Maine Antique Digest March 2015

34-B Maine Antique Digest, March 2015

- FEATURE -

Two works by Bill Traylor

(1854-1949) were the stars of

the Outsider art offered and

sold for the same price.

Owl

graphite on found cardboard,

9¼" x 5¾", documented

as painted in 1939, sold on

the phone for $51,250 (est.

$20,000/40,000) with a Hirschl

& Adler and Ricco Maresca

provenance.

Not

shown,

Black Mule

, also with a Ricco

Maresca provenance, sold for

$52,500 (est. $20,000/40,000) in

the salesroom to Susan Baer-

wald of Just Folk, Summer-

land, California. Christie’s,

January 23.

There was a lot of bidding in the

salesroom for the portrait of Sarah

Chandler Emerson, attributed to

Ruth Whittier Shute (1803-1882)

and Samuel Addison Shute (1803-

1836). The graphite, gouache, and

watercolor on paper, sight size

26" x 18¾", sold for $173,000 (est.

$20,000/50,000) to Exeter, New

Hampshire, dealer Peter Sawyer,

underbid by Massachusetts dealer

David Wheatcroft. At Sotheby’s

in June 1979, it sold for $13,000.

It was illustrated in

American

Anthem: Masterworks from the

American Folk Art Museum

(2001).

Sarah Chandler Emerson was the

wife of a shoemaker in Andover,

Massachusetts. The portrait of

her son Jeremiah sold at the same

1979 sale for $23,000, and at the

Esmerian sale in January 2014,

it sold to a collector for $665,000.

This group of Emerson portraits

was first sold in 1924 at an auction

in Lowell, Massachusetts, to Flor-

ence A. Lincoln (1882-1969) of Charlestown, Massachusetts, who attended the

Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard and was the author of several

plays. Christie’s, January 23.

This drum-form silver teapot, made for Moses Michael

Hays by Paul Revere Jr. in Boston in 1783, from the estate

of Martin Wunsch, sold on the phone to a collector for

$233,000 (est. $200,000/300,000). It has beaded borders, a

fluted straight spout, a scroll wood handle, and a slightly

domed hinged cover with beaded border surmounted

by a cast bud finial. The body is engraved on one side

with the monogram “MRH” with foliate surround, and

it is marked under the base with Kane mark B. It is 6½"

high and 9¾" wide and weighs 16 ounces. It is recorded in

Revere’s daybook in 1783. Hays was Revere’s only Jew-

ish client and one of his major patrons, placing 25 orders

with him between 1783 and 1792. This teapot and the

accompanying creamer were the first of Hays’s commis-

sions from Revere. It is one of only six known drum tea-

pots by Revere, with four now in public collections: Yale,

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Metropolitan Museum of

Art, and the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michi-

gan. Another, with the initials “CC,” was sold at Chris-

tie’s in January 2013 for $230,500 to an American foun-

dation. The cream pot sold on the phone for $68,750 (est.

$30,000/50,000). Christie’s, January 22.

The Major Luther Metcalf Federal brass-

mounted inlaid mahogany tall-case

clock has an inscription document-

ing the movement to Caleb Whea-

ton (1757-1827), Providence, Rhode

Island, and the case to Luther Met-

calf (1756-1838) and Ichabod San-

ford (1768-1860), Medway, Massa-

chusetts, 1796. The case is inscribed

in ink “Luther”

and in pencil “Met-

calf/ This Clock Case was made by/

Ichabod Sanford in January 1796/

Clock made by Caleb Wheaton of

Providence/ R.I.” It stands 97" high

x 20¼" wide x 10½" deep and sold

for $329,000 (est. $100,000/150,000) to

Atlanta dealer Deanne Levison in the

salesroom. It was the most expensive

clock sold during Americana Week.

The ink and penciled inscription on

the backboards indicates that the case

was made by Ichabod Sanford, while

working in the shop of master cabinet-

maker Major Luther Metcalf. Accord-

ing to the inscription on the clock, the

movement was made by Caleb Whea-

ton, an attribution that is supported by

the dial’s similarity to other moon-

phase dials made by the clockmaker.

It is the most elaborate product of

the Metcalf shop, which is otherwise

known only by its Windsor chairs.

It was almost certainly made for the

master cabinetmaker’s own use.

Christie’s, January 23.

The Potter-Crouch-Jordan family Philadelphia

mahogany tea table, signed by the cabinet-

maker Henry Cliffton in chalk on the back

of the top, with carving attributed to the

carver nicknamed “Spike” because of his

spiky carving style, circa 1755, sold to a

bidder on the phone with Leigh Keno

for $1,895,000, underbid by manuscript

dealer Seth Kaller in the salesroom.

There was another bidder on the phone

with Jack O’Brien, acting for a private

collector. It was the only lot of American

furniture to top the million-dollar mark

during Americana Week. It was previously

unknown and never published. The chalk

inscription on the back of its large top with

broad scallops was identified as that of Phil-

adelphia cabinetmaker Henry Cliffton, matching

his signature on a high chest of drawers at Williams-

burg, dated 1753, the earliest dated high chest

in the rococo taste. The carving is attributed

to “Spike,” a nickname given by scholars Alan

Miller and Luke Beckerdite to the carver of the

Wistar-Sharples family desk-and-bookcase at the Philadel-

phia Museum of Art. The likely mate to the table is at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art and is refinished, unlike this

table, which has a dark old surface. Keno Auctions, January 31.

This Chippendale carved cherrywood desk-and-bookcase, Lancaster County,

Pennsylvania, circa 1785, 92½" high x 42¼" wide x 22 1/8" deep, sold for

$665,000 (est. $400,000/600,000) to collector Peter Wunsch in the salesroom,

underbid on the phone. It was published in 1966 in

The Magazine Antiques

in an article on the collection of Bertram and Trish Coleman of Bryn Mawr,

Pennsylvania, and was consigned by an heir. Historian John Snyder called it

a “unique blending of Philadelphia rococo with the older German baroque,

which formed the major stylistic strain of Lancaster Chippendale.” The cen-

tral heart on the tympanum is repeated on the prospect door; the cornice

and base moldings have egg-and-dart designs. The distinctive flame finials are

characteristic of this Lancaster County hand. Snyder put forth the names of

several carvers working in Lancaster who embellished the four known Lan-

caster desk-and-bookcases with extravagant carving. Christie’s, January 23.

The Latham-Fishback family blanket chest, attributed to

Johannes Spitler (1774-1837), Massanutten area, Shenandoah

Valley, now Page County, circa 1800, yellow pine, paint, and

iron, 24" x 50" x 21½", is one of the most fully developed and

well-preserved examples of a group of furniture attributed

to Johannes Spitler. About 20 chests have been attributed to

Spitler. It has a Prussian-blue ground, geometric designs, and

birds and flowers in orange, black, and white; it is considered

the finest. Kelly Kinzle asked $675,000 for it at the Winter

Antiques Show. It sold on the phone two hours after the show

opened to a collector who said he could not make it to the

show but saw the advertisement in the

Maine Antique Digest

and would like to buy it. Kinzle photo.

The Capen family carved and figured mahogany

bombé slant-front desk, Boston, Massachusetts,

circa 1785, 45" high x 49½" wide x 22" deep, is

one of 14 known examples of the form and the

most highly embellished. It sold for $635,000 (est.

$500,000/700,000) to dealer Roberto Freitas of Ston-

ington, Connecticut, on the phone with a client. The

underbidder in the salesroom was Quakertown,

Pennsylvania, furniture advisor Alan Miller. Roy

and Ruth Nutt collection, Sotheby’s, January 23.

This Chippendale figured mahogany serpentine-front

chest of drawers, Massachusetts, 1765-85, appears

to retain its original cast brass hardware. The 32½"

high x 41¼" wide x 23½" deep chest sold for $209,000

(est. $30,000/50,000) to advisor Clark Pearce of Essex,

Massachusetts, underbid by dealer Peter Sawyer of

Exeter, New Hampshire. In remarkably fine con-

dition, it was the most expensive chest of drawers sold

during the week. Christie’s, January 23.