Maine Antique Digest April 2015

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12-B Maine Antique Digest, April 2015
- AUCTION -
Sotheby’s, New York City
Sotheby’s Various-Owners Americana Auction
by Lita Solis-Cohen
Photos courtesy Sotheby’s
Sotheby’s various-owners Americana auction offered
237 lots in two days: 95 lots of prints, silver, and
rugs on Friday, January 23, and 142 lots of furniture,
folk art, flags, China trade porcelain, and paintings on
Sunday, January 25.
After selling the collection of furniture and decora-
tions from the estate of Roy and Ruth Nutt on Friday and
Ruth Nutt’s huge collection of silver on Saturday, the two
sales totaling more than $6.6 million, the various-owners
sale demonstrated how hard it is for auctioneers to put
together an auction of Americana from multiple owners
at a time when market fluctuations make collectors reluc-
tant to sell. Of the 237 lots offered, just 137 (58%) found
buyers, for a total of $2,265,504.
The sale was not without some high spots. A Fed-
eral carved and inlaid mahogany fire screen with a rich
old surface, attributed to Nathan Lombard (1777-1847)
of Sutton, Massachusetts, 1798-1805, was one of the
big discoveries of the week. Fresh to market, it sold on
the phone to Pennsylvania dealer Todd Prickett of C.L.
Prickett for $118,750 (est. $60,000/90,000), underbid in
the room by Essex, Mas-
sachusetts, dealer Clark
Pearce. Pearce and Brock
Jobe wrote a study of
Nathan Lombard’s furni-
ture for American Furni-
ture 1998, “Sophistication
in Rural Massachusetts: The Inlaid Cherry Furniture of
Nathan Lombard.”
According to the catalog essay, “The screen relates
directly to another firescreen attributed to Lombard, as
both have shields bordered with carved leafage, carved
urns on their shafts, and are supported on cabriole legs
that terminate with scrolls. Both shields also are crafted
from mahogany rather than cherrywood—Lombard’s
apparent preferred choice of wood.
“The oval fan patera and ‘icicle’ inlays on the shield are
motifs found on many of Lombard’s works. It is, how-
ever, the richly textured three-dimensional carving on
the top and bottom of the shield, urn, and the top of the
legs that is without precedent. Further, of the two other
surviving pieces with cabriole legs and scroll feet—the
aforementioned firescreen and a candlestand at Yale Uni-
versity—neither have volutes carved into their feet. Nota-
bly, the carving on Lombard’s other work is more stylized
and flatter.
“The…carving [on this piece] is executed asymmetri-
cally at the base of its screen. This vestigial trace of the
rococo style and overall richer carving likely indicates
that the fire screen was one of the first pieces he crafted.
Lombard’s cabinetmaking business was probably estab-
lished as early as 1798 when he turned 21. At this time
the Neoclassical style was emerging in rural Massachu-
setts, and Lombard’s incorporation of carved and inlaid
patera on the shield demonstrates his knowledge of this
new esthetic movement.”
An amazing amount of American furniture history can
be learned from those heavy January catalogs!
In addition to a number of pieces of Philadelphia fur-
niture, a rare Newport, Rhode Island, dish-top tilt-top tea
table with a cupboard on its shaft, a pair of early Phila-
delphia portraits, a rare New York silver teapot, a flag,
and a brilliantly designed patriotic quilt sold for respect-
able five-figure prices. A cherry scalloped-top chest of
drawers, probably by Benjamin Munn III, sold to Historic
Deerfield, going back to the town where it was made. A
clock by Nathaniel Dominy IV went back to East Hamp-
ton, New York, where it was made, with collectors in the
salesroom who said they were thrilled to get it. Some folk
art, a fraktur, and a powder horn went to persistent bidders
for five-figure prices.
Two pieces of early Boston furniture, a circa 1725 easy
chair and a circa 1720 drop-leaf table, were bargains at
$12,500 for the easy chair and $3750 for the drop-leaf
table. The chair had lost some height on its feet, and the
table’s top had been reduced. They would have sold for a
lot more a decade or two ago. Worm damage, refinished
surface, and design flaws took their toll. The market is
unforgiving. The pictures and captions give details of the
successes.
For more information, contact Sotheby’s at (212) 606-
7000; Web site ).
The sale was
not without
some high
spots.
Silver cup byWilliamRouse, Bos-
ton, circa 1690, 3½" high, handle
engraved with initials “M / S=A,”
base engraved with initials “E /
HE,” front engraved with later ini-
tials “FDM,” marked twice on the
base, $8125 (est. $5000/7000).
Federal carved and inlaid
mahogany fire screen, attributed
to Nathan Lombard (1777-1847),
Sutton, Massachusetts,
1798-1805, 55½" high x
19½" wide x 18" deep.
The base appears to
retain its original surface,
but the standard lacks a
finial. It sold for $118,750
(est. $60,000/90,000) to
Pennsylvania dealer Todd
Prickett on the phone, under-
bid in the room by Essex,
Massachusetts, dealer Clark
Pearce, who, with Brock Jobe,
wrote a study of Nathan Lombard
for American Furniture 1998.
The trace of the rococo style
carving likely indicates that
the fire screen was one of the
first pieces Lombard made,
possibly as early as 1798
when the Neoclassical
style was emerging in
rural Massachusetts.
Lombard’s use of
the carved and inlaid patera on
the shield demonstrates his know-
ledge of this new Federal aesthetic.
Sixteen-star American national flag, Tennessee, circa 1817, approxi-
mately 3'10" x 5'11", $100,000 (est. $20,000/30,000). The hand-sewn dou-
ble-appliquéd cotton muslin stars are configured onto a two-piece wool
bunting canton, the upper section aged to a light blue color, the lower
section remaining navy in tone. The canton, stripes, and sleeve are hand
sewn. The linen sleeve, marked “8 ft / American Ensign / N.Y.B.” and
“1817” or “1857,” contains a period hemp rope that has a wooden toggle
at its top. “N.Y.B.” stands for the Navy Yard near Boston. It is likely a
flag that saw use during the Civil War. In Sotheby’s May 2002 Ameri-
cana auction, which included the American flag collection of Thomas S.
Connelly, this flag sold for $21,510 (est. $5000/6000).
This 26½" x 17" watercolor,
gouache, pencil, and ink on
paper portrait of a little girl in
a blue dress with a wide col-
lar by Ruth Whittier Shute
(1803-1882) and Samuel Addi-
son Shute (1803-1836), circa
1830, pictures Caroline Smith,
daughter of Nathaniel Pierce
Smith (est. $50,000/70,000). It
sold in the room for $87,500 to an
agent for a collector, underbid in
the room by a Chicago collector.
Some thought it wasn’t a Shute;
others said it was a Shute but a
pastel, not gouache, which is why
it is not typical.
Three phone bidders competed for this pair of oil on canvas portraits by
Robert Feke (1707-1752) of Mr. Tench Francis (33¾" x 25¾") and his wife,
Elizabeth Turbutt Francis (33½" x 26½"). Painted in Philadelphia, circa
1740, the portraits descended in the family of their daughter Anne and
sold on the phone for $75,000 (est. $25,000/35,000).
In January 2012 another portrait of Elizabeth Francis, thought to have
been painted a bit later, sold at Sotheby’s for $50,000. The pendant to
that painting, a portrait of Tench Francis, is at the Metropolitan Museum
of Art in New York City, having descended through the family of their
daughter Margaret.
Tench Francis was a prominent lawyer and jurist, beginning his career
in Talbot County, Maryland, and then moving to Philadelphia where he
was attorney general of Pennsylvania and a recorder of Philadelphia from
1750 to 1755. He died in Philadelphia in 1758. His daughter Margaret
married Chief Justice Edward Shippen and was mother-in-law to Bene-
dict Arnold.
The Physick family Queen Anne carved
walnut desk-and-bookcase, 93" x 40" x
22¾", was a marriage; it sold for $75,000
(est. $6000/12,000) to NewYork City dealer
W. Graham Arader on the phone, under-
bid by Pennsylvania advisor Alan Miller in
the room. According to family tradition, it
belonged to Edmund Physick, then to Dr.
Philip Syng Physick (1768-1837), and then
descended in the family until it was bought
by Philadelphia dealer Robert Carlen; the
estate of his daughter, Nancy Carlen, con-
signed it to Sotheby’s.
“It was once on the cover of Christie’s,
and it was withdrawn when it was thought
to be a marriage. If it were not a marriage,
it would have brought a mid-six-figure
price,” said Erik Gronning of Sotheby’s.
“We had it looked over by professionals,
and the reports were available to all.”
This was the right way to offer it; let the
market decide. A handsome piece, it was
appreciated.
Silver sauceboat by Joseph
Richardson Sr., double C-scroll
handle, three legs headed by shells
and ending in button feet, engraved
“W / TR,” $3125 (est. $5000/8000).