On Friday, Nov. 28, beginning at 10 a.m., Garth's Auctioneers and Appraisers will host the 54th Annual Thanksgiving Americana Auction. "Over the years, this annual event has granted us the opportunity to express the gratitude we feel toward our clients, many who have become friends, while we celebrate our country's rich material culture in quality examples, such as the featured cover lot, a Pennsylvania Chippendale blanket chest, inlaid with stars and tulips and dated 1818," noted Jeff Jeffers, CEO and principal auctioneer.
Traditionally known as Black Friday in the world of big-box retail sales, collectors and dealers will flock to Garth's historic barn on Nov. 28 for a 705-lot sale, which includes 266 items from the lifetime collection of Dick and Sandy Vandenberg of West Lakeland Township, Stillwater, Minn. The Vandenbergs have lovingly added to their collection for over 40 years while shopping antique shows and auction houses across the country. The Vandenberg collection represents formal to folk. As Dick developed a love of portraits, his wife, Sandy, leaned toward kitchen implements, furniture and folk art. However, it is often their "heart collection" that unites them, and several dozen lots of small wood and iron pieces carry a common theme of fanciful heart decoration and adornment.
The Vandenberg session kicks off the sale with a Chippendale blocked reverse serpentine desk-and-bookcase from the Hartford/Colchester area of Connecticut, circa 1780. The estimate is $16,000-$22,000. The upper section features bold denticulated cornice over raised-panel doors and rope-turned or gadrooned columns, while the lower section shows a blocked reverse-serpentine front over a gadrooned skirt that matches the uppercase quarter columns on bold ogee bracket feet. The subtle reverse-serpentine front relates to several pieces attributed to the shop and school of Eliphalet Chapin. (See Kugelman et al, “Connecticut Valley Furniture: Eliphalet Chapin and His Contemporaries, 1750-1800,” pages 162-166.) The rope-turned quarter-columns on the bookcase relate to several pieces from the Loomis Group in nearby Colchester. (See Kugelman et al, pages 232-236.) This piece sold previously at Sotheby's (New York), Oct. 2002, as lot 286. The Vandenbergs' love of formal American furniture will continue to show throughout the session. Highlights include a late-18th-century Chippendale tall chest of drawers of cherry and poplar, estimated at $6,000-$10,000. The chest descends from the Peck family of New Haven, Conn.
Textiles are another highlight of the Vandenberg collection. A fine New Jersey album quilt from Elizabeth Town (now Union), Essex (now Union) County, dated 1850 is particularly striking. The quilt is pieced, appliquéd and quilted by hand, using a wide variety of brightly colored prints in dozens of quilt patterns. Sixty-nine blocks surround a larger center block, all with inked names, most including date and location. Many acknowledge the recipient, Mary Higgins, and wish her a Happy New Year. Two of the verses reference the deaths of Mary Higgins' parents, her mother's implies she was working on the block when she died. Mary, born in 1811 to Luke Haviland Higgins (1769-1822) and Fanny Dawes (1780-1849) was the ninth of eleven children. Many of these siblings and their children inscribed their names on Mary's quilt. She lived her entire life in Elizabeth Town, never marrying and died in 1866. The attractive and brightly colored quilt descended to her grand niece Mary Sterling of Upper Montclair, N.J., and it was purchased by the current consignors in 1976. The quilt carries a presale estimate of $2,000-$5,000.
A selection of American folk portraits from the Vandenberg collection will surely be hotly contested among bidders, as well. A portrait of a girl, attributed to Ammi Phillips, (New York/Connecticut, 1788-1865) features a girl in red dress. An early paper label identifies her as "Caroline Dorr, painted about 1830-1835". Caroline Dorr was born in 1823 in Chatham, N.Y. Her grandfather was Matthew Dorr, whose younger brother was Dr. Russell Dorr. Portraits of Russell Dorr and his family, all by Phillips, are currently in the collection of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Collection at Colonial Williamsburg. This portrait is mounted on its original stretcher and is expected to sell for $4,000-$6,000. A portrait of a woman attributed to Sarah Bushnell Perkins of Connecticut (1771-1831) and ex. Stephen Score, is also an oil-on-canvas and depicts an older woman with a lace bonnet. A penciled note on the stretcher identifies her as "Mrs. Perkins, wife of Jonathan Perkins, an original member N.H. Soc. of Cincinnat, A gift of Mrs. I---, a descendant." Sarah Perkins, formerly known as the "Beardsley Limner," was the niece of Jonathan Perkins (b. 1749). (See Heslip and Kellogg, "The Beardsley Limner Identified as Sarah Perkins" in The Magazine Antiques, September, 1984.) The estimate is $6,000-$8,000.
A rare double portrait attributed to Royall Brewster Smith (Massachusetts, 1801-55) is sure to send paddles in the air with an estimate of $4,000-$7,000. The Honorable and Mrs. B.C. Bailey of Bailey Island, Maine, are depicted sitting before an architectural background. The painting sold previously at Garth's in Nov. 1994, lot 616, and Sept. 1998, lot 426.
Rounding out the Vanderberg session will be several lots of metalware, including three chandeliers found in New Hampshire. The first, a 19th-century three-arm tin chandelier with an old green paint and raised designs, is expected to bring $300-$600. A wrought iron chandelier with six candle arms is expected to sell for $300-$600, while another three-arm tin chandelier with floral designs carries a presale estimate of $250-$500. A wrought iron tilter with a scroll handle is expected to fetch $300-$500, and a 19th-century strainer with a tooled heart handle will cross the block with an estimate of $250-$450 and a provenance of ex. Pat Guthman (Connecticut). A collection of decoys will also cross the block, including a late-19th-century decoy, attributed to Robert Elliston, Bureau, Ill., which has a presale estimate of $250-$350.
Additional furniture highlights in the second session of the day include an early-19th-century New England hutch table. The rectangular top table retains its original red paint and is expected to fetch $8,000-$12,000. It is ex. Grace and Elliott Snyder (Mass.) and ex. Austin T. Miller (Ohio). A decorated blanket chest from Schoharie County, N.Y., 1820-25, also retains its original paint decoration, consisting of a brightly colored vase of flowers, dominated by the cabbage rose, against a blue ground and bordered by scroll decoration with fan corners. It is ex. Stephen Score (Mass.), and ex. Christies, (New York), Jan. 20, 2012, lot 217. The brightly painted chest is expected to bring $8,000-$12,000. A three-piece Baroque kas from the Hudson River Valley of N.Y., circa 1710-30, has a bold cornice over paneled doors flanked by pilasters, over a base with three drawers and diamond panels, all on bun feet. Retaining its early finish, the piece has a presale estimate of $4,000-$8,000.
Buyers looking for pottery will be pleased to see a signed redware pie plate, from a western Pennsylvania collector, which has green and yellow slipware tulips and is impressed "J.L. Blaney, Cookstown, Pa." Justus L. Blaney (1809-75) was listed as a potter in Cookstown, Fayette County, Pa., in 1850, but by 1860, he was reduced to the job of "day laborer" in Meigs County, Ohio, and then by 1870, had moved to Muskingum County, Ohio, and described himself as a "farm laborer." The estimate will be $300-$600.
Of the many lots of fine Chinese porcelains, a Kraakware charger or basin, circa 1610-30, has blue and white decoration featuring a central medallion of a bird in a garden setting surrounded by a border of reserves filled with flowers and auspicious symbols. With scalloped edges, this charger carries a presale estimate of $8,000-$10,000.
An important Pennsylvania needlework hair and silk on gauze memorial from Marietta, Lancaster County, Pa., 1832, depicts a grieving couple by a monument dedicated to 21-year-old William Johns, who died in 1822. A willow tree bows overhead, all within a floral vine. Signed at the lower edge "Louisa Myers her work made in the year of our Lord 1832," the realistic flower border on three sides, the wide leafed willow, plume pattern on the urn, the wording of the inscriptions, ribbon border and use of real hair are all characteristic of needlework made under the supervision of Catherine Buchanan. The piece has an estimate of $7,000-$12,000.
Garth's is located at 2690 Stratford Road in Delaware, Ohio.
For further information, call 740-362-4771 or visit www.garths.com.