The publicity had been intense and the excitement palpable in the weeks leading up to the sale of Thomas A. Gray’s collection conducted by Brunk Auctions at the Salem Academy March 29 that attained a final tally of $1,642,600.
This was truly an “event” in every sense of the word. Everyone who knows Tom, whether new friends or old, recognizes that this man is special and the epitome of a Southern gentleman.
His life has been about service to his family and his community. Tom curated the corporate collection of RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company. He and his mother, Anne Pepper Gray, co-founded the Old Salem Toy Museum, now housed at the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA). He has served Old Salem, Inc as vice president of development and was a member of the board of trustees there for nearly two decades, serving as chairman from 1994 to 1997.
He has shared his collecting passions with students, collectors and museum professionals at his home, the 1787 reconstructed Traugott Bagge house in Old Salem. His graciousness makes an interview both informative and pleasurable. His warmth and wit are evident as he states that the dispensing of his collection is like “going to your own funeral and hearing what people are saying.”
The auction catalog is a wonderful testament to Tom’s home and collection. The opening pages display the back of the house and the lovely garden designed with millstones set into the walkways. Tom laughingly recalls that his mother stated that “two gristmill stones would have been tasteful, but this many is tacky!”
Succeeding pages show each room as it was in the house, followed by the items in the collection cataloged for sale. Also included, and much appreciated, was the provenance of each item. Many of the dealers from whom Tom had made purchases over the years were in the audience.
At the beginning of the sale, Bob Brunk commented on this special sale, which has set the standard of dignity and grace. He said that it was about “letting go” and “sharing of oneself in the most fundamental way,” which is exactly what Gray was doing, letting go and “moving on.”
As the sale progressed and bids were won, those who were successful felt that Tom had shared with them his love and passion for the items that he had selected and lived with these past 30 years.
Within the first few minutes of the sale, the rare and important engraving of the bird’s-eye “view of Savannah as it stood, the 29th of March, 1734” went on the block. There are 11 known examples. The fine engraving brought $70,800 from the phone, followed soon after by a charming magenta delft tile picture of Noah’s Ark comprising 40 tiles from the Eighteenth Century, which found a home at its high estimate of $5,900.
The first of several North Carolina chests of drawers to cross the block was diminutive, just 36 inches high and 23 inches wide; it soared quickly past its high estimate of $8,000 to reach $25,960. North Carolina collectors Rob and Suzanne Bizzell claimed their prize. The Bizzells were also successful in their effort to win the Joseph Hewes manuscript document. Hewes, a signer of the Declaration of Independence from North Carolina, member of the Continental Congress and first Secretary of the Navy, was married to Rob’s “many greats” aunt. Rob stated that this document would soon be next to their portrait of Hewes now hanging in their home. This exciting piece of history seemed reasonable at $1,534.
One of the most talked about items in the sale was the portrait of “Amarinthia Elliott” by Jeremiah Theus (Swiss/Charleston, S.C., 1716‱774). Small at 16 by 13 inches, and unsigned, it nevertheless carried a very weighty history, having been in the ownership of the now infamous Jim Williams, best known from the book In the Garden of Good and Evil .
Tom Gray first saw the painting during his years at Winterthur. Later, he discovered her in Jim Williams’s Mercer House during a visit to Savannah. Eventually, she became his when Williams called from prison in need of money to allow him to take his case to the Georgia Supreme Court for the third time. The centerpiece over the mantel in Tom’s living room, Amarinthia may not have been a beauty and may have never married, but her $94,440 price gave her a place as a record holder for a Theus painting. To the phone she went, perhaps adding another interesting page to her history.
Slipping under its low estimate, the important William and Mary corner chair was the only antique that Tom’s father ever bought for his mother. Illustrated in Wallace Nutting’s Furniture Treasury , 1928, the New London County, Conn., chair was oversized, but stately and still bearing its early red wash. A phone bidder captured this special chair for just $3,540.
Tom’s mother loved turned tables from the William and Mary period, many purchased from Lillian Cogan. All seemed to run slightly past their high estimate and went almost exclusively to phone bidders.
A folky and fun towel rack cum basket tree went to Maine dealer Seth Thayer. The basket tree was the front cover of Nancy Schiffer’s Baskets , 2001. Seth also bought an array of miniature baskets, perhaps to adorn the tree.
The wonderful chenille shirred rugs were Thayer’s major interest, however. Tom Gray stated that his rug collecting had been self-ending because they took up so much room. Before his collecting ended, however, he had located some stunning examples of chenille shirred and hooked rugs. Thayer won the rare bias shirred rug of a basket of flowers flanked by floral sprays for $44,840. He stated that this was the most beautiful example of a surviving sculptural rug that he knew of.
Thayer also was the successful bidder for the “Augustine W. Phillips” chenille shirred rug of a 12-point snowflake within a multifloral wreath. He stated later that this rug was from the Connecticut River Valley. It was made for Augustine Washington Phillips, a farmer, who was born in 1828 in Buckland, Mass. Phillips married in 1845 and 1851. Thayer believes this rug was made by one of Phillips’s wives. Because of the large garland of flowers, which usually indicates love and weddings, he termed it a “courting rug.” The dates of the marriages fit the age of the rug, making this a truly rare bit of personal history.
When asked which item in his collection most surprised and delighted him to find, Gray quickly refers to the Colchester, Conn., desk and bookcase made by Calvin Willey, circa 1785‱795. A small desk and bookcase had long been a desire of Tom’s mother.
Tom was thrilled to find this lovely example at the Manchester, Vt., antiques show in the booth of Jeffrey Tillou. Its boldly shaped broken arch pediment was on the cover of the catalog and Tom recalled how pleased he was to at last fulfill his mother’s dream. This handsome secretary stayed close to its low estimate, bringing $37,760 on a phone bid.
The rare Eastern Shore, Va., painted corner cupboard was a surprise to all except those in the know. Soaring quickly past its $18,000 estimate to $70,800, Roddy Moore was pleased with his purchase of a “very significant piece of Southern decorative arts.” A flat wall cupboard was the last known example to come on the market in the 1980s. No smaller pieces are known. There is a nearly identical cupboard in the MESDA collection. By using that example, the paint had been restored by Peter Deen.
One of the loveliest groupings in the sale was an assembled set of five Shelton sisters baskets. Working in Forsyth County, N.C., in the late Nineteenth/early Twentieth Century, Mary and Eliza Shelton made these finely woven baskets, usually no more than 6 inches in diameter. Much prized in North Carolina, the lot of five baskets were won by the Bizzells for $30,680.
“I have five,” an Atlanta collector admitted. But none like this one. The cellaret attributed to Micajah Wilkes, Roanoke River Basin, N.C., 1780‱795, was handsome. Simple lines, fruitwood inlay and H stretcher †everything a cellaret lover would want. Best of all, at last, we know who this maker is.
A new book, WH Cabinetmaker: A Southern Mystery Solved by Newbern and Melchor, has identified William Seay as the mystery cabinetmaker. Micajah Wilkes was married to Seay’s younger sister. Several related cellarets attributed to Wilkes are known. This one set a record at $165,200. The collector was intrepid, holding his card firmly raised as competitor after competitor fell away. Later he admitted his love affair with the form. “They just fit so many places because they are small,” he observed.
Tom’s collection of delft and pearlware was extensive and sophisticated. Peafowls, tulips, eagles, chickens and peacocks were all represented on plates, cups and bowls. Tin lighting was also abundant. Peter Schiffer had called Tom’s collection of tin lighting devices the most important collection that he had seen in America. Several of the wonderful tin chandeliers went well above their estimates.
Tom had also collected Westerwald jugs for 35 years. The lovely blue and brown stoneware was popular with the audience and the phone. All went well over their estimates.
Even as the sale wound to a close and the crowd had thinned, a Nineteenth Century Wachovia banknote from Winston, N.C., brought a flurry of excitement. One Northern and one Southern dealer battled to own it. Far beyond its $250/500 estimate, the note brought $28,320 and left the South.
Tom wanted the day of the sale of his collection to be “one thing and one thing only. Fun for me, my family and the buyers.” He and Brunk’s did everything possible to make it so †from a lively and well-attended preview party straight through to a thank-you gathering at a local restaurant. Tom does it right.
All prices reported include the 18 percent buyers’ premium. For more information, www.brunkauctions.com or 828-254-6846.
