East Tennessee welcomed the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA) staff & friends for a Winter study trip to East Tennessee January 5th-8th, 2009. The trip agenda included visits to the William King Regional Center in Abingdon, Virginia, the Carter Mansion in Elizabethton, TN, and private collections in Kingsport. Visits to Greeneville included the […]

Ella Sophonisba Hergesheimer (b. Pennsylvania 1873- d. Nashville 1943) Like the Italian Renaissance artist who shared her middle name, Ella Sophonisba Hergesheimer was a female painter who thrived in a male-dominated field. A great-great-granddaughter of Charles Willson Peale, she studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts under William Merritt Chase and Cecilia Beaux.  She […]

Lot 40. Desk and bookcase, attributed to Jesse Needham (c.1770-after 1840), Randolph County, North Carolina, dated 1812. Walnut primary wood; tulip poplar secondary. HOA 89 ½” ; WOA 44 5/8″ desk case, 42 ½” bookcase; DOA 21 1/16″ desk case, 9 7/8″ bookcase;Inscriptions: [S] B/ 1812 on sliding partition behind prospect case; Bo[de]? on base […]

A very fine and highly decorated redware pitcher attributed to the Cain pottery of Sullivan County, Tennessee will be offered in the May 12th auction. The elaborate use of manganese and yellow slip to decorate the exterior body of the pitcher, manganese runs in the interior, and inscribed sine waves around the midsection make it […]

An extremely important example of Tennessee pottery by Christopher Alexander Haun (1821-1861) will be offered in the May 12th Southern antiques auction. Haun is one of the most accomplished potters in Tennessee history, and his surviving works are some of the finest known examples of 19th century American redware. Christopher Haun had pro-Union sympathies during […]

Important discovery of art works by Litchfield County, Connecticut artist, Walworth Stilson (1874-1962). Stilson, a prolific illustrator, had over 2400 of his art works destroyed in a fire during the 1920s. The upcoming May 12th auction will be the largest offering of Walworth Stilson's art at public auction. Art offered will include several gouache on […]