Collectors of American folk art have long prized the rough-hewn figures of Wilhelm Schimmel (1817–1890). The Pennsylvania German itinerant craftsman carved a variety of animal figures, none more desirable than large, spread-wing eagles such as this one, whose breadth measures 32 inches. From the collection of the Jack Warner Foundation, the sculpture made between 1865 and 1890 eclipsed previous auction records to sell for $427,500.

NEW YORK CITY — September is usually a sleepy month, devoted to the quotidian details of getting the kids back to school and, in some sets, closing the summer house and putting the boat to bed. There was nothing retiring, however, about Christie’s September 20 Americana sale. Despite its diminutive catalog, it was a powerhouse affair.

The 143-lot session featured a winning variety of fine and decorative arts, including treasures of the sort normally reserved for January. An iconic Schimmel eagle sold for a record $427,500. A silver-hilted sword originally owned by Benjamin Franklin made $247,000 and got a magnificent send-off by Winterthur curator emeritus Donald L. Fennimore, a foremost metals expert whose essay on the sword dazzles.

Rendered in paint or sculpted in gilt-bronze, portraits of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln elevated the otherwise cheerless national political debate.

In all, Christie’s grossed $2,691,625 on the selection, some of which is shown here. Prices include buyer’s premium.

Sold for $ 247,500, this silver-hilted sword originally owned by Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) is a sterling tribute to the patriot’s international stature and friendship with the Frenchman Pierre Jean Georges Cabanis (1757–1808), in whose family the sword descended. Meticulous research by Donald L. Fennimore, curator emeritus at Winterthur Museum, underscores the sword’s additional importance as a Colonial Revival relic. Displayed in the French Pavilion at the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893, the weapon combines what is most likely a Spanish blade with a marked scabbard locket by Samuel Soumaine (1718–circa 1769), who probably assembled the components in his Philadelphia shop in the 1750s.

This gilded French mantel clock is by the Parisian Jacques Nicolas Pierre Francois Dubuc for the American market and dates to circa 1815–7. Auctioned for $ 100,000, the signed timepiece honors the new republic and its first leader, George Washington. “All surviving clocks in this group,” writes Christie’s, “feature a figure based on Trumbull’s 1792 painting, ‘George Washington at Trenton,’ which was reproduced by British engraver Thomas Cheeseman in 1796.” A 1780 portrait by Trumbull influenced the modeling of Washington’s head. Dubuc clocks were advertised in newspapers in Philadelphia, Charleston, Raleigh and New York in 1815. With minor variations, approximately 30 clocks in two sizes survive. This one, at over 19 inches tall, is from the group of large clocks and descended in the Woodside family of Baltimore.

This hanging wall box fetched $ 56,250. Inscribed on its lid “Chrisdina Hoffman, jahr 1841” and initialed CH twice, it measures 8-3/8 inches high and is thought to be from Berks County, Penn. Calling to mind illuminated documents by Samuel Bentz, who worked mainly in Lancaster County, Penn., the box was part of the Scott collection, auctioned by Christie’s in 1994.

The semiabstract “Untitled (Landscape with Oxen and Woman)” by Martín Ramírez (1895–1963) made ,500. Ramírez , who worked from memory, suggests the landscape of his native Mexico in this crayon and graphite drawing on paper measuring 23 by 32-5/8 inches.

“Construction with Six Figures and a Dog” by Bill Traylor (1854–1949), graphite on card, 11½ by 7-7/8 inches, realized $ 68,750. The provenance of several top galleries attaches to this drawing, which exhibits the vitality and narrative interest collectors prize in works by Traylor.

This marble, patinated and gilt-bronze garniture consists of a T.&E. Dickinson of Buffalo, N.Y., clock and two obelisks. The trio, $ 35,000, dates to the last quarter of the Nineteenth Century.

Though not in the ebonized Japonesque style most associated with the firm, this set of eight carved oak dining chairs of circa 1880 are attributed to Herter Brothers. Handled by the specialist New York dealer Mimi Findlay, the set realized $ 81,250.

The self-taught artist Sam Doyle (1906–1985) created “Lincoln, Indian Hill” around 1980. The 49-by-25-inch painting on repurposed sheet metal brought $ 32,500. The Gullah artist from St Helena Island, S.C., here envisions President Lincoln speaking to a community of free African Americans in Indian Hill.

From the Jack Warner Foundation collection, this pair of carved mahogany eagle-base Classical card tables realized $ 187,500. They were made in New York, possibly by Duncan Phyfe, and date to circa 1820–40. Card tables with similar supports have also been documented to the firm of Deming and Bulkley (act. 1818–40s). Early provenance on this pair includes the New Yorker Nicholas J. Roosevelt (1767–1854).

If you were to own only one early American engraving, it might be this one. “The Bloody Massacre” by Paul Revere (1734–1818) is quite possibly the best-known engraving of its time. Depicting a pivotal Revolutionary War-era event in Boston in March 1770, the print sold for $ 75,000.

Auctioned for $ 81,250 by Yale University Art Gallery to benefit its acquisition fund, “George Washington at Princeton” is attributed to the French painter Pierre Augustin Thomire (1724–1808) and dates to about 1780. The 61-by-44-inch oil portrait is thought to be one of the earliest replicas of Charles Willson Peale’s iconic likeness of Washington. A signed Thomire of similar composition and execution hangs in the Union Club in New York City. Christie’s notes two more examples by the same hand at the Huntington in California. Jacques Seligmann & Co., Inc, and M. Knoedler & Co., brokered the 1922 sale of Thomire’s work, then in a French collection, to the New York investment banker Mortimer Loeb Schiff.