Garth's Announces Firearms & Americana January 6-7 Auction to start 2012 With 465 lots of firearms, bladed weapons & related material to be sold in the same weekend with 600+ lots of fine Americana including formal and painted furniture, folk art, ceramics, fine art and mo
also displays similarly stepped panels on the doors and similarly constructed interior drawers at the stepback example.
Two decorated blanket chests from Wooster, Ohio are also related. Both attributed to the shop of John Beistel and William Spear, the first poplar example retains its original faux mahogany graining and stenciled decoration including "JM" and "1850." Both estimated at $1,000-2,000, the first chest is closely related to a second example also retaining its original faux mahogany graining and stenciled decoration including "YY" and "1858." Purchased at the Firelands Antiques Show in 1977, and although it dates after their partnership (1844-1853), this chest is closely related to their work and may be by one of the two makers after they terminated their business relationship.
A Federal curly maple two-piece cupboard from Pennsylvania with a single twelve-pane door over a lower paneled door resting on turned feet is ex Gailey Wilson and accompanied by a letter from him discussing the cupboard (estimate $4,000-8,000). A highly unusual Classical sewing table, probably from northeastern Ohio, is dated 1830 and estimated reasonably at $800-$1,200. A Rhode Island curly maple, pine, and chestnut chest of drawers has a nine drawers and a dramatically shaped skirt supported by cabriole legs ending in pad feet (estimate $4,000-8,000). Aside from the appearance of pad feet (rather than slipper feet), the present chest is nearly identical to, and possibly from the same shop as, a high chest that sold at Sotheby's (New York), September 2008, lot 42.
Other items of interest from the Mueller collection include a chalkware bust of Oliver Hazard Perry in military uniform with original paint. The 10" high bust is ex Stewart Gregory (Connecticut) and sold at Sotheby Parke Bernet, January 1979 is now estimated at $1,500-2,500. Another bust – this one a plaster example of Thomas Jefferson – is after Jean-Antoin Houdon(French, 1741-1828). Estimated at $2,000-$4,000, it is one of only a small number of plaster versions of Houdon's bust extant. Among those is the bust that was exhibited at the Salon of 1789 that sold at Christie's (May 1987, lot 8, now in the collection of Monticello), which was made prior to the marble bust (now in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), as well as a handful of casts made from that bust, including examples at the New York Historical Society, the American Philosophical Society, and the University of Virginia.
Additions from other consignors include a very important Mexican War-era from Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. Comprised of four handwritten pages, dated March 31, 1847, it is addressed to his Uncle Isaac Brake, of the Clarksburg, (West) Virginia area, who was husband of his paternal Aunt Polly (Mary Hadden Jackson). Written while Jackson was stationed at a U.S. military encampment near Veracruz, Mexico, during the Mexican War, he recounts the siege of Veracruz and recalls the "happy days" spent under his uncle's roof. Jackson had graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point the year before and was serving as a twenty-three-
