Prior School Portrait, Young Lady, Attributed to George Hartwell (b. 1815, d. 1901)
Massachusetts or Maine
Date/Period: 1830-1840
- SOLD
Measurement: 20.75 by 16.5-inches frame, 17.75 by 13.5-inches sight-size.
Material: Oil paint on academy board
Condition: Excellent condition; mounted within modern frame. We can
facilitate the acquisition of an appropriate period frame.
Additional Information: As depicted, a beautiful young lady posed before
a landscape. The composition is slightly larger format than typical.
SOLD
922-2
Zedekia Belknap (1781-1858), Portrait of Gentleman Date/Period: Circa 1825
Measurement: Frame: 31.75" x 29.5”; view: 24.75" x 22.5"
Material: Oil on panel; slight cupping to panel…displays well
Condition: Fine original condition
Additional Information: Handsome ginger-haired gentleman mounted within a gilt
frame of the period. The verso of panel painted in the Belknap style.
$1,575.00
659-239
Folk Art Portrait, Seated Gentleman, Attributed to Aaron Dean Fletcher Date/Period: 1830’s
Measurement: Frame: 32" x 40"; view: 28" x 36"
Material: Oil on canvas
Condition: Scattered repairs, retouches, and craquelure original stretcher; displays well
Additional Information: : Aaron Dean Fletcher, 1817-1902; born in Springfield, Vermont.
Self-taught artist. Portrait of a gentleman holding glasses and reading a bible.
The portrait is mounted within a great appropriate modern frame that looks antique.
$2,950
1359-4
JA Davis (Jane Anthony) Full Length Portrait of Girl, Yellow Dress, Green Trim Date/Period: Circa 1840
Measurement: Frame: 7.5" x 9"; view: 5.5" x 7"
Material: Watercolor on paper within period gilt frame
Condition: Excellent
Additional Information: Jane Anthony Davis (1821-1855).
Full length portrait of young girl with brunette hair, she wears a yellow dress featuring
black polka dots and green trim…and is barefoot.
$2,350.00
1002-431
Folk Art, Pair of Portraits, Man and Woman, Micah Williams, Original Frames
A successful itinerant artist working primarily in Middlesex and Monmouth
counties, New Jersey. (Micah Williams, 1782-1837) Date/Period: Newspaper dated 1828 [Essex & Bergen Advertiser]
Measurement: Frame: 27.5" x 31.5"; view: 21.5" x 25.5"
Material: Pastel
Condition: Fine condition, frames appear to be original; a tear in the lady’s book was
expertly repaired by the paper Conservation Studio in New York City.
Additional Information: This pair of well-conceived intimate portraits of local New
Jersey residents taken in the early nineteenth century are exceptional examples of
Micah Williams' pastel renderings; the agreeable and pleasing subjects display a
sophisticated handling of the sitter’s facial features. The subjects are painted in a
slightly canted frontal pose…slightly turned, displaying strong color. The portraits are
mounted within handsome frames. Those of Williams portraits which in their original
frames reveal a distinctive and consistent manner of layering and affixing the portrait
first to a newspaper backing then to the frame and finally to more newspaper (see
Anderson, A Loving Likeness: American Folk Portraits of the Nineteenth
Century (Princeton, 1992), p. 40). Williams made his own pastel pigments, therefore
there is some color consistency to his work.
Literature: See Micah Williams – Portrait Artist, Bernadette Rogoff, Monmouth County
Historical Association.
$9,795.00
1359-3
SHELDON PECK (1797–1868) Portraits of a Man and Woman, Painted About 1828
Oil on wood panel, 25"x 19 15/16”
RECORDED: Marianne E. Balazs, Sheldon Peck, exhibition catalog (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1975-76), the gentleman is number 13; the woman is catalog number 14. EXHIBITED: Hirschl & Adler Folk, New York, Source and Inspiration, A Continuing Tradition, 1988, pp. 51 no. 27, 34 illus. in color // Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, 1991, American Folk Art, Selections from the Hirschl & Adler Collections, no. 48a EX COLLECTION: acquired from descendants of the sitters in Cato, New York; to Mr. and Mrs. Richard Bury; to [William Samaha, Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts]
Sheldon Peck was born in Cornwall, Vermont, one of eleven children of early settlers. It is thought that he received no formal art training, and his works are not signed. However, his portraits are easily identifiable and fall into three distinct stages within his life: Vermont, until about 1827-28; Onondaga County, New York, from 1828 until 1836; and the Chicago, Illinois, area until his death in 1868.
Peck's general portrait style is characterized by rather stiffly posed subjects, a frontal position, prominent staring eyes, and strongly defined facial planes. All his Vermont and New York portraits were painted on wood panels, and most have plain dark backgrounds. This half-length Portrait of a Man was painted while Sheldon Peck was in New York State. This Portrait of a Gentleman from his New York period is one of a group of four family members. Excellent condition…please call or email Dave for more information, 978-597-8084 or drh@aaawt.com (1300-2)
Please call or email Dave for more information, 978-597-8084 or drh@aaawt.com
1300-2
Pair of Folk Portraits of a Lady and Gentleman, Attrib. Jacob Bailey Moore
Probably New Hampshire, circa 1845
Jacob Bailey Moore (1815-1893)
Oil on canvas in reproduction veneered frames.
A related pair of portraits attributed to Jacob Bailey Moore are in the collection of The Manchester Historical Association, and illustrated in Robert M. Doty, By Good Hands: New Hampshire Folk Art (Manchester, NH, 1989), p. 26, fig. 26-27. Also see Nina Fletcher Little, “William Matthew Prior and Some of His Contemporaries, Maine Antique Digest, April 1976, and David Krashes, “Understanding the Prior-Hamblin School of Artists a Little Better,” Maine Antique Digest, July 2011.
(Frame: 27.75" x 32.75"; view: 21.75 x 26.75")
Please call for full description, and/or enthusiastic discussion.
$31,500.00
843-297
I. Bradley, Portrait of a Lady Wearing Puffy Sleeves Holding Blue Book
Signed dated and inscribed (at lower left), I Bradley / Fecit 1837 Date/Period: 1837
Measurement: Frame: 33.5" x 40.5"; view: 26.5" x 33.5"
Material: Oil on canvas, original gilt frame
Condition: Lined, new stretcher; expert restoration to three-corner tear in stomach
area; scattered minor fill.
Additional Information: John Bradley was active in the New York City area 1832-1847,
works from the 1830s depict residents of Staten Island then known as Richmond Island.
Bradley, a portrait, and miniature painter is listed in city directories as working in the
area which became Houston Street. Most of his paintings including this portrait are
signed “I. Bradley” [or John Bradley].
$20,950.00
1300-3
Profile Portrait of Gentleman in Profile, Confidently Attributed to Saint Memin
Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin (1770-1852) French/American Date/Period: 1790-1810
Measurement: Frame: 25" x 18.5"; view: 18.75" x 12.75"
Material: Black & white crayon and chalk on paper, eglomise mat, period molded
giltwood frame
Condition: Excellent original condition
Additional Information: Unsigned bust-length profile portrait confidently attributed to
Charles Balthazar Julien Ferret Saint Memin who landed in New York in 1793;
eventually traveling to Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington, Norfolk, Richmond, and
Charleston before returning to France in 1814. See, St. Memin and the Neoclassical
Profile Portrait in America, Ellen G. Miles.
$5,600.00
1125-67
Vintage Portrait, African American Gentleman, African American Southern Artist
Signed in brick red paint: Spencer, Likely Circa 1900
Oil on academy
All we know is that “SPENCER” was likely a nomadic portraitist traveling the Southern
United States after the Civil War through the turn of the twentieth century…perhaps
through the 1920s and 1930s. We have other information suggesting that he was active
in Georgia and Richmond 1865-1872 capturing the images of ordinary people and well-
known Abolitionists active during the tragedy of this most unfortunate period in history.
We have sold two other paintings by SPENCER and are very pleased to present this
portrait (and another). We know of approximately eight portraits that were found in a
Georgia estate, all depicting African American subjects: most signed SPENCER in brick
red paint [this one in oyster white paint]. The sitters were ministers, church related; a
woman celebrating her beauty, and a soldier. A group of three portraits of Abolitionists
were in the “Freedmen’s Bureau, 10th Street Chapter” of Richmond, Virginia…these
were portraits of Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglas and Harriet Tubman. The extant
portraits that we have represented other than a gentleman’s portrait painted on sheet
iron were found in the previously mentioned Georgia estate; we have a copy of the old-
time collector’ s obituary which may lead to a possible journey of discovery.
(Frame: 17.75 x 13.75"; view: 13.75" x 9.75")
$3,975.00
1321-1
Folk Art Portrait, Gentleman Wearing Blue Coat, Attributed to Jane Anthony Davis
Jane Anthony Davis (1821-1825)
Measurement: Frame: 4" x 5"; view: 2.5" x 3.5"
Material: Watercolor and pencil on paper, gilt frame
Condition: Very good
$1,075.00
809-95
Vintage Portrait, African American Gentleman, African American Southern Artist
Signed in oyster white paint: Spencer, Likely Circa 1900
Oil on academy
All we know is that “SPENCER” was likely a nomadic portraitist traveling the Southern
United States after the Civil War through the turn of the twentieth century…perhaps
through the 1920s and 1930s. We have other information suggesting that he was active
in Georgia and Richmond 1865-1872 capturing the images of ordinary people and well-
known Abolitionists active during the tragedy of this most unfortunate period in history.
We have sold two other paintings by SPENCER and are very pleased to present this
portrait (and another). We know of approximately eight portraits that were found in a
Georgia estate, all depicting African American subjects: most signed SPENCER in brick
red paint [this one in oyster white paint]. The sitters were ministers, church related; a
woman celebrating her beauty, and a soldier. A group of three portraits of Abolitionists
were in the “Freedmen’s Bureau, 10th Street Chapter” of Richmond, Virginia…these
were portraits of Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglas and Harriet Tubman. The extant
portraits that we have represented other than a gentleman’s portrait painted on sheet
iron were found in the previously mentioned Georgia estate; we have a copy of the old-
time collector’ s obituary which may lead to a possible journey of discovery.
(Frame: 13.5" x 15.5"; view: 9.5" x 7.5")
$3,875.00
1321-2
Jacob Eichholtz (1776-1842) Profile Portrait of Lady, Lancaster, Pennsylvania Date/Period: 1795-1825
Measurement: 7.25" x 9.25"
Material: Oil paint on poplar panel
Condition: Fine original condition, no frame however we can procure.
Additional Information: The artist with no formal training painted in the Philadelphia
and Baltimore areas…he was greatly influenced by Thomas Sully. Typical of his work is
this strong linear image in porthole format.
$2,850.00
1125-65
Amos Holbrook, Miniature Portrait of Aaron Gould, Aged 24, New Hampshire, Circa 1830
Portrait of Aaron Gould, small half-length, in a black coat, holding a book Inscribed Aaron
Gould.Ag.d/24 [sic] along the upper edge Date/Period: 1830
Measurement: 5.25 x 6 inches; View: 3.75 x 4.5 inches
Material: Pen, ink, and watercolor, paint decorated period frame
Condition: Very Good; sheet is not laid down. discoloration and staining to the sheet, as visible.
There is a tiny hole (approx. 3mm) to the sheet at the lower left border edge.
Additional Information: Most probably New Hampshire. Profile of young man in black
coat detailed with wide lapels and buttons; water colored vest and high cravat...he holds
a book in his right hand.
The face and hand are executed in white watercolor pigment; facial features drawn in
pencil.
Provenance: David Wheatcroft, Massachusetts, AAAWT, 2009
• An Amos Holbrook (born 1809) appears in the 1870 census in Niagara County,
New York, as a cabinetmaker and another Amos Holbrook (born 1783) appears
in the 1850 census in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, as a farmer. It is
speculated that the artist engaged in his primary occupation during the spring,
summer, and fall, and turned to portraiture to earn money during the winter
months.
$2,800.00
843-328
Miniature Portrait, Lady Holding Rose,
Attributed to Abraham Parcell (1791-1856)
Born in New Jersey, Painted in New York City Date/Period: 1830’s
Measurement: 2” by 2,75”
Condition: Good, later locket/frame
Additional Information: The lady wears a puffy sleeve dress, necklace, and watch
chain around her neck.
$2,075.00
1002-355
Madison Houghton (1809-1870), Shoulder Length Profile Portrait of Young Man
Miami Township, Ohio Date/Period: Circa 1831 - SOLD
Measurement: Frame: 12" x 10"; view: 9.5" x 7.5"
Material: Graphite and watercolor on paper
Condition: Two small holes, two short tears to upper and lower corners, toning
Additional Information: The verso inscribed “Drawn Buy [sic] Madison Houghton /
June 26, 1831”. On the backing paper: “The Foote family, Canton, Connecticut, 1830”
Houghton was born in Oswego, New York, eventually moved to Mt. Vernon, Knox
County, Ohio.
Literature:Four Ohio Nineteenth Century Folk Artists by Arthur and
Sybil Kerns and Peter and Leslie Warwick, Magazine Antiques, August 2007, pp 90-97, Fig. 8. (A copy
of this benchmark article will be provided to purchaser)
SOLD
843-330
Folk Art Portrait, Young Woman, by Ralph D. Curtis
Ralph Curtis (1808-1885) New York Date/Period: Circa 1835 - SOLD
Measurement: 32" x 21.75"
Material: Oil paint on mahogany panel
Condition: Scatters trivial…minor retouch
LITERATURE: See the November 2009 issue of The Magazine Antiques 1. for a
discussion of Ralph D. Curtis and his previously unknown body of work.
Additional Information: Of the fifty extant works only one is signed, all but one, are
painted on panel; most of his portraits, as is the case with this portrait, were never
framed. Only one portrait displaying the artist’s signature has been discovered. Stylistic
traditions/features of this hand include the long face and high prominent forehead; faces
are simply modeled and display a dark outline; noses are often elongated… bushy
eyebrows and a deep philtrum. Pepi Jelinek states “jewelry figures prominently in
Curtis’s portraits, and he took particular care in depicting women’s earrings, brooches”1.
This lady wears a brooch…
SOLD
1002-428
Folk Art Portrait, Susan in a Blue Dress,
Attributed to George Hartwell, Prior-Hamblin School
George Hartwell (Massachusetts, 1815-1901) Date/Period: 1835-1845 - SOLD
Measurement: 16.5" x 19.75"; view: 13.5"; x 9.75"
Material: Oil on artist board
Condition: Very good, scattered trivial touches, black light images available
Additional Information: The attractive young woman wearing a beautiful blue dress is
positioned before a draped window. The portrait is mounted within a walnut veneered,
ripple molded frame of the period.
SOLD
1310-156
William Mathew Prior, Portrait of Gentleman
(1806-1873) Maine & Massachusetts - SOLD
Measurement: Frame: 16.5" x 12.25"; view: 13.5" x 9.25"
Material: Oil on artist board within paint decorated frame
Condition: Very Good, scatted trivial losses at top edge; appears to be original frame
and backboard
Additional Information: An unsigned Prior-Hamblin School folk art portrait of a
handsome young man attributed to William Mathew Prior. Portrait of handsome young
man wearing long sideburns, floral decorated vest and cravat positioned beneath a
double swagged red drapery with tassels. Ex-collection of Horton Foote.
SOLD
1310-141
DOUBLE PORTRAIT OF JUDGE SAMUEL SHEPARD AND LUCY WRIGHT SHEPARD
Attributed to William Henry Browne
Panton, Vermont, Circa 1837 - SOLD
Additional Information: Oil on canvas, 32 x 49 inches
Reproduction mahogany and cherry frame
Samuel Shepard was born in Simsbury, Connecticut on May 29, 1768, and died at
Panton, Addison County, Vermont on December 29, 1858, at the age of 90 years 7
months. He married first at Panton, Vermont on August 19, 1790, to Rachel Grandy
who was born at Panton, Vermont about 1772 and died there on March 29, 1810, aged
37. Married second at Weybridge, Vermont on June 19, 1810, to Lucy Wright born at
Weybridge April 20, 1785, died at Panton January 12, 1848, aged 62 years 9 months.
About the time of his first marriage in 1790, Samuel Shepard built a small house near
that of his late father’s residence in Panton, Vermont, where he lived until the
completion of a larger house in 1815, which at the time was the most expensive one in
the town. Between 1795 and the time of his death in 1858, he held numerous public
offices, including constable (1795-1802), town clerk (1803-1817), town representative
(1804, 1807-1814, 1816-1818) and a justice of the peace for more than forty years. In
1812 he was appointed by the legislature one of the assistance judges of the County
Court; and he and his wife were among the ten members who united to form the first
Baptist church, of which he was a member at the time of his death.
Very little is known about the itinerant artist W. H. Browne [there are other artists with
the name “William H. Brown,” however, those artists do not have an “e” at the end of
their name. Using ancestry.com the author believes he has identified the “best
candidate” in New England for the period 1800-1850. He was born in Sudbury,
Massachusetts, on July 17, 1803, to William and Ruth Dakin Browne. He married Sarah
Sally Lovering on March 13, 1834, also in Sudbury. Census records indicate that he, or
at a minimum, a man with the same name, resided at rear 117 Chambers in Boston in
1840 and identified him as a “carver.” Mr. Browne died on April 10, 1842.
Very few works have been identified as painted by Mr. Browne. The works found to
date indicate that he painted portraits in oils, on both wood panels and on canvas; he
appeared to paint during the period of 1820-1840; and, based on his sitters, he traveled
in the upstate Vermont and upstate New York regions as well as painted in
Massachusetts. There has been speculation that he may have been a decorative
painter by trade, but the 1840 census record showed that he signed that record
indicating that he was a carver.
Provenance:
By descent in the Shepard-Tappen family
Kennedy Galleries, New York, 1975
Marvill collection, New York
David A. Schorsch and Eileen M. Smiles
Private Collection
Antiques Associates At West Townsend
Fradkin Collection
Literature: The Kennedy Quarterly, Volume XIII, Number Four, February 1975, p. 180, illustrated
References cited:
Obituary of Samuel Shepard in The Vergennes Citizen January 7, 1858
Abby Maria Hemenway, Ed., The Vermont Historical Gazetteer: A Magazine embracing
A History of Each Town, Civil, Ecclesiastical, Biographical and Military, Volume I
(Burlington, VT, 1868), p. 83
H. P. Smith, Ed., History of Addison County Vermont (Syracuse, NY, 1886), pages 585,
587,
Gerald Faulkner Shepard, The Shepard Families of New England, Volume II, (New
Haven, CT, 1972), p. 85.
*Please ask to see 9-page article discussing Browne and depicting other works by the
artist.
Folk Art, Ammi Phillips, Pair of Portraits, Robert, and Frances Morris
Claverack, New York (By descent in the Ludlow family) Date/Period: Circa 1820 - SOLD
Measurement: 25" x 30.75"
Material: Oil on canvas
Condition: Very good, scattered fill, wax lined, original stretchers
Additional Information: Frances Ludlam Morris (1766-1852) shown in a classic
“Phillips” pose and her husband Robert Morris (1762-1851), owner of a hardware store
[Morris and Ludlum], son of Richard Morris, Chief Justice of New York State. Another
pair of portraits depicting Mr. & Mrs. Morris by Frederick Spencer is within the collection
of the National Portrait Gallery.
SOLD
1480-1
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![Portrait of a Writing Master, American School Inscribed (at lower left): Penmanship Cl[ass] / Taught By, entire view](https://www.aaawt.com/images_comp/1300-3_1_Portrait,-Woman-with-Book,-by-Bradley_entire.webp)
![Portrait of a Writing Master, American School Inscribed (at lower left): Penmanship Cl[ass] / Taught By, detail view 1](https://www.aaawt.com/images_comp/1300-3_2_Portrait,-Woman-with-Book,-by-Bradley.webp)
![Portrait of a Writing Master, American School Inscribed (at lower left): Penmanship Cl[ass] / Taught By, artist detail](https://www.aaawt.com/images_comp/1300-3_3_Portrait,-Woman-with-Book,-by-Bradley_artist.webp)
![Portrait of a Writing Master, American School Inscribed (at lower left): Penmanship Cl[ass] / Taught By, back view](https://www.aaawt.com/images_comp/1300-3_4_Portrait,-Woman-with-Book,-by-Bradley_back.webp)
![Amos Holbrook, Miniature Portrait of Aaron Gould, Aged 24, New Hampshire, Circa 1830
Portrait of Aaron Gould, small half-length, in a black coat, holding a book Inscribed Aaron
Gould.Ag.d/24 [sic] along the upper edge, ruler view](https://www.aaawt.com/images_default/843-328_Holbrook_Mini Portrait_1.jpg)
![Amos Holbrook, Miniature Portrait of Aaron Gould, Aged 24, New Hampshire, Circa 1830
Portrait of Aaron Gould, small half-length, in a black coat, holding a book Inscribed Aaron
Gould.Ag.d/24 [sic] along the upper edge, entire view](https://www.aaawt.com/images_default/843-328_Holbrook_Mini Portrait_2.jpg)
![Amos Holbrook, Miniature Portrait of Aaron Gould, Aged 24, New Hampshire, Circa 1830
Portrait of Aaron Gould, small half-length, in a black coat, holding a book Inscribed Aaron
Gould.Ag.d/24 [sic] along the upper edge, sans frame view](https://www.aaawt.com/images_default/843-328_Holbrook_Mini Portrait_3.jpg)
![Amos Holbrook, Miniature Portrait of Aaron Gould, Aged 24, New Hampshire, Circa 1830
Portrait of Aaron Gould, small half-length, in a black coat, holding a book Inscribed Aaron
Gould.Ag.d/24 [sic] along the upper edge, detail view](https://www.aaawt.com/images_default/843-328_Holbrook_Mini Portrait_4.jpg)
