Skinner Country Americana Sale to Feature Important Collections:

MARLBOROUGH, Mass – August 1, 2012 – Skinner, Inc. will host a two-day auction of American Furniture and Decorative Arts at its Marlborough gallery. On August 11, 2012, The Shaker Collection of Jean Brown, Tyringham, Massachusetts will be offered along with maritime art and nautical antiques, Chinese export porcelain, glass, early lighting, rugs and carpets. The sale will continue on August 12, 2012 with the Private New Hampshire Collection of Cheryl and Paul Scott, which features fine weathervanes, folk carvings, and Jess Blackstone bird carvings, and the Americana collection of William Hubbard, Sunderland, Massachusetts. Important American needlework and folk portraiture will also be featured.

The Shaker Collection of Jean Brown

The Shaker Collection of Jean Brown amounts to more than 70 lots in the auction. Brown, an American art collector, amassed a collection that includes many examples of the timeless and elegantly simple designs of Shaker furniture makers. Shaker furniture highlights include a pine and maple chrome yellow-painted storage bin (lot 29, estimated between $8,000 and  $12,000), and a glazed hymnal cupboard with glass doors that open to numbered shelves (lot 33, $4,000 to $6,000). In addition to the Jean Brown collection, the auction includes other highly-collectible, utilitarian Shaker objects including a yellow-painted oval carrier with a shaped ash handle (lot 44, $30,000 to $50,000).

American Decorative Arts

The first day continues with marine paintings, half-hull models, ship models, and other nautical antiques. Paintings of note include a portrait of the schooner Susan Wardwell of Salem in coastal waters, painted on a wooden panel (lot 91, $4,000 to $6,000), and a watercolor portrait of the ship Sooloo of Salem entering Genoa (lot 87, $4,000 to $6,000).

Folk art offerings include a wooden dandy figure advertising whirligig (lot 239, $12,000 to $18,000), a polychrome carved lion carousel figure with glass eyes (lot 229, $20,000 to $30,000), a collection of 44 carved and painted wooden dog figures by Prudent Coderre (lot 244, $1,500 to $2,000), an eight car scratch-built wood toy train painted with “D.L. & W. Railroad” (lot 251, $3,000 to $5,000), and a fine group of 19^th century trade signs.

The Collection of Cheryl & Paul Scott

Cheryl and Paul Scott are well respected dealers in folk art and country American furniture. Their private collection, lots 600 through 880, features fine weathervanes, furniture, bird carvings, and polychrome folk carving. Weathervane highlights include a rare copper butterfly vane (lot 767, $8,000 to 12,000), and a gilt cast zinc and molded copper “index” horse weathervane (lot 768, $8,000 to $12,000) by J. Howard & Co. of West Bridgewater, Massachusetts.

Country New England furniture includes a Chippendale tiger maple tall chest (lot 614, $6,000 to $8,000) made by Moses Osborn of Weare, New Hampshire, and a fine red-painted sack-back Windsor chair (lot 609, $7,000 to $9,000).