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…
News
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…
Silver Spout Cup
This rare Boston silver spout cup by John Dixwell is typical of the American Colonial period. With a narrow, sharply curving spout and handle set at a right angle, the cups were designed for a caregiver to easily feed an…
The Sycamore Tree at the Moses Rice Farm
Captain Moses Rice (1694-1755) was a soldier on the Massachusetts frontier at Rutland garrison. In 1742 he purchased 2,200 acres from the City of Boston and became the first colonial settler in the area. According to family tradition, it was…
Philotesia Owen
Philotesia Owen was born in Coulsdon, England, and in 1716 married Quaker merchant Robert Strettell (1693-1762). She is depicted in her portrait dressed in the typical attire of a young Quaker woman, unadorned, in modest brown silks, her shawl providing…
Press Release – May 2023 Americana & International Auction
Pook & Pook is pleased to announce details of our Americana & International sale, May 4th & 5th, 2023. The antiques and artworks assembled for this sale are significant for their representation of hallowed makers, illustrious owners, and famous sales…
Indian Peace Medals
The Garvan Family collection of Presidential Indian Peace medals, along with the George Washington medal from a U.K. collection, tell the story of westward expansion and European and Native American relations. Diplomatic gifts, Indian peace medals were intended to promote…
Great Uncle George
Elizabeth Fisher Washington, born in Siegfried’s Bridge, Northampton County. She first studied at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art, and then at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts under Hugh Breckenridge and Fred Wagner. She was a successful…
The Furniture of Margaret Berwind Schiffer
Margaret Berwind Schiffer was a scholar, collector, and an authority on the material culture of early Chester County, Pennsylvania. Researching local records such as wills, inventories, and ledgers, she collected data about early residents, craftsmen, domestic life and home furnishing.…
The Lear Collection
The Collection of F.R. “Bud” Lear III is an exceptional lifetime assemblage of copper-alloy candlesticks manufactured before 1700, which illustrates the history of development of socket candlesticks and the relationships between different forms across Europe. The Collection is composed of…
Chinese Botanical Watercolors
On October 6th, Pook & Pook will auction Chinese botanical watercolors from the Estate of Peter Tillou. Three pairs of watercolors, lots #344, 345, and 346, attributed to Win Achun and other artists, have provenance from Peter Tillou, “According to…
The Father of Indonesian Modern Painting
Kusama Affandi (1907-1990), the father of Indonesian modern painting, was the first Southeast Asian artist to gain worldwide recognition. From his sponsorship of organizations for young artists to the inspiration of his self-taught expressionism, he helped raise future generations of…
Northern Lights
Admiral Jacob van Heemskerk (1567-1607) was an explorer. Before he captured the treasure ship Santa Caterina in the Straits of Malacca, and died defeating the Spanish fleet off Gibraltar, he was already a hero of an epic book, Nova Zembla.…
Why do we all love blue and white china?
Why do we all love blue and white china? Perhaps because it is hard-wired into our system. Across history and continents, the love of blue and white Chinese porcelain has launched ships and industries. For a thousand years, China…
A Delft Touch in Colonial America
Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, Delftware was the most common type of ceramic export to the American colonies, the wide range of products doing everything from adorning elegant tables and displaying flowers to serving utilitarian purposes in apothecary shops…
Where there’s a Will
Pewter is undoubtedly the crown jewel in the Herr collection. Auctioneer and appraiser James Pook discusses a highly important Lancaster, Pennsylvania pewter flagon, ca. 1770, bearing the touch of Johann Christoph Heyne (Germany, Lancaster 1715-1781), 11 1/4″ h. James explains,…