“Even the most exciting and personally fulfilling adventures must come to an end.”

Those are the words of Jon and Becky Zoler, taken from the short piece they wrote about their collection of American folk art that was sold at Sotheby’s on Saturday, January 22.

They went on to say, “We bought from a large and diverse group of dealers…” and that is evident after reading the provenances listed with the objects. A great many of our prominent present day dealers are there and, for some of us “old timers” in the business, it had to shake a few cobwebs loose when we came on names of those who had handled many of the pieces over the years. Names ringing a familiar bell include Mary Allis, Jean Lipman, Stewart Gregory, Edward Grosvenor Paine, John Bihler and Henry Coger, Maura Wallace, Roland Hammond, Nina Fletcher Little, Hillary Underwood, Edmund Fuller and David Pottinger.

“With a clear emphasis on rarity and distinctiveness, as well as visual qualities to dazzle the eye, the Zolers also share an aesthetic preference for simplicity. The preference runs through their collection, regardless of medium, and helps give it a rich cohesiveness,” so writes Gerard Wertkin, director emeritus of the American Folk Art Museum.

Top honors also went to a carved and painted eagle by Wilhelm Schimmel, Cumberland Valley, Pa, circa 1865-75, which sold for $180,000, well above the high estimate of $75,000.

Without a doubt many other dealers and collectors share thedirection the Zoler collection has taken and a standing room onlyaudience was in the gallery to vie for the pieces.

The first lot of the sale, a watercolor, pen and ink on paper of eight black Tom cats sitting on a fence, American School, circa 1920-30, probably done in Virginia, 103/8 by 23 inches, original black frame, went for $8,400, over a $½,000 presale estimate, setting the pace for the one-owner sale. Two lots later a hooked rug showing three cats and two birds, probably Pennsylvania, Nineteenth Century, 20 by 31 inches, sold for $1,680, more than twice the high estimate. A wrought iron heart design door mat, Pennsylvania origin, Nineteenth to Twentieth Century, flexible, 221/2 by 291/2 inches, estimated to sell for $3/500, went for $2,700.

Among the many pictures was a double mourning watercolor, ink and pen on paper for the Fletcher family, sold together with a family record. The watercolor, by Harriet Moore, circa 1820, measures 13 by 14 inches and sold just over the high estimate at $66,000. J.H. Davis was represented by several works, including a portrait of two boys, Charles Henry Furber and Edwin Peirce Furber, and their dog, watercolor, ink and pen on paper, 8 by 10 inches, that sold for $24,000 to David Wheatcroft, who is also listed in the provenance.

Furniture was, for the most part, painted, but that was not the case of a Federal inlaid and figured mahogany Pembroke table attributed to Matthew Egerton Jr, New Brunswick, N.J., circa 1795. The table appears to retain the original cast brass hardware and measures 28 inches high and 21 inches wide closed. The high presale estimate was $30,000, and the table sold for $48,000 to a phone bidder. Lot 635, a miniature turned maple rush seat great chair, New York, last quarter of the Eighteenth Century, rich brown color, 81/4 inches high, appears to retain the original rush seat, sold for $27,600 against a high presale estimate of $6,000.

A watercolor, pen and ink on paper portrait of Sarah Elizabeth Virgin with her gray cat and doll by Joseph H. Davis sold for $30,000 to antiques dealer David Wheatcroft, who was also listed in the provenance.

A number of pieces of stoneware was offered, the first lot aone-gallon salt glazed cobalt blue, slip decorated “Bird withdotted breast and floral spray,” J&E Norton, Bennington, Vt.,circa 1850-59. According to Leder and Cesana, only about three ofthis design are known and this one, 111/2 inches high, came fromthe personal collection of Betty and Joel Schatzburg. The highestimate was $10,000, and it sold for $20,400.

A portrait of a young girl with black braids, wearing a gray dress and holding a green apple, Sturtevant Hamblin, oil on academy board, circa 1840, 133/8 by 91/4 inches, sold to a phone bidder for $36,000, in the middle of the presale estimate. Also selling within estimate was a portrait of a dark-haired, blue-eyed gentleman wearing a frilled white stock, posed before a red drape with yellow fringe, Sheldon Peck, 241/2 by 20 inches, for $84,000. This portrait, oil on poplar panel, was painted in Vermont and is in a period frame.

From the collection of Howard and Jean Lipman was a carved cedar eider drake decoy, Bailey’s Island, Friendship, Maine, dating from the Nineteenth Century. It measures 73/4 inches long, is missing one glass eye and had a high presale estimate of $10,000. The hammer fell at $22,800.

The phones were very active during this sale, partly because of the forecasted blizzard for the city, and that is the direction a molded copper and zinc stag leaping over a shrub weathervane by Harris & Co., Boston, circa 1880, went. It measures 26 inches high by 311/2 inches long and carried a high estimate of $50,000. It sold for $114,000. The provenance starts out with Edmund Fuller and ends with Steve Miller. A very high price was paid for a gilded copper rooster weathervane, J.W. Fiske, circa 1885, with red-painted comb and wattle, 20 inches high, when the hammer fell at $20,400. A realistic presale estimate was at $2/3,000.

Among the nicest lots of painted furniture was a set of six mustard painted and polychrome decorated thumb back Windsor side chairs, Daniel Stewart, Farmington, Maine, circa 1820. The underside of each chair was chalk-inscribed with the signature of Henry Noyes, or simply Noyes, a well-known seller of painted chairs in Belfast, Maine. The chairs have been through a number of Americana dealers – Barbara Pollack, Frank Miele and Sam Herrup – and sold within estimate at $20,400.

A red painted sack back Windsor armchair, attributed to William Seaver, Boston, last quarter of the Eighteenth Century, 38 inches high, sold for $19,200, above the $12,000 high estimate.

A painted cast iron dove, called the “Corbin Dove” from its part in the collection of antiques dealer Harold Corbin, probably from Pennsylvania, circa 1850, sold to an absentee bidder for $24,000. It was exhibited at The Newtown (Conn.) Historical Society and at the Shelburne Museum. Its provenance names Jeff Orcutt, Carol Pflumm and David Schorsch.

Ending the sale was a complete set of bound copies of TheMagazine Antiques, 1922-2002, estimated at $2/5,000, which soldfor $15,600.

The final total of this sale, 160 of the 177 lots sold, came to $2,859,600. Nancy Druckman, head of the folk art department, said, “It was a very solid sale with no great surprises and most of the lots either within or close to estimate.”

Jon and Becky Zoler noted in their piece in the catalog that “we were mere custodians of such beautiful objects” and echoing many collectors before them, “It is our fondest hope that these folk art pieces will find new owners who will treasure them and derive as much enjoyment from them as we have.”

All of the prices noted include the buyer’s premium (20 percent on the first $200,000, and 12 percent on anything over that number).