A Philadelphia scalloped-top tea table, the second most expensive ever auctioned, led Americana Week sales at Christie’s. The January 17‱8 auctions tallied $18,147,963.
Important American Furniture, Folk Art, Prints And Decoys
Attributed to cabinetmaker Thomas Affleck, with carving attributed to Nicholas Bernard and Martin Jugiez, the lavishly carved mahogany tea table that descended in the Stevenson family of Philadelphia brought $5,417,000, selling to Ohio dealer G.W. Samaha, with Maryland dealer Milly McGehee as underbidder.
Prominent Philadelphia-area collector H. Richard Dietrich Jr, who died in August, purchased the Stevenson family table in 1990 for a then-record $1.2 million. Proceeds benefit the Dietrich American Foundation.
Only three months ago, Christie’s sold the circa 1760 Fisher-Fox family piecrust mahogany tea table, with carving attributed to the Garvan Carver, for a record $6,761,000 to C.L. Prickett Antiques of Yardley, Penn. Samaha was the underbidder in the last round. Both tables rank among the ultimate expressions of American craftsmanship in wood.
To Prickett this time went a Boston-area bonnet-top high chest of drawers, possibly from the shop of Benjamin Frothingham Jr, for $1,049,000. The high chest is said to have descended in the Governor John Allison Andrew family of Salem, Mass.
Durham, N.C., dealer Albert Sack acquired a Boston serpentine front chest of drawers with opulent fire-gilt chinoiserie brasses. The chest, twice owned by the Sack firm, fetched $481,000.
In association with Guyette & Schmidt, Inc, Christie’s offered 71 decoys. Top billing went to a hollow carved Canada goose by Nathan Cobb Jr, of Cobb Island, Va. The circa 1870 carving sold to Boston dealer Stephen O’Brien for $457,000, a record at auction for the maker.
Nantucket artifacts from the estate of Charles H. Carpenter Jr, co-author of The Decorative Arts and Crafts of Nantucket, were enthusiastically received. A carved and painted lion’s head by James Walter Folger led sales at $91,000.
The Collection Of Marguerite And Arthur Riordan
The marketplace affirmed Marguerite Riordan’s superb taste and longstanding authority on New England furniture and folk art, offering $2,581,950 for 177 objects from the home of the downsizing Connecticut dealer. Topping sales was a carved and painted wooden steamboat weathervane, $385,000. A 25½-inch-wide Native American burlwood bowl from H.F. du Pont’s Long Island country house, Chestertown, went to New York dealer Leigh Keno for $181,000, an auction record.
Property From The Collection Of George And Lesley Schoedinger
St Louis, Mo., collectors George and Lesley Schoedinger relied on top experts, among them Connecticut dealer Arthur Liverant and Pennsylvania consultant Alan Miller, in assembling the 58-lot selection of mostly New England furniture that realized $1,306,925. Liverant reclaimed nearly a dozen lots. Other highlights included a pair of Philadelphia Queen Anne side chairs, sold to Todd Prickett for $133,000; and a Queen Anne mahogany dressing table, $115,000, and a Boston Chippendale walnut side chair, $103,000, that went to Leigh Keno.
Important American Silver
Emphasizing Aesthetic Movement examples, Christie’s 192-lot sale of mostly Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century silver garnered $2,599,575. An extravagant Tiffany & Co., silver gilt and enamel vase in the Burmese taste designed by Paulding Farnham for the 1900 Paris Exposition brought $265,000.
An 801-piece, circa 1943 Tiffany flatware service in the Winthrop pattern from the estate of hotelier Leona Helmsley soared past its $20/30,000 estimate to sell for $133,000. Also popular were racing trophies consigned by the family of thoroughbred trainer Hirsch Jacob. A group of eight Shreve & Co., San Francisco, gold plates from Santa Anita Park made $58,600.
Prices reported include buyer’s premium.
Detailed reviews of each session will follow in Antiques and The Arts Weekly .
For information, 212-636-2000 or www.christies.com .
