DOWNINGTOWN, Pa. – Pook & Pook Inc. will conduct a Decorative Arts Sale on Feb. 23-24, beginning at 10 a.m. Eastern both days. LiveAuctioneer.com will provide Internet live bidding.

Starting Pook & Pook’s Decorative Arts Sale is a collection of stoneware face jugs, many of which are creations from the Meaders family, a well-known group of potters from the south. Probably the most famous member of this family is Lanier Meaders, born in 1917 in Cleveland, Ga. He died 1998. Lanier, along with his three brothers, followed in his parents’ footsteps making Southern folk pottery throughout the 1900s. Celebrated for his face jugs, Lanier Meaders’ work is highly collectable. His work, along with several pieces by other members of the Meaders family, will be offered, as well as face jugs from other well-known potters.

The sale will continue with more pottery and porcelain. A group of stoneware jugs and crocks with beautiful cobalt decoration on traditional gray-brown backgrounds typical of American stoneware will cross the block. Included in this group are pieces impressed Biedinger & Caire, F.H. Cowden Harrisburg, J.M. Pruden Eliz-town, Haxstun Ottman NY, and others.

Following the stoneware are several lots of Rookwood pottery. One piece is marked 1881, just one year after Maria Storer started the now famous Rookwood Pottery in Cincinnati, Ohio. A few of the Rookwood pieces boast relief work with matte surfaces while others exhibit what might be referred to as Rookwood’s telltale look including the indicative high gloss finish.

Adorning every available wall space in the gallery and beyond are hundreds of paintings, drawings, etchings and prints. Many of the paintings are by listed artists, including a number of talented local artists. A wonderful oil on board landscape by Walter Van Den Hengel will be offered. Van Den Hengel, born in 1877 in Holland, immigrated to the United States and studied under Daniel Garber at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. This artist’s work rarely comes up for auction.

Another local artist, Philip Jamison (American, b. 1925) appears twice in this sale. Jamison studied at the Philadelphia Museum School of Art, taught at the Philadelphia College of Art and is known for his landscapes of Pennsylvania. Also crossing the block is an eclectic oil on masonite piece by Harry Dunn (American, 1929-1998) titled Peddlers Umbrella. Dunn’s unusual style and interesting way of looking at the world always finds an audience. The art continues with pieces by Robert Cleminson (British, active 1864-1903), Fen Cunningham (American, 1889-1975), Leonard Baskin (American, 1922-2000), George Thompson Hobbs (American, 1846-1929), 20 pieces by Marc Schoettle (American, 1925-1982) and dozens of other artists.

Never before has the exhibition hall been so packed with furniture. Everything from American to Continental, Asian to African, period furnishings to beautifully crafted modern reproductions can be found at the upcoming sale. Tables, chairs, sofas, settees, dressing tables, vitrines, candlestands, slant-front desks, corner cupboards, tall-case clocks, pie safes, chest on chests, butler’s desks, hanging cupboards, step-back cupboards, dressers, a folding screen, dry sinks, stools, a pedestal, lowboys, highboys, cradles, pewter cupboards, sideboards and love seats fill the gallery. Period pieces coming up for sale include a pair of George II dining chairs, circa 1750, an early 1800s painted hard pine one-piece corner cupboard, an English mahogany slant-front desk, circa 1800, and dozens of other vintage examples.

Modern reproductions include a Chippendale-style mahogany sofa made by a local cabinetmaker, the Irion Company Furniture Makers. Front and center in the hall is another piece by the same maker, an incredible reproduction Lancaster County schrank complete with red, green and yellow paint decoration. This beautifully made piece has already attracted much attention.

An assortment of decorative accessories fills in the rest of the sale. Textiles such as hooked rugs, Oriental carpets, samplers, quilts, coverlets and needleworks will be found throughout. Several toys, games and pieces of children’s furniture pepper the entire sale including hobby horses, candy containers, windup toys, play houses, several Noah’s Arks and pull toys. Buyers will also find baskets, fish decoys, animal carvings, torchieres, lock boxes, Christmas ornaments, bird decoys, miniature toleware, mirrors, redware, glass, clocks, jewelry, lighting, musical instruments and more.

Towards the end of day two, collectors of weapons and military ephemera will find over 30 lots of firearms, edged weapons, powder flasks, a Confederate flag and Civil War photographs. Following this is a group of Asian objects, including a beautiful ruby Peking glass bowl. A fine collection of Native American items will also be sold at the end of the day. This assembly includes a carved doll, a Tlingit frog bowl, a pottery olla, points, moccasins, totem poles, a carved caribou antler knife case from Greenland, and many other exciting finds.

The sale will end with approximately 200 items that came to Pook & Pook from a Pennsylvania museum. An entire room of the gallery is dedicated to these African, South Asian and Pacific Islander artifacts making exhibition landscape at this sale really entertaining. Included in this curious group of deaccessioned items are war shields, masks, carved figures, canoes and other quirky items that would make a fantastic conversation piece for any room of the house.

For details on this or any sale at Pook & Pook Inc., go to www.pookandpook.com or call 610-269-4040.

View the fully illustrated catalog and register to bid absentee or live via the Internet as the sale is taking place by logging on to www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE