Examples of fine furniture were topped by the Exceptional Samuel Whitehorne Carved Mahogany Bonnet-Top High Chest of Drawers, Goddard-Townsend School, Newport, Rhode Island, circa 1760, which fetched $543,000 (estimate $150/300,000). A masterpiece of American furniture, this exceptional high chest retains its original surface and displays numerous details of construction and ornament that firmly tie it to the Goddard and Townsend craft tradition. Originally owned by Samuel Whitehorne (1744-1796), the prosperous merchant and distiller of Newport, Rhode Island, the work had remained in the Whitehorne-Ennis family for nearly 260 years and had never been published or offered at auction until these sales.

A COLLECTING LEGACY:
PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF NELSON & HAPPY ROCKEFELLER
Auction Total $3.3 Million

Friday’s auction of furniture and decorative objects from the treasured collection of Nelson & Happy Rockefeller totaled $3.3 million – nearing the sale’s high estimate and with a strong 83% of lots sold. A group of superlative Chinese export ceramics brought top prices throughout the sale, led by a Rare Crab-Form Tureen and Cover, Qing Dynasty, Qianlong Period that soared past its $200,000 high estimate to achieve $375,000. The delicately and realistically modeled tureen is one of only four published examples, including those residing in the Peabody Essex Museum and the Royal Academy Collection.

Sotheby’s sales of property from Nelson & Happy Rockefeller’s collection have reached $11.4 million to-date. The Americana Week auction followed the success of our dedicated November offering of important 20th Century Design, Impressionist & Modern and Contemporary Art from the collection – featuring a selection of works commissioned by Nelson from designer Jean-Michel Frank to fill his distinguished 810 5th Avenue apartment – as well as jewels from Happy’s personal collection that highlighted our Magnificent Jewels sale in December. Passionately assembled with wide-ranging interests and an unwavering eye for quality, this remarkable assemblage is not only tied to one of America’s most storied families, but is also a significant and pioneering collection in and of itself.

THE COLLECTION OF ANNE H. & FREDERICK VOGEL III
Auction Total $4.2 Million

On Saturday, Sotheby’s held a sale dedicated to the collection of Anne H. & Frederick Vogel III – a remarkable assemblage of early Americana and early English pottery. Collectors responded to the fresh-to-market material, much of which had remained off the market for nearly 30 years, and propelled the sale to a $4.2 million total, with an exceptional 94.4% of the nearly 500 lots sold.

Among the furniture and decorative arts illustrating early American colonial life, the sale was highlighted by several exemplary examples of Pilgrim Century furniture and decorative arts. The Important Fairbanks Family Pilgrim Century Turned and Red-Painted Maple Spindle-Back Great Chair, attributed to turner Ephraim Tinkham Jr. circa 1680, sold well above estimate for $125,000 (estimate $50/80,000), while An Important Pilgrim Century Red-Painted Carved Oak and Pine Document Box dated circa 1680 fetched $118,750 (estimate $50/100,000). The maker of this remarkable box was unknown until the groundbreaking research of Joshua Lane and Donald White, who conclusively proved that the maker was Thomas Stoughton IV.

THE HISTORY OF NOW:
THE IMPORTANT AMERICAN FOLK ART COLLECTION OF DAVID TEIGER
Auction Total $2.5 Million

Sunday’s sales began with a dedicated offering of The Important American Folk Art Collection of David Teiger – one of the greatest collections of American folk art remaining in private hands, which followed Sotheby’s 2018 sales of contemporary art from the collection of the visionary collector, patron, and Museum of Modern Art, New York trustee. Sotheby’s sales of David Teiger’s collection have exceeded $100 million to-date, with proceeds benefitting Teiger Foundation for the support of contemporary art.

The sale was a very strong 90.8% sold by lot, led by a Long-Billed Curlew created between 1880-90 that brought $350,000 (estimate $300/500,000). The long-billed curlew is the largest American curlew species and was shot for food and sport throughout the 19th and early 20thcenturies. The present decoy is one of a handful of survivors of a shorebird rig owned and gunned over by the work’s original owner, Dr. John Charles Phillips of Beverly, Massachusetts.

The Teiger Collection also offered a rare, monumental, two-sided illustration from Henry Darger’s The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What Is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion – the 15-volume fictional history of an epic war that Darger spent approximately 20 years writing and nearly five decades illustrating. The large panoramic scene 49. At Jennie Richee, escape during approach of new storm needed into enemy lines achieved $325,000, besting its high estimate of $300,000.