Freeman’s handily exceeded its low presale estimate of $923,000 this past Saturday, April 24, logging an impressive $1.9 million, a record for an Americana auction at the Chestnut Street firm.

Leading the sale was an 1801 Centre County, Penn., fraktur by Reverend George Geistweite, whose only other known work is at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Freeman example brought $366,750, a record price paid at auction for a fraktur, selling to Massachusetts dealer David Wheatcroft.

The underbidder, Olde Hope Antiques, successfully bid a two-handled slip decorated redware jar decorated with tulips and inscribed “1799” at $56,400. Both lots were consigned by a Reading, Penn., collector who acquired the pieces at the George Horace Lorimer sale in 1944 through Pennsylvania dealer Hattie Klapp Brunner.

Other top lots included a cutwork picture that sold to a local private buyer for $32,500, a Pilgrim Century oak chest with replaced top $51,700, and a carved cartouche and pediment pictured in Horner’s Blue Book was snapped up at $44,650.

A complete review will appear in a future issue.