American Classical Furniture During Americana Week

Wendy Moonan has a piece in the NY Times primarily about a hand written speech by Abraham Lincoln which will be auctioned by Chrisites. The sale is scheduled for Lincolns birthday of February 12, and is estimated to sell for $3-$4 million.

So what does that have to do with American classical furniture. If furniture specialist can get through the section on the Lincoln speech, there is some interesting commentary on the furniture sales at Sotheby's. Christie's and Bohahams, all of course soon to have specialty sales on Americana. As most appraisers are aware of, great classical furniture can command very high prices, while rather ordinary or poor examples can sell for pratically nothing.

Moonan states This year Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Bonhams are each presenting some unusual pieces of American classical furniture from the early 19th century, including high-style American Empire examples made in Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston.

This style has received little attention in recent years. (Wendy A. Cooper, a senior furniture curator at the Winterthur Museum in Delaware, wrote the definitive book, “Classical Taste in America: 1800 to 1840,” in 1993.)

That doesn’t mean that collectors have stopped buying this flamboyant grand furniture, which is often decorated with American reinterpretations of designs from ancient Rome, Greece and Egypt.

“We sold a lot of material in 2008,” said Stuart P. Feld, president of the Hirschl & Adler Galleries in New York, which offer period furniture, lighting, porcelain and glass, starting at prices around $15,000.

Hirschl & Adler and Carswell Rush Berlin, a private dealer with a similar specialty, based in New York, will be exhibiting at the Winter Antiques Show, which runs from Jan. 23 to Feb. 1 at the Park Avenue Armory.

The article also lists some of the more unique American classical pieces that will be on sale. To read the article on Lincoln and Classical American furniture, click HERE.