An Important Early New England Collection | Session I Taking the High Road
The Collection of John B. and Marie-Teresa Vander Sande was cultivated over a lifetime of shared interest and enthusiasm. It began when John was a Fulbright Scholar, completing his postdoctoral studies at Oxford. There, on weekends, he would go out to some of the famous local cathedrals to take rubbings of the monumental brasses usually set into the floor of such places. This practice helped seed within him a passion for antiques and old things, something he would take back to the states, a souvenir of his time abroad. Once stateside Marie-Teresa’s sister gave the couple a book by Wallace Nutting, in which John spotted a picture of a Connecticut side chair the couple owned. This shaped John’s appreciation for the antique into a passion for early New England furniture, a passion that his wife would soon embrace as well. Together, they cultivated “collections of collections” of antiques– from glass to ceramics to furniture– from 17th and 18th century New England, their reputations in the antique world growing all the while.
John approached antiques with the analytical eye of a microscopist and engineer, fascinated by the details of this early furniture, both in the wood and in the design. In addition to his standard engineering courses, he taught a class for first year students at MIT, in which he taught students how to construct a box with hand tools and 17th century techniques, starting with unmilled logs. Massachusetts furniture of the 17th and 18th centuries was an early passion of John’s, before narrowing to that of Essex County of the same period. By contrast, his wife Marie, though no less exacting, took a more open handed approach. If John was vacillating on purchasing an object, “I would say ‘Just buy it,’ and he’d always say ‘Now wait just a minute…’” she recounts, “He put the breaks on where I said ‘go for it.’” Despite the varying levels of caution, there was little disagreement. “I don’t remember the arguments,” Marie says, “At most there was regret that we passed on a certain piece.”
The Vander Sandes were most captivated by the human element of their pieces. The right combination of elements— knowing the hands that made them and the places they were created— gave a piece greater odds of finding a home in their collections of collections. Signatures, dates, being pictured in reference books like the Nutting book that started it all, anything that could communicate or draw a link to the human element of a given piece was prized beyond measure, especially the ability to link it back to a specific craftsman. It made the pieces more than just constructions of dead wood. As such, the Vander Sande collection boasts an impressive number of pieces with known, historic makers, and in some cases a chronological series of pieces that allow one to see how a single person’s craft evolved in style and skill over their lifetime.
March 12, 2025
Asheville, North Carolina
auction starts at 10:00 am preview by appointment see our website for full catalog brunkauctions.com
Finding such acute enjoyment in that facet of their collection is perhaps why it became so all-encompassing. John and Marie would talk about their passion in the car and over coffee, and read books on the subject to each other before turning in for the night. While their home was full of the fruits of their collecting, Marie was quick to say “We didn’t live in a museum, though some thought we did. We raised a family there.” They emphasized the human element, using their prizes as they were designed to be used, rather than simply displaying them. Together, the Vander Sandes accrued a collection of practically everything one could expect a household of the time period by which they were so enamored to have. From furniture of the Pilgrim Century, William and Mary, and Queen Anne periods, to Bellarmine, Westerwald, Staffordshire, and Delft ceramics, to candlesticks and glass, to needlework and jewelry caskets; Their 17th century house on High Road in Newbury, Massachusetts, with its wide plank floors and open hearth, was a living time capsule, the perfect showcase and the epitome of a New England home from the 17th and 18th centuries.
Within this lovingly curated collection, John’s favorites included 17th century case pieces and chests, Ipswich furniture, particularly that of Thomas Dennis, and North Essex furniture. Marie fondly remembers a shared favorite, a spice box from the late 1600s. Likewise, Marie envisions her husband, in Heaven, speaking animatedly to the craftsmen he so appreciated and the experts he learned from about their shared love of the field and passion for each-other’s work. We hope you take this sale as an opportunity to do the same, and write yourself into the next chapter of the history of these storied pieces.
Lifetime of Passionate Collecting
Cultivated over a lifetime of passionate collecting, this auction boasts a large group of fine quality decorative arts, primarily from the 17th and 18th centuries and across a wide range of categories. Featuring an extensive offering of rare English, German, and Dutch Delft, and other ceramics, highlights include an elaborately decorated posset pot; English slipware, including a Ralph Simpson William III charger; large Bellarmine jugs; and several examples of rare lustrous Nottingham stoneware.
Important Collection of Ceramics Including Westerwald, Bellarmine, and Others
Penchant and Appreciation
With a penchant and appreciation for the old and local, the Vander Sande’s collection of and expertise on 17th and 18th century Essex County furniture makers is extraordinary. This auction includes prize pieces of the Queen Anne, William and Mary, and Pilgrim Century periods, as well as fine examples of the work of local shops of the era. Highlights include an extremely rare Mason-Messinger valuables cabinet, a Chase family great chair, an important Symond’s shop chest with drawer, and a very rare Pilgrim Century oak joint stool.
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