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.
This New York five-legged card table sold to the phone for $867,500 in Christie’s Various Owners.
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.
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.
