This oil on canvas portrait of a boy holding a book by William W. Kennedy was the top lot of the Moylan single-owner sale. It was dated 1846, measured 20¼ by 16½ inches and sold to a trade buyer for $19,050, the highest price of either sale ($4/6,000).
Review by Madelia Hickman Ring; Photos Courtesy Freeman’s | Hindman
CINCINNATI, OHIO — The second and final part of the Donald F. Moylan, MD, Collection of American Furniture, Folk & Decorative Arts was offered by Freeman’s | Hindman on March 14, about five months after Hindman sold the first part in early November 2023. The sale achieved a total of approximately $242,000 with a sell-through rate of more than 83 percent. The following day, nearly 400 lots from a variety of sellers crossed the block and, with nearly 85 percent gaveling down successfully, the house earned about $485,000.
“It was a lot of material to sell over a couple of days but I’m feeling very good overall,” noted Ben Fisher, Freeman’s | Hindman’s managing director of furniture and decorative arts.
Donald Moylan Collection
Portraits of adorable children rank high in desirability for folk art collectors, and an oil on canvas example by William W. Kennedy (American, 1817-1871) of a boy holding a book was the top lot of either day, achieving $19,050 against a $4/6,000 estimate. Somewhat unusually, the painting was signed and dated by the artist and the title of the book was visible in the portrait. Kennedy was part of a group of itinerant New England painters referred to as the Prior-Hamblin School of artists who were most active during the 1840s and 1850s and whose work is often unsigned but bears not only stylistic similarities but also a shared use of common decorative elements. A trade buyer had the winning bid.
This Nineteenth Century American school portrait of a girl with a rose from the Moylan collection, rendered in watercolor with graphite on paper measuring 17¼ by 13 inches, appealed to several private collectors. In the end, one of them from the Northeast took it for $15,240 ($400/600).
A Nineteenth Century American School watercolor with graphite on paper portrait of a girl with a rose was equally charming. The unsigned piece, which measured 17¼ by 13 inches, had provenance to noted Highland Park, Ill., folk art collector, Barbara Pollack. Fisher noted that it had been on the market previously and that some of the people who pursued it then came to the table again, but in the end, a private Northeast collector won it for $15,240.
Rounding out portrait highlights from Moylan’s collection was a pair of portraits of Samuel (circa 1788-1857) and Julia Ewing (née Householder, circa 1792-1874) that was attributed to Jasper Miles (American, 1782-1849) and dated to circa 1805. The blue background distinguished these from other portraits by Miles, who more typically used a gray background. Moylan had acquired these from Cowan’s Auctions in 2019 for an undisclosed amount. Freeman’s | Hindman sold them to a buyer in the Midwest for $6,985, more than four times the high estimate.
“We’ve had a great history of selling Civil War paintings in our Cincinnati office; there’s always an interest for us that we hope will continue,” Fisher noted when discussing Frances C. Wheaton’s (American, 1849-circa 1942) 1890 painting that depicted the 1865 capture of Fort Fisher in North Carolina. According to the auction catalog, joint Army and Navy forces commanded by Union Rear Admiral David D. Porter and Major General Alfred Terry staged an assault on Fort Fisher, the garrison of the last remaining open port for the Confederacy at Wilmington, N.C. Federal ships opened fire on January 12, 1865, and three days later, the Union Army attacked the fort, joined by a large contingent of Marines and sailors. Ultimately, Confederate Major General William H.C. Witting surrendered the fort on January 15 after hours of intense bombardment. Fisher said several private collectors competed for it, to $8,890.
A trade buyer paid $12,065 for this Eighteenth Century Bermudan Queen Anne cedar blanket chest from the Moylan collection ($800-$1,200).
Leading Moylan’s furniture selection at $12,065 was a Queen Anne carved cedar blanket chest from Bermuda. A trade buyer prevailed over their competitors. A diminutive William and Mary yellow pine one-drawer blanket chest from New England earned $2,413, while painted furniture reached its apex with a late Federal grain-painted poplar blanket chest, probably from Pennsylvania circa 1830, for $2,159.
Various Owners’ Sale
Condition was a driving factor in the $17,780 result — and the highest result for the various owners’ sale — for a 50-inch-tall carved and painted pine tobacco figure that was in what Fisher described as “fabulous and untouched” despite some losses. Unattributed and dated to the second half of the Nineteenth Century, it will be staying in the Midwest.
The minimal use apparent in a late Eighteenth or early Nineteenth Century Canton famille rose Chinese export porcelain dinner service of more than 100 pieces also helped drive interest in a lot that crossed the block early in the day. Also contributing to its result was its provenance to a prominent Rhode Island family that descended from Providence, R.I., businessman and China trade merchant, Sullivan Dorr (1778-1858). A private collector in New England let the $10/15,000 estimate guide them, taking the set for $13,970.
Leading the various owners’ sale of Americana at $17,780 was this diminutive — just 50 inches tall — carved and painted pine tobacco store figure that was unattributed but dated to the second half of the Nineteenth Century. Ben Fisher waxed enthusiastic about its original condition and said it was staying in the Midwest ($3/5,000).
More than 100 pieces of stoneware from the Robert and Nancy Treichler collection provided a significant grouping for serious collectors and several strong results were achieved throughout. Robert’s expertise and scholarship on Ohio stoneware is well known and well documented, with several lots in the sale having been in books he’d published. At the top of his collection and selling to an Ohio buyer for $12,700 was a 10-gallon stoneware keg with cobalt decoration in the form of a basket with flowers. According to the catalog, the handling of the decoration of the unsigned keg relates to known examples made by the Gelheart family, who were documented as working in Atwater, Ohio, from 1870.
A 5-gallon incised and cobalt decorated stoneware whiskey keg, made in the first half of the Nineteenth Century by Bennage & Sutherland in Springfield Township, Summit County, Ohio, outperformed expectations and will also be staying in Ohio, with a collector who paid $8,255 for it. It had been published in Treichler’s A History of Northeast Ohio Stoneware (Carlisle Printing: Sugarcreek, Ohio, 2011). Included in the same book was a Dustman cobalt-decorated “dancing girl” harvest jug, made in Berlin Center, Mahoning County in the Nineteenth Century ($7,620).
A diminutive Federal inlaid mahogany sideboard of the type most frequently attributed to Thomas Howard Jr, working in Providence and Pawtuxet, R.I., circa 1800, led the furniture category with an above-estimate $12,065 result. From the same Private Rhode Island family that consigned the Chinese export porcelain dinner service, it also had provenance to Nathan Liverant and Son Antiques. Fisher noted it was purchased by a Mid-Atlantic buyer.
Boasting provenance to a prominent Rhode Island family and Colchester, Conn., dealer Nathan Liverant and Son Antiques, this Federal leafy vine inlaid mahogany diminutive sideboard attributed to Thomas Howard sold to a Mid-Atlantic buyer for $12,065, the highest price paid for a piece of furniture in the various owners’ sale ($4/6,000).
A buyer farther south paid $8,255 for a 111-inch-tall Federal carved and inlaid mahogany tall case clock that was dated to circa 1810 and retained a paper label for Massachusetts clockmaker, Aaron Willard.
Another noted section of the sale was more than 60 lots of occupational shaving mugs from the collection of the late Jim Carpenter of Montague, N.J. Carpenter is best known for his rediscovery of the ceramics of George Ohr, the “Mad Potter” of Biloxi, Miss., but his personal interest was in barbershop collectibles, and he amassed one of the great collections of painted shaving mugs. A race driver mug with the gilt inscription “Geo. Winzinger” and marked “TK Czechoslovakia” on the underside led the collection, driving its $800-$1,200 estimate to $8,255.
Freeman’s | Hindman will sell Americana in Philadelphia on April 30; the Cincinnati office will sell it again in the fall, date TBA.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, 513-871-1670 (Cincinnati), 215-563-9275 (Philadelphia) or www.freemansauction.com.
