: In a $2.8 million sale, a piece of furniture that sells for $1.8
million stands out, and that was certainly the case on May 19
during Christie's sale of important American furniture, folk art,
silver and prints. Surviving with its original carved cartouche,
finials, rosettes, brasses, an early surface and remarkably
intact applied carvings, a storied Eighteenth Century Chippendale
mahogany high chest of drawers stood out like a Manhattan
landmark on a Midwestern landscape.
The sale's undisputed top lot, the Benjamin Marshall Chippendale
high chest, attributed to the shop of Henry Clifton and Thomas
Carteret, Philadelphia, 1755-1765, was won by New York antiques
dealer Leigh Keno for $1,808,000.
Christie's sale was 95 percent sold by value and 84 percent sold
by lot.
Measuring 941/2 inches high by 45 inches wide and 235/8 inches
deep, the magnificent high chest descended in the Marshall family
of Philadelphia and was likely made for Benjamin Marshall (d.
1778), a merchant of Philadelphia in Revolutionary times.
The exact date and maker of the high chest are not known, but
Christie's in its catalog stated that the piece "has many
structural affinities to a high chest in the collection of
Colonial Williamsburg that is signed by the craftsmen Henry
Clifton and Thomas Carteret and dated 1753."
The Queen Anne walnut and parcel gilt high chest of drawers,
Boston, 1740-1760, went to the US trade for $78,000.
From the lofty Chippendale chest, it was a big step down in
price for the sale's second highest selling lot - $78,000 for a
Queen Anne walnut and parcel gilt high chest of drawers, Boston,
1740-1760, that went to the US trade. With its gilt shells and
fluted pilasters complementing the bonnet top, dynamic drawer
configuration and graceful cabriole legs, the chest exhibited the
classic features of mid-Eighteenth Century cabinetmaking in Boston.
It was one of a small group of surviving high chests to exhibit
painted gilt shells instead of carved or inlaid shells.
A fine silver and mixed metal loving cup, mark of Tiffany &
Co., New York, circa 1881, blew past its $10/15,000 presale
estimate to bring $74,400. Cylindrical with a hammered surface,
the cup's body was applied with copper and gold tadpoles amid
swirling pond water and below a scalloped rim. The two-handled
cup was most likely a yachting trophy won by James D. Smith
(1829-1909), commodore of the New York Yacht Club.
Rounding out the sale's top ten were: a pair of oil on canvas
portraits of Elizabeth Moose Russell and Jeremiah Russell by Ammi
Phillips (1788-1865), $51,600; Iceland or Jer Falcon (Plate
CCCLXVI) from The Birds of America after John James
Audubon by Robert Havell, $48,000; after J.J. Audubon, an ivory
billed woodpecker print, $39,600; a vase form American silver
yachting trophy, Tiffany, 1892, $36,000; a federal mahogany and
satinwood inlaid tall case clock, $36,000; a rare American silver
salver with the mark of Alexander Petrie, Charleston, S.C., circa
1755, $33,600; and a renaissance revival bronze mounted rosewood,
cherry and maple cabinet, circa 1866, attributed to Alexander
Roux, $31,200.
Prices include buyer's premium.
