A Civil War presentation pitcher bestowed on Nathaniel Prentice Banks, 24th governor of Massachusetts and Civil War major general, in recognition of his success at the 1863 Siege of Port Hudson was the highlight of the Willis Henry sale on May 8. It sold on the phone for $10,238. It had been presented to Banks by the teachers and students of the public schools of New Orleans and was stamped “Hyde and Goodrich, New Orleans.”
A companion silver goblet, also from Hyde and Goodrich, and inscribed to Banks from the same group, went for $4,973. Both pieces went to Nashville dealer Michael Hall, known for presentation silver.
Banks was a native son of Waltham, Mass., editor of a weekly newspaper, a machinist and an actor who rose to be governor of Massachusetts. His home still stands in Waltham. Representatives of the Waltham Historical Society were observed bidding and winning several of the objects, which will enter the collection.
The material descended in the Banks family and included an oil on canvas on board portrait of Banks that brought $1,287 from the same buyers in the room who paid $1,053 for a full length watercolor formal portrait of Mrs Banks and $819 for a Nineteenth Century gold pen inscribed, “G. Lawton to N.P. Banks.”
Among silver was a Nineteenth Century revolving silver plate castor with containers for six bottles, retaining two original examples, and with an applied silver stamp of the seal of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts may have been used when Banks was governor. It went to the same bidders for $527. A partial silver flatware service from the Banks family brought $1,170.
An English Edwardian sterling silver punchbowl with hallmarks for Birmingham, 1901, was decorated elegantly with repousse scrolls and garland of flowers and leaves. Its unusual central cartouche of a rampant cat with a boxer-like stance that was engraved, “Touch not the cat bot a glove,” is the crest of the clan Mackintosh. The bowl came from the Sutton Place, N.Y., estate of author Margaret Yates Berkheimer and brought $1,872 from an appreciative collector.
An oil on canvas landscape with boys fishing on a lakeshore was attributed to Eighteenth Century artist Francesco Zuccarelli and brought $4,680 from an area dealer. It, too, came from Berkheimer’s New York residence; her Nantucket home where she summered for more than 60 years was another source of material of interest.
Five Nineteenth Century portraits of children with dogs were alluring and bidders were pleased to get them. A primitive portrait, circa 1830, of a child with yellow curls and wearing a red dress as he removed his shoes and stockings fetched $3,042 from an absentee bidder. A Nineteenth Century portrait of a boy in a sailor suit with his dog, also from the island estate, sold for $2,340. The painting may have been by Joseph Whiting Stock.
A portrait of a girl in a pink dress holding pink and white roses was initialed on the back, “Y.M.B.” It sold for $2,223. A three-quarter portrait of a girl in a pleated dress was inscribed, “C.S. Jones, Painter, Coudersport, Penn., Sept. 15, 1873” and sold for $1,989. A portrait of a girl in a red dress with a red ribbon in her hair, who may have been a sea captain’s daughter, sold on the phone for $2,808. The five pictures all came from Berkheimer’s Nantucket estate.
Other art standouts included an oil on board rocky seascape by Connecticut artist John Wells Stancliff from the Milton, Mass., estate of operatic tenor William Flavin. It retained the label of Noyes and Blakeslee Art Galleries in Boston and brought $2,106. The winning bidder was a Stancliff collector on the phone.
An American school oval oil on canvas portrait of a child in a red dress with a spaniel on his lap also came from the Flavin estate and sold for $1,170.
A Nineteenth Century needlework sampler executed by Frances Weatherill, who was eight years old when she worked it in 1828, sold for $2,691. Charmingly asymmetrical, it depicted two houses and a third building, with birds and other animals, flowers and verse. It came from the Nantucket house.
Furniture offerings were led by an Eighteenth Century New England tiger maple and maple tall chest with chestnut secondary wood and six graduated drawers that had old refinish and sold for $2,925. It came from the Flavin estate, as did an early Eighteenth Century Continental library table with a two-board top and carving to the legs and corners that sold for $2,808. Also from the Flavin estate was an early Eighteenth Century English oak dresser that is pictured in Salem Interiors by Samuel Chamberlain and stood in the Stephens Daniel house in Salem. It realized $1,053.
Also crossing the block was an Eighteenth Century English walnut secretary with burl veneer and a molded arch top and a glazed door above a slant lid that stood 7 feet tall and was 23 inches wide. It realized $3,861 from a New England collector.
A miniature Scoter decoy carved by Joe Lincoln of Hingham, Mass., retained the original paint and sold for $3,803 to a collector in the room who also bought a miniature canvasback decoy paperweight carved by Frank Adams of West Tisbury on Martha’s Vineyard for $351. The birds came from the same Hingham, Mass., house. Two carved black belly plover decoys from the Nantucket estate were found on the island and sold for $1,287.
More Nantucket wares came in the form of an early “one egg” Nantucket basket in a rich honey brown color that measured 2 5/8 inches to the rim, 4 5/8 to the handle, selling for $936 while another that measured 2 7/8 inches to the rim and 4 7/8 to the handle brought $761. Both came from the Berkheimer estate and are headed back to Nantucket.
All prices reported include the 17 percent buyer’s premium. For information, www.willishenry.com or 781-834-7774.
