Probably the highest priced piece of furniture at the show was this circa 1700 Hadley chest, with Morgan MacWhinnie, Southampton, N.Y. An extensive description accompanied the chest, which he had priced at $45,000.
Review & Photos By Rick Russack
MARLBOROUGH, MASS. — Ceramic shards (Rona Andrews) and a 9-foot-tall custom-made pond boat (Greg Hamilton). A $45,000 Hadley chest (Morgan MacWhinnie) to $7 Christmas ornaments (Roland Morgan). And, arguably, one of the smallest nests of burl bowls you’ve ever seen. Nearly anything that might appeal to antiques collectors was at the November 26 Gurley antiques show in Marlborough. That includes early furniture, early ceramics, redware, stoneware, iron and brass lighting accessories, fireplace accessories, folk painting, silver, jewelry, a sampler by a Black needleworker, toys, to name a few of the categories on hand.
Rachel and Josh Gurley summed up their feeling about the show, “We’re preserving the three-decade long history of a Marlborough show on Thanksgiving weekend. We have about 85 dealers here today, and the quality of what’s here amazes us.” There were about 185 people, indoors and out, waiting in line for the show to open.”
While Gurley shows usually lean towards Americana, this time not everything fit that category as there was a wealth of German bellarmine jugs and other European ceramics. Both furniture and folk art included Dutch examples. Butch Berdan and Tom Jewett, Newcastle, Maine, had a large carved and painted dummy board, cut from especially thick boards, showing a mother with her child seated on her knee. Jewett said that he believed it to be Dutch, given the costuming, and that it dated to about 1790. They priced it $5,500. They also had a large carving that may have been a caduceus (a medical symbol based on Greco-Egyptian mythology), or it may simply have been a large, well-carved snake climbing a tree branch. Whichever it was, the price was $1,250. Their booth had one of those “I’ve never seen that before” items: a small representation of a one-room schoolhouse, with a fall front and sides painted to look like a schoolhouse. Inside were close to 20 painted figures of students, a teacher at a lectern and posters on the back wall for teaching the ABCs. They were asking $650.
Butch Berdan and Tom Jewett, New Castle, Maine, believed this large, well-made dummy board to be of Dutch origin. Circa 1790, they priced it $5,500.
Greg Hamilton, Stone Block Antiques, Vergennes, Vt., had a large inlaid, serpentine, fall-front desk, that he thought was probably Dutch, dating to the late Seventeenth or early Eighteenth Century and he was asking $2,500. A very large model of a pond boat was also in his booth; it was more than 9 feet tall and 8 feet long. Made of mahogany, it had four sails with brass fittings; he was asking $4,500.
There was plenty of American furniture along with appropriate accessories. Peter Eaton, Wiscasset, Maine, had a very large hutch table, 4 by 6 feet, in original red paint, with one drawer and a scrubbed top for which he was asking $2,900. A large 20-arm tin chandelier, made in the Twentieth Century, was priced $1,150. Eaton’s booth also offered a selection of portrait miniatures.
Derek Polito, Kensington, Conn., had several pieces of painted furniture and a pair of continuous-arm Windsor chairs. With carved plank seats, they were probably from Massachusetts, circa 1790; he was asking $2,500. He also had a primitive Eighteenth Century, Hudson Valley “baby tender” with rose-head nails which he described as having an “untouched attic surface.” The price was $995. There was also a selection of early iron and pewter accessories.
This matched pair of Massachusetts Windsor armchairs, circa 1790, were priced $2,500 by Derek Polito, Kensington, Conn.
Brett Downer, Sudbury, Mass., offered a mahogany spice chest with a paneled door and 15 drawers. Probably made in Pennsylvania, late in the Eighteenth Century, it was priced $3,200.
Morgan MacWhinnie, Southampton, N.Y., quite literally, filled a booth with early American furniture: candlestands, tavern tables, Windsor chairs, etc. He also had a selection of painted bellows priced from $275-$350, as well as burl bowls. MacWhinnie’s major piece was a circa 1690 Hadley chest priced at $45,000. When Bonhams sold the chest in 2016 for $30,000, it was described as, “The extraordinary Hovey-Wadsworth Family joined oak and pine ‘Hadley’ chest with single drawer, Massachusetts, early Eighteenth Century.” It featured a boldly initialed “IH” amid profusely scrolled and lush tulip-and-leaf carving. The chest is documented in Clair Franklin Luther’s seminal work The Hadley Chest (1935), which lists as many as 250 pieces of similarly joined and painted furniture, a group that is considered one of the most recognizable forms of early American furniture.
There was an abundance of early lighting devices in several booths. Al Benting, Benting and Jarvis, Barrington, N.H., had several early brass candlesticks, with one from the early 1800s priced at $240. Rona Andrews, Worcester, Mass., had a group of sheet-metal hog scrapers priced around $135 and an unusual three-candle wall sconce with an embossed tulip and crimped edges for which she was asking $350. She priced a pewter whale oil lamp with an adjustable lens, made by Roswell Gleason, $425. Several other booths offered additional examples, including Don Heller, Heller-Washam, Portland Maine, who had a pair of Eighteenth Century brass candlesticks.
Folk art offerings included several good folk portraits. Sandy Jacobs, Swampscott, Mass., had a portrait of a young girl seated in a red chair, holding her doll, which she had marked $4,200. Martha Boynton, Groton, Mass., had a very clean set five of nesting paper theorem boxes tagged $1,400. Hooked rugs in the show included one with two cats, for which Bob Snyder and Judy Wilson, Lititz, Penn., were asking $1,250.
Martha Boynton, Townsend, Mass., especially liked this painting of Squam Lake, N.H., which she believed had been done by Victor de Grailly. She said that it been painted from an identified print source and was asking $6,500 for it.
Oddities included a box of old ice skates brought by Deep River Antiques, Essex, Conn., who also a large, framed, albumen photograph of buildings around the entrance to the Hoosac tunnel, which was priced $450. Oliver Garland was asking $2,200 for an unusual example of shellwork, which consisted of a large bouquet of flowers in a vase with straw-work had been made in England. He dated it to the early Nineteenth Century.
Ceramics were in abundance. The largest selection of mocha ware — at least two dozen pieces — was in the booth of Malcolm Magruder, Millwood, Va. He also had several pieces of creamware, Delft, Liverpool jugs and redware. Heller had Delft plates, as did Ross Levett, Thomaston, Maine, and Brian Cullity, Sagamore, Mass. Stoneware, including Bellarmine jugs, was available from several dealers. Perhaps the earliest piece belonged to Cullity: it was a tall Aachen stoneware handled jug, circa 1450, for which he was asking $950.
After the show, Rachel Gurley commented, “It was interesting to me to see the number of second and third generation dealers we had. That’s great for the future. And, this show had a broad selection of merchandise beyond strictly the American as some of our shows do. I was also really surprised as I walked around the show at the amount of Seventeenth Century material that was there, both in furniture and ceramics. I saw a lot of trade signs going out and furniture, both large and small. We, along with others, sold a ton of vintage Christmas decorations. The crowd was back to the pre-pandemic size. I know that some of that was due to the local social media advertising we did because we offered a $2 discount if folks mentioned that they had seen the social media ads. It was a good feeling all the way ‘round.”
For additional information, www.gurleyantiqueshows.com or contact Rachel Gurley at 207-396-4255 or Josh Gurley at 207-229-0403.
