Maine Antique Digest, April 2017

Maine Antique Digest, April 2017 13-C

AUCTION -

John Frederick Peto (1854-1907) signed this 6" x 9" oil on

board still life with a book and pipe and dated it

“’89.”

With

a Kennedy Galleries provenance, it sold online

without competition for $11,250 (est. $9000/12,000).

Dated 1778 and initialed “HR” for Henry Roudebush of Montgomery County,

Pennsylvania, this sgraffito redware charger with a large central bird

surrounded by flowers within a swag border retains a green, orange, and

yellow glaze. The 12¼" diameter charger with a Joe Kindig provenance

sold in the salesroom for $20,740 (est. $4000/8000). It has some chips

and flaking and has darkened and would benefit from cleaning.

The 19th-century swell-bodied copper running horse weathervane

with an old gilt and verdigris surface, attributed to the workshop of

J. W. Fiske & Co. and 18¼" x 25", remains in good condition and

sold on Bidsquare for $8750 (est. $1500/2500).

A miniature (4

" tall)

Pennsylvania or Virginia

stoneware crock with

cobalt trailing tulip

decoration sold for

$4392 (est. $1500/2500).

This New England painted pine blanket

chest from the early 19th century, retaining

an old surface, 34¼" x 42", sold online for

$2000 (est. $800/1200). It is deep blue.

This late 19th-century folk art carved and painted musician group,

featuring a standing figure with a cello and three others sitting on a

bench, had sold at sale of the the Stewart Gregory collection (lot 77) at

Sotheby Parke Bernet in January 1979 for $1900 (est. $400/500). It sold

online at Pook & Pook 36 years later for $1500 (est. $1500/$2500). Did

collectors forget that landmark sale, when folk art turned to gold? The

musician figures range in height from 5½" to 7".

A bright spot for brown furniture. A phone bidder and

a bidder in the salesroom wanted this Pennsylvania

Chippendale mahogany drop-leaf dining table, circa 1770,

with ball-and-claw feet. The 28" x 18" x 42½" table sold

on the phone for $3660 (est. $1000/2000).

Three phone bidders competed for this

large (25" x 25½") Montgomery County,

Pennsylvania, wool Schwenkfelder

needlework townscape, dated 1855

and wrought by Mary Ann Heebner,

which descended in her family. It

belongs to a small known group of

townscape needlework pictures from the

Schwenkfelder community. It sold for

$26,840 (est. $5000/10,000). One of these

townscape Schwenkefelder needlework

pictures by Catharine Kriebel, dated 1856,

sold at Freeman’s on November 19, 2005,

for $29,875. Others are in the collection of

the Schwenkfelder Museum.