Garnet Valley, PA, USA, September 9, 2021 -- Briggs Auction’s Fine Estates Auction held on July 30th featured a fine selection of antique and modern furnishings, fine art, fine porcelains, decorative arts and more. "This was a well-received auction with a wide variety of items that appealed to a broad range of bidders," said Stephen Turner, the president of Briggs Auction, Inc. “Strong prices were a good indication the industry is thriving.”

The highlight of the auction was a lovely Chinese covered porcelain bowl, beautifully decorated with an enamel dragon design and a double-ring Yongzheng mark, paired with a small famille rose covered teapot with a calligraphy mark. The bowl gaveled for $200,000 (all prices quoted include the buyer's premium). It was part of a collection from a direct descendant of Thomas Alexander Scott (Pennsylvania, 1823-1881).

"It was very exciting," Mr. Turner said, “and gratifying to see this rare piece of Chinese decorative arts be so competitively fought over by bidders across the globe. The intense interest this small bowl generated almost from the day the auction was posted online showed us that we had an incredibly special piece on our hands. We're very happy not only for the consignor’s family, and for the bowl's new owner as well."

Other items from the same collection included two early 20th century Louis Vuitton monogram steamer trunks, which realized $12,250 and $6,875; a grouping of ten Sevres porcelain cabinet plates with central floral medallions and various maker marks ($9,375); a grouping of fifteen Mintons Aesthetic Movement porcelain plates, each decorated for the Japanese market with raised gold and silver ikebana designs ($6,000); and a rare German horizontal table clock of hexagonal form, circa early 18th century, signed for Peter Krenckel, who worked as an assistant to Wilhelm Köberle in Eichstätt, Germany ($6,250).

The Scott descendant collection also featured a fine assortment of antique sterling silver decorative items, to include a Scandinavian silver peg tankard with an inset Danish Coronation of Queen Caroline Mathilde medal and with a "JJE" hallmark ($10,625); a fine English sterling silver kettle on stand with 1751 date mark ($4,560); and a fine English sterling silver epergne with an 1818 date mark ($4,500).

Mid-Century Modern furniture and decorative arts continue to see strong prices, as a fine George Nakashima end table with unusual triangular-form free-edge top on a Minguren I base, circa late 1960s/early 1970s, was no exception, changing hands for $8,750. Also, a pair of Modern design floor-standing metal sound sculptures in the style of Harry Bertoia's Sonambient hammered for $5,000.

More traditional styles also did well, including a set of ten Stickley Colonial Williamsburg Restoration Georgian-style mahogany dining chairs ($3,500); a large 18th century or earlier Flemish verdure tapestry with bucolic design ($7,500); a fine pair of antique Chinese Export gilt mirrors with reverse-painted crests depicting two figures ($3,250); an American carved wall panel featuring an eagle in relief surrounded by a wreath, cornucopia, and fruit and floral design ($3,250); a lovely A Chinese silver and carved pale jade belt hook and plaque fitted as a hand mirror ($5,000); and a more contemporary David Goode signed and numbered cast bronze sculpture titled The Ferryman, from the artist’s The Goblin Collection ($4,250).

Fine art covered a variety of genres and periods, with many pieces achieving great prices, including a James Webb oil on panel genre scene harbor landscape ($8,750); a painting attributed to Thomas Chambers Hudson River School oil on canvas depicting a view of West Point ($6,875); a Harry Leith Ross oil on board illustration titled Soda Fountain ($5,280); a Joan Miró etching with aquatint titled Demi-Mondaine a Sa Fenetre ($5,250); a mixed-media illustration on panel attributed to Stanley Arthurs of a colonial military procession ($3,600); a Frank Earle Schoonover oil on canvas landscape titled Fall October ($3,250); and a large Itzchak Tarkay acrylic on canvas of three women at a café table ($4,320).

Internet bidding was done through Briggs Auction's Bid at Briggs platform and via LiveAuctioneers.com.

Please visit www BriggsAuction.com for their full auction schedule and details.

About Briggs Auction, Inc.:
Briggs Auction, Inc. is a four-generation, family-owned and operated auction house located in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, offering online auctions, estate appraisal services and real estate auctions for estates, downsizers and more. Their bi-weekly Discovery auctions feature over 1,000 lots of antique and name-brand furnishings, decorative and fine art, fine and costume jewelry, silver, collectibles, coins, toys, tools, home goods, estate vehicles and more. Monthly Fine Estates auctions feature wonderful 18th and 19th century and Mid-Century Modern furnishings, period and contemporary decorative arts, fine art and sculpture, fine porcelains, estate fine jewelry, silver and more. Please visit www BriggsAuction.com for their full auction schedule and details.

Garnet Valley, PA, USA, August 24, 2021 -- Briggs Auction is pleased to offer the Dr. Mead Shaffer collection of early American antiques on Friday, September 24th. Bidding is online only, through Briggs Auction's Bid at Briggs platform and through Live Auctioneers.com. Pre-auction/absentee bids will be accepted until 10 am on the date of auction, September 24th, when real-time online bidding will begin on both platforms.

Dr. Shaffer, a resident of Garnet Valley, Pennsylvania, is a noted preservationist, historian and collector. The auction will include Dr. Shaffer’s extensive collection of colonial and early American and regional antiques, colonial cookware, folk and decorative arts and much more. Briggs Auction has an app to make bidding easy and convenient; simply search Briggs Auction in the Apple App Store, or on Google Play.

"Dr. Shaffer has been a staple in the antiques community for over forty years, and his collection is truly one to be admired," said Stephen Turner, the owner of Briggs Auction, Inc. "We are honored Dr. Shaffer chose us to handle this important and historic collection, and we hope that it will appeal to a wide range of collectors, history buffs and anyone who's looking for a piece of early America and/or local Pennsylvania.”

Dr. Shaffer grew up on a farm in Wayne County, Pennsylvania, which he later gifted to the state. It is now known as the Varden Conservation Area. In 1960, after college at Penn State and a stint in the Army as a veterinarian, he moved to Delaware County, where he opened his (still thriving) veterinary practice. Shortly after, he took up residence in a home on the circa 1721 Booth farm in Bethel Township, also known as the Garret-Booth-Cheyney House, which he relished as much for its ties to colonial America as the farmland itself. "I am obsessed with history", Dr. Shaffer said, and his collection reflects this passion.

Highlights of the collection include early cupboards and cabinets, including an 18th century Pennsylvania red painted corner cupboard with star and moon decoration; a Pennsylvania blue-painted two-door cupboard with rat-tail hinges; an 18th century two-part Dutch cupboard in salmon paint with pie shelf; and an 18th century possible Eastern Shore, Md., one-piece corner cupboard with a 12-light glass door top.

Also included is a fine selection of early and 19th century chairs, including a set of ten Bucks County, Pa., bamboo-turned chairs attributed to Samuel Moon; several 18th century Philadelphia low-back Windsor armchairs, many with grain painted seats; early Philadelphia Windsor settees; and wonderful benches.

Also sold will be a Chippendale walnut desk; an 18th century Chippendale pine blanket chest and an 18th century walnut hanging wall cupboard from Oley Valley (Berks County), with a self-locking lower drawer.

Whimsical early American folk-art pieces are sure to generate excitement, including carvings by William Ellis; a carved and painted passenger pigeon perched on a branch; a carved and polychrome-decorated rabbit figure; a carved wooden sculpture of a standing pig with a painted surface; a carved wooden sculpture of a fish mounted onto a later whalebone and wood base; and a collection of carved decoys.

The Dr. Shaffer collection will also feature many pieces of local stoneware, including jugs, crocks, water coolers and more, by makers such as H. Weston (Honesdale, Pa.); Sipe, Nichols & Co. (Williamsport, Pa.); O.H. Smith & Bros. (Flemington, N.J.), as well as others. Also up for bid will be a fine assortment of 19th century toleware and early American metal ware, including kitchen wares, utensils and other items.

Live, in-person previews will be held on Wednesday, September 22nd, from 1-5 pm; and on Thursday, September 23rd from 1-5 pm, both times Eastern, with no appointment needed. The previews will be held at the Garret-Booth-Cheyney House and barn, located at 1645 Bethel Road, Garnet Valley, PA 19060.

For more information, please contact Briggs Auction, Inc., by phone at 610-566-3138, or via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. To learn more, please visit www.BriggsAuction.com. Updates are posted often.

ADELAIDE BOOKS is proud to present the latest work by Gerald Arthur Winter - Unconscious: Short Stories

Gerald Arthur Winter’s narratives thrive at the fringe, where the heart of darkness is offered as a delicacy to pique your appetite for more.

Though you can never be sure of the direction Gerald Arthur Winter’s tales will take, all are woven from the same cloth. In skilled hands at every turn, you can be certain to return from your narrated journey somehow changed for the better, and equipped with sharp insight into the fragile human condition.

Winter’s collection is a potpourri of mixed genres, each story containing a resolution of resounding change with a twist.

We’re caught in Winter’s net, from a killer mermaid in "The Catch," through a maze of lost children in "River Rats," to "The Last Gulag," where he opens our eyes to the worst possibilities of American political intrigue.

His sharp narrative can even knock us unconscious through a purple haze of American folklore, as found with unexpected delight, in his mixed genre tale, "Fractured Frontier."

Crafted on a foundation of Alfred Hitchcock-like surprises, Winter spins his tales on the fringe of Rod Serlingesque entrapment with a punch in the gut that will leave readers shaken, not stirred.

Gerald Arthur Winter has a BA in Journalism from Rutgers University and an MFA in Creative Writing from University of Tampa. His short stories have been published by The Connotation Press, The Creativity Webzine, 2 Elizabeths, Gremlin Creative, Hardboiled, Writer Fairies, and NY Literary Magazine which published his story, “A Free Sampling,” with a 5 Star Award for Meaningful Fiction in September 2016. He has published over 70 literary stories since 2014.

Title:  Unconscious: Short Stories
Author:  Gerald Arthur Winter
Publisher: Adelaide Books
Publisher Website: https://adelaidebooks.org/
Publisher Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
ISBN:  978-1955196222
Price:  $22.30
Page Count:  334 pages
Formats: Paperback

Description of the company: ADELAIDE BOOKS LLC is a New York based independent company dedicated to publishing literary fiction and creative nonfiction. It was founded in July 2017 as an imprint of the Adelaide Literary Magazine, with the aim to facilitate publishing of novels, memoirs, and collections of short stories, poems, and essays by contributing authors of our magazine and other qualified writers.

ADELAIDE BOOKS is proud to present the latest work by Douglas Alan Walrath - The Daredancers: A Novel

At some point in their lives most people realize they would have to dance on life’s edges to pursue what they want or believe in. A few do it. They dare to dance in The Daredancers.

Molly Hutchins, a schoolteacher, widowed young and held captive by her memories for a dozen years, chances new love with Frank Perelli whose wife has been institutionalized for many years with violent dementia. They dance on the edge. Then the music stops. Walter (Mac) Macdonald, a gutsy compassionate truthteller minister with other daredancers, becomes one himself when he encounters a caring cosmic Force that seems more present than the God he was taught to believe in. He dares to include his discovery in his dance of faith. It’s risky. But so is his friendship with the delightfully irreverent gay agnostic philosophy professor, Wilson Morton. He’s venturing outside the box—along with Kate Klein who brings out the Mac in him.

The Daredancers features real-life people who come passionately alive in interweaving strands of suspense that draw the reader into their “beyond-the-edge” venturing. The novel is very accessible yet has a literary-fiction depth that surprises and demands discussion—which makes it an ideal read for book groups. It appeals especially to readers hungry for provocative fiction with substance.

Douglas Alan Walrath has worked as an insurance investigator, musician, factory worker, pastor, teacher, farmer, and most recently a professor of practical theology. For many years he travelled the US, Canada, and England as a strategic planning and conflict management consultant. He is the author or co-author of a dozen books in the fields of American culture, church leadership, literary criticism, and literary fiction. He lives in Maine where he and Sherry, his wife, garden organically, play traditional jazz, and enjoy challenging conversation.

Title:  The Daredancers
Author:  Douglas Alan Walrath
Publisher: Adelaide Books
Publisher Website: https://adelaidebooks.org/
Publisher Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
ISBN:  978-1955196208
Price:  $19.60
Page Count:  274 pages
Formats: Paperback

Description of the company: ADELAIDE BOOKS LLC is a New York based independent company dedicated to publishing literary fiction and creative nonfiction. It was founded in July 2017 as an imprint of the Adelaide Literary Magazine, with the aim to facilitate publishing of novels, memoirs, and collections of short stories, poems, and essays by contributing authors of our magazine and other qualified writers.