McKenney Collection Offered

At Green Valley March 23–24

1c  Lot 238.        

Walnut diminutive Dutch cupboard, late Eighteenth or early Nineteenth Century, Augusta or Rockingham County, Va., original condition ($15/25,000).

1c  Lot 183.        

Signed Baltimore, Md., paint decorated wall salt box, second half Nineteenth Century. ($2/3,000). 

2c  Lot 192         

Naive oil on canvas painting of Western State Lunatic Asylum/Hospital, Staunton, Va., circa 1895, 25 by 37 inches ($5/8,000).

2c  Lot 181         

New England circa 1870 pastel painting of a mother cat and her kittens, 15½ by 19½ inches, exhibited Museum of American Folk Art ($3/5,000).

3c   Lot 186        

Virginia carved fish weathervane, circa 1840, 48 inches long, originally from the New Hampden gristmill, Highland Co. ($4/6,000).

MUST RUN 3/16

MCKENNEY COLLECTION OFFERED AT GREEN VALLEY MARCH 23–25 w/5 cuts

avv/gs set 3-7 #691186

MT CRAWFORD, VA. — Green Valley Auctions, Inc will hold a single-owner auction of the private collection of the late Dorothy “Dolly” and Henry “Mac” McKenney of Mint Spring, Va., to be conducted in three sessions on March 23 and 24.

The McKenneys operated Mint Spring Antiques for more than 50 years and were well known for handling American period and country furniture and accessories. The shop stock was sold through Green Valley’s galleries several years ago and now the entire contents of the McKenney’s late Eighteenth Century Augusta County home will be offered unreserved at auction.

The first session will begin uncataloged, on March 23 at 2 pm and will consist of the contents of Dolly’s large private storage room full of projects and parts, including a large selection of Nineteenth Century frames and as-found artwork; additional material from the attic, basement and house; and a large selection of Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century books and ephemera.

Session two will feature Mac’s 500-plus piece antique tool collection, which will be sold by catalog on March 23 beginning at 6 pm. Featured will be a wide variety of Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century cabinetmaker’s tools including about 100 molding planes along with many other types of tools.

The McKenney’s primary collection will be offered on March 24 at 10 am, presented in a 377-lot fully illustrated color catalog, which promises to become a reference volume for collectors of Shenandoah Valley folk and decorative arts.

Furniture highlights include a selection of late Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Shenandoah Valley chest of drawers, cupboards, blanket chest and stands, several of which have been recorded by the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts.

Virginia folk art includes a 25-by-37-inch naïve oil on canvas painting of the Western Lunatic Asylum/Hospital in Staunton, circa 1895; a 20-by-16-inch charcoal and pencil profile portrait of Alexander Gardner, innkeeper of the Mint Spring Tavern, in original frame, which was exhibited at the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center in 1977, circa 1840; and a circa 1870 carved and painted 13½-inch-high figure of a rooster attributed to Stephen Friel Welsh (b 1849) of Grayson County, which descended in the Welsh family.

Also included is a rare 48-inch-long carved wood fish-form weathervane in original dry weathered surface, which was originally mounted on the gristmill at New Hampden in Highland County. Additional Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Virginia decorative and folk art include rare coin silver, decorated stoneware, baskets and quilts.

Maryland and Pennsylvania furniture, folk and decorative arts include a signed Baltimore paint decorated wall salt box. New England folk and decorative arts includes a 15½-by-19½-inch circa 1870 pastel painting of a mother cat and her kittens, which was included in the exhibit “America Cat-alogue: The Cat in American Folk Art,” mounted at the Museum of American Folk Art in 1976.

Other categories represented in the McKenney collection include Nineteenth and Twentieth Century fine art, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century ceramics, Nineteenth Century jewelry and antiques reference books.

Green Valley’s president and senior specialist Jeff Evans, acknowledged, “My staff and I are approaching this sale with very mixed emotions. Glass department head Karen Reed worked part time for the McKenneys since 1978 and Mac and Dolly considered her their unofficial adopted daughter.”

“My parents sold to the McKenneys in the late 1960s and 1970s and Beverley and I visited them on a regular basis after we took over Green Valley in 1979. Mac and Dolly were great mentors who were instrumental in the development of our understanding and appreciation of Shenandoah Valley decorative arts,” Evans said.

For additional information, www.greenvalleyauctions.com or 540-434-4260.