The top lot of Christie’s Americana Week was this hand-written manuscript of the Declaration of Independence written circa 1788 by Samuel Jones of New York, who is credited with securing New York’s ratification of the United States Constitution by breaking the impasse over the inclusion of a bill of rights. The first such document ever to come to auction, it achieved $2,470,000 ($2/3,000,000).
Review by Madelia Hickman Ring
NEW YORK CITY — Christie’s Americana Week results were strong, with four sales January 22-24 offering more than 550 lots, more than 475 of which gaveled down successfully for a total of $29,566,352. Among singular offerings were the only known handwritten Eighteenth Century copy of the Declaration of Independence and a gold train spike that symbolically completed the Alaska Railroad.
Outsider Art
Nearly 150 lots of paintings, works on paper, mixed media and sculpture started the week strong with the highest sell-through of all four sales: more than 90 percent. Cara Zimmerman, reached for comment following the sale, told Antiques and The Arts Weekly, “It was a good sale. Overall, people were engaged, we had a strong audience and great works found great homes. I’ve seen a real interest in colorful, graphic, joyful works; the attention they got in the lead-up to the sale made me think something wonderful would happen. During the auction, we saw there’s interest in discovering new Outsider artists or expanding ideas of what Outsider art is; we’re looking past Outsider ‘Old Masters,’ I think it’s long overdue for some of these artists and exciting to get legs in new ways.”
Pre-sale press touted the diversity of price points and results followed suit, ranging from $1,008 for two works by Henry Speller (1900-1997) to $119,700 for Adolf Wölfli’s (1864-1930) “Der Grosse Skt. Adolf-Starn (The Great Saint Adolf-Star),” a double-sided graphite and colored pencil on paper composition made in 1923. Inclusion in two publications and two exhibitions helped drive interest and it sold to an online buyer from Illinois.
Achieving the highest price in the Outsider Art sale was “Der Grosse Skt. Adolf-Starn (The Great Saint Adolf-Star)” by Adolf Wölfli, 26 by 43½ inches, graphite and colored pencil on paper. Estimated at $40/80,000, it sold for $119,700.
The same online bidder paid $113,400 for “Neil House with Chimney #2” by William Hawkins (1895-1990), an enamel, collage and mixed media construction on Masonite that also had extensive publication and exhibition history. The only other work in the sale by Hawkins was his “Juke Box,” a 1987 mixed media composition that sold to a phone bidder, underbid by the Illinois online bidder, for $98,280. Zimmerman noted that when “Juke Box” sold, it set a new record for the artist, only for it to be broken a few minutes later when “Neil House with Chimney #2” sold.
Outsider “Old Masters” Thornton Dial (1928-2016) and Bill Traylor (circa 1853-1949) were both amply represented, with 11 and six works, respectively. Earning the highest of any work by Dial was “When I Lay My Burdens Down,” a mixed media work made in 1993 that rose to $88,200. Traylor’s “Untitled (Pitcher and Bowl)” was one of about 40 works from the William Louis-Dreyfus Foundation and traded hands at $37,800.
American Paintings
Two sessions of American paintings were conducted on January 23, the first titled “American Sublime: Property from an Important Private Collection” that comprised 43 lots and achieved $6,803,868 with 38 lots finding new homes. Thomas Cole’s (1801-1848) “Mount Chocorua, New Hampshire” led the session with an over-estimate result of $1,623,000 that set a new world auction record for the artist. “Still Life with Raisin Cake” by Raphaelle Peale (1774-1825) also exceeded expectations with a $567,000 price realized.
“Mount Chocorua, New Hampshire,” painted in oil on gessoed panel in 1827 by Thomas Cole, measured 23 by 32½ inches, had a thoroughly documented provenance back to the artist and had been included in no fewer than 18 exhibitions. It brought $1,623,000, a new world auction record for the artist ($800,000-$1,200,000).
“American Sublime” was followed by nearly 125 lots of Nineteenth Century American and Western Art. A luminous still life of magnolias on a table by Martin Johnson Heade (1819-1904) had the highest bid: $1,502,000. It had previously been auctioned at Christie’s in 2000 and will be included in Ted Stebbins’ forthcoming catalogue raisonné on the artist. “Grand View Trail,” a sweeping landscape by Thomas Moran (1837-1926), will also be included in an upcoming catalogue raisonné and rode to $1,134,000.
Important Americana
The fourth and final session culminated on January 24 with nearly 250 lots of American furniture, folk art, manuscripts and silver. The sale was the first in recent memory that was not presided over by John Hays, Christie’s long-time former deputy chariman, who stepped down on January 1 to become a consultant. Haws was present in the saleroom and phone bank throughout the auction. Sales tallied $8,476,042 with the house reporting that 10 percent of all bidders and buyers were millennials. Zimmerman additionally noted, “We are thrilled that more than a quarter of the bidders and buyers in the sale were new to Americana; it’s a sign of the long-term stability of our market.”
The buyer of the top lot — the Samuel Jones (1734-1819) Declaration of Independence — was not disclosed but they were bidding on the phone with Christie’s senior specialist of books and manuscripts, Peter Klarnet. The document was newly-discovered and was reported to be the first time a manuscript version of the Declaration written in the hand of an important participant in the nation’s founding has ever come to auction; it was likely penned in 1788 for use in the New York Ratification Convention. Estimated at $2/3,000,000, bidding finally closed at $2,470,000.
Furniture by the Goddard-Townsend family of Rhode Island cabinetmakers are always coveted by collectors and this Chippendale mahogany block-and-shell bureau table had the added desirability of having never left the family. It sold to Gary Sullivan, bidding for a client, for $441,000, the highest price paid for a piece of furniture ($300/500,000).
American furniture reached its apex at $441,000, for a Chippendale carved mahogany block and shell bureau table that was probably made for deputy governor Jabez Bowen (1739-1815) by John Goddard (1724-1785) in Newport, R.I., in 1763. It had never left the Bowen family and had only been previously known through a 1930 article in The Antiquarian. Massachusetts furniture and clock dealer Gary Sullivan, bidding in the room on behalf of a client, prevailed against multiple phone lines.
Sullivan paid $252,000 to win for another client a Queen Anne mahogany tray-top tea table with one drawer that had been published by Israel Sack and came to Christie’s from the Wunsch Collection.
“I’m very glad to have gotten those,” Sullivan shared with us after the sale. He confirmed he was bidding on behalf of different long-time clients.
Folk art saw strong interest and results. Two of five lots of portraits by Ammi Phillips (1788-1865) led the section, first by a rare double-sided portrait painted circa 1815 that had not been seen before. The extensive catalog essay that accompanied the lot suggested it was made for two sitters in the same family, possibly those of the Dorr families of Rensselaer and Columbia counties in New York state. A phone bidder with Cara Zimmerman outbid two trade buyers bidding in the room to win it for $214,200. Phillips’ portrait of Mrs Catherine (Van Keuren) Dubois (1802-1839) that came to auction from the Minneapolis, Minn., collection of Sam and Patty McCullough, also sold to Cara Zimmerman’s phone bidder, for $189,000.
Though the two sitters rendered on each side of this Ammi Phillips portrait were not known, clues in the composition suggested it was painted circa 1815, possibly of members of the Dorr family in upstate New York. A phone bidder paid $214,200 for the lot ($40/80,000).
Following the purchase of the Alaskan territory from Russia in 1867 and the 1896-99 Klondike gold rush, the US government wanted to create a railroad to better access the stores of coal and other minerals found in the area. Frederick Mears (1878-1939) was tapped to engineer the Alaska Railroad and, as its completion drew near in 1823, was awarded a 14K gold spike by the City of Anchorage. When the ceremony to officially complete the railroad took place in Nenana on July 15, 1923, Mears loaned the spike to then-governor Scott Cordelle Bone and President Warren G. Harding, who, according to a contemporary account in The New York Times, “lightly tapped the gold spike twice with a silver sledgehammer. Then Governor Bone quickly withdrew the spike and replaced it with one of ordinary steel.” After the sale, Christie’s announced that the spike was purchased for $201,600 for the Anchorage Museum and the City of Nenana with the help of private donations.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For additional information, 212-636-2000 or www.christies.com.
