Stair Americana | Maine Antique Digest

Stair Galleries, Hudson, New York

Photos courtesy Stair Galleries

Stair Galleries, Hudson, New York, holds its annual Americana sale early every August so that dealers can stock up for the summer shows in Manchester, New Hampshire. This year on August 1 Stair offered 287 lots of paintings, furniture, silver, Chinese export porcelain, weathervanes, folk art, and decorative and historical treasures to a few bidders in the salesroom and to hundreds of bidders in all parts of the world bidding on three bidding platforms, the majority on Stair.com. Of the 287 lots offered, just 26 failed to sell, for a respectable 91% sold.

Paintings were the big-ticket items. Charles Wimar’s The Abduction of Daniel Boone’s Daughter by the Indians sold for $52,480 (including buyer’s premium); it was estimated at $40,000/60,000. A larger version of this painting is in the collection of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri. Another version is at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas.

Charles Wimar (1828-1862), The Abduction of Daniel Boone’s Daughter by the Indians, circa 1853, oil on canvas, unsigned, 15½" x 18½" (sight size), sold for $52,480 (est. $40,000/60,000). The German-born Wimar, also known as Karl Ferdinand Wimar and Carl Wimar, immigrated to the United States with his family at the age of 15, settling in St. Louis, Missouri. He went back to Germany to study at the academy in Düsseldorf with Emanuel Leutze. During his time in Düsseldorf he painted this scene of the abduction of Jemima Boone. A larger version of this painting is in the collection of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in Saint Louis. Wimar later painted a version of this subject showing Jemima on a raft being paddled down the river by a group of Native Americans; that painting is now at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas.

There was a lot of interest in Ralph Cahoon Jr.’s The Everglades Club, and it sold to a member of the club for $35,840 (est. $10,000/15,000). Muffie Cunningham, who masterminded the sale, said the buyer of this picture of dapper men and their top hats and morning suits served by topless mermaids will give it to the Palm Beach, Florida, watering hole. Addison Mizner designed the site as a convalescent hospital for World War I officers, but it morphed into a private social club in the 1920s.

Ralph Eugene Cahoon Jr. (1910-1982), The Everglades Club,oil on board, signed “R. Cahoon” lower right, 25" x 32" (sight size), from the estate of Richard P. Mellon, sold for $35,840 (est. $10,000/15,000) to a member of the Everglades Club in Palm Beach, Florida, who will give it to the club. The painting had last sold at Sotheby’s, New York City, May 19, 2005, for $36,000 (est. $15,000/25,000). Not shown, a smaller work by Ralph Cahoon in this sale, A Good Catch,13" x 18", from the Henry B. Holt estate, sold for $6080 (est. $4000/6000).

This humdrum Queen Anne fan-carved bonnet-top cherry highboy, Connecticut, 7'4" x 39½" x 20", with minor repairs and original finials and hardware sold for $2432 (est. $3000/5000). The Stair sale was at least its third time at auction. In March 1960 at Parke-Bernet Galleries it had sold from the estate of John Kenneth Byard of Silvermine, Connecticut. It sold at Sotheby’s, New York City, January 18, 1998, for $48,875 (est. $40,000/60,000).

American furniture was not embraced enthusiastically. A humdrum Queen Anne fan-carved bonnet-top cherry highboy from Connecticut, with minor repairs and original finials and hardware, sold for $2432 (est. $3000/5000). This sale was at least its third time at auction. It had sold in March 1960 at Parke-Bernet Galleries from the estate of John Kenneth Byard of Silvermine, Connecticut. It sold again at Sotheby’s on January 18, 1998, for $48,875 (est. $40,000/60,000).

A candlestand that sold to the trade for $8320 (est. $500/700) came from the estate of Hudson Valley auctioneer Cal Smith. A number of bidders recognized it as an early design. It was the top lot of American furniture.

Unusual Pilgrim-century candlestand, possibly cherry, 26¼" high x 16¾" diameter, from the collection of Hudson Valley auctioneer Cal Smith, sold to the trade for $8320 (est. $500/700).

Muffie Cunningham said about a quarter of the bidders came to Hudson to preview the sale, and successful buyers were bidding from as far away as Hong Kong and India. Each lot had plenty of photographs in the online catalog.

The sale brought a total of $593,120, within the total presale estimates of $372,600/575,900 (figured without the 28% buyer’s premium). A sale of indigenous North American art held the day before, July 31, added another $187,488 for 200 of the 205 lots offered. A Navajo second-phase chief’s blanket sold for $11,520 (est. $5000/7000), a Mimbres pottery bowl with a rabbit motif sold for $5760 (est. $700/900), and a Cochiti polychrome pottery olla went for $5120 (est. $2000/3000). Most of the items brought three-figure sums. More than half were shipped to Arizona and New Mexico.

For more information, see the website (www.stairgalleries.com).

Attributed to Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902), Yosemite, oil on canvas, signed lower left “ABierstadt” with conjoined A and B, with a label on the reverse from Newhouse Galleries, New York City, lined, 14" x 19" (sight size), sold for $32,000 (est. $15,000/20,000).

Horn snuffbox, inscribed “Sailors Rights & Free Trade” and “The Noble Lawrence & Chesapeake June 1st MDCCCXIII,” ¾" x 2½" x 1 5/8", sold for $2048, well over its $100/200 estimate. A jelly label on the bottom reads “HMS Lawrence and Chesapeake off Boston.” On June 1, 1813, the U.S.S. Chesapeake, commanded by Captain James Lawrence, and H.M.S. Shannon, commanded by Captain Philip Broke, engaged in a battle in Boston harbor. The battle lasted about 15 minutes and resulted in the capture of the Chesapeake by the Shannon. The Chesapeake suffered 23 casualties, including the death of Captain Lawrence on June 4 before the ship arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where the crew was imprisoned. The Chesapeake’s crew was blamed for the loss because of inexperience, poor command, and the Shannon’s superior crew practices.

Edward Sheriff Curtis (1868-1952), The North American Indian, two bound books, 1922 and 1926, from the editions of 500, volumes XII and XVII, volume XII rebound, with the leather binding detached and separate, volume XVII numbered 266, sold online for $8320 (est. $800/1200).

George Washington painted iron dumb stove, marked “CORONA / NO 80” on the front and “KING STOVE & RANGE CO / SHEFFIELD ALA” on the reverse, 5'9¼" x 21¾" x 18", with an 8¼" protruding pipe on the back side, with some wear and rust, sold for $5440 (est. $6000/8000). It is rare to find the George Washington figure attached to the stove. According to the Albany Institute of History and Art, “These usually did not have a firebox, but were connected by a stovepipe to a functioning stove on a floor below. That way two rooms could be heated by one stove. The designer, Alonzo Blanchard, chose Washington because the country was preoccupied with the nation’s first president as a symbol of unity.... Washington is shown wearing a Roman toga over eighteenth-century clothing. Blanchard probably based his design on the 1826 marble statue of Washington by Francis Chantrey, installed in the Massachusetts State House.” A George Washington dumb stove figure without the stove was sold at Skinner in Marlborough, Massachusetts, August 10, 2014, for $8610. Stair sold a similar one August 3, 2019, for $10,240.

Set of eight Nantucket round nesting lightship baskets by Harry A. Hilbert (1917-2010) of Wilton, Connecticut, each stamped or signed “Harry A. Hilbert / 1999.” The largest is 13½" tall x 10" diameter (over the handle). From the estate of Lee, Massachusetts, art dealer Henry B. Holt, the baskets sold for $2500 (est. $1000/1500.).

Japanese export silk and metallic thread textile with an eagle, a shield, flags, stars, and a banner reading “E Pluribus Unum,” in a 27¼" x 33¼" frame, from the collection of Dorothy Tapper Goldman, sold for $1152 (est. $500/700) .

Thomas Chambers (1808-1869), Indiaman Saluting at the Island of St. Helena, 18¼" x 24½" (sight size), oil on canvas, lined, unsigned, sold for $25,600 (est. $5000/8000). It has labels on the reverse from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Denver Art Museum. It is illustrated in Kathleen A. Foster’s 2008 book Thomas Chambers: American Marine and Landscape Painter, 1808-1869 on page 71.

Painted tin and wood birdhouse in the form of a lighthouse, made for Captain Bernard O’Neil by the crew of the bark Girard, West Dennis, Massachusetts, circa 1850, 45" x 19" x 23", the painted surface with rust and wear, lacking two spires, sold for $2176 (est. $500/700).

Antonio Jacobsen (1850-1921), Pilot Boat “New Jersey,” oil on board, 1907, signed “Antonio Jacobsen” and dated lower left, from the collection of Henry B. Holt, sold for $5760 (est. $4000/6000).

Child’s painted metal and wood penny farthing bicycle, 25¼" x 11" x 26½", with rust and wear, sold for $448 (est. $400/600).

Edward Sheriff Curtis, The Vanishing Race, orotone, 1904, signed in gold ink, 81/8" x 10 1/8" (sight size), in an original Curtis Studio frame, sold for $15,360 (est. $3000/5000). The glass plate is in very good condition; the frame has some rubbing. Curtis’s project of recording the culture and lifestyle of Native American tribes lasted four decades. The catalog noted that The Vanishing Race “is a visual metaphor for the core concept that Curtis strove to document in his forty-volume publication of text and photogravures, the literal ‘vanishing’ of Indigenous peoples. Though seen as sincere in their attempt at documentation, these photographs can also be seen as a romanticized version of Native American life and have been criticized for neglecting the harsh reality of the oppression that Native Americans have been subjected to for centuries.” Orotones, also called gold tones, are very fragile. Curtis’s studio framed his orotones with special frames to help protect the glass plates.

Henry Whinfield, A Map of the Incorporated Village of Poughkeepsie, engraved map with hand coloring, 1834, 22¾" x 28½" (sight size), sold for $4160 (est. $600/800). It pays to sell something in your own backyard; Poughkeepsie is 41 miles from Hudson, New York.

The sale included several of these two-handled double-lidded Nantucket lightship baskets by Harry A. Hilbert. This one, stamped “Harry A. Hilbert / 2000,” sold for $2816 (est. $800/1200). Hilbert, who ran an antiques shop in New Canaan, Connecticut, made his first basket in 1970 and became known for the inlay and embellishments he made to the covers of baskets used as purses.

American school, Harbor View, showing many vessels in the harbor, oil on canvas, signed “T. Birch” lower right, 26" x 40" (sight size), sold for $6500 (est. $2000/4000).

Chinese export porcelain platter decorated with flags of the United States and the Republic of China, sold online to a Hong Kong bidder for $4480 (est. $300/500). It has rubbing to the decoration and some nicks to the rim and foot. Two similar platters in better condition have sold at Christie’s, New York City: one on January 18, 2018, for $12,500 (est. $4000/6000); and one on January 20, 2021, for $4375 (est. $5000/7000). The genesis of this decoration is unknown. An identical example is in the collection of the U.S. Department of State and is illustrated in Chinese Export Porcelain in North America by Jean McClure Mudge (1986), p. 227.

Gilt copper grasshopper weathervane on a stand, probably L. W. Cushing & Sons, Waltham, Massachusetts, 14¾" x 40" (overall), sold for $5760 (est. $5000/10,000). The original model for the grasshopper weathervane was created by L. W. Cushing & Sons, and it is pictured on page 17 of the L. W. Cushing & Sons catalog of 1883. Stair’s catalog noted, “E. G. Washburne & Company of New York also manufactured a a very similar model of a grasshopper in the early 20th century. However, there are some subtle differences between the Cushing and Washburne weathervanes. The most obvious difference is the Washburne weathervane has bulbs on the end of the antennae.”