Auction PR Publicity Announcements News and Information
Auction PR Publicity Announcements News and Information

GARTH’S AMERICANA AUCTION MARCHES TOWARD SPRING IN TITANIC WAY…

Known as the time of year to reinvent one’s surroundings, the Spring season encourages us to clean, to move out the unwanted and bring in the new! What better place to search out the “new” than in an auction venue where one can just as easily find a prehistoric Mississippian pottery bowl, a set of Fancy Windsor chairs, or a Currier & Ives folio print to fit the bill and spruce up the home decor? In the world of antiques, “new” is just the latest find you bring home to enhance your collection…the latest story of discovery to share with your friends. Poet Alexander Pope said “Hope springs eternal” and Garth’s Auctions is more than hopeful bidders are enticed by over 500 lots of Americana to sell during its March 31 sale.

The annual March auction will offer a wonderful selection of antique formal and painted furniture and decorative arts including a colorful collection of mocha, a large collection of Currier lithographs, historic and prehistoric Americana Indian pottery, an outstanding assortment of oriental rugs, and more. A particular standout is the 30 lots from the Southwestern art collection consigned by a Midwestern Fortune 500 Corporation. About one hour into the day, lot 105, an oil on canvas depiction of a cowboy riding alongside his herd at sunset, will cross the block. Titled Lone Rider and estimated at $3,000-$6,000, the 14” x 18” work is by Donald Teague (California, 1897-1991), who was one of country’s top illustrators. According to the gallery label, this work was commissioned by Edward C. McCormick, an Ohio industrialist. Teague’s work was seen in magazines such as Saturday Evening Post, Colliers, McCall’s, and more. Another scene of cowboys is lot 169, a watercolor titled Out at Dawn by Robert Pummill (Ohio/Texas, b. 1936). Estimated at $2,000-$4,000, it depicts several riders and a chuck wagon coming into view as they crest a hill. Other works of note include a dynamic 24” x 36” oil on canvas depicting a wagon train being attacked by Indians titled, Hostile Reception, by Jim Carson (New York/California, b. 1942) expected to bring $2,000-$4,000; the commanding pastel on paper titled The Chief by Harley Brown (Arizona/California, b. 1939) of a distinguished Americana Indian chief (estimate $2,000-$4,000); and A Distant Noise by Gary Lawrence Niblett (New Mexico/California, b. 1943), a watercolor on paper, signed and dated (19)68 lower left of three American Indians on horseback (estimate $2,000-$4,000).

Among the more typical Americana found at Garth’s such as the American blue painted pine hutch table dating to the late 18th-early 19th century (Ex John Henry, Maine and estimated $4,000-$6,000) or the fine New York Hepplewhite mahogany and pine serpentine-front sideboard featuring elaborate decoration with sawtooth edges, small flowers, and fourteen ovals (Ex Herbert Schiffer and estimated $3,000-$6,000), there is one even more historic item to sell. Lot 271 is a 19th-20th century gaming table used as a prop in the movie Titanic. The table from the Oscar-winning movie, which was directed by James Cameron, is also illustrated (or a similar one to it) in Cameron’s New York Times best-selling book, James Cameron’s Titanic. Estimated at a reasonable $400-600, this is a reasonable way to own a great object with significant history as the 100th anniversary of the tragic sinking approaches this year on April 14th.

Other fine lots of furniture to be sold include lot 1, a finely decorated American pine corner cupboard, ca. 1820-40. The upper section has a twelve pane door, the top row with gothic arches, and the lower section has paneled doors and a shaped skirt. With its original faux curly maple paint decoration, the 84” high cupboard carries an estimate of $4,000-$8,000. A set of six Fancy Windsor Side Chairs, possibly from Baltimore, are quite graphic thanks to elaborate decoration of swans, urns, and flowers in gold against a green ground on the tablet tops. Ex. GW Samaha, the set is predicted to bring $600-1,200. A fine Queen Anne figured walnut, pine, poplar and possibly cedar slant front desk, probably from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, ca.1760, is another top lot. The stepped interior with shell-carved drawers and secret drawers behind the prospect door rests on five drawers and ogee bracket feet. Sold at Sotheby’s (New York), January 2001, lot 751, it is now estimated at $3,000-6,000. The interior, particularly the configuration of the hidden compartments, is similar to a desk-and-bookcase attributed to Samuel Harding that sold as part of the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Lammot du Pont Copeland at Sotheby’s in January 2002 and is now part of the collection of the Chipstone Foundation.

A few of the 30 lots of Currier & Ives lithographs might want to make you hit the great outdoors as Spring approaches. Lots 21 & 22 will sell early Saturday and are from the Camping Out series. Each a large folio, Camping Out, Some of the Right Sort, C# 777 and Camping Out, In the Woods, Laying Off, C# 774, respectively depict men in a hunting camp and four men by a river with their catch of fish. Each lithograph is estimated at $1,000-$2,000. Lots 192-195 represent the complete American Field Sports series with each lithograph estimated in the $400-800 to $800-$1,200 range. A large hand-colored folio, Winter in the Country – Grist Mill, C# 6738, is one of the Old and New Best 50. With opaque colors and minor imperfections, the 22 1/2″h. x 28 3/4″w. image is still estimated at $2,000-$4,000.

If your idea of “new” is simply adding to your American Indian collection, then the March sale will also tempt you with approximately fifty pieces of pre-historic pottery, most of it from the Mississippian period, ca.1200-1600, once belonging to the late Stephen Kelley, author of Adams County, Ohio Home of the Serpent Mound. There are effigy pieces, featuring a few pieces from Ohio, but most of it from Arkansas, including a carved sandstone effigy pipe in the form of a kneeling person, ca.1200-1400, from Pike County, Illinois. The 9 3/4″h. pipe is ex Byron Knobloch, ex Leo Allen (estimate $500-800). An effigy bottle of a seated woman with painted designs, ca.1400-1600, come from Center Ridge, Conway County, Arkansas. The 10 1/2″h. bottle is ex Bill Rowlett (Arkansas), and Richard Meeks and bears an estimate of $600-900. Approximately __ pieces of historic pottery and baskets dating to the 19th and early 20th centuries will also be sold including a particularly nice small pottery vessel attributed to Nampeyo. With umber and dark brown designs, the vessel measures just 4 1/2″h., 3 1/2″d., is estimated at $1,000-$1,500, and bears a similar design to a piece sold by Garth’s in November 2007, lot 429.

Another collection of 26 lots of artwork by John Ward Dunsmore, born in 1856 in Riley, Butler County, Ohio, will be sold by The Wagnalls Memorial Foundation which retains a museum featuring the works of many prominent illustrators who once produced work for the Funk and Wagnalls publishing house. The group being offered in March consists of Colonial Revolutionary War scenes created by the artist, who by 1902, has become an authority on the subject. Lot 262, titled Fight at the Rail Fence, Bunker Hill, is an oil and graphite on paper, signed lower left, depicting a sketch of the battle. Measuring a monumental 40″h. x 48″w. It is estimated at $500-$1,000. An oil on canvas titled Defense of Fort Washington 1776, initialed lower right, is a study of battle scene with minor variations from a previous sketch also being sold. At 12″h. x 18″w., this detailed depiction of Washington and the troops carries an estimate of $600-$1,200. Other paintings depicting Washington throughout the Revolutionary War and at Mount Vernon will also cross the block.

Featured on the cover of the catalog is a portrait of two children attributed to Aaron Dean Fletcher (Vermont / New York, 1817-1902). The unsigned oil on canvas dates to the 1840s and shows a young girl with her hair carefully fashioned in ringlets, dressed in black, wearing a locket, and seated besdie her younger brother wearing a blue jacket and ruffled collar. The 30″h. x 26″w. canvas is expected to reach $2,000-$4,000. A variety of other decorative objects including a burl bowl with carved handles (estimate $1,500-$2,000), a selection of 31 lots of oriental rugs including a room-size Heriz, ca. 1925 (estimate $3,000-$5,000), and a clocks including a Federal style mahogany dwarf tall clock in the manner of John Bailey, Hanover, Massachusetts, 1900-1930 (estimate $2,000-$4,000).

Garth’s March 31, 2012 auction catalog is completely illustrated online at www.garths.com. Garth’s, located at 2690 Stratford Road, Delaware, Ohio 43015, will have preview hours in its gallery from March 26-31. For further information, please contact [email protected] or call 740-362-4771.