Russ Carlsen holding the Thomas Jefferson handwritten autograph letter that brought the third highest price in the sale at $8,775 ($2/4,000).

Review and Onsite Photos by Madelia Hickman Ring, Catalog Photos Courtesy Carlsen Gallery

FREEHOLD, N.Y. – Carlsen Gallery’s February 11 sale featured three prominent local family collections, all of which generated lots of local interest and boosted sale returns. Approximately 400 lots crossed the block, many going to buyers in the near-capacity crowd that braved freezing roads to attend the sale.

“There’s ice up north,” Russ Carlsen, Carlsen Gallery’s owner and chief auctioneer said before the sale. “A lot of people are bidding on the phone as a result.”

Interest in the sale got off to a slow start, according to Abby Carlsen, who said the phone started ringing off the hook just a few days before the sale. “We were very pleased with the attendance, both in the room and online,” she commented after the sale.

The top lot of the sale was a small watercolor by Paul Sawyier titled “Fishing in Kentucky” that brought $12,870 against an estimate of $1/2,000. After opening at $500, bidders battled back and forth before it went to an internet buyer.

The second highest lot in the sale crossed the block early on. This coin silver teapot by Albany silversmith Isaac Hutton was the fourth lot and set a high bar for the rest of the sale. Carlsen had significant interest in it from both absentee and phone bidders, joking midway through bidding that they were well above “melt weight.” A phone bidder took it for $9,360.

Prior to the sale, Carlsen said he expected a letter signed by Thomas Jefferson to be one of the top lots and he called it right. After mentioning that a related document was in the collection of the Jefferson Library, Carlsen said he had a lot of absentee bids and opened the bidding at $3,000. After taking bids from phone and online bidders, a last-minute floor bidder came in to take it for $8,775.

An impressive five-piece delft garniture had at one time passed through a Skinner sale. Receiving a lot of interest in the last hour of bidding prior to the sale, the lot closed at $6,435, within its estimate $3/8,000.

One of Carlsen’s staff members said before the sale that they had had a lot of local interest in property from the Jenkins and Van Rensselaer estates. One of these lots was a desk, its pigeon holes and drawers still holding books and papers, some of which were original to the desk. With its original surface, it was a time capsule of days gone by and buyers pushed its final price over high estimate.

Buyers looking for folk portraits were able to get some for very reasonable prices. A buyer sitting in the front row claimed the portrait of a young woman in a brown silk dress for $702 and the portrait of her daughter, which was sold as the subsequent lot, for $1,404.

Prices reported include the buyer’s premium.

For information, 518-634-2466 or www.carlsengallery.com