NEWS
Barry Hogan’s Cherished Collection
An Introduction to Barry Hogan’s Cherished Collection
Welcome to a remarkable journey through Barry’s legacy. His name is revered across Lancaster County not only for his impactful contributions to real estate development but also for his profound passion for the world of antiques. At the heart of Lancaster, Barry’s endeavors redefined skylines and neighborhoods, showcasing his deep-rooted love for the community he helped shape.
Barry’s journey into the realm of antiques began in the early 1970s. Over five decades, he meticulously curated one of the nation’s most esteemed collections of early American historical flasks. However, Barry’s affinity extended far beyond the shimmer of glass. He was a connoisseur of Pennsylvania folk art and early Americana. His approach to collecting was far from the leisurely pastime of a hobbyist. For Barry, it was an avocation—a calling that he pursued with the fervor and dedication of a true devotee.
Each piece in Barry’s collection tells a story of his unbridled enthusiasm and discerning eye. He sought not just the rare or the exquisite, but also examples that spoke to him personally, which he considered the ‘best’ by his own unique standards. This selection process was not simply about prestige or value alone but about a deep, intrinsic connection to the heritage and beauty each piece represented.
Barry’s expertise wasn’t confined to collecting; it extended to understanding and appreciating the nuanced histories of each item. His journey from a young enthusiast to a revered figure in the collecting world is a testament to his knowledge, boldness, and exceptional eye for detail.
As we embark on this auction journey, we extend a warm invitation to explore examples of Barry’s magnificent collection. While we deeply feel his absence, his legacy lives on through these artifacts. They weren’t just part of a collection but a pivotal part of his life. Here, we share his lifelong avocation, not just with collectors but with anyone who appreciates the timeless beauty and historical significance of Americana and Pennsylvania German antiques.
Barry’s collection will be sold at auction on Friday, May 17th, 2024 at Pook & Pook’s gallery in Downingtown, Pennsylvania. For more information, please visit www.pookandpook.com.
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
Still Life
Another of my favorite paintings in the April 18th & 19th sale is also by a Philadelphia native and student of The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Mildred Bunting Miller (1892-1964).
Born in Philadelphia, Miller studied at the Academy from 1910 through 1915 under Thomas Anshutz, Hugh Breckenridge, Daniel Garber, Robert Vonnoh, and Violet Oakley. A recognized talent, she twice won both the Cresson Travel Scholarship and the Mary Smith prize. Mildred’s vocation was set. She wrote “No one knows better than an art student the difficulty- almost the impossibility- of capturing the fleeting beauty that is life. But the desire to do this becomes almost a religion.” (Brown, p.27)
Mildred Bunting Miller has a special connection to our area. After graduating from PAFA at the age of twenty-three, she married classmate Roy Miller, who was hired to manage PAFA’s new country school program in Historic Yellow Springs. Mildred became resident artist, co-director, and instructor. During the years 1916 to 1934, Miller painted and taught classes in the old ochre-washed Small Barn Studio and the surrounding village, which had been purchased in its entirety by PAFA. The country school became wildly successful and extended to year-round attendance. Students were frequently seen gathered around models both animal and human, or found plein air painting among the mineral springs and farm fields. While Miller’s art flourished and was exhibited in museums and galleries, her marriage to Roy crumbled and his management became erratic. In 1934 the Millers were forced to leave the country school, setting up one of their own nearby; but this school was Roy’s dream, not Mildred’s, and although all of her and their money was sunk into it, Mildred departed to paint commissions and teach elsewhere, from New Jersey to Baltimore. Finally, in 1945, she got on a bus for San Diego alone. In California she settled down, buying a small fruit tree farm and teaching art for state-sponsored programs. She relished her independence and lifestyle. Solitude led to more time for painting and for introspection. She filled many journals, which have been published in book form by her niece Virginia Brown, Mildred Miller Remembered. Her writings reveal that her mind constantly returned to the inequity of the male-dominated art world (and world in general) and her years in Chester Springs. Plagued by self-doubt, Mildred’s moods alternated between the elation of a job well done, and the day-to-day reality of toiling in obscurity and achieving little fame or glory. Regardless of the prizes she had won and the praise her work received, she was not considered to be a great artist during her lifetime. She wrote “But when my body is no longer on earth my paintings will still be hung in people’s homes. They will glance at them as they go about their work. They will not think of me! But there I shall be, what I saw they will still have in their minds,” (Brown, p. 181).
Miller’s strong prismatic colors and broken brushstroke technique identify her as a Pennsylvania Impressionist, specifically, as a student of Daniel Garber. Her paintings have clarity, and a masterful handling of light.
In this still life, the table spreads horizontally from the viewer like landscape, the horizon disappearing over the table’s edge like the curvature of the earth, the distant wall the atmosphere. The plane is tilted toward the viewer, the perspective looks down on the dinner napkin, yet there is almost a side view of the wine bottle in the distance. The composition is strong and balanced, with parallel lines and angles that lead the eye. The forms are defined by variation of color. The napkin is sculptural. Miller’s brushstrokes also show dimension, particularly of the table. One of my favorite things about this still life is the tablecloth, with its vertical and horizontal brushstrokes, the latter shimmering like the flakes in an opal. The surface is fascinating, as is the sense of space.
Mildred Bunting Miller exhibited at the Academy, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Corcoran Gallery, the National Academy of Design, the Phillips Memorial, and many other places. Her works can be found in the collection of the Woodmere Art Museum and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
By Cynthia Beech Lawrence
–The Woodmere Art Museum
–Brown, Virginia, Mildred Miller Remembered, Xlibris, 2006.
Marshland
Walter Steumpfig (1914-1970) was one of Philadelphia’s most influential painters of the mid-20th century. A Philadelphia native born in Germantown, Steumpfig studied at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts under Henry McCarter, Daniel Garber, and Francis Speight. In 1934 he won the Cresson Travel Scholarship for study abroad and headed to Europe, where he studied his idols Poussin, Caravaggio, and Corot. He exhibited regularly at the Durlacher Brothers Gallery in New York, and the Pennsylvania Academy, later becoming the Academy’s teacher of composition and drawing.
Steumpfig’s style was personal and fresh, outside the mainstream of his contemporaries. He considered himself a “romantic realist”, and was noted for his figure compositions and Philadelphia and New Jersey shore landscapes. These views, with just a few people embedded in the landscape, invoke an aura of mystery and detachment in their composition, as in the work of contemporary Edward Hopper, with whom he was frequently compared.
“Marshland” is an example of Steumpfig’s best landscape works. The composition is based on light values and structure. Bathed in the golden light of afternoon, seven boys are engaged not too seriously in activity along the riverbank, reminiscent of Poussin’s shepherds. The intensely illuminated foreground, bare torsos and bright articles of clothing, immediately engage the viewer. The immensity of the river is matched above by a sky with white clouds. On the far riverbank, the afternoon sun illuminates the spring green of the trees, and the undersides of the clouds. The poetic realism sets a mood, sending the viewer back in time to antiquity, but appears fresh, with fluid, modern brushstrokes. It is impossible not to want to join the group on the riverbank and soak in the sun’s rays.
“Marshland” bears a Maynard Walker Gallery label verso. A New York City art dealer from 1935 to 1975, Maynard Walker was among the first to show works of leading American regionalist painters. Walker is noted for organizing the 1933 exhibit in Kansas City that first brought together the works of Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry, and Grant Wood.
Today Walter Steumpfig’s works can be found in the collections of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Phillips Collection.
by: Cynthia Beech Lawrence
100 Years: The Kindig Legacy
On February 8th and 9th, 2024, Pook & Pook is honored to present the 100 Years: The Kindig Legacy. For a century, the Kindig family of York, Pennsylvania has dealt in the finest antiques available. Joseph Kindig, Jr. opened his first shop in 1925, coinciding with the antique craze that swept America in the 1920s. Kindig’s shop flourished, and put him on the forefront of the expansion of scholarship and collecting. His clients included the foremost collectors of American decorative arts of their time: Henry Francis du Pont, Ima Hogg, Wallace Nutting, and Frances P. Garvan. Kindig shared a close working relationship with du Pont, and the historic Winterthur Collection reflects his expertise. Over his career, he guided Colonial Williamsburg, Winterthur, Bayou Bend, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and many others in the acquisition of masterpieces. In 1947 Joe Kindig III joined his father’s business, and they worked together for twenty years. Joe Kindig III was an intellectual drawn to subjects ranging from architectural history to a continuation of his father’s study of the Kentucky long rifle. He became an authority, researching and uncovering masterpieces. Joe III also curated exhibits for Historical Society of York County, and the furnishing of Wright’s Ferry Mansion, which Kindig termed “the best representation of a Queen Anne house in Pennsylvania.” Joe Kindig III worked closely with Dr. Donald Shelley, whose Pioneer Collection was auctioned for a record $9.8 million by Pook & Pook in 2007. In 1994, Joe III was joined by his own daughter, Jennifer, and the family business flourished into the 21st century. The Kindig Collection reflects the family’s interests and expertise. The furniture is mostly early American, and the decorative arts contain a large percentage of English and some Continental items.
The heart of the Collection’s furniture is regional, with an emphasis on Philadelphia. The earliest furniture includes two pairs of Cromwellian chairs. Pennsylvania William and Mary pieces include several Southeastern Pennsylvania William and Mary walnut wainscot armchairs, a Pennsylvania William and Mary walnut desk and bookcase, and other Pennsylvania William and Mary items including a burl mahogany slant lid desk, stools, chairs, and a tall case clock. Queen Anne highlights include a rare Chester County Queen Anne walnut Octorara chest with removable feet, ca. 1765, and a beautiful Pennsylvania Queen Anne tiger maple dressing table, amongst additional Pennsylvania Queen Anne dressing tables, compass seat chairs, and a tall case clock.
Important Philadelphia Chippendale furniture includes a mahogany three-part desk and bookcase, with carving attributed to Martin Jugiez. A rare pair of Philadelphia Chippendale mahogany gaming tables, also with carving by Jugiez are one of a very few surviving pairs of these tables. A rare Philadelphia Chippendale mahogany piecrust tea table is possibly by Nicholas Bernard. Other fine Philadelphia Chippendale items include a carved high chest, a cherry chest on chest, a dressing table attributed to the “cornucopia carver”, a pair of dining chairs, tall case clock, and two desk and bookcases. Leaving the city limits, Pennsylvania items not to miss include a rare Chester County walnut Octorara tall chest, and a Queen Anne tiger maple dressing table.
Other Chippendale furniture includes a New York mahogany easy chair, and a mahogany games table, possibly from the workshop of Gilbert Ash of New York. A Baltimore Chippendale mahogany high chest was formerly exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art on long-term loan. An international highlight is an excellent Irish Chippendale mahogany sofa, ca. 1765.
Notable Federal furniture furniture includes a Salem, Massachusetts inlaid breakfront bookcase, ca. 1800, a Massachusetts mahogany sofa, ca. 1790 and attributed to Samuel McIntire, and a rare Baltimore slab table with King of Prussia marble top.
There is a large art collection with many English landscapes, portraits, equestrian, and hunting scenes. An oil on panel full-length portrait of a young noble girl from the early Stuart period, dated 1619, bears lace so vivid and textural it appears embroidered onto the painting’s surface. A massive Queen Anne burl veneer looking glass, and smaller Queen Anne mirrors, Chippendale looking glasses, and a Constitution mirror, are all perfect for reflecting the candle light provided by a fine collection of early brass candlesticks. The highlight of the early brass group is a magnificent Northwest European Three Kings candlestick, 15th c., one of the tallest and best examples of this form, with Lieutenant Colonel and Mrs. Miodrag R. Blagojevich provenance. English 16th c. Tudor candlesticks, German, Nuremberg, and Northwest European examples complete the group. A large assortment of andirons range from late 17th c. English to 18th c. Philadelphia Chippendale.
Textiles include a large Flemish verdure tapestry, fit for a castle. Complete sets of 18th c. crewelwork curtains, and many finely embroidered spreads dazzle the eye. An extraordinary Continental feltwork spread exhibits a coat of arms and a multitude of figured panels, dated 1749. There are ten English 17th c. stumpwork, beadwork, and needlework framed textiles, including Charles II examples, which depict kings and queens, lords and ladies, and an abundance of flora and fauna. 18th c. English needlework include a silk and metallic portrait of King George, and a pair of George III scenes of the conquest of Mysore which portray the plight of Tippoo Saib hostages. 18th and 19th c. needlework portrays everything from kings and biblical scenes to stately homes.
Silver by early American silversmiths such as Tobias Stoutenburgh, New York, 1721, and Johannis Nys, Philadelphia, ca. 1695, includes a very rare sucket fork by John Brevoort, New York, ca. 1742.
The assortment of delftware includes English Bristol and Lambeth and Dutch examples. A Bristol posset pot and cover stands out amongst the many chargers. An array of Southeastern Pennsylvania sgraffito decorated earthenware includes large dishes and a rare openwork tobacco box and cover attributed to the workshop of David Haring.
Early Pennsylvania German folk art includes valentines, fraktur, and fraktur bookplates, by artists Andreas Kessler, Martin Brechall, the Garden Border Artist, Johann Peter Gilbert, Stephan Meyer, Christian Mertel, Christian Allsdorf, Jacob Oberholtzer, Daniel Otto, and Johann Adam Eyer.
A library of canonical architectural design books contains many first editions, including the first translation of Andrea Palladio published in English, works by Colen Campbell, James Gibbs, Inigo Jones, Isaac Ware, Matthias Darly, William Pain, and the rare The Works in Architecture, London, of Robert and James Adam, Esquires. Furniture design classics include The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker Director by Thomas Chippendale, and The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing-Book by Thomas Sheraton. Ornamental design classics range from Placido Columbiani and Gaetano Brunetti to Matthias Lock and Robert Manwaring. Military subjects include a 1553 Vegetius De Re Militari Libri Quatour, and the 1626 Il Torneo by Bonaventura Pistofilo with engravings of weapons and drills. The Kindig Ephrata books were the subject of an exhibition at Ephrata Cloister in 2012 and feature a very rare 1763 imprint Metallen amongst the mostly religious texts, which include a provenanced Martys Mirror, 1748, and the beautifully illuminated manuscript hymnals for which Ephrata is famous.
Please join us on February 8th and 9th for what is certain to be a major auction event, honoring the Kindig Legacy and its century of scholarship, stewardship, and masterpieces. For more information, please call Pook & Pook at (610)269-4040, or visit our website at www.pookandpook.com.
January 18th & 19th, 2024 Americana & International Auction at Pook & Pook
January 18th & 19th, 2024 Americana & International Auction at Pook & Pook
On January 18th and 19th, 2024, Pook & Pook will hold an Americana & International auction featuring several fine collections. With many rare and exceptional items, there will be much to choose from for trophy hunters. There are thirty-four lots of early American glass from New York and New Jersey containing important and rare examples with provenance. From a New Jersey Collection comes a lily pad sugar bowl on pedestal, ca. 1840 Redfield Glass Works, Clinton County, New York-attributed, of which only a few are known to exist. The same can be said for a mid-19th c. Lancaster Glass Works, New York-attributed lily pad salt cellar, one of the rarest salt cellars known, and an exceedingly rare ca. 1840 New York Lily pad glass compote, possibly Redford Glass Works. From another New Jersey Collection comes an exceptionally rare New York State olive yellow lily pad sugar bowl and cover, ca. 1840, possibly Redwood or Lockport Glassworks. It is described in its accompanying 1946 McKearin receipt as “one of the rarest sugar bowls known.”
From a Pennsylvania collector comes a parade of carved carousel animals from the G.A. Dentzel Company, Philadelphia, ca. 1900-1905, with a rare giraffe leading the way, followed by a running stag, a horse, and an exceptional goat, all with excellent painted surfaces.
The Collection of Mr. & Mrs. Bruno Widmer of Zurich, Switzerland consists of over twenty Amish quilts assembled over the course of decades from communities in Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Ohio.
An Ohio Collection features a wide variety of Americana including gameboards, painted furniture, and folk art.
From one of two St. Louis collections are four excellent 15th/16th century brass candlesticks and an extremely fine Pennsylvania paper cutout, one of the most ambitious cutouts extant. Also from this collection is and what may well be the top lot in furniture, a rare Pennsylvania painted poplar open pewter cupboard, ca. 1760, with scalloped sides.
A very rare Lancaster County Chippendale walnut schrank, late 18th c., features a possibly unique double broken arch pediment and an interesting history with Carnegie Museum provenance. Another fine schrank offered is a Chester County tiger maple example, ca. 1780. A Pennsylvania Queen Anne walnut high chest, ca. 1765, was, according to family history, once owned by Pennsylvania Governor and Civil War General John Hartranft (1830-1889). Another historic Pennsylvania lot is the Jacob Hoestedler family, of Lancaster County, painted pine corner cupboard, ca. 1830. Probably made in Harleysville, Lower Salford Township, Montgomery County, it retains an original bold red and salmon grained surface. A vibrantly painted Berks County tall case clock, ca. 1810, hails from the Machmer Collection. A variety of Philadelphia, New England, and Georgian chairs are represented. A New York Chippendale mahogany easy chair, ca. 1770, is of special note. Among the exceptional offerings from New England is a rare Massachusetts Pilgrim century joined oak chest, ca. 1665-1690, probably Newbury, with provenance. Other New England furniture includes a Queen Anne tiger maple high chest, ca. 1765, a Boston Chippendale mahogany slant front desk, a Rhode Island corner chair, and a Massachusetts Queen Anne mahogany easy chair, both ca. 1765.
Another item with intriguing history is a rare Confederate States of America Civil War brass cannon patent model, complete with original Confederate States patent papers no. 84, dated 21st day of March, 1862. Most patent models and records were burned as the Confederates abandoned Richmond in 1865.
Artworks featured are a pair of portraits by Jacob Eichholtz (1776-1842) portraying Charles and Frances Blair Pierce of Germantown, Philadelphia. A Massachusetts oil on canvas folk portrait, attributed to Joseph Goodhue Chandler, depicts a lively scene with three children from the Slater family of Webster and their pets. Two other works from Massachusetts are colorful scenes by Elizabeth Mumford. A winter street scene by Hobson Pittman and a Walter Emerson Baum oil on canvas “Grey Day Winter” capture the current weather, while another Baum landscape depicts a fine temperate day. A fine portrait by Sir John Hoppner (1758-1810) is possibly of Henry Wilson. The highlight of the art collection will be a small John Constable oil on panel of a timber and thatch mill above a race, with provenance from the Lady Lever Gallery.
Last but not least, the highlights that sparkle the most brightly are a spectacular La Belle Epoque Ceylon sapphire and diamond necklace and earrings.
For more information about the upcoming auction, visit www.pookandpook.com. For questions about specific items, please email conditions@pookandpook.com. To consign to an upcoming auction at Pook & Pook, please send photographs to info@pookandpook.com or call (610) 269-4040 to speak with an appraiser.
by: Cynthia Beech Lawrence
Remedy for a Loose Cannon
The American Civil War is considered the first modern war, witnessing rapid advancement in military technique and technology. Lacking the North’s depth of military resources, it was crucial for the Confederacy to innovate. At inception in 1861 the Confederacy established its own patent office to facilitate and reward innovation. Rufus Rhodes, a New Orleans attorney who had worked with the U.S. Patent Office, was appointed Commissioner. Rhodes would be the only serving Commissioner.
Research by H. Jackson Knight in Confederate Invention: The Story of the Confederate States Patent Office & It’s Inventors, LSU Press, 2011, reveals that during the first year of operation the Patent Office received 304 applications and issued 57 grants. Over its four-year existence, the Office awarded 274 patents, one-third of which were related to firearms and weaponry. Amongst the patents Rufus Rhodes granted were ones for iron-clad armored boats, submarines, torpedoes, and repeating guns.
Patent 84 was issued to Chas. E. Stuart, I.C. Owings, and Jos. H.C. Taylor of Alexandria, Virginia for “Improvements in Instruments for sighting cannon”, along with a receipt for $40, on the 21st day of March, 1862.
Attainment of a patent did not appear to result in payment, as The Journal of the House of Representatives reveals two years later, on May 5, 1864, “Mr Funsten presented the petition of Charles E. Stuart and other patentees for compensation for an invention now in use in the Ordinance Department of the Confederate States; which, on motion, was referred to a special committee of three, to be appointed by the Chair.”
The issue was placed on the Calendar, delayed, and then finally taken up the following year on March 14, 1865. The innovators seemed to be on the cusp of payment. Then, on April 9, 1865, came the surrender of General Lee. As they withdrew from Richmond, the Confederates burned government buildings and records, including the Patent Office. Everything within the Office was lost.
It is exceptionally rare to have an original patent model certificate. It is the only Confederate States patent model paperwork known to exist. It will be sold together with a late 19th c. detailed model of a brass cannon and caisson which exhibits several L.W. Broadwell patents, overall length 28”. Please join us at Pook & Pook on January 18th and 19th to view this piece of history, along with the many other wonderful antiques in the sale.
by: Cynthia Beech Lawrence
lot 221
A-weema-weh, a-weema-weh
I have had the opportunity to sell things more than once on a regular basis. Sometimes I get things back to be sold in a short amount of time, while some others take a much longer, winding route to come back around. There are many different reasons that I sell the same object. The buyer sometimes has remorse. Sometimes the buyer’s significant other has remorse that their partner ever bought it. I have first hand knowledge of the latter example! One time in the case of a large Belsnickel Santa I bought, my granddaughter hated it and it had to go! There are also those that come back because they didn’t fit in that empty spot, it was the wrong color, or they even bid on the wrong lot. There have also been the perfect gifts, that well, didn’t turn out to be so perfect after all.
I am always amazed in looking at collections the total recall that the collector has. They can tell you exactly what sale, when, where and even the other lots that they didn’t win. Along with those items that they really wanted but could only underbid, it comes with a shake of the head and a muttering of the name of who bought it away from them. These recollections seem to last a life time. The number of times the collector gets that second chance of something that they really wanted is a fairly small percentage. Typically, it doesn’t get away the second time around, no matter what the cost!
I recently had one of those déjà vu moments. While it wasn’t something I wanted or even bid on, it was something that I liked and just stuck out to me. A recent phone call from a long-time buyer in northern New Jersey, whom I have never met, followed by some photographs, sent me on a trip to see a handful of items that they wanted to thin out. As I walked through the house, I selected a half dozen pieces of art, some clocks, a really nice carousel horse and figure, as well a fortune telling bird cage. As we went through the house and into a bedroom there was a very familiar painting. Not a painting with astronomical value, just a painting that stuck out to me. This painting was familiar. As I searched my memory, I started to quiz the client of where the painting came from. He bought it at auction, and it was from a sale in York, Pennsylvania. The light bulb went off. I remember this painting. Before he could speak another word, I filled in the blanks for him. This painting was sold at the Springettsbury Fire Hall on East Market Street in York, Pennsylvania by Gilbert and Gilbert Auctions. His eyes lit up, that yes that is exactly where he bought the painting. Neither of us could remember the year but narrowed it down between 1990 and 1995. So, lot #383, The Newbold Hough Trotter portrait of the lion has come back to visit my life some thirty years later.
By: Jamie Shearer
The Levine Redware Collection
Pook & Pook is pleased to offer in the October 5th and 6th Americana sale a private collection holding some of the most beautiful examples of American redware. Ellen and Richard Levine, of New York, were discerning collectors, finding rare, quality pieces.
Lot 4
Many of the New England pieces are washed in glazes that bring to mind the effects of dappled sunlight on the pebble bed of a clear stream. The colors are of the earth: lead reds, iron ochres, ambers, and oranges, copper greens, and manganese and iron dark purple browns. The greens range from teal to olive, from apple to jade, to a translucent glaze so pale it resembles celadon. Single fields of glaze contain a multitude of colors, mottled, dappled, and dripped together. The variations are the result of the metal oxides in the clay and glazes, drips from other pots, variations in firing temperature, and even the flow of oxygen through the kiln. On some examples, potters fingerpainted or brushed a second glaze of another color, producing blotches and spatters that bloom across the surface, each with an aureole of underlying color. The beauty imparted by each potter is astonishing. The ovoid shapes are perfect in their simplicity. These were utilitarian objects, their production limited to local resources and minerals, with no objective other than to be used for prosaic tasks. Yet each has a graceful, hand-formed curvature, a beauty of proportion, and a depth of glaze that raises them into the realm of art. When viewed together, the group is harmonious, with gently curving lines, graceful proportions, and subtle colors.
Lot 1
Two visually arresting chargers include a rare Pennsylvania or Maryland example with a cream and brown slip decoration of two crossed vines of striped leaves with berries, on a background buzzing with striped ovals. The second is a Pennsylvania charger with yellow and green slip geometric decoration resembling crossed boughs. The transparent green glaze overlaps the yellow, the shadow on the field producing a pronounced three-dimensional effect.
In addition to works by Pennsylvania potters John Bell and Jacob Medinger, a scarce New York redware bottle has a known maker. Attributed to the early Mormon leader Heber Kimball, an amber bottle has blurred concentric bands of green and brown, and a glassy lead glaze. In the 1820’s Kimball worked as a potter in Mendon, purchasing the works from his brother. Soon after creating this bottle, ca. 1830, Kimball was baptized and headed west, eventually becoming one of the first pioneers to settle in Salt Lake City. Another of his bottles is exhibited there in the Museum of Church History.
Lot 5
By Cynthia Beech Lawrence
Press Release: Americana & International Auction, October 2023
Featuring consignments from five noted collectors and several institutions, the October 5th and 6th Americana and International sale at Pook & Pook offers a wide assortment of mochaware, redware, fraktur, and Pennsylvania, Southern, and New England furniture, clocks, and decorative arts, alongside Chinese export porcelain, and international and American works of art.
The first day of the sale begins with a fine selection of redware from The Collection of Ellen & Richard Levine of New York. Among the highlights are two 19th c. chargers. One, a rare Pennsylvania or Maryland example, has an unusual and vibrant cream and brown slip decoration involving two crossed vines and a dazzling array of leaf medallions; the other is Pennsylvania, with striking yellow and green slip decoration that appears almost three-dimensional. A scarce New York redware bottle, ca. 1830, is attributed to the Mormon leader Heber Kimball of Mendon. The collection holds many New England examples in a range of beautiful colors.
The Collection of David and Barbara Mest features Pennsylvania decorative arts and painted furniture. Top lots include a wrought iron straining ladle and flesh fork, dated 1836 and 1835 respectively, with brass and copper inlaid handles; a collection of miniature redware; and a New York or New Jersey stoneware jar with double-sided incised cobalt bird decoration. Another standout is a Pennsylvania painted pine two-part cupboard, early 19th c., with an old red surface and scalloped pie shelf.
The focus of a Mid-Atlantic Educational Institution’s collection is mochaware, including earthworm, cat’s eye, fan, banded, marbleized, and seaweed patterns, appearing on everything from small chamber pots to pepper pots, plates, pitchers, and mugs large and small. Windsor chairs of interest include a Southern long leaf pine and walnut writing armchair, and a rare signed Philadelphia lowback Windsor settee, ca. 1790, branded I. Miller.
The Collection of MaryAnn McIlnay, of York, Pennsylvania, features a fine Baltimore, Maryland Federal mahogany ladies’ cylinder front secretary desk, ca. 1810, with intricate veneer. A Christian Strenge ink and watercolor scherensnitte liebesbrief valentine is designed to capture hearts. A painted pine dower chest, ca. 1790, Berks or Lebanon County, has a vibrant potted tulip panel design. A Northampton County, Pennsylvania Chippendale inlaid walnut tall case clock has a brass dial inscribed John Miller, and extensive tulip and foliate inlay.
Two giltwood girandole mirrors with eagle crests hail from a Pennsylvania educational institution. Among the most colorful items is a herd of caparisoned carousel horses, and a collection of 19th c. turned and painted barber poles. Rare and special items include: a Francis Portzline ink and watercolor fraktur birth certificate, specially made for her own daughter; a Pennsylvania walnut spice cabinet, ca. 1770, with a tombstone panel door and a ten-drawer interior; a Philadelphia Sheraton mahogany pier table, attributed to the workshop of Haines and Henry Connelly; a rare pair of J.W. Fiske cast zinc “Spitz” recumbent dogs; and two Civil War era painted regimental drums. From a Lancaster, Pennsylvania collection are two gemlike Stiegel Glass Works cologne bottles, one in amethyst with diamond daisy pattern, and one pink amethyst in the twelve diamond pattern.
Session I ends with The Collection of Dr. Garrett I. & Bonnie Long, of Romney, West Virginia. Two clocks of note are a Massachusetts Federal mahogany shelf clock, ca. 1810, dial signed Aaron Willard, Washington St., Boston, and a Massachusetts pine dwarf clock, early 19th c., with dial signed Reuben Tower, Hingham. A Southern Federal mahogany Pembroke table, probably Charleston, has bellflower inlays. Diminutive furniture includes a rare miniature Pennsylvania painted drysink, 19th c., and a stepback cupboard, both with original surface decoration, a miniature painted settee, and a New England Chippendale birch child’s slant front desk. An imposing English silver epergne, 1761-1762, bears the touch of Daniel Smith and Robert Sharp. A collection of Chinese export porcelain includes choice Famille Vert, Famille Rose, Rose Medallion, and Canton pieces.
Session II begins with art. A collection from a Delaware Estate includes a John Constable brush and gray wash of fishing boats, a Thomas Gainsborough chalk drawing of a man and horse, a Mary Cassat sketch of a mother and child, two lovely interior mother and child scenes by Jozef Israëls, a harvest landscape in pastels by Léon-Augustin L’hermitte, a School of Peter Paul Rubens chalk drawing of a kneeling woman, and a fine oil on panel portrait of a man, attributed to Hans Bols.
Other marquee artworks include two iconic images of national parks by Gunnar Widforss, a pair of fruit and flower still lifes by Severin Roesen, a riverscape by Edmund Darch Lewis, and a number of Hudson River School works. Other artists include Benjamin West, Robert Street, and Jacob Eichholtz. Nineteenth century animal paintings include two Victorian cats caught admiring themselves in a mirror, an Edward Clarkson portrait of a trotter, two Ben Austrian chick paintings, and a portrait of a terrier by John Emms. Sculptures include works by Andre Harvey, Harry Bertoia, and Frank Finney. The sale features over twenty fraktur and theorem works by David Ellinger.
Session II highlights also include a Pennsylvania Federal mahogany tall case clock, early 19th c., profusely inlaid with a large American eagle on its door. Featured weathervanes are a fancy cast zinc rooster with pleated copper tail, a painted sheet iron Angel Gabriel, a full-bodied copper cow, and a full-bodied copper jockey and running horse. A Carlisle, Pennsylvania silk on linen needlework sampler is wreathed in flowers, and an applique friendship quilt is decorated with a weeping willow and stuffed dove border. Equally ornate, a walnut and tiger maple marquetry inlaid dresser box, 19th c., bears the State Seal of Pennsylvania.
The second session winds down with a collection of property from the Fenimore Art Museum sold to benefit their acquisitions fund. Included in this group is a Pontiac Authorized Service double-sided enameled full feather logo advertising sign, a large oil on canvas Hudson river scene, several portraits, two well executed battle scenes, and Wincester “double W” lithograph ammunition cartridge poster. The sale finishes up with European and Asian material to include silver, furniture, brass, porcelain, clocks, and decorative accessories.
Please join us for this fabulous sale, the week of October 5th and 6th, in-person or online. For more information go to www.pookandpook.com or call (610) 269-4040.
By: Cynthia Beech Lawrence
Beached in Brighton
More than two hundred works by John Constable (1776 – 1837) are related to time he spent in Brighton between the years 1824 and 1828, half of which are small, vivid sketches such as lot #435. In this ink wash, three fishing boats rest on a beach. The nearest is recognizable as a Brighton Hog-boat with its leeboard hanging off the side, the center boat with a lug sail. A cluster of buildings and a fenced walkway lined with figures form the horizon. Visible on the walkway is a man sporting a top hat. Although the boats are resting, the curved lines of their hulls, of the bluff, and the cumulus clouds, together with the sparkling light suggest an exuberant scene.
John Constable came to Brighton for his wife, Maria, who contracted tuberculosis in 1819. In an effort to restore Maria’s health with fresh sea air and sunshine, Constable moved his family to a cottage on the outskirts of Brighton in the spring of 1824. He continued his work in London, but spent as much time in Brighton as possible, making frequent trips back and forth and settling in for lengthier stays. Although Constable found bustling Brighton to be busier than he liked, it was peaceful in comparison to London’s crowds and pollution. He hoped to use the quiet to complete some commissions. Due to the residence of King George IV, the fishing towns of Brighton and Hove were rapidly gentrifying into a fashionable seaside resort, with architect John Nash finishing the king’s famed Pavilion in 1823.
In keeping with his preference for scenes of humble farmland, Constable was drawn to Brighton’s beaches and fishermen. In all seasons, Constable walked the shoreline with his paintbox and sketchbook, finding inspiration all around him. He sketched the sea and the sky, and views inland of the beach and the bluffs, and Brighton’s famous Hog-boats. One of Constable’s great landscape painting insights was the importance he placed on plein-air sketching. His first impressions imbued his later finished works with vitality. Two hundred years later, the immediacy of his sketches connects us to the day.
Tragically, Maria died in the winter of 1828, leaving behind her husband and seven children, and bringing to a close Constable’s period in Brighton.
The artwork’s provenance includes a receipt from Sotheby’s London dated January 20th, 1965. This sale was The Collection of English Drawings formed by the late Sir Bruce Ingram. Sir Bruce Ingram (1877 – 1963) was a prominent publisher and philanthropist. As a connoisseur, he established one of the great English collections of paintings and drawings, with a concentration on marine art. In addition to being editor of the Illustrated London News, Ingram served as Hon. Keeper of Drawings for the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and Hon. Advisor on pictures and drawings for the Greenwich Maritime Museum. Works from his collection are today in museums such as the British Museum, the National Gallery, and the Greenwich Museum. The winning bid in 1965 for lot 434 was £140. Please join us October 5th and 6th and see what this artwork is worth today.
By: Cynthia Beech Lawrence
Painter of the National Parks
Two very exciting paintings grace the October 5th and 6th Americana & International auction at Pook & Pook. Collectors will have the opportunity to acquire works by a recently rediscovered artist of international renown, who played an important role in promoting National Park landscapes to the American public.
Gunnar Widforss (Sweden, United States, 1879-1934) roamed the world looking for beautiful landscapes. Born in Sweden, he earned a living in the first decades of the 20th century plein air painting in spa towns and scenic spots around the Mediterranean, where he was in proximity to both beauty and a customer base. He achieved success, having two paintings accepted in the Paris Salon. In 1921 he began a journey to Japan, which ended when he ran out of money in California. While there, Widforss fell back on his work formula of scenery and tourists, painting Catalina Island and popular places along the coast. His life changed in March of that year when he journeyed to Yosemite National Park. The landscape and light, the solid rock and the miles of atmosphere, captured his imagination. His painting of the park was encouraged by his friend Stephen Mather, the first Director of the National Park Service. Mather recognized the historical contribution of artists in preserving public lands, establishing the parks as a source of national pride and identity. Mather encouraged Widforss to focus on the parks, and Widforss found his calling, quickly gaining a reputation as the painter of our national parks. The Park Service, the Santa Fe Railroad, and hotels all commissioned paintings for posters and promotions. In 1924 the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. showed 72 Widforss watercolors, with Gallery Director W.H. Holmes calling the paintings “the finest things of their kind that have come out of the West. (Widforss) is possibly the greatest watercolorist in America today.” Exploring the parks, Widforss spent an increasing amount of time at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, which inspired the paintings for which he became best known.
For Gunnar Widforss, the year 1929 was a watershed. He turned fifty. Gump’s in San Francisco held his most successful show. He became an American citizen. Then, he witnessed the onset of the Great Depression. The numbers of park tourists and customers dwindled and dried up. The New Deal WPA for artists would not begin until 1933. Widforss wrote to his mother, “I will get a tent, a cot, something to cook on and a couple of cans of beans or such. A little coffee too, maybe I can arrange to live a little cheaper that way.” Previously accustomed to trading paintings for room and board, Widforss retreated to his tent and continued his daily painting.
As the world teetered on the brink of economic collapse, many American artists reacted by experimenting with idealized visions of the future and abstraction. Gunnar Widforss stuck fast to the realism of his western park landscapes. The vastness of the parks transcends comprehension, inspiring feelings of awe and spirituality. As such, the parks are places of the Gods. Every day, the plein air painter sat at his easel surrounded by vistas eternal and sublime. While the Depression raged on, in the parks Widforss breathed a rarefied air, exalted by a brilliant sun. Gunnar Widforss sat on canyon rims, in remote, inaccessible valleys, and at the foot of towering redwoods, and with a steady hand, crystallized those heroic landscapes into realistic, intimate visions that speak to the soul.
Widforss’s career painting the National Parks came to a tragic early end in 1934 when he suffered a heart attack near his home on the Grand Canyon’s South Rim. He is memorialized as one of only three artists for whom Grand Canyon landmarks are named. One of the most famous painters of his time, until recently, he had faded into obscurity. Collectors are now rediscovering him, largely informed by the work of Alan Petersen, Curator of Fine Art at the Museum of Northern Arizona and author of the Gunnar Widforss Catalogue Raisonne and an upcoming biography. The authority on Widforss, most of the information in this article has been drawn from Petersen’s original research.
According to Petersen, Gunnar Widforss would stay with his friend Theophil Fritzen when he was in San Francisco. Fritzen managed the Kings River Parks Company, which ran concessions in Sequoia and other National Parks in the early 1920’s. The two watercolors featured were both owned by Fritzen and passed down within his family. Still in their original frames, they have been in storage since the 1990s. Emerging into the light for the first time in years, their colors are rich and vibrant. The view of the geology and light of Zion National Park is in a warm palette, which shifts to cool for the towering great trees of Redwood National Park. In both paintings, the delicacy of color and dramatic composition capture the emotional impact of scenes of such immensity and beauty. Sharply defined rocks and tree trunks stand before limitless horizons and forest depths. The scene of Zion is dated 1923, the year Widforss was first commissioned by Park Director Stephen Mather to paint the park. Humboldt County Redwoods was painted circa 1925, when Petersen documents the artist “working at Schilling’s Inn between Scotia and Garberville” during June and July. These paintings are examples of the best of Widforss’s work.
by: Cynthia Beech Lawrence
Sources:
Alan Petersen, Gunnar Widforss: The Artist and the Myths, chapter 38, publication to be announced.
Alan Petersen, Letters from Gunnar, Sojourns, summer 2013, p. 31-41.
Alan Petersen, Gunnar Widforss, Painter of America’s National Parks, Plein air Magazine, spring 2011, p. 62-66.
National Park Service, Landscape Art and the Founding of the National Park Service.
National Gallery of Art, Uncovering America: Art and the Great Depression.
A Tablescape for the Ages
From the end of the War of 1812 until around 1860, the Staffordshire potters of Britain produced millions of pieces of transferware for the American market. Using brilliant white pearlware and ironstone printed underglaze with deep cobalt blue, Staffordshire potters imitated the brilliance of Chinese porcelain on widely affordable domestic tableware. Appealing directly to the American market, wares were decorated with patriotic scenes and historical landmarks which were set in either romantic garden landscapes or unspoiled scenery, and the early achievements of the Industrial Revolution, such as steamships and railroads. So popular was the style, it is still produced today- although reproductions lack the variety of artwork and the original intense cobalt, which has been replaced with synthetic blues. The original pieces still typify the standard of beauty for a blue and white table.
By: Cynthia Beech Lawrence
Photo caption – Left to right: Lot 3238 a collection of blue Staffordshire, including bowls, teacup and saucer, teapot, and covered vegetable dish), Lot 3054 sterling silver pitcher, Lot 3012 pair of Gorham weighted sterling silver candelabra, Lot 3214 English pewter mug marked by William Walker, Lot 3239 Historical blue Staffordshire plates, including Table Rock, Niagara, Lot 3240 Historical blue Staffordshire Franklin Tomb cup and saucer and Landing of Lafayette waste bowl.
The Auction Buzz!
Lot 7576 is a spectacular 18k yellow gold and diamond bee brooch by famed jeweler Herbert Rosenthal (American, trademark active 1962 – 1987). In the mid-1960’s, Rosenthal created his first iconic bejeweled bees. His design became famous, inspiring a generation of imitators. Incredibly lifelike, these bees are encrusted with diamonds and detailed with ruby eyes, and are captured working industriously on a slice of golden honeycomb. The brooch has a pendant loop and pin closure, the underside stamped HR within an oblong diamond.
The bee jewelry of Herbert Rosenthal captured the imagination of the fashion world, but was far from a new idea. Human dependency on bees has resulted in a long history of use and adaptation of their image. Although the Victorian love of insect jewelry was widespread, actual credit for interest in bee jewelry in the modern age belongs earlier, in the age of Napoleon. In 1804, Napoleon was looking for a symbol for the French Empire other than the fleur-de-lys. Based on ancient French artifacts in the collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale, he chose the bee. Why was the bee a particularly French symbol? The answer delves even further back into history, into the Dark Ages.
A king of the Merovingian dynasty, Childeric (437 -481 C.E.) also stood on the cusp of a new era. He was the father of Clovis, who would be the first to unite all of the Frankish tribes under one rule. Childeric’s tomb was discovered near Tournai in 1653. It was a sensational find. The tomb was full of precious objects, notably three hundred golden bees with garnet wings. The treasure of Childeric was eventually deposited in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, where Napoleon was able to see it. Tragically, in 1831 the treasure was stolen and melted down. Only a few pieces, including two bees, were recovered from a hiding spot in the Seine.
Join Pook & Pook on June 21st to bid on this exquisite figural brooch.
By Cynthia Beech Lawrence
Don’t Throw Away Your Shot!
My job always affords me the opportunity to make new and interesting discoveries. My pick this week is just that. It isn’t the best size, nor is it the best color. It was a mass-produced item in the early 19th century, so it’s not by any means super rare. It is unique and the information within its pages is a look into medicine and treatment in the late 1820’s. More importantly it is about life’s ups and downs in small town America. Lot #7670 in the upcoming June 21, 2023, online only sale here at Pook & Pook Auction in Downingtown, Pennsylvania is my pick. It’s a copy of the “A Medical Common Place Book with an Alphabetical Index…”, copyrighted in 1828. One of the first “Ipad’s” ever offered to the public. Instead of typing your notes, you get to hand write them into the book with nuggets of information that you would need to refer to later. A quote from the preface of the book – It was remarked of the celebrated Boorhave, that a physician never remembers more than three years of his practice: a Memorandum Book, therefore, as an auxiliary to the memory cannot fail to prove highly useful in bringing to his recollection any important cases, or diseases, which he may have met with in the course of his reading, or at the bedside of the sick, and the remedies which have been found most useful. A handwritten note at the bottom of the page is inscribed “This book bought off Dr. Hosack Prof. in the Med. College N.Y., when I was attending a course of Med. Lectures in 1828” and initialed LCG. We will get back to Dr. Hosack referenced in the elegantly written note, but first, who was LCG? We need to flip to page 122 where we encounter many pages of writing titled “A Brief Autobiography”.
It is there, that LCG becomes Dr. Lysander Church Grover who was born in Deerfield, Massachusetts, January 22, 1802 of poor but honest and respectable parents… His account of early family life struggles includes his father losing a leg in a mill accident at the age of 26, travels in various New York counties as well as trips to Massachusetts. An account of obtaining his teacher’s certificate in the village of Geneva. Finding the profession “irksome” he eventually made known his intentions to be a doctor to Dr. James Carter of Geneva who made it possible “to make a doctor of me”. In the winter of 1827-28 he attended five months in the City of New York attending lectures, the eye and ear infirmary, the hospital, dissections and returned with six cents capitol to start business in Lyon’s, Wayne County, New York. His account talks about life as a doctor, a merchant, a justice and farmer of 27 acres, eventually upgrading to 97 acres in the town of Alexander, Genesee County. Eventually he owned a general variety store in 1847. His trials and tribulations continue to be documented, including a son who was bitten by gold fever heading out by ship to San Francisco, until the last entry in August of 1872. Dr. Grover passed away at the age of 86 on August 4, 1888.
The other doctor mentioned was Dr. Hosack who happened to be David Hosack (1769-1835) who was a physician, botanist and educator, and who most notably was the attending physician to Alexander Hamilton after his fateful duel with Aaron Burr in July 1804. His noted art collection included contemporary American landscape paintings, such as John Trumbull’s Niagara Falls from Two Miles Below Chippewa (which is at the New York Historical Society Museum and Library) as well as being a patron of Thomas Cole.
So like Paul Harvey famously said “and now you know the rest of the story”.
By: Jamie Shearer
A Fancy Fat Caterpillar
This fancy, fat caterpillar is a gem. The brooch is a design of Robert Wander (American 1943 – 2019), who was famed for his work with colored gemstones. The caterpillar is carved from a solid piece of citrine, highlighted with 18k gold, and his antennae bezel set with .01 carats of diamonds. His many legs are set on a brooch base with pin closure, stamped WINC 18K.
Perched on your lapel or shoulder, perhaps with a flower brooch or other gemstone species, this endearing, life-size caterpillar combines a sense of humor with links to the past. Since ancient times, gemstone carvings have been the playthings of Emperors, Pharaohs, and Tsars. Join the bidding on June 21st and add him to your own royal collection.
Lot 7681
By: Cynthia Beech Lawrence