American Silver, Furniture, Folk Art, and Chinese Export Art Bring $10.44 Million

January 23rd, 2014

Christie’s, New York City

Photos courtesy Christie’s

Christie’s 2014 Americana Week sales totaled $10,444,625. The lots from various estates and sources sold in three sessions—American silver (January 23); American furniture, folk art, and prints (January 24); and Chinese export art (January 27).

Silver sold well, producing $1,737,875 of the total. There were 91 lots with just two lots unsold (98% sold by lot). Of the 162 lots of furniture and folk art offered on Friday, 136 sold (84% sold by lot). Chinese export art sold on Monday for a total of $3,034,750 with 130 of the 153 lots offered selling (85% by lot). For the past five years, Christie’s has been offering property collected by Eric Martin Wunsch, from his office, from his personal collection, from his foundation, and finally from his estate. Wunsch died in March 2013 at age 88. Andrew Holter, senior specialist of American furniture at Christie’s, said that altogether Christie’s has sold Wunsch material in 19 different sales in New York and London. As mentioned in M.A.D.’s January 2014 issue on p. 7-AW, John Hays of Christie’s said Wunsch had the ability to find truly exceptional works of art and was able to deploy strategies to acquire them. The MIT-trained engineer had formed one of the most revered collections of his time.

A dozen lots of Wunsch furniture in this recent January sale accounted for $2.2 million of the $5,416,400 total for furniture and folk art, and 28 lots of Wunsch silver added about $989,000 more. (Six of Wunsch’s Dutch pictures were offered by Christie’s in an old masters sale on January 29, and four of them sold for a total of $2,674,750. Four more old master paintings from his collection were offered at Sotheby’s.)

Dealer Tim Martin of S.J. Shrubsole, New York City, bought most of Martin Wunsch’s silver at this sale, about a third of it for clients and the rest for stock. He paid $317,000 (includes buyer’s premium) for the 17th-century brandywine bowl by New York silversmith Cornelius Vander Burch, circa 1690, one of only 23 recorded examples of the form. He said that Wunsch had bought the bowl from Shrubsole after it sold at Sotheby’s in January 1993 for $233,500. Martin also bought Wunsch’s pair of Paul Revere sauceboats for $161,000, saying “they were a bargain; others have brought considerably more.” In all, Martin bought 14 other lots of Colonial silver, all but one of them from the Wunsch collection, carving out his territory as the major dealer in 18th-century American silver. Colonial silver is a scarce commodity on the auction block.

Not all the Wunsch silver sold for more than Martin Wunsch paid for it. A silver alms dish, probably a baptismal basin, made by Jacob Hurd in Boston circa 1737 sold to Shrubsole for $18,750. Wunsch had bought it in June 1992 for $55,000.

Jeanne Sloane, Christie’s deputy chairman in charge of silver, said Christie’s estimated the sale conservatively, knowing that the silver market has fallen from its heights and that it is hard to gauge how far. Estimates were largely right on. Every lot except one tea set and the set of six Paul Revere tablespoons, not fresh to market, found buyers.

There was keen competition in the salesroom, on the phones, and on the Internet for works by Tiffany and Gorham and the Danish-born silversmith Peer Smed, who worked for Georg Jensen before coming to the United States in 1912 and setting up a studio in Brooklyn. Smed’s cocktail shaker in the form of a 15½" tall standing bear stood guard in the front of the salesroom during the sale and sold for $52,500 (est. $30,000/50,000).

On Friday, $5,416,400 was spent on American furniture and folk art, led by the consignment from the estate of Martin Wunsch, who was even more passionate about American furniture and silver than he was about Dutch old master paintings and European glass. Collectors, curators, and dealers gathered regularly at the Wunsches’ Gramercy Park apartment to study his furniture. Wunsch supported research by countless scholars and curators who became his consultants. He bought a lot of furniture, much of it made in New York, and established two foundations for the purpose—the Wunsch Foundation and the Wunsch Americana Foundation. He gave 700 pieces of New York furniture to the New York State Museum in Albany. The Wunsch Americana Foundation gives an annual award to further excellence in American decorative arts. Peter Wunsch, president of the Wunsch Americana Foundation, said he wants to focus interest in the field of collecting that gave his father so much pleasure. (See sidebar, p. 17-B.)

The top lot of Wunsch furniture was a Chippendale mahogany scallop-top tea table, probably from the shop of Benjamin Randolph (1737-1791), with carving possibly by Richard Butts of Philadelphia, circa 1770. It sold for $905,000 on one bid (est. $800,000/1,200,000).

Wunsch’s Philadelphia Queen Anne chair from the Coates family in Philadelphia with an estimate of $200,000/300,000 failed to sell. It had repairs at its crest, and collectors are very picky these days, finding any excuse not to bid, even on an early, well-proportioned Philadelphia side chair by one of the best craftsmen in the city, with an impressive provenance and in the wake of the sale of a similar chair from the Wunsch collection, in better condition, that brought $579,750 at Christie’s in September 2013. On the other hand, there were three bidders in pursuit of another Philadelphia walnut side chair with trifid feet, a simpler splat, graceful legs carved with shells, and a rich dark surface; it sold for $81,250 to dealer Philip Bradley of Downingtown, Pennsylvania.

The Wunsch family did some buying at the sale, spending $725,000 (est. $200,000/500,000) for one of the Philadelphia side chairs made for the Deshler family of Philadelphia, the carving attributed to John Pollard. It is unclear whether these chairs were made for David Deshler or his daughter Esther, but they were owned by Esther’s son-in-law John Morton. Four chairs, a card table, and an easy chair from the set are at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In all, 11 pieces of furniture survive from the Deshler suite, including chairs, card tables, and a tea table, and most are in museum collections. Jonathan Prown, executive director and chief curator at the Chipstone Foundation, said Chipstone sold the chair because it has enough Philadelphia furniture to tell the story of the rococo carvers and is actively buying to fill holes in its collection. (Chipstone spent $567,750 for a Baltimore cylinder desk and bookcase at Christie’s in September 2013.)

Peter Wunsch’s younger son, Noah, stood at the back of the salesroom and did the bidding for his father. When asked why he bought the Deshler chair, Peter Wunsch said, “Now the Wunsch Americana Foundation owns the three best chairs in American art.” The other two chairs he was referring to were a roundabout chair, one of a pair ordered by John Brown from John Goddard, and a Philadelphia Queen Anne armchair that the Wunsch Americana Foundation has put on loan at the Metropolitan Museum of Art along with a Newport tea table attributed to John Goddard and a Newport card table signed and dated “John Townsend, Newport 1762.”

The Wunsch Americana Foundation also bought the Jarvis family Boston bombé chest of drawers with ball- and-claw feet for its low estimate and without competition for $485,000 (est. $400,000/600,000). Another bombé chest with bracket feet sold for $425,000 (est. $200,000/400,000) to Alan Miller for a client. (It is similar to a bombé chest that had sold at Christie’s for $827,500 in January 1998.) Bombé chests were more affordable this January.

So were New York card tables. Martin Wunsch’s mahogany serpentine-front five-legged New York card table sold for $173,000 (est. $150,000/250,000). It has three replaced knee returns. New York card tables have sold for much higher prices in recent years.

High chests sold well under their record highs. The Cox-Pickering family (Salem, Massachusetts) walnut high chest brought $75,000, and included in the lot was a fire bucket from the same family. At Northeast Auctions in August 1994 the high chest had sold for $143,000, and the fire bucket was offered in a separate lot and brought another $1000. A replaced middle molding, a minor flaw, dropped the price level in today’s market.

Furniture from legendary collections is also bringing less than it did at single-owner sales. For example, the serpentine chest of drawers with the label of William King, which had sold at Christie’s landmark Blair sale in January 2006 for $36,000, sold this time for $23,750 (est. $15,000/25,000). The very best examples seem to hold their value, but the challenge is finding the very good examples at a reasonable price, and the challenge for auctioneers is finding the right estimates.

Property from another estate offered at Christies this January, “Favorites from the collection of the late Kristina Barbara Johnson,” added significantly to the total. William Edmondson’s carved limestone Mother and Child sold for $263,000 to New York collector Jerry Lauren in the salesroom. Johnson’s large Grandma Moses snow scene, Old Covered Bridge,estimated at $300,000/700,000, failed to sell, and her fireboard attributed to Rufus Porter (est. $100,000/150,000) also remained unsold. Her 20th-century Outsider art sold well. Christie’s does not often sell works by 20th-century self-taught artists. A bright red painting by William Hawkins (1895-1990), Two Deer in a Fiery Forest, sold for $37,500 (est. $20,000/30,000) and a Bill Traylor Brown Mule brought the same price (est. $20,000/40,000). Thornton Dial’s Tiger sold for $32,500 (est. $8000/12,000).

Johnson lived in New Jersey and owned several pastel portraits by New Jersey artist Micah Williams that all sold over estimates. You will find two of them with captions among the illustrations. Prices for artworks by Williams were once higher but seem to coming back, thanks to the recent exhibition of Micah William’s portraits at the Monmouth County Historical Society, Freehold, New Jersey.

There was more spirited bidding at the successful sale of Chinese export art, with bidders from China in the salesroom, on the phones, and on the Internet. Christie’s head of department for Chinese export, Becky MacGuire, said mainland Chinese collectors began buying China trade porcelain about seven years ago and have kept on buying. One gentleman in the salesroom said he was buying for his museum in Nan-Chang (near Jingdezhen), where the porcelain was made and where some of the kilns are still in operation.

The top lot in the sale was a set of four large Chinese export porcelain elegant nodding head figures from the Qianlong period that sold on the phone to a European collector for $173,000 (est. $40,000/60,000). China trade porcelain made for the American market is always in demand. An Order of the Cincinnati plate, circa 1785, from George Washington’s service, is the cornerstone to any collection. The one in this sale from the collection of Martin Wunsch sold to an American collector on the phone for $87,500 (est. $20,000/30,000). An Order of the Cincinnati tea bowl and plate from a service made for Samuel Shaw, the supercargo on the Empress of China, the first American ship to reach Canton, also from the Wunsch estate, sold to a collector in the salesroom for $37,500 (est. $5000/8000), and a beaker vase with the arms of Vaughn impaling Hallowell, from the Wunsch consignment, sold on the phone for $8125 (est. $6000/9000).

A group of Famille Verte porcelain was appreciated by the Chinese bidders. For those bidding from China, it was the middle of the night. Becky MacGuire said she was thrilled to see bidders from around the globe compete for goods that left China centuries ago on sailing ships—and she found it fascinating to see a growing number of lots return to China. Unlike Americana, Chinese export art has a global market.

For more information, contact Christie’s at (212) 636-2000 or on line at (www.christies.com).

Eric M. Wunsch Award for Excellence in American Arts

After an introduction and welcome by Christie’s John Hays, Peter Wunsch, president of the Wunsch Americana Foundation, explained the mission of the foundation. The mission is the preservation of 17th- and 18th-century Americana in all its forms, the furthering of scholarship in early American decorative arts, and the presentation of the Eric M. Wunsch Award for Excellence in the American Arts in order to bring like-minded individuals together. (The award ceremonies will alternate between Christie’s and Sotheby’s.)

The second annual Wunsch awards ceremony at Christie’s on Wednesday evening, January 22, was a two-part event. First came the announcement of the loan by the Wunsch family of four of Martin Wunsch’s favorite pieces of furniture to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There followed a presenting of the Wunsch award to Linda Kaufman and her late husband, George M. Kaufman, and to Richard Jenrette.

Morrison Heckscher, chairman of the American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, said he was glad to exhibit the Philadelphia Queen Anne open armchair, the roundabout chair (one of a pair made by John Goddard for John Brown), a tea table attributed to John Goddard (one of eight serpentine scalloped-top Newport tables known), and a card table signed and dated “John Townsend 1762.”

Heckscher talked about the dinners and discussions that had been hosted by Martin and Ethel Wunsch in their apartment after January Americana auctions with collectors and curators. Peter Wunsch said the Wunsch Americana Foundation established the annual award to continue that tradition. “I am glad to see so many young people here tonight,” he said in front of more than 250 people gathered under the stairs and on the stairs in Christie’s lobby for the occasion.

Luke Beckerdite spoke about the Kaufmans’ role in the philanthropy of preservation and their significant gift to the American people. Over 200 examples of American furniture and decorative arts from the Kaufman collection have been promised to the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., where a portion of it is already on view. The Kaufman Americana Foundation has given grants to support scholarly books, articles, exhibitions, and research projects. It has contributed to the Charles F. Montgomery Curatorial Chair at Yale and to projects at the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia, the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, and Winterthur. The Kaufmans also established the Kaufman Center for Heart Failure at the Cleveland (Ohio) Clinic.

In accepting the award, Linda Kaufman reminisced about collecting. “We used to fly to New York from Norfolk on People Express for twenty-nine dollars round trip, making it possible to look over ‘the merchandise’ at Israel Sack, have lunch, and return home for dinner,” she said. She spoke of dinners with Martin and Ethel Wunsch where they met other collectors and curators and said that Martin Wunsch told them that Dutch pictures went with American furniture and introduced them to the dealer Otto Naumann. She said she is thrilled to have foreign visitors see American furniture at the National Gallery and that over seven million people have walked through the galleries in the first six months.

Metropolitan Museum of Art curator Peter M. Kenny introduced Margize Howell, executive director of the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust, who accepted the Wunsch award for Richard Jenrette, who did not make the trip from South Carolina. He is grieving the loss of his partner of 48 years, William L. Thompson, who helped him in his collecting, restoration projects, and interior design and cofounded the preservation trust. Kenny praised Jenrette for his preservation of historic houses and landscape and as an arbiter of taste. “For Richard Jenrette, the past is always present, and he lets you sit in his Duncan Phyfe chairs,” said Kenny. In the last 45 years, Jenrette has owned and restored 16 historic houses dating from the late 18th to the mid-19th century. He has kept six of them, including Edge-
water on the Hudson, Millford Plantation in Pinewood, South Carolina, and Estate Cane Garden in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. He established the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust to preserve and protect classical American architecture.

Originally published in the April 2014 issue of Maine Antique Digest. © 2014 Maine Antique Digest