Pook & Pook played to a full house on Friday and Saturday, October 24 and 25, selling the Americana collection of Richard and Rosemarie Machmer. Dealers and retail buyers vied for the 816 lots that included works on paper, quilts, Pennsylvania furniture and a fine selection of folk art. The sale grossed $4,364,509, including the 17 percent buyer’s premium, going $1 million over the high presale estimate.
Among the top lots in the sale was a carved and painted dog clutching a basket, 5 inches high and 7½ inches long, by Wilhelm Schimmel (Cumberland Valley, Penn., 1817‱890) that carried a $40/60,000 presale estimate. It sold to Pennsylvania dealer Harry Hartman for $140,400.
The top furniture lot was a Berks County, Penn., painted two-part Dutch cupboard dated 1849, 81½ inches high and 52¾ inches wide. The upper section, with molded cornice and two glazed doors above five tiger maple candles drawers, is flanked by molded pilasters with bull’s-eye capitals and plinths. The lower section has three short drawers and two cupboard doors, supported by turned feet. It retains the original pristine surface with orange and salmon swirl decoration and red moldings. Estimated at $80/120,000, it sold to Winterthur for $198,900.
Among the pottery in the sale was a Shenandoah Valley redware whimsy, Nineteenth Century, attributed to Solomon Bell, depicting a man seated on a stump with a bottle in his hand and a dog lying at his feet. It measures 9½ inches high and carried a presale estimate of $20-30,000. It sold to David Wheatcroft for $39,780.
A complete auction review will appear in a future issue of Antiques and The Arts Weekly.
⁒. Scudder Smith
