Collector Chats With Peter S. Seibert This Week: An Old Auction Catalog

pricing for many Pennsylvania German folk art objects.

traded in for Pennsylvania German antiques after moving to Lancaster.

By Peter Seibert

I do love looking at old auction catalogs if they have the sale results either written on the pages or incorporated as a print-out. Looking back in time, I can dream of what I would have bought if only I had known something would go really cheaply or, conversely, what would diminish in value. The other week, I was looking at the auction catalog for the auction held by Christie’s at the Lebanon County Fairgrounds for Rich and Joan Smith. The 1995 sale was arguably at the peak of

I first met Rich and Joan in 1993. He was retired from Armstrong World Industries and was living with his wife, Joan, at their home in Millbach, Lebanon County. For those of you who are Pennsylvania German folk art nuts like I am, the Millbach house (which they also owned) is among the most famous of buildings. The kitchen, or great room, is on exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Their collection was magnificent, as both collected with an artist’s eye and a scholar’s heart.

Rich could look at a table of pottery and pick out the one item that was a rare form, beautiful condition and aesthetically pleasing. I recall an interview where Rich and Joan talked about owning modern furniture that they

The auction followed on the heels of the landmark sale by Christie’s in Lancaster for the estate of George Scott. That sale, known to the trade as “GREAT SCOTT!,” set a number of record prices for items, including the cover lot of two folk art wood carved Dalmatians and also a Lancaster Windsor chair. Dr. Scott had died, and his family were the ones who put the collection up for sale. In the antiques trade, there is an unspoken axiom that collectors/dealers will pay a good price at an estate sale but are loathe to do so if the collector is still alive. That viewpoint was common, although the collector Paul Flack, who had wonderful things, did break the tradition with a series of auctions while he was alive.

The Smiths decided to offer part of their collection for sale as they anticipated a move to a new home south of Lancaster. The crowd was ready, the dealers and collectors primed, and the sale brought some incredible prices. In particular were a number of pieces of sulfur inlaid furniture that were both rare and unique. These all were attributed to a woodworker named Peter Holl, who regrettably for the catalog’s sake was not the maker. Holl was a pump maker and did not appear to have ever made any chests, let alone ones with sulfur inlay. That did not stop the market from getting fired up, and the pieces sold for strong prices. They eventually ended up in the collection of Bill DuPont of Delaware and re-appeared on the market last year after his passing.

The redware was another area that achieved strong prices at the Smith sale. Rich and Joan loved color and form, and so the record prices were for figural pieces of redware (rare in any condition) and beautiful colors, such as the New England jug

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