Americana & International Sale
The April 18th & 19th Americana & International Sale at Pook & Pook will offer one of our broadest assortments of antiques and art to date, everything from antiquities to Amish quilts, English delft chargers to Chinese Export platters, stoneware to redware, Gothic brass candlesticks to American silver, pewter, and iron, fraktur to modern art, early American glass to Native American objects. The second day of the sale is devoted almost entirely to several international collections, including that of Robert S. Miller.
The sale will have all that one expects from Pook & Pook. Always strong in folk art, the auction features a Schimmel eagle, a Mountz poodle, a fine cigar store Indian, and a massive Noah’s Ark on a custom shelf with eighteen feet of switchback ramp on which 194 animals can be lined up to board. Elaborately carved Northern European mangle boards, tramp art frames, an excellent miniature painted stool and miniature blanket chest, Bucher boxes, a Compass Artist dome lid box, and saffron cups by Joseph Lehn compete for attention. Fraktur features rare works from Mahantango Township, Schuylkill County, and the Springing Deer Artist, with Mrs. and Dr. Donald Shelley provenance.
Pook & Pook sales are also always strong in furniture, from Philadelphia Chippendale tables to Pennsylvania William and Mary high chests, to New England Queen Anne tiger maple high chest, a large New Jersey or Pennsylvania William & Mary walnut gateleg dining table, and a pair of Boston Queen Anne dining chairs. The Jonathan Paschall Pennsylvania Queen Anne dining chair is in a wonderful state of preservation and has descended in the family. One standout is a Pennsylvania walnut chest on frame, with allover line and fan inlays, dated 1791 and signed. The headline furniture item is the William Barch, Lancaster, Pennsylvania Chippendale carved walnut desk and bookcase, signed by cabinetmaker William Dennis and dated 1789. Colorful painted furniture is also always present, with Pennsylvania German dower chest from Center and Lancaster counties and a painted chest of drawers providing highlights. There are always fine tall case clocks at Pook & Pook, exemplified in this sale by an important Philadelphia Chippendale walnut clock with eight-day works signed Jacob Godshalk Philadelphia.
A large swell-bodied copper rooster, a full-bodied Cushing & White running horse, and a swell-bodied gilt copper bull are a few of the wonderful weathervanes offered. From an Aspen, Colorado collection comes an assortment of wrought iron.
Baseball memorabilia always hits a home run at Pook & Pook. This sale presents a scarce McLoughlin Bros The World’s Game of Base Ball, copyright 1889.
Redware and stoneware categories include a rare Pennsylvania redware lidded crock signed John Boll 1832, a rare Pennsylvania sgraffito mug dated 1797, a North Carolina painted redware face jug, a Lanier Meaders stoneware face jug, Remmey type and Cowden & Wilcox stoneware, just to name a few.
The influence of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts is seen in works by artists such as John McCoy II, Philip Jamison, Jr., Antonio Martino, Seymour Remenick, Ezio Martinelli, and Walter Baum. Other featured lots include Philadelphia artists Robert Conover and Earl Horter, Jacob Maentel, and works by J. Alden Weir and Beatrice How. Two 1930’s oil on canvas paintings for the covers of American Legion Magazine depict wintry scenes by Lester Stevens and Magnus Colcord Hendon. The highlight is a massive mixed media work by Lawrence Carroll titled “No Patience for the Past”.
Another strong specialty for Pook & Pook is Native American Indian art and antiques. Historical items descended in the family of the Hon. Lewis V. Bogy, Commissioner of Indian Affairs under President Andrew Johnson, 1866-67, lead the category with moccasins and beadwork, kachina dolls, photographs, and two portraits in oils of Native American dignitaries. Items from the collection of Douglas and Janet Connor of Aspen, Colorado include Hopi dolls, Acoma pottery, Apache baskets, and Navajo and Pueblo jewelry.
The second day of the sale features The Robert S. Miller Collection. One of the specialties at Pook & Pook is 16th to 18th c. brass candlesticks, and the offering from the Miller Collection continues this strength. Over thirty auction lots feature Tudor, English trumpet, Flemish Gothic, Nuremberg, Heemskerk, Spanish capstan, Queen Anne and other candlesticks. Brass wares include a standish, and upright snuffer stand, and a Richard Lee, Jr. strainer, as well as a collection of fourteen fine brass tinder lighters.
American glass has evolved into another strong category for Pook & Pook. The Miller Collection offers many early 19thc. blown three-mold examples including an extremely rare miniature cobalt glass creamer. The collection of glass hat whimsies is the center of much attention. Ranging from the rare to the extremely rare, they include an olive-green bottle glass hat with George McKearin provenance, a purple-cobalt which is one of only three recorded examples, a deep cobalt hat, and a unique amethyst hat, amongst others.
Mr Miller collected early American silver with a focus on his specialty, the silversmiths of Newburyport. There are many chargers and plates produced by many generations of the Moulton family. Newburyport silversmiths Jonathan Stickney, Thomas Foster, and Theophilis Bradbury are also represented. The English silversmith Eley & Fearn was another interest of Miller, including a flatware service ca. 1800-1801 and many individual pieces.
A large collection of America pewter features many plates, chargers, and basins produced by the Nathaniel Austin family, as well as a Charlestown, Massachusetts land sale document from Nathaniel to William Austin, dated 1806.
Mr Miller possessed a lifelong passion for English delftware. Collecting around the world and across six decades, he amassed an extraordinary trove. Pook & Pook has carefully organized rare and precious white-glazed salts, including an important “Curles” master salt, equally rare plates depicting the Crucifixion and the Ascension, sack bottles, fuddling cups, puzzle jugs, pill slabs, and covered jars into over one hundred auction lots of delftware. Chargers include royal portraits, Adam and Eve, pomegranate, tulip, and a cat with mouse. Plates include Merry Man, ballooning, and bianco sopra bianco examples that range from Bristol to London, Scotland, and Dublin.
Rounding out the Miller Collection are many Ithaca, New York stoneware crocks, and German bellarmine and English Fulham jugs, Chinese export porcelains, and a Massachusetts Chippendale cherry tall case clock signed Saml. Mulliken Newburyport, 1780.
For more information please email info@pookandpook.com or call (610) 269-4040. To order a catalog for this auction, please visit www.pookandpook.com.
By: Cynthia Beech Lawrence
