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 inprice for the sale’s second highest selling lot – $78,000 for aQueen Anne walnut and parcel gilt high chest of drawers, Boston,1740-1760, that went to the US trade. With its gilt shells andfluted pilasters complementing the bonnet top, dynamic drawerconfiguration and graceful cabriole legs, the chest exhibited theclassic features of mid-Eighteenth Century cabinetmaking in Boston.It was one of a small group of surviving high chests to exhibitpainted 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.