Sale will begin at 6 p.m. next Friday at the gallery, 463 E. Lancaster Ave., Downingtown. There are some good European works among the approximately 300 lots to be offered, notably a 19th-century landscape by Joseph Van Geregan that is expected to sell for $15,000 to $18,000, and a British view of the River Clyde by the early-19th-century British painter John Fleming that is expected to bring $8,000 to $12,000.

But the top lots, both in terms of presale estimates and vividness, are American. First among them are two striking portraits of cotton pickers by the late-19th-century painter William Aiken Walker, who is known for his depictions of African Americans. One portrait, of a single tattered figure holding a cane, is expected to sell for $20,000 to $25,000. The other, showing two figures standing by baskets of cotton, is expected to bring $26,000 to $30,000.

A landscape by the late-19th-century American painter Robert Shaw, expected to sell for $25,000 to $30,000, depicts a group of boys getting ready to go skinny-dipping in a river.

And a scene, attributed to the American George Caleb Bingham, of boatmen playing cards on a raft is a nostalgic reminder of the early-19th-century United States, when canals and barges were lifelines of commerce. It is expected to bring $40,000 to $60,000.

Previews are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, and 9 a.m. to sale time next Friday. Information: 610-269-4040 or www.pookandpook.com.

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Posted: 03|17|06 at 11:12 am. Filed under: US Auction News.