The Shadow
A pie safe that dates back to 1815 recently netted $102,500 at a Clifton Forge auction. Pie safes were wooden cabinets used to store pies, meats, bread and other perishable food items. The pie safe was purchased by a New Market antiques dealer. (Photo Courtesy Nicely’s Auction Com-pany)
A pie safe that dates back to 1815 recently netted $102,500 at a Clifton Forge auction. Pie safes were wooden cabinets used to store pies, meats, bread and other perishable food items. The pie safe was purchased by a New Market antiques dealer. (Photo Courtesy Nicely’s Auction Com-pany)
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CLIFTON FORGE — A rare 19th century pie safe fetched a record $102,500 at auction in Clifton Forge recently.
The pie safe, which features a likeness of President Andrew Jackson, dates back to 1815. It was purchased by Burt Long of Burt Long Antiques in New Market.
The $102,500 purchase price is believed to be the highest ever in the United States for a single pie safe.
Long purchased the pie safe during a July 19 auction at the Clifton Forge Armory.
The auction was conducted by Brandon Nicely of Nicely’s Auction Co. An estimated 400 people were present to witness the sale — there were nine bidders.
The pie safe was part of the estate of the late Hattie Edna Muterspaugh Knick, who died in February at the age of 85. Knick was a resident of Riverview Lane, located along the Cowpasture River in Botetourt County. She had worked at Dabney S. Lancaster Community College in Clifton Forge before retiring.
Pie safes, also known as food safes, were large wooden cabinets used to store pies, meats, bread and other perishable food items.
The cabinets had tall legs that deterred vermin from crawling upward, and punched-tin doors that allowed ventilation, while keeping dirt and bugs from coming into contact with the food.
Pie safes were common in homes before iceboxes came into use. Pie safes were considered to be an important part of American households in the 1700s and 1800s. The market for the safes remained steady until the early 1900s, when refrigerators made them obsolete.
The safe sold in Clifton Forge was crafted by Matthew S. Kahle, who was a Lexington cabinetmaker in the 1800s. Kahle was known for making food safes embellished with political themes and images of his time.
Kahle may be best known for his 1842 wooden sculpture of George Washington, which topped the cupola of Washington and Lee University’s main building from 1844 to 1990.
Kahle built the Andrew Jackson pie safe in 1815 for George Armentrout, who owned Armentrout’s Tavern, located about four miles east of Clifton Forge. The safe contains nostalgic punched-metal tins featuring Jackson, who was the seventh president of the United States.
Only a few pie safes are believed to have been made with presidential tins and only three are still in existence. Two George Washington pie safes are currently on display at the Museum of the Shenandoah in Winchester as part of its “Safes of the Valley” exhibit. In April, the museum paid $25,300 for an 1830s pie safe made in Lexington, with portraits of Washington punched into its doors.
The Andrew Jackson safe was last documented in 1938.
“It had been missing in the antique world since being written about in ‘Candleday Art’ by Marion Nicholl Rawson in 1938,” according to Gail Nicely of Nicely’s Auction Co.
Knick’s family had owned the safe since 1950. It was recently discovered on her farm property by officials with Nicely’s Auction. The Knick family had bought the farm and all of its possessions at auction in 1950.
The pie safe’s panels were punched by John Henson, who was a Lexington tinsmith during the 1800s. The panels are stamped with his initials, “J.H.”
Three hand-punched tin panels are on each end of the safe. Three more panels are on each of the safe’s doors, with the center ones featuring profiles of Jackson, who served as president from 1829 to 1837.
The upper and lower tins of the safe are punched with the words, “Hero of New Orleans,” in reference to Jackson’s role in the Battle of New Orleans, which was the final major battle in the War of 1812.
Soldiers commanded by Jackson, who was a major general, prevented the British Army and Royal Navy from seizing New Orleans and vast territory the United States had acquired in the Louisiana Purchase.
Gail Nicely and Shelia Staggs of Nicely’s Auction Co. discovered the Jackson pie safe in an outbuilding on Knick’s property. They were there to list and appraise personal property items that were part of the estate. The auction firm was retained by Knick’s daughter, Lana Harlow of Eagle Rock, who is executor of the estate.
“The safe was recognized as a very important piece and after further research and communication with knowledgeable food-safe experts and curators in the Shenandoah Valley area, the buzz began,” Nicely said.
Among the curious onlookers at the July 19 auction was Kurt Russ, a former director of Washington and Lee’s laboratory of anthropology. Russ if part of The Virginia Safe Project, a 2010-2014 research study that’s committed to documenting punched-tin furniture in the Shenandoah Valley.
Bids on the Andrew Jackson pie safe started at $10,000 “and it was off and running from there,” Nicely said.
Long, who has been an antique collector for 35 years, bought the safe to be part of his private collection.
“It is probably the best pie safe to turn up in Virginia in modern times. I bought it for my private collection, but I might sell it,” he said Friday.
