Sotheby's Results - Americana Week Totals $17.9 Million, Sets New Auction Records
Sotheby’s Americana Week auctions concluded today in New York with a combined total of $17,900,261 – Sotheby’s highest total for this annual week of sales since 2007.
The Important Americana auction on Friday and Saturday was led by two record-setting results: the previously undocumented Exceptional Lieutenant Colonel Oliver Arnold Shell-Carved and Figured Mahogany High Chest of Drawers with Open Talons made by John Townsend in 1756, which set an auction record for any high chest of drawers in selling for $3,554,500 (est. $2/3 million), and An Extremely Rare and Highly Important Gold-Inlaid and Deep Relief Engraved Colt Model 1849 Pocket Revolver, Samuel Colt, Hartford, Connecticut, circa 1853 that brought $1,142,500 and set a record for any single firearm at auction (est. $800,000/1.2 million).
On Sunday, Important American Schoolgirl Embroideries: The Landmark Collection of Betty Ring totaled $4,389,503 – exceeding its pre-sale high estimate of $3.4 million – and set a new auction record for any needlework sampler at auction when a Rare and Important Needlework Sampler, Mary Antrim, Burlington Country, New Jersey, Dated 1807achieved $1,070,500, more than ten times its high estimate of $120,000.
http://www.sothebys.com/en.html