Beating its $200/400,000 estimate with a best-in-show price of $525,000 was this important Philadelphia Chippendale carved mahogany chest-on-chest that brought a new client to Brunk.
Review by Madelia Hickman Ring
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Brunk Auctions witnessed a flurry of sales from November 11-14, with three various owner’s sales and two single-owner sales conducted back to back. Of the nearly 1,250 lots offered, more than 93 percent of lots gaveled down successfully and the cumulative haul for the auction marathon was $5,276,921.
The firm front-loaded the week with the collection of Jerold D. Krouse, a Natchez, Miss., collector who had a deep appreciation for ornate carving and figural motifs, and who spent a lifetime assembling masterworks of Irish and American furniture and Irish silver. Choice pieces from Krouse’s collection, which was profiled in more than one “Living with Antiques” features in The Magazine Antiques, had also been exhibited in a 2015 exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago or published elsewhere. The sale gave discerning collectors the opportunity to buy the best. And buy they did, with the results of the sale exceeding its high estimate.
A private collector, who had not purchased from Brunk before, paid $525,000 for the auction’s top lot, a circa 1765 Philadelphia Chippendale carved mahogany chest-on-chest, the carving attributed to Nicholas Bernard and Martin Jugiez, that had, at one time, been in the collection of Mr and Mrs Lamont du Pont Copeland.
A trade buyer on the phone took The Devenish Table to $237,500. It was the highest price paid for a piece of Irish furniture in the Krouse collection ($120/180,000).
Irish furniture from the Krouse collection was capped at $237,500 for The Devenish Table, a George II carved mahogany side table that was included in “Ireland: Crossroads of Art and Design, 1690-1840” at the Art Institute of Chicago. It was followed at $137,500 by a George II carved mahogany games table, also in the Art Institute exhibition, that one dealer/expert once referred to as “without a doubt the finest Irish card table presently known.”
Krouse’s silver also saw strong results. A 1749 George II English silver basket by Edward Wakelin capped the category and brought $62,500 from a private collector bidding online, just ahead of the $60,000 realized for a George II English shell-form silver basket, made in 1754 in London, possibly by William Cripps. The highest price earned by Irish silver in the collection was $20,000, a figure shared by a matched pair of George II silver beer mugs by John Moore (Dublin, 1745) and a pair of George II silver candlesticks with the mark of John Hamilton (Dublin, circa 1750).
Before transitioning to its second single-owner collection, the house offered 170 lots of British and Continental furniture and fine and decorative arts to capitalize on the interest from the Krouse sale. One of its most highly anticipated lots was also the star of the sale: Allan Ramsay’s (Scottish, 1713-1784) portrait of Sir John Peachey, Third Baronet, which had descended in the Peachey and James families before selling at Christie’s London in 2016. A private collector who had not previously bought at Brunk and was bidding online took it to $31,980.
Allan Ramsay’s portrait of Sir John Peachey led the British & Continental auction and sold to a new online private collector who had the winning bid of $31,980 ($25/35,000).
In mid March 2025, Brunk sold more than 200 lots in the first installment of objects from the Newbury, Mass., collection of John B. and Marie-Teresa Vander Sande. The second round from the collection crossed the block midweek, with another 197 lots that also had a high sell-through rate and exceeded its aggregate high estimate.
Achieving top-lot status from the Vander Sande collection was one of perhaps only three known American (Boston) Cromwellian upholstered high-back chairs that related to examples at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York State Museum; additionally, a low-backed chair at Winterthur has similar turnings. Estimated at $30/50,000, it gaveled down for $67,650, selling to a private collector on the phone.
Of similarly early vintage, a Pilgrim Century carved joined chest, attributed to the Ipswich, Mass., shop of Thomas Dennis, also had strong estimate-shattering interest, to $49,200. It had been published in Emerson Baker and Nina N. Maurer’s Forgotten Frontier: Untold Stories of the Piscataqua (Old Berwick Historical Society, 2018).
A private collector making their buying debut at the house pushed interest in this American Pilgrim Century painted and ebonized oak court cupboard, from the Vander Sande collection, to $44,280 ($5/7,000).
Rounding out the leaderboard of the Vander Sandes’ early American furniture was a Pilgrim Century painted and ebonized oak court cupboard, made in the late Seventeenth Century in coastal Massachusetts, likely Boston. A previously unknown client, bidding online, had the winning bid of $44,280.
Early ceramics were another strength of the Vander Sande collection, led by a dated “1649” Wrotham four-handled tyg ($39,360), an early Eighteenth Century Nottingham carved double walled stoneware mug ($18,450), an English slipware honey pot with combed decoration ($9,225) and two Westerwald salt-glazed portrait jugs depicting King William III and Queen Mary ($9,225).
A two-session sale presenting more than 650 lots of American & Southern fine and decorative arts closed the week. The first session of the American & Southern auction was led by pieces from the Baltimore collection of Karen Shackleford Moore and included a Massachusetts Chippendale figured mahogany block-front desk ($41,820), a Federal inlaid tambour desk handled by Israel Sack ($24,600), an early Twentieth Century Heriz carpet that measured nearly 17 by 10 feet ($14,760), a Chinese export porcelain tea set ($13,530) and an 1827 portrait of George Nugent by Thomas Sully ($11,070).
Published June 15, 1969, this Peanuts cartoon strip, titled “Rookie of the Year” featured the final official appearance of the character Shermy and sold, to an institution making their debut purchase at Brunk, for $54,120. The strip was one of four originally owned by United Feature Syndicate editor Jim Freeman ($30/50,000).
The highest price of the two-session sale was realized on the second day by an original 1969 Peanuts cartoon strip that depicted Snoopy being awarded the Rookie of the Year trophy. It was one of four original strips given to Joan and Peter Deen by her uncle, Jim Freeman, editor at United Feature Syndicate. All four strips sold for a cumulative total of $177,120, with “Rookie of the Year” bringing $54,120 from an undisclosed institution.
American and Southern paintings started the second session; the highest price of the category was a self portrait of William Edward West (1788-1857), which was included in a Magazine Antiques article titled “Portrait of ante-bellum Kentuckians” and which exceeded expectations with a $36,900 bid from an online private collector. Topping landscapes, William Trost Richards’ 1890 “Sunset, Conanicut” brought $31,980. An oil on board composition by Clementine Hunter titled “The Baptism,” which had once been owned by Los Angeles fashion designer Ruci Gernreich, was won by a new private collector for $18,450.
A rare first model Morse carbine that had provenance to the Ben Michel collection of Confederate Arms and the historic Dean Hall Plantation led the charge for Southern interest lots with a $36,900 bid. At a monumental 20 inches tall, a four-handled decorated stoneware jar made in Edgefield District, S.C., was topped off at $27,060, and a map of the Plan of the Siege of Savannah by Charles Stedman and William Faden, published in 1794 in London, found a home with a private collector buying at Brunk for the first time, for $4,920.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, 828-254-6846 or www.brunkauctions.com.
