Rare Works in Pottery, Lighting, Furniture and More Up For Bid at Dual Toomey & Co Auctions
by Kate Nixon
Toomey & Co Auctioneers
Tradition & Innovation – December 3rd, 2020 starting at 6:00 p.m. CST
Art & Design – December 6th, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. CST
Lot #2, a Roberta Beverly Kennon (1877-1931) for Newcomb College Grapevine Vase, in the upcoming Tradition and Innovation auction from Toomey & Co Auctioneers on December 3rd. The estimate is $10,000-20,000.
An original Frank Lloyd Wright lamp from Wright’s Oak Park house, impressive rare vases from Newcomb College and Arequipa Pottery, and a silver pendant necklace featured in Rosalie Berberian’s Creating Beauty: these are just a sample of the rare and important items featured in Toomey’s upcoming auctions from December 3rd to the 6th.
Toomey & Co. Auctioneers will end the 2020 auction year with their two annual auctions featuring rare and important items and a wide variety of items up for bid. On Thursday, December 3, the third annual Tradition & Innovation will feature a limited, expertly curated range of works from painters, sculptors, ceramicists, furniture designers, architects, and jewelry makers important to the 20th century. On Sunday, December 6, Art & Design will offer a few hundred carefully selected lots of fine and decorative artworks, early 20th century and modern furniture, art pottery, lighting, metalwork, and more.
Tradition & Innovation on Thursday, December 3 will starting at 6:00 p.m. CST and Art & Design on Sunday, December 6 will start at 10:00 a.m. CST. Both sales will take place at Toomey & Co. Auctioneers, 818 North Boulevard, Oak Park, Illinois. However, in light of COVID-19, neither sale will be open to the public. Bidders may participate by phone (708-383-5234) or leave absentee bids by emailing [email protected].
The two auctions will feature works from important collections like that of Vera Parry, one of the earliest Roycroft collectors in Buffalo, New York who collected Roycroft as it reminded her of the English Arts and Crafts Movement. The auction will include works from the collections of Ernest and Marjorie Briskey, Dr. Elizabeth Hunter and Dr. Waclaw Sybalski, Timothy Pearson, Paul and Terry Somerson, Anthony Nappi, Michael Rabkin and others. A select few works from the auction have also been featured in the Metropolitan Museum of Art during the exhibit 19th Century America: Furniture and Other Decorative Arts, an important re-emergence of the study of the Arts and Crafts Movement since Princeton University’s exhibit The Arts and Crafts Movement in America in 1972.
The impressive span of highlighted Arts and Crafts Era items includes: a lithograph entitled Huck Finn lithograph from Thomas Hart Benton in 1936 ($8,000-12,000), works from Chicago artists like Gertrude Abercrombie’s oil on masonite, Levitation ($10,000-20,000) and a large Ruth Duckworth stoneware sculpture ($7,000-9,000). The auction boasts many remarkable table lamps from the early 20th century, such as: a very rare copper example from Frank Lloyd Wright ($80,000-120,000), a lamp with W.D. Gates’ Teco pottery base and a glass shade by Orlando Giannini ($60,000-80,000), a Tiffany Studios Roman form ($20,000-30,000), plus lamps from Charles P. Limbert, Dard Hunter of The Roycrofters, and Chicago’s George Trautmann. In addition, a Gustav Stickley early serving table ($20,000-30,000), vases from Arequipa Pottery / Frederick Hurten Rhead and Roberta Kennon for Newcomb College ($10,000-20,000 each), metalwork and jewelry from Chicago’s Robert Jarvie and the Kalo Shop will be included.
In the Art & Design auction on December 6, items up for bid will include: two Gustave Baumann woodcuts ($7,000-9,000 each) and a carved woodblock ($4,000-6,000), a Tiffany Studios Linen Fold table lamp ($10,000-20,000); a Prairie Style vanity from George Washington Maher ($3,000-5,000); John Scott Bradstreet’s Arts & Crafts breakfast room suite ($10,000-20,000); a Gustav Stickley early china cabinet ($8,000-12,000); a bookcase from The Roycrofters ($8,000-12,000); Mary Chase Perry Stratton’s scenic tile for Pewabic Pottery ($3,000-5,000); and several vases from Rookwood Pottery and other Arts & Crafts makers ($2,000-3,000 or less)
Art & Design picks
1925
Woodblock measures 11″w x 9.5″h
Frame measures 14 3/16″w x 12 1/4″h
Used for making Aspen – Red River woodblock prints
Estimate: $4,000 – 6,000
Lot 173: Gustav Stickley (1858-1942) early china cabinet
oak, glass, copper
unmarked
35 1/2″w x 14″d x 66 3/4″h
Rago Auctions, Lambertville, New Jersey, 16 January 2010, Lot 58
Literature:
For a period illustration, see: Gray, Stephen, The Early Works of Gustav Stickley, Turn of the Century Editions, 1987, p. 70 (Plate 102)
Lot 176: Gustav Stickley (1858-1942) cheval mirror
Eastwood, New York
Made of oak, silvered glass, iron
marked with large red decal
an excellent example of this beautiful design influenced by Harvey Ellis
Measures 39″w x 18″d x 69 1/4″h
Estimate: $7,000-9,000
Lot 182: The Roycrofters sideboard #02 1/2
East Aurora, New York
Made of oak, glass, copper, silvered glass
Features a carved orb and cross
60″w x 25″d x 52″h
Estimate: $7,000 – $9,000
Lot 200: The Roycrofters rare table lamp
East Aurora, New York
Mahogany, slag glass, copper
signed with copper plate
early gas lamp
Measures 15 3/4″sq x 19 1/2″h
Provenance: The estates of Vera Parry and Judith Parry Gregorio, Buffalo, New York Thence by Descent
Literature: McConnell, Kevin, Roycroft Art Metal (First Edition), Schiffer, 1990, p. 38
Estimate: $3,000-5,000
Lot 220: Fulper Pottery Co group of five bud vases
Cat’s Eye Flambe three vases, Ivory Flambe to Mustard Matte glaze vase and Ochre-to-Turquoise vase
Flemington, New Jersey
Glazed ceramic
Four with stamped Racetrack mark
Estimate: $400-600
Lot 271: Handel Lamp Co Snowball Hydrangea table lamp, #6344P
Meriden, Connecticut
Bronze, reverse painted glass
Base: marked with original cloth label;
Shade: etched and impressed signature
Measures 18″dia x 22 1/2″h
Estimate: $2,500-3,500
Tradition & Innovation picks
New Orleans, Louisiana
High glazed ceramic, glazed marks
A large and impressive vase with a beautiful and crisp decoration
Measures 9 1/2″ dia x 13 1/2″h
Lot #7: Arequipa Pottery / Frederick Hurten Rhead (1880-1942) Vase
Fairfax, California, 1912
squeeze-bag decorated and glazed ceramic
hand-painted mark
This is an impressive example by this important Arts & Crafts potter.
5″dia x 7 3/8″h
Estimate $10,000-20,000
Lot #9: Ruth Erickson (b. 1883) for Grueby Faience Company double gourd vase
Boston, Massachusetts
Carved green glazed ceramic
Impressed mark and incised signatures
Exceptional glaze and crisp carving
Measures 9″dia x 16 3/4″h
Estimate: $8,000-12,000
Lot #13: The Kalo Shop tiered pendant necklace
Chicago, Illinois
sterling silver, blister pearls
stamped marks
35.2 dwts
tiered pendants: 1 3/8″w x 3 1/4″h; chain: 19 3/4″l
Provenance: The Paul & Terry Somerson Collection of 20th and 21st Century Metalwork and Jewelry
Literature: Berberian, Rosalie. Creating Beauty: Jewelry and Enamels of the American Arts and Crafts Movement, Schiffer, 2019, p. 116.
Estimate: $6,000-8,000
Chicago, Illinois, circa 1902
copper, mica, brass mesh
metalwork by the James A. Miller Company
This rare lamp is one of three known examples of this early design by Frank Lloyd Wright.
12″w x 12″d x 22 1/2″h
An iconic historical photograph taken in 1902 shows Wright’s urn, weed vase and lamp in the Octagonal Library at the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio in Oak Park, Illinois.