This Anna Pottery stoneware pig-form flask was incised with railroad lines and measured 8½ inches long. It sold to a determined in-the-room bidder for $8,260 ($5/8,000).

Review by Madelia Hickman Ring

WHIPPLE, OHIO — Not all of the 606-lots August 30 presented by Andrew Richmond and Hollie Davis, who are Meander Auctions, came from or sold to buyers in Ohio, but a good number did, reaffirming the regional standing of the two-year-old auction house. Billed as a “diverse auction that includes Americana, European and Asian antiques, Twentieth Century design, silver and jewelry,” the Labor Day Antiques & Art offerings also included part four of the quilt and coverlet collection of Dr Virginia Gunn of Wooster, Ohio.

“Overall, it was a good sale. We had a modest floor crowd, and many more online, with various kinds of remote bidding; we just keep getting more and more bidders,” Richmond told Antiques and The Arts Weekly, when we got him on the line the first Tuesday following the auction. “Saturday was opening day for the [Ohio State] Buckeyes, so that probably put a bit of a dent in the crowd but the sale had a 91-percent sell-through rate and we totaled a little over $200,000. Everything continues to trend upward.”

Two pieces made by Wallace and Cornwall Kirkpatrick of the Anna Pottery, in Anna, Ill., finished at first- and third-place overall. Earning top-lot honors at $8,260 was a stoneware railroad pig flask that came to auction from a “distinguished Midwestern collection” and sold to a buyer who came to the sale and kept his paddle up until he won it; he was underbid by another in-the-room bidder.

This 5¾-inch-tall “Little Brown” snake jug, made by the Anna Pottery in 1876, found a buyer online, for $7,140 ($6/8,000).

The second of the two Anna Pottery pieces, which came from the same seller, was a diminutive ovoid jug with a brown glaze incised “Little Brown Jug / from / Brachmann & Massard / Wines & Liquors / 81 W 3rd St / Cin O 1876.” Richmond noted the presence of a snake — a common motif of the temperance movement — on a jug made for a liquor distributor was unexpected. An online bidder topped it off at $7,140.

Also from the distinguished Midwestern collection was a redware flower pot from Zoar, Ohio, which Richmond proclaimed to be his favorite lot in the sale and which sold for $5,950. Not only did the circa 1840 6-inch-tall pot boast provenance to Zoar collectors Jack and Pat Adamson but it had been illustrated in the Adamson’s 2007 book, The Pottery of Zoar, Ohio: Research and Photos of Known Zoar Pieces. “It was bought online by collectors who live near Zoar and are passionate Zoar collectors,” said Richmond.

A yellowware pitcher, made in Cincinnati circa 1845 and came from the distinguished Midwestern collection, featured brown and cream slip bands and looped “earthworm” or “common cable” found on pieces excavated in Cincinnati and Convington, Ky. Southwest Ohio private collectors, bidding online, paid $4,305 for it.

Southwest Ohio private collectors, bidding online, took this Cincinnati-made yellowware pitcher to $4,305 ($800-$1,200).

Another Midwestern seller consigned the sale’s second-highest result: a walnut and poplar blanket chest with carved sunbursts that pointed to a possible origin in Fairfield County, Ohio, circa 1820-40. Two Ohio collectors — one bidding by phone, the other online — battled it out with the phone bidder prevailing at $7,670.

A surprisingly strong result, from an Ohio collector bidding in the room and underbid by another in the room, was the $5,605 realized for a cobalt-decorated stoneware jar made by the Havens family of Athens or Muskingum County, Ohio, in the mid Nineteenth Century.

An optical glass sculpture, made by Ohio-born contemporary glass artist Christopher Ries (American, b 1952), exceeded expectations with a $3,690 finish. Titled “Vulcan” and dated to 1985, the 19¾-inch-tall piece had been illustrated in Illusions In Glass: The Art of Christopher Ries (Anita J. Ellis & the Cincinnati Art Museum, 1988) and came to sale from the Worthington, Ohio, collection of Dr Bernard Master.

Meander Auctions’ next sale will take place November 15.

Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house; for information, 740-760-0012 or www.meanderauctions.com.