Tall Chest Vignette, with Details of Each Piece

Hat Form Box
Bold deep blue wallpaper covered...
Minor areas of color fill. Measures 9.25-inches in height.

Price: $3,700

Hat Box
Light blue wallpaper...no lid
Measures 8-inches in height.

Price: $2,650

Wallpaper Box in Top Hat Form
9-inches tall.

Price: $1,400

An Outstanding Seven-Drawer Tall Chest
Maple and chestnut
Rhode Island
Circa 1810
Having unusually narrow width and depth and remaining in fine original condition including Spanish brown paint; chestnut backboard with painted "1810". Seven splendidly graduated drawers with perfect molded edges retaining original turned knobs within a molded case on applied bracket foot. One piece of rear-side foot profile is restored...all else fine. (Width: only 35-inches; depth only: 15.75-inches; height: 58.5-inches.)

Price: $15,750

Never before offered...consigned by direct descendant
Pair of Prior/Hamblin School Portraits
Attributed to William W. Kennedy
Robert Ramsdell, shoemaker and his mother Deborah
Lynn, Massachusetts
According to family history...circa 1844
Also, two large 19th century photographs of the Ramsdell home and shoe shop - SOLD
This pair of portraits, done in the "flat" style, portray Robert Ramsdell, a shoemaker from Lynn, Massachusetts, and his mother Deborah Mansfield Ramsdell [Ramsdal]. The paintings are tempera on artist's board and are each approximately 14-inches by 10-inches. The age of each subject, 35 years for Robert and 76 for his mother, are written in white at the lower right corner of the paintings. Neither painting is signed though both have the name of the sitter inscribed on the reverse. The paintings have always been in family hands. Both paintings are in very good condition, with some crazing and a small dimple on the painting of Robert Ramsdell being the most noticeable flaw. Each painting has a handwritten family history mounted on the back of the modern frame.

William W. Kennedy
An artist of which little is known, William W. Kennedy, painter of portraits was born in New Hampshire. He worked in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Ledyard, Connecticut, and Berwick, Maine from 1845 through 1847. He moved to Maryland in 1849 or 1850, living at various locations in Baltimore with his wife and three children until 1869. Kennedy is regarded as one of the portrait painters of the Prior-Hamblin School. There is no direct link to these artists-Kennedy painted in Massachusetts during the same period that Prior and Hamblin did, and lived very close to Prior in Baltimore. It appears that during his career Kennedy was influenced by William Matthew Prior.

There are less than twenty signed examples of Kennedy's portraits extant-approximately 40 others have been found that closely resemble the documented works.

Stylistically, Kennedy's crisp, flat likenesses strongly resemble the Prior and Hamblin portraits. His likenesses are distinguished by consistent portrayal of his sitters with steeply sloping shoulders, squared noses, and small, pursed lips. Characteristic of his portrait-painting style is excessive shading around the nose and a single dark line between the lips.

A Pair of Delaware Valley Ladder-Back Side Chairs
In original blue green paint...great patina
Circa 1800-1820
The four arched slats set into slightly tapering stiles with very nice acorn finials above original splint seats; front legs with reel and compressed ball turnings; top of front legs with turnip feet extend beyond the seats and are incised with concentric circles. Fine condition. (Height: 38.75-inches; seat height: 15.75-inches; seat dimensions are 17.25 across the front with a depth of 14.5-inches.)

Price: $4,500

If you are interested in buying any of these items, please call (978) 597-8084 or email David Hillier at drh@aaawt.com or Lynn Morin at lfm@aaawt.com

DEALER INQUIRIES WELCOME