Schorsch Auction Stars: Needlework Caskets

I've been having fun analyzing the Schorsch estate auction results. In fact, you'll be seeing several items over the coming days, with a final wrapup next week. What can I say -- this was an important one!

Results were all over the place, value-speaking...and not always in a positive way, either. (Ask the furniture department.) But one category really surprised me:

Needlework caskets!

These sewing boxes were a great favorite of Irvin and Anita Schorsch. (I'm guessing Anita especially, since she had such a strong interest in sewing, handwork and textiles in general.) They were particularly fond of the Charles II period (i.e., late 1600s) and had a number of graphic examples in their collection.

Which sold very well for the heirs.

Case in point: Lot #800, the casket shown below. It sold for $25,000 -- and many of its fellows sold for double, triple or quadruple pre-auction estimates. At a time when other items were barely selling at estimate...or doing much worse.

CHARLES II NEEDLEWORK CASKET, THIRD QUARTER 17TH CENTURY

Estimate 10,000 - 20,000 USD

Needlework-covered items did well, too. Lot #801, the book below, sold for $4000 -- more than double the high estimate.  (Note: whenever possible, I tried to give you what I watched the item actually sell for -- but the auction site gives you the total, including the buyer's premium. So their figures will be different than mine, when I know for certain.) 

THE WHOLE BOOK OF PSALMES / BOOK OF PROVERBS, LONDON, ENGLAND, 1635

Estimate 1,000 - 1,500 USD

I still don't get this one -- an early sewing ball (a darning tool, perhaps?) "from a Quaker family"...selling for $1400?!?  (Its pre-auction estimate was a few hundred dollars.)

SILVER-MOUNTED SEWING BALL, EARLY 19TH CENTURY

Silver band engraved HH.
Length 2 1/4 in.

Go see for yourself;  just viewing these items is a real education in Americana.

  More soon.