The sale was led by The Nicholas Brown Important Chippendale Carved and Figured Mahogany Scalloped-Top Tea Table with Open Ball and Talons, which fetched $912,500 (estimate $800,000/1.2 million).  An important survival of Colonial Newport furniture, the table is one of only two likely originally owned by Nicholas Brown, a wealthy Providence merchant and member of the prominent Brown family of Rhode Island, and exemplifies stellar American colonial craftsmanship.

The selection of silver on offer included a Japanese style vase by Tiffany & Co. which fetched $275,000— a stunning 22+ times its $12,000 estimate—from the company to be included in their archival collection.  Designed by John Curran for Tiffany’s contribution to the 1892 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, a fair celebrating the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the New World, the vase’s description corresponds to the famed jewelry company’s “Trout Vase” and displays chased koi and aquatic plants with stylized water lilies and lily pads throughout. The silver selection was led by an important American silver brandywine bowl (pictured left) by Gerrit Onkelbag circa 1700, which sold for $372,500 (estimate $300/500,000). Descended within the Boudinot-Atterbury family, the bowl was reportedly used by George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and Marquis de Lafayette.

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF E. NEWBOLD AND MARGARET DU PONT SMITH
21 January
Auction Total $3.4 Million

E. Newbold and Margaret Du Pont Smith’s collection celebrates extraordinary examples of 18th-century Pennsylvania fine and decorative arts.  An Extremely Fine and Rare Miniature High Chest led the sale of the Smith collection, setting a world auction record for an American miniature when it brought $612,500, surpassing its high estimate of $120,000. The William and Mary, flat-top chest of drawers was designed circa 1725 and served as a keep-safe for prized household possessions and valuables, such as jewelry and silver.

Fine art from the distinguished collection was led by James Edward Buttersworth’s Racing in New York Harbor, an oil-on-canvas which achieved $300,000 during the sale.

ALEXANDER HAMILTON: AN IMPORTANT FAMILY ARCHIVE OF LETTERS & MANUSCRIPTS
18 January
Auction Total $2.6 Million

Sotheby’s Americana Week sales began on Wednesday with the ‘White Glove’ sale of archival letters and manuscripts from Alexander Hamilton, The sale matched the excitement surrounding the wildly-successful Hamilton: An American Musical, setting a new auction record for any manuscript by the founding father with A Previously Unrecorded Autograph Draft of Pacificus Essay No. VI, which sold for $262,500($300/500,000). All 77 lots offered during Wednesday’s sale found buyers, with 11 lots breaking previously held records for any document handwritten by Hamilton.