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Flying highest of all lots was the 1844 13-star silk parade flag for Henry Clay and Theodore Frelinghuysen. With publication history and named provenance, the 24¼-by-29-inch flag sold for $16,120, exceeding expectations ($5/10,000).
Review by Madelia Hickman Ring; Photos Courtesy John McInnis Auctioneers
AMESBURY, MASS — So much material came to John McInnis that the veteran auctioneer scheduled back-to-back, or very nearly so, auctions February 22, 24 and 25. For the first two days, the house adopted an online-only format and more than 86 percent of approximately 450 lots of period and custom furnishings, photography, modernism, nautical antiques, fine and decorative art, jewelry, dolls and toys, musical instruments and Asian antiques gaveled down successfully. On the third day, highlights included Americana, sports and political memorabilia, including works from the archive of Helen Mary Keyes, who was an assistant to President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
Dan Meader, one of John McInnis’ colleagues, was more than happy to talk with Antiques and The Arts Weekly after the sales. “The first two days were a bit of a test with the online-only format; we’ve noticed a lot of people like to bid that way. Sunday, we did the sale as we usually do: live with an audience in-house. The Kennedy collection was from lot 300 to the end, and we had some really good sports collectibles to start the sale. We had a good crowd, people came from all over, and we had some buyers who were overseas.”
The top price realized across any of the three days of sales was $16,120, for a rare 1844 silk parade flag — 24¼ by 29 inches — from the 1844 presidential campaign of Henry Clay and Theodore Frelinghuysen. Featuring 13 stars, the flag was also printed with the image of a raccoon — the symbol of the Whig party — with the verse: “The moon was shining silver bright / The stars with glory crowned the night, / High on a rail, that ‘same old coon’ / Was singing to himself this tune. / Clare de kitchen – / Hurrah! Hurrah! / For Harry Clay!” Of additional interest, the flag had descended in the family of James Snodgrass Jr and was illustrated in Herbert Ridgeway Collins’ book Threads of History (Smithsonian Press, 1978).
Small flask, big price! This olive half pint blown-molded glass flask decorated with the Masonic crescent, hour glass and twin pillars was attributed to the Coventry Glass Works in Coventry, Conn., and topped off at $11,160 ($3/6,000).
Other Americana in the live sale brought strong results as well. Achieving $11,160 each were a mid-Twentieth Century Lady Liberty weathervane and a 6-inch-tall Coventry Glass Works olive green half-pint blown molded flask with Masonic decoration.
Bidders raised their paddles to toast a case of six bottles of Petrus Pomerol, 2001 vintage, that were not only offered with their own crate but were also accompanied by a six-bottle wine refrigerator where the wine had been stored. The lot realized $10,240 and sold to an online bidder.
Sporting ephemera was led at $11,780 by an 1890s team photo of the Philadelphia Phillies that measured 19½ by 22½ inches in an elaborately carved wooden frame. Despite numerous duplicate cards, a collection of 1947 Tip Top Bread cards rose to $8,680 from a $200/400 estimate.
Among memorabilia and ephemera from Helen Mary Keyes’ collection, a 1952 handwritten letter and envelope, along with a campaign photograph and negative, made $3,410 to lead the category. According to the catalog note, it is unusual to have a handwritten envelope in JFK’s own hand. Another typed letter from the same year had a handwritten inscription at the bottom — from JFK to Keyes, thanked her for her campaign efforts; it sold for $2,108, within estimate.
McInnis’ bidders may have had spring on their minds when they chased this four woodcut set, titled “The Four Seasons / Mountain Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter,” to $2,976. Made by Vermont artist Sebra Field, each measured 18½ by 13¼ inches. It was the top lot in the February 22 online-only sale ($2/4,000).
Lots in the two other online sales also outperformed expectations, if not to quite the same level of value. Leading the February 22 sale at $2,976 was “The Four Seasons / Mountain Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter,” woodcuts by Sebra Field (Vermont, b 1935). An Art Nouveau sterling silver covered server by Bailey Banks & Biddle all but doubled its high estimate when it realized $1,984, the same price achieved by Otto Dix’s (German, 1891-1969) colored lithograph titled “Bettina.” Rounding out the leaderboard for the February 22 sale was a pair of French molded glass and gilt bronze two-light wall sconces that depicted crested birds, had provenance to the Knox Mansion and Orchard House in Buffalo, N.Y., and descended in the Knox Family, the founders of FW Woolworth.
Schoenhut animals were divided into two lots in the February 24 sale. One group of North American animals included a bison, polar and brown bears and a reindeer and sold for $3,224, nearly triple its high estimate and the highest price of the sale. It was followed at $1,612 for an assortment of exotic animals that included a giraffe, ostrich, rhino, elephant, hippo, lion, crocodile and zebra. A late Nineteenth Century English painted wooden doll with jointed arms and legs that was wearing a linen dress embellished with metallic thread will go to a new home for $1,984.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For more information, www.mcinnisauctions.com or 978-388-0400.
