Maine Antique Digest April 2015

10-A Maine Antique Digest, April 2015

arn Star Productions’ 22nd Midweek Antiques Show,

now held in Concord, New Hampshire, during

Antiques Week in New Hampshire, is adjusting the

opening hour for the August 4 and 5 show.

“Last year we moved our Midweek Show to Tuesday

following the Americana Celebration Antiques Show,

launching Antiques Week with two popular and im-

portant events opening four hours apart,” said Gaglio.

“Attendance appeared strong, and so were sales. This

year, Midweek was scheduled to open at noon; however,

exhibitors and customers have requested more time be-

tween the show openings, and so we are going back to an

opening hour of 1 p.m. on Tuesday, August 4, and 10 a.m.

on Wednesday, August 5. We hope this schedule change

works out best for shows, for the exhibiting dealers and

customers alike, assuring Antiques Week in New Hamp-

shire continues successfully.”

For more information, visit Barn Star’s Web site (www.

barnstar.com) or call (845) 876-0616.

Midweek Antiques Show Confirms

Opening Hours

by Clayton Pennington

hings have gone from bad to worse for George

Allen and Gordon Wyckoff, well-known dealers of

Raccoon Creek Antiques LLC in Oley, Pennsylvania.

On February 27, both were arrested by Officer Pamela

E. Mathias.

Each was charged with theft by failure to make re-

quired disposition of funds, theft by deception—false

impression, theft by unlawful taking of movable prop-

erty, and receiving stolen property. Each was unable to

post the $10,000 bail until March 3, when both were

released from confinement.

It’s not the first time George Allen has faced a crim-

inal charge. On December 23, 2014, a criminal com-

plaint was filed against him in Lehigh County, Penn-

sylvania, for a bad check. On September 22, 2014,

Allen and Wyckoff bid on 25 items at Bob Brooks

Auction Sales in Franklinville, New Jersey, for a total

of $6193. According to the Gloucester County Prose-

cutor’s Office in New Jersey, the check—written with

an incorrect date—bounced on October 2, 2014. After

several tries, Brooks did receive a cashier’s check for

$2000 but is still owed $4193. (Brooks received $7000

in antiques on December 3, 2014, as payment for a re-

turned check.)

George Allen and Raccoon Creek Antiques LLC

declared bankruptcy in January in order to halt a

court-ordered sheriff’s sale. Bankruptcy records reveal

the financial difficulties of the firm, which has assets

of $211,379 and liabilities of $800,933.30.

For consignors, it’s not a pretty picture. Eighteen

unsecured creditors are listed as being owed money

for “Unpaid proceeds from sale of antiques” for a to-

tal of $353,684.37. The highest single amount for an

antiques-related debt is $80,000 owed to a North Car-

olina woman. In addition, an Idaho woman is owed

$28,642 for “deposit on cupboard.”

The firm is involved in five civil lawsuits, two of

which have had judgments entered.

Metro Bank of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, filed suit

in the Court of Common Pleas, Berks County, and has

received a judgment. The bank appears as a creditor in

bankruptcy documents as holding a secured claim and

is owed $367,486.33. There’s bad news for the unse-

cured creditors: Metro Bank is also listed as seizing

Raccoon Creek’s “antiques and inventory.”

Marie Riley of Philadelphia filed a lawsuit against

Raccoon Creek in the Court of Common Pleas, Phila-

delphia County. She had entered into a 2011 consign-

ment agreement with Raccoon Creek; they were to sell

33 antiques in exchange for a 20% commission. They

sold some and on November 7, 2013, agreed to pay

Riley $29,633 within 30 days in an installment plan:

November 12, $5000; No-

vember 26, $12,000; and

December 7, $12,633. Rac-

coon Creek made the first

$5000 payment to Riley on

time. The second payment,

$12,000, was paid but not

on the date agreed to; she

had to wait until January

16, 2014. The third pay-

ment was never made, and

Riley filed suit on May 9,

2014. On February 9, 2015,

a judgment was entered

against Raccoon Creek in the amount of $16,883.63.

Two other plaintiffs have actions pending in state

court. Susan Mogil claims she is owed $17,585.87 for

“unpaid proceeds from sale of antique furniture” in

June 2013, and New Jersey dealer Marc Witus alleges

he is owed $36,962.50 for “unpaid proceeds from sale

of items and moneys loaned.”

Witus said, “I saw them at a couple of shows and

was really impressed...by their merchandise, their dis-

plays, and their knowledge. Over a period of time, we

became friends. This goes back probably twelve or fif-

teen years, maybe longer.” Witus said he began to do

business with Raccoon Creek. “When I saw what they

were dealing in, and the level they were dealing in, I

started to offer them some of the stuff I had acquired.

They bought, and I got paid,” he said, adding that occa-

sionally a check would bounce, “but they always made

good.”

Witus said in 2010 Raccoon Creek owed money to a

Connecticut dealer, and “the dealer was not happy and

was going to take action.... I had just refinanced the

house, and I had some extra money.” He loaned them

$18,500. “I did what I thought a friend should do. I

got a promissory note in return,” Witus said. “I haven’t

seen any of that.

“In 2014, they sold some of my stuff and again

promised I would be paid. I didn’t see a nickel of that.”

Court papers state that the amount was approximately

$10,000.

M.A.D.

has previously reported on the case in fed-

eral court in Pennsylvania; Thomas Marshall is suing

Raccoon Creek, claiming that the firm gathered “about

350 more antiques to sell” on consignment but alleged-

ly never paid him. Marshall claims in his suit that the

antiques are worth $350,000. Marshall does appear

on the list of unpaid unsecured creditors for Raccoon

Creek; the debt to Marshall is listed at $48,653 for “un-

paid proceeds from sale of antique items.” On George

Allen’s personal bankruptcy, the amount owed to Mar-

shall is $127,000.

George Allen and Gordon

Wyckoff of Raccoon Creek

Antiques Arrested

George Allen of Raccoon

Creek Antiques at the 2009

Heart of Country show in

Nashville, Tennessee.

by Lita Solis-Cohen

York

artist

Barbara

Wolff uses ancient

techniques in modern

times.

Hebrew

Illumination

for

Our Time: The Art

of Barbara Wolff

an exhibition at the

Morgan Library &

Museum in New York

City through May 3,

offers the creations

of a contemporary

artist who works in

the medieval manner

on vellum (animal

skin) and illuminates

her work with gold,

silver, and platinum

foils.

The exhibition an-

nounces the gift to the

Morgan from Joanna S. Rose of ten folios of the unbound

manuscript called

You Renew the Face of the Earth: Psalm

104

, a celebration of creation. Also in the exhibition is the

Joanna S. and Daniel Rose family Haggadah, illustrated

with Wolff’s imaginative interpretation of the text read at

the Passover meal (Seder). Completed between 2011 and

2013, the Rose Haggadah is full of historical and archaeo-

logical references and wry humor.

Like medieval illuminators, Wolff shows nature in all

its complexities in miniature. A master of botanical and

scientific illustration, she uses her skills to illustrate

passages from the Psalm that celebrates all creation. In

the first gallery, the Morgan shows her work alongside

medieval Christian Psalters and books of hours that in-

spired her, some of which she quoted in her illustrations.

Minutely rendered animals, fish, flowers, and insects fill

the pages, and Hebrew letters move across the pages like

herds of graceful animals, the burnished gold making

them seem sacred.

The second gallery is devoted to 17 bifolios that make

up the unbound manuscript of the Joanna S. and Daniel

Rose family Haggadah, the illustrated text that com-

memorates the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and

symbolizes freedom from oppression for all generations.

The Morgan curators have compared Wolff’s illustrations

with several early illuminated Haggadot, a 13th-century

one from Spain and 18th-century examples from Vien-

na, borrowed from the Library of the Jewish Theological

Seminary.

“The Rose Haggadah

is the first Haggadah to enter the

Morgan Library collection, and Barbara Wolff’s works cat-

apult the Morgan’s illuminated manuscript holdings into

the twenty-first century,” said Peggy Fogelman, acting di-

rector and director of collections at the Morgan Library.

A label in the last gallery beneath the colophon reads:

“Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts sometimes in-

cluded a colophon containing information about the

creation of the book. Following that tradition the colo-

phon in the Rose Haggadah tells who commissioned the

manuscript, dates of its commission and completion, the

names of the artists and scribes, the media they used and

the identity of the parchment makers. If only ancient man-

uscripts provided so much information.”

The calligraphy of Hebrew text is by Izzy Pludwinski

of Jerusalem, Israel. The English calligraphy is by Kar-

en Gorst of Harrison, New York. A film documenting the

process and craft involved is available on the Morgan Li-

brary Web site

(www.themorgan.org

), and so is an on-line

exhibition.

Contemporary American Illumina-

tions, Art of Barbara Wolff at the

Morgan

Leviathan Whom Thou Hast

Formed

, a platinum fin whale and

some fish of the sea, great and

small, are depicted in the depths of

deep blue water as an illustration

by Barbara Wolff for the unbound

manuscript

You Renew the Face of

the Earth: Psalm 104

by Lita Solis-Cohen

hristie’s hosted the third annual Eric

M. Wunsch Award for Excellence

in the American Arts on January 21,

honoring Arnold L. Lehman, the retiring

director of the Brooklyn Museum in New

York City, and honoring the Chipstone

Foundation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Dr. Lehman will retire in June after 18

years as director of the Brooklyn Muse-

um, where he doubled the endowment

and attendance and engaged a new com-

munity that is 37% younger than in the

1990s. He introduced public programs

such as First Saturdays, when the muse-

um stays open until 11 p.m. with free ad-

mission and food, drinks, and live music,

drawing a younger crowd. Lehman also

put more of the collection on view and

promoted scholarly exhibitions and pop

culture, feminist art, and American art. In

2006, the museum published a two-vol-

ume 1100-page catalog of American

paintings at the Brooklyn Museum, and

the museum has lent paintings across the

country and around the world. Lehman

was responsible for physical changes at

the museum, including the addition of a

glass canopy fronting the McKim, Mead

and White façade, a new lobby, and pub-

lic plaza designed by Polshek Partnership

(now renamed Ennead Architects).

Lehman said the museum’s Ameri-

can decorative arts and period rooms

tell the story of the sweep of American

history in all its diversity. Lehman said

Martin Wunsch was a longtime friend of

the Brooklyn Museum. He accepted the

The Wunsch Award, Now a January Tradition, Honors Arnold

Lehman and Chipstone

Arnold Lehman is shown accepting the Wunsch award.

award from Peter Wunsch, Martin’s son, the president of the Wunsch

Foundation.

The Wunsch Award honored Chipstone’s exhibition program at

the Milwaukee Art Museum, its scholarly publications, on-line ini-

tiatives with ArtBabble, and immersive programming for college

students interested in publicly engaged scholarship about art and

design. Jonathan Prown, director of Chipstone, accepted the award.

Nonie Gadsden, curator of decorative arts at the Museum of Fine

Arts, Boston, pointed out other illustrious Chipstone alumni in at-

tendance at the awards ceremony: Luke Beckerdite, who edits the

furniture journal; Ronald Hurst, chief curator and vice president for

collections at Colonial Williamsburg; Glenn Adamson, who, after

spending more than a decade at the Victoria and Albert Museum in

London, is director of the Museum of Art and Design in New York

City; and Ethan Lasser, curator of American art at Harvard Art Mu-

seums, Cambridge, Massachusetts.