Overwhelming Interest In Harvard University Neo-Classical Wall Brackets at Christie's

George III mahogany wall brackets, $328,500.

NEW YORK CITY - On October 23, Christie's offered for sale important English furniture representing Neo-classical design in England. The auction went 69 percent sold with 230 lots offered, 138 of which found buyers and a gross sales price of $3,213,804 was realized.

Melissa Gagen, head of European furniture, stated, "Undoubtedly the highlight of the sale was the pair of Neo-classic wall brackets, whose impressive scale and detailed carving attracted overwhelming interest. The strong prices realized for the most important furniture pieces and highly decorative objects, such as the secretaire-cabinet and side table, both attributed to Chippendale, and the George III marble chimneypiece, showed that collectors approached the market in a discriminating way."

The top lot of the auction was a pair of George III mahogany wall brackets, circa 1760, from the Harvard University Art Museum. The wall brackets carried a presale estimate of $40/60,000; they sold for $328,500. Carved with a griffin-and-urn frieze, the brackets take their ornament directly from the architrave of the Temple of Antonius and Faustina in Rome. The wall brackets feature Apollo's griffin, which was introduced by John Spencer, 1st Earl Spencer, as the Spencer family armorial crest. This same design appears on a frieze at Spencer House in the famous Palm Room, which was designed by John Vardy and completed by James Stuart.

George III mahogany secretaire-cabinet, $152,500.

A George III statuary and green cipollino marble chimneypiece, circa 1763, after a design by Robert Adam and probably executed by Benjamin and Thomas Carter went for $251,500, slightly above its high estimate of $250,000. The chimneypiece almost certainly formed part of Adam's celebrated commission for 2nd Earl of Shelburne, later the 1st Marquis of Lansdowne for Bowood, Wiltshire.

The chimneypiece was the highlight of the Evelyn G. Haynes Collection of elegant late Georgian furniture, largely executed in carved giltwood and inlaid satinwood. Mrs Haynes was an accomplished woman in the field of fashion, and while at Vogue from the mid-1930s through 1950s, she worked closely with Helena Rubenstein, Elizabeth Arden and Charles Revson. After retiring from Vogue, she was appointed as one of the first commissioners of the Landmark Preservation Commission and devoted her efforts to saving many of New York City's architectural treasures, including Grand Central Terminal.

Chimneypiece designed by Robert Adam, $251,500.

A George III mahogany secretaire-cabinet, attributed to Thomas Chippendale, circa 1770, sold for $152,500, slightly above its low estimate of $150,000. The secrétaire-cabinet was offered in the sale of the collector Samuel Messer at Christie's London, 1991, a sale that epitomized the Chippendale period of furniture making. Messer's collection exemplified the great English furniture collections formed in early Twentieth Century Britain under the advisor/historian R.W. Symonds. The cabinet relates to Chippendale's pattern for "A Lady's Writing Table and Bookcase" (published in The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 1762) with its French rococo enrichments, and was intended to furnish the window-pier of a lady's apartment.

Other English furniture highlights included a George III mahogany side table also attributed to Thomas Chippendale's workshop, circa 1775, featuring a carved wheat sheaf. Estimated at $50/80,000, the side table sold for $83,650.

Prices include the buyer's premium charged.