Maine Antique Digest May 2015

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Maine Antique Digest, May 2015 3-C
- AUCTION -
☞
After the January 24 Case
Antiques gallery auction,
both John Case and vice
president Sarah Campbell Drury
happily announced that the sale
total exceeded its high estimate.
The Knoxville auction house
continues to emphasize impor-
tant regional material—furniture,
pottery, historical documents,
and silver—but its estate sources
also yield up 20th-century Amer-
ican art, Native American arti-
facts, and Asian decorative arts.
All contribute to Case’s success-
ful events. Buyers collecting in
many fields, at home and abroad,
have learned to check out those
detailed online catalogs.
The top lot—a 20th-century
painting—managed to be both
local and universal. A 1963 por-
trait of his mother, Delia, by
Knoxville-born artist Beauford
Delaney (1901-1979) sold for
$48,380 (est. $12,000/14,000)
and is headed to the Michael
Rosenfeld Gallery in New York
City where Delaney is a fea-
tured artist. The portrait and an
abstract painting by the artist
came directly from the Delaney
estate’s administrator. But phone
lines also lit up for a landscape
by California Impressionist
Maurice Braun (1877-1941),
which brought $24,780 (est.
$5000/8000), and Rocks on New
Providence Bahama Islands by
Florida artist A.E. Backus (1906-
1990) sold for $14,750.
On the regional side, John Case
shared his pleasure at the excel-
lent price for a favorite East Ten-
nessee pottery lot. A lead-glazed
earthenware jar with manganese
splotched decoration and applied
rolled handles, 13¾" high, pos-
sibly made in Sullivan County,
Tennessee, sold for $17,110 (est.
$4500/5500), in spite of a slight
deformation of the rim during
firing. He noted the pluses: “The
survival of both handles and the
excellent condition of the glaze
attracted buyers. I received many
comments about the beautiful
glaze on this jar, and it appeared
to push the form to a premium
price.”
Even more was paid for an East
Tennessee Hepplewhite walnut
chest of drawers, 35¾" high x
39½" wide, with extensive inlay,
which climbed to $19,470 over
a modest $6800/8800 estimate.
“This chest is related to another
blanket chest that surfaced out
of East Tennessee in 2004 with
the bellflower inlay around the
escutcheons,” explained Case.
“While I previously thought this
bellflower inlay work was out-
side the East Tennessee area, I am
more convinced it is East Tennes-
see after this chest surfaced with
a Tennessee history. It would be
one of the most elaborately inlaid
chests to hail from Tennessee
with the combination of bell-
flower inlay, quarter-fan inlay,
and fan inlays on the shaped front
and side skirts. The underbidder
was a major southern institution.
I believe the price was kept from
climbing higher by condition
issues including a refinished
case and veneer repairs. There
is a possibility the chest had a
top molding in the past as well.
Despite the condition issues, this
was an exceptional Federal inlaid
form from Tennessee.”
The most important southern
historical lots were related to
the military career of Confed-
erate Navy Lieutenant Dabney
Scales (1841-1920), who served
on a number of vessels during
the Civil War. His final assign-
ment in the conflict was on the
C.S.S. Shenandoah , which had
been given the impossible task
of destroying the New England
whaling fleet and became one
of the last Confederate entities
to surrender in late 1865. Two
lots of photographs and archives
belonging to Scales brought
$19,470 each. In 1863-64, Scales
went to London and Paris on a
mission related to ship building
and support for the Confederate
cause; a separate archive from
that time sold for $8496. Yet
another lot pertained to Scales’s
son George, a World War I avi-
ator; his uniform and archive
brought $2232. Case always has
an auction segment dedicated
to historical documents, and the
carefully researched individual
entries make fascinating reading.
Sarah Drury commented, “If
you add up those three lots relat-
ing to Dabney Scales, that group
taken together brought the top
price of this sale. In addition to
the important photographs, he was
just a really good writer. The other
thing about this material was it
helped bring in a lot of buyers who
were also interested in some of the
other documents in the sale. The
historical document category was
definitely a bright spot.” Another
significant document was an 1834
property sale agreement between
a Creek Indian and two Alabama
men, approved and signed by
President Andrew Jackson, which
brought $2852.
Regional auction houses like
Case receive many estate con-
signments. When the Case staff
heads out to explore the contents
of these estates, surprising dis-
coveries and story trails emerge,
especially in the area of docu-
ments. According to Drury, John
Case had the pleasure of such a
discovery recently on a routine
call: “John was examining a
blanket chest that was a possible
consignment, and he came across
a hidden compartment with an
incredible stash of historical doc-
uments that had been put in there
Case Antiques, Knoxville, Tennessee
Estates and Collections Contribute to Auction
Success
by Karla Klein Albertson
Photos courtesy Case Antiques
“We really do...think about how
we can help bring these pieces
to the appropriate buyers. It’s
almost like a matchmaking
service!”
Portraits did well in the January sale. Ralph Eleaser Whiteside
Earl (1788-1838), son of Connecticut painter Ralph Earl, came to
Tennessee in 1817 to paint Andrew Jackson. This couple by the
younger Earl sold for $24,780 (est. $6800/8400). The sitters, the
Reverend Hardy Cryer and his wife, were a handsome couple. A
Methodist, Cryer liked preaching and horse racing, which occa-
sionally got him in trouble. Oddly enough, 200 years later young
men are wearing their hair brushed up in front again.
Coin silver from Mississippi is
extremely rare, but the detailing
on this small coin silver cream jug
reflects the elegance of maker Emile
Profilet (1801-1868), who worked
first in New Orleans, then in Nat-
chez from 1823 until his death. The
vessel has a cartouche on the body
that documents it as a gift from
a father to a daughter in 1864. It
sold for $2714. The John Montague
collection.
In appearance a diminutive sideboard,
this chest may have been used for sugar
and small items such as candles. The
cabinetmaker used figured cherry on the
fronts of the three shallow top drawers
and the deeper single drawer below. One
of several lots from the estate of Bertha
Cochran Wright of Calumet Farm, Lex-
ington, Kentucky, the chest sold for $6844.
Never laugh when a hearse
goes by, and never put Chinese
decorative arts in a garage sale.
Lightning struck for this circu-
lar 19th-century cinnabar lac-
quer box that vaulted over its
$1400/1800 estimate to reach
$15,500. History helps—an old
photo from 1963 places the box
in a Chattanooga collection at
that time.
Case presents an extensive selec-
tion of modern, estate, and antique
jewelry in the gallery sales and the
online auctions held in between. This
Art Deco platinum brooch with 21
diamonds, accented with sapphires,
brought $2006.
A signed landscape by Tennessee Impressionist Catherine Wiley
(1879-1958) brought $9440. Wiley studied in New York at the
Art Students League and enjoyed considerable recognition for
her abilities before suffering a mental breakdown that ended her
career.
This East Tennessee lead-glazed red-
ware jar with manganese splotched
decoration, possibly Sullivan
County, Tennessee, brought a strong
$17,110 (est. $4500/5500), thanks in
part to its excellent condition.
The silver wine taster is a French form,
and Emile Profilet may have made this
example, which brought $1652, for a
client of French descent or taste. The
silversmith worked in New Orleans
around 1822 before moving to Nat-
chez. The John Montague collection.