"Allentown Houses" by Walter Baum will be offered by Wiederseim at Friday's first session of its Thanksgiving weekend sale at the Ludwig's Corner firehouse. Estimate: $10,000 to $15,000.
The post-Thanksgiving auction season begins with a vengeance this weekend with sales offering items of local and nostalgic interest, followed next week by a sale that offers more gift possibilities, including a mounted black rhinoceros head.
The items of local interest will be offered by Wiederseim Associates at its Thanksgiving weekend sale beginning at 5 p.m. Friday and resuming at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Ludwig's Corner firehouse, 1323 N. Pottstown Pike (Route 100) in Glenmoore. The first session features paintings by Walter Baum, notably a winter cityscape titled Allentown Houses expected to bring $10,000 to $15,000 (according to the online auction catalog accessible at www.wiederseim.com) and a Stickley Brothers arts and crafts sideboard with a presale estimate of $2,000 to $3,000.
Saturday's session offers more piquant local history glimpses - at considerably more affordable presale estimates. A fascinating 1904 large hanging map of Pennsylvania shows the "wedge," the area disputed by Pennsylvania and Delaware until a 1921 Act of Congress gave it to Delaware. (The dispute arose from the establishment in 1750 of the so-called Twelve-Mile Circle that forms most of the boundary between the two states and was centered in the town of New Castle. It also forms parts of the boundary between Delaware and New Jersey and runs through a corner of Salem County.)
The map has a presale estimate of $100 to $150.
Paintings include works by two Chester Springs artists. An oil-on-board impressionist painting by Albert Van Nesse Greene of Pikeland Village, where Greene, a World War I veteran, lived and painted, has a presale estimate of $700. And an oil-on-canvas spring landscape by Dorothy Van Loan titled Chester Springs should bring $2,500 to $3,500.
Also of historic interest is a rare silver stuffing spoon made by Philip Syng Jr. of Philadelphia (1703-89), with engraved initials on the back that suggest it was a gift made to celebrate Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown on Oct. 19, 1781. Philadelphia, seat of the Continental Congress, celebrated the war's end with parades, pageants, and other public festivities. The 14½-inch-long spoon has a presale estimate of $4,000 to $6,000.
The top presale estimate in the session is for a rare Kentucky flintlock rifle with brass inlaid patch box and half-moon incised and carved stock that should bring $15,000 to $17,000. Its barrel is engraved with the name "S. Miller" for Samuel Miller, Swatara Township, Lebanon County - a reminder that the name notwithstanding, many Kentucky rifles were made in Pennsylvania.
Previews are from 10 a.m. to sale time Friday and 7 a.m. to sale time Saturday. For further information call 610-827-1910.
Trains at Rhoads and Rhoads. The nostalgia will be provided at the Rhoads and Rhoads Auction Center in Spring City, which will offer the railroad collection of Stanley Baker beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday and Baker's arts and antique collection beginning at 10 a.m. Sunday. The more than 500 lots of railroadiana and the 350 lots of art and antiques are also being offered online at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
Baker, of Minneapolis, was a World War II veteran, author, artist, and collector who specialized in the railroad lines of the Midwest in the days when luxury passenger trains hauled by steam locomotives were a source of romance and glamour. Ron Rhoads says he was picked by a dealer who appraised the Baker estate and had been at other Rhoads and Rhoads events.
Saturday's session includes a dozen paintings by Baker himself, notably an oil titled Drivewheels depicting what appears to be an old Atlantic locomotive whose two sets of drive wheels were 6 feet high and gave the engine tremendous speed. It has a presale estimate of $200 to $400.
A Currier & Ives lithograph of an express train has a presale estimate of $2,000 to $3,000 and a Buddy L outdoor model train set has one of $2,000 to $4,000. But most of the Baker collection consists of smaller items with presale estimates in the low-three-figure range.
They include lanterns; switch locks (used to deter mischief makers from diverting a train or even derailing it); railroad china, such as a seven-piece "Pink Goose Traveler" from a luxury Milwaukee Road dining car ($200 to $400); a Soo Line sleeping car blanket ($50 to $100); and enamel signs such as a red metal rear passenger car logo for "The Badger," a signature train of the Great Northern Railway ($100 to $300).
Artwork and antiques in Sunday's session include a Lalique Hirondelles vase ($5,000 to $10,000); Summer Fantasy, an oil on canvas by the Belgian Karel Ooms ($7,000 to $10,000); and a pastoral landscape by the American John William Casilear ($12,000 to $18,000).
Preview: noon to 4 p.m. Friday at the gallery at 20 Bonnie Brae Rd. (Route 724). For further information call 610-385-4818.
Pook and Pook variety sale. The biggest of the post-Thanksgiving sales will be Pook and Pook's variety sale Thursday and next Friday at the gallery in Downingtown. (The online catalog is accessible at www.pookandpook.com.)
That's where the rhino head will be offered.
It is one of 60 lots of taxidermy trophies and art that will open the first session of the 1,300-lot auction beginning at 2 p.m. Thursday, and has a presale estimate of $20,000 to $30,000. The trophies and art, from the estate of the late J. Martin Benchoff, a big-game hunter from Shady Grove, Pa., also include a full-size Alaskan Kodiak brown bear ($4,000 to $7,000) and several paintings by wildlife artist Gary Swanson.
The session continues with about 100 lots of painted bronze figures of mammals, birds, fish, and insects from the collection of Dr. Robert L. Schaeffer Jr., being sold to benefit an endowment fund at Franklin & Marshall College. Also in the 600-lot session are antique and contemporary furniture and artwork.
The second session beginning at 9 a.m. next Friday opens with Pennsylvania country furniture, then continues with Chinese arts, American Indian items, and several lithographs, notably Leonetto Cappiello's famed poster for the French aperitif Maurin Quina, which has a presale estimate of $1,000 to $1,500. The session also features a quantity of Christmas-related items, including feather trees, Santa figures, and ornaments.
Previews are from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Wednesday; 10 a.m. to sale time Thursday, and 8 a.m. to sale time Friday at the gallery at 463 E. Lancaster Ave. For further information call 610-269-4040.
Contact David Iams at daiams@comcast.net.
