Maine Antique Digest, March 2017

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28-C Maine Antique Digest, March 2017
- AUCTION -
28-C
Hap Moore Antiques Auction, York, Maine
Painted Furniture at Hap Moore
by Mark Sisco
When it comes to painted furniture,
Hap Moore’s December 3,
2016, auction in York, Maine,
could have been a primer on what’s hot
and what’s not. Blue was red hot. Muddy
brown was not. And red had a mild case
of the blues. Size definitely mattered, and
in this case, smaller was clearly better.
When it came to painted furniture, pound
for pound, a little spice cabinet was the
leader. Brown sponge painting on a
greenish-yellow background, porcelain
knobs, and a curvy shaped cutout molding
under the cornice all helped it to clear
$1265 (including buyer’s premium).
The bright blue-gray paint was the
catalyst that kicked a single-drawer
blanket chest up to $1725. Original
cotter-pin hinges, a breadboard top,
probably original brass hardware, and
an unbroken bracket base helped too. A
chest in classic Maine red and black grain
paint with bootjack ends, wooden knobs,
and yellow line borders on the upper
faux drawers and the lower real drawers
seemed underappreciated at $345. It
reeked of mothballs, which attested to its
use and probably dampened enthusiasm
for it. A six-board single-drawer chest
with bootjack ends in a nice old dry blue
paint better than doubled that amount at
$776.25.
But the star of the furniture was
a decidedly unpainted four-drawer
Chippendale bowfront chest. With
matching crotch mahogany veneers on
the drawer fronts, brasses that appeared
original, cockbeaded drawer fronts,
banded Greek key inlays along the edge
of the wide single-board top, and slightly
splayed French feet, the chest led the
furniture pack at $4255.
Some interesting artworks were
available for buyers willing to take a
chance. There isn’t much information
available about Francesco Berlingieri, the
artist who presumably painted a 25" x 40"
oil on canvas of four gentlemen anxiously
awaiting a taste of vino. It is signed
lower right “F. Berlingieri.”
lists Berlingieri as a 20th-century Italian
artist. ASwedish source lists a painting he
signed in 1874. I could locate only about
five of his auction results, and the $920
somebody coughed up for this one just
might be a world record.
Willis Henry Plummer (1838/39-
1935) painted mostly in and around
New England, creating marine scenes,
landscapes, still lifes, and fish portraits.
At 6" x 11", an oil on board scene of
a pleasure sailor approaching a lake
island, signed and dated lower right “W.
PLUMMER 1878,” was close to his
smallest painting on record. But someone
was willing to pony up $345 for it.
According to a biography supplied by his
niece, Plummer lost a leg at some point
in his life, and he often vacationed on
Grand Manan Island in New Brunswick,
Canada, off Maine’s easternmost shores.
A primer on what’s hot
and what’s not.
The small table-size eight-drawer spice chest
in yellow and brown sponge paint headed out
for $1265. Just in case anybody’s interested,
that curvy shape under the cornice is known
as a cyma reversa. I bet even the builder of it
didn’t know that.
This bowfront Chippendale chest in mahogany veneer sold for $4255. According to
Moore, the consensus was that it’s a Portsmouth chest.
Oak storage chest, probably English or European,
with the original wrought-iron hardware, a carved
apron, and incised initials “J C” bracketed by the
date of 1711 under the lock, $690.
If it weren’t for the extensive local history and provenance, this dark
green-painted document box and the accompanying fire bucket probably
wouldn’t have drawn much more than a yawn. But the box was signed in
ink by Mercy Follett (1780-1852) and labeled with an old paper tag bearing
the name of Robert F. Gerrish (1815-1852), both of nearby Kittery Point,
Maine. The fire bucket has a detached handle but still added enough
value to drive the lot to an auction-leading $4945. According to Moore, the
Gerrish and Follett families go way back to the early pre-Colonial times.