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Pook & Pook, Inc., Downingtown, Pennsylvania

A Pennsylvania Landmark: The Shelley Sale

by Lita Solis-Cohen
Photos courtesy Pook & Pook

If passion for Americana is cooling, it certainly wasn’t evident at Pook & Pook’s sale of the collection of Dr. Donald and Esther Shelley on April 20 and 21 in Downingtown, Pennsylvania. A big crowd came to the sale, lured by a collection off the market for more than half a century that gave a window into a different era. Collectors and dealers who usually bid on the phone came to witness a landmark event. Some who did not want to be tempted beyond their limits left bids with the auctioneer. Others bought by phone. There were 530 bidders on eBay Live Auctions, but most of the successful bidders were in the salesroom.

The sale of 852 unreserved lots of mostly Pennsylvania furniture, pottery, textiles, and other decorative household gear brought $9,765,454 (with buyers’ premiums), which is $8,346,542 hammer. Five lots were passed because there were no bids, but some were sold after the sale. The total more than doubled sale estimates of $3,122,350 to $4,569,200. It was a record sale for Pook & Pook and a record for any antiques auction in Pennsylvania.

The old guard rose to the occasion, and newer buyers were active. “The billionaires club was out in force,” commented David Wheatcroft, who had a lot of competition but managed to hold his own by the end of the day. When he went head to head with Patrick Bell, Bell was victorious most of the time. Bell lost several bidding duels to others.

“When I lost out, I had pushed beyond my estimates,” said Bell, who said the sale offered an opportunity to buy some of the finest and rarest examples not seen on the market for a long time.

Todd Prickett was the only dealer who was never outbid. No one knows the names of his client or clients. He won’t say. He didn’t bid on many lots, but he bought a variety of high-priced items. For example, a Philadelphia tiger maple ladder-back armchair, attributed to the Fussell-Savery school, cost him $491,400. It was estimated at $50,000/70,000.

Prickett’s clients must be putting together a collection of curly maple Pennsylvania furniture, since he was the buyer in 2006 of a set of six Philadelphia Savery-type side chairs from the Johnson family that sold for $2,144,000 and in 2007 for a curly maple dressing table that went at an astonishing $4,408,000. He also bought another maple ladder-back armchair at the Shelley sale for $117,000.

Prickett outbid two museums to buy the little English creamware teapot painted in red with the words “No Stamp Act” on one side and “American, Liberty Restored” on the other. It is said to have been made between the time the Stamp Act was enacted and when it was repealed between March 1765 and March 1766. It cost Prickett $152,100, five times its $25,000 high estimate.

Prickett beat out dealers Wheatcroft, Bell, Bill Samaha, and Milly McGehee to buy a red, white, and blue dome-lid box with drawer, decorated with flowers and leaves. It was painted by an artist who used a compass. He paid $374,400 for it, a price more than three times what a similar box sold for at Sotheby’s in 2002. He also bought a miniature Berks County painted chest, inscribed “1765 HB LB,” for $304,200. It may be a record for a miniature dower chest. Pook & Pook had sold one in December 1999 for $220,000.

Prickett was not the most active bidder, however, nor did he buy the most expensive lot. The top lot went to Ohio dealer Don Watkins. Bidding for a client, he paid $585,000 for a William and Mary dressing table with a dark crusty surface, strong cup and trumpet turnings, a shaped serpentine cross stretcher with a turned dished bottle stand, and its original drops. Well-known agent Alan Miller was the underbidder.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) bought the Shelleys’ Lancaster, Pennsylvania, schrank for $351,000, an auction record. It is inlaid with the date 1760 and the name of its first owners, Johanes and Maria Spohr. Alexandra Kirtley, assistant curator at PMA, did the bidding. She said it is the earliest dated schrank known, is considered the best of a group, and has a regional vocabulary of decoration.

Dealers fought over painted furniture. David Wheatcroft bought a record painted dower chest, paying $561,600 for the Berks County chest, dated 1803 and having the top and front decorated with tulips and birds and with fat hearts at the corners. “Birds are not that common on dower chests, and there were eight birds on this one,” said Wheatcroft.

Wheatcroft also got a Centre County, Pennsylvania, chest with hearts and flowers laid out with a compass and with his initials D and W on the top. He paid $222,300 for it. Pat Bell outbid Wheatcroft for a Lancaster or Berks County painted schrank with blue, white, and red paint, paying the same $222,300 for it. It would have brought more if it had not been cut in half vertically down the middle. Bell also won a red-painted dry sink from the Ephrata Cloister for $64,350 and bought for $140,400 a Lehigh Valley painted dower chest that has big hearts sponged with green outlined in orange and with pinwheel stars on orange discs and big bold orange and ivory stars on both ends.

There were plenty of record prices paid for painted objects. A New Jersey collector paid a record $140,400 for a Jacob Weber box inscribed to his wife and dated 1850. Dealer David Schorsch paid a record $76,050 for an oval Bucher box with red tulips. A Wilhelm Schimmel carved eaglet, 6¾" high and with vibrant paint, sold for $58,500, a record for the form. A 4" high Schimmel rooster sold for $22,230 to Harry Hartman, a record for a 4" rooster.

There were two records for redware. A slipware plate, dated 1816 and decorated with black, green, and white tulips, sold for $105,300 to dealer James Glazer of Bailey Island, Maine. A collector in the salesroom paid an auction record $111,150 for a sgraffito plate decorated with a leaping stag. A stoneware jug, 8 1/4" high and decorated with a girl holding a parasol, sold for $53,820, and a stoneware jug decorated with a cobalt gooney bird went to a bidder using eBay Live Auctions at $48,800.

The $25,740 paid by Stephen Score for a vibrant crib quilt found in a dower chest is probably a record for a crib quilt at auction.

Wheatcroft and Bell battled over painted tin. Bell won a black tole document box painted with a bird for $16,380. He also bought a red tole coffeepot for $23,400. Wheatcroft got a red tole syrup pitcher for $4914.

Pewter held up well, even after the sale of the Charles Swain collection at Northeast Auctions in February and two more sessions to come. Three pieces of unmarked pewter attributed to Johann Phillip Alberti were fought over: a flagon sold for $49,140; a phone bidder got a lidded pitcher for $35,100; and a collector in the salesroom paid the same price for a teapot.

A different group battled over brown furniture. Downingtown, Pennsylvania, dealer Philip W. Bradley had a hard day. He underbid the schrank and underbid a pair of early 18th-century Delaware Valley banister-back side chairs that went to collectors in the salesroom at $93,600. He bought a single banister-back side chair with a fancy crown for $64,350, and a large gate-leg table with crisp turning for $70,200, which seemed like a bargain.

There were so many wainscot chairs in the sale, one would think they are common, but they are not. The most expensive one, the chair Donald Shelley called “the Bishop Eby black banister back,” was estimated at $60,000/80,000 and sold for $111,150 to a collector who left a bid with the auctioneer. A walnut wainscot armchair at the Sotheby’s Jeffords sale had brought the same hammer price, but Sotheby’s 20% buyer’s premium pushed the final price to $114,000, still the record for a Pennsylvania wainscot chair.

Other wainscot chairs at the Shelley sale sold for $42,120, $87,750, $28,080, $21,060, and $25,740. A paneled bench, circa 1740, sold for $99,450.

After the sale, family friends said that 93-year-old Esther Shelley is very happy. They said her generous giving is well known in the Oley Valley community, and she plans to direct a substantial portion of the proceeds of the sale to many worthy causes.

The Shelleys’ son, David, came to the sale from California. Their daughter, Lee, did not come from Michigan because of family health issues, but her daughter, Robin, and her husband, Keith Jackson, were there. Michael Lightner, a nephew of the Shelleys, sat with them on the front row. “Great sale,” he said as he got up to leave. “Great people, great taste, and there was not a comfortable chair in their house.”

This English creamware teapot, 5" high, painted in red with the words “No Stamp Act” on one side and “American, Liberty Restored” on the other, was cataloged as made between the time the Stamp Act was enacted and when it was repealed between March 1765 and March 1766. It is one of four known examples. The others are in the Smithsonian, Colonial Williamsburg, and the Peabody Essex Museum. It was hammered down to Yardley, Pennsylvania, dealer Todd Prickett for $152,100 (est. $20,000/25,000). Prickett said he was thrilled to get it. “The one at the Guthman sale at Northeast that sold for over ninety-nine thousand dollars was black. This one is red and in better condition,” Prickett said beaming. He would not give the name of his client.
The underbidder was Clara Deck, a senior conservator at the Henry Ford Museum, where Donald Shelley spent 24 years as curator, executive director, and president. Social change is one of the stories the Henry Ford Museum tells. With Liberty and Justice for All is one of its permanent exhibitions, and the teapot would have fit in well in an exhibition that includes the Rosa Parks bus. (The Winterthur Museum was also interested in acquiring the teapot.)

This 19th-century storage box with canted sides and painted green with red and yellow stamped rosettes, similar to those found on Mahantongo Valley furniture, was deemed Vermont by some of the cognoscenti in the salesroom and New York state by others. It sold for $23,400 (est. $3500/4500) to dealers David Schorsch and Eileen Smiles of Woodbury, Connecticut, underbid by Harry Hartman. Schorsch said he owned another box by the same decorator 25 years ago, and Henry Reed, the Mahantongo expert, thought it was Centre County, Pennsylvania, but not in the Mahantongo Valley.

This redware flowerpot, attributed to Absalom Bixler, Earl Township, Lancaster County, with yellow birds on a branch in relief on both sides, sold for $32,760 (est. $8000/ 12,000) to New York City dealer Sidney Gecker. It had sold for $60 at Parke-Bernet’s Sussel sale in October 1958. One incised “Abs Bixler” to his wife, Sarah, 1824, sold for $180 in the 1958 Sussel sale. A larger Bixler flowerpot with birds and a cat sold at the 2007 New York Winter Antiques Show; it was priced at $135,000. Several signed Bixler flowerpots make it possible to attribute others.

The 16½" long oval ribbon box painted with potted red tulips on a black ground by Heinrich Bucher, Berks County, late 18th century or early 19th century, was hammered down to Eileen Smiles and David Schorsch for $76,050 (est. $12,000/18,000). The underbidder was dealer Greg Kramer. In June 1994 a similar box sold at Christie’s sale of the collection of Mr. and Mrs. George Scott Jr. in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for $27,600.

This Philadelphia wool on linen needlework, circa 1750, depicting a bird on a flowering tree, is similar to one at Winterthur and sold to a phone bidder for $23,400.

Harry Hartman, Pat Bell, and several other bidders in the salesroom wanted this 19th-century stoneware jug decorated in cobalt with a woman with a parasol and indistinctly inscribed “gal that wo––the water.” It sold for $53,820 (est. $8000/12,000) to a phone bidder, underbid by Bell.

This six-gallon stoneware water jug, 18" high, impressed “M. Woodruff Cortland” and decorated with a cobalt gooney bird, sold for $48,800 (est. $10,000/15,000) to a bidder on eBay Live Auctions, underbid on the phone. Pook & Pook vice  president Kellie Seltzer said the buyer called to arrange release of the piece to the New York State Museum in Albany and said he had purchased it for the museum.

Late 18th-century Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, painted dower chest, the cartouche inscribed “Hanna Eister 1780 Gehert Diese Kist” (Hanna Eister 1780 owns this chest) above stylized green sponge-decorated hearts and with orange pinwheels and bold orange and ivory stars on each end. According to the condition report, the feet were taken off, repaired, and reattached, and only one rear foot facing was replaced. Estimated at $30,000/50,000, it was purchased for $140,400 by Patrick Bell of Olde Hope Antiques, Solebury, Pennsylvania.

This Lancaster or Berks County, Pennsylvania, circa 1770, pine schrank is painted soft blue, red, and white. Its upper section is cut in two vertically for easy moving. It was estimated at $100,000/150,000 and sold for $222,300 to Patrick Bell of Olde Hope Antiques, underbid by Westborough, Massachusetts, dealer David Wheatcroft.
“It is such a rare form to find in paint, and this one is aesthetically pleasing because of its high bracket foot, strong cornice, and the combination of colors,” said Bell. “I bought it for stock.”

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, walnut schrank with “Iohanes Spohr A Maria Spohrin anno 1760” inlaid in the frieze and with sprays of flowers. It’s the earliest inlaid and documented schrank known and is in remarkably good condition. It never had feet. Over the raised panels are carved flowers, and in the panels tulips, scrolls, and stars are inlaid. The linen fold pilasters are anchored by candle drawers in the base between two long drawers. It is 85" high x 66¼" wide.
Estimated at $175,000/225,000, it sold for $351,000 to Alexandra Kirtley, assistant curator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The museum had competition from Williamsburg, Virginia, advisor Luke Beckerdite, and from Pennsylvania dealers Terry Dwyer and Philip Bradley, the underbidder who shook his head at $300,000. It is an auction record for a schrank.
“The date is the earliest on any Pennsylvania German schrank,” said Kirtley as she left the salesroom. Later she said a clock case in the museum’s collection with the painted date 1751 is the earliest dated piece of Pennsylvania German furniture. Curator emeritus Beatrice Garvan had tried to borrow the schrank for a 1982 exhibit at the museum, but Dr. Shelley would not lend it or allow it to be photographed. This was the first time scholars had a chance to study it. The funds for its acquisition were donated from a bequest from Lynford Lardner Starr and from Richard Dietrich, Gerry Lenfest, Bob and Kathy Booth, and Charlene Sussel as well as money from a preview event at Pook & Pook hosted by Joan and Victor Johnson. (Kirtley said she did the bidding because curator David Barquist was on a National Endowment for the Humanities panel in New Haven.)

This Pennsylvania walnut wainscot armchair with classic proportions was probably made in Philadelphia, circa 1725. Shelley bought it from Roger Bacon in 1961. It had a replaced plank seat, mentioned in the condition report available to everyone, but its pure form made it very desirable. It sold on the phone to Alan Miller for $87,750 (est. $30,000/ 50,000).

This Philadelphia maple five-slat-back armchair with “crook’d feet,” attributed to the workshop of William Savery or Solomon Fussell, circa 1750, sold for $117,000 (est. $50,000/70,000) to Todd Prickett, underbid by a collector. At the Sussel sale in October 1958 it sold for $535.

Chuck White of Mercer, Pennsylvania, a dealer seated on the first row, paid $128,700 for this mid-19th-century Pennsylvania painted settee, 74¼" long, attributed to William F. Snyder, Mifflintown Chair Works, Juniata County. The crest rail is decorated with a panoramic landscape; the stretchers are decorated with leaves. It is inscribed “A.B. Hart” on the underside.

A local collector paid $28,080 (est. $1200/1500) for this Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, walnut 22½" long straight edge, with the date 1800 and the initials I S and with a bird, star, and potted tulip in sulfur wax inlay. It is rare to find sulfur inlay on a small object.

Philip W. Bradley bought this circa 1710 Delaware Valley maple and pine banister-back side chair with a rush seat and a bold caved arched crest. Similar to examples in the Newark Museum and shown in the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s exhibition Worldly Goods, it was estimated at $8000/12,000 and sold for $64,350. The fact that the feet were ended out 2" was forgiven; it is a very rare and striking design.

This late 18th-century Pennsylvania walnut candlestand, its square top inlaid with an eagle and an urn with vines, tulips, and fylfots over a circular birdcage with six posts and with a baluster standard supported by tripod cabriole legs ending in pad feet, sold for $81,900 (est. $15,000/ 20,000) to Massachusetts and Ohio dealer Bill Samaha.

This 40" wide late 18th-century walnut chest with remains of red and yellow grain painting sold for $39,780 (est. $8000/12,000) to Patrick Bell of Olde Hope Antiques, underbid on the phone.

A Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 31" high x 48" wide painted poplar dry sink/water bench, mid 18th century, with an Ephrata Cloister provenance, was estimated at $8000/ 12,000. When David Wheatcroft, a collector, and Pat Bell finished competing, the price had climbed to $55,000 before the hammer fell. With buyer’s premium, Bell paid $64,350, a record for a dry sink.

This was the favorite chest of many people. They liked the lyrical design on the front, the hearts at the corners, the clear and bright colors, and the stretched French feet painted black. Made in Centre County, it is similar to the chest once in the Howard and Jean Lipman collection. This one sold for $222,300 (est. $70,000/90,000) to David Wheatcroft. It has his initials D and W on the top, so he had to buy it. Dealer Chuck White was the underbidder. Wheatcroft said he felt it is the best of the three Centre County chests known.

This Pennsylvania painted poplar table, late 18th century, with a battened lift top and a single drawer and with red and yellow graining, sold for $28,080 (est. $4000/6000) to Patrick Bell of Olde Hope Antiques, Solebury, Pennsylvania, underbid by Westborough, Massachusetts, dealer David Wheatcroft.

A  61½" high x 75" wide Delaware Valley pine settle, mid to late 18th century, retaining some original blue paint, was estimated at $15,000/25,000 and sold for $32,760 to a woman sitting with Vernon Gunnion. Gunnion is co-executor of the Shelley estate and did not bid.

Small boxes brought big prices. This 6 1/8" x 10" x 5¾" box, made and painted by Jacob Weber (1772-1865), Fivepointville, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and inscribed “Maria Weber 1850,” sold for $140,400 (est. $20,000/ 25,000) to a New Jersey collector, who paid a record auction price for a Weber box. Dealer Milly MeGehee of Baltimore was the underbidder.

This Berks County painted dower chest, dated 1803, the top and front decorated with tulips, parrots, and stars on a blue ground, with hearts at the corners and parrots on the sides, sold for $561,600 (est. $125,000/175,000) to David Wheatcroft of Westborough, Massachusetts, for a client. He was underbid by Pennsylvania collector Steve Smith. It is a new record at auction for a painted dower chest. The previous record of $446,000 was paid at Skinner in Boston in November 2006 for a black-unicorn chest, bought on the phone by Patrick Bell and Edwin Hild of Olde Hope Antiques, Solebury, Pennsylvania, bidding for a client, and underbid by David Wheatcroft.

This large southeastern Pennsylvania walnut gate-leg dining table, circa 1730, was one of the few items Donald Shelley ever lent to an exhibition. It was exhibited at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in October 1982-January 1983. It sold for $70,200 (est. $50,000/70,000) to Philip W. Bradley and seemed like a good deal.

A Philadelphia sack-back with an early ocher surface was a favorite Windsor at the sale. It sold for $23,400 (est. $10,000/15,000) to dealer James Glazer of Bailey Island, Maine.

This circa 1720 Philadelphia William and Mary mahogany dressing table is nearly identical to one at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It is in a remarkable state of preservation. Even the drops may be original. It sold for $585,000 to Ohio dealer Don Watkins, who said he bought it for “someone who needed it.” The underbidder in the salesroom was Quakertown, Pennsylvania, furniture guru Alan Miller. Dr. Shelley had bought it from Downingtown, Pennsylvania, dealer Philip H. Bradley. At the preview his son, Philip W. Bradley, said, “In 1962 Donald Shelley came into the shop and bought it for the extraordinary sum of twelve hundred dollars. I am willing to bet Donald paid on time.”

This was the most expensive Pennsylvania wainscot chair in the sale. Referred to as the “Bishop Eby black banister back” by Dr. Shelley, it came from a Lancaster auction on East Orange Street, where it was bought by the late Edgar and Charlotte Sittig, from whom Shelley bought it. Estimated at $60,000/80,000, it sold for $111,150 to a collector who left a bid with the auctioneer. A walnut wainscot armchair at the Sotheby’s Jeffords sale brought the same hammer price, but its 20% buyer’s premium pushed the price to $114,000, still the record for a wainscot chair.

A Philadelphia sack-back with an early ocher surface was a favorite Windsor at the sale. It sold for $23,400 (est. $10,000/15,000) to dealer James Glazer of Bailey Island, Maine.

This pair of Delaware Valley banister-back side chairs, circa 1720, sold in the salesroom to collectors for $93,600 (est. $30,000/50,000), underbid by dealer Philip W. Bradley of Downingtown, Pennsylvania. A similar pair sold at the Jeffords sale at Sotheby’s in October 2004 for $51,000, but only one was perfect; the other had replacements.

This Lititz Moravian Girls’ School needlework picture of silk and chenille, with spangles and paint, is inscribed on the tablet “Hannah Mary/ M’Conaughy/ Lititz/ May 1825.” The central figures represent Palemon and Lavinia from the poem “Autumn.” It is in its original 20½" x 20½" gilt frame. A Pennsylvania collector outbid two phone bidders and paid $35,100 (est. $15,000/25,000) for it. It is pictured on the dust jacket of the hardcover catalog.

This vibrant 41" x 40" Pennsylvania pieced crib quilt was found in the bottom of a dower chest. It was estimated at $1200/1800 and sold to Boston dealer Stephen Score on the phone for $25,740, probably a record for a crib quilt at auction. David Wheatcroft of Westborough, Massachusetts, was the underbidder.

There was a lot of competition for this Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, poplar and pine domed box with a drawer decorated by the so-called Compass Artist in red, white, and blue. Estimated at $50,000/70,000, it sold for $374,400 to Todd Prickett, who outbid David Wheatcroft, Bill Samaha, Pat Bell, and Milly McGehee. A nearly identical example sold at Sotheby’s in January 2002 from the collection of Richard and Joy Kanter for $104,250 to Pat Bell, bidding by phone. Another, without a drawer, sold at the Philadelphia show in 2006 for just over $100,000.

This slipware plate, dated 1816, decorated with white slip and with black and green tulips, sold for three times its high estimate to James Glazer, who paid $105,300, a record for a slipware plate at auction. There is one in the Esmerian collection like it. It is related to Solomon Grimm’s work, but no one knows who made it.

A collector in the salesroom paid $111,150 for this sgraffito plate, 13 7/8" in diameter, dated 1790 and incised with a leaping stag, a tree, and a flower in orange, green, yellow, and brown slip. With several hairlines, it was estimated at $20,000/25,000. The price is a record for a Pennsylvania redware sgraffito plate at auction.

This oval box decorated with tulips on the sides and flowers on the top on a reddish orange surface sold for $70,200 (est. $12,000/18,000) to David Schorsch of Woodbury, Connecticut. It was described as Centre County, Pennsylvania, but Schorsch said it was made in Shenandoah County, Virginia. The name under the lid is Barb, not Burl as indicated in the catalog. “We found a Jacob Barb living in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia in the nineteenth century. We think 1811, the date on the box, is his birth date,” Schorsch said.

These two wood and tin mirrored sconces, one round, the other rectangular, sold for $18,720 (est. $800/1200), probably a record for mirrored sconces. “Hard to find lighting that is all real,” said David Schorsch. “It was nice to see lighting that is really right.”

There were some rare pieces of pewter that were not overlooked. Known to members of the pewter collector’s club because Shelley would bring them to meetings for show and tell, the three pieces attributed to Johann Phillip Alberti are rare and desirable. Collector and dealer Trish Herr of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, paid $49,140 (est. $40,000/60,000) for this pewter flagon by Alberti. A collector bought a teapot attributed to Alberti decorated with bright-cut vines and birds for $35,100 (est. $15,000/25,000). A phone bidder paid $35,100 (est. $20,000/30,000) for a rare lidded pitcher, 7¾" high, attributed to Alberti and inscribed “MM Georg Leonart Muller 1763.”

The big (14½" tall) Wilhelm Schimmel eagle with an old, dark varnished surface over original red, yellow, and brown decoration, estimated at $30,000/40,000, sold for a strong $234,000 to collector Steve Smith; dealer Milly McGehee of Baltimore, Maryland, was the underbidder. The Schimmel eagle that sold at the Jeffords sale at Sotheby’s in October 2004 brought $254,400 (with a higher buyer’s premium) and is still the record Schimmel.

Little Schimmel birds, “pocket stuffers,” brought big prices. From left: the 4" high standing eaglet with black and red paint on a yellow body sold for $14,040 (est. $4000/5000) to David Wheatcroft; the 4" high rooster with a yellow body and black and green spots and a red comb sold for $22,230 (est. $3000/5000) to Marietta, Pennsylvania, dealer Harry Hartman; the slightly larger rooster (4¾" high) sold for $15,210 (est. $3000/5000), underbid by Wheatcroft.

This eaglet, carved and painted by Wilhelm Schimmel (1817-1890), Cumberland Valley, Pennsylvania, sold for $58,500 (est. $12,000/18,000) to David Wheatcroft, underbid by David Schorsch. It is a record price for a Schimmel eaglet. The paint was vibrant, and there were few chips.

This redware footed covered dish, Nockamixon Township, Bucks County, with rope twist handles and a green glaze is 6" high. Estimated at $3000/5000, it sold for $25,740 to Sidney Gecker, a New York City dealer. It sold in a lot with a brown openwork bowl at the Arthur Sussel sale at Parke-Bernet Galleries in October 1958 for $65.

This 10¾" high wall pocket, impressed “D.P. Schenfelder, Reading, PA,” sold for $44,460 to Bob Merritt of Merritt’s Antiques, Douglassville, Pennsylvania. It must be a record for a redware wall pocket. Good color and good condition mattered.

This lot of wool and linen homespun in various colors, some made into curtains, sold in the salesroom for $14,040 (est. $500/1000) to dealer Cheryl Mackley of Airville, Pennsylvania.

This Pennsylvania circa 1750 ladder-back tiger maple armchair, attributed to the Fussell-Savery school, has six arched slats, a scalloped skirt, scrolled arms, turned baluster arm supports, a bold ball turned stretcher, and “crooked feet.” Estimated at $50,000/ 70,000, it sold to dealer Todd Prickett of Yardley, Pennsylvania, for $491,400, an all-time auction record for a ladder-back chair.

At the Arthur Sussel sale in October 1958, this walnut armchair with leather-upholstered back and seat and a scalloped seat frame, circa 1750, possibly Lancaster County, sold for $1100. At the Shelley sale, nearly 50 years later, it sold for $44,460 to the woman sitting with Vernon Gunnion, the executor of the estate, who often bids for a collector.

Who Was Donald Shelley?

Donald A. Shelley, who died at age 94 in the spring of 2006, will be remembered as a kind man, a serious scholar, and author of The Fraktur-Writings or the Illuminated Manuscripts of the Pennsylvania Germans (1961), the first book to attempt a classification of fraktur by artists and school. Most of all he will be remembered as a passionate collector and a great storyteller, who let a few special people see his collection and never ever thought of selling a piece.
His estate executors, Vernon Gunnion, retired museum curator of the Landis Valley Museum, and Larry Ward, retired lawyer and bookseller, thought his widow, Esther, would be more comfortable with fewer things around. When it became apparent that there were substantial tax and estate planning advantages in selling a collection within 15 months of a collector’s death, they sent almost all of the Shelley collection to Pook & Pook for sale.

“We didn’t take anything that Esther wanted to live with, and we filled in with useful things,” said Gunnion at the sale. “We really should have gotten a photograph of the room upstairs. It was just packed. The compass box was sitting on a settee facing the fireplace with things all around it. It was like Bill Koch’s barn,” Vernon Gunnion recalled, referring to the Koch collection that Pook & Pook sold on June 5, 1999, for $4.2 million, a record for a one-day on-site farm sale and for any antiques auction in Pennsylvania. The Shelley sale brought $9.7 million and shattered that record for a single-owner sale in Pennsylvania.

Donald Shelley had a long and distinguished career as a curator and museum director. He worked at the Brooklyn Museum and the New-York Historical Society and was the first curator of the Bernice Chrysler and Edgar William Garbisch collection of folk art. “Esther used to say she brought up their two children, David and Lee, on the streets of New York,” said Gunnion.

The Shelley family moved to Michigan, where they stayed for 24 years, when Donald Shelley was made curator and then executive director and president of the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. “They bought their house in Oley in 1950, and Donald told me they came back from Michigan for long weekends every month,” Gunnion recounted.

Larry Ward said Donald Shelley told him that when he took the job at Ford, he told the board of directors he was a collector and would continue to buy any object offered to him that was made between the Allegheny Ridge and the Mason-Dixon Line and between the Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers. “Donald and William Ford had an informal understanding that he could buy things made within those boundaries, but he would always defer to the museum on pieces important for the museum’s collection. Everything was disclosed within that arrangement. He had good connections in the trade, and the museum got some things Donald would have loved to have had,” Ward said.

Gunnion said, “Almost every piece of Americana sold at Pook and Pook was made within a forty-mile radius of the auction house in Downingtown.” The sale’s results also show that things do best when offered in the geographic regions where they were made.

Donald Shelley collected before the generation that decorates with antiques. “Old Joe and Young Joe [Kindig] lived with antiques the way they were used in the eighteenth century, but Donald Shelley just bought objects from an art historian’s perspective, wanting to chronicle the evolution of a form, and then stashed them away. He loved the hunt, and he loved what he had,” said Gunnion. “At the Rich Smith sale on the farm in Millbach in the early 1990’s, I asked Donald if the sale gave him the urge to sell, and he said, ‘Never,’” Gunnion recalled.

Larry Ward said it was very tough for Donald Shelley to part with his fraktur collection, which he sold at Pook & Pook in 2004 for $897,833.
Donald Shelley continued his hunt long after he stopped buying actively. He bought most of his collection from 1930 through the 1960’s, occasionally filling in with a desk or chest of drawers or something small in recent years. According to Gunnion, every Saturday Shelley would make the rounds to the shops of Philip Bradley and Betty Matlat, ending up at Skip Chalfant’s late in the day. Then he would come home and tell Esther, who had spent the day in her garden and orchard, what he had seen.

Donald and Esther Shelley were married in 1934 and shared seven decades of involvement with family, church, museums, travel, antiques, and historic preservation.

For more information, contact Pook & Pook at (610) 269-4040 or (www.pookandpook.com).