Affordable Arts & Crafts Mark Weekend Auction

What a difference a few months can make.

Less than three months after their record-breaking sale featuring several rare examples from Stephen Gray’s collection, John Toomey and Don Treadway’s March 7th Arts & Crafts auction in Oak Park, Illinois, took a decidedly different turn.

In place of early, pristine Gustav Stickley furniture and rare lighting, they assembled an auction that appeared to have targeted beginning collectors. Setting the tone of the sale, eight of their first ten lots were single chairs or rockers (each either refinished or recovered), none of which carried a pre-sale estimate above $700.

The twelfth lot of the sale, however, woke up anyone who might have started to nod off. A 17” Teco vase designed by founder William Gates and featuring four buttresses and a green matte glaze inched into its presale estimate of $10,000-$15,000, selling for $12,000 (all prices include a 20% buyer’s premium).

The next four lots also came from the Teco Pottery, but like the opening round of chairs, each carried pre-sale estimates below $1000, encouraging new collectors – one of whom took home a Teco bowl for just $220 – to join the bidding.

Unlike most major Arts & Crafts auctions, this one featured several lesser known firms, including a Norse Pottery bowl ($360), a Marshall Field & Company desk set ($270), a Dedham Pottery paperweight ($300), an Old Mission Koppercraft bowl ($780), a Lakeside Craft Shop wastebasket ($360) and several unsigned and unattributed pieces of furniture.

The highlight of the Arts & Crafts portion of Sunday’s auction came from a firm most beginning collectors knew little about. A hanging wall cabinet designed by Zulma Steele in 1904 at the Byrdcliffe Colony near Woodstock, NY, featured two open shelves and a single door decorated with a carved lily. A conservative pre-sale estimate of $3,000-$5,000 was quickly surpassed, as the cabinet, similar examples of which are in the collections of the Winterthur and the Nelson-Atkins Museums, eventually sold for $11,400.

As often happens in a sale dominated by beginning level merchandise, bargains awaited the more savvy collectors who demonstrated patience and knowledge. A Gustav Stickley china cabinet (#815, est. $6000-$8000) that typically flirts with the $10,000 mark sold for $6000, while a 54” round Gustav Stickley dining table with six leaves went to a new home for just $1800.

For complete auction results and information on the Toomey-Treadway 20th Century Art & Design Auction to be held May 23, go to www.treadwaygallery.com.

Coming Next: Highlights from the Sotheby’s and Christies sales