A high chest that descended in Philadelphia’s Biddle-Drinker family ascended to a final price, including buyer’s premium, of $1,082,500 at Christie’s September 25 Americana sale, going to C.L Prickett of Yardley, Penn., bidding by phone.
Estimated at $600/900,000, the same highboy sold in March at New Orleans Auction Galleries for $731,000 to New York City-based dealer Leigh Keno.
With its bold and meticulously carved ornament, the Biddle-Drinker family high chest illustrates the epitome of Philadelphia design and the masterful artistry of its makers, the carver Nicholas Bernard and the cabinetmakers, Henry Cliffton and Thomas Carteret.
Of the sale, Margot Rosenberg, head of department, American furniture and folk art, said, “Quality works shone through, as exemplified by the magnificent Biddle-Drinker family Chippendale carved and figured mahogany high chest of drawers. An exciting recent discovery in the field of American furniture, this wonderful survival of the Eighteenth Century has all the hallmark traits collectors look for; artistic splendor, impeccable craftsmanship and pristine condition.”
The sale, which totaled $2,013,150, also had offered an 1835‴0 version of American artist Edward Hicks’s “Peaceable Kingdom,” which, estimated at $4/6 million, was passed.
A complete report will appear in a future issue. ‼i>WD
