Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates is pleased to announce its Second Annual Textiles and Sewing Auction to be held July 15, 2017. Offerings include 19th and 20th century quilts; Shenandoah Valley overshot coverlets as well as Pennsylvania and New York jacquard coverlets; homespun blankets and other bedcovers; 18th and 19th century samplers; spinning and weaving implements including wool wheels, flax wheels, tape looms, flax breaks, &c.; Victorian and designer clothing; sewing tools and accessories including thimbles and buttons; plus more.
The sale will feature a large consignment of over 50 show towels from the Allentown Art Museum to benefit future acquisitions for the museum’s textile collection. Show towels were used by young, often Pennsylvania German, women to practice their sewing skills, create a decorative item to display in their household, or were provided as a gift to a new bride. A show towel in the sale a from a private Virginia museum has the name Simon John Wertz, the date 1843, and has a Franklin County, Pennsylvania attribution. Though not unusual or rare in the period, it is not often that surviving textiles display male names.
The sale will also feature clothing made by mid-century designer Norman Norell and other designer and vintage clothing. Norman Norell worked as a designer in New York from 1922 until his death in 1972. He is most well-known for his work from the 1940s-1960s, when the consigned items are from. The consigner for the Norman Norell clothing is a relative of a model for Norell and the owner of the clothing was a part of Detroit, Michigan society at the height of the car manufacturing decades.
Company president Jeffrey S. Evans commented, “We are very pleased with the broad diversity of objects in this auction ranging from 18th century samplers to mid-20th century designer clothing. We are especially honored to have been chosen by the Allentown Art Museum to handle the sale of their deaccessioned objects. The museum has one of the top collections of show towels and other textiles in the country and has been working diligently to identify duplicate and overlapping material in the collection.”
The complete auction catalogue will be posted around July 5. The sale is on public preview July 12-14, 10:00 am to 6:00 pm daily, and July 15, 8:00 am until end of auction. For further information, please email info@jeffreysevans.com, or call 504.434.3939.