Sotheby's Americana Week Brings $14.4 Million
Sotheby’s Americana Week concluded today with a 3-day auction total of $14.4 million, comfortably above the cumulative low estimate of $11.5 million. The sales brought significant prices for American furniture, silver and folk art, led by An Important Searls Family Chippendale Highly Inlaid Cherrywood and Mahogany Chest of Drawers that achieved $872,500 in the Saturday afternoon session of Important Americana. The dedicated auction of Property from the Hascoe Family Collection performed strongly on Sunday, bringing $5,446,466 and selling 92% by lot. Additional Hascoe property will appear in sales throughout the spring auction season, culminating in a second dedicated auction in London devoted to the Hascoes’ impressive collection of Czech art.
The sales saw major prices for several silver pieces with exceptional histories. Property from the Hascoe Family Collection was led by An Important Pair of American Silver Wine Cups, Paul Revere, Jr., Boston, 1792 that brought $752,500, far exceeding its pre-sale high estimate of $200,000. The cups were commissioned by Moses Michael Hayes, who founded The Massachusetts Bank in 1784, which operates today as Bank of America. The Ptarmigan Vase: A Monumental Copper, Silver and Gold Mokume Vase, circa 1900-05, sold for $662,500 in the Important Americana auction to a Canadian dealer, on behalf of a prominent Canadian museum (pre-sale est. $80/120,000). Through intensive research, Sotheby’s discovered that the five signatures at the vase’s base can be traced to master craftsmen who worked for Tiffany at the turn of the 20th century.
