“I love going to the Americana Week auctions, but the weight of the catalogs begin to wear me down,” one collector said upon entering the seventh floor gallery at Sotheby’s for the second session of the various owner sale on Saturday afternoon, January 21.

The catalog, just under 500 pages for 608 lots, weighed in at 3.4 pounds and measured seven-eighths of an inch thick. It was just one of three catalogs for the weekend of sales, the others for Important Americana from the Collection of Diane and Norman Bernstein and Important British Pottery from the Harriet Carlton Goldweitz Collection.

Sotheby’s sale brought in a total of $24,693,680, including the buyer’s premium, with the Bernstein collection totaling $6,485,080 ($4.7/9.2 million), and the Goldweitz pottery selling for $1,980,780 ($1.8/2.6 million).

The Johnson family set of six Queen Anne figured maple side chairs, one shown, became the second highest lot of the sale as it soared past the $250,000 high estimate to bring $2,144,000 from C.L Prickett, Yardley, Penn.

Leslie Keno, senior vice president and head of the AmericanFurniture Department, said, “The strong result of the Americanasales was one of the highest such totals ever for Sotheby’s. Themarket responded enthusiastically to the remarkable quality andoriginal condition of many of the offerings, as well as to theunusually high number of pieces with uninterrupted provenancedescending in the families of the original owners who commissionedthem. The sales set a record for a set of American chairs, a recordfor a New England side chair, and a record for a lighthouse clock.”All three of these lots are pictured in this review.

Nancy Druckman, head of the American Folk Art Department, said, “The sale was great and some of the objects went well over expectation.” She noted the $120,000 paid for the storage box with the cat handle, and some of the stoneware in the sale. “Stoneware has always done well and had a strong following,” she said, recalling 1973 when the jug with acrobats on it went for about $14,000. In this sale one of the pieces, the David Tuthill with sloop decoration, pictured, sold for $93,000 to a New York City private collector.

During the Friday session, lot 20, the snowy owl, John James Audubon, hand color aquatint and engraving, by R. Havell, 1831, on wove paper, sold for $57,000, almost twice the high presale estimate. Lot 25, a fine, fresh impression, Audubon, long-billed curlew, carried an estimate of $25/35,000 and sold for $78,000.

The signed Simon Willard lighthouse clock with glass dome brought $744,000 from Manhat-tan dealer Leigh Keno.

American silver found a good market and among the lots aflatware service by Tiffany & Co., New York, Twentieth Century,Shell and Thread pattern consisting of 151 pieces in a wooden box,sold for $26,400, over the high estimate of $11,000. An Americansilver asparagus dish and liner, Gorham Mfg Co., Providence, R.I.,Martele, 1899, rectangular shaped with waved and lobed rim, 12 1/8inches long, went over the high estimate of $8,000, selling for$30,000.

A bid of $96,000, just over the high estimate, took a pair of American eight-light chrysanthemum pattern candelabra, Tiffany & Co., New York, circa 1890. Each measures 233/4 inches high and an identical pair, now in the Museum of the City of New York, cost $2,200 in 1890.

The Westinghouse set, an American parcel-gilt silver and mixed metal “Japanese style” seven-piece tea and coffee set with tray, Tiffany & Co., New York, circa 1885, went for $380,000, within an estimate of $300/500,000. Three pairs of American silver communion cups, Miles Gorham, New Haven, dated 1804, were consigned by the First Congregational Church of Derby, Conn., with proceeds going toward the building fund. The first two pairs sold, $9,600 each, against a high estimate of $12,000. Each cup measured 5 5/8 inches high with inverted bell bowls on high pedestal feet, 1804.

The second session on Saturday afternoon began with three English spatterware plates, Nineteenth Century, each painted with a yellow bird on a fence, 8 1/2 inches in diameter, for $1,440, within estimate.

The highest bid for a piece of case furniture came as the Judge William Walker Chippendale block and shell carved secretary/desk sold at $576,000.

Stoneware proved to be ever popular, with an Americancobalt-decorated salt-glazed jug, Nineteenth Century, with stylizedLiberty holding an American flag, going for $30,000, three timesthe high estimate. Lot 259, another piece of stoneware, an incisedand cobalt-blue decorated pecking chicken gemel jugs, attributed toStedman & Seymour, New Haven, Conn., early Nineteenth Century,sold just over the high estimate at $36,000 to a Pennsylvaniaprivate collector.

Painted tinware from the folk art collection of Jeremy L. Banta, New York, included a red-painted document box, probably Pennsylvania, circa 1835, domed lid with brass handle, stylized red, yellow, mauve-pink and green fruit and leafage on a bright red ground, 4 1/2 inches high and 8 1/4 inches long, sold for $48,000 to a Massachusetts dealer, well over the $18,000 high estimate.

A phone bidder took lot 240, a red painted octagonal tinware tray, probably Pennsylvania, circa 1830, for $39,000 ($8/12,000). It was decorated at the center with a large blue and white oblong fruit surrounded by berries and a yellow sunburst. It showed some wear and measured 12 1/4 inches long.

No Americana sale is complete without a watercolor, pen and ink on paper portrait by Joseph Davis. This time a double portrait was of Isaac Richardson, aged 62, and Elizabeth H. Richardson, aged 61, posed with a portrait of Andrew Jackson. This work, with the original glass, frame and wood backing, sold just under the high estimate at $39,000.

C.L. Prickett paid $464,000 for the De Wolf family Chippendale carved mahogany side chair, Boston, circa 1770.

One of the nicest small boxes in the sale was lot 273, abasswood domed document box initialed AB in the front, with aneagle and shield on the top. It was probably from Albany, N.Y.,circa 1820, and measured 6 1/4 inches high by 12 inches long.

This box came from the collection of Burton and Helaine Fendelman, Sotheby’s October 23, 1993, sale and sold for $30,000, right in the middle of the estimate.

A carved and painted man in a top hat whirligig, 9 1/4 inches tall, Hartford, Conn., black coat and black boots, arms articulated, went for $21,600, slightly over double the high estimate. The provenance lists David Schorsch, Nathan Liverant and Son, and Walters & Benisek.

A high estimate of $2,500 was on a small scaled wallpaper patterned painted pine checkerboard, American, probably Maine, dating from the late Nineteenth to early Twentieth Century. It was chrome yellow with red and white flowers outlines in red with climbing vine and berries. It measures 12 by 12 1/4 inches and sold for $27,000.

Shang Wheeler, Stratford, Conn., was represented in the sale a few time, once with lot 317, a sleeping black duck with inletted weight and brand Tom. In original paint, the decoy sold for $31,200.

The Rufus Hathaway portraits of Josiah Dean III and Sarah Dean of Raynham, Mass., did well selling to the trade at $441,600.

Among the portraits in the sale was one by Charles WillsonPeale, Richard Moore, an oil on canvas measuring 26 by 22 inches.

It was painted in 1811 and appears to be in the original frame. Moore was born August 2, 1745, in London and written on the back of the stretcher is, “This portrait of Richard Moore I gave to my niece Hallie G. Chandler on her wedding day July 15, 1880, (?) Elma E. Payson.” It sold for $20,400, under the high estimate of $30,000.

Three lots later a pair of portraits by Henrietta Johnson, Colonel John Moore and his wife Frances Lambert Moore of New York, 1725, sold to a phone bidder for $54,000. These works, pastel on paper, measure 11 1/2 by 9 7/8 inches. The estimate was $15/25,000.

Also bid $54,000 was a carved and painted pine carousel reindeer by Gustav Dentzel, Philadelphia, circa 1895, rack of real antlers, glass eyes and the original paint. The figure is 66 inches high, 60 inches long and the estimate was $40/60,000.

Rounding out the top ten lots in the sale was the Miriam Cook Pilgrim Century carved and joined Hadley chest that sold for $180,000.

Another carved and painted figure, a cigar store Indian bySamuel Robb, New York, circa 1880, figure 36 inches tall,full-length princess in red cloak with green dress, somerestoration to the paint, went for $66,000, just over double thehigh estimate.

Two works by Bill Traylor, “Man in a Blue Chair with a Pipe,” pencil and poster paint on cardboard, 11 1/2 by 16 3/4 inches, sold for $54,000, and “Fox and Man with Hatchet: An Exciting Event,” pencil and tempera on cardboard, 12 1/2 by 6 1/2 inches, brought $60,000.

Among the many lots of brown furniture, a Federal inlaid and figured mahogany sideboard, New York, circa 1795, 401/2 inches high, 72 3/4 inches long and 27 inches deep, sold for $27,000. A high estimate of $50,000 was on a fine Chippendale figured mahogany and serpentine front chest of drawers, Massachusetts, circa 1780, appears to retain the original brasses, 33 inches high, 41 1/4 inches wide and 24 inches deep; it sold for $66,000.

A Chippendale dressing table, possibly by Jonathan Claypoole, Philadelphia, circa 1775, carved and figured mahogany, measures 30 1/2 inches high, 33 3/4 inches wide and 21 1/4 inches deep, appears to retain the original brasses, sold just under the high estimate of $100,000 for $96,000.

Interest in stoneware ran high with this small jug attributed to New York City maker John Crolius, ex Barry Cohen collection, quadrupled estimates at $90,000.

Selling for better than the high estimate of $120,000 was aChippendale carved and figured mahogany high chest, Philadelphia,possibly by Jonathan Claypool, circa 1760.

It went for $262,400 and appears to have the original hardware. The high chest measures 92 1/4 inches high, 44 1/4 inches wide and 23 1/2 inches deep.

A William and Mary mahogany-paneled gumwood kas, probably Kings County, New York, circa 1775, carried a high estimate of $10,000 and sold for $30,000.

The front feet appear to be correct and the original hardware, with one rear bootjack support replaced. It has large ball feet painted black to simulate ebony and it is enhanced with mahogany panels.

The provenance lists ex-Henry Francis du Pont collection. A rare carved and painted white pine spoon rack, New York or New Jersey, dated 1803, measures 20 inches high, 10 1/4 inches wide and 2 inches deep. It retains its original red, white and blue paint and this rack stems from a group made by Dutch settlers. The high estimate was $5,000, and it sold for $16,800.

The large silver flagon by Ebenezer Chittenden, New Haven, Conn., was one of several pieces consigned by the First Congregational Church, Derby, Conn. It fell within estimates at $84,000.

The high estimate of a neoclassical mahogany and parcel giltbreakfront bookcase, Philadelphia or New York, circa 1825, of$20,000 was lost in the dust as bidders took this piece to $96,000.It measures 1101/2 inches high, 103 3/4 inches wide and 22 1/2inches deep at the feet.

This piece features raised panel doors flanked by pilasters with carved ionic capitals on carved acanthus and lion paw feet.

As usual, the sale ended with rugs and the last lot, 608, a Heriz carpet, Northwest Persia, circa 1920, 18 feet 2 inches by 12 feet 3 inches, estimated at $7/10,000, sold for $30,000.

By the time this sale was over on Sunday, January 22, it was all over but the shouting for Americana Week in New York City.

TAAS, Antiques at the Armory and Stella’s Pier had all closed, Christie’s had finished its schedule of auctions, leaving only The Winter Antiques Show at the Seventh Regiments Armory up and running. For those dealers, another week lay ahead. But the way time flies, before you know it we will all be right back there having fun.

The paint decorated miniature lift-top blanket chest by Jacob Stalwart, New Market, Va., sold well above estimates at $42,000 going to Massachusetts dealer David Wheatcroft.