Maine Antique Digest, December 2016

129 / 241

Maine Antique Digest, December 2016 9-C
- AUCTION -
9-C
Hancock Shaker Village in
Hancock, Massachusetts, was the
bucolic site of the Willis Henry
Shaker sale on September 10 that drew a
crowd to the tent just off the entrance to
the village. Bidders and curious museum
visitors studied objects for sale during the
preview and stayed to bid. Results were a
little up and a little down, with an election
looming and some full collections, but
some new bidders were active and took
home some fine examples of Shaker care
and ingenuity.
Auctioneer Will Henry was thrilled
to see young bidders at work along
with the major collectors or their agents
bidding in their stead. Some institutional
bidding occurred: a couple of objects
made at the Alfred or Sabbathday Lake
Shaker community in Maine have
returned to Maine. They are now at
Sabbathday Lake, Maine, where the
last three Shakers anywhere continue
to live. The Alfred, Maine, community
merged with Sabbathday Lake in 1931,
leaving Sabbathday Lake the last Shaker
community in Maine. Sabbathday Lake
is interested in acquiring Maine Shaker
objects for its collection.
The sale featured items from the
collections of Marion “Kippy” Stroud
(1939-2015) of Philadelphia and Mount
Desert Island, Maine; Connecticut dealer
collector Ed Clerk; the Brecht family of
NewYork, Ireland, andMassachusetts; Flo
and the late Howard Fertig of New Jersey,
supporters of the Sabbathday Lake Shaker
community; Charles “Bud” Thompson,
curator, teacher, and Shaker scholar at
the Canterbury Shaker community; and
Joanne Womboldt and the late Jonathan
Wadleigh of Massachusetts. Collectors
and dealers greeted old friends and old
favorite objects—Shaker collectors and
dealers are themselves a community.
The highlight was a 9'11½" long
meeting house bench from the Enfield,
New Hampshire, community, circa 1840,
that sold for $33,600 (includes buyer’s
premium), well above the $7000/10,000
estimate.
A pine and birch drop-leaf dining table,
circa 1840, in the original dark walnut
stain, on square tapered legs in original
dark red stain, measured 7'6" long with a
19¼" wide single-board top. With six cast-
iron hinges and double boxed and pulled
leaf supports, it came from the Kippy
Stroud collection and had sold previously
at Willis Henry Auctions in August 1986.
This time out it sold for $9600.
Four maple side chairs in the original
dark stained finish, all with tall finials,
three graduated slats, early splint seats,
tapered front legs, and back legs with
original tilters, from Mount Lebanon,
New Lebanon, NewYork, circa 1840, sold
for $3120. Two chairs were numbered to
indicate the numbers of rooms where each
belonged. They came from the Kippy
Stroud collection.
A group of five maple and birch side
chairs in old varnish, all with tapered front
stiles, back legs with tilters, and black
and beige striped tape seats, also came
from the Stroud collection. Two chairs
were from Mount Lebanon, two from the
community at Harvard, Massachusetts,
and one from Enfield, New Hampshire.
The group was a bargain at $1200 for the
Collectors and dealers
greeted old friends and
old favorite objects.
Willis Henry Auctions, Hancock, Massachusetts
Shaker Bench Brings $33,600
by Frances McQueeney-Jones Mascolo
buyer, who also bought the group of four.
Boxes and carriers are perennial bright spots
at Shaker auctions. A pine writing desk box,
made between 1840 and 1850, was attributed to
the Shaker workshop of Elder Brother Thomas
Hammond at the Harvard, Massachusetts,
community, and it sold for $2700. A small (2⅜"
high to rim x 5" high to handle top x 6⅜" long)
oval maple and pine carrier, circa 1840, in old
chrome over the original yellow paint with three
fingers sold for $4800. A pine and maple chrome-
yellow oval box with three fingers was made
between 1830 and 1840 and sold for $2520.
A blue pine tub was made between 1840 and
1850 at Canterbury or Enfield, New Hampshire,
and sold online for $4080. As noted in the catalog,
“the rare blue color is usually indicative of the
Ministry.”
Willis Henry’s next sale will feature the third
and final portion of the McCue collection.
For information, check the website (www.
) or call (781) 834-7774.
The high lot was a 9'11½" long meeting house bench from the Enfield
community, made with a shaped birch back, 39 maple spindles, and a
shaped pine seat, all on three sets of double legs. The circa 1840 bench is
stamped “6” on each end, probably to indicate the sixth bench in a series
in the meeting house. The bench sold to a phone bidder for $33,600. It had
been part of the collection of German-born American Stefan Brecht, a
poet and theater historian and son of German playwright Bertolt Brecht.
Another meeting house bench, 10'1" long and also from Brecht’s collection,
looked remarkably similar but brought $2400. It is a maple and pine example
in original red paint, with 31 spindles and four sets of double-stretchered legs,
dated from between 1850 and 1860, and it came from Enfield or Canterbury,
New Hampshire. The difference, Willis Henry explained, was accounted for
by the canted back of the more costly example and the stretchered base of the
less expensive bench. Each came from the Brecht
collection and was important on its ownmerit.Willis
Henry Auctions had sold material from the Brecht
collection over recent years—this sale dispersed the
last of those objects. Willis Henry Auction photos.
The pine and cherry dining table, 7'9" x 28" x 33¼", retains traces of the original
red-ocher stain and is made with a 26" central board bordered with two 3" outer
boards and breadboard ends. The square-to-turned legs are double pegged into
5½" skirt boards. It came from the community at Alfred or the one at Sabbathday
Lake, Maine, and sold for $15,600. Ed Clerk, from whose collection it came, had
bought it in the 1980s from dealer Letitia Sousa of Cumberland, Rhode Island.
Hancock Shaker Village is a museum as well as a working farm. As the
auction proceeded one cow attended to her three-hour-old calf. Other
cows clustered around—until the feed truck arrived—making it clear
that any close observation would be strongly discouraged. Auctioneer Willis Henry was thrilled to spot young
bidders at the sale. He is pictured with Dylan Davis
and Jean Lee, principals of Ladies & Gentlemen
Studio, Seattle, Washington, and Brooklyn, New
York. Their exhibition Furnishing Utopia, an
exploration of the influence of the Shaker design
aesthetic on contemporary design, was installed in
the 1830 brick dwelling at Hancock Shaker Village.
Lee and Davis led an international group of product
designers studying Shaker objects and comparing
them to contemporary objects. The pair also stayed
to bid at the auction, winning several objects,
including a rare birch and pine oval box with a
linen-covered lid, a bright green paper interior, and
the number 37 on the bottom, for which they paid
$480.
The small pine storage box in
bittersweet-orange paint with
walnut pulls dated from about
1840 and sold online for $3720.
Willis Henry photo.