This four-gallon stoneware “People” jar made in Uniontown, Penn., or Morgantown, W.Va., circa 1860, 14 inches tall, was the first lot sold, and the top lot of the day, changing hands with a phone bidder for $11,800 ($1,5/2,500).
Review by Kiersten Busch
WHIPPLE, OHIO — Meander Auctions celebrated the season with its Fall Antiques and Art Auction, conducted on November 15, which offered 552 lots. Owner Andrew Richmond reported, “We were very pleased with the auction. We had a good crowd in-house, plus over 1,000 bidders online. Prices were generally solid market prices, with some hot spots in stoneware and advertising.” While Richmond chose not to disclose a sale total, he explained, “The sale total was closer to the overall pre-sale high,” and that the sell-through rate was 92 percent.
In terms of bidding, Richmond said, “We had in-house bidders who were local and some who drove in from out of state. Our online bidders were from coast to coast and a handful from overseas. We added Invaluable to this auction, so that puts us at four online platforms: our platform, LiveAuctioneers, Invaluable and HiBid.”
More than half of the top 10 best-selling lots were Pennsylvania stoneware, including the highest-achieving lot, a four-gallon “People” jar made circa 1860 in either western Pennsylvania or Morgantown, W.Va. It depicted a woman standing between two small trees, indicative that it was possibly made at the potteries of David Greenland Thompson (Morgantown), John Greenland (Connellsville, Penn.) or Norval Greenland (Uniontown, Penn.) With provenance to a southeast Ohio collection and a July 2012 Crocker Farm sale, the jar sold at Meander to collector on the phone for $11,800.
An out-of-state phone bidder paid $6,490 for this circa 1885 Williams and Reppert (Greensboro, Penn.) 20-gallon stoneware jar, 26 inches tall ($1,5/2,500).
Next was a circa 1885 20-gallon jar made by Williams and Reppert in Greensboro, Penn., which had provenance to a southeast Ohio collection. The piece had a stenciled motif with an eagle at its center and additional freehand decoration. It far surpassed its $1,5/2,000 estimate to reach $6,490.
Two more jars made at the Greensboro pottery of Alexander Vance Boughner, circa 1860, earned top prices of the day, including a 14-inch-tall jar with fanciful freehand decoration ($3,835) and a “scarce” one-gallon jar with a stenciled name and freehand cobalt decoration ($2,500).
An 1850-59 peafowl-decorated three-gallon jug by Bennington, Vt., pottery J. & E. Norton flew to $2,737 ($300/600). “This particular bird is perhaps more commonly referred to as a pheasant, though regardless of your preferred bird ID, it is an exceptional example,” the auction catalog noted. The peafowl, or pheasant, in question was perched on a tree in this design.
A Halloween parade lantern by the Toledo (Ohio) Metal Sign Company, consigned from a private collection, was the first non-stoneware item to achieve a high price, earning the third-highest of the sale from an in-house bidder at $6,490. “This belonged to the seller’s grandfather in Toledo; she is on the East Coast. Needless to say, she and her family are pleased,” said Richmond. The early Twentieth Century tin jack-o-lantern retained most of its original orange and black paint, as well as a period wooden handle.
Made by the Toledo (Ohio) Metal Sign Company, this tin jack-o-lantern was made for a parade; it sold to an in-house bidder for $6,490 ($1/2,000).
Other metal-based objects included a late Nineteenth or early Twentieth Century copper and zinc hollow-bodied cow weathervane. The 25-inch example had its old verdigris surface with traces of gilding left. Consigned from an Ohio collection, it will now head to an online bidder from Invaluable for $2,460.
Fine art was led by an unsigned American early Twentieth Century watercolor and gouache on paper work of the schooner Iroquois, which sailed to an absentee bidder for $2,596. According to catalog notes, the Iroquois, built circa 1850, “was among the working cargo vessels that plied Lake Erie during the third quarter of the Nineteenth Century, part of the vital lake trade that carried lumber, grain and coal between growing port cities.”
Three lots concerning the artist Erté crossed the block, led by a “French Rooster” bronze marked “1987” and numbered “13/375.” With provenance to an Ohio estate, the sculpture sold to an online bidder on Meander’s site for $2,142. A bronze of “Venus” from the same estate ($1,904) and a lot of two books on the artist — Marshall Lee’s Erte Sculpture (1996) and Erte: The Last Works (1991) — which made $48 — also found new homes.
Richmond also mentioned a Canadian sampler with a floral border, alphabet lines and cats as a lot that did surprisingly well. “The Canadian sampler is going back home to Canada,” he reported, for $1,012. It was made by Lucretia Everitt (1824-1859) of Woodstock, New Brunswick, in the 1840s.
Meander’s next auction will be on January 24. Prices quoted include buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, 740-760-0012 or www.meanderauctions.com.
