Taking pride of place at $156,000 was Henry Lowndes’ important cobalt decorated stoneware pitcher, Petersburg, Va., 1835-1840, 11 ¾ inches height overall, which had both publication and exhibition history. Competition came down to two collectors and an institution, with the collector bidding online prevailing. Will Kimbrough said it was a record for both the pottery and stoneware made in Petersburg ($40/60,000).
Review by Madelia Hickman Ring; Photos Courtesy Jeffrey S. Evans & Assoc.
MOUNT CRAWFORD, VA. — On September 22-23, Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates presented 1,008 lots in a single-owner sale, the lifetime collection of Richmond, Va., collector-dealer-scholar H. Marshall Goodman Jr. All but two of the lots sold with a two-day auction total of just more than $2.5 million.
Jeffrey S. Evans, company president and principal auctioneer, said after the sale, “This was an important sale for us and generated robust interest across the board, from bidders near and far. The caliber of the material offered across multiple categories was very appealing to a broad swath of collectors, and the strong results reflect pent-up demand for high-quality objects. Levels of online participation in our auctions continue to grow for us — a real indication that there is sustained market demand for a diverse range of art and antiques. What’s more, the overall excitement and strong sales results are a testament to Marshall Goodman’s keen vision and range of knowledge. We have always believed that the single-owner model at auction is, in almost all cases, the format with the most potential for a successful outcome, and that definitely proved true this past weekend.”
“This sale was the most highly anticipated in the company’s history. It was a really fun sale to do and we’re feeling really good at the results,” said Will Kimbrough. “Marshall was a pioneer in the field of James River pottery, as well as discovering and researching Shenandoah painted boxes, like those from the Stirewalt and Barb families.”
Publication and exhibition history gave bidders additional reason to chase this charming Virginia James River stoneware jug with cobalt rabbit decoration to $28,800. It found a new home with a Virginia private collector ($10/20,000).
Auction catalogs sometimes employ hyperbole to generate interest and excitement, but in the case of the Goodman collection, it was warranted. Top-lot status was deservedly awarded to an important cobalt decorated stoneware pitcher or jug, made by Henry Lowndes (d 1842) of Petersburg, Va. It was decorated not only with an applied cobalt spread wing eagle and the maker’s name below the spout and 16 stars on the shoulder, but each side had brushed triple-bloom flowers. Publication in The Magazine Antiques (April 2005) and inclusion in “The Stoneware Pottery of Eastern Virginia, 1720-1865,” an exhibition at the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond, 2004 to 2005 both helped drive interest in the piece. Offered with a $40/60,000 estimate, it topped bidding at $156,000, finally selling to a private collector, bidding online, who beat out competition from an institution and another collector, bidding on the phone.
Other cobalt-decorated stoneware pieces saw similar interest if not prices at quite that level. The only known stoneware vessel to bear the hand-incised signature “John P. Schermerhorn & Co” was a 24-inch-tall watercooler decorated with a floral vine and cobalt banding. It, too, had been published, in “The Remarkable Nineteenth-Century Stoneware of Virginia’s Lower James River Valley” by Kurt C. Russ, Robert Hunter, Oliver Mueller-Heubach and Marshall Goodman; Mueller-Heubach (Ceramics in America, 2013) and a College of William and Mary doctoral dissertation titled “From Kaolin to Claymount: Landscapes of the 19th Century James River Stoneware Industry.” Previously offered at an auction in Suffolk, Va., in 2009, it brought $30,000 in this sale and sold to a dealer. Rounding out the top stoneware lots at $28,800 was a James River jug decorated with a cobalt rabbit on its side. Published in “Rocketts’ Red Glare: John P. Schermerhorn and the Early Richmond-Area Stoneware Industry” by Kurt C. Russ and W. Sterling Schermerhorn (Ceramics in America, 2005), it was attributed to John P. Schermerhorn, Samuel Wilson and/or associates, in Virginia’s Richmond or Henrico Counties. It found a new home with an important Virginia collector.
The second highest result of the weekend was $78,000 realized for this set of two mid Eighteenth Century British bronze sealer’s weights, each engraved “Surry County,” that stood 4 ¼ and 4 ¾ inches tall. The lot was purchased by a private collector and the same buyer that bought the Lowndes pitcher ($1/1,500).
One of the surprises in the sale was the $78,000 realized by a set of two bell-form Surry County, Va., official British bronze sealer’s weights that dated to the mid-Eighteenth Century and stood 4¼ and 4¾ inches tall. According to the catalog note for the lot, the weights would have been used by the Sealer of Surry County to verify accuracy of scales and stated weights in market places. Ones linked to specific locations in Colonial America are rare, particularly those from the South; after the American Revolution, when British measuring standards were no longer adhered to, most surviving weights would have been melted down making the two Evans offered particularly rare examples. Bidders evidently agreed, with a private collector with connections to Surry — and the buyer of the Lowndes pitcher — having the winning bid.
Painted furniture enjoyed its own moment in the sun during the sale. Selling to an important private collector and achieving the third highest price at $54,000 was a paint-decorated yellow pine and poplar child’s blanket chest made in the Shenandoah Valley around 1835 and attributed to possibly Jacob Stirewalt (1805-1869) and/or John N. Stirewalt (1802-1836) of New Market, Va. It was decorated with stylized birds and turtles on a chrome-yellow ground and was published in Marshall Goodman and J. Roderick Moore’s article, “Painted Boxes and Miniature Chests from Shenandoah County, Virginia: The Stirewalt Group,” The Magazine Antiques (September 2007).
This Shenandoah Valley of Virginia painted bentwood box related to a few known and published examples and sold for $52,000 to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts ($10/15,000).
Nearly a dozen bentwood boxes were offered, led by three Shenandoah Valley of Virginia painted examples. Leading the category with a $52,000 result — and going to a new home at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VFMA) in Richmond — was one that featured the unusual decoration of horses and riders on a green ground. According to the catalog note, it is one of a group of nine known painted oval boxes produced by multiple generations of the Barb Family of the Mount Clifton area. Another one of the group, which was described in the catalog as “exceptional,” had a salmon ground, a large rosette on the lid and a chain-like motif centered on the sides of the box. It closed out at $42,000, while a third example that had a green ground embellished with stylized foliate decoration achieved $28,000 with a Virginia collector.
Valuables cabinets typically come with a single paneled door and there were two of them in the Marshall collection, which also offered one in an exceptionally rare Federal four-drawer example with scrolling broken arch pediment. Made of cherry wood, it was linked to Frederick County, Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and was inscribed in pencil “Annie B. McCormick / Berryville / Va.” A Virginia private collector outbid one in Kentucky, paying $42,000 for it.
In 2010, Goodman acquired at a Ken Farmer auction a carved and painted figure of an African American man made in 1934 by Charles Henry Saunders (Shelvy, Cleveland Co., N.C., 1901-1984). It was one of two figures by Saunders that were in the sale — the second being a carving of an African American butler — from an unknown number produced during Saunder’s lifetime. The man was accompanied by its original box and sold for $42,000, while the butler achieved $24,000.
This 13-inch-tall folk art carved and painted figure of an African American man was carved by Charles Henry Saunders in 1934 and was accompanied by its original box. It had been exhibited at the North Carolina Museum of History from 1994 to 2000 and sold to a Midwest private collector who was bidding in the room, for $42,000 ($3/5,000).
One of only a few copies of a circa 1861-63 photograph of freed slave and blacksmith Gilbert Hunt (circa 1780-1863), that was taken at the Richmond, Va., studio of Smith & Vannerson, achieved $42,000. The VMFA outbid another institution for it.
While most of the fireworks went off on the second day of the sale, there were also high prices and some surprises seen on the first day. Leading that session at $24,000 was a miniature Classical brass inlaid mahogany, rosewood and figured bird’s-eye maple sideboard, cataloged as “probably New York,” circa 1830.
New York was also on the minds of bidders for two snowy Manhattan snowscapes by Guy Carleton Wiggins (American, 1883-1962), both of which measured 19 by 16¾ inches in their frames and both of which were estimated at $8/12,000 estimates. One went to a private collector, the other to a dealer; both paid $19,200 for them.
Two snowy Manhattan landscapes by Guy Carleton Wiggins were offered early on the first day of the sale, both of the same size and estimate. Both sold for $19,200; one sold to a trade buyer, the other to a private collector ($8/12,000).
Jeffrey S. Evans Associates will sell a single-owner collection of paperweights on October 19, followed by a sale of fine and decorative arts October 20-21, Americana in November and a single-owner Americana collection in February, details to follow.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, www.jeffreysevans.com or 540-434-3939.
