Property from the Collection of Mrs. J. Insley Blair is highest selling Americana single owner CHRISTIE’S NEW YORK STARTS AUCTION SEASON WITH BIG BANG AS AMERICANA SALES TOTAL $42 MILLION, THE HIGHEST TOTAL EVER FOR AMERICANA WEEK.
News-Antique.com - Nov 30,-0001 - New York – Christie’s New York achieved the highest total ever for a series of Americana sales when the three sales, Property from the Collection of Mrs. J. Insley Blair; Property from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. E.J.Nusrala and Important American Furniture, Folk Art, Silver and Prints Including the Garbisch Collection from the Sky Club, totaled $41,887,880, setting several important new world auction records and establishing the Blair Collection as the highest selling single owner collection of Americana ever to have appeared at auction.
“Mrs. Blair’s discerning eye and insistence on quality, purity of form and original condition created resounding enthusiasm among Americana collectors,” said John Hays, Deputy Chairman Christie’s Americas. “Mrs. Blair formed her Americana ensemble long before it became an established collecting field and it was her enterprising and ground-breaking collecting attitude, combined with her never failing search for the best that today’s buyers responded to.”
Leading Christie’s sales of Americana was the unparalleled Property from the Collection of Mrs. J. Insley Blair, a pioneer collection which included the majestic and record-breaking portrait of George Washington by Charles Willson Peale. Christie’s full understanding of the historical significance of the collection, coupled with a superior sense of today’s Americana market and its dynamics, helped profile and promote the collection in a competitive market and led it to become the world’s most expensive single owner ensemble of Americana ever to have appeared at auction.
Christie’s Americana sales further featured Property from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. E.J. Nusrala, a collection particularly strong in Philadelphia’s Rococo aesthetic which fetched $3.2 million and was 91% sold, as well as a 884-lot strong various owners sale which totaled $6.4 million and was 80% sold. The whopping highlight of this sale was a copper painted and sheet iron Goddess Liberty weathervane which sold for $1.1 million, setting a new auction record for a weather vane in all four wind directions.
“Holding the flag, standing proud, Goddess Liberty led the way to the huge success of Christie’s spring Americana sales,” said Margot Rosenberg, Head of the Folk Art Department at Christie’s New York. “Great depth and competition are created in the marketplace when quality, provenance and rarity converge. All three of our sales carried this magic formula, resulting in a record-breaking Americana Week.”
