Senior Director Dean Failey
with two stars from the various owners' sale of January 17.
Sheldon Peck's double portrait on panel of Fanny Root Millener
and her daughter Frances sold to the phone for $647,000. Dealer
George Samaha acquired the New London County, Conn.,
block-and-shell carved chest for $669,500, including
premium.
Christie's
Hits $11.8 Million in Three Days of Sales
NEW YORK CITY -- Christie's elegant galleries at Rockefeller
Plaza told the story. Well-heeled collectors from around the
country previewed in one room; folk art dealers in town for
various antiques shows previewed in another; and then there was
the throng of viewers who had clearly come for just one thing --
decoys.
This New York five-legged card table sold to the phone for
$867,500 in Christie's Various Owners.
In all, Christie's three Americana Week sales -- Important
Americana, Pennsylvania German Folk Art from Collection of Rose
Anna and John Kolar, and the Russell B. Aitken Collection of Wild
Fowl Decoys, conducted jointly with Guyette & Schmidt --
generated $11,770,931 on nearly 1,400 lots offered.
The January 16-17 sale of Important American Furniture, Silver,
Prints, Scrimshaw and Folk Art, which garnered $8.1 million on
523 lots, revealed both the strengths and weakness in the current
market. Bids of $647,500 for a Sheldon Peck double portrait and
$339,500 for a Van der Spiegel silver tankard could have been
even higher, experts said.
The single-owner sale of Pennsylvania German Folk Art from the
collection of Rose Anna and John Kohlar on January 17 grossed
$857,000. Top examples of painted furniture -- including a dower
chest from southeastern Pennsylvania, $45,410, and a York County
blanket chest, $41,825 -- led the day, along with a Faber birth
and baptismal record that soared to $53,775.
Look for a complete report on Christie's Americana Week sales in
a future issue.
