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Maine Antique Digest, April 2015 33-D
- AUCTION -
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)
in graphite, gouache, and watercolor on 26" x 18¾" paper.
It sold for $173,000 (est. $20,000/50,000) to dealer Peter
Sawyer of Exeter, New Hampshire, underbid by dealer
David Wheatcroft. At a Sotheby Parke Bernet auction,
June 20-23, 1979, it had sold for $14,300 (with a 10% buy-
er’s premium and est. $20,000/25,000). In 2001 it was illus-
trated in
American Anthem: Masterworks from the American
Folk Art Museum
. Sarah Chandler Emerson was the wife
of a shoemaker in Andover, Massachusetts. (The portrait of
her son Jeremiah had sold in June 1979 for $25,300 [est.
$30,000/40,000] and again at Sotheby’s sale of the Esmerian
collection in January 2014 for $665,000.) According to the
catalog, the group of Emerson portraits had been first sold
in 1924 at an auction in Lowell, Massachusetts, by Florence
A. Lincoln (1882-1969) of Charleston, Massachusetts, who
attended the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at
Harvard and was the author of several plays.
Woman in gray dress, attributed to John Brew-
ster Jr. (1766-1854), possibly dated 1814 since
the reverse bears old (possibly original) inscrip-
tion “John Brewster, Jr. pin__t May 20, 1814,
age 32.” The 29½" x 24¼" oil on canvas sold to
a collector in the salesroom for $16,250 (est.
$10,000/20,000). According to the catalog, Jane
Supino had bought it from dealers Avis and Rock-
well Gardiner of Stamford, Connecticut, in 1980.
Ferdinand A. Brader titled this graphite on paper
Residence of
Henry and Pricilla Heisa, Jackson TP. Stark County, Ohio, 1888
and
signed and numbered it “F.A. Brader No. 602” lower right. It sold
for $12,500 (est. $5000/10,000) to dealer David Wheatcroft in the
salesroom, underbid by an absentee bidder. Brader, who was born
in Germany, began his itinerant art career in Berks County, Penn-
sylvania, and then traveled to Ohio. His work has been researched
by Kathleen Wieschaus-Voss for an exhibition catalog,
The Legacy
of Ferdinand A. Brader
. Wheatcroft has been an advocate for the
work of Brader for years.
Attributed to Ammi Phillips (1788-1865), this oil on
canvas portrait of Miss A.E. Allen is 31½" x 26½"
and sold for $9375 (est. $5000/10,000). It was painted
during the artist’s “Kent period,” 1829-38, either in
Kent, Connecticut, or New York state. The paint-
ing was from the Gail-Oxford collection and sold to
benefit the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and
Botanical Gardens.
The double portrait of Albert and Julius was attributed
to Asahel L. Powers (1813-1843) and inscribed and
dated “Albert/ 3 years/ 8 months/ -old 1838 Julius, 15
months old, 1838” on the reverse prior to relining. The
19" x 23¼" oil on canvas sold on the phone for $11,250
(est. $8000/12,000). Jane Supino had bought it for $15,950
at Sotheby Parke Bernet from the estate of Frank and
Karen Miele on January 28, 1984. The current consensus
is that it was not painted by Powers.
There were several phone bidders competing for this
carved oak and pine Bible box from the Eric Martin
Wunsch estate. The box was made in the Windsor
area of Connecticut (1660-80) and has an Israel Sack,
Inc. provenance. It sold on the phone for $30,000 (est.
$6000/9000). It appears in a group of furniture dis-
cussed by Joshua Lane and Donald White III in a 2004
Historic Deerfield publication titled
Woodworkers of
Windsor: A Connecticut Community of Craftsmen and
Their World, 1635-1715
.
This cast-iron stove plate, made at Reading Fur-
nace in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 1772-78,
is marked “17 JAMES OLD 72/ READING FUR-
NACE” and is 17¾" x 24". It sold for $6875 (est.
$3000/5000). The design for this stove plate from a
six-plate stove may have been carved by a Philadel-
phia carver. According to the catalog, James Old (c.
1730-1809) was born in Wales and came to America
with his brother in 1750. He eventually leased Wil-
liam Branson’s Reading Furnace in 1772 and ran it
for six or seven years. This plate borrows patterns
from several sources and is one of at least three known
stove plates from Reading Furnace that reflect the
up-to-date rococo taste. The stove plate was collected
by Victor Gail and Tom Oxford, who lived in Long
Beach, California, while building a large Americana
collection, part of which was sold at this auction to
benefit the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and
Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California.
The Queen Anne
mahogany tray-top tea
table, Newport, 1750-
70, is 25¾" high x
20" wide. It sold
for $30,000 (est.
$30,000/50,000).
The knee returns
had been replaced.
Apair of Classical brass-in-
laid and partly ebonized
figured mahogany card
tables, Philadelphia, 1815-
25, sold for $13,750 (est.
$12,000/18,000).
The green-painted high-back Windsor writing-arm
chair, possibly made by Ebenezer Tracy Sr. (1744-
1803) of Lisbon Township, New London County,
Connecticut, 1785-1800, is 46¾"
high and sold to dealer David
Wheatcroft in the salesroom
for $21,250 (est. $20,000/30,000).
At Christie’s in 1997, Wayne
Pratt had bought it for stock for
$57,500 and said it was a bargain.
☞