Date: Fri 31-Jul-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: SHIRLE

Quick Words:

Fletcher

Full Text:

Pook & Pook Auction

w/cuts

By J.M.W. Fletcher

LUDWIGS CORNER, PENN. -- The Summer Antiques Sale on June 26 and 27 by Pook &

Pook, Inc, featured the personal collection from the estate of Robert E.

Ripley, founder of 27 Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not! museums. Other estate

collections were also included.

The auction catalogue, replete with hundreds of color and black and white

photographs detailing some 800 lots, was a required item for the

standing-room-only auction crowd.

In addition to more than 200 lots from the Ripley collection, the sale

featured American Indian baskets, several hundred pieces of Rose Medallion

porcelain, some 30 lots of handwoven rugs, as well as Philadelphia formal

furniture. Also sold was a large grouping of ethnographic items, such as

carved masks, canes, figures, and a collection of Pennsylvania folk art that

included six portraits by Jacob Maentel (American, 1763-1863). By late

Saturday afternoon, when auctioneer James Gibson brought the hammer down on

the last lot, the auction had grossed over $1,100,000.

The top -- and cover -- lot of the sale, a watercolor on paper portrait of a

gentleman standing in front of a schoolmaster's desk by Jacob Maentel sold to

the most persistent of two final floor bidders against two phone bidders for a

price of $39,000. So much for the $6/9,000 estimate.

"The piece opened with left bids up to $10,000 and the bidding subsequently

sent up from there in increments of $1,000," related Pennsylvania folk art

collector David Passerman. "It happened very, very quickly once it hit $20,000

-- all the way up. And actually the buyer, somewhere in the back of the room,

probably got a very good buy. It's museum quality. Probably belongs in a

museum and might end up in a museum one day. It's a great Maentel to have in

anybody's collection." Passerman was the underbidder at $38,000.

A rare family portrait grouping by Maentel, four watercolors on paper of a

father, wife, son and daughter, sold for $16,000 (est $13/18,000), and an

unusually large portrait of a gentleman by that artist sold for $5,000.

Other works in that section included an excellent Pennsylvania watercolor on

paper fraktur signed "Carl Munch," dated 1799, which sold at twice its low

estimate of $10,000. A needlework sampler by Sarah Michener, dated 1792, left

the block at $3,500 (est $1/1,500). A second phase Germantown weaving in a

pictorial chief's pattern, five by seven feet, made $4,750, (est $4,5/5,500).

Prices achieved for the seldom-seen Ripley items were surprisingly high: A

pair of narwhal tusks sold for 13 times its high estimate of $1,000. One of

the more macabre objects was a "facsimile" of an African shrunken head, which

left the block at 15 times its high estimate of $300, won by Tracey Wiser, the

general manager of Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not! museum in Atlantic City, one of

the active buyers of Ripley items in the crowd.

"I would love to get the hat," she confessed, referring to Ripley's ten-gallon

Stetson. The lot sold to another floor bidder, against Wiser and two phone

bidders, for $3,250 (est $400/500).

Ripley collected what are now legendary artifacts during visits to 198

countries, such as North Africa, Russia and China. "[The Ripley] estate is

fascinating because it represents sort of the last of a bygone era of

vaudeville," said Ron Pook of the gallery. "We had some of his [Ripley's]

cronies and some of the side-show people who hung out with him at Chicago

World's Fair of 1933 stop by the office to reminisce. And it was just

fascinating to see the very end of this great era of American history."

With extremely high bidder interest (and a high estimate of only $3,500), a

rare Pennsylvania Bucks County painted blanket chest from the "Deep Run Valley

School," early Nineteenth Century, sold at $16,000. Attributed to the

"Embroidery Artist," a rare Pennsylvania Lancaster County decorated dower

chest sold to the phone bidder at $16,000 (est $7/9,000). A late Seventeenth

Century item, identified as a Spanish walnut varguieno, the case concealing an

elaborate interior with extensive ivory and wrought-iron mounts (Ripley

collection), sold to the phones at $5,750 (est $2/3,000).

In the fine art category, Depicting a stormy coastal scene, an oil on board

depicting a stormy coastal scene, 9 by 16 inches, by Wm. T. Richards

(American, 1833-1905), made $10,500 (est $10/12,000).

Another highlight was a rare stoneware presentation bank of beehive form,

incised "R.G. Remmey" and made for "Oda A. Remmey," featuring floral blue

decoration. It made $10,500, (est $10/12,000). A Cowden and Wilcox

three-gallon stoneware crock with blue prancing horse decoration sold for more

than ten times its low estimate at $19,800.

Believe it or not! For those Ripley aficionados who were the underbidders at

this sale, on September 25 and 26 it will be deja vu all over again as Pook &

Pook offers yet more Ripley items, along with the famous Sussel collection.

All prices (and the sale total) quoted do not include a 10 percent buyers

premium.