Date: Fri 02-Apr-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: LIZAM

Quick Words:

AmericanaSkinner

Full Text:

Report On Skinner Americana Auction

with 28 cuts

By Bob Jackman

BOLTON, MASS. -- On February 28, Skinner Inc conducted a successful Americana

auction led by a set of five Ruth Hendshaw Bascom portraits. Other strong

areas included furniture, ceramics, and lighting.

The 882 lots offered attracted a huge crowd that overflowed the gallery. Eight

hours later, sales totaled $1,854,617 with 92.6 percent of lots finding

buyers.

Chapin Family Portraits

The Ruth Hendshaw Bascom (1772-1848) portraits were executed in pastel and

graphite, depicting adults in the Chapin family of Bernardston, Mass. The

consignor inherited the portraits a decade ago when his father died. His

mother did some research at that time and found the Bascom journals at the

American Antiquarian Society in Worcester.

More recently the consignor had extended that research, discovering a specific

mention of Bascom's visit to the Chapin home on May 18, 1842. The sitters were

Dr Caleb Chapin, his sons Deacon Curtis Chapin, Deacon Samuel Wright Chapin,

his wife Melinda Smith Chapin, and their son Samuel Wright Chapin, Jr.

Academic research confirmed the family's oral history of the sitters'

identities. The works remained in the Chapin family until they were consigned

to auction, and their remarkable provenance enhanced their desirability.

"I'm flabbergasted!" exclaimed consignor John Chapin of Maine after a phone

bidder won the lot for $145,500. "We knew who were in the pictures, but we had

no idea of their value. We'll use this money as our retirement fund."

"Two auction houses gave us the same appraisal ($30,000/50,000), and that

seemed high to us," he continued. "I'm just amazed at how these people spend

money. We had no insurance on them, but now I can see we should've."

Another successful lot in the sale was a watercolor with ink, graphite, and

gum arabic on paper by Joseph Davis (American, fl 1832-1838). That work sold

for $79,500 against an estimate of $6/8,000, and depicted members of the

Phelps family, from which it had directly descended. An inscription indicated

that the work was created in January, 1838. The image was visually unified by

the placement of its characters atop a fine floor cloth.

Furniture Highlights

The top furniture lot at $118,000 in the sale was a William Whitehead

breakfast table which was purchased by Todd Prickett of C. L. Prickett of

Yardley, Pa., who competed with various phone bidders and dealer Sy Nagler in

the gallery.

"There are about a half dozen of these Whitehead tables," noted Prickett.

"There are two we have not handled: one in the Nicholson collection and one

illustrated in Albert Sack's Fine Points of American Furniture. We have done

well with them."

Another rarity offered was a Queen Anne looking glass with a japanned frame,

purchased by dealer G. W. Samaha for $31,050. The 54 inch high frame was

decorated with chinoiserie gilding raised in shallow relief. The upper glass

had a scroll design wheel cut into its surface. The lower glass had a beveled

perimeter.

"It's a wonderful, rare, great mirror," commented Samaha. "It has great size,

and the condition is very good, even with the crest missing. It also had its

original glasses."

Also among the fine furniture lots was a Queen Anne roundabout chair made in

Boston. It was purchased for $43,700 by Washington, D.C. dealer Guy Bush,

bidding over the phone. The forward leg featured a fine cabriole form that

descended from a well-suited and particularly broad knee. The other legs

terminated in pad feet and were reinforced by block and turned cross

stretchers. The upper chair was distinguished by two large slats that curved

gracefully forward. The three posts were strongly designed and well turned.

The back crest had uncommonly crisp ends.

Stoneware, Redware and Staffordshire

Some rare and highly desirable stoneware, redware and Staffordshire was

offered. Topping the stoneware field was a grotesque portrait jug for which a

spirited bidder paid $26,450. A water stoneware water cooler with the image of

a huge ship sailed off for $18,400.

Among the most successful redware lots were examples with lemon and lime glaze

and sgraffito decoration. Topping that field was an 11.5-inch plated signed by

John Leonard. The central motif was a large flowering plant with many floral

blossoms. Each section of the octagonal border contained paired leaves. It

sold for $8,625 against an estimate of $1,5/2,000.

The Staffordshire pottery presented was led by 67 fine lots of Historic

Staffordshire. Even dealers who specialize in other fields were quickly able

to grasp the quality of the collection. Most items were in fine condition or

had minor flaws. They bore early marks and had a deep blue color that

contrasted strongly with the white of undecorated areas. An exceptionally high

proportion of platters were offered, and specialists were even more excited by

rare, desirable patterns and forms.

There were important views in half a dozen fields. For example, important

African views included a platter showing the Christianburg Danish Settlement

on the Gold Coast of Africa, which sold for $3,738, and a platter depicting

the Cape Coast Castle on the Gold Coast of Africa, which realized $2,415.

Significant souvenirs of national interest were plate with medallions of

Washington and Jefferson, showing the welcoming of Lafayette, which realized

$6,440, and a vegetable dish featuring the West Point Military Academy, which

hammered down at $3,738.

Important regional views included a platter of the Pennsylvania Hospital,

Philadelphia, which made $4,888; a platter showing Detroit, which garnered

$3,220; and New York views, such as a vegetable dish decorated with a view of

the Highlands, Hudson River, which brought $3,335, and another vegetable dish

featuring a view of Tappan Zee from Greensburg, which also fetched $3,335. A

bowl with the State Arms of Maryland sold for $3,738.

Historic Staffordshire which was printed on exceptional forms included a

shallow vegetable dish with a rare high cover having ogee curves bearing the

English Castle, States design, which brought $3,565, and a reticulated oval

fruit bowl depicting General Lafayette landing at Castle Garden in New York,

which rang up $2,990.

Two active buyers in the Staffordshire field were Barbara Jordan and her

friend Maryanne Lee. Jordan owns the Bjoux, a couture boutique in Boston with

a national cliental. She later explained, "I'm renovating a home on Martha's

Vineyard. We came out the preview earlier in the week, so we knew what we

wanted."

"I'm looking for a variety of styles, and not too formal," she continued. "The

wonderful collection of Staffordshire was particularly interesting. We bought

a variety of furniture, Staffordshire, a great quilt, and other things."

Together the two ladies purchased about two dozen lots.

Other Highlights

What goes around, comes around: Dealer Richard Kenney, now of Hampton Falls,

N.H., acquired an aesthetic style polychrome decorated fireboard for $863. A

couple decades earlier, Kenney had purchased and renovated the Captain James

Bartram mansion in the Black Rock section of Bridgeport, Conn. He had found

the fireboard in place in an 1870s addition to the home. When he sold the home

and moved to New Hampshire, he took the fireboard with him, then sold it to a

client about a decade ago.

The auction opened with the sale of more than 200 Eighteenth and Nineteenth

Century lighting devices offered in 101 lots. The consignment came from a

Connecticut dealer, who had assembled a collection over the past 10 to 15

years.

The first lantern had a deeply molded drapery pattern design that he purchased

for $750 from Newburyport dealer Paul DeCoste. At the auction, DeCoste bought

the lantern back for $2,870, along with about two dozen other lanterns.

Prices quoted include a 15 percent buyers premium.