By R. Scudder Smith and Laura Beach
Pent-up demand propelled sales to record levels at both Sotheby’s and Christie’s. Christie’s top lot during Americana Week was a pair of pistols owned successively by the Marquis de Lafayette, George Washington, and Andrew Jackson. The firearms soared to $1,986,000, selling to an anonymous phone bidder.
In all, Christie’s two-day sale of Important American Furniture, Silver and Folk Art reached $10.8 million. Other sale highlights included a Cushing weathervane of a squirrel, sold to Boston dealer Stephen Score for $292,000; a 1710 silver tankard by Bartholomew LeRoux of New York, $534,000; a Queen Anne carved walnut Philadelphia side chair, sold to the phone for $666,000; a Newport tall-case clock, sold to a private collector for $666,000; and a pair of Lannuier figural card tables, sold singly to one buyer for $611,000 each.
Antiques and The Arts Weekly will bring you complete coverage of Americana Week in New York in a coming issue.