An 1836 house sampler set a record price for a Tennessee sampler at auction, selling for $28,125 at the December 6 Case Antiques auction. The sampler was signed “Mary Elizabeth Collins’ work/Franklin Tennessee April 1836,” and sold to a collector in the room, underbid by two other live bidders and three phone bidders, including a major schoolgirl needlework dealer on the East Coast. The price is among the highest ever paid at auction for a Southern sampler.
Gallery owner John Case said the sampler relates to a group of four samplers from Middle Tennessee, which have been documented by the Tennessee Sampler Survey, an ongoing research project spearheaded by needlework authorities Janet Hasson and Jennifer Core to collect data and images on Tennessee samplers. The Collins sampler featured nine different stitching techniques, as well as a floral border, vase and basket of flowers, alphabets and a verse: “Tis education forms the common mind/ just as the twig is bent the tree’s inclined.”
Interestingly, the Collins sampler already held the auction record for a Tennessee sampler, having sold for $10,350 to M. Finkel & Daughter in June 2005 at a Devin Moisan auction in Dover, N.H. The sampler was then resold and ultimately ended up in private hands.
A number of other Southern pieces also excelled. A folky inlaid walnut chest of drawers with pierced skirt and turned pilasters achieved $5,850, and an inlaid walnut blanket chest with two drawers, quarter-ring turned corner molding and ogee bracket feet earned $4,500. The circa 1800 blanket chest had been documented by the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts with an attribution to Tennessee.
This was Case’s largest offering to date of fine art. The top-selling painting was a landscape with house and figures in a field of flowers, titled “Daffodil Time,” attributed to nationally regarded Tennessee Impressionist Catherine Wiley (1879‱958). It sold for $12,375 to a collector in the room, underbid by an out-of-state dealer on the phone.
Other Southern regional highlights included a late Nineteenth Century red and white coverlet adorned with eagles, birds, flowers and dogs carrying flags, made by the Maryville Woolen Mill of Tennessee. It sewed up $1,800.
The top-selling piece of pottery was a 6-gallon Alexandria, Va., stoneware jar with elaborate cobalt decoration stamped “B.C. Milburn” (Benedict Milburn, 1805‱867). It brought $2,588.
Another notable lot was a Confederate canteen with decorative painting depicting the Bellona cannon foundry, attributed to Virginia artist John Adams Elder (1833-1895), that sold for $11,250.
Prices include the 12½ percent buyer’s premium. The gallery is currently accepting consignments of antiques and fine art, especially Southern-related pieces, for its spring sale. For information, www.caseantiques.com or 865-558-3033.
