CINCINNATI, OHIO — “It was a good bottle. It was not one of the rarest in terms of the imagery used but the story was interesting,” said Ben Fisher, about the Andrew Clemens’ sand bottle that more than doubled its high estimate to bring $170,100 and led Hindman’s American Furniture, Folk & Decorative Arts sale on October 4. Depicting the primary decorative elements of a floral wreath enclosing the names and city of the bottle’s first owners on one side and a clipper ship at sea on the other, the bottle descended in the family of John and Margaret Leary, who commissioned it around 1887. Exhibition history at a country club in Gary, Ind., in 1936 added to its appeal and it sold to a collector of Clemens’ bottles who was bidding on the phone and outlasted another phone bidder and absentee bids. Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. A more extensive sale recap will appear in an upcoming issue.