Review and Onsite Photos by R. Scudder Smith,
Catalog Photos Courtesy Bunch Auctions
CHADDS FORD, PENN. — It was a long auction, but it “went nicely across the board, especially the Christmas stuff, which really smoked,” Bill Bunch said a few days after his sale of 898 lots of antiques and decorative arts on Tuesday, September 29. The total for the auction was $454,412, including the buyer’s premium. All prices reported in this review include the buyer’s premium.
“Is that all?” auctioneer Bill Bunch is saying as he knocked down lot 9045, a blue painted splint basket, 12½ inches in diameter and 11¼ inches high, for $2,300. The basket is pictured on the screen.
This sale included 200-plus lots that were the personal property of Gordon Wyckoff of Raccoon Creek Antiques, including 114 baskets, 55 lots of holiday and Christmas items, nine lots of Clevenger glass and some painted furniture and folk art. Bill announced at the start of the auction that these lots were the assets of the bankruptcy court and arrangements had been made to allow Wyckoff to bid on the items through a personal property exemption. “He will get a statement at the end of the sale, just like everyone else,” Bill added. The gross for the entire Wyckoff property was $121,970, with premium.
A hand painted trunk with a two-tray insert, leather handles and brass mounts, 21½ inches high, 28 inches wide and 18 inches deep, sold for $3,835; a two-piece mahogany bookcase breakfront, the top with four ten-pane glazed doors, the base with two stacks of three drawers, American, mid-Nineteenth Century, brought $4,425, and a Persian Lavar Kirman carpet, 9 feet 9 inches by 17 feet 5 inches, minor losses consistent with age, went for $3,304.
Toward the end of the sale a Chinese cloisonné censer, gilt-bronze finial, gilt-bronze lion feet, both handles loose, 10 inches high, more than doubled the high estimate, bringing $24,150.
A Tiffany Studio bronze desk lamp, base #424, gold iridescent Favrile glass shade with pinhead flakes on top edge, 18 inches overall height, went for $2,478, while a 14-piece Royal Vienna coffee service, lime green background with grisaille classical medallions, blue beehive mark, with coffee pot, hot milk jug, six cups and six sauce, brought $2,242.
After selling a few lots, Bill asked if one of his staff would go to his office and retrieve his new pair of glasses. Upon receiving them, he looked up and said, “So there you all are… and I can now read numbers at the back of the room.” He continued on with the basket lots, including three Missouri baskets, the first 16¾ inches in diameter for $402, the second, 14 inches in diameter for $345, and the third one, 13 inches in diameter, bringing $195. The trio of baskets all went to the same phone bidder.
Some people opted to be at the back of the room during the auction, some seated in chairs that were in the sale and others just leaning.
A Meissen porcelain figure, Model i.115, Cupid as Doctor, went under the $800 low estimate, selling for $531, and four Carl Thieme, Dresden porcelain jester/musician figurines, 5¼ to 6½ inches tall, sold over the $800 high estimate for $1,298. A Flintlock .45 caliber musket, octagonal barrel marked “Shultz,” unmarked lock, set trigger, does not cock, 52 inches long, sold under estimate at $590, and a cast iron 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition Independence Hall Tower still bank, original paint, 9½ inches tall, went within estimate for $316.
Selling just over the high estimate was a replica Howard No. 10 figure eight wall clock by E. Howard & Co., Boston, measuring 343/8 inches tall. It was in a walnut case with eight-day time movement. A JH Heller expression zither Swiss interchangeable cylinder music box, No. 11093, on stand with storage drawer for cylinders, with all original tune cards, brought $3,540, just over the low estimate. It was listed in good working order.
A Louis Comfort Tiffany Favrile pottery iridescent green vase, marked 9742, 10 inches high, no issues, went over estimate, selling for $2,006, and a Rookwood Pottery vellum floral vase, cherry blossom design by Kataro Shirayamadani, 7½ inches tall, no issues, went within estimate at $590.
Gordon Wyckoff, left, and George Allen of Raccoon Creek Antiques attended the auction on Tuesday, September 29. Sitting behind them are Robert Snyder and Judy Wilson, dealers formerly from Wiscasset, Maine, now living in Pennsylvania.
A Weller Pottery Forest jardinière and pedestal, the pot measuring 7 inches high and 9 inches in diameter, pedestal 18 inches high, went just below estimate at $460, and pair of unmarked Roseville Baneda vases, pumpkin decoration, 8½ inches tall, brought $488, within estimate. A Sino Tibetan gilt-bronze jeweled Buddha set with turquoise and coral, 10 inches high, went three times the high estimate, realizing $3,450.
Selling for ten times the high estimate at $2,300 were two Chinese painted scrolls depicting calligraphy and seals, the image size 70 inches by 12½ inches, 87 inches by 17 inches overall, while a pair of deep blue Japanese porcelain vases with carp decoration, 14 inches high, went well over the $200 high estimate, achieving $3,335.
The sale ended with an Indian School, Twentieth Century, gouache on silk, procession scene, 11¾ inches by 33½ inches sight, bringing $80, just under estimate.
Some of the chairs in the sale were on top of the glass display cases, while the tables below hold most of the decorated stoneware that was sold.
Late in the sale the online services broke down and rather than continue the auction, Bill Bunch brought forward some noncataloged items and sold them to fill in while the auction platforms corrected their problem. “I felt it was the only thing to do and we did it in the best interest of our consignors,” he added.
For additional information, www.williambunchauctions.com or 610-558-1800.
