Date: Fri 20-Feb-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: LAURAB

Quick Words:

America

Full Text:

Americana at Christies

with cuts

NEW YORK CITY -- It is hard to overestimate the invigorating effect Chipstone

Foundation has had on the American furniture field. Founded in 1966 by

Milwaukee, Wisc., collectors Stanley and Polly Stone, its work accelerated

after Stanley Stone's death in 1987, when his widow endowed the foundation and

donated to it the couple's collection.

Under the direction of Luke Beckerdite, Chipstone has since 1993 published the

influential scholarly journal American Furniture . At the same time, the

organization has been subtly shaping exhibition and publication agendas around

the country through the grants and loans it makes to museums.

Chipstone's influence is not confined to academe. In the past year, its

support of Colonial Williamburg's major survey of Southern furniture,

presented as both book and exhibition, and its dedication of its 1997 journal

to Southern topics, has boosted prices of Dixie decorative arts. And

Chipstone's sale of a suite of Philadelphia Chippendale furniture at

Christie's on January 16 was Americana Week's culminating event. The high

chest of drawers, dressing table, and side chair surpassed expectation,

selling anonymously for $2,972,500, a record.

The consignment was a shrewd gamble for Chipstone, which more than quadrupled

its investment. After purchasing the high chest from Christie's in 1985 for

$363,000, the foundation subsequently acquired the dressing table and side

chair for $165,000 and $148,500 at Sotheby's in 1987.

Chipstone has earmarked the windfall for acquisitions, Beckerdite said. In a

printed statement, the foundation explained that it had embarked on the

chronological, geographic, and cultural expansion of its 300-objects,

$35-million collection.

"The high chest is the quintessence of understated Philadelphia style. It is

beautifully proportioned," Albert Sack noted after the auction. Though he had

purchased the rival Philadelphia Chippendale high chest and matching dressing

table at Sotheby's, the New York dealer was generous in his praise of the

Chipstone pieces.

Sack and some other top specialists insisted that the two suites were largely

unalike, though, to casual observers their profuse arrangement of shell and

acanthus carvings, flame finials, fluted quarter columns, and shell pendants

seemed similar. "They were different in every way," argued New York dealer

Leigh Keno. "One was early Philadelphia Rococo. The other was the essence of

Philadelphia in the 1770s."

Condition on the Chipstone pieces was generally superior. Though brasses were

replaced on both Chipstone casepieces, the surface of the high chest was

untouched, an asset in the current market. Its masterful carving was nearly as

crisp as the day it was executed.

Made for Philadelphia merchant Levi Hollingsworth by Quaker cabinetmaker

Thomas Affleck, the Chipstone suite dates to 1765-1775. The same commission

included a second high chest of drawers now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

and a matching dressing table in a private collection. The chair is from a set

dispersed among the Philadelphia Museum, Chipstone, and in a private New York

collection.

The Chipstone suite was marketed with a minimum of fuss in its own slim

catalogue, and tucked into a long day that reaped $13.5 million for

Christie's. When Lot 501 was presented after 5 pm, the restless crowd grew

silent and attention focused on banks of phones on either side of the room.

Bidding, which opened at $700,000, bounced from Christie's agents to Woodbury,

Conn., dealer Wayne Pratt, out at $2.3 million, and New York collector Erving

Wolf, out at $2.4 million. The suite was hammered down to the phone at $2.7

million.

"The buyer is relatively new in the marketplace," John Hays said afterward.

Christie's American furniture chief encouragingly added, "We saw new bidders

at all levels of the market this time. Underbidders were competing with

seasoned collectors. This continues the expansion in the American field for

rare and important pieces."

Christie's brilliant January sessions culminated months of tense negotiations

in which the Park Avenue firm lost the Stanley Sax collection to Sotheby's

only to win the Chipstone prize. The consignment, which had been under

consideration for nearly a year, came in late November, leaving Christie's

just weeks to market the piece, and barely enough time to produce a catalogue.

"There was no big deal here," Hays said, dismissing talk of concessions.

"Christie's treated Chipstone as it does other museums and private collectors.

Did Chipstone speak to other agents? Yes. Why we were chosen, I can't tell

you. We'd like to think our leadership record in Philadelphia furniture made

the difference. When asked to help, we responded quickly. Perhaps we were

freer to."

Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat? Maybe. Christie's record sale

proves one thing, anyway. Despite marketing operations of unrivaled

sophistication, auction houses have a hard time anticipating, let alone

directing, outcomes in this fascinating, unpredictable industry.