Americana Week at Christie's NY

The schedule for Americana week at Christie's NY is as follows.  The sale has over 580 lots and expectations are for a total of $23 million for the various combined sales. The sales covers American furniture, folk art, silver and Chinese export and several single owner sales of furniture and export.

Important American Furniture, Folk Art, Silver & Chinese Export

Americana Sales 2012	Auction	Public Exhibition
Silver	Thursday, 19 January, 10am	14-18 January
John James Audubon’s The Birds of America: The Duke of Portland Set	Friday, 20 January, 10am	14-19 January
Furniture & Folk Art	Friday, 20 January, immediately following	14-19 January
Collection of Mr. & Mrs. Joseph K. Ott	Friday, 20 January, immediately following	14-19 January
Chinese Export	Monday, 23 January, 2pm	14-23 January
Peter H. B. Frelinghuysen, Jr. Collection of Chinese Export Porcelain	Tuesday, 24 January, 10am	14-24 January

Chrsitie's reports on the upcoming sale

Christie’s New York is pleased to announce Americana Week 2012, two weeks of sales, viewings and a symposium devoted to three centuries of American craftsmanship in all its forms, including important furniture, folk art, silver, and decorative arts. The sales begin on January 19 with Important American Silver, followed by John James Audubon’s The Birds of America: The Duke of Portland Set on January 20, Important American Furniture and Folk Art including the Collection of Mr. & Mrs. Joseph K. Ott on January 20, Chinese Export on January 23, and the Peter H. B. Frelinghuysen, Jr. Collection of Chinese Export Porcelain on January 24. With more than 580 lots offered, the combined sales are expected to achieve upwards of $23 million.

Leading the selection is a rare and important Chippendale carved mahogany diminutive block-and-shell document cabinet with drawers signed by John Townsend, 1755-1765 (estimate on request). Diminutive in scale (27 ¾ in. high) but monumental in importance, this extraordinary document cabinet with drawers is a unique form signed by famed cabinetmaker John Townsend (1733-1809) and stands as his earliest known work with a tripartite block-and-shell façade, a design that would become a Newport classic. This document cabinet is revered as the earliest dated piece of block-and-shell furniture with both the convex and concave shaping, and is one of only six examples of block-and-shell furniture signed or labeled by Townsend.

Another top lot is a rare Chippendale elaborately carved mahogany side chair, carving attributed to Nicholas Bernard, made in Philadelphia, circa 1750, that was formerly in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (estimate: $600,000-800,000). The chair illustrates an exceptional moment in American craftsmanship and its profusion of carved ornament provides a visual feast that is virtually unparalleled in American furniture. Linear and intricate, the chair’s ornament demonstrates the early work of carver Nicholas Bernard and its sheer abundance is only seen elsewhere on a few other forms also attributed to the carver and from the same time period. The chair is one of nine known survivals from an original set of twelve traditionally thought to have descended from the Lambert family of Lambertville, New Jersey. Seven of these chairs are now in public collections and the chair offered in January 2012 is further distinguished by its acquisition from a Philadelphia dealer in the early 1930s by Richard Wistar Harvey (b. 1868).