It sold to a dealer bidding on behalf of a collector, underbid by a collector who was on vacation. He had a phone line and was in Ireland, said Jaime Shearer of Pook & Pook discussing the stoneware crock decorated with a marching elephant selling for $177,800. The folk art crock was on day two of a three-day single-owner sale on behalf of Alice and Art Booth. Alice passed away last year, and Art is in an assisted living home. The sale was April 15, 16, and 17. Alice and Art Booth of Wayne, N.J., were antique collector/dealers. They collected American stoneware and redware with an emphasis on Pennsylvania redware; Pennsylvania German folk art such as fraktur, wood carvings, carved butter prints, wallpaper boxes, cookie cutters, and Lehnware; and textiles including quilts and patchwork pillowcases. They also collected antique holiday material, namely Halloween and Christmas items (day three of the sale included the antique holiday items). They set up at Pennsylvania shows such as York and Elverson for many years, specializing in holiday material. They bought at big sales and for decades came to Pennsylvania most weekends, where the action was and still is, especially in the 1980s and 90s. I first met them in the late 90s, set up under the pavilion at the then Black Angus in Adamstown. They kept notes on what they paid for many items and had such info on many of their objects. They loved antiques and had the means to buy and sell at a high level. Its not often, if ever, a collection possesses multiple Compass Artist boxes, two Weber doll cradles, two rare Centre County, sewing stands, an abundance of Lehnware items including multiple seed chests, Bucher paint-decorated boxes, multiple Simmons birds and canes, and multiple Schimmel carvings. The couple put together a great collection of early Pennsylvania folk art. Other collections included a grouping of crooked knifes, which are sometimes called a mocotaugan and are a Woodlands Indian carvers draw knife, basically a multipurpose tool having a blade bent at or near the tip combined with a handle with an unusual shape. Today, they are folk art items. There was New England redware; and Gaudy Dutch china, which is English and was popular with the Pennsylvania German market throughout the 19th century. The bulk of holiday items consisted of Germany Christmas items, such as antique ornaments and candy containers, Halloween lanterns, and German rabbit Easter eggs. As a whole, it did well, as evident from prices realized. This speciality market has strength. With that said, it was a Pennsylvania sale and the kind that put Pook & Pook on the map. Its gross total (including a 27 percent buyers premium) was $2,272,050, and 902 out of 913 lots sold (99 percent). The Booths were active at the Robacker sales. Dr. Earl and Ada Robacker of White Plains, N.Y., were authors and collectors who lived with antiques on a massive scale. Sold over the summer of 1989, it took eight days of auctions in four sessions; each session were Friday and Saturday auctions and spaced about a month apart held by Horst at the Farmersville Fire Hall. Each catalog is worth owning today, and the sales were a big deal and achieved some equally big prices. From a generation of collectors who accumulated on a level unheard of today, Earls passion was summed up by the quote inside the front cover of the first sales catalog in Alan Keysers introduction, Drawn by the thrill of the hunt they frequented antiques shows, auctions, and antiques shops. And after assembling a collection containing in excess of seven thousand items, Earl confided, I have never been sorry for anything I ever bought, just for the things I didnt buy. Lovers of Pennsylvania antiques, it isnt a surprise the Booths were drawn to these major sales. The era during the 80s and 90s was the heyday of the marketplace. A wrought iron tulip-form trivet sold for $825.50. The Booths paid $1,250 in session two of the Robacker sale. A Rev. Henry Young taufshein of a man in profile view flanked by birds, floral work and stars in upper corners, contained some staining, and glued down, yet a rare design, sold for $25,400 at the Booth sale. Its the only one known, mentioned a collector in the salesroom describing the design of a single man in profile. A prolific fraktur artist, Youngs work is very collectible. The Lycoming County ink-and-watercolor birth certificate was for George Pane (b. 1819). A miniature redware (eight-sided) loaf dish, likely northern Lancaster County origin, with yellow and green slip decoration, sold for $17,780 to a local collector in the salesroom. It brought $2,000 at the Walter Himmelreich sale in 1973 held at Pennypackers, and the Booths paid $21,240 in 2021 at Conestoga Auction Co., ex. Eugene and Vera Charles. A nearly identical example sold for $16,500 at Paul and Rita Flacks sale at Pook & Pook on Oct. 28, 2000. The following lot was a related miniature redware dish, but oval, with yellow and green slip decoration that realized $6,096 to dealer Greg Kramer. The Booths paid $22,420 in 2021 at Conestoga Auction Co., ex. Eugene and Vera Charles. Kramer underbid it at that sale. It sold for $1,200 in 1973, at the Himmelreich sale. The marketplace is strong for Schimmel and Simmons folk carvings. Three Simmons wooden carved and painted folk art birds sold early in the sale. Schtockschnitzler Simmons (active 1885-1910) was an itinerant carver in the Moselem Springs area of Berks County, Pa. A wooden carved and painted red and green parrot on turned ball base, 10 inches high, illustrated in Machmers Just For Nice, and sold at Pook & Pooks Richard and Joane Flanders Smith sale on Oct. 30, 2010, for $18,960, sold at this sale for $12,700. The tip of beak was restored. A Simmons bird, cream base with green wings on ball/knob finial base, sold for $20,320. The Booths paid $4,600 in 1995 at Richard and Joane Flanders Smith sale held by Christies. The third day one Simmons bird, with red breast, yellow and green body on turned finial base, sold for $22,860. It had an old repaired break to beak and realized $9,200 in 1995s Christies sale for Richard and Joane Flanders Smith. It was illustrated in Just for Nice and included in accompanying exhibit in 1991 at the then Historical Society of Berks County. A small yellow goldfinch on perch and stand sold for $4,318. In 1995, the Booths paid $3,680. Also in the Pennsylvania folk art category were the two rare mid-19th century Centre County sewing stands. For one of these stands to come onto the market is unusual, and the Booths owned two. Eight related surviving examples are known, likely originating near Millheim, in Penns Valley (State College area) of Centre County. They are tiered wooden paint-decorated sewing stands with one drawer, rotating spool holders, small round pin cushion top and rest on turned wooden feet. They were often painted red, yellow, green, and numbered. The first of the sewing stands, red, yellow, green, paint-decoration, excellent condition, sold for an auction record $43,180 to central Pennsylvania collectors, underbid by a central Pennsylvania collector. It sold for $19,000 on Jan. 26, 2002, at Horst Auction Center at the Roy Buck sale and was underbid by the same collector who underbid at the Booth sale. Dr. Roy Buck was a professor at the Pennsylvania State University in State College and co-curated a decorative arts exhibit in 1979 titled Heritage Sampler. The stand is well-known within the folk art community and illustrated in the Heritage Sampler catalog. It sold in the early 70s at a house sale (modest rowhouse on Rt. 45) leading to Millheim to Buck for $21. The other stand, with hearts on the sides, the drawer with several inscriptions reading Emma Weaver Feb the 15 1874, and also names Josiah Rossman + Emma Scholl, and Frank Emrich, as well as #3 on bottom of drawer, had one front foot replaced. At the Sothebys, Garbisch collection sale in 1980 it sold for $2,090, and at Conestoga Auction Companys Richard and Joane Flanders Smith collection sale on May 17, 1997, it sold for $14,300. It sold at the Booth sale for $11,430 to the same buyer of the other stand. Six of the eight of these stands are owned by collectors in or very near State College. An example sold at the Porter sale held by (then) Skinners in 2019 for $28,290. It is numbered 2. These stands have far reaching appeal, yet with many regional specialized fields, the appeal is heightened to those who reside in the area they originated. What happens to this type of niche market when the handful of active buyers who buy five figure items all have an example, and why is the folk art from Penns Valley so contested after? One answer is the region has a small but dedicated base of enthusiasts interested in preserving the regions material culture. The buyer of the two sewing stands also bought the Rev. Young fraktur. Samuel Bentz (1792-1850) was the head schoolmaster at the Weidmansville School. The school house still stands but today is referred to as Wood Corner School two miles west of Ephrata. Bentz is still referenced as The Mount Pleasant Artist, and made extra money by producing fraktur. The distinctive color palette using red and black geometrical designs, urns, spheres, orbs, and diamonds, the work of the very artistic Bentz is widely recognized today among folk art collectors. An ink-and-watercolor fraktur birth certificate for Catherine Schweigert (b. 1834) from the Booth collection, 53 years ago, sold for $1,300 on May 21, 1973, at the Pennypackers sale for Walter Himmelreich. And 24 years ago, on Oct. 19, 2002, it sold to the late Chris Machmer for $17,600 at Conestoga Auction Co. A year later, on Nov. 15, 2003, the late Ruth Bryson paid $12,650 for it at Chris Machmers sale also at Conestoga, and at Brysons sale on April 14, 2018, held by Pook & Pook, the Booths bought it for $4,148. It realized $3,302 here. A redware shallow bowl, dated 1854 with dramatic slip decoration of a leaping stag surrounded by green and yellow swags, sold at Conestoga Auction Companys sale for Gordon Sleigh on May 13, 1995, to the Booths for $9,900. Sleigh bought it from Hattie Brunner. It sold at the Booth sale for $8,255. A redware flask with profuse slip floral decoration in yellow, brown, green, wheel thrown, sold for $9,525. They paid $23,000 in 2013 at Crocker Farm. A Jacob Maentel portrait of a man in profile view sold for $3,810. The Booths paid $9,150 in 2018 at Pook & Pook (Bryson sale). Two David Bixler woodblock watercolor fraktur, one depicting a bird, the other a church, sold for $6,985. The Booths paid $1,422 in 2012 at Pook & Pook (Flack sale). A Schwenkfelder fraktur floral bookplate attributed to David Kriebel realized $1,270. The Booths bought it in 2018 at Pook & Pook (Flack sale) for $732. I was on a mission, stated the buyer of the Schimmel squirrel carving on day two. It realized $27,940. In excellent condition, the carving was underbid by the buyer the last time it came onto the market, 26 years ago at the first Clyde and Betty Youtz sale on April 1, 2000, at Conestoga Auction Co., where the Booths paid $19,800. As one can see from the short recap, some items proved to be hits and some misses, as with any large collection in any marketplace. Some areas of the market have contracted and others have expanded and are experiencing growth. It is always fun to be along for the ride. The captions tell more of the story. To learn more, call Pook & Pook at 610-269-4040 or visit www.pookandpook.com.