John Dean Benton Sold at Auction Prices

AN AMERICAN SILVER, COPPER, AND "GERMAN SILVER" SCALE MODEL OF INDEPENDENCE HALL, JOHN DEAN BENTON, PHILADELPHIA, 1875

AN AMERICAN SILVER, COPPER, AND "GERMAN SILVER" SCALE MODEL OF INDEPENDENCE HALL, JOHN DEAN BENTON, PHILADELPHIA, 1875 executed in "German silver" plated in copper for the brickwork and roof, silver for the ornamental details, with gilt accents; the tower fitted with a clock, with four frosted dials, striking the hours and half-hours; the dome encloses a bronze-finished bell and the roof mounted with flagstaff supported by wires, surrounded by silvered paving, on draped stand the interior, silvered throughout with gilt details, is fitted as follows: The Front Entrance Hall framed by columns and paneled walls The East Room (Indepedence Hall) containing a model of the table on which the Declaration of Independence was signed, the chair of the President of Congress, half-tone engraved portraits of George Washington and the signers of the Declaration The West Room (State Surpreme Court) with silvered chandelier, four gilt figures in costumes of the period, and similar portraits of the Chief Justices The Back Hall with a model of the Liberty Bell, suspended by a wooden frame and surrounded by a railing, half-tone engraved portraits and gilt staircase The Second Floor with carved wood writing desks with cork tops, display cabinets, upholstered sofas, gilt gallery, half-tone portraits of Revolutionary figures, and elaborately painted floor done to 3/8 inch scale, the interior fully furnished; the stand fitted with two plaques engraved, "Made to order / J. DEAN BENTON / for EDWARD C. KNIGHT of PHILADELPHIA, 1875" height of model 62in, length 41 3/4 in. 157.5, 103.5cm

A FINE AND RARE SILVERED AND GILT MODEL OF THE STEAMBOAT MARY WITH MUSICAL MOVEMENT

BY JOHN DEAN BENTON, WILMINGTON, DELAWARE, 1866 The upper sides of the hull with MARY in black lettering, the two paddle-wheel housings each applied with a cameo in an engraved gold frame; mounted on a glass-covered rosewood single-cylinder musical box playing ten airs, including: Home Sweet Home, Last Rose of Summer, Kind Words Can Never Die, Soldiers' Chorus from Faust, Miserere from Il Trovatore, Swanee River, Ah non Giung from La Sonnambula, National Schottische, and two unidentified; the side wheels turning as the music plays; one side of case with applied plaque engraved Made by J. Dean Benton Wilmington Del. June 25th 1866, with original steel winding crank model 22in. long; case 26 1/4 in. long

A silver and gilt-metal model of a tugboat, John Dean Benton, Philadelphia