EAST DENNIS, MASS. — Nearly 1,000 lots went under Eldred’s gavel during the firm’s four-day Americana Week, July 22-25, which included three single owner collections: those of Martha Hamilton, Peter & Judi Hersey and Arun & Barbara Singh. Up first, on July 22, Martha Hamilton’s collection reached its apex at $239,400 when a private collector bidding by phone purchased Joseph Steward’s (1753-1822) portrait of Samuel Tracey Coit, painted circa 1790. Coit’s portrait had been exhibited at the Lyman Allyn Museum and the Connecticut Historical Society and in such distinguished previous collections as those of Bertram K. & Nina Fletcher Little and Richard & Joy Kanter. A circa 1840 portrait of a lady seated on a sofa, attributed to the Prior-Hamblin School, led the Singh collection. Estimated at $8/12,000, it traded hands with a online buyer from Connecticut, for $44,100. More highlights from these auctions, and the others in the series, will be featured in an upcoming review.