Results: Sotheby's Americana Sales

Sotheby's held two sales during the annual Americana week in New York.  The two sales totaled $9.98 million including buyers premium.  The sales included the regular American sale, and one single owner sale, the collection of Larry McCallister.

The American sale, expected to sell between $9.156 million and $15.107 million did not fare very well with total proceeds of $8.682 including buyers premiums and not even hitting the low estimate mark .

The American Sale offered 485 lots, with 339 selling lots selling and 146 failing to sell for a decent for American, but could be better sell through rate of 69.9%.  The sale sold 66.1% by value.  Only one lot topped $1 million including buyers premium, bought by Leigh Keno, selling at $1.08 million.  The top 11 lots sold between $146,500 and $1.08 million, with 5 beating their high estimate, 4 between the estimates and 1 under the low estimate.

In the single owner sale, expectations where for $1.75 million to $3.26 million sale.  Unfortunately, the sale totaled a rather poor $1.29 million including buyers premiums.  The sale offered 154 lots with 104 selling for a sell through rate of 67.5%, while only selling 59.6 by value.

I am now working on getting the results from the Christie's Americana sales.  Stay tuned.

Sotehby's reported on the sale

NEW YORK, 26 January 2013 – Sotheby’s annual Americana Week auctions concluded today in New York with a total of $9,976,830. The selection of folk art on offer in the two-day sale of Important Americana was led by architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe’s A View of Mount Vernon with the Washington Family on the Terrace, dated July 16, 1796, which achieved $602,500 (est. $500/700,000*). Latrobe presented the watercolor drawing to then-president George Washington as a thank-you for a visit to Mount Vernon at the invitation of Washington’s nephew, Bushrod. The work then descended in the family of John Augustine Washington III – whose family was the last of the Washingtons to live at Mount Vernon – and will now return to the iconic residence: it was purchased at the auction by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, the oldest national historic preservation organization in the United States.

The various-owner sale also featured property from several private collections and notable museums, including furniture from the collection of Thomas P. and Alice K. Kugelman – devoted collectors and passionate scholars of Connecticut furniture – that achieved $1,738,188, exceeding the group’s high estimate of $1.2 million. The top lot of the auction was the Kugelmans’  Important and Exceptional Samuel Talcott Chippendale Carved Cherrywood Block-Front Desk-and-Bookcase, Probably Hartford, Connecticut,  circa 1765-1775, possibly 1767 that sold for $1,082,500, more than doubling its high estimate of $400,000. Museum property was highlighted by nine pieces from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, sold to benefit acquisition funds, which totaled $1,166,875 – well in excess of their $739,000 low estimate.

Sotheby’s Americana Week auctions concluded Saturday afternoon with a dedicated sale of Important Americana from the Collection of Dr. Larry McCallister. The auction comprised American furniture, decorative arts, silver and fine arts collected by Dr. McCallister over the course of nearly 40 years, including The Important Hall Family Chippendale Carved and Figured Mahogany Bonnet-Top Block-Front Chest-on-Chest, Attributed to Benjamin Frothingham, Charleston, Massachusetts, circa 1770 that fetched $194,500 above a low estimate of $150,000.

Source: Sotheby's