A Rare Sailor-Made Woolwork Picture, The Farewell, 19th Century

Worked with polychrome wool yarns, framed.

13 1/2 in. x 16 3/4 in. (sight), 17 3/4 in. x 20 3/4 in. (frame)

Property from the Buck Family Collection, Philadelphia

This lot is located in Philadelphia.

Provenance:

Diana H. Bittel, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, August 2008.

William "Bill" Clifton Buck (1928-2023) was a successful businessman, avid sportsman, and leader within the Philadelphia community. Bill attended Lafayette College, where he majored in Economics, and later joined the family business, Smith Kline and French (later GlaxoSmithKline). Alongside his brothers, he founded and expanded The Drug House and later established TDH, a venture capital firm that invested in major companies such as ESPN and Staples. Bill married Laura Thomas (1931-2024) in 1954, and they enjoyed a vibrant 68-year marriage. Together, they were active philanthropists, supporting numerous organizations and causes in Nantucket, Vero Beach, and Philadelphia, including the Barnes Foundation and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In addition, Bill’s lifelong passion for baseball led him to become a partner in the Philadelphia Phillies in 1981, and he cherished the team's successes, including the 2008 World Series win.

“Bucktucket,” their beloved Nantucket residence, offered an impressive backdrop for the couple’s collection of Nantucket art. The furnishings of Bucktucket, a traditional cedar-shake house, and of the couple’s Villanova residence seamlessly blended their varied interests into an inviting and cohesive aesthetic. Bill and Laura loved discovering just the right things to fill their homes, meeting artists and dealers along the way. Their collection is marked by several spectacular pieces, including fine period furniture, maritime painting, scrimshaw, sailor’s valentines, wool-work pictures, ceramics, and folk art, offered within this single-owner sequence.

Overall fair condition. Areas of separation visible to the sky, particularly to the vertical sides of the image. Areas of discoloration, some in part due to exposure to the sun and others due to variation in the material used to create the image. Dirt and residue to the glass. Old cracks and losses to the stretchers visible.

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Please email ataggart@freemansauction.com for any additional information or questions you may have regarding this lot.

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Lynda Cain

VP, Head of Department, American Furniture, Folk and Decorative Arts

lyndacain@freemansauction.com 267.414.1237

Lynda Cain serves as a Vice President of Freeman's and is the Head of Department for American Furniture, Folk and Decorative Arts.
She specializes in American furniture and decorative arts, Native American art, American folk art, and Pennsylvania furniture and decorative arts.
Cain joined Freeman's in 2001 as the company's first American furniture and decorative arts specialist. She began her career in American Decorative Arts as assistant curator at the Detroit Historical Museum. In 1984 she became curator of costume at the Detroit Historical Museum. In 1986, she relocated to Cambridge, Massachusetts and switched from museum work when she joined the American Furniture and Decorative Art Department at Skinner Inc., Bolton and Boston, Massachusetts. Before leaving New England in 1997, she had the great pleasure of directing the cataloguing project of the Folk Art Collection of Nine Fletcher and Bertram K. Little at Cogswell’s Grant, Essex, Massachusetts for the Society of the Preservation of New England Antiquities, now Historic New England. Ms. Cain joined the cast of the popular PBS series Antiques Roadshow in Season 19.
Growing up in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, she was greatly influenced by the rich collections of American paintings, furniture, and decorative arts held by Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum. She notes her good fortune of working in our two great “attic states:” Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Each Commonwealth has tremendous inventory of historic material, great institutions, and citizens who treasure their inherited and collected items. Cain appears on the television Antiques Roadshow as an appraiser of decorative and folk arts.

Andrew Taggart

Associate Vice President, Specialist, American Furniture, Folk and Decorative Arts

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American Furniture, Folk and Decorative Arts

A Rare Sailor-Made Woolwork Picture, The Farewell, 19th Century

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