Date: Fri 10-Jul-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: LAURAB

Quick Words:

Sotheby's

Full Text:

Pewter Acquires New Sheen In Record Sale At Sothebys

W/8 cuts

NEW YORK CITY -- Pewter acquired new sheen in a record sale at Sotheby's on

June 16, when property from the estate of the late Richard C. Von Hess was

auctioned for $1,582,195. Of the 564 lots offered, an impressive 97.2 percent

sold. Alderfer Auction Company of Hatfield, Penn., has also featured material

from the Von Hess estate.

A graphic designer by profession, Von Hess and his wife, Louise, were

prominent Lancaster County, Penn., collectors and philanthropists who

supported education and the arts. Von Hess is particularly well known for his

role in preserving the Wright's Ferry Mansion in Columbia, Penn., a repository

of early Eighteenth Century Pennsylvania furniture, ceramics, glass, and

textiles. Von Hess's personal collection reflected these and other interests,

among them English and European silver, Elizabethan portraiture and

Pennsylvania Chippendale furniture.

Garnering the greatest attention was a small but choice group of Lancaster

County pewter by Johann Christoph Heyne. Born in Saxony in 1715, Heyne worked

as a journeyman in Stockholm and London before emigrating to America. After a

brief stop in Philadelphia, he settled in the Moravian community in Bethlehem.

By 1752, he had purchased property in Lancaster. He died in 1781 .

Setting an auction record for pewter was an 11« inch tall flagon made with a

heart-shaped spout cover, flaring body and cherub's head and feet. Marked on

its underside ".I.C.H. LANCASTER," it sold for $145,000 (est. $30/50,000) to

Mr and Mrs Melvyne Wolf, Michigan dealers and collectors. The previous record

for pewter is $50,000, achieved in 1997 when J.G. Cochran of Boonsboro, Md.,

auctioned a similar flagon. A companion sugar bowl was auctioned for $42,500

in 1985.

Donald M. Herr, a noted Lancaster County collector whose research on Heyne was

published in The Magazine Antiques in January 1980, was unsurprised by the

sale. "I expected the price to be close to $100,000. This flagon was in

wonderful condition and they are really rare. This is only the second one to

come up in my memory," added Herr, also the author of Pewter In Pennsylvania

German Churches. In the course of his research, he found 14 Heyne flagons in

local churches. In all, the collector knows of 126 pieces of Heyne pewter.

Most of it is in churches and museums.

Pewter collectors consider the sleek, cylindrical form an icon, combining

elements of German, Swedish, English, and American design. The elevated

thumbpiece and spout relate to examples of Swedish pewter, while the flagon's

body shape and cherub's head feet reflect German influence. The hollow case

handle is a typically English or American feature.

Two pewter chalices attributed to Johann Christopher Heyne achieved $41,400

and $32,200, selling to private collectors against estimates of $20/30,000

each. Condition accounted for the discrepancy in selling price; the stem of

one of the vessels had been soldered. The more expensive of the two chalices

was purchased by a descendent of Heyne's second wife, Anna Regina Steinmann,

and donated to the Lancaster Heritage Center.