The folk art diorama, titled National Clock Millersburg and expected to bring $20,000 to $40,000, is more difficult to explain. Created by Jacob A. Light, a Pennsylvanian and a religion and history buff who apparently had trouble settling down, it consists of a folding triptych 64 inches high by 114 inches wide that unfolds to reveal a parade of the presidents from Washington to Coolidge, Civil War generals, and Jesus and his apostles at the Last Supper, among other figures. It took Light 18 years to make, using only a penknife.
The clock that gives its name to the main structure actually sits apart from it. "It's almost like a second thought," Pook and Pook associate Jamie Shearer said this week.
It was exhibited in the early 1960s when it was taken to local fairs on the back of a flatbed truck. Then it disappeared, until it was acquired about 15 years ago by the consigner, a Pennsylvanian living near the New York state line.
The sale also offers a host of other folk art and related items. Among them is a 11-by-19-by-19-inch, early-20th century jailhouse carver scene of a tavern interior in a glass case, expected to bring $3,000 to $5,000.
Two carved and painted wood geometric shapes by the Pennsylvania artist John Scholl that were exhibited about 1980 at the William Penn Memorial Museum, Painted Wheel With Chalice and Geometric Snowflake, are expected to bring $4,000 to $8,000 and $8,000 to $12,000, respectively.
The Delaware case clock, with a presale estimate of $35,000 to $50,000, is one of almost a dozen pieces of circa-1800 Delaware Valley furniture expected to sell for five-figure prices. Among them are a circa-1760 Lancaster County cherry Schrank ($20,000 to $40,000) and a diminutive circa-1770 Pennsylvania walnut hanging cupboard ($15,000 to $25,000). The two are among more than 60 lots being consigned by longtime dealers and collectors Lucille and Guy Keemer of Hallem, Pa.
Two other lots come with pedigrees. A Chester County Queen Anne walnut secretary desk dated 1744 is illustrated in Schiffer's Furniture and Its Makers of Chester County Pennsylvania ($20,000 to $30,000). And a circa-1770 Chippendale carved and figured mahogany desk and bookcase from the Hussey family of Massachusetts that was in a Sotheby's sale in New York in 2001 came from the Robert E. Crawford Collection ($25,000 to $45,000).
The Hussey family bookcase is among 60 lots from the collection of Muriel and Foster McCarl of Bluffton, S.C. The collection otherwise consists mainly of quilts, notably a circa-1860 Baltimore trapunto and appliqué album quilt ($3,000 to $5,000) and a 103-by-111-inch Philadelphia broderie Perse (Persian embroidery) quilt dating to 1793 ($8,000 to $12,000).
The lot expected to bring the auction's top price is a painting by the German-American Wilhelm Thony (1888 to 1949) of the Paris skyline, done in an almost abstract style and expected to bring $40,000 to $70,000. An oil-on-canvas landscape with a young girl by the turn-of-the-20th-century American John George Brown should bring $15,000 to $25,000.
Local Pennsylvania impressionist works include two by Fern Coppedge: a 7-by-9-inch untitled autumn landscape ($4,000 to $6,000) and the 25-by-30½-inch Autumn From Music Circus Hill, Lambertville ($20,000 to $40,000); and two landscapes by Coppedge's student, H. Cadwallader Jr., one of West Chester Pike, the other of Stockton, N.J. ($1,000 to $2,000 each).
Statuary includes two French works, a patinated bronze of three boys mounting a horse by Arthur Jacques Leduc ($4,000 to $6,000), and a nickled bronze of two rugby players by Pierre Toulgouat ($3,000 to $5,000).
Preview: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and 8 a.m. to sale time Saturday at the gallery at 463 E. Lancaster Ave. For more information, call 610-269-4040.
Clearance at Kamelot. Kamelot Auctions, which is marking 10 years at the 4700 Wissahickon Ave. complex, will clean house with an online clearance sale beginning at 1 p.m. Wednesday. While the 180 lots to be offered are the usual mix of Kamelot specialties, contemporary and designer furniture, lighting and architectural items, their presale estimates are well below the prices at the in-house events, according to the online catalog, accessible at www.kamelotauctions.com.
They range from the $100 to $200 that a circa-1960 faux leather upholstered club chair is expected to bring to the $1,500 to $2,500 that a set of six circa-1900 Chippendale-style mahogany dining chairs should sell for. Other highlights: a circa-1920 plum pudding mahogany three-door armoire that converts into a three-way cheval dressing mirror ($600 to $800); a circa-1910 industrial cast- and wrought-iron, adjustable mechanical table ($200 to $400); and a circa-1920 circular beveled glass fantasy mirror with carved winged dragon framing ($700 to $900).
There is no formal preview for the sale. Regular hours at Kamelot are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, call 215-438-6990
Contact David Iams at daiams@comcast.net.
