Locati LLC, Pineville, Pennsylvania
Photos courtesy Locati LLC
C. Thomas Attix Jr. (1927-2012) was a passionate collector who liked wood, silver, and Oriental rugs. A corporate lawyer for RCA, the father of four bought carefully, filling his house in New Jersey with furniture made in the mid-18th and early 19th centuries. He collected 19th-century silver by Philadelphia master craftsmen Philip Syng, Joseph Richardson Jr., Richard Humphreys, Edmund Milne, and others, and with a keen eye he bought furniture of good proportions and rich surfaces that he found in the shops of local dealers.
Before Attix died of Parkinson’s disease in 2012, he had sold off some of his finest pieces, but there were enough left for Michael and Melissa Locati of Locati LLC to put together a single-owner sale of 263 lots that brought two dozen live bidders to their Pineville, Pennsylvania, salesroom in Bucks County on Sunday, May 19. The results demonstrate that an auction benefits from being conducted in the region where the objects were made.
The auction was carefully cataloged and illustrated with a dozen good images for many lots, and bidders provoked good competition on four active websites, Locatillc, Bidsquare, Invaluable, and LiveAuctioneers. There was also a live audience of 25, some of them the dealers whom Attix had patronized. There were some strong prices and some good buys, reflecting the market for 18th-century American furniture, which is selling for prices paid 30 and 40 years ago. Case furniture brought more than chairs, and boxes brought a premium in the current selective market.
Broderie perse chintz appliquéd quilt, probably New Jersey, circa 1835, 103" x 103", showing a large peacock and a plum tree in the central vignette surrounded by pheasants flanked by floral sprays, framed by a sawtooth diamond in the square. It has exceptional and intricate trapunto (stuffed technique) throughout with hand quilting at 12 stitches per inch of pineapples, berries, and running feathers, all connected by tendril motifs. Broderie perse is French for “Persian embroidery,” a technique where fabric is cut out and appliquéd onto another fabric to create a design. The quilt was illustrated online with 17 digital images and sold online for $18,755 (est. $2000/3000), underbid on the phone.
Pennsylvania tall-case eight-day clock in a cherry case made by Benjamin Morris (1748-1833), Hilltown and New Britain, Bucks County, active in the fourth quarter of the 18th century. The white-painted arched dial has a rolling moon phase, subsidiary seconds dial, date aperture, a brass plaque engraved “BM,” and floral painted spandrels. The clock has an old darkened and dry surface. It is 94¾" x 23" x 12¼". It was owned by the Worthington and Massey families until Attix bought it. It sold online for $6352.50 (est. $1500/2500).
Miniature Pennsylvania Sheraton tiger maple chest of drawers, Chester County, dated 1825, 16½" x 14¼" x 7¾", with locks on all the drawers. Each drawer bottom has a hand-scrawled inscription; one reads “This was finished 12 mo. 31st 1825 before daylight by S. Jacobs.” Samuel Jacobs is listed as a cabinetmaker working in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, according to Margaret Berwind Schiffer in Furniture and Its Makers of Chester County, Pennsylvania (1966). The chest sold on Bidsquare for $6250 (est. $800/1200).
A large broderie perse chintz appliquéd quilt, 103" x 103", probably made in New Jersey, circa 1835, with exceptional and intricate trapunto, sold to an online bidder for $18,755 (includes buyer’s premium), well above the $2000/3000 estimate. A Thomas Stretch clock in a walnut case sold for $12,000 (est. $6000/8000) to an absentee bidder. A miniature Pennsylvania Sheraton tiger maple chest of drawers made in Chester County, one drawer bottom inscribed “This was finished 12 mo. 31st 1825 before daylight by S. Jacobs,” sold online for $6250 (est. $800/1200). Jacobs is listed as a cabinetmaker working in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, in Margaret Berwind Schiffer’s Furniture and Its Makers of Chester County, Pennsylvania (1966).
Pennsylvania tiger maple double-lidded cutlery tray with a hinged lid, 9¼" x 13½" x 10¼", Bucks County, first half of the 19th century, with an old typed provenance that reads “This knife box was given to Elizabeth Palmer by Cynthia Holcomb. A prominent Quaker from Pineville.” It sold online for $2904 (est. $400/600), down the street from where Cynthia Holcomb lived, demonstrating that old aphorism “Things sell best in the neighborhood where they were made.”
Attix liked cutlery and cutlery boxes, and there were lots of spoons and half a dozen cutlery boxes in the sale. A Pennsylvania tiger maple double-lidded cutlery tray, with an old typed provenance reading “This knife box was given to Elizabeth Palmer by Cynthia Holcomb. A prominent Quaker from Pineville,” sold online for $2904 (est. $400/600) in the very town where Cynthia Holcomb lived.
Silver spoon, 8¼" long, by Philip Syng (1703-1789), 1759-60, with a shell-decorated bowl and monogram “S.H.,” approximately 1.9 troy ounces, sold online for $1125 (est. $300/400).
Pair of fiddle-back serving spoons with the maker’s mark of Peter Bentzon (c. 1783-c. 1850), 8½" long, total approximate weight 3.2 troy ounces, sold online for $3000 (est. $500/1000). Bentzon was a black silversmith. Born in Saint Croix, he learned the trade in Philadelphia and worked in both locations throughout his life. He marked his works with his initials or “P. Bentzon,” as on these spoons.
Six feather-edge spoons, with dove and olive branch decorations to the backs of the bowls, monogrammed at the terminals, all stamped three times at the stem “EM” for Edmund Milne (1742-1822), Philadelphia, circa 1800, each 9½" long, approximately 14.40 troy ounces, sold for $1920 (est. $1000/1500) to the trade in the salesroom.
The spoons that Attix may have kept in his cutlery boxes sold well. A silver spoon, 8¼" long, by Philadelphia silversmith Philip Syng sold for $1125 (est. $300/400). A pair of fiddle-back spoons, 8½" long, by black silversmith Peter Bentzon, who had a shop in Philadelphia in the early 19th century, sold for $3000 (est. $500/1000). Six circa 1800 feather-edge spoons with dove and olive branch decorations on the backs of the bowls, 9½" long, by Edmund Milne sold for $1920 (est. $1000/1500) to the trade in the salesroom.
The sale brought of a total of $308,941.75 for 263 lots, topping the total presale high estimates. Every lot sold, and 44.85% of them sold on Locati’s website. A little more than 14% of the lots sold on LiveAuctioneers; 14 of the 25 dealers and private buyers in the salesroom were successful bidders; and four successful bidders left bids with the auctioneer.
“The sale showed that pieces of merit bring decent prices. Dealers and collectors got some good buys, but it wasn’t for nothing,” said dealer James L. Price.
Locati’s monthly sales come from various owners downsizing, settling estates, or wanting to sell some jewelry, coins, porcelain, mid-century modern, fine art, Asian art, or furniture. Sales are held monthly from September to June after a weeklong preview, open 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. Locati offers free appraisals on the second Saturday of the month from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Michael Locati and cataloger Ry Fillman are at the brightly lit, well-appointed salesroom every day and will take a look at anything brought to them anytime without an appointment. Their gemologist is there every Monday.
Michael and Melissa Locati met as working professional violinists and have been in the online auction industry for over 20 years. The sale of Thomas Attix Jr.’s collection was their third single-owner sale. Working with cataloger Ry Fillman, photographer Richie Barrett, and auctioneer Brett Oslon, they are anxious to do more high-quality single-owner sales now that they have relocated from their barn in North Wales to a convenient purpose-fitted facility in Pineville.
“We are trying a little harder. We charge 20% buyer’s premium for bidders in the salesroom, 21% for bidders on Locatillc, and 25% for bidders on Bidsquare, LiveAuctioneers, Invaluable, and Bidspirit,” said Michael Locati. “We love what we do. We meet interesting people every day and learn from collectors. Every once in a while we make a discovery and get surprising results that we post on our website.”
For more information, call (215) 619-2873, e-mail [email protected], or visit the website (www.locatillc.com).
Tall-case clock, walnut case, 1740-60, 89" x 19" x 10½", with an inset silvered dial engraved “Tho. Stretch / PHILADELPHIA,” sold for $12,000 (est. $6000/8000) to an absentee bidder. It is illustrated in Stretch: America’s First Family of Clockmakers by Donald L. Fennimore and Frank L. Hohmann III (2013), pp. 258-59.
The Pennsylvania cherry Bible box, 1740-50, with Joe Kindig provenance, has an old surface, strap hinges on a molded two-board top with applied molded edges, small bracket feet with molded pads and spurs, and a scalloped skirt on four sides. It sold online for $4356 (est. $600/800).
Circa 1800 unmarked horseradish spoon, 6" long, 1 troy ounce, engraved with bright-cut ornament and a crest, cataloged as American, sold for $270 (est. $200/300).
Silver urn-shaped sugar bowl by John David (1736-1798), Philadelphia, circa 1785, sold online for $2280 (est. $1200/1500).
Pennsylvania Sheraton walnut splay-leg washstand, first half of the 19th century, 35¾" x 20" x 22½", with an unusual scrolled gallery top with an overhang above a single dovetailed drawer. The ring- and knob-turned legs are joined by a circular scalloped undertier and turned X-stretcher. It sold online for $2541 (est. $1000/1500).
Delaware Valley carved walnut armchair, mid-18th century, formerly fitted with a chamber pot, with a Cupid’s-bow crest rail centered by a scallop shell above a figured solid splat, the outspread arms with knuckles and scrolled terminals, a trapezoidal leather-covered slip seat, a shaped front rail, volutes to the knee returns, raised on cabriole front legs terminating in trifid feet, the side rails having through tenons pinned into the raked back legs with stump feet, 41" x 30½" x 16½", seat height 17¼", sold for $5687 (est. $2000/3000) to the trade online. The skirt may have been reshaped after the chair was converted from a potty chair.
This 19th-century Kuba “Lesghi Star” design prayer rug, a 19th-century Caucasian village rug, with three large stars to the field and a Kufic main border, 4'4" x 3'6", sold online for $3240 (est. $1500/2000).
This Chester County, Pennsylvania, “Octoraro” walnut tall chest with chestnut and tulip poplar secondary woods, second half of the 18th century, 62" x 41" x 22", case width 38", on removable legs with Spanish feet with incised scrolled spurs, fastened with wooden threaded screws, with Quaker locks on five of the short drawers, full-depth dustboards, and replaced brasses, sold for $7500 (est. $4000/6000) in the salesroom to dealer Thurston Nichols taking bids from his cell phone.
Set of eight 19th-century Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, rod-back Windsor chairs, each with bamboo turnings, six side chairs, two armchairs, possibly by Jacob and Frederick Fetter (working c. 1805-34), sold for $2400 (est. $800/1200) in the salesroom to Thurston Nichols.
Fret-carved mahogany mirror, probably Philadelphia, second half of the 18th century, cedar secondary wood, 45½" x 24", sold online for $480 (est. $200/300).
Pennsylvania walnut chest-on-frame, third quarter of the 18th century, with a molded cornice above three over two short drawers above three long graduated drawers, the upper left and right drawers with Quaker locks, 65¼" x 40½" x 23", case width 37½", original hardware, sold for $4440 (est. $1500/2500) in the salesroom to dealer James L. Price of Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
Shenandoah Valley of Virginia walnut and punched-tin paneled food/pie safe, probably Rockingham County, circa 1840, 57" x 40" x 18", the 12 punched tins with opposing horizontal semielliptical elements with circular terminals and stylized fleurs-de-lis, each with quarter fans in the corners, sold online for $4477 (est. $1500/2500).
Chester or Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Chippendale inlaid walnut blanket chest, tulip poplar and pine secondary woods, inscribed “I•H•G” and “1781,” with original hardware, strap hinges, a rectangular top with applied molded edges, and waist molding over three drawers, all raised on tall dovetailed bracket feet, with an inner covered till with two small concealed drawers beneath, sold for $1800 (est. $1500/2000) to dealer James Grievo of Stockton, New Jersey, in the salesroom.
Originally published in the July 2024 issue of Maine Antique Digest. © 2024 Maine Antique Digest
