J. Eberly & Co. polychrome glazed lamb doorstop, $58,000.
Painting of Natural Bridge, Virginia, attributed to Isaac Weld, $3,500.
Shenandoah Valley yellow pine pie safe, $5,500.
MT CRAWFORD, VA. – Green Valley Auction, Inc’s annual fall auction of antiques, Americana and folk and decorative arts drew a substantial attendance from from 26 states and Canada, with even more participation by both absentee and phone bid.
Offerings included early American firearms, dolls and toys, books, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century furniture, fine art, folk pottery, silver, ceramics and glass.
President and auctioneer Jeffrey Evans maintained an average of 120 lots per hour. The two-day event saw 1,469 lots auctioned without reserve to 564 registered bidders, including 103 telephone bidders. Absentee bids totaled nearly 1,300. Sales exceeded $517,000.
Session one featured a selection of early Americana firearms and accessories, to include five Shenandoah Valley long rifles with patch boxes, some signed, flintlock and screw barrel pistols, powder horns and Civil War era revolvers. In addition to the historic weapons was a reference library dedicated to Kentucky long rifles, powder horns, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Indian and continental weapons and accoutrements. Other offerings included country store and advertising, art pottery, early objects of brass, pewter and iron.
Of special interest was an Art Deco cast-iron clown door stop that ended at $1,300. Other highlights from this session included a rare confederate 1864 imprint volume Sketches of the Life of Captain Hugh White, of the Stonewall Brigade, authorized by his father, which brought $2,300 and a child’s buckboard wagon in original paint that topped at $1,700.
A collection of early dolls saw a Tete Jumeau bisque head reach $2,200 and a Simon Halbig bisque head end at $1,450.
Shenandoah Valley early long rifles saw much interest, with nearly all selling at $2,200 to $3,000. An early commercial wood and porcelain coat rack generated much interest and finished at $2,300.
Saturday’s session two featured a selection of antiques and Americana totaling more than 900 lots. Patrons had barely taken their seats when the action exploded with an extremely rare and important J. Eberly & Co. polychrome glazed lamb doorstop that soared above preauction estimates to a record $58,000, according to the gallery.
The excrdf_Descriptionent had barely subsided when Shenandoah Valley Nineteenth Century earthenware and stoneware jugs, crocks, pitchers, jars and other forms also proved to be strong sellers. An Isaac Good Rockingham County, Va., earthenware jug reached $3,250; an Andrew Coffman, Rockingham County, decorated stoneware squat pot, despite having a crack on its reverse, saw $3,500; a John Bell mottled glaze earthenware cake mold sold for $4,900; and a Cowden & Wilcox Harrisburg, Penn., decorated stoneware batter pail with strong cobalt freehand fern wreath decoration brought $2,200.
Many splint baskets included a Virginia painted kidney basket, which saw $2,700. Another popular grouping, the quilts and coverlets, saw a mid-Nineteenth Century North Carolina chintz central medallion quilt reach $1,300.
The fine art offerings included a watercolor and gouache on paper painting of Natural Bridge, Va., attributed to Isaac Weld (1774-1856), which generated much interest and closed at $3,500. An original P. Buckley Moss watercolor, 1975, landscape with deer brought $2,500.
The selections of Shenandoah Valley and other southern antique furniture resulted in some of the strongest showings with an exceptional folk art carved Highland County, Va., empire walnut chest of drawers topping at $5,000; a Shenandoah Valley Sheraton walnut sideboard at $5,250; a Virginia Chippendale walnut single piece corner cupboard at $5,500; and a diminutive Shenandoah Valley yellow pine pie safe that also saw $5,500.
A highlight of the furniture offerings was a diminutive Shenandoah Valley Chippendale hanging corner cupboard in fresh as-found condition that commanded a final bid of $8,000. Other southern furniture offerings included a Shenandoah Valley Hepplewhite inlaid walnut chest of drawers at $2,400. Notable Eighteenth Century furnishings included a George II mahogany three-section banquet table at $2,900 and a William III japanned oak chest-on-stand with gold on black chinoiserie decoration climbing to $2,200, despite alterations. A fine Victorian billiards table with burl wood veneer and marquetry inlay attributed to J.M. Brunswick & Balke and in need of some alteration went to a West Coast bidder for $5,000.
Ceramics took off with the help of a collection of more than 80 pieces of spatter ware. Leading the way was a spatter ware sop bowl in the Acorn pattern reaching $2,800 and a spatter ware rainbow teapot at $2,600. A few of the many other spatter ware highlights included bull’s-eye pattern plates at $1,150 each; a yellow thistle teapot, missing its lid and with restorations at $1,800; and a star pattern plate at $900.
Another star of the ceramics offerings was the Ironstone Morning Glory/Tealeaf five-piece coffee service that saw $1,200.
Many examples of Rockingham glaze and gaudy Dutch were on hand for the collector or dealer, as well as a good representation of Staffordshire, Flow Blue, featheredge, Chinese famille rose and R.S. Prussia. Examples of a fine paperweight collection were not far behind with a bouquet on swirled latticino attributed to the New England Glass Co. that ended at $1,600 and an open concentric color ground millefiori, attributed to Clichy, at $1,500.
Other notable offerings included a set of 12 Steuben dinner plates, topaz with applied blue rim bands, that sold to a prominent Canadian museum for $800 and a Royal Doulton “Pomeroy” dinner service of 112 pieces that left the floor at $1,650. A Flow Blue partial dinner set in the Balmoral pattern sold for $1,200.
