Maine Antique Digest April 2015

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Maine Antique Digest, April 2015 21-D
- AUCTION -
Ruth Nutt’s collection of silver was the fin-
est and most comprehensive collection of
American silver ever to appear at auction. It
spanned the 17th century to the present, including
masterpieces and rare regional examples, intrigu-
ing small pieces such as school prizes, Masonic
medals, a policeman’s badge, and such unusual
forms in American silver as a bidet and a bone
holder for carving a leg of lamb. There was a
parade of coffeepots, teapots, tankards, canns, por-
ringers, and pepper pots from
the 17th and 18th centuries, a
hot water urn, and tureens and
sauceboats by Fletcher and
Gardiner, Federal silversmiths
to the new nation. The only
thing missing was Tiffany and
mixed metals. Ruth Nutt gave
a tankard by Tiffany & Co.,
titled Son Chow , created for
the World’s Columbian Expo-
sition in 1893, to the Seattle
Art Museum.
Amuseumcould have bought
this well-curated collection to
tell the story of the silversmith’s trade in Amer-
ica, but it was never offered in its entirety. Ruth
Nutt (1934-2013) gave the Seattle Art Museum
more than 40 pieces of American silver along with
paintings, furniture, and needlework that had been
on long-term loan; the rest was auctioned at Sothe-
by’s on January 23 and 24. Museums, collectors,
and the trade bought 381 of the 422 lots offered
in their single-owner silver sale for the Nutts on
January 24 for a total of $4,738,789, about midway
between the estimate of $3.8/5.8 million figured
without buyer’s premium. The sale was 90.3%
sold by lot. According to Sotheby’s head of silver
John Ward, there are still more than 300 items to be
sold; some will be offered next January, and some
small items such as spoons may be offered on line
so they can be sold one at a time.
The best of the best was offered first. “We
wanted to produce a sale that would be a monu-
ment to Ruth’s taste and collecting,” said John
Ward, who masterminded the sale. Apparently
Ruth Nutt wanted others to have as much fun col-
lecting as she did.
“The fact that we could move pieces at good
prices to acclaim and enthusiasm gives me hope
for the future of the American silver market,” said
Ward after the sale. He said he was gratified to
see furniture collectors come back into the silver
market and new collectors appear in the crowded
salesroom.
Ruth Nutt did most of her buying through
dealer Jonathan Trace of Portsmouth, New Hamp-
shire. Trace was her number one advisor, and he
advised her well. She also bought from others,
such as Michael Weller of San Francisco, Robert
Jackson and Ann Gillooly of Doylestown, Penn-
sylvania, and Hinda Kohn in the early days. She
bought Fletcher and Gardiner pieces from Hirschl
&Adler. All are noted under provenance in the sale
catalog.
“She had a great eye. She liked the unusual,”
said Trace after the sale. “She didn’t care who
made it; it was the object that mattered; the history
and maker were secondary. That is why she did
not have a lot of Paul Revere.” Trace said the first
thing he sold her was a ladle at the Kent Antiques
Show in the late 1960s. “I was a kid,” he said.
The sale brought new energy to the marketplace
for American silver, but because so much was
offered at one time and so many silver collectors
have died in recent years, prices were generally
reasonable, some just a fraction of what Ruth Nutt
paid.
Works of outstanding quality, rarity, and con-
dition—the masterpieces—brought a premium.
Some regional silver from South Carolina, Wil-
mington, Delaware, and Albany, New York, sold
well above estimates. Church silver, once thought
rare and out of reach, is nowmore common because
so much has come on the market, and some by the
earliest makers failed to sell. A pair of American
beakers by Boston’s Jacob Hurd, circa 1737, the
gift of Theophilus Burill Esq. to the first Church
of Christ in Lynn, Massachusetts, estimated at
$80,000/120,000, failed to get a bid. In June 1992
at Sotheby’s, they sold for $82,500 to Trace.
The two top lots in the sale—a pair of
silver bottle stands made in New York by
Myer Myers, circa 1765 (est. $250,000/
350,000) and a two-handled cup by
Charles Le Roux made in New York, circa
1720 (est. $300,000/500,000)—each sold
for $389,000. They were bought by two
different longtime private collectors.
Museums bought the next two on the
top-ten list. A rare War of 1812 eagle-
head sword by Fletcher and Gardiner, made
in Philadelphia and dated
1828, sold for $257,000 (est.
$150,000/250,000) to the Win-
terthur Museum, underbid in
the salesroom by dealer James
Kochan of Catskill, New
York, bidding for a client. A
large sugar box and matching
tea caddy by Simeon Sou-
maine, made in New York,
circa 1720, sold for $221,000
(est. $200,000/300,000) to
Tim Martin of S.J. Shrubsole,
bidding for the Metropolitan
Museum of Art. “One of the
things that became apparent was a lot of people
had knowledge of Ruth Nutt’s intention to leave
the sugar box and tea caddy to the Met, and nobody
bid on it. It was an amazing buy,” said Martin after
the sale.
Works of the highest merit were not overlooked.
A pair of silver waiters by Simeon Soumaine,
New York, 1738-40, sold for a $161,000 (est.
$100,000/150,000) to Deanne Levison for col-
lectors. They each have engraved mirror ciphers
“EC” within a circle for Elizabeth Harris Cruger.
Trace bought one at auction for $81,250 at Sothe-
by’s in January 2002 and bought the other pri-
vately to unite two masterpieces. The same buyer
got a tiny dram cup by John Coney, Boston, circa
1680, for $75,000 (est. $15,000/25,000). It fetched
$90,500 when it last sold in January 2000. A spoon
tray engraved with a cipher, probably that of Ann
and John Bartram, a Philadelphia naturalist, sold to
dealer James Kilvington of Greenville, Delaware,
for $50,000 (est. $20,000/30,000), underbid by
Deanne Levison. At Christie’s in January 1996, it
sold for $48,300.
Two pieces of historic Philadelphia silver
expected to be among the top ten did not sell.
There was no bidding on a large salver by Richard
Humphreys, made in 1775 for Philadelphia Quaker
merchant George Emlen, that had sold at Sothe-
by’s in New York in January 1997 for $299,500
(est. $250,000/350,000), and there was not a bid
for a Philadelphia silver salver on feet by Henry
Pratt (est. $200,000/300,000) that sold at Christie’s
in January 1998 for $453,500 when it was the most
expensive piece of American silver. At that sale,
Jonathan Trace was bidding against Philadelphia
Museum of Art curator Jack Lindsey, who wanted
it for his exhibition Worldly Goods in 1999. Ruth
Nutt lent it to the exhibition. It is a rare form, but
others of that form have turned up since.
Some rarities seemed reasonable. Winterthur
bought an octagonal sugar bowl by Joseph Rich-
ardson Sr. for $81,250 (est. $70,000/100,000).
It is closely related to two other octagonal sugar
bowls by Richardson. One made for Oswald and
Lydia Peel sold at Christie’s, New York, January
21, 2000, for $310,500. Another made for Samuel
Emlen from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Walter
M. Jeffords sold at Sotheby’s on October 29, 2004,
for $265,000.
There was some keen competition for other
pieces of Philadelphia silver. A baluster-form tan-
kard by John Bayly, made in Philadelphia, circa
1775, with the “CSM” cipher for Christopher and
Sarah Marshall and “PM” engraved on the han-
dle for their granddaughter, sold for $87,500 (est.
$20,000/30,000) to dealer Jonathan Trace for a col-
lector, underbid by John Ward on the phone. Other
baluster-shaped tankards brought substantially
less. The cover lot, a baluster-form tankard with
mid-band by Joseph Richardson Sr., sold on the
phone to John Ward, underbid by Kevin Tierney,
for $22,500 (est. $12,000/18,000), and still another
baluster-form tankard with a mid-band, made circa
1780 by Andrew Underhill in New York, sold
to Kevin Tierney on the phone for $20,000 (est.
$10,000/15,000). Rarity, quality, and history make
the difference.
Sotheby’s, New York City
The Silver Collection of Roy and Ruth Nutt
by Lita Solis-Cohen
Photos courtesy Sotheby’s
A rare pair of American silver bot-
tle stands, Myer Myers, New York,
circa 1765, each circular with scroll-
ing openwork fret-sawn sides, centering
on a solid cartouche monogrammed “SSC,” fitted with turned wooden
bases. They are marked on the back of the cartouche “Myers” in a con-
forming rectangle. The diameter is 5 1/8". The pair sold for $389,000
(est. $250,000/350,000) to Atlanta dealer Deanne Levison in the sales-
room. At Christie’s in January 1996, they sold for $299,500.
“The fact that
we could move
pieces at good
prices to acclaim
and enthusiasm
gives me hope for
the future of the
American silver
market.”
A large planished
silver oval bowl,
by Marie Zim-
mermann, New York,
circa 1921, marked
on base “Marie Zim-
mermann—Maker,”
16½" in diameter, 73
oz. 15 dwt., sold on the
phone for $16,250. Zimmer-
mann created this or another
of this model as a wedding
gift for meatpacking heir-
ess Lolita Armour of Chicago
and Santa Barbara. The set may have been commissioned by Albert
and Adele Herter. The shape was also made by the artist in copper. See
The Jewelry and Metalwork of Marie Zimmermann (2011) by Deborah
Dependahl Waters, Joseph Cunningham, and Bruce Barnes.
American policeman’s badge,
New York, dated 1849, the back
engraved “Joseph Britton, Esq.
Aldr 15th Ward 1849,” 2½" in
diameter, sold on line for $1375
(est. $400/600). Joseph Britton was
also an ice dealer, according to the
catalog. The 15th Ward stretched
from Houston Street to 14th Street
and from Sixth Avenue and Han-
cock Street east to the Bowery.
Monumental American silver kettle on lamp
stand, made by Lincoln & Foss, Boston, circa
1850, of good quality and good weight
and of unparalleled scale for American
silver made before the Civil War, sold
in the salesroom to Tim Martin of S.J.
Shrubsole, New York City, for $23,750
(est. $10,000/15,000) for the St. Louis Art
Museum. It is boldly chased with scrolling
leafage, the side applied with 18th-century
fêtes galantes, the back cartouche engraved
with a crest of a griffin’s head erased with a
star in its beak, the hinged cover with a flowering
sprig finial, on a matching stand with detached
lamp, marked on the base of the kettle and
burner, 171 oz. 5 dwt., 21" high.
A pair of large American silver sauceboats and stands by Thomas
Fletcher, Philadelphia, 1830-35, engraved with a crest “SCP 1877 to
ABP 1895” and on the base “Anne R.P. Burroughs 1855/ Sarah C Ken-
nard-1877/ Anne B. Pierce 1895,” marked on the base “T.FLETCHER/
PHILAD,” stands are 11" wide, 82 oz. 5 dwt. The pair was made for the
Pierces of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, who bought a large group of sil-
ver from Fletcher in the 1820s and ’30s. They have been widely exhibited.
They sold on the phone to a collector for $62,500 (est. $20,000/30,000). At
Sotheby’s in November 1976, just one of these sauceboats sold for $2500
to Elizabeth Feld of Hirschl & Adler. Hirschl & Adler either had the
other or found it and sold the pair to Ruth Nutt in 1999. ☞