Americana online 3416T: The Kolar Collection | 3417T: August Americana | 3419T: Shaker Collections
August Americana at Skinner front cover: Paint-decorated Dower Chest “Noah Mali,” Sugar Creek Township, Tuscarawas County, Ohio, 1846
this page: Carved Oak and Pine “MH” Hadley Chest, Hadley, Massachusetts, area, late 17th/early 18th century, possibly for Miriam Hovey opposite: Shaker Woodenware from Private Collections back cover: Flame-stitch Needlework Wallet, America, 18th century
Browse descriptions and additional images online: www.skinnerinc.com
Welcome to August Americana at Skinner! Our three online sales offer all that you’ve come to expect this time of year, and more. We’ve showcased some highlights here, please join us online to explore the rest. Assembled over the past 35 years, the Kolar Collection includes over 300 lots of colorful folk art acquired from a wide range of sources, from top dealers to small rural auctions across Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New England. Rare painted blanket chests, slip-decorated redware, painted woodenware, weathervanes, and a variety of fine Winsdsor chairs—the collection provides an exceptional opportunity to acquire fine pieces not often available today. You will find American-made furniture spanning the late 17th through the late 19th century—well-crafted pieces from all over the Northeast highlighted by the carved “MH” Hadley chest, a Massachusetts-made walnut veneer high chest in old surface, and a cherry chest of drawers made in the Deerfield vicinity with an impressively scalloped top. There are several pieces from a collection assembled with a fastidious eye for early surfaces, and a selection of early Pennsylvania furniture including tall clocks and case pieces from two private collections. As is always the case, this August’s Americana offerings are brightened by a variety of colorful folk art objects and painted furniture. Paint-decorated and grain-painted pieces include a four-drawer chest from Vermont, and a simple, elegant painted dressing table with an understated decorative scheme. More color is added via a large selection of hooked rugs, painted boxes in many shapes and sizes, and a group of gilt and molded copper weathervanes. Items from two family collections make up the core of about 180 lots of material being offered in Shaker Collections online. Large case pieces anchor each collection—a yellow-painted cupboard over drawers from Hancock or New Lebanon, and a ten-drawer butternut Trustee’s chest from Enfield. But smalls and small furniture are abundant, too—pantry boxes in many sizes and colors, buckets, carriers, pails, candlestands and chairs. The lover of antiques with a modern aesthetic will surely find something worth their attention here.
please contact the department for condition reports & sale preview information, visit our website to register & bid
3416T The Kolar Collection online | August 3–12 3417T August Americana online | August 3–13 3419T Shaker Collections online | August 11–20 Stephen Fletcher Chris Barber Christopher Fox americana@skinnerinc.com 508.970.3200
MA LIC. 2304
The Kolar Collection 3416T | August 3–11 | www.skinnerinc.com
Redware Fine slip-decorated redware in the Kolar Collection includes inscribed plates, dishes with floral and geometric patterns, miniature items, and rare signed examples by Pennsylvania potters John Bell and Willoughby Smith. As seen in these examples, redware pottery is beautiful in its simplicity. Often thickly potted and decorated with trailed slip and colored glaze, redware appealed to a wide American audience because of its durability. Hardly a rural 19th century Pennsylvania or New England home would be without a few pieces gracing the dinner table.
this page: Very Rare Watercolor and Pen and Ink House Blessing Fraktur, the Manor Township Artist, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, c. 1822 Birth and Baptismal Fraktur for Sarah Opellinger, Ehre Vater Artist, Berks County, Pennsylvania, c. 1802 Watercolor Birth Fraktur for Rachel Gaff, Abraham Huth, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, July 27th, 1808 Blue-painted Pine Bucket Bench and Highlights from a Collection of Cobaltdecorated Stoneware Highlights from a Collection of Pennsylvania Slip-decorated Redware
opposite page: Watercolor and Pen and Ink “The Temple of Science,” Augustus J. Miller, Borough of Northampton, Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, 1819 Watercolor Schwenkfelder Fraktur, signed “Jonas Kriebel,” Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, 1842 Carved and Painted Bird Figures, including examples by Simmons and Joseph Moyer Highlights from a Collection of Pennsylvania Slip-decorated Redware
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Selections from a Collection of 18th and 19th century Slipdecorated Wares Painted Pine Heart- and Pinwheel-decorated Dome-top Box, probably Somerset County, Pennsylvania, c. 1820-30
Red-painted Compass Artist Decorated Dome-top Box, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, mid-19th century
Two Blue-painted Windsor Armchairs, Rhode Island, c. 1790, from a collection of Windsor chairs
Paint-decorated Slant-lid Box Attributed to the Checkerboard Artist, probably Somerset County, Pennsylvania, second quarter 19th century
Molded and Gilded Sheet Copper Dog Weathervane, probably Cushing and White, Waltham, Massachusetts, late 19th century
Paint-decorated Pine Wooden Works Tall Case Clock, probably Riley Whiting, Winchester, Connecticut, early 19th century
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Paint-decorated and Carved Poplar Dower Chest, reportedly for Elizabeth Kepler Shadman [or Chadman], Berks County, Pennsylvania, early 19th century
Paint-decorated Dower Chest “Cadrina Blesle/1824,� Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, 1824
Queen Anne Inlaid Walnut High Chest of Drawers, Massachusetts, c. 1730-50
Full descriptions and additional images online: www.skinnerinc.com/auctions/3416T
August Americana 3417T | August 3–12 | www.skinnerinc.com
Cherry Chest of Drawers on Frame, Deerfield, Massachusetts, area, late 18th century Blue-painted Cupboard, New England, early 19th century Diminutive Queen Anne Maple and Walnut Veneer High Chest of Drawers, Massachusetts, c. 1730-50
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Tiger Maple Salmon Red-painted Fall-front Desk, probably New Hampshire, late 18th/ early 19th century Queen Anne Maple and Mahogany Veneer Dressing Table, Massachusetts, c. 1730-40 Chippendale Carved Walnut High Chest of Drawers, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, area, c. 1760-80 Needlework Sampler “Betsy Evans,� Marblehead, Massachusetts, c. 1790
Molded Sheet Copper and Zinc Cow Weathervane, America, late 19th century Chippendale Carved Walnut Chest of Drawers, Pennsylvania, c. 1760-80 Highlights from a Collection of Early Pottery and Porcelain Walnut Tall Case Clock, George Hoff, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, c. 1760-90
Early Stoneware Salt-glazed stoneware was ubiquitous in early American households. Decorated in colorful enamels, incised and cobalt-decorated floral motifs, or plain white molded patterns, these wares were among the first mass-produced and inexpensively priced table wares to flood the mid-18th century American market. While they are rarely seen today, this sale offers an attractive selection of forms, some with interesting and historical inscriptions.
Highlights from a Collection of Early Pottery and Porcelain Early English Needlework Picture, early 18th century, in a walnut veneer looking glass-style frame Early English Biblical Stumpwork Picture, 17th century Early English “Sampson and Delilah� Needlework Picture, 17th century
this page: American School, 19th Century, Portrait of the Sailing Ship Rachel, in English Waters William Hare (Maryland/England, 18151865), Portrait of the Schooner Abbott Lawrence White Cat Hooked Rug, America, late 19th century Grain-painted Chest of Four Drawers, Vermont, early 19th century Ralph Cahoon (Massachusetts, 1910-1982), Fighting a Ship Fire
opposite page: Green-painted Spill Holder, probably Massachusetts, late 18th/early 19th century Light Gray/green-painted Dressing Table, possibly northern New England, early 19th century Grain-painted One-drawer Stand, Pennsylvania, c. 1820 Green Paint-decorated Box, probably New England, early 19th century Figure of a Fish, composed of a bowling pin and sheet metal, 20th century Carved and Painted Model for a Ship’s Figurehead, late 19th century, ht. 14 1/2 in. Joseph Hidley (New York, 1830-1872) Basket of Fruit Architectural Panel
Enigmatic and fanciful, many of the objects on offer were made outside urban centers and/or without a rigorous adherence to the “high style� that the 19th century cultural elite demanded. Folk artists and rural artisans created highly regionalized and often personalized interpretations of the decorative arts made by their urban counterparts. Furniture makers used exuberant graining to evoke expensive exotic wood, and painted banding, pinstriping, and decoration to emulate inlay. Painters sought to portray their subjects with a distilled essence, since for many a realistic likeness was beyond their skill level. Others simply created artful objects in the name of practicality or amusement. All of that is on view at Skinner this August.
Shaker Collections 3419T | August 11–20 | www.skinnerinc.com
Yellow-painted Cupboard Over Drawers, Hancock, Massachusetts, or New Lebanon, New York, 1840 Small Red-painted Case of Drawers and a Collection of Berry Pails, 19th century Cherry Candlestand, 19th century Maple and Birch Stand, 19th century Red-painted Chest of Five Drawers, Watervliet, New York, 19th century
Full descriptions and additional images online: www.skinnerinc.com/ auctions/3419T
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Blue-painted School Desk, Enfield, New Hampshire, 19th century
Butternut Trustees Chest of Ten Drawers, Enfield, Connecticut, 19th century
Green/Gray-painted Cherry and Pine One-drawer Work Stand, Harvard, Massachusetts, c. 1850
Oval Pantry Boxes, in old natural surface White-painted and Carved Dipper, New York or New England, c. 1830-50
Martha Crooker’s Yellowpainted Pine Sister’s Pail, Enfield or Canterbury, New Hampshire, before 1853, signed on the bottom “M*C.” and inscribed in pencil “Martha Crooker 1853”
Renowned for their ingenuity, craftsmanship, and attention to detail, the Shakers often appear to have chosen function over form. Their oval pantry boxes can stack in neatly graduated sizes, some of their chairs are designed hang on peg racks to get them off the floor when not in use, and their cupboards and worktables of variable form are designed for the expediency of the intended user. Now, paradoxically, 21st century collectors covet the simple logic and timeless elegance of Shaker design—certainly an unintended consequence of those 19th century makers. Free of excessive decoration, and defined most often by simplicity, Shaker furniture and woodenware plays as well with modern design as it can with “traditional” American antiques.
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