumbull Arnold, was done in oil on canvas in 1856 and measured 36 by 24¼ inches. Will Kimbrough noted it received a lot of attention prior the sale and sold to an important Mid-Atlantic collector for $15,600 ($8/12,000).
A folk art portrait of Mary C. Barnes (b 1844, Somerset County, Penn.) by John James Trumbull Arnold (American, 1812-1865) that descended in the family of the sitter is one of a group of known works by the itinerant artist who worked in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. According to the catalog, it was “a classic work by Arnold employing minimal decoration to the background while including carefully selected objects within the composition in an effort to emphasize certain features of the subject, notably the face and hands.” Bidders agreed and it exceeded expectations with a $15,600 result.
Among other fine art highlights on the fourth day, an oil on canvas portrait of Harriet Smith (b 1770, Charleston, S.C.) was important for several reasons. It was attributed to Henry Benbridge (American, 1743-1812), was housed in what was likely its original mahogany and cypress pine frame possibly made by the Charleston cabinetmaker, Thomas Elfe, and related to an example published by Carolyn J. Weekley in Painters and Paintings in the Early American South (Colonial Williamsburg, 2013). The sitter was the granddaughter of Landgrave Thomas Smith II (1670-1738), a wealthy and influential Lowcountry landowner, who served for several terms in the South Carolina Colonial Assembly. The catalog noted the portraits presence on the market, “completely fresh and unrecorded, represents an exceedingly rare opportunity to acquire an outstanding example of pre-Revolutionary Southern portraiture by a highly desirable hand.” It sold slightly below expectations to a phone bidding trade buyer for $13,200.
This carved and inlaid walnut desk and bookcase, attributed to John Shearer, circa 1800, presented collectors with “a rare opportunity to acquire an important piece of Southern backcountry furniture crafted by an iconic Southern cabinetmaker.” It earned $14,400 from a Virginia private collector bidding online ($10/15,000).
While freshness to market often drives bidding, there were other lots where prior auction history was a factor. Such was the case with a carved and inlaid walnut desk and bookcase, attributed to John Shearer (Virginia / West Virginia, active 1790-1820) that had been sold by Sotheby’s New York twice: the first time on July 1, 1983, the second time on June 17, 1999. Now identified as an “important newly identified masterwork in Southern decorative arts,” it relates to the only other known Shearer-associated desk and bookcase, now in the collection of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA). Selling for $14,400, it will be staying in Virginia with a private collector.
The third day of the auction comprised nearly 550 lots, of which 350 were from the estate collection of Los Angeles Americana collector Katherine “Kitty Sue” Pease. Her collection was assembled primarily in the 1970s and 80s, when she would travel to the East Coast in search of Americana and folk art. Several of the highest-selling lots in the sale came from her collection, which was led at $19,200 by an 81-inch-tall American folk art carved and painted tobacconist or cigar store trade figure of a man wearing eagle headdress and wolf robe. Other carved figures were in the Pease collection, including an American or British carved and painted nautical figure or figurehead of a woman in a Classical-style gown that tripled its high estimate to finish at $15,300.
Standing 60 inches tall and dating to the Nineteenth Century, this American or British carved and painted nautical figure or figurehead earned $15,300 from a private collector who was making their first purchase from Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates ($3/5,000).
A vibrant Pennsylvania Schwenkfelder folk art fraktur-style drawing cataloged as “important” featured a row of houses under a floral garland with two distelfinks or lovebirds in the upper corner; the Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center in Pennsburg, Penn., won it for $18,000. More fine art highlights from the Pease collection would certainly include a late Nineteenth or early Twentieth Century American school folk art portrait of a black cat with a mouse in its mouth. The mouser more than doubled its high estimate and was acquired by a New England folk art collector for $12,300.
The furniture category of the Pease collection was substantial with more than 100 lots; it reached its apex at $8,750 for an impressive patriotic carved walnut secretary desk and bookcase made circa 1864 by John Almon Hobart (Maine / Illinois, 1841-1918). An inscription on the back said, “—70 years old — / 1934 / Belonged / to Maj T.J. Hobart / 44 Ills Reg / Carved by John Almon Clar Hobart / Given Almon A Clarke / For Clifford D. Clarke / and Children.” Bidders liked the decorative elements that included lyre carving, horses, shields, an eagle, a cannon and three rifles, a stag and Dutch-style windmill and cottage scene; a Midwest private collector had the winning bid.
Though his Pennsylvania German-style carvings are not old, Capeville, Va., carver Frank Finney (b 1947) has developed a strong following among Americana collectors. One of his bird trees, featuring 24 different birds and standing 23 inches tall overall, that came from a Capeville, Va., private collection, landed at $14,760. A folk art collector from New England prevailed over their competition.
Exhibiting 24 different birds, this 23-inch-tall carved and painted folk art bird tree, made in the Twenty-First Century by Frank Finney, was described as “an outstanding example” and achieved $14,760 from a folk art collector in New England who was bidding on the phone ($10/15,000).
After the auction, company president and principal auctioneer Jeffrey S. Evans commented, “This sale generated robust interest across the board, from bidders near and far. The caliber of the material offered across multiple categories was very appealing to a broad swath of collectors. The overall excitement and strong sales results reflect the freshness and high quality of the merchandise offered. Furthermore, the Pease Collection was a hit and drew in large numbers of new customers for us.”
Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates will sell Americana on August 22-24 and fine and decorative arts, October 17-19. The next Premier Americana auction is scheduled for November 21-23 and will include between 200 and 250 lots from a Washington, DC, folk art collection.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, www.jeffreysevans.com or 540-434-3939.
