As antique auctions go, one offering less than 200 lots would be considered smallish. But when its a single-owner collection of a celebrated curator, collector and scholar, the event becomes huge because of the quality and provenance involved. Such was the Jan. 29 auction hosted by Brunk Auctions of the Dr. Carole Wahler collection featuring everything from MESDA documented items, as well as early Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, and North Carolina pieces including painted furniture, quilts, samplers, salt glaze and redware pottery. It was an event not to be missed. Brunk Auctions is in Asheville, N.C. Wahler (1937-2023) lived in Knoxville, Tenn. Coming as no surprise, the headliner of the day was the 1824 Asheville, N.C., signed needlework sampler featuring borders of trailing vines of berries surrounding the central sampler with lines of verse reading, Tis sweet on lofty Mountans sic brow ...O that to me the wings were given..., With a house and trees and signed and dated at bottom, Wrought by/Louisa H. Rogers./Asheville 1824, this silk-on-linen sampler sold for $40,000. Prices reported do not include the buyers premium. Selling with the sampler was information Dr. Wahler assembled including, This needlework sampler was created by Louisa H. Rogers at the age of 18 during her visit to Asheville, North Carolina. During her time in Asheville, Louisa kept a detailed diary, which is now preserved in the Special Collections of Emory University Library along with an extensive group of family papers. Lets talk Ulysses Davis (Georgia, 1913-90). Dr. Wahler had an extensive collection of this 20th century African-American self-taught sculptors work. He was an artist whose primary vocation was that of a barber. Best known for his carvings of historical figures (most importantly his set of mahogany busts of all the presidents through George H. W. Bush), he also did similar busts of other historical figures such as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. among other leaders from the Civil Rights era. And then he carved whimsical items as well. Wahlers collection included his Three-Headed Representational Totem signed and dated 1975, which stood 19 inches high. It sold for $24,000, while a Fantastical lion inscribed on the base, Made by Ulysses Davis. 15, W, 45 St. Savannah, Ga., realized $16,000. Scholarship was of great importance to Dr. Wahler as is evident by the things she lived with. A MESDA documented Virginia William and Mary paneled lift-top chest from Tidewater, Virginia, created sometime between 1700 and 1720, is an excellent example of this. Made of walnut with yellow pine and poplar secondary, with its original iron strap hinges, an open interior with a candle till, rose head nail construction, and an old mellow surface, this rarity rightfully blew its pre-sale estimate of $4,000 to $6,000 out of the water when it realized $24,000. Other auction highlights included, but are not limited to, an antique North Carolina watercolor theorem (early/mid19th century) of a basket of fruit with pineapple that sold for $7,000. A 19th century Virginia Federal step-back pie safe china press (rare form) attributed to Scott County, Va., having urn and flower punched tins, brought $17,000, and one of two known signed D.E. Maynor (Green County, Tenn.) salt glaze stoneware jars inscribed D.E. Maynor, Potter town went for $11,000. The auction listings of the catalog selling the collection of Dr. Carole Wahler is a must-read and serves as a wonderful reference tool for anyone who appreciates the kind of material Wahler acquired. And if one was lucky enough to take home an item that sold, the value of its provenance from having resided under Wahlers care is priceless.