LONDON — One of the most eagerly anticipated lots in Christie’s July 4 sale, “Masterpieces from A Rothschild Collection,” did not disappoint. A Louis XVI ormolu-mounted mahogany, ebony and fruitwood table a ecrire by Jean-Henri Riesener, circa 1785, supplied to Queen Marie-Antoinette around 1785, likely for the Petit Trianon, nearly tripled expectations when it sold to an unidentified buyer for $1,371,701. In a sale of 52 lots that totaled $29.9 million and was 98 percent sold by lot and 94 percent sold by value, the desk was one of eight lots to sell for more than $1 million.

Speaking after the sale, Charles Cator, deputy chairman, Christie’s International, said, “Twenty years after the acclaimed 1999 Viennese Rothschild sale, it has been a huge privilege to have been entrusted with these superb works of art collected by Baron Gustave de Rothschild and his descendants over 150 years.”

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