HATFIELD, Pa. – Alderfer Auction will offer Baltimore family archive with a Rembrandt Peale painting at its Fine & Decorative Arts Auction on Dec. 7. Absentee and Internet bidding is available through LiveAuctioneers.

A family archive originating in Baltimore accompanied by two fabulous portraits of family members will generate interest during this December Fine Art Auction. The archive originating with the Stuart family of Baltimore, reaches back over 200 years with its centerpiece being a family bible printed by Carey of Philadelphia in 1816. The bible contains numerous manuscript entries on the blank pages dividing the old and new Testaments. These entries detail births, deaths, marriages and other events related to the Stuart family. The bible also served as a place to file clippings and other pieces of paper that had importance to the family. The archive also includes three framed documents related to James Stuart Sr., the family’s patriarch, and his military service to the state of Maryland in the early part of the 19th century.

The two most impressive parts of the Stuart family archive are oil on canvas portraits, one attributed to famed American artist Rembrandt Peale (1778-1860). Peale was famed for his portraiture especially of important personage including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, William Henry Harrison, John C. Calhoun and others. Peale worked with both large canvases as well as small miniature paintings. Peale also gained fame by opening a museum in Baltimore in 1814. Peale’s artistic works hang in numerous museums throughout the country and their visual addition to this historic archive demonstrates the archive’s importance not only to Baltimore’s history but to the importance of family and remembering where one’s origins lie.

Alderfer Auction will also sell the historically significant Neils H. Lykke Spanish-American War medal group Dec. 7. Seaman-Gunner Lykke served aboard the Navy gunboat USS Gloucester during the Battle of Santiago de Cuba on July 3, 1898. This important grouping includes:

• U.S. Navy Sampson medal with “USS Gloucester” bar which is named on edge “Neil H. Lykke, Sea. Gr.”
• U.S. Naval Campaign – West Indies Special Meritorious Cross. Medal presents engraved reverse “Neil H. Lykke-Seaman Gunner—Rescuing Crews From and in Close Proximity to Burning Ships After the Battle off Santiago Cuba July 1898.”
• U.S Navy Good Conduct medal engraved on reverse “C.S.C. No 10366 Neils H. Lykke, U.S.S. New York, July 6, 1896.”
• Rare privately struck USS Gloucester silver medal engraved on reverse “Neil H. Lykke-Sea Gunner.” This medal was struck by millionaire J.P. Morgan to be presented to the crew of the navy gunboat USS Gloucester, which began life as Morgan’s yacht the SS Corsair II. Morgan sold the yacht to the Navy in 1898 when the U.S. needed vessels and it was refitted as a gunboat. The central part of the lower portion of this medal is a Spanish 5 Pesetas coin taken from a silver horde from one of the Spanish ships sunk during the battle.
• United Spanish War Veteran Member Medal (type 1).
• United Spanish War Veteran Member Medal (type 3).
• Leather bound booklet containing vellum pages (Continuous Service Certificate, Certificate of Seaman Gunner and others) detailing Lykke’s naval service from 1889 through 1896.

This historical medal grouping, as well as, several other United States medals and groupings representing bravery and service, will be offered in the Alderfer Auction Fine & Decorative Arts Auction on Thursday, Dec. 7, at noon Eastern time.

This auction boasts fine historical items, jewelry, silver, decorative accessories, period furniture and fine artwork.

For more information call Alderfer Auction at 215-393-3000.

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