Record Prices At Christie's Americana - Blair and Various Owners Sales

NEW YORK CITY

: It's easy to imagine that, 130 years after the first Americana collectors began poking around barns and attics, no great trove remains hidden away in plain sight, waiting only for the proverbial door knock to be discovered.

But it was on such an unassuming mission that Christie's deputy chairman John Hays - invited to lecture in August 2004 at the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, where his father, Dr Richard M. Hays, is a trustee and former director - met a descendant of Natalie Blair (1883-1951), the pioneering collector whose things were auctioned at Christie's Rockefeller Center salesrooms on Saturday, January 21, for $32,291,320.

"He was charming, sophisticated and knew his options. He told me that he had been planning to do something about his grandmother's furniture. Timing is everything, I guess," Hays recalled.

Blair, who collected American antiques most avidly between 1916 and the early 1930s, was a woman of such exacting taste that her gifts to The Metropolitan Museum of Art - including 55 pieces of furniture along with pewter, iron and opaque glass - remain a cornerstone of its American Wing.

Unbeknownst to many, Blair also bequeathed hundreds of objects, including some of her favorite pieces, to her two daughters, Mrs Screven Lorillard (1913-1955) and Mrs J. Woodhull Overton (1915-1998).

"It was like opening Tutankhamen's tomb. It was thrilling to find these unpublished pieces in their original surfaces still together after more than half a century, some in a domestic setting, some in storage," says Hays, who visited the family in California with Christie's senior director Dean Failey and again in Hawaii.

The sale of Property from the Collection of Mrs J. Insley Blair eclipsed all previous records for Americana at auction. Enhancing the total was Charles Willson Peale's 1779 oil on canvas portrait "George Washington at Princeton," sold to C.L. Prickett Antiques of Yardley, Penn., for $21,296,000, the third highest price at auction for an American painting. A paint decorated chest initialed "R.C." for Robert Crosman, inscribed "Taun Ton," and dated "1729" went to dealer George W. Samaha for $2,928,000.

Other highlights included a circa 1745 Staffordshire creamware Pew group, sold to London dealer Jonathan Horne for $168,000. Among Chinese Export porcelain from the Order of The Cincinnati service was a soup plate that went to Maryland dealer Stiles Colwill for $96,000 and an oval dish purchased by Mount Vernon for $54,000.

Connecticut dealer Marguerite Riordan acquired an initialed and dated 1730 Connecticut "Guilford" chest for $228,000 and a Portsmouth, N.H., worktable branded "M.S. Marsh," $96,000. Maryland dealer Milly McGehee got a Boston Chippendale oxbow dressing glass for $96,000. Thurston Nichols purchased a Philadelphia Chippendale desk and bookcase for $262,400; to Colwill went an Annapolis, Md., desk and bookcase attributed to the shop of John Shaw, $441,600; and a Charleston, S.C., "French" style open armchair sold to an absentee bidder for $284,800.

Clocks were another bright spot. An Albany, N.Y., dwarf clock by Nehemiah B. Bassett fetched $307,200; Milly McGehee bought an Aaron Willard mahogany wall clock for $262,400; a Simon Willard lighthouse clock garnered $120,000; and Pennsylvania dealer Philip Bradley claimed a Rhode Island block and shell carved tall case clock for $84,000.

Raised in New York City and Upstate New York, Natalie Bennett Knowlton was one of four daughters of Henry Danford Knowlton and Mary Bennett Johnes. In 1912, she married wealthy banker J. Insley Blair (1876-1939). Carrere and Hastings designed the couple's Tuxedo Park, N.Y., home, Blairhame. It was in the attic of the sprawling mansion that Blair, inspired by fellow collector Eugene Bolles and period rooms at the Met's new American Wing, created her own "museum rooms."

Uneasy about fakes, Blair in 1916 switched from European to American antiques. She bought heavily from Edgewater, N.J., dealer Willoughby Farr, as well as from New York dealers Collings & Collings, Henry V. Weil, Charles Woolsey Lyon and Charles R. Morson.

"Willoughby Farr had a wonderful eye and Mrs Blair wanted the greatest things. Her gifts to the Met are priceless," said Albert Sack, who does not recall the collector buying from his father, Israel Sack, who was still in Boston during the 1920s. On behalf of a client, Albert Sack purchased a Philadelphia Chippendale dressing table, $120,000, that Blair got from Charles Woolsey Lyon in 1923.

With an essay by Morrison H. Heckscher, the Lawrence A. Fleischman Chairman of the American Wing, and substantial contributions from Christie's staff, the catalog to the Blair sale, with its detailed entries and extensive notes on provenance, is destined to be a classic. Martha Willoughby's fieldwork in Spain, where Peale sent "George Washington at Princeton" soon after its completion, and where the painting remained for more than a century, makes for especially interesting reading.

Blair, who some now regard as the foremost collector of American antiques in the first half of the Twentieth Century, "had no library of published references to consult and trained her eye by comparing potential acquisitions with similar items in museums. In many ways, she was ahead of her time and, in her questioning of authenticity, demand for good condition and pursuit of research, her concerns and priorities are more akin to those of today's collectors...," Christie's staff wrote.

"This was one of the greatest sales since Sotheby's auctioned the Meyer Collection in 1996 for $11.1 million. I was fortunate to get everything on my A list," said Todd Prickett, who spent nearly $34 million at Christie's and Sotheby's during Americana Week.

"We were successful on behalf of five customers, unsuccessful for two, decided not to pursue objects that we looked at for two or three others, and bought some things for ourselves," the dealer continued. From the Blair collection, C.L. Prickett's acquisitions, in addition to "George Washington at Princeton," included a New York silver-mounted sword and scabbard, $132,000; a Boston turret-top card table, $553,600; a New York Queen Anne easy chair, $441,600; a star-inlaid New York Federal arm chair, $352,000; and a New York eight-legged sideboard, $352,000. The latter, at $17,000, was Mrs Blair's most costly acquisition when she bought it from Collings & Collings in 1926.

Blair's collecting slowed in the 1930s. She wrote collector Irving P. Lyon, "I have indeed kept my interest in old time furniture and furnishings but of recent years, much of the fun was taken from Collecting due to the terrific and absurd prices, and also the many trick methods employed and the many 'raw deals' that went on all about me."

Property From the Collection of Mrs J. Insley Blair, as well as Christie's record auction of a weathervane for $1.08 million in its Various Owners sale the previous day, upheld the market's conventional wisdom: if it's choice, scarce and fresh, there's no telling how much it may bring.

Observed Failey, "Every new record raises the bar. Records aren't infallible predictors but they are an indication that we are moving along. The hills are getting steeper. The supply of the really top-rate material is getting tighter. And yet new collectors are emerging who are deeply, seriously interested in American antiques."

Said Hays, "Does the Blair sale change the landscape? Not at all. It presented once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. The magic of the collector's legacy was at work."

While Property from the Collection of Mrs J. Insley Blair stole headlines at Christie's, the firm's Various Owners sale on January 20-21, and Property from the Collection of Mr and Mrs E.J. Nusrala on January 21, offered excitement of their own.

On Friday, a mid-Nineteenth Century Philadelphia weathervane depicting a stocking-capped Goddess of Liberty waving an American flag notched a new record price, $1.08 million, boosting proceeds from the Various Owners sale to $6,393,000 on 392 lots. Seventy lots from the Nusrala collection, sold on Saturday, added another $3,203,560, lining Christie's Americana Week coffers with an unprecedented $42 million in sales.

The death of antiques, as Mark Twain might say, is greatly exaggerated. Todd Prickett, whose Americana Week tab approached $34 million, observed, "We're fortunate to be dealing in an area of the market that is active. Even so, over the past year and a half we've seen a lot of new, young - if you can call my age young - clients coming through the door."

"In essence, I bought a masterpiece off the barn it had been on for 150 years. As I looked at this weathervane from a distance as it was selling, I knew the Goddess of Liberty's flag was waving for me and my client," said Stephen Score after acquiring the figure. The weathervane was underbid by Connecticut dealer Marguerite Riordan. Made by William Hennis of Philadelphia, the circa 1860 gilt and molded copper and sheet-iron sculpture fetched $1.08 million.

"I received a note last summer from an old acquaintance asking quite innocently what this weathervane might be worth," explained Christie's senior director Dean Failey. Christie's consignor acquired the vane, along with the barn it stood on in Tyringham, Mass., in 1966, and there it remained until barn showed signs of collapsing.

Score and Riordan were, respectively, the buyer and underbidder on the previous record-setting weathervane, as well. In 1990, Score paid $770,000 at Sotheby's for a circa 1860 J. Howard & Co., West Bridgewater, Mass., horse and rider from the Barenholtz collection. Only four months ago, a different version of the Goddess of Liberty weathervane, by J.W. Fiske, achieved $424,000 at Northeast Auctions.

Fans of the 30-inch-tall Hennis weathervane admire the figure's graceful form and impish expression. Said Score, "This icon speaks directly to what is truly great in American folk art. I love the cantilevered flag waving in one direction while Liberty's arm points the other way. The rhythm and sculptural rendering of her gown is wonderful. There are terrific V-shaped negative spaces, and the surface is beautiful."

Folk sculpture was a draw in the Various Owners sale. A Harris & Co. "Massasoit" Indian weathervane sold for $66,000. A Jewell horse and rider went to $36,000. A Cushing & White fish landed at $24,000 and a 25-inch-long Rochester horse fetched $19,200 against its $6/9,000 estimate.

Decoys included an assembled set of 40 miniatures by East Harwich, Mass., carver E. Elmer Crowell, auctioned as a single lot for $180,000, or $4,500 a carving. Ex-collection of David Schorsch, a full-size Crowell sleeping black duck crossed the block at $19,200 ($20/30,000).

"It was extraordinary," department head Margot Rosenberg said of her first visit to the Sky Club, a private, 56th floor dining room in Manhattan's Met Life Building that was decorated with American antiques supplied by the club's founding members, Edgar and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, whose collection of naive portraiture fills the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Heading the cache at Chrstie's was a portrait of a girl in blue attributed to William W. Kennedy. It sold to Massachusetts dealer Samuel Herrup for $38,400 ($12/18,000).

From another source, a Jacob Maentel-attributed watercolor on paper of a woman and child in an interior sold to Marguerite Riordan for $84,000 ($40/60,000). Riordan, who is know for folk portraiture, recently sold privately an oil on canvas double-portrait of Rebecca Sherman and her son Henry. Christie's auctioned three companion portraits that descended in New Haven and Stonington, Conn., families. Patriarch John Sherman, son of patriot Roger Sherman, fetched $168,000 from collectors seated in the room. John's charming son, depicted with his dog, and daughter, shown with a tiny portrait miniature, went to Georgia dealer Deanne Levison for $114,000 each.

An early, historic Virginia quilt in the "Delectable Mountains" pattern went to Maryland dealer Milly McGehee for $96,000. Disappointingly, a green-glazed fish flask from the Salem Pottery Works in North Carolina passed at $18,000 ($25/35,000).

Nusrala Collection

Interest shifted on Saturday afternoon to property from Mr and Mrs E.J. Nusrala, documented in Yale curator Patricia E. Kane's May 2002 article The Magazine Antiques. The couple, who began collecting in 1978, filled their 1919 Colonial Revival house in St Louis with American furniture and accessories. They were especially drawn to Eighteenth Century Philadelphia forms.

"We thought we might get it for $450,000 but it went to $800,000," Yardley, Penn., dealer Todd Prickett said after losing a signed Jacob Godschalk of Philadelphia walnut tall case clock to an anonymous bidder. The Nusralas bought the clock and several other of the day's top lots from York, Penn., dealer Joe Kindig, Jr, & Son.

C.L. Prickett Antiques was successful in its bid for a pair of Philadelphia Chippendale mahogany side chairs, $464,000 ($150/250,000); the Morris-Murray family Philadelphia easy chair, $374,000 ($250/350,000); and a pair of Chippendale mahogany looking glasses, possibly English, $90,000 ($40/60,000).

"I thought they might go to $200,000 or more," Prickett said of the matching pair in superb condition.

A pair of Philadelphia Chippendale carved walnut side chairs went to Quakertown, Penn., consultant Alan Miller for $156,000 ($150/250,000.) A. Ralph Navaro, Jr, got a Philadelphia Chippendale walnut dressing table with carving attributed to Martin Jugiez for $144,000 ($120/180,000) and a Philadelphia Chippendale turret-top mahogany card table sold to Downingtown, Penn., dealer Philip Bradley for $108,000 ($30/50,000).

Mrs Nusrala expressed her love of antique needlework in a choice collection of Seventeenth Century English and Eighteenth Century Philadelphia samplers. Heading the group was a small, rare, brilliant Philadelphia coat-of-arms worked in 1765 by Elizabeth Flower. The only other known Philadelphia coat-of-arms is by Elizabeth's sister, Ann. Connecticut dealers Stephen and Carol Huber reacquired the Elizabeth Flower piece for $144,000 ($30/50,000).

Nine English examples included a circa 1660 Charles II stump work casket that had belonged to William du Pont before the Nusralas bought it from Cora Ginsburg, Ltd. The embroidered box sold to the trade for $36,000 ($15/25,000).

A phone battle broke out over Martha Atkenson's signed and dated 1662 white work and silk-embroidered band sampler, $50,400 ($25/35,000), ex-Connecticut dealer Ruth Troiani. To needlework scholar and collector Davida Deutsch went a wonderful study piece, an incompletely executed pattern for a dressing mirror, $10,800 ($4/6,000).