By Frank Storey | Denver, PA | April 5, 2026
Morphy Auctions | Spring Americana & Fine Art Sale | March 28–29, 2026
A copper and zinc running horse weathervane attributed to the workshop of A.L. Jewell & Co. of Waltham, Massachusetts, sold for $312,000 to lead Morphy Auctions‘ two-day Spring Americana and Fine Art sale on March 28–29. The circa 1860 vane retained its original gilt surface with a verdigris patina that bidders and specialists agreed was among the finest to appear at auction in the past decade. The sale totaled $2.8 million across 487 lots with an 89 percent sell-through rate.
The weathervane drew competition from five phone bidders and two in the room before selling to a private collector in New England. Dan Morphy, founder and president of Morphy Auctions, said the result reflected sustained demand for top-tier American folk art. “When you get original surface, documented provenance, and great form all in one piece, the market responds,” he said.
— Dan Morphy, Morphy Auctions
The vane was consigned from the estate of Harold Bentwick, a longtime collector from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, whose holdings in American folk art and painted furniture had been assembled over four decades. It carried a provenance to the Shelburne Museum deaccession of 1987 and had been published in Robert Bishop‘s 1981 survey of American folk sculpture.
Folk Art & Americana
The folk art category performed broadly, with several pieces exceeding expectations. A carved and painted pine trade sign in the form of an oversized pocket watch, attributed to a New England maker and dated to the 1870s, brought $78,000 against a $30,000 high estimate. A collection of six Pennsylvania German fraktur pieces, consigned from a Lancaster County family, sold as individual lots totaling $124,500. The top fraktur, a birth and baptismal certificate dated 1804 with original watercolor decoration, accounted for $47,000 of that total.
A carved cigar store figure of a Turk, 68 inches tall with original polychrome paint, sold for $92,000. Tom Porter, a folk art dealer from Litchfield, Connecticut, who was in the room, said the figure was “a textbook example — great scale, untouched surface, and it still has both hands, which is rarer than people realize.”
Fine Art
The fine art section was led by a Hudson River School landscape by Jasper Francis Cropsey, a 24-by-36-inch oil on canvas depicting an autumn view of the Hudson Valley, which sold for $187,000. The painting had been in a private New Jersey collection since 1968 and had never appeared at auction. A pair of marine paintings by James Edward Buttersworth, each depicting racing yachts off Sandy Hook, sold together for $144,000.
A still life by Severin Roesen, a large-format oil showing fruit and flowers on a marble ledge, brought $96,000. The painting had condition issues — a cleaned area in the lower left corner and a patch to the canvas — but the composition and color were strong enough to overcome the flaws.
Furniture
American furniture was mixed. A Philadelphia Chippendale mahogany highboy with carved finial and original brasses sold for $210,000, the second-highest lot in the sale. The piece had been in the Dietrich collection and was illustrated in Morrison Heckscher‘s catalog of Philadelphia furniture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
A Federal inlaid card table attributed to John Seymour of Boston brought $54,000, within estimate. A set of six New York Federal side chairs sold for $18,000, below the low estimate, reflecting what several dealers in the room described as continued softness in formal American seating furniture.
Silver & Decorative Arts
A Paul Revere Jr. silver porringer, engraved with the initials “SB” and bearing the Revere touchmark, sold for $165,000. The piece came with a letter of provenance tracing it to a Boston family. A set of twelve coin silver tablespoons by Myer Myers brought $72,000.
A Tiffany Favrile glass and bronze table lamp with a 16-inch Daffodil shade sold for $88,000. The shade was signed and numbered, and the base was original to the shade — a pairing that Morphy’s cataloger Sarah Klein confirmed through Tiffany Studios production records.
The next Morphy Americana sale is scheduled for June 2026.