Press Release – May 1st & 2nd Americana Auction
DOWNINGTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA — Pook & Pook presents the annual Spring Americana sale, May 1st and 2nd, 2025. The sale will be held live, with bidding in-person or online at PookLive, and also by telephone, or absentee bid. All items are illustrated in our award-winning full-color catalogue, available for purchase on Pook & Pook’s website. Works of art, folk art, furniture, and silver are accompanied by particularly strong militaria and Native American categories.
Fine art highlights include four works by Sir Alfred Munnings: equine portrait Leader, A Bay Horse, 1905 (estimate $20,000-30,000); landscape Winter at Flatford Mill, portrait of red setter Lark III; and a cloud study landscape. American artists include Charles Willson Peale, William Aiken Walker, Willem de Kooning, Frank Earle Schoonover, Eric Sloane, Hattie Klapp Brunner, and Violet Oakley.
A Chester County Pennsylvania Chippendale walnut secretary (estimate $5,000-8,000) is attributed to the shop of Jacob Brown (Nottingham Township, b. 1724). Similar clock cases are known with works by Benjamin Chandlee Jr., one with a record of descent in the family of the cabinetmaker. Other Pennsylvania furniture highlights are a Lancaster walnut schrank, a narrow walnut corner cupboard, and a vibrant painted blanket chest. New England highlights are a Connecticut Queen Anne cherry high chest and a Boston Queen Anne walnut dressing table.
Clocks and instruments by the Chandlee family include a rare brass surveyor’s compass by Goldsmith Chandlee (Winchester, Virginia 1751-1821) (estimate $5,000-8,000), and a walnut tall case clock by Ellis and Isaac Chandlee (Chester County, Pennsylvania, fl.1792-1804).
A rare tall case clock by New Jersey’s earliest clockmaker Isaac Pearson (Burlington 1685-1749) is related to an example in the Winterthur collection (estimate $3,000-5,000).
Decorative arts highlights include two scarce Warne & Letts (South Amboy, New Jersey) stoneware crocks, and thirteen lots of D.P. Shenfelder (Reading, Pennsylvania) stoneware, with a rare marked piece. A Tiffany Studios bronze picture frame features abalone shell inlay. Another standout is an elaborate 19th c. Pennsylvania wrought iron spatula. Silver includes four lots of trays and tableware by Georg Jensen, and several S.Kirk & Son Baltimore repousse ewers. A fine collection of quilts features an exceptional Pennsylvania Whigs Defeat patchwork quilt.
The militaria and firearms offerings are extensive, incorporating not only the history of America, but countries afar. Civil War era items include two Robert E. Lee signed letters, paintings by William Frye and Alonzo Chappel, and a 32-star American linen flag which, by family tradition, was taken to Gettysburg during Abraham Lincoln’s visit in 1863 by Alice Dome’s grandfather. The flag then passed down in the Dome family of Arendtsville, Adams County, Pennsylvania. Firearms include a Sharps model 1874 Business rifle, and a U.S. Navy Colt model 1911 semi-automatic pistol. A collection from Piedmont, Charles Town, West Virginia, features many highlights, the most important of which symbolizes Poland’s contribution to the American Revolutionary War. A rare Polish silver-mounted Hussar’s sabre and scabbard, ca. 1770, possibly belonged to Brigadier General Casimir Pulaski or Colonel Tadeusz Koscuiszko. Other Polish 16th – 19th c. weaponry includes a fine Rochus Daiczer Polish flintlock pistol, highly engraved and gold-damascened; a Polish Hussar Nadziak war hammer, ca. late 16th – early 17th c.; and a silver inlaid Polish karabela sabre and scabbard, ca. 1700. American highlights from the Piedmont collection are a Nashville Plow Works Confederate Civil War sword and scabbard, and a Jacob Hurd (Boston, 1703-1758) silver mounted small sword.
Native American antiques include fine works from two collections. Of the many weavings, highlights include a Navajo Third Phase woman’s blanket, ca. 1880; two Navajo Third Phase Germantown chief’s wearing blankets, ca. 1880; and a Navajo Second Phase variation wearing blanket, late 19th c. Antique pottery includes a fine Acoma Pueblo Indian pottery olla, ca. 1900. Basket works include an Apache coiled basketry tray, and an Apache coiled basketry bowl, both ca. 1900. Another highlight is a Micmac Indian porcupine quill, birch bark, and walnut chair, 19th c.
For more information please visit www.pookandpook.com or call (610) 269-4040. Gallery exhibition hours are posted online. To consign with Pook & Pook, please email photographs to info@pookandpook.com.
By: Cynthia Beech Lawrence
