SLUG: CHRISTIE’S AMERICANA/WITH CUTS

IMPORTANT AMERICAN FURNITURE, FOLK ART, PRINTS, DECOYS, AND SILVER

SECOND PHILADELPHIA TEA TABLE IN THREE MONTHS TOPS $5 MILLION

By Laura Beach

NEW YORK CITY — A Philadelphia scalloped-top tea table, the second most expensive ever auctioned, led Americana Weeks sales at Christie’s. The January 17–18 sales tallied $18,147,963.

When it last came up in 1990, the Stevenson family tea table sold to Leigh Keno for $1.2 million, an auction record, purchased on behalf of noted Philadelphia collector Richard Dietrich. After Dietrich died in August, Dietrich American Foundation consigned the work. Underbid by Maryland dealer Milly McGehee, the table brought $5,417,000 from G.W. Samaha, underbidder of the Fisher-Fox family table auctioned by Christie’s for a record $6,761,000 this past October. The carving on the Fisher-Fox table is attributed to the Garvan Carver. The carving on the Stevenson table appears to be the work of Nicholas Bernard and Martin Jugiez.

A third Philadelphia tea table, whose carving is also attributed to the Garvan Carver, sold at Sotheby’s on January 19 to a phone bidder for $1,833,000. Condition helped determine price, said Leigh Keno.

“The Fisher-Fox table was an incredible object of great and original design. The Stevenson table had a different feeling. It was fully developed and all the elements were carved. Its upper shaft is fluted, which is very rare if not unique. The McMichael-Tilghman table at Sotheby’s is the most fully developed and exuberant example. It would have made between five and eight million dollars if it had finish like the other two tables,” the dealer said.

An unusual Philadelphia Chippendale mahogany desk and bookcase that descended in the Willing family brought $409,000 against an estimate of $500/800,000. Highly architectural and most likely inspired by an English print source, its entablature incorporates an alternating series of rosettes and triglyphs. In extensive research, Christie’s established possible links with a 1739 air pump case at the Library Company of Philadelphia and an elaborate, pediment-top Philadelphia desk and bookcase in the Kaufman collection.

A Boston high chest of drawers was another success. Considered the ultimate example of its form, the bonnet-top example with fluted pilasters and ball and claw feet went to C.L. Prickett Antiques for $1,049,000. The piece is attributed to Benjamin Frothingham, Jr, of Charlestown, Mass.

The buyer of the Stevenson family tea table, Bill Samaha, also claimed a fancifully inlaid candlestand for $385,000. Cherry, with urn and vine inlays, the table, which has a single drawer supporting its tilt top, is attributed to central Massachusetts maker Nathan Lombard.

An eastern Connecticut Queen Anne carved maple dressing table that descended in the Devotion family of Connecticut sold to a private collector for $241,000. By tradition, it was a wedding gift to Judge Ebenezer Devotion and Eunice Huntington in 1764.

One hundred ninety-two lots of American silver, published in a dedicated catalog, garnered $2,599,575. Highlights included an extravagant Tiffany & Co., silver gilt and enamel vase in the Burmese taste. Designed by Paulding Farnham for the 1900 Paris Exposition, it grossed $265,000. An 801-piece, circa 1943 Tiffany flatware service in the Winthrop pattern from the estate of hotelier Leona Helmsley fetched $133,000. Fifty-three lots of thoroughbred racing trophies from the collection of trainer Hirsch Jacob and his wife, Edith, included a set of eight gold plates by Shreve & Co., San Francisco, $58,600.

Following the silver, 37 Audubon prints from the Edward and Carol Valentine collection were sold to benefit Ganna Walska Lotusland, a botanic garden in Santa Barbara, Calif. The slew included “Snowy Owl” (Plate CXXL), after John James Audubon by Robert Havel, $121,000, and “American White Pelican” and “Roseate Spoonbill,” each $73,000. From another consignor, a complete set of six hand colored lithograph views of Commodore Perry’s Japan Expedition, by W. Heine, exceeded estimate, selling for $49,000.

In association with Guyette & Schmidt, Inc, Christie’s offered 71 lots of decoys. The joint effort was not as successful as last year. Nearly half the lots passed, including a hollow merganser hen by Captain Charles Osgood of Salem, Mass., circa 1850s, at $190,000, and a Deer Island, Maine, eider drake, at $320,000. A hollow carved Canada goose by Nathan Cobb Jr of Cobb Island, Va., was a notable success, selling to Boston dealer Stephen O’Brien Jr for $457,000.

Property from the estate of Fairfield County, Conn., collectors Charles H. Carpenter Jr and his wife, Mary Grace, was included. Published extensively on American decorative arts, their 1987 book, The Arts and Crafts of Nantucket, grew from their affection for the island. Their 1837 Greek Revival house was filled with the marine and China Trade objects they studied and wrote about.

The nearly 70 lots spurred competitive bidding. Nantucket dealer Nina Hellman claimed a pair of scrimshaw whale’s teeth engraved with a figure of a sailor and an allegory of Hope for $49,000. A pair of whalebone and ivory Nantucket candlesticks dating to the mid-Nineteenth Century brought $46,600 from a collector seated in the gallery, who also bought an ivory seahorse jagging wheel for $37,000. A phone bidder purchased an ivory and whale bone Nantucket fist and serpent walking stick for $46,600. An 1881 lion’s head by Nantucket woodcarver James Walter Folger fetched $91,000. An engraved and inlaid mahogany and satinwood work box, its top decorated with a sailing ship, brought $32,200.

Christie’s Americana Week sales closed with 64 lots of folk art from various sources. A 22½-inch-tall molded and gilt copper Goddess of Liberty weathervane led the group at $109,000 ($60/90,000). An Edward Hicks portrait of George Washington passed at $150/250,000. Oil on board, it was the property of a Hicks descendent.

Prices include buyer’s premium. For information, 212-636-2000 or www.Christies.com.

Christie’s Americana

Christie’s Americana

Christie’s Americana

Christie’s Americana

Christie’s Americana

Important American Furniture, Folk Art, Prints, Decoys And Silver;

Second Philadelphia Tea Table In Three Months Tops $5 Million

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Christie’s led with the Stevenson family Chippendale mahogany scalloped top table. Consigned by the Dietrich American Foundation, the table, attributed to Thomas Affleck with carving attributed to Nicholas Bernard and Martin Jugiez, went to Ohio dealer G.W. Samaha, underbid by Maryland dealer Milly McGehee, for $5,417,000, an appreciation of more than 500 percent since its sale in 1990 for $1.2 million, then an auction record. Also to Samaha went a Federal cherrywood tilt-top candlestand with decorative vine and urn inlays, visible behind the tea table, for $385,000. It is attributed to Nathan Lombard of southern Worcester County, Mass. Against the wall, center, the Andrew Family Chippendale mahogany high chest of drawers, possibly by Benjamin Frothingham of Charlestown, Mass., fetched $1,049,000 from Pennsylvania dealers C.L. Prickett Antiques. Left, an oil on canvas portrait of a young girl, possibly by Gerardus Duyckinck of New York, passed at $40/60,000. Right, a portrait, possibly of Phila or Richa Franks of New York, made $39,400, just short of the low estimate.

 

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Considered the ultimate example of a Boston form, this bonnet-top mahogany high chest of drawers with fluted pilasters and ball and claw feet resembles signed and labeled furniture by Benjamin Frothingham, Jr, of Charlestown, Mass. Thought to have descended in the family of Governor John Allison Andrew of Salem, Mass., it sold to C.L. Prickett Antiques for $1,049,000.

 

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A hollow carved Canada goose by Nathan Cobb Jr of Cobb Island, Va., circa 1870, sold to Boston dealer Stephen O’Brien for $457,000, an auction record for the maker. The bird was a favorite of pioneering dealer Adele Earnest, who published it in Folk Art in America in 1984.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Senior director Dean Failey and a Christie’s colleague demonstrate the fluted column doors that swing open to reveal the fitted interior of the Philadelphia Willing family Chippendale desk and bookcase, sold for $409,000. The case piece resembles a 1739 air pump case made by John Harrison of Philadelphia, in the Library Company of Philadelphia, and an elaborate, pediment-top Philadelphia desk and bookcase in the Kaufman collection.

 

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Attributed to Edward Savage, this portrait of George Washington, styled after Gilbert Stuart’s “Lansdowne Portrait,” sold for $181,000. It was exhibited at New York’s Columbian Gallery around 1802. From the collection of Israel Sack, Inc, the Boston Chippendale mahogany serpentine front chest of drawers with sumptuous chinoiserie fire-gilt brasses went to Albert Sack for $481,000.

 

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Seventy lots of decoys, sold in association with Guyette & Schmidt, Inc, included, from left, a hollow merganser hen by Captain Charles Osgood of Salem, Mass., circa 1850s, passed at $190,000; a Deer Island, Maine, eider drake, last quarter of the Nineteenth Century, passed at $320,000; and humpback model widgeon drake by Ward Brothers, Crisfield, Md., circa 1920s, sold for $133,000.

 

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This elegant Boston Chippendale mahogany serpentine front chest of drawers has long been associated with Israel Sack, Inc, which published it in one of its many brochures. Its most distinctive feature may be its opulent fire-gilt chinoiserie brasses. Albert Sack, now a private dealer in Durham, N.C., bought the chest back for $481,000.

 

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With its unusual upper case, the Willing family desk and bookcase, sold for $409,000 against an estimate of $500/800,000, was probably inspired by a published English drawing, perhaps one by James Gibbs. Related examples of American furniture include a 1739 air pump case made by John Harrison at the Library Company of Philadelphia and an elaborate, pediment-top Philadelphia desk and bookcase in the Kaufman collection.

 

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The cherrywood furniture of Nathan Lombard, a central Massachusetts cabinetmaker who worked in the Federal style, is notable for its delightful use of inlays. This fanciful tilt-top candlestand, which sold to G.W. Samaha Antiques for $385,000, resembles a candlestand in Yale’s Garvan Collection.

 

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This eastern Connecticut Queen Anne carved maple dressing table descended in the Devotion family, studied by the Lyman Allyn Art Museum in New London, Conn. According to family tradition, the table was a wedding gift to Judge Ebenezer Devotion and Eunice Huntington in 1764. It sold to a private collector for $241,000.