COMPLIMENTARY COPY TM
The Most Widely Read Collector's Newspaper In The East Published Weekly By Joel Sater Publications www.antiquesandauctionnews.net
VOL. 45, NO. 48 FRIDAY NOVEMBER 28, 2014
Garth’s 54th Annual Thanksgiving Americana Auction Will Be Held Nov. 28 n 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
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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
and school of Eliphalet Chapin. (See Kugelman et al, “Connecticut Valley Furniture: Eliphalet Chapin and His Contemporaries, 17501800,” pages 162-166.) The ropeturned quarter-columns on the bookcase relate to several pieces from the Loomis Group in nearby
The Pennsylvania Chippendale inlaid blanket chest dated “1818” is estimated at $4,000-$8,000.
This Chippendale tall chest of drawers is estimated at $6,000$10,000.
Colchester. (See Kugelman et al, pages 232-236.) This piece sold This Chippendale blocked reverse- previously at Sotheby’s (New serpentine desk-and-bookcase is York), Oct. 2002, as lot 286. The estimated at $16,000-$22,000. Vandenbergs’ love of formal American furniture will continue over raised-panel doors and rope- to show throughout the session. turned or gadrooned columns, Highlights include a late-18th-cenwhile the lower section shows a tury Chippendale tall chest of blocked reverse-serpentine front drawers of cherry and poplar, estiover a gadrooned skirt that match- mated at $6,000-$10,000. The es the uppercase quarter columns chest descends from the Peck famon bold ogee bracket feet. The ily of New Haven, Conn. Textiles are another highlight subtle reverse-serpentine front relates to several pieces attributed of the Vandenberg collection. A fine New to the shop J e r s e y album quilt from Elizabeth Town (now Union), Essex (now Union) County, dated 1850 is particularly striking. The quilt is p i e c e d , appliquéd and quilted by hand, using a wide variety of brightly colored prints in dozens of quilt A Baraque kas or wardrobe from the patterns. SixtyHudson River Valley is estimated at nine blocks $4,000-$8,000.
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 (17801849) 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
This Chippendale armchair is estimated at $5,000-$8,000.
Here is a New England hutch table in original red paint, which is estimated at $ 8 , 0 0 0 $12,000.
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 A portrait of a woman attributed to Sarah born in 1823 in Chatham, N.Y. Her Bushnell Perkins (Conn., 1771-1831) is estimated grandfather was Matthew Dorr, at $6,000-$8,000. 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 The double portrait attributed to Royall Brewster Smith (Mass., The framed needlework memorial is estimated This western Pennsylvania fraktur is depicts an older woman with a 1801-55) is estimated at $4,000-$7,000.
at $7,000-$12,000.
estimated at $800-$1,200. (Continued on page 2)