American Furniture & Decorative Arts

188 Pages·2011·9.78 MB·English

SKINNER
American Furniture & Decorative Arts
Sale 2558M August 14, 2011 Marlborough

American Furniture & Decorative Arts

specialists in charge
Stephen Fletcher LaGina Austin Chris Barber Karen Langberg
Department Director 508.970.3225 508.970.3227 508.970.3281
508.970.3228
American Furniture & Decorative Arts Department - 508.970.3200
General Inquiries: [email protected]
auction 2558M
Sunday, August 14, 2011 at 10 a.m.
274 Cedar Hill Street
Marlborough, Massachusetts
preview
Wednesday, August 10, 2011 12 to 5 p.m.
Thursday, August 11, 2011 12 to 5 p.m.
Friday, August 12, 2011 12 to 5 p.m.
Saturday, August 13, 2011 12 to 5 p.m.
Sunday, August 14, 2011 8 to 10 a.m.
absentee bidding
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Online: www.skinnerinc.com
general inquiries
508.970.3000
View all lots online at www.skinnerinc.com
cover: 26; frontispiece: 4; inside back cover: 307
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table of contents
1 Auction & Specialist Information
2 Web Site & Online Bidding
4-6 Event Announcements
7 Provenance

8 Bibliography
9 Lots 1-951
177 Map & Driving Directions
178 Conditions of Sale
179 Absentee Bid Form
180 Company Directors & Specialty Departments
181 Administrative Staff & Client Services
182 Accommodations
183 Catalogue Subscription Form
Please Note: All lots sold subject to our Conditions of Sale.
Please refer to page 178 of this catalogue for the full terms and conditions governing your purchase.
Copyright © Skinner, Inc. 2011
All rights reserved
MA/Lic. #2304

SKINNER
presents an

Americana Lecture
“Cabinet Furniture, in All its Variety: Vermont
Craftsmanship 1760-1860”

Presented by Philip Zea, President of Historic Deerfield

Saturday, August 13, 2011
2:30 p.m. Reception
3:00 p.m. Lecture

274 Cedar Hill Street
Marlborough, MA

R.S.V.P. 508.970.3000
[email protected]
Reservations are Limited

Held in conjunction with a preview of Skinner’s
August 14th auction of American Furniture & Decorative Arts
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Provenance
Barbara and Bob Levine Collection
Barbara and Bob Levine are native Vermonters. For a while they lived in New York, and visited Vermont with their young
sons and golden retriever asleep in the back of the station wagon. On these trips, they frequented the many area antique
shops and what they found fostered their collecting bug, beginning with coin silver spoons.
As the family grew, the Levines’ taste for antiques matured. They began to concentrate on 18th and 19th century Vermont
furniture and decorative arts, including needlework samplers, clocks, and portraits by itinerant artists. Because of their grow-
ing interests, Barbara and Bob became involved on the collections committee and the board of trustees of the Bennington
Museum. Its outstanding exhibits of Vermont furniture further inspired their quest for hard-to-find authenticated Vermont
material, resulting in what is thought to be the largest private collection of Vermont furniture and decorative arts in the U.S.
Highlighting the Levine collection is a rare and important Federal tiger and bird’s-eye maple veneered bureau made in
Rutland, Vermont, c. 1805-15. Also featured is a needlework sampler made by Margaret Allen that may well be the earliest
piece of Vermont needlework in existence, and a decorative carved and gilded catamount figural tavern sign, probably made
in Bennington county, c. 1893. The figure was reportedly carved by a carousel figure carver for the 1893 Bennington, Ver-
mont, centennial celebration. A rare example of Vermont clock-making is the cherry shop wall regulator with an engraved
brass dial made by Levi Pitkin in Montpelier, Vermont, c. 1800. A rare portrait of a St. Albans woman by Ruth W. Shute
is the only known piece by this folk artist which bears a printed label: “Painted by Mrs. R.W. Shute St. Albans F[ebruary]
1835.”
Barbara and Bob, approaching their 80s, still spend time on Lake Bomoseen during the summer months. It is their hope
that this auction will give other Vermont lovers an opportunity to acquire the objects that the Levines have enjoyed collect-
ing for almost half a century.
Property Approved for Deaccession by the Board of Trustees of Historic Deerfield, Inc., proceeds to the benefit
the Museum Collections Fund.
A Massachusetts Historical Society
Connecticut collections
A Nantucket, Massachusetts, collection
A Concord, Massachusetts, antiquarian
A Lexington, Massachusetts, collection
A Maine estate
A Florida family
A Norwell, Massachusetts, estate
A Vermont family
A New York City collector
Property from the Collection of Joanne Forney
New Hampshire and New Jersey estates
A Michigan family
Property from a New York collection of American pottery
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A Partial Bibliography of Vermont Material Culture (Lots 1-47)
Lillian Baker Carlisle, Vermont Clock and Watchmakers, Silversmiths, and Jewelers, 1778-1878, Burlington, VT:
Private Press, 1970.
Celebrating Vermont, Myths and Realities, Nancy Price Graff, ed., Middlebury, VT: Middlebury College, 1991.
Peter M. Deveikis, “Hastings Warren: Vermont Cabinetmaker,” The Magazine Antiques, 101:6 (June 1972):
1037-1039.
J. Kevin Graffagnino, The Shaping of Vermont, Rutland and Bennington, VT: Vermont Heritage Press and The
Bennington Museum, 1987.
David Hewitt, “G. Stedman—The Elusive Vermont Cabinetmaker,” Maine Antiques Digest, 14:3 (March 1986):
1D-4D.
William N. Hosley, Jr., “Vermont Furniture, 1790-1830,” Early New England Furniture: Essays in Memory of
Benno M. Forman, Brock Jobe, ed., Boston: S.P.N.E.A., 1987, pp. 245-286.
William N. Hosley, Jr., “Architecture and Society of the Urban Frontier: Windsor, Vermont, in 1800,” The Bay
and the River, 1600-1900, Peter Benes, ed., 1981 Annual Proceedings of the Dublin Seminar for New England
Folklife, Boston: Boston University, 1982, pp. 73-86.
Zadock Thompson, History of Vermont, Natural, Civil, Statistical, Burlington, VT: Chauncy Goodrich, 1842.
Philip Zea, “Craftsmen and Culture: An Introduction to Vermont Furniture Making,” in Charles A. Robinson,
Vermont Cabinetmakers & Chairmakers Before 1855: A Checklist, Philip Zea, ed., Shelburne, VT: Shelburne
Museum, 1995, pp. 13-24.
Philip Zea, “Clockmaking and Society at the River and the Bay: Jedidiah and Jabez Baldwin, 1790-1820,” The
Bay and the River, 1600-1900, Peter Benes, ed., 1981 Annual Proceedings of the Dublin Seminar for New Eng-
land Folklife, Boston: Boston University, 1982, pp. 43-59.
Kenneth Joel Zogry, The Best the Country Affords: Vermont Furniture, 1765-1850, Philip Zea, ed., Bennington,
VT: Bennington Museum, 1995.
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