Noel Barrett sets Dec. 9-10 date for auction of Sunstein dollhouse and miniatures collection
Oct. 31, 2005
Sale showcases six decades of astute collectingNEW HOPE, Pa. – Noel Barrett, who auctioned the blue-chip contents of the Washington Dolls’ House & Toy Museum in June 2004, returns to the realm of posh antique scale-model homes, room settings and miniature furnishings on Dec. 9-10 with the sale of the Carolyn and Charles Sunstein collection. As in the past, real-time Internet bidding will be available to bidders anywhere in the world through LiveAuctioneers.com.
The 800-lot auction is the first to be produced cooperatively by Barrett and associates Becky and Andy Ourant, both respected authorities in the doll and toy fields, and owners of the Village Doll & Toy Shoppe in Adamstown, Pa. “The contents of the Sunstein collection are a perfect match for the skills Becky and Andy have brought to the table,” said Barrett. “This is the first of hopefully many selected events we’ll be working on together.”
Barrett, who has seen the best of the best come through his auction house, as well as through his hands as an Antiques Roadshow appraiser, said it was hard to stay focused during the cataloging of the Sunstein collection. “I found myself stopping frequently to admire and scrutinize pieces in the collection. So many of the items are rare and beautifully preserved, and have what’s known in the trade as the ‘ah!’ factor.”
The Sunsteins, known for their multifaceted involvement with toys dating as far back as the 1940s, have been friends of Barrett’s since he was an antique toy shop owner in the 1980s. “I first met them when they found my store in Bucks County ( Pa.),” Noel said. “As I came to know them better, I was invited to visit their home in Elkins Park, in suburban Philadelphia. Even then, they had magnificent things. Carolyn and Charlie were way ahead of the pack. They had been very aggressive collectors for many years.”
Carolyn Sunstein is widely known as the founder and manager of the popular Philadelphia dollhouse and miniatures show called Philadelphia Miniaturia. The collection she and her husband jointly amassed has been featured in countless books and publications, and for many years, individuals and collecting clubs were warmly welcomed to the Sunstein home to view its contents, which the couple displayed in dazzling, museum-like surroundings. Recently the Sunsteins decided the time was right to downsize from their spacious home to a living arrangement requiring less maintenance, and the wheels were set into motion for Barrett’s to sell their spectacular collection in a two-day auction.
“Anyone who knows miniatures knows this collection, and there’s already a huge buzz about it,” said Barrett. “The word was out all over the UFDC (United Federation of Doll Collectors) convention earlier this year. To some collectors, it seems almost to good to be true that they should have the chance to buy from this famous and exceptionally fine collection.”
Each carefully furnished dollhouse, shop or room setting is a quality production. “The Sunsteins never settled for second best. They bought from the top, always,” said Barrett.
At the pinnacle of the collection’s highlights is the Spanish Mansion. “Carolyn bought this house at an auction in 1983 for $20,000, at the time believed to be the highest price ever paid for a dollhouse. It belonged to bank and doll collector Samuel Pryor, who was an airline executive. Reportedly, it was given to Mr. Pryor as a gift by an official of the Spanish government. It was made around 1880 to 1900, and it’s absolutely fabulous. Inevitably there will be comparisons between this house and the Mexican Mansion sold in the Washington Doll’s House Museum sale, but that would not be a fair comparison. This one is a much more stylized structure, three floors with numerous rooms including a chapel.” Barrett explained that chapels were a common inclusion in homes of very wealthy Spanish and Latin-American homes of the turn of the 20th century. “The rich didn’t want to mingle with the hoi polloi.”
Most of the furniture in the 6ft tall Spanish Mansion – the highest-estimated lot in the sale at $50,000-75,000 – is German made, with ormolu and other lavish detailing. “It’s the crème de la crème of that era of manufacture.”
Two Gottschalk houses will be auctioned. The more elaborate of the two is a circa 1895, turreted blue-roof house with attached garden and “spectacular” architectural ornamentation, including ornate dormer windows. The lot will be offered together with original sale documents. The second Gottschalk house in the sale was made in the 1920s and features a red roof. “Gottschalk was known to make some very extravagant houses,” said Barrett. They’re highly coveted by collectors.”
Other outstanding examples include the circa 1900 Ram’s Head Manor, the Dutch House (so-named because it was originally sourced in Holland), with sash-cord, double-hung windows and unusual sliding interior doors that create a dollhouse area two-rooms deep; the Versailles Hunting Lodge – “totally charming, with beautiful mansard roofs” – and many English houses, such as a circa 1880 Silber & Fleming-type, box-back house with functional plumbing in the kitchen and bath, enabled by an attic reservoir. “This feature would have been found in only the very top-end houses.” Some dollhouses in the sale will be offered fully furnished, while others will be sold as vacant homes awaiting the new owners’ custom touches. “The reason for this is that some of the furnishings are so valuable that it makes better sense from both sides of the auction transaction for them to be offered individually or in small, compatible lots.”
While Carolyn Sunstein has always had a particular passion for sterling silver miniatures, she also actively pursued antique, sample-size furniture for the collection, with many superb examples acquired over the years. Small-scale furniture was produced with two target markets in mind. Some pieces were crafted for use as salesmen’s samples, while other were made specifically to serve as doll accessories. The Sunsteins bought both types, never imagining that one day this grouping would play an integral role in the aesthetic staging of their collection’s sale. In fact, the Sunsteins’ small-scale furniture is perfectly complemented by the two eminent doll collections also included in the Dec. 9-10 auction: the Jackie and Anthony Chirico collection of German character dolls, French bébés and fashion dolls; and the Joyce and John Davanzo doll and toy collection.
“When we pulled it all together, we could see from the crossover that it was going to be a sale that would appeal to a wide variety of people,” said Becky Ourant. “What we love is that the merchandise looks as if it was all handpicked to go together with one sale theme in mind. When you look at the dolls posed with the Sunstein furniture, it looks like it all belongs together. The way it has been mixed, it could plant the seed in many collectors’ minds where they say to themselves, ‘I’ve bought the doll; maybe I should buy the chest to go with it.’”
As an example of the serendipitous way in which the collections blended together, Becky pointed to a remarkable small-scale table from the Sunstein collection crafted and signed by premier French doll maker, Huret. For the catalog and presale promotional materials, Andy and Becky had used it as the third focal point of a display featuring two very rare, circa 1850 Huret dolls from the Chirico collection. Becky described the table as “one of the most incredible doll accessories I have ever seen. It’s brass and wood, smothered with mother-of-pearl inlay. It was great to be able to put this wonderful furnishing together with the two dolls. It was a rare opportunity – a true Kodak moment.”
It was many years ago that the Davanzo collection first became known to Becky. She had met Joyce Davanzo while set up at Brimfield with her mother, who is a doll dealer. “Joyce would come over to our booth to chat, and I remember how awestruck I was that she owned a black Bru doll, which is a holy grail. I was just a kid looking for moderately priced dolls, and was salivating over the thought of even seeing such a rare doll. I asked her if she could bring it to Brimfield. Of course, that was out of the question.”
Becky would wait 30 years before she finally had the opportunity to hold the black Bru in her hands – as she and Andy packed it up, together with the remainder of the Davanzo collection, for its journey to Pennsylvania and Barrett’s auction house. “When we walked into the Davanzos’ house, I went over to the doll case, and there it was. I had wondered what it would look like, what the condition would be like. It was a best-case scenario. It had soft, light chocolate skin and hazel eyes. It was in beautiful condition, with a Bru paper label and mint arms and legs – just stunning.”
Andy noted that the auction also contains “many wonderful antique toys, such as pull toys with bisque heads, two early Stevens & Brown velocipedes and mechanical toys with bisque heads. Also, there are several automata. It’s an all-inclusive sale where everyone will be able to buy.”
View the fully illustrated catalog and bid absentee or live online through www.liveauctioneers.com.
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