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: 508.970.3208 Fax: 508.970.3100 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 Register… Preview… and Bid Live Online Preview Auctions Online Bid Live Online with SkinnerLive! Flip through the pages of our interactive virtual catalogues, Get the live auction experience from your home or office or view all lots in an upcoming auction to browse with SkinnerLive! Register in advance for an auction to bid through images and detailed lot information. You can also online in real time. download and print a PDF file of a catalogue. Find Items with Lot Alert Read the Skinner Blog Find out immediately when items you like are available at Keep up on market trends with tips from our expert auction. Lot Alert searches upcoming Skinner auctions for appraisers. Discover the stories behind the art and items matching your interests, and automatically emails antiques Skinner offers at auction, and add your own you when an item is posted in the online catalogue. comments to join the conversation. Track Lots and Leave Absentee Bids Get Email Updates on Auctions and Events While previewing any auction online, you can ask Subscribe to the Skinner email list to receive monthly specialists questions with a lot inquiry, keep a list of items auction schedules, invitations to events, and notification that interest you with Track Lots, or place secure and when auction previews and catalogues are posted to the confidential online absentee bids. website. Email [email protected] to join. www.skinnerinc.com 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 5 6 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 7 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. 8