The words “8 to 7” are the only ones to appear inscribed under the constriction of 14 elaborately detailed pit vipers on Wallace and Cornwall Kirkpatrick’s snake jug. They do not represent the score of a game or the hours of a night shift. Instead, they describes a high-joint commission vote that went down along party lines, with a Republican party majority that voted in favor of its own behalf to elect Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes in the 1876 too-close-to-call presidential election. Some counts had his opponent winning by more than 250,000 votes. The “8 to 7” echoes the popular sentiment of the time and was short for “eight villains to seven patriots.” Richard Mohr in his book, Pottery, Politics, Art: George Ohr and the Brothers Kirkpatrick, wrote, “The point of the Kirkpatrick presidential election jugs then is fairly clear. They are a general indictment of political chicanery. Politics [in the view of Wallace Kirkpatrick] is viewed [and portrayed] as nothing but a pit of pit vipers.” The jug approaches the block (only three days before the midterms) at Crocker Farm, joining other top lots from around the United States in this week’s picks.
CROCKER FARM
Sale Date: November 3, 2018
Lot 66
Salt-Glazed Stoneware Snake Jug, Wallace and Cornwall Kirkpatrick
Anna, Ill., 1877. Depicting 14 intertwined, constricting and undulating snakes with Albany slip decoration, the words “8 to 7” inscribed beneath.
Estimate: $50/70,000
SWANN
Sale Date: November 1, 2018
Lot 210
Mary Cassatt, “Baby’s Back”
Drypoint printed in dark brown on antique cream laid paper, 1890. 9¼ by 6½ inches, full margins. Third state, signed and inscribed “épreuve d’essai” in pencil, lower right.
Estimate: $10/15,000
LESLIE HINDMAN
Sale Date: November 1, 2018
Lot 45
Zinc Zodiac Clock Face
From the Schlitz Brewery, United States, late Nineteenth Century, 90½ inches diameter.
Estimate $5/7,000
SKINNER
Sale Date: November 3, 2018
Lot 9
Carved Androgynous Figure In A Top Hat
United States, circa 1869–70, the yellow pine figure with crossed arms and female lower anatomy, standing on a square plinth with black-painted top hat, 13-3/8 inches high.
Estimate: $8/12,000
HERITAGE
Sale Date: November 1–2, 2018
Lot 52284
Apollo 11 Lunar Module Flown Piece of the Wright Flyer’s Propeller
Flown as part of the first successful powered flight in history at Kitty Hawk in 1903 as well as the first manned lunar landing in 1969, directly From The Armstrong Family Collection.
Current Bid: $45,000
HUMLER & NOLAN
Sale Date: November 3–4, 2018
Lot 1412
Rookwood Standard, Electroplated Fish
Standard glaze vase with carved, painted and electroplated fish and seaweed done in 1898 by Kataro Shirayamadani.
Estimate: $9/12,000
J GARRETT AUCTIONEERS
Sale Date: November 3–4, 2018
Lot 144
Pair Of Italian Rococo Carved Beds
Adorned with large, hand-carved cherubs and hand-painted courting scenes. Creme lacquer background with gold water gilded accents. Late Nineteenth or early Twentieth Century.
Estimate: $10/15,000
BUTTERSCOTCH
Sale Date: November 4, 2018
Lot 155
Pair Renaissance Revival Griffin Armchairs
Nineteenth Century, likely Italian, ornately carved in walnut with inset Kirman pictorial pile-weave rug chair-backs — one depicting a young Ahmad Shah Qajar, the other depicting a young European boy — and Turkoman-covered cushions.
Estimate: $4/6,000
CONESTOGA AUCTION COMPANY
Sale Date: November 3, 2018
Lot 620
Glazed and Sgrafitto Decorated Redware Flower Pot
Attributed to Samuel Troxel. Inscribed on upper rim “Jonas Boyer January 2th 1830” with German script. Incised banding, fluted ruffle and coggle decoration. Yellow glaze with green mottling. Incised on bottom “Jonas Boyer January the 10th, 1830”. Also has an illegible inscription believed to be Toxler’s name.
Estimate: $3/5,000
