YoungGirlin a White Dress Holding a Rose
Probably Maine, circa 1820
Oil on canvas, 18 x 15 inches, in original veneered frame.
Inscribed on stretcher: “L. E. GREGORY / OYSTER BAY / NY 1959 / FROM BRUNSWICK / ME REGION”
This is a classic example of Brewster’s portraits of children from the 1820s, with the sitter positioned close to the picture plane, depicted bust length, and devoid of distractions that might compete with their faces. Related examples are illustrated in Paul S. D’Ambrosio, The World of John Brewster, Jr. (Cooperstown, NY, 2006), pp. 49–51, pls. 37–39. The artist’s extraordinary life as an eighteenth century deaf and mute itinerant portrait artist is explored in Harlan Lane, A Deaf Artist in Early America: The Worlds of John Brewster, Jr. (Boston, 2004), and the landmark 2006 exhibition “The World of John Brewster Jr.” at the Fenimore Art Museum and American Folk Art Museum. Born in Connecticut to an established Puritan family, Brewster was well educated and studied painting with Reverend Joseph Steward. In 1817, at age fifty-one, Brewster was a member of the first class at the newly formed American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut. He lived a long life of eighty-eight years, traveling throughout Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine, painting his extraordinarily sensitive portraits.
Provenance:
Lewis Ellsworth Gregory (1919–1977), Oyster Bay and Glen Head, NY; “Important American Furniture, Silver, Folk Art and Decorative Arts,” Christie’s, New York, October 18, 1986, lot 443; Collection of Eddy G. Nicholson, Hampton, NH; Marguerite Riordan, Stonington, CT; Collection of Susan and Mark Laracy, New Canaan, CT; “Distinguished American Furniture and Folk Art: The Collection of Susan and Mark Laracy,” Sotheby’s, New York, January 20, 2007, lot 159; Collection of Barbara Gordon, Bethesda, MD; Private collection.
Exhibited:
“A Shared Legacy: Folk Art in America,” American Folk Art Museum, New York, 2014– 15, traveled to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2015; Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, TN, 2015–16; Montgomery Museum of Art, AL, 2016; Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, PA, 2016; Denver Art Museum, CO, 2016–17; Society of the Four Art, Palm Beach, FL, 2017; Cincinnati Art Museum, OH, 2017; Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, NY, 2017.
Published:
Wendy Moonan, “A Trove of Americana, Filled With Heart Goes on the Block,” The New York Times, January 5, 2007, https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/05/arts/ design/05anti.html.Richard Miller, ed., A Shared Legacy, Folk Art in America (Alexandria, VA, 2014), pp. 114–17, no. 9.
RUTH WHITTIER SHUTE (1803-1882) AND SAMUEL ADDISON SHUTE (1803-1836)
Phebe Buxton Lowell, Massachusetts, circa 1831
Watercolor, pencil, and silver paint on paper, with applied gold foil, 25 ½ x 21 inches, in period veneered frame.
This iconic and well documented watercolor portrait by Samuel and Ruth Shute, working in collaboration, ranks among the finest remaining in private hands. Highlights include the frontal pose with carefully delineated penciled face, large penetrating eyes with direct gaze, gold foil appliqué jewelry, silver metallic painted belt buckle, dress with oversized puffy sleeves and narrow waist, and signature streaky blue background.
An added distinction is the lacework bonnet with bold undulating blue ribbons. Phebe Buxton (1785–1857) managed a boarding house at 39 Worthen Street in Lowell, Massachusetts, for female workers of the Merrimack Manufacturing Company, the first of the major Lowell textile mills, which opened in 1823. The Shutes are listed in an 1832 Lowell city directory as residing at Buxton’s boarding house, where they painted their highly acclaimed watercolor portraits of the millworkers. The portrait of Phebe Buxton first came to light in 1924 at an auction in Lowell, as part of a remarkable group of four Shute watercolors that included her son, inscribed “Frederick Buxton, Lowell, Aged Six”; Jeremiah Emerson; and his mother, Sara Chandler Emerson. The portraits of Frederick Buxton and Jeremiah Emerson are illustrated in Stacy C. Hollander, ed., American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to The American Folk Art Museum (New York, 2001), pp. 50–51, 388–89, nos. 20–21. The portrait of Sara Chandler Emerson is illustrated in Stacy C. Hollander, American Anthem Masterworks from the Collection of The American Folk Art Museum (New York, 2001), pp. 82, 322, no. 60.
Provenance:
“Auction Sale of Real Estate Property,” Ray A. Doucette, Lowell, MA, May 17, 1924; Florence A. Lincoln (1882–1969), Charlestown, MA; to her nephew Frank Edson Hawkes (1910–1978), Brighton, MA; “Fine Americana,” Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc., New York, June 20–23, 1979, lot 875; Collection of Ralph O. Esmerian, New York; Marjorie H. Schorsch, Stamford, CT; David A. Schorsch, Greenwich, CT, 1984; Private collection.
Published:
Advertisement for David A. Schorsch, The Clarion, Winter 1986, p. 18.
David A. Schorsch, “Living with Antiques: A Collection of American Folk Art in the Midwest,” The Magazine Antiques, October 1990, p. 785.
Suzanne Rudnick Payne and Michael R. Payne, “Portraits, Purpose, and Perceptions: Early American Folk Artists Ruth W. Shute and Samuel A. Shute,” The Magazine Antiques, July/August 2021, p. 74, fig. 4.
David A. Schorsch and Eileen M. Smiles, An Eye For Excellence (Woodbury, CT, 2023), no. 1.
Advertisement for David A. Schorsch and Eileen M. Smiles, The Magazine Antiques, March/April 2023, pp. 8–9.
Catherine Wilt York, Pennsylvania, circa 1830–1832
Watercolor, ink, and pencil on paper, 14 x 8 inches, mounted on antique printed cotton scarf, 23 ½ x 14 ½ inches, in period painted frame.
“This portrait of Catherine Wilt (1817–1906) is one of four that descended in her family. It bears many of the hallmarks associated with Jacob Mantel’s outdoor scenes: dry earth under the feet of the subject, rolling green hills studded with trees and a house in the background. Details of costume and hair point to a date of about 1830–1832, supporting family tradition that the portrait was painted on the occasion of Wilt’s confirmation, which occurred during that time frame. The paisley-bordered cotton upon which the watercolor is mounted is a remnant from the actual shawl depicted in the portrait. Wilt married William Adams (1825–1858) in 1846. Her father, Peter owned and operated a public inn in York, Pennsylvania, on the south side of Market Street, east of Queen Street. The establishment was well known for the entertainment offered by traveling circuses and theater companies in its yards and a large interior room. A series of drawings by Lewis Miller details the tavern and some of its entertainments, as well as an accident that occurred while the building was being erected. Identified by Miller as ‘Peter Wilts House,’ this may be the same home, at 45 South Queen Street, that was deeded to Catherine Wilt in 1850.” Stacy C. Hollander, ed., American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum (New York, 2001), p. 381.
Provenance: By family descent; Frederick W. Shaffer, Bethayres, PA; “The American Heritage Auction of Americana,” Sotheby’s, New York, January 27–30, 1982, lot 833; Marjorie H. Schorsch, Greenwich, CT, 1983; Collection of Ralph O. Esmerian, New York; “Visual Grace: Important American Folk Art From the Collection of Ralph O. Esmerian,” Sotheby’s, New York, January 25, 2014, lot 582; David A. Schorsch and Eileen M. Smiles, Woodbury, CT, 2014; Private collection.
Exhibited: “American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum,” American Folk Art Museum, New York, December 11, 2001–June 2, 2002. “Jubilation/Rumination: Life, Real and Imagined,” American Folk Art Museum, New York, January 17–September 12, 2012.
Published: Stacy C. Hollander, ed., American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum (New York, 2001), pp. 36, 381, no. 11.
YoungCouple Massachusetts, New Hampshire, or Maine, circa 1827–1830
Each: watercolor on paper in oval, 4 ½ x 3 ⅝ inches, replaced églomisé glass, in period gilt frame.
Two portraits inscribed “J. Evans, Painter” provide the basis for attributing a small body of exquisitely rendered watercolor profile portraits to this elusive artist. The earliest portrait is dated November 16, 1827. Evans worked in and around Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in the 1830s, generally venturing no further than a thirty-five-mile radius for commissions in Essex County, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and southern Maine. Until further documentation emerges, nothing else is known of Evans’s life, not even the artist’s gender.
Only two other miniature portraits by Evans have been published: “Sarah Jane Pennell from N.H. Painted Nov. 16, 1827, when age 16,” illustrated in Norbert and Gail Savage, “J. Evans, Painter,” The Magazine Antiques, November 1971, p. 782, fig. 1; and “Woman with book seated on red sofa,” illustrated in Gail and Norbert H. Savage and Esther Sparks, Three New England Watercolor Painters (Chicago, 1974), p. 21, fig. 21.
Portraits by J. Evans are represented in the collections of the National Gallery of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Colby College Museum of Art, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, Fruitlands Museum, Fenimore Art Museum, and American Folk Art Museum. For more on this artist, see Stacy C. Hollander and Brooke Davis Anderson, American Anthem: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum (New York, 2001), pp. 96–97, 328, no. 75.
Black Pig Montgomery, Alabama, circa 1939–1942
Poster paint and graphite on repurposed cardboard, 15 x 12 inches, in modern painted frame.
Now recognized as a towering figure of twentieth-century American self-taught art, Bill Traylor was born into slavery on a cotton plantation in Benton, Alabama, owned by George Hartwell Traylor (1801–1881). His life spanned the antebellum years, the Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the Great Migration, and the burgeoning of twentieth- century urban Black culture. After he moved to Montgomery in 1939, at eighty-five years old, Traylor began drawing and painting on found paper. He was discovered as
an artist by Charles Shannon (1914–1996) who recognized his innate genius for visual storytelling. In the 2018 monograph Between Worlds: The Art of Bill Traylor, Leslie Umberger noted that “Traylor’s skill is seen in his facility for pictorially describing an animal . . . with such sensitivity to its shape and stance that the viewer easily grasps mood, age, attitude.”
Bill Traylor’s unique artistry is fully realized in this charming and sophisticated portrayal of a black pig in a boldly silhouetted profile, carefully drawn with extremely fine detailing and precise brushwork. This pig is confidently rendered at the center of the sheet, having perked ears, a rounded belly, and an expressive tail. Traylor depicted his animals as individuals, each with its own personality. For more on this remarkable artist see Leslie Umberger, Between Two Worlds: The Art of Bill Traylor (Washington, DC, 2018).
Provenance: The Artist; Collection of Charles Shannon, Montgomery, AL; Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York; 1986; Mayor Gallery, London, England, 1990; Private collection; “Outsider and Vernacular Art,” Christie’s, New York, January 18, 2023, lot 88.
Exhibited: “Bill Traylor (1854–1957),” Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York, December 15, 1988– January 14, 1989, listed in catalog, no. 5.
YoungGentleman Probably New England, circa 1830
Watercolor and ink on paper, 4 x 3 inches, in period gilt frame.
Among American folk artists, Rufus Porter can rightfully be considered a “renaissance man”—a scientist, artist, inventor, muralist, dance instructor, musician, educator, and perhaps most famously, a journalist and publisher. He edited New York Mechanic and American Mechanic and founded Scientific American. As an itinerant artist, he produced finely rendered small watercolor portraits and his advertising handbill promised “Correct Likeness taken with elegance and dispatch by Rufus Porter,” described as “Side views painted in full colours.” Porter is renowned for his portraits and as a muralist in New England and as far south as Virginia. In 1980 the Hudson River Museum presented “Rufus Porter Rediscovered”
and Porter was included in the landmark exhibition “American Folk Painters of Three Centuries” at the Whitney Museum of American Art. The Rufus Porter Museum of Art and Ingenuity in Bridgeton, Maine, was established in 2005. For more on this artist, see Jean Lipman, Rufus Porter: Yankee Pioneer (New York, 1969); Jean Lipman, “Rufus Porter,” in Jean Lipman and Tom Armstrong, eds., American Folk Painters of Three Centuries (New York, 1980), pp. 149–54; Beatrix T. Rumford, American Folk Portraits, Paintings and Drawings from the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center (Boston, 1981), pp. 170–71; Deborah M. Child, “Thank Goodness For Granny Notes: Rufus Porter and his New England Sitters,” Antiques & Fine Art, Summer/Autumn 2010, pp. 190–95, and Laura Fecych Sprague and Justin Wolff, eds., Rufus Porter’s Curious World: Art and Invention in America 1815–1860 (Bowdoin, ME, 2019), pp. 67–74.
Vermont, circa 1880–1900
Maple or cherry, original painted decoration, 15 ½ x 18 x 4 ¼ inches.
Elegantly carved from dense hardwood and realistically painted with a surface reminiscent of fine porcelain, this workhorse, with its head lowered and hoof raised, is a masterpiece of American sculpture. Oral history maintains that this workhorse and a variety of other carvings were made for display in a Vermont country store, however fewer than a dozen sculptures by this unidentified Vermont artist are known. The subjects range from sulky drivers and farm scenes to a figure of Buffalo Bill Cody (1846–1917) and a funeral procession with a horse-drawn sled bearing a coffin containing a corpse, establishing the artist as an unusually keen observer of rural life, popular culture, and local traditions as well as a master carver and joiner.
The related published examples by this artist are the funeral procession in the collection of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, illustrated in Jean Lipman, Elizabeth V. Warren, and Robert Bishop, Young America: A Folk Art History (New York, 1986), p. 143; a horse and sulky in the collection of the American Museum in Britain, illustrated in Laura Beresford, Folk Art from the American Museum in Britain (London, 2011), pp. 89–91; the standing horse and the figure of Buffalo Bill Cody in the collection of the Margaret Woodbury Strong Museum, illustrated in Herbert W. Hemphill, Jr., ed., Folk Sculpture USA (Brooklyn, NY, 1976), p. 50; a horse and sulky now privately owned, illustrated in “Collection of Susan and Raymond Egan,” Northeast Auctions, Portsmouth, NH, August 5, 2006, lot 801; and a grouping with a farmer and wife with horse drawn sleigh, illustrated in “American Beauty: The American Folk Art Collection of Stephen and Petra Levin, Part I,” Sotheby’s, New York, January 23, 2016, lot 1440.
Provenance: Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, VT; Collection of Dr. William S. Greenspon, New York; Collection of Philip Morris Companies, New York; “Important Americana, Furniture and Folk Art,” Sotheby’s, New York, January 19, 1997, lot. 1562; Collection of Ralph O. Esmerian, New York; David Wheatcroft, Westborough, MA; David A. Schorsch and Eileen M. Smiles, Woodbury, CT; Private collection.
Published: Robert Bishop, American Folk Sculpture (New York, 1974), p. 360, no. 680.
Richard Miller, “Folk Sculpture: For Diversion and Utility,” in Jane Katcher, David A. Schorsch, and Ruth Wolfe, eds., Expressions of Innocence and Eloquence: Selections from the Jane Katcher Collection of Americana (New Haven, 2006), pp. 244, 384–85, no. 157.
JamesMcSherryCoale Libertytown, Maryland, 1811
Pastel on paper over canvas, 25 ½ x 18 inches, in original painted frame with rare, dovetailed joinery. Signed on verso in chalk: “Painted by F. Kemmelmeyer, limner, 27th March 1811”
Boldly inscribed “Painted by F. Kemmelmeyer, limner, 27th March 1811,” this likeness of eight- year-old James McSherry Coale (1805–1881) with his dog and bird is one of eleven surviving portraits by this artist, six signed and five attributed. Of those, nine are pastels, and two oils.
James McSherry Coale is the only one of Kemmelmeyer’s sitters for whom another image is known, an engraving of him as an adult in John Livingston, Portraits of Eminent Americans Now Living, fig. 24. Coale went on to become a general in the Maryland militia, a lawyer, and a member of the Maryland House of Delegates.
Possibly born in the duchy of Württemberg, Frederick Kemmelmeyer is recorded in naturalization papers issued in Annapolis, Maryland, on October 8, 1788. He first advertised in the Maryland Gazette, or, Baltimore Advertiser on June 3, 1788, announcing his services as a drawing instructor, a painter of miniatures and larger pictures in watercolor and oil, and a sign painter. Kemmelmeyer lived and worked in Baltimore until 1803. His journeys as an itinerant artist over the following fourteen years can be traced through his advertisements and portrait sitters. In June 1803 he offered lessons in drawing, painting, and gilding in Alexandria, Virginia. Four months later he relocated across the Potomac to Georgetown. He advertised in Hagerstown and Frederick-Town newspapers in 1805, and then traveled north to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, in 1806. His advertisements appeared in Winchester, Virginia, journals in 1810. He executed portraits of the Coale and Sappington family in Libertytown, Maryland, in 1811. After leaving Libertytown, Kemmelmeyer continued to travel in West Virginia and Hagerstown where he executed his last known portrait in 1816.
The small number of works by Frederick Kemmelmeyer are represented in notable private collections and the National Gallery, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library, Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, and Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts. For more on this artist, see John Caldwell and Oswaldo Rodriguez Roque, with Dale T. Johnson, American Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, volume I: A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born by 1815 (New York, 1994), pp. 157–62.
Provenance: By descent in the Coale-Sappington family, Libertytown, MD; “Paintings, Furniture, Decorative Arts, & Fine Rugs,” Alex Cooper Auctioneers, Baltimore, MD, January 30, 2021, lot 1068; Kelly Kinzle, New Oxford, PA.
Published: Nicholas Powers, “Research Note: Frederick Kemmelmeyer—From Hessian Soldier to American Artist,” Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts, fig. 23, https://www.mesdajournal. org/2013/research-note-frederick-kemmelmeyer-from-hessian-soldier-american-artist/. Advertisement for Kelly Kinzle, Maine Antique Digest, April 2022, p. 1.
Hingham, Massachusetts, circa 1780–1790
Oil on canvas, 26 x 20 inches, in reproduction painted frame.
This dramatic colonial portrait depicts Caleb Thaxter (1751–1828), born in Hingham, Massachusetts, to the Rev. Deacon Joseph Thaxter and Mary Leavitt Thaxter. Caleb was apparently engaged to Frances Gay of Hingham, but the marriage never took place. He remained a lifelong bachelor, which was unusual in the eighteenth century. In his diaries, John Quincy Adams described attending dinner parties at Thaxter’s home: “I . . . was called away with Mr. Gannett by Mr. Caleb Thaxter, where we went and dined. There were between thirty and forty persons at table, but chiefly young gentleman.” The John Quincy Adams Digital Diary, Massachusetts Historical Society, p. 309. Thaxter enjoyed a long life as a gentleman farmer, prominent citizen, and successful businessman. A surviving pre-revolutionary military document dated March 4, 1773, a few months before the Boston Tea Party, appointed Thaxter to the rank of adjunct in the Suffolk County militia. An army chaplain present at the Battle of Bunker Hill, Caleb’s older brother, Joseph Thaxter, Jr. (1744–1827), became a respected minister in Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. Parson Thaxter was a prolific letter writer, offering opinions and advice to his younger brother, seemingly unappreciated. On December 23, 1795, he wrote to Caleb, “It is now several Months since I have received a Line from you in which Time I have wrote several,” and on July 16, 1798 he wrote, “I suppose you are so much taken up with Business that that will be your Excuse for not answering the Letters I have wrote you since I left Hingham.”
Caleb Thaxter was a member of the American Antiquarian Society and a trustee of the Hingham Peace Society. His will, settled in probate on January 3, 1828, included nine pages describing the disbursement of his extensive estate, most of which was left to his sister, Mary Thaxter Tidmarsh (1756–1834). Officially dating to 1775, the Caleb Thaxter House still stands at 215 North Street in Hingham, Massachusetts, and is privately owned. A later generation of Thaxters were devoted abolitionists, hosting the “Great Abolitionist Picnic” of 1844 at Tranquility Grove in Hingham, a family property.
Provenance: Richard L. Mills, Exeter, NH; Private collection.
Published: Advertisement for Richard L. Mills, The University Hospital Antiques Show Catalog (Philadelphia, 1968), p. 70.
The William Snidow Farm
Giles County, Virginia, 1855
Oil on canvas, in a period veneered frame, 20 x 29 inches
A German émigré working in the style of the Dusseldorf Academy, Edward Beyer is recognized as the premier painter of panoramic landscapes of antebellum Virginia. Only a small number of his original oil paintings survive and rarely come to market. In 1855 Beyer also painted the nearby Lewis family homestead “Bellevue” and “A View of Salem,” which like the Snidow Farm, emphasize atmosphere, action, and drama. Beyer adeptly captured the verdant landscape of William Snidow’s farm, the meandering New River, and the Blue Ridge Mountains towering in the distance. According to a Giles County Deed Book, William Henry Snidow (1796-1863) acquired the sprawling property in 1836 after the death of his father, Colonel Christian Snidow (1760-1836). The house was built by William’s maternal grandfather, Captain Thomas Burke (1741-1808), who was the son of one of the earliest settlers west of the Allegheny Mountain Range. Inscribed on back of canvas in black paint: “View of Wm. H. Snidow’s Farm Giles, Co, Va / Painted from Nature by Ed. Beyer / Presented to Wm. H. Snidow by his friends / A. Hopp / Wm. Walten & / Ed. Beyer / Salem Va. Sept. 1855.” Mentioned in the inscription are almost certainly A. Hupp and William Walton who are listed as proprietors of Roanoke Red Sulphur Springs, a popular spa and tourist destination a short distance from the Snidow property and previously owned by William Burke (1769-1852), an uncle of William H. Snidow. In a further connection, Edward Beyer’s Album of Virginia (1858) includes a color lithograph of Roanoke Red Sulphur Springs. Additionally, William H. Snidow was a well-to-do lawyer very active in the affairs of Giles County and oversaw the creation of new roadways to accommodate spa tourism. The company owning Roanoke Red Sulphur Springs to which Hupp and Walton belonged appears to have been based in nearby Salem, Virginia, possibly explaining Salem as the place of the painting’s dedication, noted on the backside.
New England, circa 1830
Oil on tinplated sheet iron, 10 ½ x 14 inches, in original gilt frame.
The subject of this work was recently identified by Philip Zea, president emeritus of Historic Deerfield, as a depiction of the Anglican Church in Stratford, Connecticut that was designed and built by Thomas Salmon (1693–1743) and demolished in 1858, pictured in E. Edward Beardsley, The History of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, 2 vols, (New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1863), frontispiece, reproduced in Robert F. Trent, Hearts & Crowns, Folk Chairs of the Connecticut Coast, 1720–1740 (New Haven, 1977), p. 40, no. 2.
This cheerful scene of congregants arriving at church is a superb example of a New England landscape, a rare category in American folk painting, by a highly accomplished artist. The three trees at the forefront offer a vantage point through which to view the scene and partition the landscape in an imaginative way. The classic New England white clapboard church with steeple receives a Sunday congregation on a bright spring or summer day. Neighboring houses and buildings also populate the landscape, including a house in the background veiled by columns of trees similar to those in the foreground. The distinctive vantage point seen in this work recalls the well-known painting Salem Common on Training Day, 1808 by George Ropes, Jr. (1788–1819), illustrated in Dean Lahikainen, In the American Spirit: Folk Art from the Collections, Peabody Essex Museum (Salem, MA, 1994), cover and no. 25.
Trade sign for woodcarving and pen drawing
Canal Fulton, Ohio, 1909
Walnut, tinned iron, glass, brass screws, original paint, height 11 inches, length 17 inches, depth 6 ¾ inches.
Paper medallion under glass inscribed in ink: “Wood Carving / and / Pen Drawing / By David Danner / Canal Fulton, Ohio / 1909”
In this newly discovered trade sign for David Danner, Jr., a three-dimensionally carved hand holds an ink pen that dramatically extends beyond the parameters of the oval plaque. Below this demonstration of skill, a laurel wreath holds a circular glazed aperture with calligraphic inscription describing Danner’s occupations. This trade sign is clever in its self-referential formula, advertising both woodcarving and pen drawing; the artist demonstrates his abilities in both mediums within one sign. Its unweathered, near-perfect condition indicates that it was used for display indoors, likely in the studio of the maker.
Accompanied by a calligraphic drawing of a girl holding a cat with American eagle and flags. Ink and watercolor on paper, 14 ½ x 11 inches, inscribed: “Sep / the 8th / 1866 / By D. Danner / Practical and Ornamental penmanship / Canal Fulton. Sep. 8th 1866 / Prominent / PENMANSHIP.
New England, probably Connecticut, circa 1740
White pine, curly maple, old or original brown paint,
top 28 ¾ x 22 x ½, height 24 ½ inches.
This table makes a bold and original design statement in the country Queen Anne style. The oval top is secured by undisturbed original pins, double cyma-scrolled aprons on all four sides, and elongated baluster-turned splayed legs ending in delicate pad feet. The retention of the early brown painted surface on the entire base is noteworthy. The top has developed a mellow dark-brown natural patina.
Published:
Patricia E. Kane, “Painted Furniture: From Plain to Fancy,” in Jane Katcher, David A. Schorsch, and Ruth Wolfe, eds., Expressions of Innocence and Eloquence, Selections from the Jane Katcher Collection of Americana (New Haven and London, 2006), pp. 172, 363, no. 100.
Probably Canterbury, New Hampshire, circa 1840–1850
Maple, white pine, copper tacks, original vibrant red paint, height 2 ³⁄₁₆ inches,
width 4 ½ inches, depth 3 ¼ inches.
This is a choice, classic Shaker small-size oval fingered box, with original thinly applied vibrant red paint, that survives in mint condition. The distinctively shaped fingers link it with a small group of related boxes and a carrier, previously ascribed to Elder Henry Green (1844–1931) of Alfred, Maine, circa 1865–1885, and now considered to be made at an earlier date and most likely originating at Canterbury, New Hampshire. Other examples from this shop tradition include a small oval yellow carrier in the collection of the United Society of Shakers at Sabbathday Lake, Maine, illustrated in June Sprigg, Shaker Design (New York, 1987), pp. 108–9; a small oval blue box, illustrated in Catalog VIII: Excellence in American Design, Current Offerings from the Collection of David A. Schorsch, Inc. (New York, 1991), p. 22; and a small oval yellow box, pictured in Jean M. Burks, “Shaker Products and Principles: A Study in Beauty and Belief,” in Jane Katcher, David A. Schorsch, and Ruth Wolfe, eds., Expressions of Innocence and Eloquence: Americana from the Jane Katcher Collection of Americana (New Haven and London, 2008), pp. 260, 392, no. 173.
Portrait of a Gentleman with Brown Hair
Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire or Maine, circa 1810-1815
Oil on canvas, height 33 inches, width 28 inches, in a period gilt frame
This is a classic portrait by the acclaimed deaf and mute folk painter, John Brewster, Jr. In its facial modeling and background color it is related to Brewster’s portrait of Moses Quinby of Stroudwater, Maine painted about 1810-1815 illustrated in Paul S. D’Ambrosio, The World of John Brewster, Jr. (Cooperstown, New York, 2006), p. 44, pl. 32.
Betty lamp
Sporting Hill, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, circa 1841–1853
Iron, brass, original patina, height 4 ½ inches, width 4 inches, depth 2 ¾ inches.
This newly discovered example is an incredible survivor “in the black,” retaining a dark untouched surface. The boldly silhouetted brass bird finial with punched eye is a signature element found on John Long’s finest lamps. Long was a highly accomplished metalsmith renowned for his elegant Betty lamps. A nearly identical example with a polished surface, formerly owned by us in 1995, is now at Winterthur and illustrated in Wendy A. Cooper, An American Vision: Henry Francis du Pont’s Winterthur Museum (Washington, DC, 2002), p. 143; and Donald L. Fennimore, Iron at Winterthur (Winterthur, DE, 2004), p. 183. For a biographical look at this maker, see Donald M. Herr, John Long & John Boyer: Nineteenth-Century Craftsmen in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania (Lancaster, PA,
2006).
Family Record for Henry and Magdelina Uhle
Herkimer County, New York, 1817
Watercolor and ink on paper, fitted to museum standards in the original painted frame, 14 ¾ x 11 ¼ inches
This is a superb example of a fully developed William Murray family record, incorporating a complete repertoire of his signature elements. The quality of the work itself is enhanced by a superb state of preservation and original painted frame. The large central heart motif inscribed in block lettering: “HENRY UHLE was born the fourteenth of September in the year of our lord 1755 and married Magdelina Dygert the 9th of September in the year of our lord 1763” flanked by vertical rows of hearts and coffins recording the births of the Uhle children between 1785 and 1804, and the deaths of Henry in 1813 and Magdelina in 1815. The lower oval boldly inscribed “Drawn by William Murray October 20th 1817.”
Provenance:
Chris A. Machmer, Annville, PA; Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel M. Palley, Huntington Valley, PA; “The Julie and Sandy Palley Collection of American Folk Art,” Sotheby’s, New York, January 10, 2002, lot 818; Private collection
Exhibited:
Painters of Record: William Murray and His School, Museum of American Folk Art, New York, 1990-1991.
Massachusetts, probably Salem, circa 1780-1800
Maple, ash, old greenish-black paint with yellow striped decoration, height 35 ¾ inches, width 25 inches, depth 15 ¼ inches, seat height 16 ½ inches
Underside of seat branded “O-B” and inscribed in chalk “I.B”
This armchair is distinguished by the use of maple for its oval saddled seat and fine baluster-ring-and cylindrical leg turnings. It is enhanced by a superb state of preservation, with beautifully worn and patinated surface on the seat and arms, which adds a priceless dimension to this memorable and armchair.
Provenance:
David and Marjorie Schorsch, Inc., Greenwich, Connecticut, 1982; Collection of Peter and Barbara Goodman, Rye, New York and Mill River, Massachusetts.
Published:
David and Marjorie Schorsch, Inc., Americana Catalogue Number One: Windsor Chairs 1760-1830 (Greenwich, Connecticut, 1981), p. 41.
JOHN BREWSTER, JR. (1766-1854)
Young Girl in a White Dress Holding a Rose
Probably Maine, circa 1820
JOHN BREWSTER, JR. (1766-1854)
Young Girl in a White Dress Holding a Rose Probably Maine, circa 1820 Oil on canvas, 18 x 15 inches, in original veneered frame. Inscribed on stretcher: “L. E. GREGORY / OYSTER BAY / NY 1959 / FROM BRUNSWICK / ME REGION” This is a classic example of Brewster’s portraits of children from the 1820s, with the sitter positioned close to the picture plane, depicted bust length, and devoid of distractions that might compete with their faces. Related examples are illustrated in Paul S. D’Ambrosio, The World of John Brewster, Jr. (Cooperstown, NY, 2006), pp. 49–51, pls. 37–39. The artist’s extraordinary life as an eighteenth century deaf and mute itinerant portrait artist is explored in Harlan Lane, A Deaf Artist in Early America: The Worlds of John Brewster, Jr. (Boston, 2004), and the landmark 2006 exhibition “The World of John Brewster Jr.” at the Fenimore Art Museum and American Folk Art Museum. Born in Connecticut to an established Puritan family, Brewster was well educated and studied painting with Reverend Joseph Steward. In 1817, at age fifty-one, Brewster was a member of the first class at the newly formed American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut. He lived a long life of eighty-eight years, traveling throughout Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine, painting his extraordinarily sensitive portraits. Provenance: Lewis Ellsworth Gregory (1919–1977), Oyster Bay and Glen Head, NY; “Important American Furniture, Silver, Folk Art and Decorative Arts,” Christie’s, New York, October 18, 1986, lot 443; Collection of Eddy G. Nicholson, Hampton, NH; Marguerite Riordan, Stonington, CT; Collection of Susan and Mark Laracy, New Canaan, CT; “Distinguished American Furniture and Folk Art: The Collection of Susan and Mark Laracy,” Sotheby’s, New York, January 20, 2007, lot 159; Collection of Barbara Gordon, Bethesda, MD; Private collection. Exhibited: “A Shared Legacy: Folk Art in America,” American Folk Art Museum, New York, 2014– 15, traveled to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2015; Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, TN, 2015–16; Montgomery Museum of Art, AL, 2016; Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, PA, 2016; Denver Art Museum, CO, 2016–17; Society of the Four Art, Palm Beach, FL, 2017; Cincinnati Art Museum, OH, 2017; Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, NY, 2017. Published: Wendy Moonan, “A Trove of Americana, Filled With Heart Goes on the Block,” The New York Times, January 5, 2007, https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/05/arts/ design/05anti.html.Richard Miller, ed., A Shared Legacy, Folk Art in America (Alexandria, VA, 2014), pp. 114–17, no. 9.RUTH WHITTIER SHUTE (1803-1882) AND SAMUEL ADDISON SHUTE (1803-1836)
Phebe Buxton
Lowell, Massachusetts, circa 1831
RUTH WHITTIER SHUTE (1803-1882) AND SAMUEL ADDISON SHUTE (1803-1836)
Phebe Buxton
Lowell, Massachusetts, circa 1831
Watercolor, pencil, and silver paint on paper, with applied gold foil, 25 ½ x 21 inches, in period veneered frame.
This iconic and well documented watercolor portrait by Samuel and Ruth Shute, working in collaboration, ranks among the finest remaining in private hands. Highlights include the frontal pose with carefully delineated penciled face, large penetrating eyes with direct gaze, gold foil appliqué jewelry, silver metallic painted belt buckle, dress with oversized puffy sleeves and narrow waist, and signature streaky blue background.
An added distinction is the lacework bonnet with bold undulating blue ribbons. Phebe Buxton (1785–1857) managed a boarding house at 39 Worthen Street in Lowell, Massachusetts, for female workers of the Merrimack Manufacturing Company, the first of the major Lowell textile mills, which opened in 1823. The Shutes are listed in an 1832 Lowell city directory as residing at Buxton’s boarding house, where they painted their highly acclaimed watercolor portraits of the millworkers. The portrait of Phebe Buxton first came to light in 1924 at an auction in Lowell, as part of a remarkable group of four Shute watercolors that included her son, inscribed “Frederick Buxton, Lowell, Aged Six”; Jeremiah Emerson; and his mother, Sara Chandler Emerson. The portraits of Frederick Buxton and Jeremiah Emerson are illustrated in Stacy C. Hollander, ed., American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to The American Folk Art Museum (New York, 2001), pp. 50–51, 388–89, nos. 20–21. The portrait of Sara Chandler Emerson is illustrated in Stacy C. Hollander, American Anthem Masterworks from the Collection of The American Folk Art Museum (New York, 2001), pp. 82, 322, no. 60.
Provenance:
“Auction Sale of Real Estate Property,” Ray A. Doucette, Lowell, MA, May 17, 1924; Florence A. Lincoln (1882–1969), Charlestown, MA; to her nephew Frank Edson Hawkes (1910–1978), Brighton, MA; “Fine Americana,” Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc., New York, June 20–23, 1979, lot 875; Collection of Ralph O. Esmerian, New York; Marjorie H. Schorsch, Stamford, CT; David A. Schorsch, Greenwich, CT, 1984; Private collection.
Published:
Advertisement for David A. Schorsch, The Clarion, Winter 1986, p. 18.
David A. Schorsch, “Living with Antiques: A Collection of American Folk Art in the Midwest,” The Magazine Antiques, October 1990, p. 785.
Suzanne Rudnick Payne and Michael R. Payne, “Portraits, Purpose, and Perceptions: Early American Folk Artists Ruth W. Shute and Samuel A. Shute,” The Magazine Antiques, July/August 2021, p. 74, fig. 4.
David A. Schorsch and Eileen M. Smiles, An Eye For Excellence (Woodbury, CT, 2023), no. 1.
Advertisement for David A. Schorsch and Eileen M. Smiles, The Magazine Antiques, March/April 2023, pp. 8–9.
JACOB MAENTEL (1778-1863)
Catherine Wilt
York, Pennsylvania, circa 1830–1832
JACOB MAENTEL (1778-1863)
Catherine Wilt
York, Pennsylvania, circa 1830–1832
Watercolor, ink, and pencil on paper, 14 x 8 inches, mounted on antique printed cotton scarf, 23 ½ x 14 ½ inches, in period painted frame.
“This portrait of Catherine Wilt (1817–1906) is one of four that descended in her family. It bears many of the hallmarks associated with Jacob Mantel’s outdoor scenes: dry earth under the feet of the subject, rolling green hills studded with trees and a house in the background. Details of costume and hair point to a date of about 1830–1832, supporting family tradition that the portrait was painted on the occasion of Wilt’s confirmation, which occurred during that time frame. The paisley-bordered cotton upon which the watercolor is mounted is a remnant from the actual shawl depicted in the portrait. Wilt married William Adams (1825–1858) in 1846. Her father, Peter owned and operated a public inn in York, Pennsylvania, on the south side of Market Street, east of Queen Street. The establishment was well known for the entertainment offered by traveling circuses and theater companies in its yards and a large interior room. A series of drawings by Lewis Miller details the tavern and some of its entertainments, as well as an accident that occurred while the building was being erected. Identified by Miller as ‘Peter Wilts House,’ this may be the same home, at 45 South Queen Street, that was deeded to Catherine Wilt in 1850.” Stacy C. Hollander, ed., American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum (New York, 2001), p. 381.
Provenance:
By family descent; Frederick W. Shaffer, Bethayres, PA; “The American Heritage Auction of Americana,” Sotheby’s, New York, January 27–30, 1982, lot 833; Marjorie H. Schorsch, Greenwich, CT, 1983; Collection of Ralph O. Esmerian, New York; “Visual Grace: Important American Folk Art From the Collection of Ralph O. Esmerian,” Sotheby’s, New York, January 25, 2014, lot 582; David A. Schorsch and Eileen M. Smiles, Woodbury, CT, 2014; Private collection.
Exhibited:
“American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum,” American Folk Art Museum, New York, December 11, 2001–June 2, 2002. “Jubilation/Rumination: Life, Real and Imagined,” American Folk Art Museum, New York, January 17–September 12, 2012.
Published:
Stacy C. Hollander, ed., American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum (New York, 2001), pp. 36, 381, no. 11.
J EVANS
Young Couple
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, or Maine, circa 1827–1830
J EVANS
Young Couple
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, or Maine, circa 1827–1830
Each: watercolor on paper in oval, 4 ½ x 3 ⅝ inches, replaced églomisé glass, in period gilt frame.
Two portraits inscribed “J. Evans, Painter” provide the basis for attributing a small body of exquisitely rendered watercolor profile portraits to this elusive artist. The earliest portrait is dated November 16, 1827. Evans worked in and around Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in the 1830s, generally venturing no further than a thirty-five-mile radius for commissions in Essex County, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and southern Maine. Until further documentation emerges, nothing else is known of Evans’s life, not even the artist’s gender.
Only two other miniature portraits by Evans have been published: “Sarah Jane Pennell from N.H. Painted Nov. 16, 1827, when age 16,” illustrated in Norbert and Gail Savage, “J. Evans, Painter,” The Magazine Antiques, November 1971, p. 782, fig. 1; and “Woman with book seated on red sofa,” illustrated in Gail and Norbert H. Savage and Esther Sparks, Three New England Watercolor Painters (Chicago, 1974), p. 21, fig. 21.
Portraits by J. Evans are represented in the collections of the National Gallery of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Colby College Museum of Art, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, Fruitlands Museum, Fenimore Art Museum, and American Folk Art Museum. For more on this artist, see Stacy C. Hollander and Brooke Davis Anderson, American Anthem: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum (New York, 2001), pp. 96–97, 328, no. 75.
BILL TRAYLOR (circa 1853-1949)
Black Pig
Montgomery, Alabama, circa 1939–1942
BILL TRAYLOR (circa 1853-1949)
Black Pig
Montgomery, Alabama, circa 1939–1942
Poster paint and graphite on repurposed cardboard, 15 x 12 inches, in modern painted frame.
Now recognized as a towering figure of twentieth-century American self-taught art, Bill Traylor was born into slavery on a cotton plantation in Benton, Alabama, owned by George Hartwell Traylor (1801–1881). His life spanned the antebellum years, the Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the Great Migration, and the burgeoning of twentieth- century urban Black culture. After he moved to Montgomery in 1939, at eighty-five years old, Traylor began drawing and painting on found paper. He was discovered as
an artist by Charles Shannon (1914–1996) who recognized his innate genius for visual storytelling. In the 2018 monograph Between Worlds: The Art of Bill Traylor, Leslie Umberger noted that “Traylor’s skill is seen in his facility for pictorially describing an animal . . . with such sensitivity to its shape and stance that the viewer easily grasps mood, age, attitude.”
Bill Traylor’s unique artistry is fully realized in this charming and sophisticated portrayal of a black pig in a boldly silhouetted profile, carefully drawn with extremely fine detailing and precise brushwork. This pig is confidently rendered at the center of the sheet, having perked ears, a rounded belly, and an expressive tail. Traylor depicted his animals as individuals, each with its own personality. For more on this remarkable artist see Leslie Umberger, Between Two Worlds: The Art of Bill Traylor (Washington, DC, 2018).
Provenance:
The Artist; Collection of Charles Shannon, Montgomery, AL; Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York; 1986; Mayor Gallery, London, England, 1990; Private collection; “Outsider and Vernacular Art,” Christie’s, New York, January 18, 2023, lot 88.
Exhibited:
“Bill Traylor (1854–1957),” Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York, December 15, 1988– January 14, 1989, listed in catalog, no. 5.
RUFUS PORTER (1792-1884)
Young Gentleman
Probably New England, circa 1830
RUFUS PORTER (1792-1884)
Young Gentleman
Probably New England, circa 1830
Watercolor and ink on paper, 4 x 3 inches, in period gilt frame.
Among American folk artists, Rufus Porter can rightfully be considered a “renaissance man”—a scientist, artist, inventor, muralist, dance instructor, musician, educator, and perhaps most famously, a journalist and publisher. He edited New York Mechanic and American Mechanic and founded Scientific American. As an itinerant artist, he produced finely rendered small watercolor portraits and his advertising handbill promised “Correct Likeness taken with elegance and dispatch by Rufus Porter,” described as “Side views painted in full colours.” Porter is renowned for his portraits and as a muralist in New England and as far south as Virginia. In 1980 the Hudson River Museum presented “Rufus Porter Rediscovered”
and Porter was included in the landmark exhibition “American Folk Painters of Three Centuries” at the Whitney Museum of American Art. The Rufus Porter Museum of Art and Ingenuity in Bridgeton, Maine, was established in 2005. For more on this artist, see Jean Lipman, Rufus Porter: Yankee Pioneer (New York, 1969); Jean Lipman, “Rufus Porter,” in Jean Lipman and Tom Armstrong, eds., American Folk Painters of Three Centuries (New York, 1980), pp. 149–54; Beatrix T. Rumford, American Folk Portraits, Paintings and Drawings from the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center (Boston, 1981), pp. 170–71; Deborah M. Child, “Thank Goodness For Granny Notes: Rufus Porter and his New England Sitters,” Antiques & Fine Art, Summer/Autumn 2010, pp. 190–95, and Laura Fecych Sprague and Justin Wolff, eds., Rufus Porter’s Curious World: Art and Invention in America 1815–1860 (Bowdoin, ME, 2019), pp. 67–74.
Workhorse
Vermont, circa 1880–1900 Maple or cherry,
Workhorse
Vermont, circa 1880–1900
Maple or cherry, original painted decoration, 15 ½ x 18 x 4 ¼ inches.
Elegantly carved from dense hardwood and realistically painted with a surface reminiscent of fine porcelain, this workhorse, with its head lowered and hoof raised, is a masterpiece of American sculpture. Oral history maintains that this workhorse and a variety of other carvings were made for display in a Vermont country store, however fewer than a dozen sculptures by this unidentified Vermont artist are known. The subjects range from sulky drivers and farm scenes to a figure of Buffalo Bill Cody (1846–1917) and a funeral procession with a horse-drawn sled bearing a coffin containing a corpse, establishing the artist as an unusually keen observer of rural life, popular culture, and local traditions as well as a master carver and joiner.
The related published examples by this artist are the funeral procession in the collection of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, illustrated in Jean Lipman, Elizabeth V. Warren, and Robert Bishop, Young America: A Folk Art History (New York, 1986), p. 143; a horse and sulky in the collection of the American Museum in Britain, illustrated in Laura Beresford, Folk Art from the American Museum in Britain (London, 2011), pp. 89–91; the standing horse and the figure of Buffalo Bill Cody in the collection of the Margaret Woodbury Strong Museum, illustrated in Herbert W. Hemphill, Jr., ed., Folk Sculpture USA (Brooklyn, NY, 1976), p. 50; a horse and sulky now privately owned, illustrated in “Collection of Susan and Raymond Egan,” Northeast Auctions, Portsmouth, NH, August 5, 2006, lot 801; and a grouping with a farmer and wife with horse drawn sleigh, illustrated in “American Beauty: The American Folk Art Collection of Stephen and Petra Levin, Part I,” Sotheby’s, New York, January 23, 2016, lot 1440.
Provenance:
Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, VT; Collection of Dr. William S. Greenspon, New York; Collection of Philip Morris Companies, New York; “Important Americana, Furniture and Folk Art,” Sotheby’s, New York, January 19, 1997, lot. 1562; Collection of Ralph O. Esmerian, New York; David Wheatcroft, Westborough, MA; David A. Schorsch and Eileen M. Smiles, Woodbury, CT; Private collection.
Published:
Robert Bishop, American Folk Sculpture (New York, 1974), p. 360, no. 680.
Richard Miller, “Folk Sculpture: For Diversion and Utility,” in Jane Katcher, David A. Schorsch, and Ruth Wolfe, eds., Expressions of Innocence and Eloquence: Selections from the Jane Katcher Collection of Americana (New Haven, 2006), pp. 244, 384–85, no. 157.
FREDERICK KEMMELMEYER (1755-1821)
James McSherry Coale
Libertytown, Maryland, 1811
FREDERICK KEMMELMEYER (1755-1821)
James McSherry Coale
Libertytown, Maryland, 1811
Pastel on paper over canvas, 25 ½ x 18 inches, in original painted frame with rare, dovetailed joinery. Signed on verso in chalk: “Painted by F. Kemmelmeyer, limner, 27th March 1811”
Boldly inscribed “Painted by F. Kemmelmeyer, limner, 27th March 1811,” this likeness of eight- year-old James McSherry Coale (1805–1881) with his dog and bird is one of eleven surviving portraits by this artist, six signed and five attributed. Of those, nine are pastels, and two oils.
James McSherry Coale is the only one of Kemmelmeyer’s sitters for whom another image is known, an engraving of him as an adult in John Livingston, Portraits of Eminent Americans Now Living, fig. 24. Coale went on to become a general in the Maryland militia, a lawyer, and a member of the Maryland House of Delegates.
Possibly born in the duchy of Württemberg, Frederick Kemmelmeyer is recorded in naturalization papers issued in Annapolis, Maryland, on October 8, 1788. He first advertised in the Maryland Gazette, or, Baltimore Advertiser on June 3, 1788, announcing his services as a drawing instructor, a painter of miniatures and larger pictures in watercolor and oil, and a sign painter. Kemmelmeyer lived and worked in Baltimore until 1803. His journeys as an itinerant artist over the following fourteen years can be traced through his advertisements and portrait sitters. In June 1803 he offered lessons in drawing, painting, and gilding in Alexandria, Virginia. Four months later he relocated across the Potomac to Georgetown. He advertised in Hagerstown and Frederick-Town newspapers in 1805, and then traveled north to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, in 1806. His advertisements appeared in Winchester, Virginia, journals in 1810. He executed portraits of the Coale and Sappington family in Libertytown, Maryland, in 1811. After leaving Libertytown, Kemmelmeyer continued to travel in West Virginia and Hagerstown where he executed his last known portrait in 1816.
The small number of works by Frederick Kemmelmeyer are represented in notable private collections and the National Gallery, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library, Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, and Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts. For more on this artist, see John Caldwell and Oswaldo Rodriguez Roque, with Dale T. Johnson, American Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, volume I: A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born by 1815 (New York, 1994), pp. 157–62.
Provenance:
By descent in the Coale-Sappington family, Libertytown, MD; “Paintings, Furniture, Decorative Arts, & Fine Rugs,” Alex Cooper Auctioneers, Baltimore, MD, January 30, 2021, lot 1068; Kelly Kinzle, New Oxford, PA.
Published:
Nicholas Powers, “Research Note: Frederick Kemmelmeyer—From Hessian Soldier to American Artist,” Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts, fig. 23, https://www.mesdajournal. org/2013/research-note-frederick-kemmelmeyer-from-hessian-soldier-american-artist/. Advertisement for Kelly Kinzle, Maine Antique Digest, April 2022, p. 1.
Caleb Thaxter
Hingham, Massachusetts, circa 1780–1790
Caleb Thaxter
Hingham, Massachusetts, circa 1780–1790
Oil on canvas, 26 x 20 inches, in reproduction painted frame.
This dramatic colonial portrait depicts Caleb Thaxter (1751–1828), born in Hingham, Massachusetts, to the Rev. Deacon Joseph Thaxter and Mary Leavitt Thaxter. Caleb was apparently engaged to Frances Gay of Hingham, but the marriage never took place. He remained a lifelong bachelor, which was unusual in the eighteenth century. In his diaries, John Quincy Adams described attending dinner parties at Thaxter’s home: “I . . . was called away with Mr. Gannett by Mr. Caleb Thaxter, where we went and dined. There were between thirty and forty persons at table, but chiefly young gentleman.” The John Quincy Adams Digital Diary, Massachusetts Historical Society, p. 309. Thaxter enjoyed a long life as a gentleman farmer, prominent citizen, and successful businessman. A surviving pre-revolutionary military document dated March 4, 1773, a few months before the Boston Tea Party, appointed Thaxter to the rank of adjunct in the Suffolk County militia. An army chaplain present at the Battle of Bunker Hill, Caleb’s older brother, Joseph Thaxter, Jr. (1744–1827), became a respected minister in Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. Parson Thaxter was a prolific letter writer, offering opinions and advice to his younger brother, seemingly unappreciated. On December 23, 1795, he wrote to Caleb, “It is now several Months since I have received a Line from you in which Time I have wrote several,” and on July 16, 1798 he wrote, “I suppose you are so much taken up with Business that that will be your Excuse for not answering the Letters I have wrote you since I left Hingham.”
Caleb Thaxter was a member of the American Antiquarian Society and a trustee of the Hingham Peace Society. His will, settled in probate on January 3, 1828, included nine pages describing the disbursement of his extensive estate, most of which was left to his sister, Mary Thaxter Tidmarsh (1756–1834). Officially dating to 1775, the Caleb Thaxter House still stands at 215 North Street in Hingham, Massachusetts, and is privately owned. A later generation of Thaxters were devoted abolitionists, hosting the “Great Abolitionist Picnic” of 1844 at Tranquility Grove in Hingham, a family property.
Provenance:
Richard L. Mills, Exeter, NH; Private collection.
Published:
Advertisement for Richard L. Mills, The University Hospital Antiques Show Catalog
(Philadelphia, 1968), p. 70.
EDWARD BEYER (1810-1865)
The William Snidow Farm
Giles County, Virginia, 1855
EDWARD BEYER (1810-1865)
The William Snidow Farm
Giles County, Virginia, 1855
Oil on canvas, in a period veneered frame, 20 x 29 inches
A German émigré working in the style of the Dusseldorf Academy, Edward Beyer is recognized as the premier painter of panoramic landscapes of antebellum Virginia. Only a small number of his original oil paintings survive and rarely come to market. In 1855 Beyer also painted the nearby Lewis family homestead “Bellevue” and “A View of Salem,” which like the Snidow Farm, emphasize atmosphere, action, and drama. Beyer adeptly captured the verdant landscape of William Snidow’s farm, the meandering New River, and the Blue Ridge Mountains towering in the distance. According to a Giles County Deed Book, William Henry Snidow (1796-1863) acquired the sprawling property in 1836 after the death of his father, Colonel Christian Snidow (1760-1836). The house was built by William’s maternal grandfather, Captain Thomas Burke (1741-1808), who was the son of one of the earliest settlers west of the Allegheny Mountain Range. Inscribed on back of canvas in black paint: “View of Wm. H. Snidow’s Farm Giles, Co, Va / Painted from Nature by Ed. Beyer / Presented to Wm. H. Snidow by his friends / A. Hopp / Wm. Walten & / Ed. Beyer / Salem Va. Sept. 1855.” Mentioned in the inscription are almost certainly A. Hupp and William Walton who are listed as proprietors of Roanoke Red Sulphur Springs, a popular spa and tourist destination a short distance from the Snidow property and previously owned by William Burke (1769-1852), an uncle of William H. Snidow. In a further connection, Edward Beyer’s Album of Virginia (1858) includes a color lithograph of Roanoke Red Sulphur Springs. Additionally, William H. Snidow was a well-to-do lawyer very active in the affairs of Giles County and oversaw the creation of new roadways to accommodate spa tourism. The company owning Roanoke Red Sulphur Springs to which Hupp and Walton belonged appears to have been based in nearby Salem, Virginia, possibly explaining Salem as the place of the painting’s dedication, noted on the backside.
Going to Church
New England, circa 1830
Going to Church
New England, circa 1830
Oil on tinplated sheet iron, 10 ½ x 14 inches, in original gilt frame.
The subject of this work was recently identified by Philip Zea, president emeritus of Historic Deerfield, as a depiction of the Anglican Church in Stratford, Connecticut that was designed and built by Thomas Salmon (1693–1743) and demolished in 1858, pictured in E. Edward Beardsley,
The History of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, 2 vols, (New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1863), frontispiece, reproduced in Robert F. Trent, Hearts & Crowns, Folk Chairs of the Connecticut Coast, 1720–1740 (New Haven, 1977), p. 40, no. 2.
This cheerful scene of congregants arriving at church is a superb example of a New England landscape, a rare category in American folk painting, by a highly accomplished artist. The three trees at the forefront offer a vantage point through which to view the scene and partition the landscape in an imaginative way. The classic New England white clapboard church with steeple receives a Sunday congregation on a bright spring or summer day. Neighboring houses and buildings also populate the landscape, including a house in the background veiled by columns of trees similar to those in the foreground. The distinctive vantage point seen in this work recalls the well-known painting Salem Common on Training Day, 1808 by George Ropes, Jr. (1788–1819), illustrated in Dean Lahikainen, In the American Spirit: Folk Art from the Collections, Peabody Essex Museum (Salem, MA, 1994), cover and no. 25.
DAVID DANNER, JR. (1844-1950)
Trade sign for woodcarving and pen drawing
Canal Fulton, Ohio, 1909
DAVID DANNER, JR. (1844-1950)
Trade sign for woodcarving and pen drawing
Canal Fulton, Ohio, 1909
Walnut, tinned iron, glass, brass screws, original paint, height 11 inches, length 17 inches, depth 6 ¾ inches.
Paper medallion under glass inscribed in ink: “Wood Carving / and / Pen Drawing / By David Danner / Canal Fulton, Ohio / 1909”
In this newly discovered trade sign for David Danner, Jr., a three-dimensionally carved hand holds an ink pen that dramatically extends beyond the parameters of the oval plaque. Below this demonstration of skill, a laurel wreath holds a circular glazed aperture with calligraphic inscription describing Danner’s occupations. This trade sign is clever in its self-referential formula, advertising both woodcarving and pen drawing; the artist demonstrates his abilities in both mediums within one sign. Its unweathered, near-perfect condition indicates that it was used for display indoors, likely in the studio of the maker.
Accompanied by a calligraphic drawing of a girl holding a cat with American eagle and flags. Ink and watercolor on paper, 14 ½ x 11 inches, inscribed: “Sep / the 8th / 1866 / By D. Danner / Practical and Ornamental penmanship / Canal Fulton. Sep. 8th 1866 / Prominent / PENMANSHIP.
Queen Anne painted oval-top tea table
New England, probably Connecticut, circa 1740
Queen Anne painted oval-top tea table
New England, probably Connecticut, circa 1740
White pine, curly maple, old or original brown paint,
top 28 ¾ x 22 x ½, height 24 ½ inches.
This table makes a bold and original design statement in the country Queen Anne style. The oval top is secured by undisturbed original pins, double cyma-scrolled aprons on all four sides, and elongated baluster-turned splayed legs ending in delicate pad feet. The retention of the early brown painted surface on the entire base is noteworthy. The top has developed a mellow dark-brown natural patina.
Published:
Patricia E. Kane, “Painted Furniture: From Plain to Fancy,” in Jane Katcher, David A. Schorsch, and Ruth Wolfe, eds., Expressions of Innocence and Eloquence, Selections from the Jane Katcher Collection of Americana (New Haven and London, 2006), pp. 172, 363, no. 100.
Shaker Painted Oval Box of Small Size
Probably Canterbury, New Hampshire, circa 1840–1850
Shaker Painted Oval Box of Small Size
Probably Canterbury, New Hampshire, circa 1840–1850
Maple, white pine, copper tacks, original vibrant red paint, height 2 ³⁄₁₆ inches,
width 4 ½ inches, depth 3 ¼ inches.
This is a choice, classic Shaker small-size oval fingered box, with original thinly applied vibrant red paint, that survives in mint condition. The distinctively shaped fingers link it with a small group of related boxes and a carrier, previously ascribed to Elder Henry Green (1844–1931) of Alfred, Maine, circa 1865–1885, and now considered to be made at an earlier date and most likely originating at Canterbury, New Hampshire. Other examples from this shop tradition include a small oval yellow carrier in the collection of the United Society of Shakers at Sabbathday Lake, Maine, illustrated in June Sprigg, Shaker Design (New York, 1987), pp. 108–9; a small oval blue box, illustrated in Catalog VIII: Excellence in American Design, Current Offerings from the Collection of David A. Schorsch, Inc. (New York, 1991), p. 22; and a small oval yellow box, pictured in Jean M. Burks, “Shaker Products and Principles: A Study in Beauty and Belief,” in Jane Katcher, David A. Schorsch, and Ruth Wolfe, eds., Expressions of Innocence and Eloquence: Americana from the Jane Katcher Collection of Americana (New Haven and London, 2008), pp. 260, 392, no. 173.
JOHN BREWSTER, JR. (1766-1854)
Portrait of a Gentleman with Brown Hair
Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire or Maine, circa 1810-1815
JOHN BREWSTER, JR. (1766-1854)
Portrait of a Gentleman with Brown Hair
Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire or Maine, circa 1810-1815
Oil on canvas, height 33 inches, width 28 inches, in a period gilt frame
This is a classic portrait by the acclaimed deaf and mute folk painter, John Brewster, Jr. In its facial modeling and background color it is related to Brewster’s portrait of Moses Quinby of Stroudwater, Maine painted about 1810-1815 illustrated in Paul S. D’Ambrosio, The World of John Brewster, Jr. (Cooperstown, New York, 2006), p. 44, pl. 32.
JOHN LONG (1787-1856)
Betty lamp
Sporting Hill, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, circa 1841–1853
JOHN LONG (1787-1856)
Betty lamp
Sporting Hill, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, circa 1841–1853
Iron, brass, original patina, height 4 ½ inches, width 4 inches, depth 2 ¾ inches.
This newly discovered example is an incredible survivor “in the black,” retaining a dark untouched surface. The boldly silhouetted brass bird finial with punched eye is a signature element found on John Long’s finest lamps. Long was a highly accomplished metalsmith renowned for his elegant Betty lamps. A nearly identical example with a polished surface, formerly owned by us in 1995, is now at Winterthur and illustrated in Wendy A. Cooper, An American Vision: Henry Francis du Pont’s Winterthur Museum (Washington, DC, 2002), p. 143; and Donald L. Fennimore, Iron at Winterthur (Winterthur, DE, 2004), p. 183. For a biographical look at this maker, see Donald M. Herr, John Long & John Boyer: Nineteenth-Century Craftsmen in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania (Lancaster, PA,
2006).
WILLIAM MURRAY (1756-1828)
Family record for Henry and Magdelina Uhle
Herkimer County, New York, 1817
WILLIAM MURRAY (1756-1828)
Family Record for Henry and Magdelina Uhle
Herkimer County, New York, 1817
Watercolor and ink on paper, fitted to museum standards in the original painted frame, 14 ¾ x 11 ¼ inches
This is a superb example of a fully developed William Murray family record, incorporating a complete repertoire of his signature elements. The quality of the work itself is enhanced by a superb state of preservation and original painted frame. The large central heart motif inscribed in block lettering: “HENRY UHLE was born the fourteenth of September in the year of our lord 1755 and married Magdelina Dygert the 9th of September in the year of our lord 1763” flanked by vertical rows of hearts and coffins recording the births of the Uhle children between 1785 and 1804, and the deaths of Henry in 1813 and Magdelina in 1815. The lower oval boldly inscribed “Drawn by William Murray October 20th 1817.”
Provenance:
Chris A. Machmer, Annville, PA; Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel M. Palley, Huntington Valley, PA; “The Julie and Sandy Palley Collection of American Folk Art,” Sotheby’s, New York, January 10, 2002, lot 818; Private collection
Exhibited:
Painters of Record: William Murray and His School, Museum of American Folk Art, New York, 1990-1991.
Painted Sack-Back Windsor Armchair
Massachusetts, probably Salem, circa 1780-1800
Painted Sack-Back Windsor Armchair
Massachusetts, probably Salem, circa 1780-1800
Maple, ash, old greenish-black paint with yellow striped decoration, height 35 ¾ inches, width 25 inches, depth 15 ¼ inches, seat height 16 ½ inches
Underside of seat branded “O-B” and inscribed in chalk “I.B”
This armchair is distinguished by the use of maple for its oval saddled seat and fine baluster-ring-and cylindrical leg turnings. It is enhanced by a superb state of preservation, with beautifully worn and patinated surface on the seat and arms, which adds a priceless dimension to this memorable and armchair.
Provenance:
David and Marjorie Schorsch, Inc., Greenwich, Connecticut, 1982; Collection of Peter and Barbara Goodman, Rye, New York and Mill River, Massachusetts.
Published:
David and Marjorie Schorsch, Inc., Americana Catalogue Number One: Windsor Chairs 1760-1830 (Greenwich, Connecticut, 1981), p. 41.