Maine Antique Digest, April 2017

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14-A Maine Antique Digest, April 2017
Since at least 2006 Spoutz engaged in a fraudulent
scheme to sell works of art he falsely claimed were
by well-known artists, using forged documents to
convince buyers of the authenticity of those works.
During the course of the scheme, Spoutz sold dozens
of fraudulent works of art—which he attributed to,
among others, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, and
Joan Mitchell—through various channels, including
auction houses and on eBay.
Spoutz was publicly accused of selling forged
works of art as early as 2005, after which he began
selling them under various aliases, particularly “Rob-
ert Chad Smith” and “John Goodman.” To deceive his
victims into believing the works of art were authen-
tic, Spoutz created and provided forged receipts, bills
of sale, and letters from deceased attorneys and other
individuals.
These documents falsely indicated that Spoutz, in the guise
of one of his false identities, had inherited or purchased dozens
of works by these artists. Despite his efforts to create false his-
tories for the artwork, investigators identified multiple incon-
sistencies and errors in forged provenance documents. Many
of the purported transactions took place before Spoutz was
born. The forged letters included nonexistent addresses for the
purported sender and for various parties referenced as sources
of the artworks. Spoutz also consistently used a single distinc-
tive typesetting device when forging documents purportedly
authored by entirely different art galleries in dif-
ferent decades regarding unrelated transactions. In
one instance, investigators located the original let-
ter used by Spoutz as a model for one of his forger-
ies in a collection at a private university that holds
letters from the individual whose identity Spoutz
used to create a false story of inheritance.
In total, Spoutz stole at least $1,450,000 from
his victims over the course of a decade of fraudu-
lent art sales.
In addition to the prison sentence, Spoutz, 33,
of Mount Clemens, Michigan, was sentenced to
three years of supervised release. Judge Kaplan
also ordered Spoutz to forfeit $1,450,000 in ill-got-
ten gains and to pay restitution in the amount of
$154,100.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said,
“Eric Spoutz made a lucrative ‘career’ selling forged art as
originals from American masters such as de Kooning, Kline,
and Mitchell. From creating fake documents to assuming new
identities, Spoutz used the full palette of deception to complete
his decade-long work of fraud, swindling art collectors out of
more than a million dollars. Now, thanks to the dedicated work
of the FBI and the prosecutors in my office, Spoutz will spend
time in a federal prison.”
For more information, see the March 2016 issue of Maine
Antique Digest.
Fragments continued from p. 12-A
New Gurley Show at Deerfield Fairgrounds for
Antiques Week in New Hampshire
Joshua and Rachel Gurley, the children of Nan Gurley (1943-2016),
have announced that the New Deerfield Antique Show at the Deer-
field Fairgrounds, Deerfield, New Hampshire, will be held on Monday,
August 7, the beginning of Antiques Week in New Hampshire.
The fairgrounds in Deerfield were not used for Nan Gurley’s show
last August. Before her death, Nan Gurley had moved her Americana
Celebration show, formerly held in Deerfield, to the Douglas N. Everett
Arena in Concord, New Hampshire. That show is managed by Nan’s
widower, Peter Mavris.
Joshua Gurley said, “It’s back by popular demand. So many dealers
told us that they missed Deerfield, we just had to do it for them.” Many
are asking for their former spaces from when the show was Nan’s a
few years ago, he added. Dealers from throughout New England and
from Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, South Carolina, and Maryland are already
committed to doing the show. Rachel Gurley has been taking calls from
dealers, who are quickly filling the roughly 100 exhibit spaces.
This show is not connected with Peter Mavris’s Americana Celebra-
tion at the Douglas N. Everett Arena in Concord, which will be held on
August 8.
Deerfield Fairgrounds offers indoor and outdoor exhibit areas for the
dealers and easy access to parking. The show will be open from 10 a.m.
to 4 p.m.; admission will be $10, with no early buying.
More information is available online )
or by calling Joshua at (207) 229-0403 or Rachel at (207) 396-4255.
Christie’s American Art Department Appoint-
ment and Promotion
Christie’s has appointed Will Haydock as head of department for
American art. He joined the American art department at Christie’s
in May 2014 as specialist head of sale. Since then, he has been respon-
sible for notable auction consignments, including Norman Rockwell’s
Country Editor , William Bradford’s Midnight Sun, The Arctic, Thomas
Hart Benton’s Ozark Autumn, N.C. Wyeth’s “Hands Up!,” and Freder-
ick Carl Frieseke’s The Garden as well as significant contributions in
private sales.
Before joining Christie’s, Haydock worked in the American art
department at another auction house. He received his undergraduate
degree in communications and mathematics from Boston College, after
which he spent two and a half years as a financial advisor at Ameriprise
Financial and then UBS before acquiring his M.A. in art business from
the Sotheby’s Institute of Art.
Elizabeth Beaman has been promoted to senior director to focus on
high-level business-getting for the American art department. Beaman
has over 16 years of experience in the field and has been with Christie’s
since 2011. Under her leadership as head of department since 2014, the
department has captured the position of market leaders, culminating in
a 59% market share for 2016.
During her tenure at Christie’s, Beaman has overseen the sales of
major works such as Edward Hopper’s East Wind over Weehawken,
Norman Rockwell’s The Rookie, and Georgia O’Keeffe’s Lake George
Reflection. She has also curated a special private selling exhibition of
American illustrators and handled many distinguished single-owner
collections, including the collection of Kippy Stroud. The American
art department broke auction records for three major American Impres-
sionists this past season.
Kneeland and Adams Cabinet Shop Records Found
Looking glass labeled by Kneeland
and Adams (1792-95), Hartford,
Connecticut, mahogany, white pine,
gilding, and glass. Gift of Margaret
R. Barbour, 1966.43.0. Photo courtesy
Connecticut Historical Society.
A270-page ledger kept by Hartford, Connecticut,
cabinetmaker Lemuel Adams (1769-1850) has
been discovered at the University of Miami by Kevin
G. Ferrigno, according to a press release from Historic
Deerfield. The Adams ledger provides a record of the
cabinetmaking business in Hartford during the 1790s.
Historic Deerfield associate curator Christine Ritok
and private researcher Ferrigno are spearheading a
long-term study of the interrelationships among Hart-
ford-area craftsmen, including Adams, his partner
Samuel Kneeland, Aaron Chapin, John Porter, Aaron
Colton, John I. Wells, Julius Barnard, Erastus Grant,
and Daniel Clay.
The ledger contains the daybook of the prestigious
shop of Adams and Kneeland, who were in partnership
in downtown Hartford between 1792 and 1795. The
ledger details the establishment of their business, the
names and tenures of their journeymen and appren-
tices, the full range of their wares, and their output
by form, date, price, and customer. Using the ledger,
research is underway to trace a wide variety of objects
now known to have been made in the Kneeland and
Adams shop.
The ledger also provides insights into the relation-
ships of Kneeland and Adams with their competitors
in the Connecticut River valley, such as cabinetmak-
ers Aaron Chapin, Julius Barnard, and John I. Wells
and clockmakers Daniel Burnap and Timothy Cheney.
For example, the ledger documents the regular dues
that Kneeland and Adams paid to the Hartford Society
of Cabinetmakers and notes that they purchased—in
partnership with other cabinetmakers—the renowned
pattern book The Cabinet-maker and Upholsterer’s
Guide by George Hepplewhite, which suggests that
Hartford cabinetmakers collaborated on furniture
design to an extent that was previously unknown.
The ledger also details the purchases by Kneeland
and Adams of large quantities of imported mahogany,
which they had milled for their own use and to sell to
their competitors.
In addition to business records, the ledger contains
personal information about Adams that has been pre-
viously unknown. A detailed 1792 genealogy reveals
that Adams was born in Milton, Massachusetts, that
Kneeland was his first cousin, and that their uncle
and possible master was cabinetmaker Stephen Bad-
lam of Dorchester Lower Mills. Ritok and Ferrigno
are developing an understanding of these relationships
and the impact they had on Hartford furniture making.
The ledger further devotes several pages to a letter
book kept by Adams as a record of his correspondence
with family and friends over a 20-year period. The
letters describe Adams’s move south with his family
from Hartford to Norfolk, Virginia, his return to Con-
necticut, and finally his relocation to his parents’ farm
in New Hampshire. Previously unknown, the letters
document Adams’s evolving career as a cabinetmaker,
merchant, lawyer, and distiller, which suggests the
pressures that influenced all craftsmen during the Fed-
eral era.
“The discovery of theAdams ledger
equals any manuscript find related to
early American craftsmanship over
the last generation,” said Historic
Deerfield president Philip Zea. “The
museum fully supports Kevin’s and
Christine’s research and looks for-
ward to the revelations ahead about
craftsmanship and business in the
Connecticut valley after theAmerican
Revolution. This is terrific material!”
Ritok and Ferrigno have assem-
bled a team of researchers, including
Christina Keyser Vida, former cura-
tor of the Windsor Historical Soci-
ety in Connecticut, researcher Carol
L. Loomis, and Kevin Tulimieri of
Nathan Liverant and Son Antiques
and Fine Art, Colchester, Connecti-
cut, to work with them as they con-
tinue to delve into the information
in the ledger. They anticipate pub-
lishing a series of articles about their
findings, and a large publication and
exhibition are in the early planning
stages. To assist in this effort, they are
seeking to examine privately owned
furniture labeled or signed by Adams,
Kneeland, or their partnership, as
well as other account books, diaries,
and letters related to Adams’s com-
petitors and customers. Anyone with
access to such resources is asked to
will remain confidential.
Michigan Art Dealer Sentenced to More Than Three Years in Prison
Eric Spoutz, circa
2014. Photo courtesy
Eric Ian Hornak Spoutz, a.k.a. “Robert
Chad Smith,” a.k.a. “John Goodman,”
a.k.a. “James Sinclair,” was sentenced on
February 16 to 41 months in prison by U.S.
District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan for wire
fraud charges arising out of his sale of dozens
of forged artworks purportedly by renowned
American artists such as Willem de Kooning,
Franz Kline, and Joan Mitchell.
Allen and Wyckoff of
Raccoon Creek Sentenced
In a plea deal, George Allen, 63, and
Gordon Wyckoff, 67, of Reading, Penn-
sylvania, who called their business Rac-
coon Creek at Oley Forge, each pleaded
guilty on February 13 to charges of
failing to make required disposition of
funds received. Allen and Wyckoff were
accused of taking antiques on consign-
ment but failing to pay consignors.
According to the Reading Eagle , each
was sentenced to seven years of proba-
tion, and they were ordered to pay restitu-
tion in the amount of $115,230.