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Maine Antique Digest, December 2016 31-A
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AUCTION -
31-A
Pook & Pook, Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Some Icons Return
to Market
by Lita Solis-Cohen
Photos courtesy Pook & Pook
There remains competition
for rare works that are well
designed, in good condition,
with original surface, and
with reasonable estimates.
P
ook & Pook’s Americana sale on October 7 and 8
was a big one. The 847 lots covered the full range
of American furniture, ceramics, metalware,
advertising, and paintings, collected by the last two
generations of collectors. The sale provided a barometer
for several parts of the antiques marketplace.
The good news is that there is still an active market—
online, on phones, and in the salesroom, even though
attendance in the salesrooms is not as large as it used
to be and most prices are not as high. There remains
competition for rare works that are well designed,
in good condition, with original surface, and with
reasonable estimates. Of the 847 lots offered, 784 sold,
for a 92.6% sell-through rate and a tidy $1,370,324
total for the two-day sale. Add to that $181,162 for the
October 10 online auction of 860 lots that included a lot
of country store fittings available for inspection during
the preview for the live auction, and the total spent on
Americana at Pook in early
October comes to a grand
total of $1,551,486.
Estimates were low to
encourage bidding and avoid
buy-ins. Lower prices allow
new collectors to enter at an
affordable level, and there
were a number of young
bidders buying furnishings
for prices that they might
pay at Ikea and far less than
price tags at Bloomingdale’s.
Others were outbid for what
they hoped to take home.
Those in the salesroom
agreed that auctions are still
the best free entertainment in
town.
Pook offered free drinks and food from 4 to 6 p.m. on
Friday night, when many came to preview. The ADA
show at Deerfield and a clock conference at Winterthur
may have kept attendance down—but not participation.
On Friday, October 7, 40% of the lots offered went to
bidders online with Bidsquare; on Saturday only 14%
of the sale went to Bidsquare, but attendance in the
salesroom was not larger. About three-quarters of the
seats were taken at both sessions, but the crowd thinned
as the sales progressed, and phones were busy.
Some icons of American folk art returned to market.
One was a Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, painted
dower chest with three recessed arched panels painted
with red and green tulips in a vase above three draw-
ers, on bracket feet, with its original hardware and a
This Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania, painted pop-
lar architectural dower chest
is dated 1795. The front has
three recessed arched panels
with potted tulips, flanked by
molded pilasters, above three
drawers supported by ogee
bracket feet. The 27¾" x
47¾" x 25" chest had been
sold at Sotheby’s on Janu-
ary 18, 2002, from the Pal-
ley collection for $170,750.
At Pook & Pook it sold for $108,000 to dealer Diana Bittel of
Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, in the salesroom, bidding for a client.
This Pennsylvania German painted
pine dower chest with overall blue-
sponged decoration has on its front
two ivory panels with pots of flowers
bearing the date 1786. The ends are
decorated with vibrant rampant lions
and tulip buds, all resting on straight
bracket feet. The 18" x 48" x 17" chest
sold in the salesroom for $19,200 to
dealer Skip Chalfant.
This New England painted pine sailor’s game
board is inscribed “Presented to B.A. Merrill
by his Father July 12th 1857.” The front has a
central checkerboard flanked byAmerican flags;
the reverse (not shown) has a large relief-carved
ship. The 12¼" x 21" board sold for $48,000
(est. $20,000/30,000). At Northeast Auctions on
August 5, 2000, from the collection of Virginia
Ramsey-Pope Cave, it had sold for $46,000. It
had sold at Sotheby’s, January 1997, to Virginia
Cave for $25,300, having been consigned by the
Art Institute of Chicago.
A rare circa 1869 American wooden
bone shaker bicycle with metal rims,
labeled twice (behind the leather
seat and on the metal handlebars)
was made by “Wood Bros. / 596
/ Broadway, N.Y.” It was also
accompanied by an adver-
tisement from
Harper’s
Weekly
. It’s 48" x 70" and
sold to collector Charles
Wilson of Red Lion, Penn-
sylvania, for $10,200 (est.
$10,000/14,000). Wilson said
bicycles with wheels with
wooden spokes and pedals attached to the front wheel were made for a very short time.
Frenchman Pierre Lallement sold his patent in 1868 to a NewYorker who collected $10 for
each wooden bicycle made. “That may not sound like much, but it is equivalent to $235 in
2016 dollars,” saidWilson. “With the introduction of the wire wheel and the round rubber rim
in the early 1870s the highwheeler known as the Penny Farthing became possible. Known
as an Ordinary, the highwheeler was introduced to America at the Centennial in 1876.”
This stylish piece with good proportions is a
circa 1765 Philadelphia Chippendale mahogany
dressing table. The thumb-molded top overhangs
the case with one long and three short drawers;
the central lower drawer has a carved shell and
tassels above a fully carved apron. It is supported
by cabriole legs terminating in ball-and-claw feet.
The 32" x 35" table with three replaced drawer
facings and a repaired break to a rear leg sold for
$21,600 (est. $20,000/30,000) to Bryn Mawr dealer
Diana Bittel for a client.