Sotheby’s New York Highlights Sotheby’s New York Highlights Release January - March 2010 IMPORTANT AMERICANA Exhibition opens: 16 January 22-23 January 2010
Mahogany Marble-Top Pier Table, attributed to Thomas Seymour with John Seymour, carving attributed to Thomas Wightman, circa 1805 (Est. $100/200,000). The table is among the most sophisticated, ambitious and elaborate pieces of American Furniture made in the Federal period. Only three other tables of similarly ambitious design are known. The present table retains its original finish and imported marble top and has remained in a private Pennsylvania collection since the 1960s. Another highlight is the Captain Samuel Morris Pair of Queen Anne Carved and Figured Walnut Rounded-Stile Compass-Seat Side Chairs, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, circa 1745 (est. $200/500,000). Standing as superior examples of the Philadelphia Queen Anne style, these side chairs display a unified sculptural design, extremely fine construction and highquality carving rarely matched on other seating furniture in the era. The delicate legs are punctuated by carved claw-and-ball feet, a rare feature among Queen Anne seating furniture. An Important Chippendale Carved Mahogany Bedstead, Attributed to John Townsend, Newport, Rhode Island, circa 1770 (est. $50/100,000) is one of only six known bedsteads with claw-and-ball feet to have been produced in Rhode Island. Two Federal Paint-Decorated Klismos Side Chairs Attributed to John and Hugh Finlay, Baltimore, Maryland, circa 1809 (est. $35/75,000 each) represent the apex of Federal style, which emulated Greek and Roman design forms.
Among the folk art highlights offered is a Fine and Rare Molded Copper Figure of an Indian with Bow and Arrow, Probably Harris & Co., Boston, circa 1880 (est. $100/200,000). The work was formerly in the esteemed collection of Dione Guffrey Kenzer, one of New York City’s most prominent collectors, from the 1950s to the 1970s, from whom it was inherited by the present owner. As the first Art Editor for the prominent advertising firm J. Walter Thompson, Dione had a keen eye, and together with her husband Myron Kenzer, amassed an intelligent and important personal art collection with the help of their close friend and fellow collector, Andy Warhol. An Important and Rare Molded Sheet Copper Figure of a Knight on Horseback from the Gingerbread Castle in Sussex County, New Jersey, created by Joseph Urban in 1928 will also be featured (est. $40/100,000). The monumental figure – measuring almost eight feet tall – once topped the Hansel-and-Gretel-inspired Fairy Tale House, one of America’s first amusement parks, located on the grounds of Wheatsworth Mills, which later became Nabisco.
The park and buildings were commissioned by F.H. Bennett, a wealthy entrepreneur, after he saw Urban’s elaborate stage designs for Humperdink’s famous opera, Hansel and Gretel, and was in operation from 1929 until the mid-1970s. Far less common than the often-used figurehead, a Fine and Rare Carved Pine Sternboard with Portrait Bust of Daniel Webster made for the Whaling Ship Daniel Webster of Sag Harbor, New York circa 1847 is another highlight of the sale (est.$25/75,000). A refined
Pair of Portraits by J. Brown of Anna Hopkins Turner and Caleb Humiston Turner will also be featured (est. $30/60,000). J. Brown was among a small group of skillful painters who worked
