MOUNT CRAWFORD, Va. – Early American glass and lighting from famous collections and renowned museums will be sold at auction by Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates on May 22. LiveAuctioneers will provide Internet live bidding.
The sale will feature part one of the outstanding 30-year collection of Larry and Sandy Mackle of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., and a large group of material formerly in the collection of Dr. E.R. Eller, longtime curator at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, which has descended in his family. In addition, the auction will include material deaccessioned by the Sandwich Glass Museum in Sandwich, Mass., choice selections from the collection of Ken Lyon, Fisher’s Hill, Va., as well as important private consignments from Cape Cod, Mass., New York City, Virginia and Pennsylvania.
Part one of the Mackle collection includes more than 50 pieces purchased at the legendary William J. Elsholz auctions in 1986 and 1987. The more than 250 Mackle pieces in this auction span a wide range of American-made blown and pressed objects, primarily from the first three quarters of the 19th century.
Free-blown wares include an important and probably unique pair of opalescent-bloom sapphire blue baluster-form vases, each raised on a knopped stem and trumpet foot. This impressive pair stands 11 1/2 inches high and was probably produced in New England during the middle of the 19th century. Originally part of the renowned pioneering collection of Frederick K. Gaston of Greenwich, Conn, the vases were purchased at the 1940 auction of the Gaston collection by preeminent American glass author and collector George McKearin. They were included in plate 58 of McKearin’s 1941 tome, American Glass, where they were described as “unique so far as we know.” The Mackles purchased these vases at the first William J. Elsholz auction, conducted Dec. 9, 1986. While part of the Elsholz collection, the pair was exhibited at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich.
Another rare free-blown object in the Mackle collection is a monumental colorless salver, or cake stand, with an applied cobalt blue plate edge and medial-stem collar. This 16-inch diameter salver is identical in form to the example illustrated in the 1868 trade catalog of Bakewell, Pears and Co. of Pittsburgh. While it is not uncommon to encounter Pittsburgh-attributed free-blown ring jars, string holders and pillar-molded decanters with cobalt-blue decorative applications, this is the first color-decorated salver that principal auctioneer and glass specialist Jeffrey S. Evans has ever seen.
“It is a tour-de-force of American glass and a testament to the artistic skills of Pittsburgh area glass blowers,” said Evans. “The simple, yet elegant form and the conspicuous use of contrasting colorless and deep blue elements beget an object as easily at home in a contemporary “modern art” setting as in its original 19th century context,” he added.
Other noteworthy and impressive categories represented in the Mackle collection include several fine lily-pad and gadroon decorated pieces; exceptional groupings of colored pressed flint vases, candlesticks and compotes; rare colored and colorless whale oil and fluid period lamps; and a fine selection of Sandwich and other colored cologne bottles.
Dr. E. R. Eller was a close friend of both George McKearin and Lowell Innes, and his collection includes pieces owned and published by McKearin, as well as numerous objects published by Innes in his seminal Pittsburgh Glass 1797-1891. This Eller-collected grouping includes rare Pittsburgh-area blown, cut and pressed wares; a fine selection of witch balls and whimsies; early bottles and flasks; and a rare bound volume of five original 1893 U.S. Glass Co. trade catalogs.
Additional important consignments to the auction include two rare Trevaise art-glass vases produced by the short-lived Alton Manufacturing Co. of Sandwich, Mass.; pressed lacy-period wares including rare colored salts; a large collection of colored and colorless cup plates; cut overlay articles including two panes; and reference materials.
“The Mackle collection represents one of the finest groupings that we have ever sold. It is outstanding in both its breadth and quality,” said Evans.
An illustrated color catalog has been published at a cost of $30 plus postage and tax as applicable. The entire catalog will also be available through jeffreysevans.com and liveauctioneers.com. See the firm’s website for additional details, highlights, e-mail notification, and to order the catalog, or phone 540-434-3939.
The sale will begin at 9:30 a.m. Eastern at the firm’s gallery at 2177 Green Valley Lane in Mount Crawford, Va.
Previews will be May 19-21, 10 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. daily; and on the day of the sale beginning at 8 a.m.
As part of the Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates Lecture Series, Mary Cheek Mills of the Corning Museum of Glass will present Cut Vine and Shamrock: Lamps and Tableware of Union Cut and Plain Flint Glassworks on May 21 at 6 p.m. This special lecture is free and open to the public.
The second part of the Mackle collection, containing their assemblage of primarily flint Early American Pattern glass, will be included in the firm’s Sept. 25 Early American Pattern Glass auction that will be held in conjunction with the Early American Pattern Glass Society’s Eastern Regional meeting.
ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE