Daniel Ralph Celantano’s circa 1930 oil on canvas of an approaching train with figures, in a 19-by-23¼-inch frame, will be leaving Ohio with a trade buyer who paid $15,990 for it ($800-$1,200).

Review by Madelia Hickman Ring

COLUMBUS, OHIO — One of the strongest segments of Amelia Jeffers’ 1,254-lot Fall Great Estates Auction at the Gallery sale September 11-13 was the 125-lots of the Ohio Amish quilt collection of collector/scholar Darwin D. Bearley. His collection was published by Jonathan Holstein in 2006 and the book, The Darwin D. Bearley Collection Antique Ohio Amish Quilts, was not only used as a reference for the catalog but the quilts were sold in the order in which they appeared in the book.

“We had a ton of foot traffic for both the preview and about 50 people at the auction every day; as an auctioneer it’s much more fun to sell to a live audience,” Jeffers told Antiques and The Arts Weekly. “We sold the quilts on Friday afternoon and had very exuberant bidding, between six very competitive bidders in the room and others on the phone and online. The bids were ‘flying’ and the quilts were bringing double or more than what we’d estimated them at. While some worried that selling his collection all at once was too many, I felt passionately about paying tribute to his scholarship.”

Her gamble paid off, and all of Bearley’s quilts sold, about half to buyers in-state. Leading the collection at $6,765 was a navy blue quilt in the North Carolina Lily pattern with Flying Geese border that was made by Mary Miller of Holmes County, Ohio, circa 1925. The catalog noted that the quilt had been owned by Miller’s daughter, Mary Ann M. Yoder.

The top lot from Bearley’s Ohio Amish quilt collection was this North Carolina Lily quilt with Flying Geese border made around 1925 by Mary Miller. It achieved $6,765 ($600-$1,200).

A Broken Star quilt worked circa 1925-30 by Katie M. Yoder of Holmes County featured strong bubblegum colors and traded at $6,150, while an unattributed Chinese Coins quilt, from Plain City, Ohio, and dated to circa 1930-40, finished at $5,843. Other Amish quilt highlights included a Courthouse Steps Center Medallion crib quilt and an 1883 “O” quilt (both of which brought $3,690) and a Center Diamond Medallion crib quilt ($3,444). All the quilts from Bearley’s collection sold, with the least expensive price of $215 recorded for a circa 1930-35 Streak of Lightning crib quilt.

With more than 1,100 lots other than the Bearley quilt collection, there was more to appeal to non-quilt buyers. On the first day, two oil on panel profile portraits of a gentleman and a lady, both attributed to Jacob Eicholtz (American, 1776-1842), came to auction from the lifetime collection of Ottawa Hills, Ohio, collectors Janet and Charles Muto; they led the first day of the auction and earned $6,458.

A handsome set of eight tiger maple dining chairs, made by Eldred Wheeler in the late Twentieth Century, also came from the Muto collection and achieved $6,150, more than three times their high estimate.

American School portraits of women, both from the Kalamazoo, Mich., lifetime collection of Ginny and Ken Kruizenga, rounded out the first day’s offerings. The portrait of a woman seated in a chair brought $5,658, while the one depicted wearing a brown shawl closed at $5,228.

This early Nineteenth Century American School portrait of a woman, painted in oil on a wood board in a painted frame measuring 13¼ by 11½ inches, was from the Kruizenga collection and made $5,658 ($300/600).

The highest price of the three-day event was $15,990 that a trade buyer outside Ohio paid for a painting of a train by New York artist Daniel Ralph Celantano (1902-1980). It had also come to auction from the Muto collection, with additional provenance to the Liros Gallery, Alexandria, Va.

Another highlight on the third day was a folksy American hooked rug that depicted a blue urn with flowers from the Kruizenga collection that blossomed from a $300/600 estimate to make $3,567.

Jeffers will sell the lifetime collection of the late Ken Hanna (Chester, N.J.) and Native American pottery and quilts from the Darwin Bearley in her Fall Fabulous Finds auction October 23-25, and her annual Thanksgiving Weekend Americana Auction on November 28-29 will feature works from the collections of the late Deb Fisher (Lebanon, Ohio), Peggy McClard & Randy Segotta (Houston & Weare, N.H.) and Pat Weeks (Indianapolis, Ind.), as well as more things from Ken Hanna.

Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as advertised by the auction house. For information, 740-362-4771 or www.ameliajeffers.com.