"Mrs. Gratz," a bronze by J. Clayton Bright , is expected to fetch $30,000 to $40,000 at the Willistown Township liquidation sale of Leonard E.B. Andrews' furnishings and art. The auction will be conducted by Wiederseim Associates.
A closing chapter in the colorful life of Leonard E.B. Andrews will take place Saturday when Wiederseim Associates liquidates the collector's furnishings and art amassed at his estate in Willistown Township.
The auction, beginning at 10 a.m. at Ponder This, his estate at 418 Dutton Mill Rd., promises to be a colorful event, too.
"This is going to be a good old-fashioned country sale," Ted Wiederseim said this week. "No catalog, no bids by phone or Internet, and everything is going to be sold."
On the other hand, the sale will offer better than average refreshments. As caterer, Wiederseim has engaged Charlie Orlando of Historic Yellow Springs.
The sale is rain or shine, but the schedule for liquidating the 650 to 700 lots will depend on the weather, Wiederseim said. If it's clear, the first items to go on the block will be reference books, followed by more of Andrews' collection of Staffordshire.
(The first 100-lot batch of Staffordshire from the collection, which Wiederseim offered on May 8, rarely exceeded presale estimates, although a figure group of whippets with game that had a presale estimate of $100 to $150 brought $1,100.)
Furniture will come next, then paintings, and finally bronzes - about 20 of them. That's where the top bids are expected.
A bronze cow by J. Clayton Bright of Unionville titled Mrs. Gratz and a lifesize bronze pig by Andre Harvey of Wilmington should sell for $30,000 to $40,000 each, Wiederseim said. "We had a lot of interest in them from across the country."
Other bronzes should be considerably more affordable, although the 67-inch-high Bacchante With Infant Faun also should do well, given that its sculptor was the well-known Frederick MacMonnies.
Among the approximately 100 paintings Andrews collected, Wiederseim expects two "exceptional" oils by the Pennsylvania impressionist Walter Baum to sell in the $15,000-to-$25,000 range. Even Tide, an oil-on-board by the Japanese impressionist Yashshi Tanaka, should bring $5,000. And Wiederseim expects John Blenner Carle's Woman With Parasol to sell for $20,000 to $25,000. He says there has been almost as much interest in it as in the Helga paintings that created such a sensation when they were acquired in 1986 by Andrews, who died in January 2009 at age 82.
Andrews also collected ship models, which will be another sale highlight, notably a model of the Constitution and the famed steam yacht Corsair.
Furniture includes a couple of Chesterfield sofas, a leather-front, two-piece collectors cabinet, two brass and marble bank tables, and a Georgian hunt table - the kind that was made tall enough to let horseback riders serve themselves from it without having to dismount.
Wiederseim says it could bring $2,000 to $2,500, particularly given the auction's location in Chester County horse country. "If it's going to sell well," he said, "It's going to be here."
Previews are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and 8 a.m. to sale time Saturday. Follow signs to the sale on Dutton Mill Road. For further information call 610-827-1910, or, to see select photographs of sale items, go to www.wiederseim.com.
Modern furniture A sale next week will offer the opportunity to bid on furniture, mostly modern, and decorative items. It will be offered by Uniques and Antiques Auction Sales beginning at 11 a.m. Tuesday at the gallery, 2500 Market St. (Route 452 at I-95) in Aston. First to be sold will be the decorative items, including modern glassware, Danish flatware, and the contents of a decorative gallery.
The sale will continue at 2 p.m. with a 400-lot catalog session of furniture by designers including Saarinen, Florence Knoll, Eames, and Heywood-Wakefield, as well as statuary and other decorative items, such as a Yaacov Agam hologram, Homage to Einstein, and a signed and numbered bronze mythological statue of a female figure, possibly by Steven Lord. The catalog can be seen online at www.AuctionUp.com, although presale estimates had still to be added. Following that will be an uncataloged session of modern design.
Previews: 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Monday and 10 a.m. to sale time Tuesday. For further information, call 610-485-7400.
Books at Freeman's Diaries, letters, and an early pocket atlas from the Stevenson-Easby estate will be highlighted at Freeman's spring book sale beginning at 10 a.m. Thursday at the gallery at 1808 Chestnut St. The diaries were kept by Adam May Stevenson from 1852 to 1854 and again from 1861 to 1888 after he had moved to Chestnut Hill and recorded daily life in the area, according to Freeman's David Bloom.
The diaries also contain vignettes by Stevenson, who was an amateur painter and a board member of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. They have a presale estimate of $800 to $1,200, according to the online auction catalog accessible at www.freemansauction.com.
The letters from the Easby estate were written in the early 1800s to Mathew Carey of Philadelphia by Hezekiah Niles, founder, printer, and publisher of the Weekly Register, later known as Niles' Register. The five dozen letters discussing American issues of the day have a presale estimate of $1,500 to $2,500.
The pocket atlas, Carey's General Atlas, Improved and Enlarged, was published in 1814. An expanded edition of the atlas that Carey first issued in 1796, it has a presale estimate of $4,000 to $6,000. The 500-lot auction also features several dozen lots of coins, currency, and medals.
Previews are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday. For further information, call 215-563-9275.
