Pook & Pook – 100 Years The Kindig Legacy
Thursday Feb 8th & Friday Feb 9th at 9am
463 East Lancaster Avenue Downingtown, Pennsylvania 19335
www.pookandpook.com

DOWNINGTOWN, PENN. — On February 8-9, Pook & Pook will present 100 Years: The Kindig Legacy. For a century, the Kindig family of York, Penn., has dealt in the finest antiques available. Joseph Kindig Jr opened his first shop in 1925, coinciding with the antiques craze that swept America in the 1920s. Kindig’s shop flourished and put him on the forefront of the expansion of scholarship and collecting. His clients included the foremost collectors of American decorative arts of their time: Henry Francis du Pont, Ima Hogg, Wallace Nutting and Frances P. Garvan.

Kindig shared a close working relationship with du Pont, and the historic Winterthur Collection reflects his expertise. Over his career, he guided Colonial Williamsburg, Winterthur, Bayou Bend, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and many others in the acquisition of masterpieces. In 1947, Joe Kindig III joined his father’s business and they worked together for 20 years. Joe Kindig III was an intellectual drawn to subjects ranging from architectural history to a continuation of his father’s study of the Kentucky long rifle. He became an authority, researching and uncovering masterpieces. Joe III also curated exhibits for Historical Society of York County and the furnishing of Wright’s Ferry Mansion, which Kindig termed “the best representation of a Queen Anne house in Pennsylvania.” Joe Kindig III worked closely with Dr Donald Shelley, whose Pioneer Collection was auctioned for a record $9.8 million by Pook & Pook in 2007. In 1994, Joe III was joined by his own daughter, Jennifer, and the family business flourished into the Twenty-First Century. The Kindig Collection reflects the family’s interests and expertise. The furniture is mostly early American, and the decorative arts contain a large percentage of English and some Continental items.

The heart of the collection’s furniture is regional, with an emphasis on Philadelphia. The earliest furniture includes two pairs of Cromwellian chairs. William and Mary pieces include several Southeastern Pennsylvania William and Mary walnut wainscot armchairs, a Pennsylvania William and Mary walnut desk and bookcase, and other Pennsylvania William and Mary items, including a burl mahogany slant lid desk, stools, chairs and a tall case clock. Queen Anne highlights include a rare Chester County Queen Anne walnut Octorara chest with removable legs, circa 1765, and a Pennsylvania Queen Anne tiger maple dressing table, among additional Pennsylvania Queen Anne dressing tables, compass seat chairs and a tall case clock.

Philadelphia Chippendale pieces include a mahogany three-part desk and bookcase, with carving attributed to Martin Jugiez. A rare pair of Philadelphia Chippendale mahogany gaming tables, also with carving by Jugiez, are one of a very few surviving pairs of these tables. A rare Philadelphia Chippendale mahogany piecrust tea table is possibly by Nicholas Bernard. Other Philadelphia Chippendale items include a carved high chest, a cherry chest on chest, a dressing table attributed to the “cornucopia carver,” a pair of dining chairs, tall case clock and two desk and bookcases. Leaving the city limits, Pennsylvania items not to miss include a rare Chester County walnut Octorara tall chest and a Queen Anne tiger maple dressing table.

Other Chippendale furniture includes a New York mahogany easy chair and a mahogany games table, possibly from the workshop of Gilbert Ash. A Baltimore Chippendale mahogany high chest was formerly exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art on long-term loan. An international highlight is an Irish Chippendale mahogany sofa, circa 1765.

Federal furniture pieces include a Salem, Mass., inlaid breakfront bookcase, circa 1800, a Massachusetts mahogany sofa, circa 1790, and a rare Baltimore slab table with King of Prussia marble top.

For the walls, there is a large art collection with many English landscapes, portraits, equestrian and hunting scenes. An oil on panel full-length portrait of a young noble girl from the early Stuart period, dated 1619, bears lace so vivid and textural it appears embroidered onto the painting’s surface. A massive Queen Anne burl veneer looking glass, among smaller Queen Anne examples, Chippendale looking glasses and a Constitution mirror, are all perfect for reflecting candle light provided by a collection of early brass candlesticks. Reigning over the early brass group is a Northwest European Three Kings candlestick, Fifteenth Century, one of the tallest and best examples of this form, with Blagojevich provenance. English Sixteenth Century Tudor candlesticks, German, Nuremberg and Northwest European examples complete the group. A large assortment of andirons range from late Seventeenth Century English to Eighteenth Century Philadelphia Chippendale.

Early Pennsylvania German folk art includes valentines, fraktur and fraktur bookplates, with artists Andreas Kessler, Martin Brechall, the Garden Border Artist, Johann Peter Gilbert, Stephan Meyer, Christian Mertel, Christian Allsdorf, Jacob Oberholtzer, Daniel Otto and Johann Adam Eyer.

Pook & Pook Auctioneers and Appraisers is at 463 Lancaster Avenue. For more information, www.pookandpook.com or 610-269-4040.

P: (610) 269-4040
info@pookandpook.com
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