Maine Antique Digest March 2015

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Maine Antique Digest, March 2015 29-CS
- AUCTION -
and will clean up well. “I was prepared to go
much higher.”
Generally, furniture prices were reasonable.
Because dealers sold fairly well at the Dela-
ware Antiques Show the weekend before the
auction, some market watchers expected fur-
niture to sell over the very low estimates, but
dealers were unforgiving, so pieces with con-
dition problems, marriages, new feet, or any
losses were ignored or sold within or below
their estimates.
Among the exceptions was a much admired
Federal mahogany sofa, attributed to Henry
Connelly and Ephraim Haines, Philadelphia,
that sold for $10,625 (est. $4000/6000). A
mahogany side chair from a set possibly made
for the John Morin Scott family of German-
town, Pennsylvania, sold on the phone for
$16,250 (est. $3000/5000).Awalnut side table
with an overhanging top with notched corners,
a single drawer, a center pendant below the
apron, and cabriole legs with trifid feet sold
on the Internet for $6080 (est. $1000/1500),
and a walnut tavern table with an oval top
and turned legs joined by stretchers sold for
$10,000 (est. $1000/2000). Three phone bid-
ders recognized the rarity of a William and
Mary carved maple armchair with block and
turned legs and turned front stretcher, and it
sold on the phone for $5938 (est. $1000/1500),
and a cherry and maple corner table, pictured
as figure 1285 in Wallace Nutting’s Furniture
Treasury, Volume I (1928), sold on line for
$2816 (est. $800/1200).
The last four underestimated lots came from
the estate of John S. and Martha Stokes Price.
Martha Price’s father, J. Stogdell Stokes, was a
pioneer collector and president of the board of
trustees of the PhiladelphiaMuseum ofArt. The
museum got first pick of the estate, and what
the museum and the children did not want went
to Freeman’s for sale, accounting for many of
the lots of early furniture, Pennsylvania Ger-
man fraktur, and ceramics. The Price estate, the
Patricia B. Wells estate, and the contents of a
gentleman’s town house in Washington, D.C.,
accounted for most of the top lots.
The sale was not well attended. On day two
there were more people at the phone bank
than seated in the salesroom. Of the 280 lots
in the Pennsylvania auction, 231 (82.5%) sold
for $993,461, with more than half going to
the phone or the Internet. Of the 294 lots in
the Americana auction, 258 (87.8%) sold for
$865,625. The $1.85 million total got a big
boost from the 20th-century material—fur-
niture, Tiffany, George Ohr, and the Wharton
Esherick sculpture; that department is now
run by specialist TimAndreadis.
Some touted lots failed to find buy-
ers. A circa 1840 Francis, Field & Francis
“Philadelphia Express” tin toy wagon (est.
$10,000/15,000), an early printing of the
“Star-Spangled Banner” (est. $8000/12,000),
and a Philadelphia Neoclassical worktable
with the label of Anthony Quervelle (est.
$5000/8000) drew no bids. The pictures and
captions give more details.
Philadelphia had long been a mother lode of
Colonial and Federal antiques, and Freeman’s
has been auctioning them since 1801. In the
book section of the sale, a broadside advertis-
ing a circa 1850 James A. Freeman real estate
auction sold to a collector for $406. Auction-
eer Beau Freeman said the family was not
allowed to bid on it, and that they do not have
early ephemera from the company.
For more information, contact Freeman’s
Walnut tavern table with oval top,
scalloped apron, and turned legs
joined by stretchers, 26" x 28" x
22", ex-Price estate, $10,000 (est.
$1000/2000) to Downingtown, Penn-
sylvania, dealer Philip Bradley in the
room, underbid by Lancaster, Penn-
sylvania, dealer David Horst. Brad-
ley also bought another similar table
(not shown) from the same source for
$5313 (est. $2000/3000).
George Nakashima (1905-1990), large black walnut
slab coffee table, 1967, 14" high x 75" wide x 32" deep,
from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Engelman,
together with its original drawing and invoice for $200,
$23,750 (est. $20,000/30,000) to a phone bidder.
Paul Evans (1931-1987), “sculpted metal” dining
table for Directional, 1972, bronzed resin, steel, glass,
sculpted signature “PE 72,” 29" x 72" x 48", $15,000
(est. $8000/12,000) to a bidder in the salesroom. The
two armchairs and four side chairs from the same con-
signor, model PE-105 for Directional, sold on the phone
to another buyer for $27,500 (est. $10,000/15,000).
Philadelphia Chippendale carved
mahogany side chair, circa 1755,
with carved shell on the crest
rail, solid vasiform splat, and
trapezoidal seat with possibly
original slip seat frame and early
leather upholstery, the front seat
rail with carved shell, and acan-
thus-carved cabriole legs ending
in ball-and-claw feet, $16,250 (est.
$3000/5000) to a phone bidder. It
is from a set of at least six chairs.
One from the set sold for $29,500
at Sotheby’s January 2002 auc-
tion of the Mrs. Lammot du Pont
Copeland collection; Sotheby’s
suggested that the set was made
for John Morin Scott of German-
town, the first popularly elected
mayor of Philadelphia.
Cyclone dining table by Isamu
Noguchi (1904-1988) for Knoll,
chromed steel, plastic laminate,
vinyl, with “Knoll Associates”
label, together with six chairs by
Harry Bertoia (1915-1978) for
Knoll, with “Knoll International”
label, $2000 (est. $1500/2000) to
an in-house bidder.
Philadelphia mahogany chest-
on-chest with the period chalk
inscription “William Preston,”
circa 1765, 103" high x 45"
wide x 24½" deep, $21,250
(est. $15,000/30,000) to a phone
bidder. The shell carved on its
tympanum, the carved rosettes,
and the central foliate orna-
ment are attributed to Nicho-
las Bernard. William Preston,
likely a cabinetmaker, is refer-
enced in William Macpherson
Hornor’s Blue Book: Philadel-
phia Furniture. The consensus
was that the chest’s feet were
married, but it was a low price
for a showy piece.
George Nakashima (1905-1990), Min-
guren coffee table, 1987, English wal-
nut root, signed and dated by George
Nakashima, 15" x 36" x 38", with original
receipt, $23,750 (est. $8000/12,000).
G e o r g e
N a k a s h i m a
(1905-1990), wal-
nut and pandanus
cloth triple slid-
ing door cabinet,
1959, inscribed
with the client’s
name and #128 on
the back, 32½" x 120"
x 22", $40,625 (est. $15,000/25,000) to
another phone bidder.
Comb-back Windsor armchair, probably Phil-
adelphia, circa 1780, ex-Price estate, $4688 (est.
$1000/1500) to a collector on the phone. It is illus-
trated in Wallace Nutting’s Furniture Treasury
(1928) and Charles Santore’s The Windsor Style in
America (1987).
U.S. International Centennial Exhibition poly-
chrome-glazed ceramic and gilt-bronze-mounted
urn, Haviland & Co., Limoges, France, circa
1876, 30" high, $13,750 to a person who left a
bid with the auctioneer. This is a smaller exam-
ple related to a pair of 12' tall urns created for
the Philadelphia Centennial. Titled “1876-Pros-
perity,” it has a figure of Columbia, and the
winged figures represent Victory and Fame; the
companion urn, titled “1776-The Struggle,” has
a bust of Washington. The urns were designed by
Felix Bracquemond, artistic director at Haviland,
and were sculpted by Delaplanche. A related urn,
23½" high, sold at Christie’s in May 2006 for
$24,000 (est. $8000/12,000).
Paul Evans (1931-1987)
and Phillip Lloyd Pow-
ell (1919-2008), custom coffee
table, circa 1965, travertine mar-
ble, walnut, and gold leaf, 22"
high x 46¾" diameter, $7500 (est.
$6000/8000) to a phone bidder.
Pair of framed 27" x 23½" (sight size) oil on
panel portraits, said to be of Joseph Sears
Nickerson and Abigail Gould Nickerson
of Chatham, Massachusetts, $37,500 (est.
$8000/12,000) to collector Charles Santore of
Philadelphia. “These are among the best paint-
ings I have seen for sale in years,” said Santore.
“They are untouched and will clean up beauti-
fully. I was prepared to go much higher.”
George Ohr (1857-1918), crimped
pitcher with integral handle,
circa 1900, gunmetal glaze to
exterior and olive glaze to inte-
rior. Impressed twice “G.E. Ohr
Biloxi, Miss.” and incised “Ohr
Biloxi,” 4½" x 4" x 6", $2375 (est.
$2000/3000) to a phone bidder.
There were many
bids for this 12¼"
high x 3½" diameter
Tiffany Favrile glass
“Hearts and Vines” flo-
riform vase, circa 1916,
engraved “1517-1368 K
L.C. Tiffany-Favrile.”
It sold for $2875 (est.
$1500/2500).
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