Crowned top-lot at $6,000 was this sterling silver King Edward tea and coffee service from Gorham ($4,4/4,800).

Review by Carly Timpson

DOWNINGTOWN, PENN. — Pook & Pook’s Online Only Decorative Arts auction on December 3 presented nearly 824 lots in a wide range of collecting categories, including timepieces, Native American and ethnographic artifacts, textiles, furniture, books, folk art, militaria, material history and more. Deirdre Pook Magarelli, the firm’s president, reported 1,108 bidders on the company’s platform with an additional 225 signed up on Bidsquare. Having a 96 percent sell-through rate, the auction realized a total of $297,449, nearly reaching its high estimate.

As recent auction trends show, interest in silver continues to rise. This sale included several quality selections, resulting in four of the top ten prices overall. Earning top-lot honors was a sterling silver Gorham tea and coffee service in the King Edward pattern. Complete with a Dutch strainer and stand and a plated tray, the set weighed around 133 troy ounces and was bid to $6,000, exceeding its $4,800 high estimate and selling to a trade buyer.

Another lot of sterling silver, comprising two platters, a gravy boat, small bowls, utensils and other miscellaneous pieces for a total weight of 54.6 troy ounces, was bid past its $1,600 high estimate to achieve $2,500, also selling to a trade buyer.

Weighing approximately 54.6 troy ounces altogether, this selection of sterling silver brought $2,500 ($1,4/1,600).

Sterling silver flatware services also achieved notable results: a Wallace Grand Baroque service for 12, 110.5 troy ounces plus 14 silver-handled pieces finished for $5,250 ($3,4/3,800); a cased Gorham sterling silver flatware service in the Buttercup pattern, just exceeding 89 troy ounces plus 13 sterling-handled pieces, brought $4,250 ($2,6/2,900); and a Towle Rambler Rose service, 40.1 troy ounces plus nine silver-handled pieces, earned $2,000 ($1,4/1,600).

Bearing the touch of Joel Sayre, an early Nineteenth Century coin silver pitcher from New York sold to the trade for $1,500 ($800-$1,000). This pitcher, standing 9 inches tall, had a square handle, foliate banding around the rim and foot and an engraved monogram to its body.

The second-highest price overall was paid for a set of eight Carl Hansen & Søn chairs. The Wishbone chairs, having wooden frames with cord caning, were designed by Danish architect Hans J. Wegner and retained their labels for the partnership. The set was bid well beyond their $1,200 high estimate, going to a private buyer for $5,500.

Eight Wishbone dining chairs designed by Hans Wegner for Carl Hansen & Søn, Denmark, sold as a set to a private buyer for $5,500 ($800-$1,200).

Other furniture lots included a visually matched settle and chair that sold separately. Exhibiting the simplified wooden craftmanship that characterized Gustav Stickley’s desirable furniture, the circa 1910 model 2008 even-arm settle was signed by the maker and refinished with deep emerald upholstery leather cushions. Having matching green upholstery, the slatted oak Morris chair, model 498, was unsigned. However, the catalog identified it as being a circa 1904 Arts and Crafts piece from L. & J. G. Stickley’s Onondaga Shops. Both pieces sold to private collectors, for $2,375 and $1,625, respectively.

An early Twentieth Century chest of drawers made with Austrian beech wood and bearing a label identifying the Viennese firm of Jacob & Josef Kohn as the maker brought $2,250, more than three times its high estimate, selling to the trade.

Electrified cut-away automotive models were once used as instructional aids for students in European driving schools. Popular German models included those designed by Emile Hohm and Werner Degener. Two such examples were sold in this auction, and they were both bid past their $1,200 high estimates. Each full-scale model showed the vehicle’s inner workings and were mounted on wooden bases with functional mechanics. They sold to trade buyers for $2,375 and $2,125.

Racing to $2,125 was this electric German cut-away model car by Emile Hohm and Werner Degener, 14½ inches high by 42 inches long by 15 inches deep ($800-$1,200).

Bibliophiles had their choice of offerings, from mixed lots to covetable titles, and the category’s top price, $3,500, was earned by one of each. Though this was an online auction and many bidders were unable to view the lots in person, an unsorted box filled with more than 30 “early books, mostly leather bound” was intriguing enough. Despite the sparse description, bidders were willing to take a gamble and, after 22 bids, a private collector prevailed. A trade buyer paid the same price for a first-edition copy of A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh, complete with its original dust jacket. Published in London in 1962, the tale featured lovable illustrations, or “decorations,” by E. H. Shepard.

A diverse range of art forms piqued bidders’ interests, including tramp art, folk paintings, pottery, sculpture and more. Dancing past estimates to achieve $2,250, from a trade buyer, was a three-dimensional tramp art theater. The early Twentieth Century box featured carved and painted figures seated in an audience, including balcony seats on the sides, and an articulated minstrel performer on stage in front of a painted paddlewheel backdrop.

Paintings were led, at $1,750, by a primitive representation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Done in oil on panel in the Nineteenth Century, the work tempted bidders to push it well beyond its $600 high estimate, ultimately selling to a trade buyer. Another notable painting result was the $1,375 earned by an oil on canvas titled “On The Farm.” This late Nineteenth Century painting also held a high estimate of just $600, but even old tears and repairs could not slow down the bidding activity.

Up next for Pook & Pook is the firm’s three-day Americana auction, January 14-16. Another online-only decorative arts sale is scheduled for February 18.

Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, www.pookandpook.com or 610-269-4040.