The chance to claim a piece of Virginia history was irresistible to the Southern collectors and dealers whose soft accents permeated the sale room at Northeast Auctions’ sale of the contents of the James River plantation, Carter’s Grove. Even more Virginians bid eagerly by phone throughout the May 17‱8 event. The combination of sense and sentiment made for a strong sale.
The 1755 plantation, originally including 1,400 acres, was acquired in 1928 by Pittsburgh industrialist Archibald McCrea and his wife Molly, a native Virginian. The McCreas expanded and modernized the Georgian house and furnished it at the height of the Colonial Revival movement. McCrea died in 1937, but his wife lived on at Carter’s Grove until her death in 1962 when it was acquired by Colonial Williamsburg and later opened to the public. Colonial Williamsburg sold the tidewater plantation last winter and, having selected 100-plus pieces from the collection, sent the remainder to auction.
The sale opened up with a pair of elaborately carved Chinese Chippendale-style giltwood mirrors that would set the pace for the day. With a provenance of Westover Plantation, James River, Va., the 60-inch mirrors far exceeded their $5/8,000 estimate when they sold to a phone bidder for $19,890.
Bidding on a Georgian mahogany extension table, whose six sections on six pedestal bases extended to 170 inches by 60 inches, opened at $12,500 and sailed away to $49,725 from a phone buyer. A George III-style mahogany hunt table in three sections went for $5,031. Another phone bidder paid $28,080 for a pair of George III-style marble top tables; while a pair of George III style inlaid mahogany demilune wall cabinets in the Adams taste realized $14,040.
Three Nineteenth Century English gothic-style mahogany bookcases attracted high interest and sold on the phone for $25,740 after lively bidding by dealers in the room. The bookcases, each of which stood 132 inches high, had been acquired by the McCreas from Clarice Sears Ramsay of Westover Plantation, a nearby James River property.
Other lots that came to Carter’s Grove from Westover included an elaborate 118-inch Chippendale-style mahogany bedstead that went to a phone bidder for $12,870 and a pair of circa 1785 Regency rosewood and mahogany pole screens with satinwood inlay that went to the phone for $7,898.
Two paintings after the Seventeenth Century Italian baroque artist Luca Giordano each brought $37,440. “Allegory of Monarchy or Justice” and “Allegory of Faith, Hope and Charity or Sacred and Profane Love” had also been acquired by the McCreas from Westover.
The pictures, along with about a quarter of the first 100 lots in the sale, went to a bidder in the room seeking to furnish another Virginia plantation. He bought copiously throughout the sale. His acquisitions included a George III mahogany sofa with scrolling arms and square reeded legs that was $8,190 and a George III mahogany camelback sofa with square molded and tapered legs for $4,388.
A fine pair of New York classical mahogany armoires with ormolu mounts was $7,605, and an American Chippendale walnut chest with four graduated drawers made in the Delaware River Valley was $6,084.
An American Chippendale walnut chest of four drawers fetched $6,143, while a Pennsylvania Chippendale carved mahogany drop leaf dining table brought $5,558.
The same buyer bought two portraits by Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Virginia artist Emma Morehead Whitfield depicting Alexander Spotswood, appointed lieutenant governor of Virginia in 1710, and his wife Elizabeth Butler Brayne. The governor realized $2,340, but his wife required $4,095.
A George III gilt looking glass with Prince of Wales feathers sold for $6,435; the same buyer paid $4,388 for an American Federal cherry tall case clock with works by Joakim Hill of Flemington, N.J.
He paid $4,680 for a Federal-style giltwood convex mirror with an eagle. When the same collector bought a set of eight George III mahogany ribbon back dining chairs for $3,861 and a set of 12 stenciled Sheraton side chairs with arched and turned crest rails over rope twist stiles for $5,850, auctioneer Ron Bourgeault quipped, “We’re on the third truck now.”
A pair of George III mahogany side chairs with fancy splats carved with urns and flowers from the Westover Plantation was probably Irish. The pair, estimated at $1,2/1,800, opened at $3,000 and sold for $5,558 to a phone bidder who was active through the sale. The same buyer paid $2,574 for an octagonal George III brass bound mahogany wine cooler. He also pursued and caught a number of Georgian and Regency pieces offered from other collections. They included a Regency mahogany center table with a tooled leather top that was $6,201; a George III mahogany secretary bookcase with mahogany veneer and geometric glazed doors for $4,973; and a George III mahogany secretary desk at $3,978.
A set of four Chippendale-style mahogany back stools sold for $5,850, and another set of four Chippendale-style back stools by Kittinger for the Craft House at Williamsburg realized $5,850 from the plantation owner.
A pair of Continental white marble vases carved with rows of Roman cavalry soldiers with egg and dart and lobed borders and mounted as lamps was estimated at $1/1,500, but bidding opened at $3,250 and went straightaway to $4,973 on the phone.
A Federal-style mahogany swivel office armchair, a copy of one made for George Washington when he was president, by Thomas Burling of New York, realized $3,218.
A Norfolk, Va., classical mahogany sideboard on massive carved paw feet sold on the phone for $7,020, and an English ironstone partial dinner service by Booth’s Ltd drew $5,850.
An 88-inch American classical mahogany wardrobe was $7,254, while a primitive sawbuck worktable with a scrubbed finish sold for $4,680 against the estimated $200/400.
An Eighteenth Century pair of delft blue and white tobacco jars estimated at $500/800 was $6,084.
A Renaissance-style oak refectory table with a carved trestle base sold for $7,020, and a set of six graduated copper and wrought iron covered pans by E.M. of New York was $4,973 against the estimated $800/1,200.
A lot of Carter’s Grove memorabilia including an English carved horn and leather riding crop, a painted pine coat rack, riding boots and other artifacts of the plantation drew $1,404.
A Federal walnut heart back armchair from the Norfolk, Va., or Baltimore area was $5,850, as was a 72-inch George III mahogany linen press.
Sterling and plated flatware in the Williamsburg Queen Anne pattern by the Steiff company in Baltimore was broken into four lots. Taken together, the lots comprised 663 pieces and realized a total of $17,667. A fifth lot of dinner and fish knives and various spoons went for $585.
Three historic souvenir bricks from Carter’s Grove were incised, one with initials, one with “JamesTowne Colloon” and the third with the date “1650,” and sold for $819.
The second day of the sale opened with 71 lots from the collection of professor and author Frank H. Sommer, who arrived at Winterthur in 1950 and was a mainstay of the programs there. Knowledgeable figures in the trade gathered up the ceramics, which included such highly desirable late Eighteenth or early Nineteenth Century English redware gems as a baking dish decorated with eye-popping cream slip in undulating lines and borders, spiral accents and parallel lines. Bidding opened at $1,000 and five phones and room bidders chased the piece to $16,965.
The same phone bidder beat out stiff competition for a beautifully marbled slip decorated dish that went for $12,870 and a third redware piece, a rectangular baking dish with slip marbling and comb decoration, for $8,775.
An Eighteenth Century English slipware baluster-form pitcher with a row of brown and yellow circles on a cream ground went to the phones for $12,870. Scholar and collector Jonathan Rickard paid $2,340 for an English slipware baking dish in a very dark brown with a sprightly rooster and marked “1791.” Rickard bought several other pieces with interesting form.
An English delftware charger made in Bristol or perhaps Brislington, circa 1740, “The Temptation of Adam and Eve,” brought $11,115. A Dutch delftware blue and white tureen whose lid was made in the form of a curved pike with a smaller fish in its mouth, possibly by Adriaen Kocks, around 1686‱700 sold for $6,435.
A selection of Midcentury Modern furniture and accessories from Sommer’s collection exhibited signs of use but attracted attention. The zinc and plywood storage cabinet ESU-420 by Charles and Ray Eames for Herman Miller went to a phone bidder for $10,296. A lot of three adjustable lamps was a great surprise when it fetched $5,148.
The piece that auctioneer Ron Bourgeault described as his favorite in the auction was a Nineteenth Century copper snuff box in the form of a coffin that sold for $1,521. The 4¼-inch box was engraved “John Howe” on the lid and “Not Dead Yet” on the bottom.
Other objects of interest from Sommer’s collection included a shagreen and brass pedometer by William MacLachlane and inscribed “Cap’n Fraser of the Royal” and a shagreen surveyor’s case with instruments by Shuttleworth of London that sold for $1,872.
An American Federal door surround with dentil molding along the pediment and egg and dart molding on the arch drew $11,700.
A lifetime collection of Tiffany flatware in the Persian pattern, designed by Edward C. Moore in 1872, was gathered in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries. Comprising 144 pieces and housed in an impressive mahogany chest that required two runners to manage it, the lot sold for $21,060.
Other furniture offerings included a pretty Chippendale tiger maple secretary bookcase that fetched $10,350 and an English Gothic mahogany secretary bookcase with glazed doors that was also $10,350 to an Essex, Mass., dealer.
Two young dealers from Ireland beat out the phone competition over a Regency mahogany three-part dining table with a leaf that extended to 109 inches at $25,740. They also took a George III Hepplewhite hall table with satinwood inlay for $11,700. The catalog notes suggested “probably Irish.”
A pair of Georgian carved mahogany back stools with leather upholstery from the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation sold for $9,653, and a Queen Anne-style maple comb back Windsor armchair from Williamsburg estimated at $200/400 sold for $4,446. A phone bidder took a Federal walnut table with splayed legs for $1,287. A Queen Anne drop leaf dining table attracted $9,360 from the phones and a lot of six Irish Queen Anne mahogany side chairs with red leather seats fetched $6,728 from a Boston collector.
A Baltic neoclassical side table in giltwood, ormolu and eglomise with a marble top, a pierced gallery with rosettes and a center eglomise panel with a child and a lion was possibly Russian in origin. Five phones chased it until one prevailed at $25,740. A Regency carved giltwood console table in the manner of Juste Aurele Meissonnier also sold on the phone for $11,700.
Four phones were on the Italian school painting “The Grand Canal in Venice with the Doge’s Palace,” but only one could have it. It sold for $21,060 to the same buyer who paid $14,040 for “Queen Berenice Cutting Her Hair” by Seventeenth Century Italian artist Guiseppe Nuvolone and $6,435 for “The Immaculate Conception” by an Italian or Spanish follower of the Eighteenth Century Italian baroque artist Francesco Solimena.
Six phone bidders pursued a Twentieth Century Tabriz pictorial carpet that measured 22 feet by 14 feet 11 inches, while another hung out until they were finished and then bought the carpet for $33,930.
All prices reported include the buyer’s premium. For information, 603-433-8400 or www.northeastauctions.com.
