“It was a good bottle with an interesting story that descended in the family of the original owners,” Ben Fisher said about the sale’s top lot, this sand bottle made by Andrew Clemens for John and Margaret Leary around 1887. It sold for $170,100 to a sand bottle collector ($60/80,000).

Review by Madelia Hickman Ring; Photos Courtesy Hindman

CINCINNATI, OHIO — Hindman Americana auctions have, with some recent regularity, presented the opportunity to acquire one of Andrew Clemens’ (American, 1857-1894) sand bottles, one of the current darlings of the American folk art world that often take top lot honors. The firm’s October 4 sale followed suit, with a bottle commissioned around 1887 by John (1859-1939) and Margaret (1860-1931) Leary of McGregor, Iowa, which achieved the sale’s highest price of $170,100. It sold to a sand bottle collector, bidding on the phone, who beat out another phone bidder and one vying by absentee bid. Exhibiting some of Clemens’ characteristic decorative motifs, the 8-3/8-inch-tall bottle had descended in the family of its original owners and had been exhibited at the Gary (Ind.) Country Club in 1936. The result was a sizeable fraction of the sale’s overall yield of nearly $550,000, which was achieved with nearly 80 percent of lots gaveling down successfully.

A private collector won Severin Roesen’s (American, 1815-1872) floral still life for $59,850, which had an extensive provenance that included Pennsylvania private collections and estates, Schwarz Gallery and a previous auction outing at Brunk’s Auction in 2014. Hindman’s Americana senior specialist Ben Fisher deemed it to be “an incredibly vibrant painting,” one he was not surprised to see surpass expectations. Additionally, the painting was accompanied by a letter of authentication that identified Roesen to have painted more fruit than floral still life compositions, making it additionally desirable.

American silversmith Paul Revere Jr (1734-1818) is a perennial favorite at auction and a pair of silver sugar tongs that had descended in the family of its original owner, Timothy Dodd Jr (1753-1838), achieved $11,340 from an East Coast collector.

This pair of American silver sugar tongs, made by Paul Revere for Timothy Dodd Jr, descended in the Dodd Bellamy Taylor family and sold to an East Coast private collector for $11,340 ($8/12,000).

Nearly 90 lots in the 309-lot sale came from the Chagrin Falls, Ohio, estate of George H. Quay, a prolific and varied collector in several categories, including petroliana, folk art, tools and hunting and fishing decoys. Several lots from his collection achieved prices high enough to place them in the top tier ranks, led at $8,190 by a folk art carved and painted wood figural group of a stork and two babies. Quay had acquired it from the Tussauds Collection of Fairground Art, which sold at Christie’s South Kensington in 1997. The lot sold to a private collector, as did an Eco Islander air meter with light pole that bidders pumped to $7,560.

A discussion of some of the other Quay estate highlights would be remiss without mentioning a painted sheet metal and wire birdcage in the form of a steamboat, which had once been in the collection of folk art collector Bernard M. Barenholtz, whose collection Sotheby’s sold in 1990. The birdcage found a new home with a private collector for $6,300. Rounding out Quay highlights at $4,095 was a carved and painted wood pheasant decoy, which Fisher said, “saw interest almost immediately” and sold to a private East Coast collector.

Abraham Lincoln is an enduring favorite among collectors in the United States, and Fisher was also not surprised to see the interest and success of Franklin C. Courter’s (American, 1854-1947) oil on board portrait of the Sixteenth president. Discovered in a Midwest collection, it will be going to its new home with a Mid-Atlantic private collector, who acquired it for $7,560.

This portrait of Abraham Lincoln by Franklin C. Courter, oil on board, 20 by 15 ½ inches, signed lower right, exceeded expectations and brought $7,560 from a Mid-Atlantic private collector ($3/5,000).

The furniture category saw a few surprises, including an Aesthetic Movement painted, parcel-gilt and ebonized bird-carved side chair that despite a few losses that was in original condition and sold to a collector in the American South for $2,835, more than three times its high estimate.

Hindman’s next Americana sale will be the collection of Donald F. Moylan, MD, on November 3.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, www.hindmanauctions.com or 312-280-1212.