Auctions: Unusual offerings at sales in suburbs

Spearheaded by Alderfer Auction & Appraisal's three-day catalog sale of fine and decorative arts, suburban auction houses will offer an abundance of unusual treasures over the next week - including a landscape by a comparatively early Pennsylvania impressionist.

The artist is George J. Stengel, whose

View Across the Delaware River

is expected to sell for $25,000 to $35,000 when offered at the third session of Alderfer's sale, beginning at 4 p.m. next Friday at the Alderfer Auction Center in Hatfield.

Stengel (1872-1937) studied in Paris as the impressionist style was being adopted by American painters, according to an essay by Thomas C. Folk, published in Resource Library with the permission of the Butler Institute of American Art. He also was a rug-pattern designer of note.

"Following his career in the textile industry, [Stengel] produced a significant body of paintings of New Hope and its surrounding countryside in the impressionist style," Folk wrote. "Although many of his canvases were exhibited in the 1920s, these works have been largely out of the public eye for the last 80 years."

Also being offered among the almost 250 lots of fine art in the final session are Antonio Martino's

The Frozen Creek

, which depicts the Glen Mills School overlooking Chester Creek, and a double-sided oil on canvas by Walter E. Baum, depicting a Delaware River canal scene on one side and a winter landscape on the other. Each painting is expected to sell for $20,000 to $30,000.

The auction's first session, beginning at 5 p.m. Wednesday, is devoted to jewelry.

The second session, beginning at 9 a.m. Thursday, will offer ephemera, decorative accessories, furniture and rugs. The 360 lots include four tall case clocks, with presale estimates ranging from $1,500 to $8,000. Eight carved folk-art dioramas by John Dale, who called them "wood stories," are expected to bring prices in the mid-three-figure range.

Previews are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today, 9 a.m. to noon tomorrow, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday, and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. next Friday at Alderfer's, 501 Fairgrounds Rd. For more information call 215-393-3023 or go to

» READ MORE: www.alderferauction.com

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Metal and more.

Also scheduled Thursday and next Friday is a two-day, 1,400-lot variety auction at the Pook & Pook Inc. gallery, 463 E. Lancaster Ave., Downingtown.

Most items will be offered at affordable prices, according to estimates in the catalog available at

» READ MORE: www.pookandpook.com

. For example, some unusual 18-inch bronzes by Bruce B. Everly, to be sold at the first session beginning at 10 a.m. Thursday, will feature such Western figures as Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and Buffalo Bill and are expected to sell for $400 to $700.

But several sets of sterling flatware have estimates of about $1,000, and a Wilkinson leaded-glass table lamp is expected to bring $1,000 to $2,000.

At next Friday's session beginning at 10 a.m., most items to be offered are also in the three-figure range, although a 35-star American flag dating to the Civil War era has a presale estimate of $1,500 to $2,500, an antique painted fire-hose cart dated 1871 and inscribed "Hibernia Six" could bring $1,000 to $2,000, and a Tiffany & Co. three-lily table lamp could sell for $2,500 to $3,500.

Previews are from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Wednesday and 9 a.m. to sale time Thursday and next Friday. Information: 610-269-4040 or

» READ MORE: www.pookandpook.com

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Furniture, decor at Wiederseim.

Beginning at 10 a.m. tomorrow at the Ludwig's Corner Firehouse, Wiederseim Associates Inc. will offer more than 400 lots of American and English furniture, accessories, paintings and decorative items, notably clocks. Among them are a French Egyptian Revival mantel clock with brass sphinxes and matching obelisks ($3,000-$3,500) and a rare brass bracket clock with three-train movement ($5,000-$6,000).

Two other top items are a 19th-century Swiss inlaid rosewood and ebonized cased music box on stand ($8,000 to $10,000) and a three-piece coin-silver tea service by W. (William) Thomson, New York 1810, with engraved fox-hunting vignettes that comes from the Emlen family of Philadelphia, according to Jill Wiederseim. It should bring $3,000 to $3,500.

Previews are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. today and 8 a.m. to sale time tomorrow at the sale site, 1325 Route 100. Information: 610-827-1910 or

» READ MORE: www.wiederseim.com

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Antiques at Briggs.

Finally, at 5 p.m. today at its gallery at 1347 Naamans Creek Rd., Garnet Valley, Briggs Auction will offer 700 lots of estate antiques and decorative arts. Among the top items are an iron-and-zinc flying-horse steeplechase weather vane, clocks by R. Galbraith and Alexander Milne, sterling, and jewelry.

Preview is from 9 a.m. to sale time today. Information: 610-485-0412 or

» READ MORE: www.briggsauction.com

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