Date: Fri 23-Oct-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: DONNAM

Quick Words:

Alderfer

Full Text:

Alderfer Auction

w/cuts

By JMW Fletcher

HATFIELD, PENN -- The Alderfer Auction Company presented their fall catalogued

sale on September 17. The more than 500 lots offered included art, ephemera,

textiles, Americana, and Oriental rugs, as well as some tribal artifacts.

Downingtown, Penn., area dealer Phil Bradley, among the group of collectors

and dealers at the preview, predicted a good sale. "It looks like [they have]

some interesting items," he commented.

Some 60 lots from the collection of African and Oceanic art assembled by Dr

David Rilling began the event.

"When I was a kid, I collected minerals and fossils and things like that,"

said Rilling, who began acquiring items 30 years ago. "I got into [African and

Oceanic pieces] in the last 15 or 20 years." He described the assemblage as

originating mostly from West Africa, as well as Nigeria, Maol, Zaire and the

Ivory Coast.

Among the items offered, a forked hardwood Dogon house post from Maoi sold at

$275, and Sago terra-cotta storage pots from the Albom people of the Cambri

Lakes region, Papua, New Guinea, brought $120 each.

The historic Ogden family archive of Civil War letters, papers, photographs

and other items was also offered. During the Civil War, Sarah Ogden (born

1830s) worked as a hospital volunteer at two Union hospitals in Philadelphia,

Penn. While tending wounded soldiers, she developed relationships that

resulted in the exchange of a voluminous number of letters and photographs.

Lots 82-84 encompassed this archive, and included 150 letters (16 from Ogden's

husband); some 50 period photographs or cartes-de-visite of military patients

and hospital staff; and other family items dating from 1861-1865.

The three lots were sold as one group for $19,000 to the Kaller's America

Gallery, Macy's, New York City. According to Seth Kaller of the gallery, the

archive "will be going to a public institution."

Some 30 lots of majolica and Limoges oyster plates brought active bidding from

the floor and the phones. A pair of "G.J." symbol, George Jones, six-well

majolica plates sold to a phone bidder at $2,600. A fine 27-well majolica lazy

susan oyster server, ten by 12 inches (with restoration to well rims) sold at

$12,500. The majority of other oyster plate lots ranged from $50 to $850 each.

A pair of Puffy shade Pairpoint lamps sold against the phones at $2,100 each.

In the form of a "T," a wood "Tea Room" trade sign, 33 by 28 inches, signed,

reached $2,300.

The last section, 102 lots of paintings and watercolors covering a plethora of

Pennsylvania artists, featured an oval still life by Severin Roesen, which

also made the catalogue cover.

"The painting came from a private collection [the Hager estate of

Pennsylvania]," said auctioneer Brent Souder. "It has been relined, has a

crackalure surface on it, and some minor in painting on the cracking. It's a

beautiful painting." The 30 inch high by 24 inch wide oil on canvas sold to an

order bid against the phone for $33,500.

A group of four painting lots by David Y. Ellinger fetched $800 for a

watercolor, $1,800 for an oil on board, $2,000 for another watercolor, and

$9,000 for a 17 by 18 inch oil on canvas titled "Hay Ride." A mountainous lake

scene with peasants, an oil on canvas by Alfred E. A. Bylandt (1820-1890),

went off at $4,500.

When lot No. 468 came to the block, a Jon Hendrick Verheyer (1778-1846), 16¬

inches high by 20Ô inches wide, an oil on panel, the telephone desk had a

total of eight lines open and ready, and rightly so. Steady bidding increments

passed from phone to phone to reach $30,000; as the price surpassed $35,000,

only two lines remained in the game. The hammer finally dropped at $44,000 to

a persistent Netherlands competitor -- the cityscape would return home.

Among some 30 lots of Oriental rugs, a 12'10" by 10'7" garden design Baktari,

circa 1920, made $9,000 and a Ferahan, 6'10" by 4'2", circa 1890, with ivory

background with minor end loss and even wear, made $1,300.

Two Spatterware handless cups and saucers with red sponge borders and peafowl

decoration left the block at $1,150. A single sgraffito-decorated plate

(probably Montgomery, Penn.) brought $1,100.

A traveling vanity set, encased in a rosewood box with brass inlay, holding

crystal perfumes and various boxes with English silver lids, circa 1860, sold

at $1,400. A 31 inch high rocking horse, mounted on a red painted rocker, sold

at $ 1,300. A distinctive, miniature, three-drawer chest in walnut was bid to

$1,300.

Prices quoted do not include the ten percent buyer's premium charged.