John McInnis Auctioneers, Amesbury, Massachusetts
Photos courtesy John McInnis Auctioneers
John McInnis Auctioneers sold nearly 1000 lots over three days, February 22, 24, and 25. The first two days were online only, comprising around 460 lots. The third day was a live sale, with Kevin Parker and Nichole Pirro sharing auctioneering duties. The live sale included nearly 500 lots, with over 200 lots of Kennedy family material.
Helen Mary Keyes and her sister M. Frances Keyes (1924-2019) were daughters of the Kennedy family dentist, and as young women they worked on John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s political career, beginning with his ultimately successful run for the House of Representatives in 1946. Frannie, as she was known, also taught school. Helen was a most steadfast volunteer and gathered much of the collection of Kennedy-related material. Helen organized a series of teas at which Kennedy’s mother, his sisters, and other female relatives met voters and garnered votes. The Keyes sisters worked the campaigns of all three Kennedy brothers.
Day three began auspiciously with a 13-star silk American parade flag, 24¼" x 29", from the 1844 presidential campaign of Whigs Henry Clay (1777-1852) and Theodore Frelinghuysen (1787-1862). It is printed with an image of a raccoon, one of the symbols of the Whig Party, and sold for $16,120 (est. $5000/10,000). The flag had descended in the family of James Snodgrass Jr., and was illustrated in the 1979 book Threads of History by Herbert Ridgeway Collins.
The leading lot of the three days was a 13-star silk parade flag, 24¼" x 29", from the 1844 presidential campaign of Whigs Henry Clay (1777-1852) and Theodore Frelinghuysen (1787-1862). It was printed with an image of a raccoon, one of the symbols of the Whig Party. Estimated at $5000/10,000, it sold for $16,120 (with buyer’s premium).
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One highlight of the second day of the auction was this 19th-century lantern, 15½" high, pierced with star shapes and holding a blue glass globe. It realized $2480 (est. $200/400).
This unsigned Harlem Renaissance school painting, The Newsboy, oil on canvas, 36" x 30", sold for $1488 (est. $1000/2000). The painting depicts a black newsboy peddling papers as he is surrounded by figures holding out coins.
This group of ten animals made by the A. Schoenhut Company of Philadelphia brought $3224 (est. $600/1200). Albert Schoenhut (1849-1912), who came from a toy-making family in Würtemberg, Germany, arrived in Philadelphia in 1866 at age 18 to repair toy pianos for the John Wanamaker store. A few years later he opened his own toy-making company.
This full-bodied horse weathervane, 25" x 32", with excellent patina, a weathered green surface, and remnants of the original gold sold for $4030 (est. $3000/6000). The catalog noted that the legs need repair. Mascolo photo.
Helen Mary Keyes of Boston, whose father was the Kennedy family dentist, was a volunteer on John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s early political campaigns and collected material from his first campaign all the way to the days when she assisted Jacqueline Kennedy in answering thousands of letters of sympathy after his assassination. Keyes and her sister M. Frances Keyes also worked on campaigns for Robert Kennedy and Edward Kennedy, along the way gathering memorabilia from the Kennedy family and from Jacqueline Kennedy’s Auchincloss family members and events. For this auction the collection was whittled down to 204 lots, most of which included more than one item. This entirely handwritten letter of 1952 from Congressman John Kennedy to Helen Mary Keyes thanking her for her hard work on his campaign came with a negative and a photograph of Keyes, Kennedy, Polly Fitzgerald, and Frank Morrissey. The lot brought $3410 (est. $2000/4000).
This 1952 letter from John F. Kennedy to Helen Mary Keyes thanks her for her work for his campaign. She had orchestrated a series of teas to introduce the candidate to voters. Kennedy wrote that “O’Hara said at the Clover Club dinner Mr. Lodge was drowned in the 500 gallons of tea which you had poured.” Kennedy had defeated Henry Cabot Lodge for Congress. The letter, estimated at $2000/4000, realized $2108. The tea set (not shown) used at the many campaign teas was also offered and sold for $1240.
Bettina, a color lithograph, 25" x 18", by German artist Otto Dix (1891-1969) is signed, numbered 31/60, and dated 1953. The image of a sweet little girl is in direct opposition to the harsh images that Dix created in the 1920s and ’30s of life in Germany during the Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich.
The highlight of a group of sports memorabilia was a home run. A team photo of the Philadelphia Phillies from the 1890 season sold for $11,780 (est. $200/400). That year the Phillies finished third in the National League. Until that year the team was known as the Philadelphia Quakers. The picture appears to be in fine condition and depicts the players, a boy, and a man in a suit and top hat, alongside and on a grandstand.
This 18th-century oak cricket table with a round top, lower triangular shelf, and splayed legs, 28" x 27", was estimated at $400/800 and sold for $1240. A strap beneath the top and blocks beneath the shelf had been added later, likely for stability.
This scroddled yellowware teapot with an undertray, circa 1850, is rare and sold for $744 (est. $200/400). An attached triangular plaque bears the inscription “May We All Meet In Heaven.”
Among some 20 fine weathervanes, this 19th-century fragment of a horse weathervane attracted the most interest. Measuring 16" x 22" and having a molded copper body with a finely detailed solid cast-zinc head and torso, it is weathered, riddled with bullet holes, and missing a tail, and it has losses to the legs and ears. Nonetheless, it sold for $1240 (est. $200/400).
This mid-20th-century Lady Liberty weathervane with a 13-star flag, 36½" x 31", with a weathered gilt surface realized $11,160 (est. $2000/4000).
From one of only three Supreme Carousels by M. C. Illions, this figural divider, 48" x 8½" x 6", carved with roses and shells, brought $2790 (est. $500/1000). It came from the collection of Al Schoenbach.
This contemporary bluefin tuna weathervane or garden sculpture, 29" x 49" x 16", with gold leaf fins and glass eyes was made by Lee Webber and David C. Fairbanks. The directionals were not included. Estimated at $1500/3000, it brought $6200.
This early trunk by Louis Vuitton (1821-1892) in the distinctive early Rayée (striped) canvas, introduced in 1876, was estimated at $3000/4000 and sold for $6820. Vuitton established himself in Paris in 1854, at age 33. He had stores in Paris on rue Neuve des Capucines and later on rue Scribe, and he maintained a shop in London on Oxford Street. In 1896 the LV monogram branding went into the design.
This olive half-pint blown-molded Masonic flask is rare. It is decorated with a crescent, an hourglass, and the twin pillars of Boaz and Jachin. The 6" high flask is attributed to the Coventry Glass Works, which operated between 1813 and 1849 in Coventry, Connecticut. Estimated at $3000/6000, the flask realized $11,160.
This pair of early 19th-century Coalport porcelain fruit coolers in the Rock and Fruit Tree pattern brought $3410 against the $500/1000 estimate. The coolers are unmarked and include covers, inserts, and fonts. They came from the Knox Mansion in Buffalo, New York, owned by Seymour H. Knox, who owned S. H. Knox Co. 5 and 10 Cent Stores, which he merged with his cousins’ F. W. Woolworth Company stores. By 1911 Knox was the second-largest operator of such stores, having 98 U.S. stores and 13 Canadian stores.
This cast-iron lawn jockey holding a brass lantern (not original), 43" x 14" x 14", sold for $3720 (est. $200/400).
Originally published in the May 2024 issue of Maine Antique Digest. © 2024 Maine Antique Digest
