The first lot of the day was this pair of profile portraits of Margaret and Samuel Smith, Warren or Hamilton County, executed in 1830 in pencil and chalk, 9 by 7 inches, had publication history and realized the sale’s highest price of $8,850, selling to a trade buyer on the phone ($800/1,200).
Review by Madelia Hickman Ring
WHIPPLE, OHIO — With just six auctions under their belt since moving to Whipple, and in only their second ever live sale, Meander Auctions’ co-owners Andrew Richmond and Hollie Davis continue to show impressive growth for a fledgling auction house.
“It was a great sale. This is only our second in-person sale, and we still had a modest crowd, but they were enthusiastic in their bidding and buying. With the buyer’s premium, we exceeded the high estimate for the sale. We’ve been in the business for 21 years but what Hollie keeps telling me — when we started and bought the building — we started with that and our reputation and now we’re selling stuff around the country and around the world…and couldn’t be happier.”
Richmond was referring to the July 20 Summer Antiques and Art auction Meander conducted, a 291-lot affair that was more than 92 percent sold by lot and featured objects from the collections of Ellen and Bert Denker of Delaware and North Carolina, Dr Judith Kemp and the late Dr James and Mrs Emily Kemp, and two Midwestern institutions.
Richmond and Davis have an interest in locally made objects and there were several lots with connections to Ohio that were among the highest priced items of the day. This included a pair of pencil and chalk portraits of a man and woman — Samuel and Margaret Smith — painted in 1830 by Francis Sallas (Ohio, active circa 1830). Inclusion in Peter Kern and Leslie Warwick’s article, “Four Ohio Nineteenth-Century Folk Artists,” which was published in the August 2007 issue of The Magazine ANTIQUES, undoubtedly helped bidders overlook the fact that genealogical research had, as the catalog pointed out, “identified multiple Samuel and Margaret Smiths of the right age and in the right place.” Bidders took the portraits to $8,850, won by a trade buyer bidding on the phone. Not only was it the first lot of the sale but it was the highest price realized.
After extensive genealogical research, Andrew Richmond and Hollie Davis determined this to be an oil on canvas portrait of General Edward White Tupper by Jeremiah Paul, circa 1800. Measuring 28 by 23 inches framed, it had Ohio history and connections and will be staying local, purchased by a collector for $1,467 ($1/2,000).
The genealogical research skills of Richmond and Davis were equally tested by a portrait of General Edward White Tupper (1771-1824) copied by Jeremiah Paul (1771-1820) after one by Gilbert Stuart, that descended in a Marietta, Ohio, family. Archival sleuthing identified the sitter to be the son of General Benjamin Tupper, one of the founders of the Ohio Company of Associates and unearthed a portrait of another family member that had been painted by Stuart that is now in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms at the US State Department in Washington, DC. The painting sold to a local collector for $1,467.
Another locally-made item was a Logan pottery bulldog, made in Hocking County, Ohio, in the first half of the Twentieth Century. It came from the Kemp estate and found a new home with a local collector who paid $308 for it.
Approximately 40 percent of the sale came from one of two Midwestern institutions; several sold for high prices. A Napoleonic style cuirassier’s helmet that had been given to General Jacob Smith, who commanded the Jackson Barracks in New Orleans around 1885, was being deaccessioned by a museum that did not specialize in either French material or military artifacts. A phone bidder won it for $6,490, more than 16 times its high estimate.
“A number of folks were looking for things to take to New Hampshire (Antiques Week); that was one of them,” Andrew Richmond noted, referencing this late Nineteenth Century American carved eagle that came to auction from a Midwest institution and found a new home with a private collector at $5,535, prevailing against trade bidders ($400/800).
The same institution deaccessioned a carved folk art eagle that Richmond described as “just awesome in person.” Measuring 32 inches in width, the late Nineteenth Century carved walnut and poplar spread-winged eagle attracted broad interest and flew to $5,535 from a buyer on the phone.
A rare Civil War military poster, aimed to recruit Black troops, was another deaccessioned lot. Published by P.S. Duval in Philadelphia in 1863 or 1864 for the Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Regiments, the lithograph sold to a New England collector for $5,310. Rounding out deaccessioned highlights was a 38-inch-tall carved pine and jointed doll or artist’s model selling for $3,567.
The auction offered a “nice selection” of mocha ware, all from one Ohio collection that was being sold by the collector’s daughter. Leading the group at $2,460 was a Nineteenth Century English example with earthworm, cat’s eye and stylized foliate decoration.
This graphite and crayon portrait of Blackfoot Chief Nana-Caw-Yeu-Sue-Che was one of three Native American portraits in the sale painted in 1920 by Wilfred Langdon Kihn. A Canadian collector on the phone won all three, paying $1,534 for this example ($1/2,000).
An interesting group of three graphite and crayon portraits of prominent Blackfeet members, made by Wilfred Langdon Kihn (Connecticut, 1898-1957) in 1920 that had all been in one Ohio collection were offered separately but sold to the same Canadian collector who was bidding on the phone. Chief Nina-Caw-Yeu-Sue-Che’s portrait brought $1,534, that of Shes-Ches-No-Pa made $767 while the last one offered — a rendering of Notacna-Ohnamuco-O-Nista-Puka — closed at $1,467.
Meander Auctions’ next sale is scheduled for September 28 and will feature part of the textile collection of Virginia Gunn. For information, 740-760-0012 or www.meanderauctions.com.
