On August 23^rd, Caddigan Auctioneers of Hanover, Massachusetts, made a foray into South Paris, Maine, and came out with a major winner. “We are a long way from home, we’re very happy to be here,” auctioneer Joan Caddigan announced just before the on-site sale, “This is a wonderful, wonderful, untouched estate, and those are very, very rare.” She wasn’t exaggerating at all. A Boston bank turned her on to the opportunity, and asked her to check it out. Caddigan explained “I said ‘Send me some digital photos of what’s in the house….So three weeks later I saw the digital pictures and I said ‘Let’s get in the car!’” She knew what she had. It was a gem of an untouched Maine estate. The history of the Cummings / Ingraham family includes some of the earliest settlers of the South Paris region, and the contents of the old homestead hadn’t been removed or “picked over” for generations.

Some clock dealers brows were furrowing and their heads shook in amazement as a William Crane (1749-1820) tall clock passed the $20,000 hammer mark and kept going. Crane worked in Canton and Stoughton, Massachusetts, as a clockmaker and brass founder with his son Simeon. The clock was presented partly disassembled with the bonnet and face removed. The inlaid sunbursts on the case were attractive features, as were the reticulated crest with three apparently original wooden flame finials, and the waist columns with brass stop-fluting. One well-respected dealer even raised questions about the condition of the painting on the face, which read “William Crane / Stoughton / 1795,” suggesting that it may have been altered. Another dealer speculated that Crane may have had family roots in New Jersey or Pennsylvania, which might explain the appearance of the sweep second hand. Many observers figured the clock wouldn’t reach the $5000-7000 estimate. “Boy, it’s like a Dead Sea out there,” Caddigan exclaimed when it briefly looked as if she wasn’t going to get a $3000 opener. Nevertheless, at least two determined bidders slugged it out until one cried “Uncle” and gave it up for $32,450. Hilda Kurtz, now living in Georgia and teaching at the University of Georgia, is the daughter of the estate owner, and she retains a wealth of knowledge of her family’s history. She told me that the clock was a gift to Abigail Guild Cony Ingraham by her father, Judge Daniel Cony (1752-1842). The judge was a prominent figure in Augusta, Maine, enough so to have his portrait painted by none other than Gilbert Stuart. That work now resides at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Gary Sullivan of Sharon, Massachusetts was the winning bidder. Both Gary and his working partner Matt Buckley were adamant that the clock was entirely correct, and that the William Crane title was unquestionably genuine, citing both the characteristic style of the case, and the recorded family history that pegged it solidly to Crane. Matt mentioned after the sale “(Crane is) a relatively rare maker….Gary’s home is here in Sharon and Canton is the next town over.” So the clock now resides just a few miles from where it was born. Asked if he had any reservations about the Crane signature on the face, Buckley laughed “Absolutely not. God bless anybody who would choose to put ‘William Crane’ over a clock like that! The style of the case is very much a Boston form.” Regarding the sweep second hand, Sullivan pointed out that recent research has shown that the movements from many southern clocks were actually made in Concord, Massachusetts. “Sweep second hands are not common on New England clocks from that period,” he explained, “but you do see them occasionally.” He further added that the brass stop-fluted columns strongly supported the Massachusetts origin. “That’s a Roxbury case,” he added, “that was made in Boston. It’s an original Roxbury case with original, local Stoughton works….It really just needed a good cleaning. The movement survived through benign neglect, and so did the finish on the case.”

The catalogue listed a carved mahogany serpentine Chippendale chest as by John Forster. But the correct attribution is Jacob Forster (1764-1838). An original label read “J. Forster, / Charlestown, Massa. / 179.” Forster was a native of Berwick, Maine, who moved to Charlestown in 1786, following an apprenticeship in Watertown, Massachusetts. The chest had a conforming overhung top and well carved ball and claw feet. The rare, if misinterpreted label pushed it way past the $8000-12,000 estimate all the way to $25,960 (with buyer’s premium). Gary Sullivan was also an active bidder, when his phone dropped the call and he lost his chance at it. But he did confirm that the label was in fact a known Jacob Forster label.

The keystone of the auction was a fabulous primitive portrait of family ancestor Marcia Ingraham, the daughter of Abigail Ingraham and the Reverend John Henniker Ingraham (1793-1864), dated to 1823, by well-documented primitivist John Brewster (1766-1854). Brewster, a deaf mute from birth, worked extensively in Maine. Although it was unsigned, stylistically there was no question that this was a Brewster work, and an accurately recorded family history iced the Brewster attribution. The Ingraham family owned a diary kept by the girl’s father, the Reverend Ingraham that described the painting as having been done in one day in Thomaston, Maine. Buttressing that claim is a notation in Harlan Lane’s book A Deaf Artist in America: The Worlds of John Brewster Jr, published in 2004, listing “Ingraham, little girls painted in Thomaston in March 1823.” Auctioneer Caddigan nearly got a standing ovation when it finally closed for a mighty $413,000 to a private Canadian buyer who, according to Caddigan, was “happy as a clam to get it!”

©Maine Antique Digest

Primitive portrait of a young Marcia Ingraham, solidly attributed to John Brewster via style and recorded family history, ca. 1823, with a $15,000-25,000 estimate. I counted at least eight phone bidders in play as it opened for $50,000, and most were still hanging in as it passed $200,000. It finally finished for a massive $413,000, as the crowd erupted in cheers.