Date: Fri 19-Feb-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: LAURAB

Quick Words:

Americana-Week-Sotheby's

Full Text:

American Auction Results In New York

(with cuts)

By Laura Beach

NEW YORK CITY -- The pictures tell the story. A fall rally in the stock market

and a healthy economy had a salutary effect on the Important Americana

auctions in New York this January. Not since the late 1980s have collectors

been so eager to part with their money; not since the late 1980s have a few

done so with such abandon.

Quaker Oats

Folk art and furniture turned out to be the big gainers, but there were

impressive strides for silver and prints, too. Christie's broke the record for

folk art, twice, when two Nineteenth Century paintings by Quaker Preacher

Edward Hicks brought bids of $4.7 million and $1.4 million.

Sotheby's, meanwhile, had the top lot of the season: an $8.25 million Newport

secretary found in France. Infrared photography revealed two signatures on the

casepiece by another Quaker, the cabinetmaker Christopher Townsend.

Word Play

To their daunting marketing arsenal, the auction houses added magnificent

press coverage. The battle for spin played out in the pages of The New York

Times. Christie's ran a full-page color ad for its Americana sales on January

6. On January 14, a day before the Park Avenue house auctioned the John Gordon

collection, The Times named Gordon a "folk hero" and gave the collection

extensive play. Overlooked were trade complaints that the uneven collection

contained repaired and restored pieces.

Sotheby's got equal time on February 11, when The Times ran a two-page

follow-up on the sale of the Newport secretary. Thatcher Freund, absent from

the antiques scene since Objects Of Desire was published in 1993, wrote the

piece.

The Score

Combined sales of American decorative art at both Christie's and Sotheby's

reached $43.8 million, an Americana Week record.

Between January 14-20, Sotheby's garnered $22.4 million. Of the 1,106 lots

offered, 85 percent sold. The total was more than double the pre-sale low

estimate of $8.8 million. Folk art and furniture accounted for $18.7 million

of a total greatly enhanced by the Newport secretary.

Prints, porcelain and silver contributed another $2.3 million. Sales of

Chinese Export porcelain reached $1.5 million.

Christie's had hoped to surpass its rival but fell just short, tallying $21.3

million in three days of sales. Christie's various owners' sale on January 15

and 16 reaped $11.7 million and was 84 percent sold by lot.

The collection of Mr and Mrs James L. Britton accumulated $6.9 million and was

94 percent sold. The Gordon collection brought in a resounding $2.8 million

and was 92 percent sold.

The Winners:

Pennsylvania Folk Art

With specialist Susan Kleckner as head of its folk art department, Christie's

has made impressive strides in the area of Pennsylvania vernacular furniture

and decorations. Following several onsite sales, Christie's conducted its

first single-owner auction of American folk art at its Park Avenue premises.

A paint-decorated Centre County blanket chest, $68,500; a scraffito-decorated

redware plate, $21,850; and the Reverend Henry Young birth and baptismal

certificate, $25,300, were among the many highlights of the Gordon sale.

Dealers complained about condition, but also acknowledged some exceptional

pieces in fine condition.

"If there was a shocking part to that sale it was how much repaired redware

brought. I don't know if people were anxious to have particular pieces or just

didn't know they were repaired. Most dealers were very savvy. They didn't buy,

or they bought selectively," said Massachusetts dealer David Wheatcroft, an

active participant at both auction houses and the buyer of a pristine New

Hampshire Federal painted candlestand, $28,740, from the Gordon collection.

"I turned away 50 bids on objects I couldn't recommend," agreed Woodbury,

Conn., dealer David Schorsch. He added, "There was a smattering of fine

things. Also, you have to remember that the audience that cares about

untouched, original surface is really very small."

Edward Hicks

Christie's extended its primacy to Edward Hicks, the Quaker preacher who is

the subject of "The Kingdoms Of Edward Hicks," at Colonial Williamsburg's Abby

Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center until September 6.

One of three Hicks pieces sold was the artist's signature work, "Peaceable

Kingdom," of which nearly 60 versions are known. Dating to about 1837, the

optimistic height of the artist's career, the allegorical representation of

social tolerance came from the estate of Philadelphia collector Robert S. Lee,

Jr, who purchased it at Freeman's in Philadelphia for a record $210,000 in

1980.

Compositionally balanced and in excellent condition, the painting resold to

New York dealer Richard York for $4.7 million, a record at auction for the

artist and for American folk art.

"The picture says a lot about the idealism of America at that time," York

later commented. "In this example, the animals are really at peace with each

other. And the condition is astounding. You can actually feel the animals'

whiskers." York is keeping his client's identity a secret. The underbidder, a

private collector, visited York's Upper East Side gallery the next day.

One of the few institutional collectors active at the sales was represented by

Steve Good of Rosenstock Arts in Denver. Good, who mainly deals in Western

paintings, bid $3 million on "Peaceable Kingdom" on behalf of a Western

museum.

"It was a great example and a unique opportunity," said Good. "Really

exceptional paintings bring those kind of prices in this market, and

Christie's had promoted it well."

Among some Hicks cognoscenti, "The Residence of David Twining" was even more

attractive. The oil on canvas of circa 1845 is the first of four versions of

the farm and its residents, who took the child Hicks in after his mother died.

Consigned by Dr Thomas Lincoln, a descendant of both Twining and Abraham

Lincoln, the painting sold to a phone bidder for $1.4 million. Family letters

describing both the farm and the painting accompanied the work. Lincoln plans

to donate the proceeds to the University of Southern California. A third Hicks

painting, "Jonathan and David At The Stone Ezel," fetched $70,700.

Newport Furniture

The most remarkable story of the season belonged to Leslie Keno, Sotheby's

American furniture head who secured the $8.25 million Newport secretary. The

casepiece was proof that, despite the furniture field's maturity, superlative

objects still wind up in unlikely places.

Made in the 1740s for Congregational minister Nathaniel Appleton of Cambridge,

Mass., the domed-top bookcase was discovered in France, and brought to

Sotheby's attention by a French dealer. With its straight front and unexpected

proportions, it is not as conventionally beautiful as some Chippendale

examples from Newport. But its unique set of silver hardware, marked by Rhode

Island smith Samuel Casey, and the discovery of Christopher Townsend's

signature, gave the rare Queen Anne prototype unrivaled allure for collectors.

The rich, plum-pudding cabinet, incorporating costly hardwood even on its side

panels and drawer sides, sold on the phone to an as yet undisclosed bidder.

The underbidder was G.W. Samaha, who frequently represents the Boston

collector Ned Johnson.

Adding to the excitement were several important discoveries, made just days

before the sale. "For tax reasons, the secretary couldn't leave France until

after New Year's. It arrived in New York only two days before the exhibition,"

Keno explained.

"The first thing we did was uncrate it. We turned the secretary over and

discovered that square holes had been cut in the base for feet. There were no

traces of glue, so the feet must have been removable," Keno said. Referring to

a signed John Townsend valuables cabinet at Chipstone, Sotheby's directed its

restoration department to create replacement ball feet for the secretary.

The second revelation occurred in the first hour after the secretary was

uncrated. "We pulled the upper drawer out and held a high-intensity, raking

light to it. If you tilted your head at a certain exact angle you were able to

see graphic flourishes that were clearly Eighteenth Century script," Keno

recalled. "We made out the T, then the O. Finally, we were able to make out

the name Townsend. We took infrared photographs of the drawer. They said `Made

by Christopher Townsend,' just like that."

What made the Nathaniel Appleton secretary worth $8.25 million? "Rarity, the

perfection of its design, the richness of its material, and its remarkable

provenance," concluded Keno.

"One thing that has not been much mentioned is its absolutely meticulous

construction. The secondary woods were planed, constructed and finished with

the same precision and attention to detail as the primary wood. The work was

done with jewel-like precision."

Are there more Appleton family pieces in France? "There may be some other

things," Keno said discreetly. "We are waiting for photos."

Outsiders

Fifty-three paintings and sculptures assembled by the late Herbert W.

Hemphill, Jr, a vanguard collector of Twentieth Century American folk art,

realized $239,000 on behalf of the National Museum of American Art. The

paintings were among the least of Hemphill's things. His best works had long

since been added to the NMAA's permanent collection.

Still, the $46,000 sale of "Bird and Man," a pencil and tempera painting on

cardboard by Bill Traylor, was clear indication that a handful of outsider

artists have emphatically and permanently come inside.

Insiders

A handful of dealers and collectors typically dominate the high end of the

Americana sales. The usual names were considered possible buyers of the

Newport secretary: Ted Alfond, Tony Wang, Robert Bass, Ned Johnson, Tim

Robertson and Chipstone Foundation.

Even after the departure of Luke Beckerdite as its executive director,

Chipstone Foundation remains a major institutional player. Though it did not

buy the Newport secretary, it did acquire a Philadelphia Chippendale piecrust

tea table for $1,542,500 (est $500/800,000) from the Britton collection.

New Players

Even as insiders controlled the high end, it was clear that the expanding

market has broadened competition.

"Several players were not involved even in the last sale," said New York

dealer Leigh Keno. At Sotheby's, five clients were seated with the Keno clan,

which included father Ron Keno, the twins' brother Mitch.

At Christie's, bids came from some unexpected places. Observed Christie's

Senior Vice President John Hays of the Britton sale, "The Old Guard fondly

remembered the pieces. Jimmy Britton bought a number of them in 1983 at the

Linden sale. This time, competition was between seasoned buyers and new

buyers."

Supporting Hays' claim was a unique set of 12 American Chippendale side

chairs, sold for $585,500. The buyer, Erving Wolfe, is an eminence grise of

the American furniture world. The underbidder, designer and dealer Anthony

Ingrao, is a newcomer.

Hays attributed the market rise as much to solid offerings as to the currently

robust economy. "We are seeing a new level of prices for magnificent pieces --

as long as the estimate is at the old level. If there is a lesson, it is that

bidders are still estimate sensitive."

Pennsylvania collectors, among them several generations of the Schorsch clan,

exerted their muscle. "I was buying for stock and for several clients,"

confirmed David Wheatcroft, a Massachusetts dealer known primarily for

Pennsylvania folk art. "More people are discovering early Pennsylvania things.

They are actively seeking them and are willing to pay. I don't think the

market is superheated. It has been going up steadily. The record for a

fraktur, after all, is $141,000, and that was established a decade ago."

The South has also emerged as a new collecting powerhouse. All eyes are now on

Atlanta dealer Deanne Levison and Baltimore dealer Milly McGehee, aggressive

and highly visible players who sometimes work together. With their multiple

ties to academia and commerce, Sumpter Priddy, Luke Beckerdite and Michael

Flanigan are having untold influence on the shape and direction of public and

private collections.

"There are new people in the market," said McGehee, who feels the market

expansion has been underway for some time. "The New England and Mid Atlantic

dealers and collectors are clearly very strong. But more collectors from the

South are going after the superior and masterpiece lots."

This year's record sales were clear proof that Americans love Americana and

are willing to pay for it. But experts who handle the material daily resisted

drawing overly optimistic conclusions. Said McGehee, "I think the auctions

tell us that really superior merchandise is going through the roof and the

middle market is weak. Only in a single-owner sale is it possible to hype the

middle market."