Case Auction

Kentucky Collection, Gatlinburg Estate anchor Case’s Jan. 23 Auction Art and antiques from a Kentucky collection and the estate of Gatlinburg antiques collector/dealer William Zarnon are among the key lots in the Winter Case Antiques Auction, set to take place at the company’s gallery in Knoxville on January 23. The 900+ lot auction will also include a strong selection of Western art and Native American material, Asian antiques and jewelry, in addition to the usual Southern fine and decorative arts.


The Kentucky collection features a number of furniture forms from the Bluegrass state including 2 tall case clocks, a Fayette County sugar desk/bureau, a card table attributed to cabinetmaker Porter Clay, and a South Union Shaker chest, along with other Southern pieces such as a tiger maple sugar chest, a South Carolina huntboard, and an important Hartsville, Tenn., two-part cherry press with Lauderdale family provenance. There is also a Lexington sampler dated 1791 (making it one of the earliest Kentucky samplers known); an extensive collection of Kentucky coin silver including pieces by Asa Blanchard and other Bourbon County silversmiths, Garner & Winchester hollowware including a pitcher, juleps, and presentation cup; an 1842 bust of Henry Clay by Ferdinand Pettrich, and landscapes from several Kentucky painters including Paul Sawyier, Paul Plaschke and Harvey Joiner. 


The estate of William (Bill) Zarnon of Gatlinburg contains many European decorative arts including a collection of Art Glass (Lalique, Daum Nancy, Loetz, Tiffany); English, French, and Canadian silver, Oriental rugs, bronze sculpture and paintings, including a nighttime landscape by Francois Cachoud.

The auction will also feature two rare John J. Audubon Havell edition prints: the Long-Billed Curlew (with view of Charleston, SC in the background) and the Carolina Pigeon or Turtle Dove (now extinct). Tennessee art is represented by works including a monumental landscape of Mt. Leconte by Charles Krutch, along with a Lloyd Branson landscape and possible self-portrait, a landscape by Washington Girard, an abstract by George Cress, a view of Lookout Mountain or Missionary Ridge by Frank Shapleigh, and 2 portraits from the McEwen family of Middle Tennessee attributed to Washington Bogart Cooper. 
A landscape with three Native Americans on horseback by Jim Norton leads a roundup of Western art that also includes a California landscape by H.D. Gremke and works by Robert Wesley Amick, William Matthews, Suzanne Baker, and Miguel Martinez. There are also several Native American antiques: a Cochita chicken effigy jar and other pottery, baskets such as a Yokuts rattlesnake tray, and various arrowheads and axe points.


Southern pottery, a staple at Case, includes a rare J. B. Williams (Ohio) water cooler, a large East Tennessee jar, a cobalt decorated crock by the McCartheys of Maysville, KY; a J. & E. Woods-marked Kentucky jug, and devil/face jugs by Lanier Meaders of Georgia. 


Other rare and outstanding antiques in the auction are three fish plates from the Haviland porcelain service created for President Rutherford B. Hayes; a collection of Dorothy Doughty porcelain birds; a Picasso aquatint “La Corrida”; a Shaker quilt rack from South Union, Kentucky; a rare Knoxville genealogy sampler and a Knox County, Tenn., biscuit table; sterling services including a large set of Tiffany “Lap Over Edge” pattern flatware; an antique Chromatique harp; a J.B. Fiske cast iron fountain, and garden urns labeled Wallace Lithgow of Louisville.


As usual, the auction will also include fine estate jewelry, antique weapons, books and documents, Chinese antiques, and much more. The complete catalog for the auction, with full descriptions, price estimates, and photographs for items, in the order in which they will be sold, may be viewed online at www.caseantiques.com.
The auction will take place at Case’s gallery in the Cherokee Mills Building, 2240 Sutherland Avenue in Knoxville, on Saturday, Jan. 23 at 9 a.m. EST. Online, absentee and phone bids will also be accepted. A preview will take place on Friday, Jan. 22, from noon to 6 p.m. EST or by appointment. For more information or to consign objects for a future auction, call the gallery in Knoxville at (865) 558-3033 or the company’s Nashville office at (615) 812-6096 or email info@caseantiques.com.