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Maine Antique Digest, March 2017 31-A
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AUCTION -
31-A
The 30" x 23" oil on canvas portrait of a boy holding
an apple (shoes, dress, and apple all red), attributed to
itinerant deaf-mute artist John Brewster Jr. (1766-1854),
ex-Hirschl &Adler Folk, sold to New York City dealer
and auctioneer Leigh Keno, bidding for clients sitting with
him, for $150,000 (est. $60,000/90,000), underbid by a
Philadelphia collector.
This Federal carved
mahogany demilune
card table from Rhode
Island (a sweet little size
of 29" x 28½" x 14¼")
did not go unnoticed.
It sold for $17,500 (est.
$5000/10,000) to broker
Seth Thayer of Belfast,
Maine, underbid by
Skip Chalfant of H.L.
Chalfant, West Chester,
Pennsylvania.
These 1740-55 chairs, attributed to William Savery, were
sold back-to-back, and in a departure for a New York City
salesroom were sold as “choice.” (The auctioneer gave
the winner of the first chair the option to buy the second
chair at the same price with no competition.) The first
one brought $118,750 from a Philadelphia collector sitting
with dealer Philip Bradley, underbid by Chalfant. When
given the opportunity, the collector declined to buy the
second chair at the same price. “We will bid,” he said. That
decision cost him an extra $6250; the second chair sold for
$125,000, underbid by the trade.
This Philadelphia 1740-60 walnut
compass-seat side chair, 42½" high,
estimated at $20,000/30,000, sold to a
phone bidder for $50,000, underbid by
dealer James Kilvington. The frame
and slip seat are each marked IIII. It’s
probably from a set of at least nine
that was made for Dr. Thomas Graeme
(1688-1772). Christie’s sold another
example with the slip-seat frame
marked VIIII for $40,000 in September
2013. Weschler’s in Washington, D.C.,
sold an example (set number unknown)
for $121,500 on January 17, 1998.
Sotheby’s has sold another example
(set number not known) twice—in
October 1982 it brought $68,750 to
dealer David Stockwell; the same chair
went back up in January 1997 and sold
for $118,000 to Leigh Keno.
This 20th-century copper, wood, and brass weathervane of “Famous
Number 16,” 49½" x 30" x 76", sold to dealer Deanne Levison, sitting
with clients (the husband known as a racing enthusiast), for $27,500 (est.
$30,000/50,000). The actual “Old 16” is in the collection of the Henry Ford
Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. It was the first American winner of the
Vanderbilt Cup automobile race in 1908. The car was manufactured by the
Locomobile Company of America, in operation between 1899 and 1929.
“It’s a beautiful project,” said Pennsylvania
furniture broker and consultant Alan Miller after
buying the Chippendale mahogany shell-eared
side chair, 1755-65, with carving attributed to
the Garvan carver. It retains a rich brown color.
“He made three sets of these chairs—two with
trapezoidal seats and one with compass seats,”
Miller added. The crest rail has been repaired
and the splat telescoped, according to Miller, but
he said it has a “fine surface.” Ex-Mrs. J. Insley
Blair, the 38¾" x 12" chair sold for $30,000.
This Federal carved
armchair with the
carving attributed
to Samuel McIntire
(1757-1811) sold for
$15,000 to collectors
in the salesroom,
underbid by Alan
Miller. “We named
it the ‘Jumping
Spider’ chair,”
the couple joked,
referring to its
back. It’s one of a
set of eight and the
only one in private
hands. It was made
for the east parlor
of the Jerathamiel
Peirce (1747-1827)
house at 80 Federal Street, Salem, Massachusetts, in 1782.
Made by an unknown cabinetmaker and carved by McIntire,
the chairs are faithful reproductions of plate 33 for “Parlour
Chairs” in Sheraton’s
The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s
Drawing-Book
and are the only known American examples of
this pattern. The other seven are in museum collections: three
are with the Peabody Essex Museum and displayed in the
Peirce-Nichols house; one is at Winterthur Museum; two are
in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. When Northeast Auctions
sold this chair in August 2001, it brought $46,000. It had been
offered at Christie’s in January 2016 with a higher estimate
($20,000/40,000) but was bought in.
This Parrish family
Chippendale mahogany
side chair, 39½"
high, Philadelphia,
1760-80, estimated at
$20,000/30,000, sold
for $21,250 to James
Kilvington, underbid
by a collector.