Date: Fri 22-May-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: JUDIR

Quick Words:

Pook&Pook

Full Text:

Pook And Pook Auction

(W/Cuts) - EWM

By J.M.W. Fletcher

LUDWIGS CORNER, PENN. -- Pook & Pook, Inc, held its Spring Antiques Auction at

the local fire company's Griffith Hall on Saturday, April 11.

The event started at 10 am to a standing-room-only crowd of 500 registered

bidders.

Auctioneer James Gibson had a full plate of more than 510 lots of period

Continental and American furniture, silver, frakturs, hand-woven rugs and

accessories to move across the block by the end of the one-day sale; needless

to say, having one of the illustrated catalogues as a bidding guide was a

must.

Of more than 70 lots of paintings and watercolors by some 45 artists, a marine

summer seascape set the record for the artist John P. Benson (1865-1942).

Gibson opened bidding for the signed and dated 29 by 85 inch oil on canvas, in

need of minor restoration, at $6,000 (est $2/3,000), and continued in

increments of $500 and then $1,000. At a bid of $16,000, the Benson sold to a

persistent out-of-state dealer on the floor, despite heavy phone competition.

In their original Newcomb-Macklin frames, three small (18 by 14 inch) oil on

board and Masonite works by Walter Farndon (1876-1964) sold. Two fetched

$3,500 and one, $4,500. A relined marine oil on canvas of a ship by Clement

Drew (1806-1889) sold within its estimate at $3,300. Attributed to William L.

Lathrop, a 20 by 24 inch oil on Masonite sold to a phone bidder at its high

estimate of $1,800. A fine Jacob Maentel (1763-1863) portrait of a lady, a

watercolor on paper, sold just below its high estimate of $3,800.

Depicted on the front cover of the catalogue, a silk on linen needlework

sampler wrought by "Sarah Ann Shemella born July 27, 1804" sold at $13,000

(est $8/10,000). Signed "Margret Jane Taylors work" and detailing a colonial

home, an American silk on linen needlework sampler, circa 1820, made $3,200

(est $2/2,500).

The back cover of the catalogue featured an ornately carved, two-part French

neo-Renaissance cabinet, inscribed "Commerce 1878 fini 1882. rue Oudinot,

Paris, Boyer." Its carved double sarcophagus lift lid lay over two paneled

doors, each with three painted panels, all enclosing a velvet lined interior

with hidden compartments. With a conservative high estimate of $15,000, this

unusual piece climbed to a respectable $21,000.

Included in the large variety of collectibles were more than a dozen lots of

American Indian artifacts. Twined and coiled baskets by Papago, Apache, Pima,

Iroquois and Southern tribes brought active bids from the phones and the

floor. One large coiled California Mission basket, circa 1900, sold at $2,000.

A fine Nex Perce corn husk bag, early Twentieth Century, made its low estimate

of $1,200.

An interesting, large group of more than 40 lots of miniature furniture was

actively sought after, and included a diminutive Hepplewhite style inlaid tall

chest with four graduated drawers, which sold to the floor over two phone

lines at $7,000 (est $5/6,000). A miniature American mahogany and maple

blanket chest, in the form of an Empire sideboard, circa 1830, made $2,000

(est $700/900).

A featured Connecticut shallow long-drawer cherry tray-top tea table, circa

1750 (ex-collection Electra Webb Bostwick), went off at its low estimate of

$25,000. Several lots of other Eighteenth Century New England furniture

surpassed their auction estimates: exceeding its high estimate of $6,000, a

Rhode Island Queen Anne mahogany corner chair, circa 1765, made a strong

$9,250. A diminutive Queen Anne highboy in birch, circa 1760, sold well at

$12,000 (est $8/10,000).

Among several tallcase clocks in the sale, a Scottish Wm. Young Dundee

eight-day mahogany inlaid case went to $4,000 (est $2,4/2,800).

Prices quoted do not include a 10 percent premium.

Pook & Pook, Inc's next auction on June 26-27 will feature many items from the

New York estate of Robert Ripley.