Rachel Davis Fine Arts: The Estates of Ross M. Trump & Edson J. Brown
Saturday, August 28, 10 am
On-Site Auction
4092 Medina Road
Medina, Ohio
216-939-1190
info@racheldavisfinearts.com
www.racheldavisfinearts.com

 The exuberant eclecticism of the Victorian era, manifested in its decorations and furnishings, permeates the collection of the nationally renowned collectors/dealers the late Ross M. Trump and Edson Brown; with more than 70 years in the antique business, Mr. Trump exercised his expertise in the Pennsylvania German while Brown cultivated his sensibility for the Victorian. Surrounded by the elegance of the everyday, from impressive, elaborately carved bedroom suites, parlor sets, secretary/bookcases, musical instruments down to intricately crafted bone buttons and with a nod for the exotic, Trump and Brown partnered to follow the latter’s penchant for the Victorian by embracing the era at Loveland, their Medina, Ohio, 1874 Italianate home and farm where they lived for 50 years. The expansive grounds will serve as the site of the auction of the Trump/Edson estate, conducted by Rachel Davis Fine Arts on Sunday, August 28. The event will celebrate the connoisseurship of these astute Victoriana scholars and provide collectors, dealers, and casual buyers the distinctive opportunity to partake of a life-long partnership dedicated to the by-gone.

Coincidental to the ebullient ornamentation inherent in Victorian décor, was the Nineteenth Century attraction to the “exotic;” not always to the bizarre but often with an appreciation of the naïve. Trump and Brown acted on their appreciation in the acquisition of six works by the now estimable Ohio artist Henry O. Church. Born in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, in 1836, Church lived and worked there throughout his life as a blacksmith. With no training as a painter or sculptor, his innate imagination and talents were ignited as he observed neighbor Archibald Willard paint. Eschewing the illustrative artifice of Willard, Church created highly unstudied works, unleashing the fanciful and spiritual, first in painting (his 1880 “Self Portrait with Five Muses” is in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art) then, in 1885, sculpture, carving in stone and forging in metal.

The Trump and Brown collection rightly boasts an important Henry Church sandstone sculpture, designated Baby as incised on its base and signed by the artist. A demure, curvaceous grey pachyderm decoratively saddled, standing 3½ feet tall, Baby’s pristine provenance takes him back to the John D. Rockefeller home in Forest Hills, outside of Cleveland. Albeit its sophistication and technical virtuosity, this is a singular piece of folk art, accompanied at the August 28 auction with five additional works by Henry O. Church, demonstrating his adeptness at casting decorative metalwork: a pair of elegant Greyhounds, a lion marker, a figural grouping of the Civil War General Phillip Kearney on horseback, a charming cast heart, 5 by 4 by 2½ inches with the impressed inscription “To George and Jessie Sargent from mother and father” (the artist’s daughter and son-in-law), and a black tole painted tray.

The exotic and the elegant seamlessly co-existed at Trump and Brown’s Loveland, in the main 1874 brick house, the summer house, the library house and the numerous out-buildings in this rural enclave. A plethora of Victorian furniture graced all the houses, encyclopedic in style, technique and material. A three-piece John Jeliff Renaissance Revival parlor set, consisting of a settee, open gentleman’s chair, lady’s side chair in walnut with burnt orange velvet, carved with leaf forms and applied female masks, foremost in a selection of period pieces, accents a Steinway grand piano in a rosewood case. Significant for its history as well as its superb craftsmanship, Trump acquired a circa 1880 secretary- bookcase, classical in design, once owned by the legendary Martin Van Buren Bates (1837-1919). Dubbed the “Kentucky giant,” the 7-foot-11-inch-tall Bates, a veteran of the Civil War, resided with his equally statuesque wife on a farm in Seville, Ohio, in a home where all the furnishings were scaled to accommodate the couple’s physiques, miniaturizing guests to the delight of the Bates. The finely crafted secretary was no exception.

Carved Renaissance Revival bedroom sets, painted cottage sets, corner cupboards, bookcases, armoires, gilt pier and hall mirrors, along with oil lamps, chandeliers, sconces, lush valances, Jacquard coverlets, innumerable decorations, both sizeable and diminutive, graced the interiors and will be available at the August 28 auction. Trump and Brown amassed the engagingly practical from the era, ranging from a whaling ship compass to a Victorian painted porcelain commode, a compendium of antique and vintage farm implements, tools and fixtures. Authenticity extended to the exterior at Loveland with cast iron garden furniture sets surrounded by wrought iron fencing and illuminated by Nineteenth Century electrified streetlamps from Scotland. Whimsy pervades the grounds with an authentic Victorian children’s playhouse. Selected paintings and decorations from the Trump/Brown estate will be offered at Rachel Davis Fine Arts’ December Decorative Arts auction at the Cleveland, Ohio gallery.

Please note: There will be no online bidding at the August 28 onsite auction. Preview will be held on Thursday, August 26 and Friday, August 27, at the Medina, Ohio, site.

For additional information, www.racheldavisfinearts.com, info@racheldavisfinearts.com, or 216-939-1190.

Preview on Thursday & Friday, August 26th & 27th 10am-4pm; Auction Day 8:30am, Sale Begins at 10am.

Featuring large Henry Church (American 1836-1908) carved sandstone sculpture of “Baby.” This sculpture once graced the John D. Rockefeller estate.

Other Church items include Cast iron- Pair of ‘pups’; Civil War General Kearney & Lion marker; Valentine Heart (made for his daughter & son-in-law); and Painted toleware Tray.

Furniture: Large collection of Victorian era, including a 3-pc Jelliff parlor set, additional parlor sets, American pinwheel jeweler’s regulator grandfather clock in walnut case, dining table, terrarium on stand, Bedroom suites, Marble top tables, plant and fern stands, chairs, 2 painted cottage sets, hall mirrors, desks, bookcases, cellaret, secretary desk, book shelves, chest of drawers, game tables, many vintage frames, double scribe desk, coat racks, writing desks, étagère, wardrobes, window valences, horn chairs and table, coal hods, boot jack, marble pedestal, clocks, music stands, a secretary / bookcase made for the Capt. Martin Van Buren Bates ‘The Giant of Seville’, 12-pane corner cupboard, etc.

Decorative Art: Wax fruit still-lives, reverse painted foil pictures, advertisements, Currier & Ives lithographs, T. Kelley lithographs, china service sets, coin silver, Jacquard coverlets, G. Morley majolica, mercury glass, Victorian silver, Medina county collectibles, Victorian textiles, pitchers and wash stands, scrap books, bed warmers, bird feather pictures, fashion prints, Victorian arrangements and wreaths, steel engravings, chromolithographs, John Rogers sculptures, plaster and white metal sculpture, County atlases, Staffordshire, pressed glass, coffee mills, ephemera, folk art watercolor, miniature fraktur, etc.

Lighting: Chandeliers, table lamps, library lamps, oil lamps, student lamps, etc.

Unique: Large fretwork clock by Johan Frankie, several cast iron stoves, Steinway grand piano in rosewood case, Mason & Hamlin organ, butcher shop props, wrought iron fountain, electrified cast iron lamp posts from Scotland, gazebo, weathervane-windmill, outhouses, sinks, painted porcelain toilet, vintage tools, garden statuary, wrought iron planters, cast iron stable boy, wrought iron gates and fencing, architectural elements, dress forms, hair wreaths, cast iron kitchen implements and potbelly stoves, Shaker Stove, parrot cages and primitives, etc…

Parlor Victorian textiles
chandelier
Tinware
Stone skep
Many Victorian plant stands
Centennial collectibles
Cast iron furniture
19th c. watercolors
Jeliff parlor set Gaudy Welsh pottery Ceramics Henry Church items Period frames
Victorian sideboard
Victorian bookcase
Victorian bedroom suites
Valences and window treatments
Unusual lobby sofa
Steinway grand piano
Secretary bookcase made for The Giant of Seville
Secretary bookcase
Scottish cast iron lampposts
Painted cottage set
Many Cast Iron Stoves
Horn chair and footstool
Hall mirror with marble base
Grandfather clock
Chandeliers
Cast iron water fountain
Cast iron fencing
1840 Ohio Jacquard coverlet
12 pane Corner Cupboard

There will be many box lots, still unpacking…
No Buyer’s Premium and No Reserves | No Internet Bidding | Limited Phone Bidding
Complete online catalog available at www.racheldavisfinearts.com
Auctioneer: Rachel Davis
1301 West 79th Street | Cleveland, OH 44102 | 216.939.1190 | fax 216.939.1191 |