The Market for Americana in New York City

February 15th, 2016

Photos courtesy Sotheby’s and Christie’s

All auction prices include the buyer’s premium.

“As goes January, so goes the year” is an old Wall Street aphorism subscribed to by the antiques world. It is not always true, but many believe it. That is why collectors and the trade carefully watch the January Americana sales at Sotheby’s and Christie’s and the New York City shows and special exhibitions, believing they are indicators of what the year will bring. These sales are the largest annual offerings of furniture and accessories used by 17th-, 18th-, and 19th-century Americans, and in 2016, there were more than ever.

It was hard to interpret the results this year. There were some high prices and real bargains; the finest furniture, folk art, and ceramics performed well, but many lots brought less than they brought five, ten, 20, and even 30 years ago.

The enormous amount of material offered at auction resulted in the highest accumulated totals since 2007. The grand total was about $30 million between the two auction houses. Sotheby’s accounted for $18.9 million, selling 1396 lots of 1548 offered in eight sessions over five days beginning on Wednesday, January 20, and ending on Sunday, January 24, after a snow delay. On Friday, Christie’s offered 548 lots in three catalogs: Outsider art, various owners, and the Zaitz collection, which brought a total of $8,674,000 on Friday. Chinese export on Thursday added $2,183,625, which made Christie’s grand total $10,857,625. Christie’s John Hays noted that Christie’s had a September sale that brought in $3.6 million and Sotheby’s did not.

There seems to be plenty of interest in every category offered; younger buyers and new collectors competed with longtime dedicated collectors, dealers, and museums. Good design, fine workmanship, good condition, and rarity brought a premium, and prices of midrange material seemed to fall back to the levels of the 1980s or in some cases even earlier, making it seem like a great time to buy.

At Sotheby’s the unreserved sale of the Irvin and Anita Schorsch collection was largely divided between the Schorsches’ three sons, their wives, and their children, all bidding from skyboxes on phones. Sometimes they bid against each other, overlooking condition and restorations if they wanted a piece they knew well and had always coveted. The sale accomplished what it set out to do—disperse a vast collection without any family squabbles and furnish the IRS with numbers to settle the estate. When it was all over on Friday, after the fifth session ended at 1 p.m., a grand total of $10,262,129 had been spent for 1049 lots, just above the sale’s high estimate ($6,700,000/10,200,000). The Schorsch sale was a rite of passage, passing on the passion for collecting 18th-century furnishings to the next two generations of Schorsches.

Many repeated the rumor that the Schorsches were not paying any buyer’s premium and therefore had an advantage. That was not true. “It is standard business practice at Sotheby’s that all buyers pay buyer’s premium on every lot they purchase. Our sale of the Schorsch collection was no exception, for every purchaser,” said Sotheby’s press officer Darrell Rocha.

Estimates were generally modest. Unreserved, it was a white glove sale, that is, 100% sold, and in the auction tradition, Erik Gronning, who masterminded the sale, received a pair of white gloves after the last gavel fell.

Presented in a telephone-book-size catalog, marketed with an informative seminar and a stunning exhibition in re-created rooms, the collection was sold room by room starting downstairs and moving on to the bedrooms, then to the beach house, and then to the collection of mourning art that was part of a Museum of Mourning Art installed at Arlington Cemetery in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, owned by the family. Some high prices were paid for mourning embroideries, and mourning rings sold well above estimates. A late 17th-century enameled gold mourning ring with an applied skull and crossbones brought $40,000 (est. $1500/2000), and a pin containing strands of George Washington’s hair sold for $47,500 (est. $8000/12,000).

Even though the Schorsch brothers competed for many lots, none of them bought the top lot, a carved and figured mahogany bombé chest-on-chest, probably made in Salem, Massachusetts, circa 1770. It went to a private collector for $970,000 (est. $800,000/1 million). Another collector, not one of the Schorsches, paid $322,000 for a Philadelphia easy chair (est. $300,000/500,000) that Irv and Anita Schorsch bought for $13,000 at Sotheby’s Wetzel sale held in Reading, Pennsylvania, back in 1980, even though one knee return and a portion of the right foot were replaced.

Nicholas Schorsch bought life-size portraits of Jared Lane and Apphia Ruggles by Ralph Earl for $274,000 (est. $25,000/50,000), and he got a blockfront chest-on-chest attributed to Benjamin Frothingham, Jr. of Charlestown, Massachusetts, for $187,500 (est. $150,000/250,000).


These Ralph Earl (1751-1801) portraits of Jared Lane and Apphia Ruggles, 1796, oil on canvas, each 47¾" x 36", sold for $274,000 (est. $25,000/50,000). They were painted in New Milford, Connecticut, in 1796. Mrs. Lane is in the original frame. They were bought at Kennedy Galleries in New York City in 1976. Sotheby’s. Schorsch.

His brother Peter won a Philadelphia walnut turret-top games table that belonged to Judge Jasper Yeates (1745-1817) of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for $175,000 (est. $150,000/250,000), and he bought a set of four China trade hong paintings for $112,500 (est. $80,000/120,000).

Downingtown, Pennsylvania, dealer Philip Bradley bought a Lewis family tall-case clock, the case probably by Thomas Thomas, the works by John Wood, Sr., Philadelphia, circa 1730, for $162,500 (est. $50,000/75,000). The clock has initials for Thomas Thomas and his daughter Margaret Lewis, so it is thought to have been a wedding gift from the father to his daughter when she married Nathan Lewis, a Welsh Quaker who settled in Radnor Township, Pennsylvania. It is discussed by Wendy Cooper and Lisa Minardi in Paint, Pattern & People: Furniture of Southeastern Pennsylvania, 1725-1850 (2011). They identify Thomas as a joiner; his will lists joiner’s tools, suggesting he was the maker of the clock case.

A St. Louis collector in the salesroom paid $150,000 (est. $80,000/120,000) for a Philadelphia dressing table with a shell-carved drawer attributed to the Garvan carver.

The eldest brother, Irvin Schorsch III, bought a pair of portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Knox by John Hesselius for $112,500 (est. $35,000/55,000).

Museums and historic houses were frustrated. A private collector on the phone paid $81,250 (est. $10,000/15,000) for a circa 1775 Leeds creamware enameled jug painted with scenes of two women having tea and two men drinking wine. At Sotheby’s sale of the Garbisch collection at Pokety Farms in May 1980, it sold for $2900 (est. $700/1000). Only four other jugs with comparable decoration are known. The underbidder was Robert Hunter, editor of the Chipstone ceramics journal, who was bidding for the Chipstone Foundation Collection in Milwaukee, which works closely with the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Stenton, James Logan’s historic house in Philadelphia, was the underbidder for a Logan family mahogany drop-leaf dining table bought by Nicholas Schorsch for $37,500 (est. $10,000/20,000). Irv and Anita Schorsch had paid $39,000 for it at the Appell sale at Sotheby’s in January 2003. Stenton hopes he will put it on loan.

Some expected that a filigree wall sconce in a black-painted white pine frame would bring more than the $125,000 Nicholas Schorsch paid for it. In March 2000 at Northeast Auctions, needlework dealers Carol and Stephen Huber of Connecticut paid $200,500 for it when they bought it for Irvin and Anita Schorsch. A full report on the Schorsch sale will appear in an upcoming issue of M.A.D.

On Friday, January 22, when $8,674,000 was spent on Outsider art, furniture, folk art, and decorations at Christie’s, a world auction record was set for Outsider art when a private collector on the phone bought William Edmondson’s limestone Boxer for $785,000 during the Outsider art sale offered in a separate catalog. Boxer is one of two boxer carvings by Edmondson; the other is at the Newark Museum. “There will not be a chance to get another,” said New York City collector Jerry Lauren, the underbidder. Christie’s Outsider art sale was a success for specialist Cara Zimmerman. Of the 50 lots offered, 44 sold (88% sold by lot) for a total of $1,549,375, topping the estimate ($732,500/1,244,000).


Boxer by William Edmondson (1874-1951), 1936-37, limestone, 17" high x 7¼" wide x 9¼" deep, sold on the phone for $785,000 (est. $150,000/250,000), underbid by New York City collector Jerry Lauren. Considered a masterwork by this African American artist, it is likely modeled after Joe Louis or possibly Jack Johnson, two great black boxers during Edmondson’s lifetime. Johnson was a heavyweight champion from 1908 to 1915, while Louis was a heavyweight champion from 1937 to 1949. According to the catalog, Johnson defiantly challenged segregated society, while Louis more subtly was able to transcend racial lines. This is one of two boxers carved by Edmondson. The other is in the Newark Art Museum. Boxer, one of Edmondson’s favorite works, was photographed by Louise Dahl-Wolfe in 1937 and later by Edward Weston in Edmondson’s yard and shown at the Museum of Modern Art in 1937, when Edmondson was the first African American artist to have a solo exhibition at the MoMA. This Boxer was acquired in 1949 by Ruth Denton and remained with her descendants until this sale. The previous auction record for Edmondson is $263,000 for Mother and Child, which sold at Christie’s in January 2014. Christie’s also sold Nurse Wootton for $221,000 on September 24, 2015. Sotheby’s sold an Edmondson birdbath on January 13, 2000, for $236,750. Christie’s.

Christie’s various-owners sale had mixed results. A much-admired and never published joined oak and pine polychrome Hadley chest of drawers offered at auction for the first time sold for $1,025,000 in the salesroom to Atlanta dealer Deanne Levison for clients, underbid in the salesroom by Bradley Brooks, curator of the Bayou Bend Collection in Houston.

Before the sale many thought it would bring $2 million; they considered the price a great bargain for a work that is not only rare, one of four known, but is the best preserved of the four, and that is untouched. There was much discussion all week about its decorated surface, which is covered with an old varnish that makes what must have been a very colorful piece mellow with age. Conservator and paint specialist Susan Buck, who did the paint analysis before the sale and has worked on the related Hannah Barnard cupboard, said that removing the varnish would make it brighter, and that no inpainting should be done. Levison said that nothing will be done.

The painted Hadley chest is the second most expensive piece of American painted furniture sold at auction, topped only by the Taunton, Massachusetts, chest from the collection of Mrs. J. Insley Blair that sold at Christie’s in January 2006 for $2,928,000. That was a different time.


This “Hadley” chest with drawers, Hadley area, Massachusetts, circa 1715, 43½" high x 43" wide x 18½" deep, possibly owned by a member of the Porter, Barnard, or Williams families of Hadley and Deerfield, Massachusetts, was a discovery in California and had never been offered for sale before. It sold for $1,025,000. Its original painted decoration is intact and it has no overpaint, according to conservator Susan Buck. Its design and decoration are derived from the carved Hadley chest tradition that flourished in the northern Connecticut River valley in the early years of the 18th century. Three other examples by this paint decorator are known; all are in museum collections. One is the Hannah Barnard Hadley chest at the Henry Ford Museum. Two others, one at Winterthur and one at the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, have suffered losses and/or overpaint. This chest was considerably more vibrant when it was made. According to the catalog, delftware plates may have been the source for the lobed floral design on the drawers. The dartboard designs, however, do not appear on other Hadley chests. These chests were made for the ruling elite of Hadley. This chest was the property of a family whose ancestors include several members of the Porter, Barnard, and Williams families, and it is likely that until its inclusion in this sale, it had never been out of the family for which it was made. Christie’s.

The buyer of the Hadley chest also bought an early Philadelphia William and Mary dressing table, 1700-30, with boldly turned cup and trumpet legs and “frenetically energized” stretchers, making it one of the most exciting pieces of Baroque furniture forms. The price, $665,000 (est. $250,000/500,000), reflects its rarity, good design, and rich old surface. The underbidder was Luke Beckerdite, private dealer, scholar, and editor of the American Furniture journal. “What is important is that both objects have retained their accumulated histories, giving us a baseline to assess other related objects,” said the successful bidder, Deanne Levison, bidding for clients.

A Philadelphia tall Queen Anne compass-seat armchair, consigned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, sold under its low estimate for $545,000 (est. $500,000/800,000) and was bought by private dealer William Stahl on behalf of a collector. It was considered a good buy. A similar chair is on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art from the Wunsch Americana Foundation.

Two phone bidders competed for a Boston turret-top tea table, and it sold at mid-estimate for $485,000 (est. $300,000/500,000), even though the top moldings were replaced. It is rare, one of five known made in two different Boston shops; there is no English counterpart. Winterthur scholar Brock Jobe, who has written about these tables, said he does not know who invented the form, but all five surviving tables were made in Boston, and this is the only example in private hands.

The total for Christie’s various-owners sale was $4,490,875.

The sale of the Zaitz collection at Christie’s on Friday afternoon showed that 18th-century American furniture bought with good advice and good taste can hold its value. Max and Betty Zaitz bought at auctions, so it was possible to chart what they paid for their furniture, paintings, and porcelain to see how well it did. For example, Luke Beckerdite, bidding for a client, paid $509,000 (est. $300,000/500,000) for the Deshler family carved mahogany card table, probably from the shop of Benjamin Randolph (1737-1791/2), with the carving attributed to John Pollard (1740-1787). At Sotheby’s in October 1991, it sold for $275,000.


The Deshler family carved mahogany card table, probably from the shop of Benjamin Randolph (1737-1791/2), with carving attributed to John Pollard (1740-1787), Philadelphia, 1769-70, 28¾" high x 33¾" wide x 16½" deep, sold for $509,000 (est. $300,000/500,000) to Luke Beckerdite for a client. At Sotheby’s in October 1991, it sold for $275,000. Christie’s notes in the catalog call the carving “one of the greatest passages of American carving from the eighteenth century.” It is in remarkable condition. It is attributed to the London-trained carver John Pollard at the height of his career. It is part of the Deshler suite, the second in quality only to the large suite made around the same time for General John Cadwalader (1742-1786). It is now thought to have been made for David Deshler’s daughter Esther (1740-1787) around the time of her marriage in 1769. Its mate is at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The hairy-paw side chairs in the Cadwalader suite were also carved by Pollard, as was the Cadwalader marble-top table at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The catalog notes also suggest that Pollard, like his fellow carver Hercules Courtenay, may have trained with Thomas Johnson in London. He may have owned Johnson’s design book. The ornament on the Deshler suite is found on a ceiling design found on plate 11 in Johnson’s One Hundred and Fifty New Designs (London, 1761). If made in 1769 and carved by Pollard, it was likely made in Benjamin Randolph’s shop. Christie’s. Zaitz.

Beckerdite also bought the following two lots, a pair of chairs made en suite with the table in Philadelphia, 1769-70, paying $149,000 for one and $173,000 for the other (est. $100,000/150,000 each). The pair sold at Sotheby’s in June 1986 for $93,500.

Beckerdite also bought the next lot, a looking glass with carved garlands attributed to Pollard, for $20,000 (est. $20,000/40,000). It had sold at Christie’s in January 1998 for $5175 at the sale of the Coleman collection when it was photographed upside down in the catalog and did not have its phoenix finial, which was carved later by Alan Miller. (It had been published right side up in Hornor’s Blue Book: Philadelphia Furniture in 1935.) It was important to keep those four pieces carved by Pollard together. Beckerdite also bought a pair of Philadelphia brass andirons attributed to Daniel King for $10,000 (est. $10,000/15,000) that the Zaitzes bought at Sotheby’s in October 1989 for $19,800.

The Zaitzes’ Philadelphia mahogany dressing table attributed to the shop of Henry Clifton (d. 1771) and Thomas Carteret, the carving attributed to the de Young high chest carver, Philadelphia, circa 1755, sold on the phone for $287,000 (est. $100,000/150,000). At Christie’s in May 1987, it sold for $253,000. American furniture may not be a top investment, but it does hold value.


This Philadelphia mahogany dressing table attributed to the shop of Henry Clifton (d. 1771) and Thomas Carteret with the carving attributed to the de Young high chest carver, Philadelphia, circa 1755, sold for $287,000 (est. $100,000/150,000). The brilliant shell carving is attributed to the carver of a high chest made for Benjamin Hartley that is at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. The original brasses appear in an undated but watermarked 1765 brass catalog from Birmingham, England. At Christie’s in May 1987, it sold for $253,000. Christie’s. Zaitz.

Of the 105 lots offered in Zaitz collection, 100 sold for a total of for $2,633,750 (est. $1,671,500/ 2,721,200), a sell-through rate of 95%.

After the Zaitz sale, Christie’s offered American silver from the various-owners catalog with mixed results. A Jacob Hurd sugar bowl, previously unrecorded, sold for $27,500 (est. $25,000/35,000). The Diamond-Newmarch-Mugridge serving plate, with an engraved border and the mark of Jeremiah Dummer, another remarkable discovery, one of four such plates known, sold in the salesroom to a Michigan collector for $149,000 (est. $150,000/250,000). A Hull and Sanderson beaker, 1660-75, engraved “Property of the Old South Church,” made by America’s first silversmiths, sold on the phone for $47,500 (est. $40,000/60,000). It is one of only 31 pieces of hollowware known by Hull and Sanderson. A much-advertised pair of nine-light candelabra and a centerpiece bowl by Tiffany, made in New York City in 1885, sold for $149,000 (est. $150,000/250,000). That is more than 296 ounces of cast and spot-hammered silver.

On Saturday, even though it was heavily snowing, Sotheby’s went ahead with the morning sale of the Petra and Stephen Levin folk art collection, with poor results overall. Apparently the Levins insisted on high reserves, and only 50 lots sold of the 96 lots offered, most on one bid above the reserve. The angel Gabriel weathervane, estimated at $1.2/1.5 million, sold to a phone bidder with Sotheby’s Nancy Druckman for $1,330,000. It was the highest price of the week.


This trumpeting angel Gabriel in molded copper, 28½" x 36¾" x 24¼", with provenance including Allan and Penny Katz, Hill Gallery, and Gene King of Monroe Center, Illinois, was estimated at $1.2/1.5 million. It sold for $1,330,000 to a collector on the phone with Nancy Druckman. Sotheby’s. Levin.

Another phone bidder paid $550,000 (est. $450,000/600,000) for a carved and painted pine baseball player trade figure attributed to Samuel Anderson Robb. The same bidder bought a racetrack tout attributed to Charles Dowler for $454,000 (est. $200,000/300,000) despite restoration. It is an iconic figure; only a few are known. A trade figure of Lord Dundreary attributed to Robb sold for $322,000 (est. $200,000/250,000). It had sold at Christie’s in October 2007 for $409,000 to Connecticut dealer Allan Katz, who sold it to Levin.


By Charles Dowler (1841-1941), Providence, circa 1880, this racetrack tout in white pine retaining an old painted surface, 54½" x 20" x 9½", with its original red-painted tall trapezoidal base, wood with some metal repairs using early cigar signage, sold for $454,000 (est. $200,000/300,000). It sold at the Stewart Gregory sale at Sotheby’s on January 27, 1979, for $31,900. Sotheby Parke Bernet sold it again in April 1980 for $58,300. It was also owned by Gemini Antiques and by David Schorsch and Eileen Smiles and much published. There are a handful of these racetrack tout figures, one at the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum in Williamsburg and another in Shelburne in Vermont. Dowler was an English-born gunsmith who immigrated to Providence in 1863. After the Civil War he advertised as a carver, modeler, and ornamental designer. He built and decorated a number of houses and created decorative carvings and sculpture and several of these nattily dressed touts. There are repairs on the right arm, hand, and face. It was conserved in 2003, with old repairs removed and documented and losses restored according to new standards. Sotheby’s. Levin.


This United States Fire Company ceremonial parade fire hat, 7" x 13" x 11¾", retailed by James Hill, Philadelphia, circa 1850, with decorative painting by David Bustill Bowser (1820-1900), brought $52,500 (est. $25,000/35,000). James Hill manufactured and sold headwear in Philadelphia from 1850 to 1873. According to the catalog, Bowser was a cousin of African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass and studied art with his cousin Robert Douglass Jr., a pupil of Thomas Sully. He began his career as a sign painter in Philadelphia where he decorated hats and parade hats for local fire companies and local civic groups. Actively involved in the antislavery movement, he painted portraits of Lincoln and John Brown and designed the regimental flags for the Union’s 11,000 African American troops that organized at Camp William Penn after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. Sotheby’s. Levin.

There was good competition for firemen’s parade hats. The most expensive was painted by David Bustill Bowser (1820-1900) for the United States Fire Company and was retailed by James Hill in Philadelphia, circa 1850. It sold for $52,500 (est. $25,000/35,000). It might be a record for a fireman’s hat.

The Levin sale added $5.1 million to Sotheby’s total but was well below estimates ($8.9/12.8 million). The collection was bought in a hurry and sold in a hurry. Collections need to age for a generation to bring profit, and even then a profit is not a sure thing when top dollar is paid and taste is uneven.

Sotheby’s postponed the afternoon various-owners sale when the snowstorm closed down street traffic in New York City. The sale was rescheduled for Sunday at 2 p.m. A life-size bronze-painted cast zinc and cast-iron elk by J.W. Fiske, circa 1892, that had greeted visitors in Sotheby’s lobby all week sold to a man in the salesroom for $225,000, more than double the $100,000 high estimate. Two folk paintings brought good competition. A stunning painting of the schooner Norma by James Bard, the catalog cover lot, sold on the phone for $200,000 (est. $150,000/250,000) to Westborough, Massachusetts, dealer David Wheatcroft, who said schooners by Bard are much rarer than steam vessels, and this was a top example. Wheatcroft underbid a full-length portrait of a Young Boy in Grey with Flowers by Sturtevant J. Hamblen that sold to a private collector for $150,000 (est. $60,000/80,000). In 2004 at the Egan sale at Sotheby’s, it sold for $102,000 to the consignor, a Washington, D.C., collector. Wheatcroft underbid it back then.


This cast zinc and cast-iron life-size painted bronze American elk by J.W. Fiske, New York, 1892-1900, weathered surface, base marked “J. W. Fiske, N.Y.,” 112" high x 30" wide x 75" long, sold for $225,000 (est. $50,000/100,000) to a collector in the salesroom. It cost $210 when new, a high price, so few were made and fewer survive. Sotheby’s.


By Sturtevant J. Hamblen (1807-1886), Young Boy in Grey with Flowers, oil on canvas, 27" x 21?", circa 1850, sold on the phone for $150,000 (est. $60,000/80,000), underbid by dealer David Wheatcroft. At the Egan sale at Sotheby’s in January 2004, it sold for $102,000, also underbid by Wheatcroft. Sotheby’s.

The most exciting discovery of the week was a wooden bust of Benjamin Franklin, identified by scholar Alan Miller as the work of carver Martin Jugiez of Philadelphia. He bought it on the phone for $175,000 (est. $20,000/30,000) for the Chipstone Foundation. In the 2004 Chipstone journal, Miller wrote that scholars “tend to consider sculpture and carving as mutually exclusive categories.” He pointed out that sculptors are considered artists while carvers are viewed as artisans. William Rush is considered American’s first sculptor, but Miller believes the lion table at the Philadelphia Museum of Art carved by émigré Martin Jugiez is evidence enough to consider Jugiez America’s first sculptor. Now we have a portrait bust of Franklin to prove it. Look at the eyes on the lion carving on the table and the eyes of Franklin. They are similar, with the pupils and irises at the top of the eyeballs, and the lion’s mane is remarkably similar to Ben Franklin’s hair! This is the sort of discovery that makes the January auctions exciting.


This bust of Benjamin Franklin, 18th century, 1785-95, probably Philadelphia, sold for $175,000 (est. $20,000/30,000) to Alan Miller on the phone bidding for the Chipstone Foundation. It was once thought to be the work of William Rush and included in the 1976 exhibition 200 Years of American Sculpture at the Whitney Museum of American Art curated by Tom Armstrong and Wayne Craven. The Rush attribution was refuted by Linda Bantel when she curated the exhibition and wrote the catalog William Rush: American Sculptor at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia in 1982. It was bought by dealer David Stockwell from a Philadelphia dealer in the 1930s and was at the Delaware Historical Society before it went to a private collection. Paint analysis revealed it has many layers of paint. Keith Arbour, who did the paint analysis at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, suggested it may be the bust described by Henry Wansey in his An Excursion to the United States of North America in the Summer of 1794, published in 1798, which described a bust of Franklin on the southeast portico of the State House (Independence Hall), now demolished. If it is not by William Rush (1754-1833), who carved it? Alan Miller believes it was Martin Jugiez, an émigré carver who supplied carvings for Philadelphia furniture, and whose lion table at the Philadelphia Museum of Art is his masterpiece. Sotheby’s.

 The antiques shows competed for attention. The New York City Winter Antiques Show had a crowded opening night with nearly 2000 in attendance, and sales of Americana were made. Peter and Jeffrey Tillou of Litchfield, Connecticut, sold a Connecticut high chest, a recent discovery with an old surface. Peter Eaton of Newbury, Massachusetts, sold half a dozen pieces of furniture, and Olde Hope Antiques, New Hope, Pennsylvania; David Schorsch of Woodbury, Connecticut; Elliott and Grace Snyder of South Egremont, Massachusett; and the Hubers of Old Saybrook, Connecticut, said they made sales. By Saturday the snow came, but the show must go on, and it did, closing early at 5 p.m. instead of at 8 p.m. About 600 people spent most of the day there, and sales were made. As the storm raged outside, Robert Schwarz of Philadelphia sold a painting of a glacier by Hermann Herzog.

“I had nothing else to do, so of course I spent it at the Winter show and did some buying,” said Joe Gromacki, a collector from Chicago.

The New York Ceramics & Glass Fair was held from Wednesday evening, January 20, through Sunday, January 24. It remained open until 5 p.m. on the snowy Saturday and reopened at 11 a.m. on Sunday. All the lectures went on, with standing-room-only audiences. Dealers said business was done every day and they were pleased with attendance and sales to collectors and museums. Showgoers said it was the best ceramics fair in recent years, a mix of contemporary and 18th- and 19th-century ceramics and glass, and a few rare medieval pots brought by British dealers.

The Outsider Art Fair was a huge success. “People loved the new venue. There was a lot of energy, and sales were made every day during its four-day run,” said Julie Schlenger Adell, who will report on the show in an upcoming issue. The show, now in its 24th year, had 60 dealers. The word was that “Outsider art” has entered the mainstream.

The Art, Design, & Antiques Show at Wallace Hall was hurt by the storm. Nevertheless it remained open, and Deidre Healy of Earle D. Vandekar of Knightsbridge, Maryknoll, New York, said that during the storm she sold six woollies, the needlework pictures stitched by British sailors.

In a month when the stock market dropped dramatically and a blizzard crippled the East, the market for Americana realized in the neighborhood of $10 million or maybe more at auctions, shows, and special exhibitions at private galleries. Buyers of American furniture, folk art, and fine art have become more judicious, paying attention to history, art, condition, and scholarship. Some categories are more robust than others, but the market for Americana seemed alive and well. To put it in perspective: the $40 million spent during Americana week is half the price of a great Rothko. It is a good time to collect Americana that gives many so much pleasure.

Full reports on all the shows and auctions will be in an upcoming issue of M.A.D.


The Burnham-Manning family carved and figured mahogany bombé bonnet-top chest-on-chest, probably Salem, Massachusetts, circa 1770, sold on the phone for $970,000 (est. $800,000/1,000,000). At Sotheby Parke Bernet in May 1974, the Schorsches paid $65,000 (est. $50,000/70,000) for it at a sale where a Philadelphia card table attributed to the shop of Benjamin Randolph sold for $90,000 and was the highest price of the sale. At the same sale a serpentine-front card table, Townsend-Goddard school, that had been owned by Mabel Brady Garvan before it was purchased by Joe Kindig and was in the Girl Scout Loan exhibition in 1929, sold for $40,000. Sotheby’s. Schorsch.


This William and Mary mahogany dressing table, with local maple turnings, Philadelphia, 1700-30, 28" high x 32¼" wide x 20¾" deep, sold for $665,000 (est. $250,000/500,000). The same unusual stretcher design is seen on two other Baroque dressing tables, one at Chipstone and the other at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, most likely made at the same shop. Alan Miller is quoted in the catalog as saying that the uneven widths of the arches on the stretchers create “a sense of tension and momentum.” The single long drawer is a rare feature that indicates an early date, closer to 1700. Two others with single long drawers survive at Yale and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It likely was fitted with a molding running below the drawer and continuing on the case sides. It is cited by Wallace Nutting as having been owned in the early 20th century by Edward Corydon Wheeler Jr., a stockbroker and antiques dealer in Boston. Christie’s.


Originally published in the March 2016 issue of Maine Antique Digest. © 2016 Maine Antique Digest

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