Date: Fri 01-Oct-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: MARION

Quick Words:

Alderfer's

Full Text:

Diversity Thrives At Alderfer's

(with cuts)

HATFIELD, PA. -- Alderfer Auction Company held a catalog sale of fine arts,

furniture and decorative accessories on September 9. A non-catalog 250-lot art

auction was held the prior evening.

To reflect the true lot cost to the successful bidder, prices quoted here

include the buyer's premium of ten percent of the hammer price. For bidders

without a dealer's number, the total sales price is subject to the state six

percent sales tax.

Among the selection of 100-plus lots of china and glass accessories, one lot

of three decanters, had the utmost attention of collectors. The collection

consisted of one 7-inch square shaped and colorless, one 11-inch square shaped

with feet, applied handle and colorless, and one 10-inch in beaker form with

reeded sides and in cobalt blue glass, selling for $1,975.

In classic form with an elaborate scrolled handle, the Royal Worcester ewer

circa 1900 sold to the phones at $1,540.

Highlighting the china lots, a fine 104-piece Flow Blue dinner service for 12,

with serving pieces, made an expected $4,070. A partial 39-piece Flow Blue

dinner service, circa 1880 in the Adams "Kayber" pattern, rose to $2,530. At

$475, two Burmese Fairy lamps featured domed shades and inserts marked "S.

Clarke."

Frank Walton, a Washington Crossing, Pa. dealer/collector, in discussing the

American Indian totem pole circa 1930, said, "It's Northwest Coast of United

States, about 1850. Off-hand it could be earlier. It could be later. It's hard

to get the exact number." Selling at $1,000 confirmed Walton's belief, "This

is a good early piece."

The 26-inch tall wax fruit centerpiece under a glass dome sold to the floor at

$1,430. Of the several cabinet size bronzes, the sculpture of a baby in a

walker with arms outstretched left the block at $1,210. Featuring a figural

decoration, an Austrian 66 by 5 by 3 inch bronze trinket box sold at $1,320.

Every now and again a rare, very rare fascinating lot crosses the block.

Identified as circa 1800 (but probably much earlier), the working

silversmith's (from a descendant of James Parmele, Durham, Conn.) punch sets

included a tablespoon bowl punch set, a teaspoon bowl punch set, a small oval

bowl punch and a separate teaspoon bowl punch. In slowly rising increments,

two floor bidders fought for the trove, with an area collector taking the

prize at $9,900.

An additional Parmele lot included four Parmele teaspoons; Parmele's

Revolutionary War claim plus fragments of his commission that sold for $3,740.

Among the ten plus lots of coverlets and samplers, a fine 16 by 17-inch

sampler by Magdalen F. Parry detailing plants, birds, flowers and text sold to

a floor bidder against the phones at $2,200. Leaving the block, also to the

floor at the same bid, Susannah Funk's sampler dated 1832 featured a stag, a

goose and other animals.

The large 10 by 13-foot Indian carpet, brown ground with emerald green borders

and overall floral decoration, was the star of the 20 lots of hand-woven

carpets and runners. The most persistent of the two phone bidders out-bid the

floor at $7,975. The remaining lots of minor Azeri, Bibicabad and Gorevan

carpets/runners ranged from the low hundreds to $3,520 for a good Tabriz

prayer rug, $3,300 for the Kaisariyeh carpet.

A collection of a dozen bronze and aluminum commemorative medals ranged in the

low hundreds. The interesting and diverse large group of quarter and full

plate daguerreotypes brought bids of $2/400. But the full plate cased

ambrotype of Niagara Falls with men and women in the foreground developed into

a real bidding battle, selling for $2,090.

The phones won over the gallery for the double autographed two page letter by

President John Adams dated July 24, 1821, posting a strong $3,080.

Dan Caucci, a Bucks County, Pa. furniture collector, had a strong interest in

the painted drysink, circa 1820, having a dovetailed gallery over a single

door in green over blue paint, that sold at $3,360. Caucci described the

drysink as "pretty standard. It's a simple piece: but nice and pure."

Among the other furniture lots, a fine step-back cupboard circa 1830 went out

at $6,325. The set of ten and two mahogany Hepplewhite-style chairs made

$12,210. An unsigned 28-inch shade, of small caramel colored leaded glass

panes, supported by a bronze 72-inch base lit up the phones, but sold to the

floor at $18,150.

Placed as the last group of the catalogue sale, over 100 lots of framed

paintings and prints covered a wide range of European and American artists.

The phone desk had eight lines open and standing for the 12 ¬ by 15 ‹ inch oil

on panel titled "Late Afternoon Brittany," by Anthony Thieme (Dutch,

1888-1954).

The mute gallery sat on their hands and watched in awe, as the auctioneer

slowly went up and down the phone line. At $10,000 there were only two phone

lines open. At $13,750 there was one phone line standing.

A second Thieme oil on panel 12 by 16 inch painting commanded much less

interest, selling at $7,700. The river landscape by Henry H. Parker (British,

1858-1930), a 30 by 20 inch oil on canvas, sold to one of five phone lines at

$7,975.

Among the many lots of Pennsylvania artist paintings, a fine small oil on

canvas, 10 by 12 inches, by Ben Austrian (1870-1921), of five chicks in an oak

splint basket net, flew to $12,100.

In the manner of the Bucks County artist Edward W. Redfield, an oil on canvas

(30 by 36 inches) by W.E. Baum (1884-1956) detailing a Pennsylvania winter

scene with hillside and river valley sold for a strong $9,350.