Horst Holds Two-Day Catalog Sale
Antique And Contemporary Folk Art Excelled; Hattie Brunner Painting Sets New Auction Record At $9,200
By Karl Pass - September 04, 2020
Horst Auctioneers of Ephrata, Pa., held a two-day catalog sale July 17 and 18. The multi-consignsor auction had material from the Jim and Nan Tshudy estate and Joseph and Elizabeth Statler collections. Much of the fraktur came from an older Pennsylvania couple in the process of downsizing. Horst did not charge a 10-percent buyers premium for absentee bids, which is the typical policy. A consumer friendly decision, given some buyers prefer not to either bid online or attend a sale in person. Horst now uses HiBid for its online bidding platform. Day one began with some local comtemporary folk art, local ephemera, country primitives, china, and assorted antique toys, among other items. A winter scene reverse painting on glass by the late David Gottshall, done in 1978, sold to a collector in the room for a strong $3,900. It is an auction record for the artists work, and by a large margin. The son of Walter and June Gottshall and sister of Barbara Strawser, he passed away in 2016 at age 73. Gottshall worked in reverse glass painting. A large Walter and June Gottshall (WJG) wood carving of a cat lying on an oval mat with kittens, from the 70s, brought $1,300. An unusual Walter and June carving of a turkey went for $500. A large WJG fan-tail rooster from the 70s realized $600. A nearly identical example sold for $1,210 by Witman Auctioneers at an on-site sale 21 days earlier for Ned Foltz on June 27. The underbidder at the Witman sale bought the one at Horst. A large Gottshall chicken with head down pecking an ear of corn sold for $500. A nearly identical example brought $1,540 at the previously mentioned Witman sale. It was also purchased by the underbidder from the Witman sale. Sometimes it pays to be patient. Walter and June Gottshall were members of the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen, and the future is very bright for their folk carvings. The market for Hattie Brunner (1889-1982) original watercolors is red hot. Brunner, of Reinholds, Pa., who will always be remembered as a legendary antiques dealer, first and foremost, took up painting in 1958. Her paintings have a large collector base in and out of the region. One of her first auction scene paintings sold for $9,200, setting a new auction record for her work. It was a bidding war among several local collectors. An 11.5-by-9.5-inch framed winter scene depicting a red covered bridge and a leaping deer sold for $2,400. Five years ago at a Witman auction on behalf of Ned Foltz, it sold for $1,045. On day two, some nice fraktur was sold along with furniture, china, and many other things. An early house blessing fraktur filled in by Johann Henrich Otto, printed for Otto at the Cloister, sold for $2,850. It brought $5,750 in 1995 at the Richard Flanders Smith sale held by Christies. The 90s represented a high water mark for the country Americana market. A vorschrift (writing sample) fraktur, dated 1824, went for $1,850. It had sold for $770 on June 9, 1983, at the Fred Wichmann sale at Sothebys. In the Wichmann catalog, Hattie Brunner is listed as provenance. Wichmann amassed an important collection of Pennsylvania German folk art beginning during the Depression. He was a teacher in New York City and would make trips to Brunners shop, The Tulip Shop, in Reinholds, which in the middle of the 20th century was an isolated rural village and, pre-turnpike, was a long trek. A mounted multi-colored hooked rug depicting a fish sold for $425, and one with a pair of black chickens, $400. An English rabbitware stick spatter plate brought $475, and another, $350. A Lehnware miniature paint-decorated lift-top chest with some alligatored crazing to the surface went for $1,250. A block printed linen 36-star U.S. flag with wear sold for $260, and an iron and wire screen serpentine front fire fender/screen with three brass finials brought $375. To contact Horst Auctioneers, call 717-738-3080.
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