Garth’s Upcoming Thanksgiving Auction Shows Great Breadth and Fine Details Some lucky bidder at Garth's 49th Annual Thanksgiving Americana auction will go home with dried flowers that rival any potpourri found in their local department store. Dated April 29, 1865, a 22”wre
Some lucky bidder at Garth's 49th Annual Thanksgiving Americana auction will go home with dried flowers that rival any potpourri found in their local department store. Dated April 29, 1865, a 22”wreath, mounted in its original shadow box frame, retains the backing paper inscribed "This Wreath lay upon the Breast of Abraham Lincoln while his body was lying in State at Columbus, O. April 29, 1865."(Estimate $5,000-10,000). Descended in the family of Dr. Godwin Volney Dorsey (1812-1885), a prominent physician and staunch Lincoln supporter who was a featured orator one of the Lincoln funeral services in Ohio, the wreath is the highlight of the Marilynn & George Hoffman Presidential Memorabilia Collection, a featured session in this year's holiday auction weekend on November 27 and 28, 2009. Other presidential items of interest from the Hoffman collection and beyond will include a mezzotint portrait of George Washington after Edward Savage( Est. $1,500-2,000), an American zinc relief plaque of George Washington( Est. $1,200-1,800), a lithographed portrait of George Washington after Rembrandt Peale( Est. $4,500-6,500) and other Jefferson, Grant, Adams and McKinley items.
Americana enthusiasts look forward to Garth's Thanksgiving weekend auction, knowing they can count on a quality offering and this year is no exception. Consisting of over 900 lots, the 2-day auction is notable for its outstanding selection, featuring everything from painted county furniture to Kennedy family photographs, fine portraits to scrimshaw whale teeth, 20th century Ohio folk art to 19th century blown glass, diamond jewelry to early brass and tin lighting, delicate New England samplers to a mechanical horse.
Featured on the front cover of the catalog is an exemplary piece of painted furniture: a Pennsylvania decorated corner cupboard, previously in the collections of renowned dealer Bill Samaha (Ohio/Massachusetts) and later Tom and Carolyn Porter. The cupboard demonstrates the exuberant hand of its decorator with an old, finely alligatored reddish-brown over yellow vinegar graining simulating curly maple. Estimated at $20,000-25,000, the cupboard is distinguished by its fine cornice, 12-pane door, paneled doors and turned feet. Attributed to Schoharie County, New York, a pine and poplar server with its original red flame graining is sure to stir the fires of the bidders. Turned pilasters and feet, paneled doors and the shaped crest with scrolled ears, all lend to the appeal( Est. $1,500-$2,500). A finely decorated blanket chest, possibly from Lykens Valley area of Dauphin (now Lebanon County), Pennsylvania, is dated 1808 on the front and painted with hearts and stylized flowers on a red ground with three arches( Est. $6,000-9,000). It is part of a small group of chests decorated by this as-yet unidentified artist. In The Pennsylvania-German Decorated Chest, Fabian records six, including the one illustrated (fig. 169) that is in the collection of the International Folk Art Foundation (New Mexico). An Ohio blue painted corner cupboard, adorned with repeating diamond patterns throughout the cornice, doors, and drawers is flashy and carries an estimate of $5,000-$8,000. According to tradition, this cupboard was made in St. Mary’s, Auglaize County, Ohio. In the
