Press Release – September 2024 Americana & International Auction
Downingtown, Pennsylvania – Pook & Pook will hold our largest Americana & International sale ever, spread over three days, September 25, 26, and 27th. The sale features important single owner collections, as well as many items from private collectors and institutions.
Day One encompasses two important private collections. The first is the folk art collection of Albion P. Fenderson of Modesto, California. Al and Florence Fenderson were avid collectors in Southeastern Pennsylvania before moving to California in the 1960’s. The quality of the Fenderson Collection folk art is exceptional. Paintings include a pair of William Matthew Prior husband and wife portraits, a colorful Samuel Miller portrait of a boy in a red dress with a hobby horse, and a rare Isaac W. Nuttman still life with a bird and an abundance of fruit. A rare Samuel Folwell Philadelphia watercolor silhouette of the Reverend Absolom Jones is of historical importance. The first of several in the sale, a Wilhelm Schimmel spread winged eagle is outstanding for its vibrant original painted surface and imposing size. The highlight of the collection is a highly important ink and watercolor fraktur Taufwunsch by the Sussel-Washington Artist. This vibrantly colored fraktur is the finest example in private hands, rivalling any institutional holding.
Pook & Pook is honored to present the finest and most comprehensive collection of American pewter in history, unequaled by any other institutional or private collection at any time. The Collection of Dr. Melvyn and Bette Wolf of Flint, Michigan, is a once in a lifetime assemblage of American pewter of superb quality and significance. The foremost of many highlights is a highly important Philadelphia William Will coffee pot, which is considered to be one of the finest pieces of American pewter in existence. Other rare pieces include the only Robert Bonnynge church cup in private hands, a Semper Eadem quart tankard, a Frederick Bassett egg-shaped teapot, and a Johann Heyne ciborium. The Wolfs’ love of Americana went well beyond pewter and included New England furniture, decorative arts, and folk art paintings. A few to mention are an exceptional set of ten Pennsylvania painted treenware lidded cannisters, a collection of New England burl bowls, and fine folk art paintings, including two Hudson River landscapes attributed to Thomas Chambers, and two Jonas Welch Holman portraits, of Mary Ann Bassett and of the Bassett children.
A Maryland theme is found in a Historic Blue collection featuring a Baltimore tea service and pieces in the rare Arms of Maryland pattern. A rare pair of Thurmont, Maryland redware vases is attributed to James Mackley, and a Thurmont planter is inscribed Jacob Lynn Pottery and dated May 18, 1845.
Additional Day One Americana highlights are a provenanced swell-bodied copper lamb weathervane, fraktur, a pair of Pennsylvania flame grain painted doors, and Pennsylvania Chippendale cherry tall chest, and a large Pennsylvania folk art carved kangaroo from the Ralph Esmerian collection.
Day Two opens with the Collection of Rebecca Roberts of York, Pennsylvania. Ms. Roberts was passionate collector of local antiques. Furniture includes a blanket chest with vibrant paint decoration by William Heindel, and tall case clocks signed Jacob Spangler, and Peter Schutz Urmacher. Textiles include samplers, needlework, and quilts. Featured coin silver is by Godfrey Lenhart. There are many fraktur, including York County examples by Francis Portzline, Daniel Peterman, and Adam Wertz. Among the Jacob Maentel watercolor portraits are York County residents. Other Pennsylvania furniture includes a Lancaster corner cupboard, and a Northampton County painted pine dower chest. Ms. Roberts’ keen interest in Bellarmine and Westerwald stoneware is evident in her large collection spanning the 17th and 18th centuries.
Next up are thirty-eight lots of American glass, including a Stiegel type deep amethyst flask, and many with provenance from illustrious collectors such as Walter Douglas, Lowell Innes, and John Tiffany Gotjen, the latter including a New York blown aquamarine lily pad compote.
The first group of great weathervanes from a prominent Washington D.C. collection includes a swell-bodied copper bull, a cast iron horse, probably Rochester Iron Works, a sheet copper hound dog attributed to Howard & Co., West Bridgewater, Massachusetts, and a full-bodied copper stork, ca. 1900, attributed to J.W. Fiske & Co., and many more.
Noteworthy iron items include a wrought iron Conestoga wagon fish-form axe holder, ca. 1800, a painted cast iron Chinaman hitching post, late 19th c., and a cast iron kicking donkey carnival target by Wurfflein, Philadelphia.
A New Jersey collection features four colorful barber poles.
An Ohio collection reveals a lovely Philadelphia broderie perse chintz applique friendship quilt.
Furniture highlights of the day include a Chester County Pennsylvania tall case clock with works signed Ellis Chandlee Nottingham, and a graceful Bermuda Queen Anne cedar blanket chest. Great painted furniture includes a Pennsylvania blue painted hard pine schrank, ca. 1770, a diminutive Mahantongo Valley school masters hanging desk, a Virginia dower chest, and a Berks County blanket chest attributed to Jacob Blatt, with original salmon fan and circle paint decoration.
Fraktur include works by David Cordier, Reverend Henry Young, and an outstanding Daniel Otto.
Important stoneware includes a rare water cooler impressed Wells & Richards Reading Berks Co. PA, a three-gallon jug impressed Cowden & Wilcox Harrisburg PA, and a Reading mug impressed John G. Slocker 1895, with underside inscribed Harry Zerby.
Day Three begins with the Collection of Walter Pyle Smith and Jeannette Chaffee Smith of Gettysburg. The Smith’s life-long love of antiques resulted in an exceptional collection of Pennsylvania German decorative arts. One of many highlights is a Compass Artist paint-decorated dome lid box retaining its original rare salmon surface. Not to be missed are two Jonas Weber painted pine dresser boxes and two Wilhelm Schimmel spread winged eagles. Other carvings include an important Aaron Mountz large bird. The Smiths also collected fine redware, including a Southeastern Pennsylvania sgraffito charger dated 1811 with eagle decoration, a Snow Hill Nunnery bowl, a Solomon Bell, Strasburg, Virginia mixing bowl, and two large Hagerstown, Maryland bowls, one possibly from the Bell family. A menagerie of redware spaniels, poodles, lions, and birds includes a dog holding a fruit basket attributed to Jesiah Shorb. A Bristol County, Massachusetts bean pot is one of several items with a Dr. and Mrs. Donald A. Shelley provenance. A pair of North Carolina Moravian redware squirrel bottles is attributed to Rudolph Christ, Salem. The Smith’s Pyle and Wyeth heritage is evident in artworks by Howard Pyle in watercolor, oil, and ink, and an Ann Wyeth McCoy watercolor. Rounding out the collection are works by Edward Moran and Frank Earle Schoonover.
The fine art category opens with Taos Art Colony co-founder Ernest Blumenschein and his landscape Autumn with Storm. A panorama of landscapes includes several by Maryland/Washington D.C. painter John Ross Key, a Max Weyl Washington D.C. landscape The Little River, Georgetown, a Jack Wilkinson Smith California coastal scene, a Peter Sculthorpe watercolor on paper of a moonlit winter homestead, a Gladys Young street scene, and other landscapes by John Prentiss Benson, Thomas Curtin, Hugh Bolton Jones, Richard Norris Brooke, and John Henry Witt. Of two landscapes by Samuel Lancaster Gerry, there is a fine view of the White Mountains. Rounding out the paintings are three works by Ben Austrian.
Modern art highlights include a Carl Milles bronze Bird of Prey, a Louise Nevelson plaque City Sunscape, a Jasper Johns screenprint in colors The Dutch Wives, a Wolf Kahn pastel Spring Barn, and an Agnes Martin watercolor, graphite, and colored pencil work from a York County, Pennsylvania estate.
Three more weathervanes from the Washington, D.C. collection are a large swell-bodied copper cow, a painted copper trolley, a swell-bodied copper prancing horse attributed to A.J. Jewell & Co., Waltham, Massachusetts, and a New England painted sheet iron clam digger.
From a Washington, D.C. collection comes an item of historical importance: a series of Civil War ledgers by William B. Stark of Egremont, Massachusetts, with detailed entries and elaborate drawings of battles and camps.
A graceful New York Chippendale carved serpentine front card table is not to be missed in furniture.
A rarefied collection of twenty-six lots of 15th through 18th century European copper alloy candlesticks includes North West Gothic and rare Three Kings examples, and English candlesticks including rare bell base and very rare Gothic examples.
Please join us to preview, online or in person, for this important sale.
by: Cynthia Beech Lawrence
