Press Release – January 2026 Americana Auction
The Americana sale at Pook & Pook to be held January 14-16, 2026, will feature an extraordinary array of furniture and decorative arts from five large collections and many private consignors.
The sale opens with 400 lots of American Folk Art and Antiques from the Collection of the late Grant H. Griswold, of Raphine, Virginia. Assembled over decades by Grant and his wife Josephine, with guidance from leading antique dealers, the many exceptional objects are distinguished by strong provenance and exhibition and publication history. Highlights include folk art portraits by the earliest American itinerant artists: William Matthew Prior, James Sanford Ellsworth, Joseph H. Davis, Ruth Henshaw Bascom, Jasper Miles, Rufus Porter, and Jacob Maentel. A painted overmantel mirror is attributed to Winthrop Chandler, regarded as the first American painter of landscapes. An extensive collection of boxes includes examples from the Compass Artist, Weber, and pantry boxes from Boone County, Missouri. Furniture spans Pennsylvania and New England, including a diminutive Mahantongo Valley painted blanket chest; painted dower chests; the Trego-Fell family William & Mary painted poplar tripod table; a New Hampshire stained maple tall chest attributed to Samuel Dunlap of Salisbury; an Essex Massachusetts Chippendale birch chest on chest, possibly from the shop of John Chipman; a rare Rhode Island Queen Anne maple tuck-away table; a diminutive Connecticut William and Mary maple tavern table; and a noted Connecticut painted spoon rack. Windsor seating features the important Elisha Dyer set of six Rhode Island braced bowback chairs, possibly made by Elisha’s cousin, Rufus Dyer, and a rare pair of footstools attributed to Ebenezer B. Tracy. Decorative arts include a Joseph Lehn cup and saucer, and two outstanding red Pennsylvania toleware coffeepots.
Yvonne and the late Carl DePaulis, noted collectors of Southeastern Pennsylvania German furniture and decorative arts, acquired antiques throughout Berks, York, Lancaster, and Somerset counties. Among many treasures are a sulphur-inlaid schrank, a unicorn-decorated dower chest, and a group of Pennsylvania wrought iron betty lamps by John Long, Peter Derr, Joseph Stanem, and J. Schmidt. Woodcarvings include pieces by Joseph Lehn, Wilhelm Schimmel, John Reber, and Joseph Moyer.
The Hollenbaugh Collection, also rooted in Southeastern Pennsylvania, offers a fine collection of hunting pouches and powder horns. Its highlight is a Philadelphia pre-Revolutionary War stain-decorated powder horn. The Darby Collection focuses on redware, stoneware, and baskets, including a vibrant toleware document box and a Pennsylvania presentation stoneware beehive still bank attributed to Richard Remmey, Philadelphia.
The sale features the first of three installments of one of the largest privately held collections of European brass candlesticks, formed by Mike Luna of Taylor Ridge, Illinois. Over one hundred lots of brass and wrought iron lighting devices span Romanesque through Georgian periods. Highlights include an English Tudor chalice-and-paten candlestick, an English brass trumpet stick, and North West European examples in Gothic, pricket, and early tripod forms. Among the earliest is a Romanesque miniature bronze goat-form candleholder. An exceptionally fine pair of Georgian swirl base candlesticks, and a rare pair of massive Georgian paktong candlesticks represent the later periods.
Many outstanding items in the sale are from private collections. Furniture highlights include a George I double-domed walnut and burl veneer secretary bookcase; a Philadelphia Chippendale mahogany pie crust tea table attributed to the Garvan Carver; and a Soap Hollow, Somerset County Pennsylvania painted blanket chest.
Tall case clocks from the Crow family of Wilmington include both George Crow Queen Anne and Thomas Crow Chippendale examples. Philadelphia tall case clockmakers include Peter Stretch and John Wood.
Another marquee highlight is an exceptionally rare Charles Frederick Bell, Waynesboro, Pennsylvania painted redware spaniel. Stoneware highlights include a New York three-gallon merchants jug impressed Giles & Co., Cherry Valley, a Massachusetts two-gallon crock impressed Edmands & Co., and a Vermont two-gallon jug impressed J & E Norton, Bennington.
Decorative arts items of special interest include a 19th c. narwhal tusk; a ship log of the Mary of New Bedford, detailing an 1840-2 whaling voyage off the Australian coast of New Holland; a group of ten fabric sewing birds; and a set of twenty-five botanical engravings by Georg Ehret from Plantae Selectae, Nuremberg, 1750-1773.
On the evening before the sale, Tuesday, January 13, from 4:00 – 7:00 p.m., Pook & Pook will host an extended evening exhibition and special reception celebrating the publication of American Insights 2025, a comprehensive study of Pennsylvania German redware. Additional gallery exhibition hours and auction times can be found online at www.pookandpook.com. To contact the gallery with any questions dial (610) 269-4040 or email info@pookandpook.com.
Preview and bidding will be available in person and online at Pook & Pook. For details, visit www.pookandpook.com.
by: Cynthia Beech Lawrence
