Maine Antique Digest, December 2016

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Maine Antique Digest, December 2016 27-A
- AUCTION -
27-A
Garth’s Auctions, Delaware, Ohio
Country Americana
by Don Johnson
Photos courtesy Garth’s
It came down to what was “both good and pleasant.”
When Garth’s Auctions held a sale of country
Americana on September 10 in Delaware, Ohio, the
results confirmed that this is Garth’s sweet spot, the area
of the market where the auction house excels. It has been
that way for decades.
“It was the kind of auction where people were buzzing,
buzzing, buzzing,” said Amelia Jeffers, president of
Garth’s. “Lots of great energy in the room.”
When the bustling subsided and the bidding began,
buyers got serious. The top lot of the day was Down the
Valley by Anna Mary Robertson Moses (1860-1961),
better known as Grandma Moses. Selling for $17,400
(includes buyer’s premium), the painting depicted a
snowy landscape with a church and other buildings seen
from atop a hill. Oil on masonite, the 10" x 12" scene was
accented with glitter. The painting was signed and had a
label noting that it was created on July 25, 1942.
Jeffers said the painting came to Garth’s during the
company’s monthly appraisal day. It wasn’t the only
piece of folk art to excel.
Two fraktur birth certificates that sold separately for
$14,400 and $8700 were remarkable not only for their
workmanship but also for an unlikely connection. Created
by the Ehre Vater Artist (1782-1828), they represented
two children who married as adults.
The better of the two lots measured 13¾" x 11¾" and
featured a main design of two parrots flanking a heart
above the “good and pleasant” text. Watercolor on paper,
it recorded the birth of Rebecca Fry on September 25,
1809, in Rowan County, North Carolina. It sold with a
youth instruction book owned by Fry.
The other fraktur was dated 1812 and recorded the
birth of Benjamin Thomas Essex in 1807. Decorated
with tulips, geometric designs, a heart, and a male face,
it measured 12½" x 7½" and came with several books
and documents. The fraktur had large stains and other
condition problems.
The couple married in North Carolina in September
1831 and moved to Indiana three years later. The fraktur
and accompanying material remained in the family until
they were consigned to Garth’s. Both lots sold to a buyer
from the Carolinas.
“What a great story,” said Jeffers. “That’s everything
you want in the romance of buying Americana.”
Interest in the folk art market continued with a full-
length portrait of the Sanderson children, an unsigned
work by William Matthew Prior (1806-1873) that
realized $12,000. It was one of the notable lots that sold
considerably below expectations; it was estimated at
$20,000/30,000. “In a day of very strong prices, that was
a nice buy,” Jeffers noted.
The 36" x 26½" portrait pictured an older brother
with one arm around his sister’s shoulder and each with
a hand on a single rose. A column and drapery added
ornamentation to the interior scene. The work has been
restored.
“It was the kind of auction
where people were buzzing,
buzzing, buzzing.”
From there the top lots represented
a swirling mix of Americana, includ-
ing a 37-star American flag with its
canton featuring an unusual design
of double-sided stars that exploded
past its $600/1200 estimate to sell
for $10,800 and an arched mirror
having an elaborate pierced and
carved frame with Masonic emblems
by John Bellamy that sold for $2500.
Painted furniture did well, as it
often does at Garth’s, led by a one-
piece dry sink cupboard in robin’s-
egg blue, 1880-1910, that sold for
$5400, while a hooded dry sink in
poplar, cleaned down to a powder-
blue paint (over an earlier orange-
salmon), realized $4200.
“Holy cow! Keep giving me dry sinks,” said Jeffers. “I
love selling them.”
Even an English settle bench excelled. In pine with
old dark gray-brown paint, 63" high x 61½" wide, it sold
for $5160 (est. $900/1500). Jeffers noted that the form,
surface, and size all factored into the bidding.
There was also a steady supply of decorated American
stoneware—a category where Garth’s has seen
consistently strong prices in recent years. The offerings
included a 12-gallon crock with stenciled designs of an
eagle encircled by “A. Conrad / New Geneva / Fayette
Co. Pa.” and an eagle with a banner lettered “Lion
Pottery” that sold for $4920, and a 20-gallon crock
having a stenciled cobalt eagle holding a banner lettered
“Star Pottery” over “Charles Miller / Matamoras / Ohio”
that realized $4800.
Jeffers paid credit to the knowledge of stoneware
buyers at Garth’s. “It’s not lost on me the scholarship
that other folks are investing in stoneware. Tom Porter
[the former owner of Garth’s] always believed, and so
do I, that it’s our job to market these things well and get
them in front of the experts. And our buyers are experts
in these things…Those western Pennsylvania stoneware
collectors, forget about it. There aren’t enough hours in
the day for me to dive into that the way those people
have.”
Items from other categories did equally well, including
pieces from Ohio folk artists. Made of carved sandstone,
a 23" high figure of an angel holding a baby, the work
of Ernest “Popeye” Reed (1919-1985), sold for $3900,
while a 9" long calico cat and kitten made of carved and
painted wood by Elijah Pierce (1892-1984), dated 1976
and marked with its original price of $75, realized $2760.
The mix continued with a historical blue Staffordshire
vegetable dish in the Arms of Georgia pattern at $3240;
an American Revolutionary War powder horn dated
1775 and showing a map of the Boston area, $3000; and
a wooden door with a folk art decoration of an eagle head
over a colorful shield lettered “Please Call and Settle
Before the Fifteenth of Jan’y 1876,” standing 78½" high,
that made $2640.
Of the 563 lots in the auction, Jeffers was particularly
fond of an apple box attributed to Jacob Knagy (1796-
1883) of Pennsylvania. At 8¼" high and 10" square, it
featured turned posts and legs, all in red paint with gold
stars. Forget the $400/800 estimate. The piece sold for
$3000.
According to Jeffers, a number of factors continue to
drive the market for Americana: color, form, condition,
size, rarity, and provenance. The apple box was a perfect
example. It had everything going for it. One might even
say it was “good and pleasant.”
For more information, phone Garth’s at (740) 362-4771
or visit ).
Down the Valley by Anna Mary Robertson “Grandma” Moses (1860-1961), oil on
masonite, signed, depicting a winter scene with a cluster of buildings accented
with glitter, painted in July 1942, 10" x 12" plus original frame, slight scratch,
$17,400.
Lollipop butter print
with a carved eagle,
mid-19th century, 8¼"
long, $1375.
Full-bodied leaping stag
weathervane, copper with
zinc head and antlers, late
19th century, 23" high x 30"
long, dents, two soldered
areas to seam separation,
modern base, $2400.
Treen
bowl in
original
Spanish
brown paint,
19th century,
5½" high x 15"
diameter, $1800.
“Some things are good, which are not pleasant, other things are pleasant, that are not good
but to live in peace is both good and pleasant.” Text on a fraktur by the Ehre Vater Artist.