Schmidt’s March Sale Rakes In $250,000 – Antiques And The Arts Weekly

Review by Madelia Hickman Ring; Photos Courtesy Schmidt’s Antiques

YPSILANTI, MICH. — Just 12 of the 375 lots Schmidt’s Antiques presented in its March Gallery Auction on March 2 failed to find buyers from the podium, giving it a sell-through rate of nearly 97 percent and reaching a total of approximately $250,000. A single collector consigned a large collection of Gothic Revival furniture, early stained glass, illuminated manuscripts and lighting, while country furniture, trade signs, folk art as well as Chinese jewelry were among the sizeable categories that featured prominently in the sale’s top lots.

Schmidt’s bidders went mad for mod, hoisting their paddles — and a Lalique “Chene” crystal chandelier — to $6,875, surpassing its high estimate. The 22½-inch-diameter chandelier was from the Dearborn, Mich., estate of Richard P. Koghn and will be going to a new home with a buyer in Wildwood, Ga.

A similar theme can be traced to the next highest lot, a contemporary art glass sculpture by Jon Kuhn (American, b 1949), that sold to a buyer in Toledo, Ohio, for $6,250. “Bright View” was made in 2003 and was on a conical chrome base.

Toledo was also the destination for a bronze sundial made by Lucy Currier Richards (American, 1906-1933) that depicted a figure of Eve crouching with a serpent and forbidden fruit. Signed and dated “1916,” the 15-inch-tall sundial sold for $5,313, more than double its high estimate.

A few lots of Chinese jewelry sold well enough to make it to the higher echelons of the sale’s rankings. Leading the category with a $5,000 result from a Hong Kong bidder was a Chinese green jade necklace that had a coiled gold-filled Byzantine style chain with pink tourmaline stones and seed pearl accents. Also going to Hong Kong was a Chinese jade and agate belt that measured 38½ inches long and featured a carved white jade buckle with dragon designs and two strands of hand-knotted blue lace agate beads. It all but tripled its high estimate and sold for $3,500. Rounding out the Chinese jewelry lots at $3,125 was a Chinese white jade necklace dated to the Nineteenth Century. A triple jade chain and lock-form pendant carved with bird and lotus designs were among its enticing features.

Eighteen lots of illuminated manuscripts also saw strong results. A buyer in Tennessee paid $4,688 for a late Thirteenth Century folio leaf on vellum from a French bible despite some toning, minor foxing, rippling and stains. A Sixteenth Century manuscript leaf from a French Book of Hours, made in the Paris workshop of Germain Hardouyn, circa 1532, depicted The Visitation and had provenance to Akron, Ohio, illuminated manuscripts dealer, Charles Edwin Puckett. A buyer in Bucharest, Romania, is the new owner of a Fifteenth or Sixteenth Century illuminated manuscript bifolium and leaf on vellum from the Book of Hours; they paid $1,875 and more than three times the high estimate for the two-piece lot that incorporated Latin text, polychrome tempera illuminations and mythological Gryllus.

Americana was a large category, with offerings in folk art, furniture and decorative arts; a tramp art tall chest had the top price of $4,375. According to a representative for the auction house, the buyer — from Clarkeston, Mich. — “literally screamed for joy when she was announced the winner, to which Chuck Schmidt, a partner of the company, responded, “See, aren’t auctions fun?” The chest had been made by James S. Henderson, who began it on January 1, 1900, and finished it on August 25, 1905. Decorated allover with chip-carved hearts, stars and diamonds outlined with zipper moldings and applied detail as well as white porcelain knobs. It came to Schmidt’s from the collection of Connie Covent, who owned “Sign of the Windsor Chair Antiques” in Clarkston, Mich.

There were other lots from Covent’s collection. A Native American maple burl bowl that dated to the Eighteenth Century and measured 15 inches long, found a new home with a buyer in Toledo, who paid $2,250 for it, nearly tripling its high estimate. An old giltwood finish distinguished a 36½-inch-long carved wooden eagle figure that flew to $2,375. Nearly tripling its high estimate and selling for $875, a turn-of-the-century trade sign with bold graphics advertised “Sewing Machines Repaired / Upstairs R.J. Finley.”

A Toledo buyer purchased an early Nineteenth Century Federal “Matteson” type mule chest, from South Shaftsbury, Vt., for $2,500. Constructed of basswood with a lift top, interior till and two faux drawers, it retained its original multicolor painted finish with bird’s-eye maple graining. Contributing to its desirability was its provenance in the Dearborn, Mich., collection of Caroline Hebb and inclusion in Hebb’s article, “A Distinctive group of early Vermont painted furniture,” which ran in the September 1973 issue of The Magazine Antiques.

Four mules provided the charming decorative program of a folk art quilt, early Twentieth Century, that was cataloged as possibly African American. Hand stitched, the pieced and quilted design had an olive green backing and measured 68 by 72½ inches. Bidders rode its $400/600, with a buyer in Texas prevailing with a $2,500 winning bid.

A fragment of a theater seat from the Fisher Theater in Detroit, Mich., was made in cast iron by Heywood Wakefield and depicted a Mayan warrior with inset glass eyes and nose. It sold to a Toledo, Ohio, buyer for $1,875.

Gothic revival — in furniture and stained glass — was also a prominent category. Bringing $1,875 was a 15-by-19-inch carved oak heraldic crest, while an oak console table topped off at $1,125, just ahead of $1,063 paid for a lift-top chest with paneled top and sides and iron hinges.

More than two dozen lots of stained glass windows and panels were chased, led at $1,875 for a window of Melchizedek & Abraham that sold to a Savannah, Ga., buyer, for $1,875. It was followed at $1,375 by a window that showed the Prophet Aaron and $1,125 for a panel of the Prophet Joel.

Schmidt’s will host its Spring Clock Auction on April 6 and a May Gallery Auction on May 18. Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house.

For additional information, www.schmidtsantiques.com or 734-434-2660.