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Maine Antique Digest, March 2015 33-B
- FEATURE -
history of belonging to Andrew
Diamond, born in Devon,
England, circa 1640, who died
on Smuttynose Island, Maine,
in 1707. Diamond married Joan
Grant in 1668 in Ipswich and
made his fortune from selling
dried codfish to the West Indies
from an island in the mouth of
the Ipswich River. Andrew Dia-
mond‘s second wife, Joanna
Diamond, gave a beaker marked
with the same monogram as on
the plate to a church in Hampton
Falls, New Hampshire. The plate
turned up at a Portsmouth estate
sale in 2000 in a box lot of silver
and apparently was overlooked
during a week when there was
just too much silver to consider.
Some said the silver sales
gave an accurate reading of the
current market. Martin said,
“There was a fifteen-year supply
of silver offered all at once, and
the prices were generally low.”
There was enthusiasm in the
salesroom; it was a great oppor-
tunity to buy from a carefully
vetted collection.
There was a smaller than usual
selection of 18th- and 19th-cen-
tury furniture and folk art at the
sales this January. Consignors
have been reluctant to sell in a
falling market. Estate consign-
ments brought competition in the
salesroom and on the phones. A
Federal clock in an inlaid case,
inscribed in ink and pencil
“Luther Metcalf/ This clock case
was made by/ Ichabod Sanford
in January 1796/ Clock made
by Caleb Wheaton/ Providence/
R.I.,” came from the Kilroy
estate and sold for $329,000 (est.
$100,000/150,000) to Deanne
Levison in the salesroom. The
last time it sold was at Sotheby
Parke Bernet, January 30-Feb-
ruary 2, 1980, when it brought
$82,500.
There was plenty of bidding
in the salesroom for the portrait
of Sarah Chandler Emerson,
attributed to Ruth Whittier Shute
(1803-1882) and Samuel Addi-
son Shute (1803-1836), from
the estate of New York collector
Jane Supino. It sold for $173,000
(est. $20,000/50,000) to Exeter,
New Hampshire, dealer Peter
Sawyer, a major buyer at all
the sales. At Sotheby’s in June
1979, it sold for $13,000 (est.
$20,000/25,000), when the por-
trait of her son Jeremiah sold for
$23,000 (est. $35,000/50,000).
The portrait of Jeremiah sold at
Sotheby’s Esmerian sale a year
ago for $665,000.
Sawyer also bought a Queen
Anne mahogany turret-top card
table at Christie’s for $149,000
(est. $30,000/50,000), outbid-
ding Clark Pearce of Essex,
Massachusetts. Sawyer bought
the two blockfront chests of
drawers made for the Honorable
William Bartlett, paying $81,250
for the one with original batwing
brasses and $60,000 for the other
made en suite but with original
bail brasses. In September 2014
the two chests were offered as
a pair with a $150,000/200,000
estimate.
Pearce outbid Sawyer to win a
Massachusetts serpentine-front
chest of drawers for $209,000
(est. $30,000/50,000). It was in
remarkably pristine condition.
A Philadelphia camelback sofa,
also in a remarkably fine state
of preservation, sold in the sales-
room to advisor Alan Miller for
$100,000 (est. $50,000/80,000).
At the height of the market,
Philadelphia camelback sofas
sold for more than five times as
much. Christie’s various-owners
sale totaled $3,429,125 and was
90% sold by lot. “I see the glass
half full,” said Christie’s John
Hays after the sale.
The market continued to
show some signs of life at the
Sotheby’s various-owners sale
on Sunday, January 25, where
a carved and inlaid mahogany
fire screen attributed to Nathan
Lombard sold for $118,750 (est.
$60,000/90,000) on the phone to
Todd Prickett of C.L. Prickett,
Yardley, Pennsylvania, under-
bid in the salesroom by Clark
Pearce. A 16-star American flag
sold on the phone for $100,000
(est. $30,000/40,000), and a
beguiling portrait of a little girl
in a blue dress holding a bunch
of grapes, attributed to Ruth
Whittier Shute and Samuel Addi-
son Shute, sold to a collector for
$87,500 (est. $50,000/70,000),
although folk art scholars said it
is probably not by the Shutes.
The Sotheby’s various-own-
ers sale brought in $2,265,504;
58% of the lots offered sold.
Sotheby’s total for the week
came to $8,877,413. Christie’s
total includes the $2,885,625
from the China trade sale on
January 26, which was boosted
by the $233,000 paid for a
famille rose rooster tureen, circa
1785, that sold in the salesroom
to a U.K. dealer. The sale was
81% sold by lot. Christie’s total
was $7,890,312. The total for the
week for both houses came to
$16,767,725.
Apparently decorative arts
sales do not make a sizeable
profit for the auction houses.
Like show dealers who are also
selling well but complaining that
they are making a living but not
getting rich because of the high
cost of doing shows, the auction
houses are looking for higher
profits on lower-priced lots. A
week after the sales Sotheby’s
announced a raise in the buy-
er’s premium to 25% on the
first $200,000, up from 25% on
the first $100,000; and 20% up
to and including $3 million, up
from $2 million, and 12% on the
excess. Bill Ruprecht, Sothe-
by’s chairman and CEO, said,
“This will strengthen the com-
pany’s profit margins and fund
innovation.” Christie’s did not
announce that it will change its
buyer’s premium, which cur-
rently matches Sotheby’s old
commissions and has been in
effect since 2013.
Look for more complete cov-
erage of the events of Americana
Week in an upcoming issue of
M.A.D.
A rare pair of American silver bottle stands, made by
Myer Myers, New York, circa 1765, with scrolling open-
work fret-sawn sides, centering on a solid cartouche
monogrammed “SSC,” fitted with
turned wooden bases,
marked on back of cartouche “Myers” in a conform-
ing rectangle, 5 1/8" diameter, sold for $389,000 (est.
$250,000/350,000) to Atlanta dealer Deanne Levison in
the salesroom. At Christie’s in January 1996, they sold
for $299,500. The rococo silver made by Myers for Sam-
uel Cornell is perhaps his most important group made
for a single patron. While a cann at the Wadsworth Ath-
eneum may have been acquired on Cornell’s marriage
in 1756, the other four pieces, elaborately pierced and
engraved, are from the early 1770s and evoke the luxury
the couple enjoyed before the Revolution. Together with
an almost identical pair made by Myers for the Schuyler
family (at the New-York Historical Society), these are the
only known Colonial wine coasters. Samuel Cornell was
born in Flushing, Long Island, to Quaker parents and
in the mid-1750s moved to New Bern, North Carolina,
where he engaged in triangular trade and became the
richest man in North Carolina. He went to England in
1775 and then back to New York. He then sailed to New
Bern to collect his goods and family in 1777. His property
was seized under the 1779 confiscation act and was later
divided among his five daughters. The daughter who
married Matthew Clarkson, an officer on the American
side of the Revolution, inherited the coasters. Ruth Nutt
collection, Sotheby’s, January 24.
Attributed to Ruth Whittier Shute
(1803-1882) and Samuel Addison
Shute (1803-1836) was this portrait
of a little girl in a blue dress with a
wide collar. She is Caroline Smith,
the daughter of Nathaniel Pierce
Smith. The 26½" x 17" circa 1830
watercolor, gouache, pencil, and
ink on paper sold for $87,500 (est.
$50,000/70,000) in the salesroom to
Jack O’Brien, bidding for a collector.
Some said it is not by the Shutes, and
although similar works have been
attributed to them, another hand may
be identified. Sotheby’s, January 25.
Federal carved and inlaid mahogany fire screen, attributed to Nathan Lom-
bard (1777-1847), Sutton, Massachusetts, 1798-1805, 55½" high x 19½"
wide x 18" deep, base appears to retain original surface, lacking a finial,
sold for $118,750 (est. $60,000/90,000) on the phone to Todd Prickett of C.L.
Prickett, Yardley, Pennsylvania, underbid in the salesroom by Essex,
Massachusetts, dealer Clark Pearce. Pearce and Brock Jobe wrote
“Sophistication in Rural Massachusetts: The Inlaid Cherry Furni-
ture of Nathan Lombard,” a study of Lombard’s furniture for the
Chipstone Foundation’s
American Furniture
journal in 1998. The
screen relates directly to another fire screen attributed to Lombard,
as both have shields bordered with carved leafage and carved urns
on the shafts, and are supported on cabriole legs that terminate with
scrolls. Both shields are crafted from mahogany rather than cherry-
wood, Lombard’s apparent preferred choice of wood. The oval fan pat-
era and “icicle” inlays on the shield are motifs that are found on many of
Lombard’s works. The richly textured three-dimensional carving on the
top and bottom of the shield, urn, and the top of the legs is without prece-
dent. Of the two other surviving pieces with cabriole legs and scroll feet—
the aforementioned fire screen and a candlestand at Yale University—
neither has volutes carved into the feet. The carving on Lombard’s other
work is more stylized and flatter. The carving on this piece is executed
asymmetrically at the base of the screen. This trace of the rococo
style and overall richer carving may indicate that the fire screen was
one of the first pieces he crafted in 1798 when he was 21. The
carved and inlaid patera on the shield demonstrates Lombard’s
knowledge of the Neoclassical aesthetic. Sotheby’s, January 25.
This rare Chinese export por-
celain American market punch
jug, early 19th century,
painted with a portrait
of George Washington
in an oval surrounded by
a gilt band and beaded
border, repeated on the
opposite side enclosing a
“BH” monogram, with gilt
band repeated around the
rims and foot, the domed
cover with a foo
dog fin-
ial, 9" high, sold on the
phone for $118,750 (est.
$15,000/20,000) to Todd
Prickett of C.L. Prickett,
Yardley, Pennsylvania, bid-
ding on the phone. Ruth
Nutt bought it from Hirschl
& Adler in 2003 at the Win-
ter Antiques Show. A similar
punch jug with a portrait of
George Washington bear-
ing different initials is in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
and is illustrated in Jean Gordon Lee’s
Philadelphians and the China Trade
1784-1844
. According to Lee, the portrait of George Washington is based on an
engraving by David Edwin (English, active in Philadelphia, 1776-1841). Roy
and Ruth Nutt collection, Sotheby’s, January 23.
This rare American silver
two-handled covered cup
by Charles Le Roux,
New York, circa 1720,
with applied strapwork,
the top of one handle
engraved with block ini-
tials “A/J M,” both sides
with a contemporary crest and
a coat of arms in a baroque car-
touche within a circle, marked to
left of one handle “CLR” conjoined
in oval, 10¼" high, 45 oz. 10 dwt., sold
for $389,000 (est. $300,000/500,000) to a
New York collector in the salesroom. It
last sold at Sloans & Kenyon in Bethesda,
Maryland, May 31-June 1, 2003, for
$174,000. It was made for James and
Mary Alexander, married in 1721. James
Alexander was a merchant, attorney,
and government official. Mary Alexander
looked after the merchant business after her
husband’s death. She died in 1760. Only a handful of Colonial silver “grace cups” survive.
The collector said he owns three of them. A similar two-handled cup by Charles Le Roux,
with the cipher probably of Frederick de Peyster, is in the Mabel Brady Garvan collection
at Yale University Art Gallery. Ruth Nutt collection, Sotheby’s, January 24.
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