Maine Antique Digest, April 2017

Maine Antique Digest, April 2017 29-E

AUCTION -

29-E

for a circa 1760 caster by Bancroft Woodcock of

Wilmington, Delaware, and it sold for double its

high estimate at $11,250 (est. $3000/5000). In

contrast, an elegant rococo sauceboat by William

Hollingshead of Philadelphia that went to dealer

Jonathan Trace for $5250 (est. $6000/9000) seemed

like a bargain. It had sold at Sotheby’s way back in

1979 for $4000.

Ulysses G. Dietz, chief curator and curator for

decorative arts for the Newark Museum, Newark,

New Jersey, bought four works for the museum.

He bought a Rococo Revival egg coddler by Ball,

Tompkins & Black, New York, circa 1845, for

$2750 (est. $2500/3500); a silver mustard pot by

Baldwin & Co., Newark, New Jersey, circa 1845,

with a domed cover, a strapwork frieze, and scroll

feet headed by Bacchic masks and with a blue glass

liner, for $1375 (est. $700/1000); and a toast rack

by Taylor & Hinsdale, New York, circa 1815, for

$1500 (est. $1000/1500); and he paid only $750 for

an Arts and Crafts three-piece coffee set by Nevius

Company, New York, circa 1905. Dietz was one of

several bidders for a silver and mixed-metal

mokume

Japanese-style coat clasp, made by Tiffany & Co.,

New York, dated 1876, that sold for $25,000 (est.

$1500/2500) to Annamarie Sandecki, archivist for

Tiffany & Co.’s corporate collection.

A descendant of Paulding Farnham who was bid-

ding by phone outbid two other phone bidders to buy

the silver, enamel, and gem-set Viking-style vase that

was designed by Paulding Farnham for Tiffany &

Co., NewYork, in 1901 for the Pan-American Expo-

sition, Buffalo. The descendant had to pay $175,000

(est. $20,000/30,000) for it. It was the highest price of

the sale. See the illustration for more details about it.

A rare pair of Myer Myers candlesticks sold to Tim

Martin of S.J. Shrubsole, New York City, with little

competition, for $150,000 (est. $150,000/250,000).

Some longtime collectors came back into this

market knowing that bargains could be had. A

coffeepot made by Joseph and Nathaniel Richardson

of Philadelphia, circa 1777, sold for $56,250 (est.

$30,000/50,000) in the salesroom to dealer Deanne

Levison for clients. At Sotheby’s in January

2000 it had sold for $107,000. Another longtime

collector, doing his own bidding, paid $23,750 (est.

$12,000/18,000) for a 5¾" diameter silver bowl

marked by Samuel Casey of South Kingston, Rhode

Island. That bowl had sold at Sotheby’s in June 1984

for $15,400 (est. $10,000/15,000). Casey made the

silver hardware for theAppleton secretary-bookcase,

the star of the Newport furniture exhibition at Yale

University Art Gallery.

Three phone bidders competed for a silver

presentation

Kiddush

cup with the mark “A.H.,”

probably for Anselm Hardy of Quebec. The cup is

dated 1858 and has pseudo English hallmarks and

is engraved with a presentation inscription. It sold

for $50,000 (est. $6000/8000). The buyer, a member

of Montreal’s congregation Shaar Hashomayim,

purchased the cup and will donate it back to the

congregation in honor of its 170th anniversary. It had

been presented as a gift by the synagogue’s board

of trustees to noted New York rabbi and journalist

Samuel Meyer Isaacs in 1860.

Of the 270 lots offered, 228 (84.4%) sold. Barbara

Schwartz said she is satisfied with the results. “The

collection had to be sold,” she said. “I am happy to

get a few of my favorites back.”

See the website

(www.sothebys.com

) for a priced

catalog and for a new feature—pictures of all the

unsold lots available for purchase.

This 9¾" high silver and copper Japanese-

style pitcher by Whiting Mfg. Co., New York,

circa 1883, is of good weight (40 oz. 4 dwt.).

The squared body was etched and applied

with sprays of carnations on one side and

an iris on the other. The neck has a silver

and copper geometric band; the base has

simplified leaves, and the loop handle has

multiple scrolled terminals and conforming

copper decoration. The interior is gilt, and it

is marked on the base and numbered 1008.

It is pictured on the cover of the catalog

filled with purple irises and with the iris

side showing. It sold to a phone bidder for

$20,000 (est. $8000/12,000). In January 1994

it had sold at Sotheby’s for $13,800 (est.

$6000/8000).

This Arts and Crafts centerpiece bowl by Arthur J. Stone of

Gardner, Massachusetts, circa 1917, has a circular bowl with strap

handles, raised on a spreading circular foot that is marked on the

base with the craftsman’s “T.” for Herbert A. Taylor. Its length over

handles is 14½". It sold on the phone for $2000 (est. $1200/1800).

This set of eight silver julep cups is by Richard Ewing Smith of

Louisville, Kentucky, circa 1835. Each cup is marked on the base

“R. E. Smith” and is 3

⅝

tall. The set weighs 49 oz. 14 dwt. Each

cup has applied reeded rims and base bands and is engraved

with script initial E. The set sold on the phone for $20,000 (est.

$7000/9000). According to the catalog, Richard Ewing Smith

was born in Windsor, Vermont, in 1800 and arrived in 1821 in

Kentucky, where he opened a jewelry store on Main Street in

Louisville. He had brief partnerships, first with a Mr. Grant, 1827-

31, and second with John Kitts in 1844, which lasted a year. He died

in Paducah, Kentucky, in 1849.

Gorham Mfg. Co., Providence, Rhode Island, created this silver

ice bowl and ice spoon in the late 19th or early 20th century. The

10¾" x 11½" bowl is formed as a rocky outcrop hung with icicles,

topped at each end by polar bears. The pierced harpoon-shaped

server is wrapped with a silver rope enclosing a polar bear. The

bowl is marked in its base and coded

“EME.” It weighs 32.4

ounces and sold on the phone for $21,250 (est. $20,000/30,000).

At the landmark Wagstaff sale in January 1989, one with a

spoon brought $44,000 (est. $7000/10,000). Since then a lot more

have turned up. Schwartz had bought this server separately

at Sotheby’s in June 1996 for $2587.50 (est. $1200/1800). She

also had another Gorham ice bowl (not shown) in the form of

a dilapidated bucket with icicles, which at this sale brought the

same price of $21,250 from a collector in the salesroom.

This silver and glass water pitcher by Ubaldo

Vitali of Maplewood, New Jersey, 1988, with

mouth-form spout and dark wood handle with

silver fillets and a blue glass rod, gilt interior,

marked on base “U. Vitali,” 10

" high, 46.8 oz.,

sold on the phone for $11,250 (est. $3000/5000).

This 11½" long silver teapot by Asa

Blansett of Dumfries, Virginia, circa 1795,

is oval with straight sides and applied

beaded borders and is engraved with a

foliate script initial D within a bright-

cut and engraved oval reserve. It has a

pierced gallery; the lift-off domed cover

with pineapple finial is marked twice

on the base “A.BLANSETT.” It sold for

$43,750 (est. $5000/7000) to Tim Martin

of S.J. Shrubsole, New York City, bidding

on behalf of Colonial Williamsburg. At

Christie’s in January 1994 it had sold

for $16,100 (est. $4000/6000) with lots of

competition.

The catalog states: “Asa Blansett first

appears in 1794 among those forming a volunteer company of infantry at Dumfries, a town along the

Potomac south of Washington, D.C., which was a major tobacco shipping point in the third quarter of

the 18th century. The following year he advertised as a ‘Gold, Silversmith, and Jeweller,’ sharing the

information that he had recently returned from Philadelphia and New York to improve his skills. His

shop was on Main Street, ‘at the Stone Bridge.’”

This silver saucepan by Myer Myers of New York, circa 1770, is

10" overall in length and of cylindrical form with a flared lip and

molded rim foot. The straight, turned wood handle has a cut-card

teardrop at the terminal. The silver is marked twice on the base

with “Myers” in script in a conforming punch. It sold for $25,000

(est. $25,000/35,000). It had sold at Sotheby’s on January 30, 1991,

for $19,800 (est. $20,000/30,000).