Auction Blog
Schwenke Sixteenth Anniversary Auction Comprises Property From Various Estates, Featuring The Phelps-Hathaway CT Queen Anne High Chest and The Estate of Bobbie Hainline Howrey - Part One
Posted June 12, 2025
 Phelps-Hathawy CT Queen Anne Highboy  Set Four Spratling Sterling Footed Bowls  Steinway 1910 Model A-2 Grand Piano  Magnificent Pair of Historic Foliate Terra Cotta Architectural Capitals, As Tables  Calder, Signed Lithograph Seahorse 25-125  Victorian MOP SIxteen Blade Pocketknife |
The standout offering among the several period American furniture items in the sale is the Phelps-Hathaway Fine CT Cherrywood Queen Anne Bonnet Top Highboy, recently released from loan and display since 1988 by the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut and being sold for Pennsylvania owner/beneficiaries. The highboy bears the date 1761 and has been attributed to Zebulon Hoskins, Windsor Connecticut (1728-1768) by William Hosley, noted museum curator, author and American furniture scholar. It is thought that the highboy was initially made for Isaac Phelps, Jr. (1734-1829) of Windsor CT and later Otis, MA. The chest bears similarities in drawer configuration and overall stylistic features to a documented Suffield CT highboy known to the firm. The piece is in fine original condition with original brass hardware. The date “1761 AD” in inscribed in ink on the right side of the upper fan drawer, and the vertical board separating that drawer from the two smaller adjacent drawers is inscribed with a verse from Psalm 23 “The Lord is my Shepherd” and a complete script alphabet. The highboy is 85” high, 37” wide, and 19” deep, and retains the original single central carved finial.
The sale features over 140 lots of antiques and decorative arts, rare collectibles and books being sold for the Estate of Bobbie Hainline Howrey. Thomas Schwenke commented that “this is indeed a bitter-sweet honor to be offering my late life partner Bobbie’s fine collection of antiques and accessories which we joyfully lived with and shared during the tenure of our wonderful twenty-year relationship and joyful life together. Bobbie was a true collector with a well-founded background from her years of volunteer docent work at Winterthur Museum in Wilmington, Delaware, embossed with many hours of research and scouting which added immensely to her discerning talent at recognizing, appreciating and acquiring fine objects. There is no possible way to know or even imagine the vast number of shops, shows, flea markets, boutiques and museums she visited during her lifetime of collecting, both here in the United States and in Europe, and the overall selectivity and quality of her acquisitions is remarkable.”
The Howrey Estate comprises several groups or classifications of items, including many fine early 18th century brass and copper wares; unique and rare early brass accessories; burl bowls; fine period kitchenware and cookware; miniature boxes; miniature chests, including a fine 18th century Dutch bombe example; portrait miniatures as art and as jewelry; a creditable collection of fine sterling - including a large selection of Native American and Mexican sterling by many known makers including many William Spratling signed pieces; many fine signed crystal wares and early blown glassware; period and contemporary lighting; eighteenth and early nineteenth century American and English furniture – including a fine William & Mary gray painted tap table and a rare rachet form reading stand. Her remarkable collection of books on fine art, silver, pewter, glassware, porcelain, design and decoration, oriental rugs, regional antique subjects and many more categories is being dispersed in this auction.
Also being sold as part of the Howrey Estate is a fine Steinway 1910 Model A-2 Grand Piano, together with an adjustable piano bench. The piano has a brilliantly figured mahogany case, measuring 39 ½” high, 73 ¾” long and 58 ¾” wide. The serial number “146857” is stamped in wood under the piano case, dating the instrument to circa 1910 according to Steinway online serial number search. All wood and finish is in good to excellent condition; the piano is in good, playable condition, probably needing tuning or adjustments. Preview and inspection of the piano is available by appointment only. A video of the piano being played is included in the lot descriptive information online.
Bobbie’s extensive couture collection of fashions, Hermes scarves, Chanel shoes and bags, and an unbelievable quantity of designer shoes and accessories, housewares, home-goods and decorations will be offered in a comprehensive Part Two sale to be held later in the summer or early fall. Like this Part I dispersal, “that sale is not to be missed” according to Mr. Schwenke.
The auction includes a trove of fine furniture, glassware, porcelains, and varieties of decorative arts and accessories recently released from twenty years in storage from Jonal, an exclusive “just off Madison Avenue” shop which from 1980 to 1995 purveyed exclusively designed offerings from distinguished European decorators and ateliers. Jonal was the best kept secret of every stylish and discerning shopper and the favorite of editors searching for that special source for anything desired to complete the “chicest” city, country or seaside home decor or best-appointed dinner table. Choice lots from among those items are a very fine pair of lead neoclassical garden urns with floral and scale embellished bodies and ram’s horn mounts, a desirable pair of blue and white Chinese porcelain garden seats, and a wonderful pair of large terra cotta foliate capitals with incurved triangular faux painted tops. The capitals trace their origin to Rhode Island 1870’s, from either the Woonsocket Opera House or the Newport Opera House, having been purchased many years ago from the then well-known West Cornwall, Connecticut dealer in fun, fanciful and often bizarre decorations, and now world-renowned designer and decorator, Michael Trapp. The uniquely Jonal conceived shaped tops with neoclassical faux painted decoration were fabricated by Moana, at the time an exclusive international art restoration studio.
An estate from Westchester County, New York is selling a large group of early English and Continental prints and engravings which is notable because the group, which comprises over seventy 18th century drawings, prints and engravings, includes over two- dozen Napoleonic related works, of both satirical and historical nature. A rare example is a French “Engraved Chart of Napoleon's Victories” which includes a portrait of General Bonaparte within concentric circles listing details relating to the war against the third coalition, dated 1806 and inscribed "Lachaussee", measuring 17 1/2" high, 17 1/2" wide. Also from the same estate is a portrait miniature of Princess Elisabeth of France, also known as Madame Elisabeth, and who was the granddaughter of Louis XV and the sister of Louis XVI, unsigned, after Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun. Frame size is 9" high, 6 3/4" wide, and sight 5 1/2" high, 4" wide. Fine porcelain is also being offered, including a fine hand painted Dresden chocolate service with various individual flower blossoms and comprising the chocolate pot and twelve matching cups and saucers, all in good condition and marked on the underside. Chocolate pot size is 10” high, 7 ½” extreme width.
Several fine mid century modern items are being offered for a Southbury estate, including a signed Alexander Calder (Am. 1898-1976) color lithograph “Seahorse” 1975, hand signed and numbered 25/125 in pencil. Sheet: 29 1/2" high, 21 1/4" wide; a rare Roy Lichtenstein (Am. 1923-1997) Colored Lithograph and Screenprint; numbered, signed and dated lower right "94/200 R. Lichtenstein '71", with "C" and "II" impressed in circles extreme lower right, copyright symbol for Gemini G.E.L. print makers in Los Angeles. Sheet: 31" square. This work is number 94 from the edition of 200 published by Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles. Also from this same estate is a George Rhoads (Am. 1926-2021) untitled “Auto Kinetic Ball Sculpture”. The large work features multiple mechanical devices mounted on a plexiglass sheet measuring 30” high, 66” wide, 9” deep overall, designed to be mounted on a wall. The mechanical devices are interconnected to transport plastic balls through a maze of intricate mechanical “challenges”; it is signed and dated 1961 on a plaque affixed to the work.
A collection of fine custom-made sporting knives is being offered for an estate in Fairfield County. The collection comprises over twenty fine custom knives by noted custom knifesmiths/cutlers and was assembled over many years of in-depth association with the knife-making trade and the craftsmen themselves. A few prime knives included in the offering are a 14K and 10K gold engraved steel pen knife by H.H. Frank done in 1986, with ornate handwork involving over 168 man-hours. The lot is accompanied by several items of correspondence between the collector and Frank. The knife is 5 3/4" long, 3/8" wide, 3/8" deep; blade: 2 3/8" long; a stunning 7” long fixed blade carry hunting knife with antler mounted handle by Charles Weiss; and a rare push dagger with metal sheath in the original oak presentation box from craftsman Robert Hayes. In addition to contemporary custom knives, the collection features a rare Victorian sixteen blade pocket knife with gold ends, carved mother of pearl body with the heraldic crest and motto “Deus Alit Me” of Theodore Williams, Esquire (1785-1875). The knife is being sold with the original bill of sale from James Robinson, NYC.
Chinese porcelains and decorations are also included in the sale. Among the porcelain lots are several pairs of jars and urns, some as lamps; several pairs of framed scrolls and embroideries; and two large ancestral artworks in the form of scrolls and framed examples. Of special interest is a carved and polychrome decorated Chinese warrior figure, possibly a tomb guard, being sold for a Litchfield County estate.
The catalog for the sale is viewable at www.woodburyauction.com and online on each platform site. Absentee and phone bidding are available for this “live-online” auction by registering directly with Schwenke Auctioneers. The sale will be broadcast for live internet bidding on Live Auctioneers and Invaluable. Preview is by appointment only, and interested bidders should contact the firm to arrange preview. Please consult the firm’s website for additional information or call Schwenke Auctioneers at 203-266-0323.