“I want to thank you all for coming to our inaugural sale and we have some wonderful things to offer and a helpful and efficient staff at your service,” Leigh Keno said as he positioned himself to sell the first of three sessions over two days. The auction, Saturday and Sunday, May 1 and 2, was in a large room at the Marriott Stamford Hotel that was set up as both the exhibition area and the sale, with each of the 741 lots projected on a large screen at the front of the room.
Session One, the collection of H. Robert Leese of Pennsylvania, consisted of 178 lots, all sold without reserve. Applause followed the sale of the first lot, two pearlware plates and one pearlware cream jug, English, circa 1810, with a high estimate of $250. It brought $833, including the 19 percent buyer’s premium charged by Keno Auctions.
Session Two on Saturday afternoon included the top lot of the auction, pictured, the James Beekman Chippendale carved mahogany chest of drawers from the shop of Thomas Brookman with carving attributed to Henry Hardcastle. This New York chest, circa 1752, estimated at $200/600,000, sold for $1,428,000, a record for a New York piece of furniture.
Session Three on Sunday brought the second highest price in the sale, the portrait of Anna Brodhead Oliver attributed to the Gansevoort Limner, Kingston, N.Y., circa 1743, pictured. This oil on canvas, 305/8 by 25¼ inches, appears to retain an early or the original frame, and was sold without reserve to David Schorsch of Woodbury, Conn., for $1,118,600. The estimate was $40/80,000 and the portrait was the property of a descendant of the sitter.
“The sale was 87 percent sold by lot and brought in a total of $5,818,460, including the buyer’s premium,” Leigh Keno said on Monday morning. He added that “as we speak, we have four major postsale offers pending, which I am certain will happen by the end of the day, bringing our total to $6,014,000.”
Keno Auctions has a permanent staff of four people, including Leigh, with just over 20 on hand for the sale, including Ron Keno, Leigh’s dad, and brother Mitch. Twin brother Leslie was in the audience checking out his brother, and Michael Grogan, no stranger to the auction business, was on hand as relief auctioneer. “There is a possibility that the next sale will be in September, but our next full-fledged auction of Americana will be in January 2011, and we are presently scouting out the right location for the sale,” Leigh said.
“For a first sale, things ran quite smoothly and we very pleased with the material we had to offer and with the bidders who came out and supported us,” Leigh said. He did, however, note one glitch. “For the first 100 lots I sold, I forgot to use the gavel, but I had it in hand for the remainder of the auction,” Leigh said.
