Pook & Pook will present The Collection of Alice & Art Booth of Wayne, N.J., on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, April 15 to 17. Over 50 years ago, the Booths began to seriously collect the material culture of the Pennsylvania Germans. Beginning with the flea markets and local auctions of southeastern Pennsylvania in the early 1970s, they were both dealers and collectors. Pennsylvania German folk art abounds in a variety of forms in the collection including redware, stoneware, painted furniture and boxes, woodcarvings, wrought iron, fraktur, and Amish decorative arts. This collection is exceptional because of its depth, said Ron Pook. Its one of the finest stoneware collections I have ever seen, is how auctioneer and appraiser Jamie Shearer describes the 62 pieces of stoneware. Stoneware was an early focus of the Booths collecting. Among them is a T.H. Willson (Harrisburg, Pa.) slip-decorated three-masted ship decorated crock purchased at Pennypackers in 1978. Another is a seated spaniel inkstand from the Hagler sale (Don Kinzle Auction) in 1975. Redware is another major focus of the collection, spread across 112 lots. A number of items are ex. Walter Himmelreich, who was a dealer in Strasburg, Pa. His property was called the Le Fevre Homestead. He held four sales through Pennypackers (1958, 1971, 1973, and 1976) prior to retiring to Florida. A John Boyer seed chest, ex. Herrs, is another lot of note, as are two Joseph Lehn seed chests, one ex. Musselman, and one ex. Herrs. There are over 20 lots by Joseph Lehn in the collection. Wilhelm Schimmel carvings include a squirrel, ex. Clyde Youtz. The late Youtz, of Newmanstown, was a longtime dealer in Pennsylvania German folk art. Several Schtockschnitzler Simmons carvings are in the sale, several ex. Joan and Richard Flanders Smith. A rare John Derr iron and brass kettle lamp will be sold. It brought $1,375 in 1976 at a Himmelreich sale and $2,808 in 2007 at the Dr. and Mrs. Donald Shelley sale. There will be 33 lots of watercolor fraktur with provenance from Himmelreich, Flanders Smith, Machmer, and Garbisch. Two Centre County, Pa., paint-decorated sewing stands deserve mentioning. Other areas of interest include Alices Amish decorative arts and Halloween and Christmas holiday items. The Amish decorated items include painted boxes, tins, embroidered bed linens and textiles such as wedding socks, pin cushions, Lizzie Lapp dolls, and stuffed toys. This is an exceptional collection of Halloween, summarized Shearer. The value in the jack-o-lantern collection is in the variety. They collected every variation known. Alices embrace of early high-quality holiday material is evident in the many highly collectible forms of German pre-WWII pulp and papier-mch Halloween jack-o-lanterns, candy containers, carrying containers, die-cuts and noisemakers, all in the forms of devils, black cats, witches, and skulls. Over 80 lots of early Christmas material include German composition Santa Claus figures, Santa Claus candy containers, clockwork nodders, Belsnickels, spun cotton ornaments, and Dresden ornaments. A highlight will be a large double clockwork nodder Santa and reindeer sleigh, laden with toys. Keep an eye out in Antiques & Auction News following the Booth auction for a post-sale review. To contact Pook & Pook, Inc., call 610-269-4040.