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Maine Antique Digest, April 2017 27-A
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AUCTION -
37-D
Chippendale carved
and figured mahogany
bombé slant-front desk, 44¾" high x
46½" wide x 23¼" deep, Boston, Massachusetts, circa
1780, with a later black ink inscription on the backboard that
reads “Miss E.M. Griggs / #14B Lexington Avenue / New York / NY.” It has a patch to the top,
adjacent to the lock plate, and repairs at the hinges and the front edge of the lid. The drawer
pulls are replaced, and there are some patch repairs to the drawer fronts and a patch to the
lower back edge of the proper left case side, just above the base molding, and a new prospect
door. It sold online for $27,500 (est. $30,000/50,000).
This desk has a long auction history. In 1992
at Northeast Auctions, it sold for $44,000 to
dealer Todd Prickett. Prickett said at the time he bought it for a customer at a bargain price
because no one thought the feet were original, which he believed was true, although he found
evidence that the feet had been taken off and reattached.
To go back further, the desk had been owned for 30 years by Mrs. Margaret King, a dealer
in Corning, New York, whose husband bought it from John Walton in the 1950s. King sold the
desk to Pennsylvania dealer Leonard Geiger for $50,000, and Geiger, wanting a quick profit,
put the desk in a Sotheby’s sale with an $80,000/120,000 estimate. When Walton found out that
King had sold it for $50,000, he refused to bid on it at auction. At the time he was not willing to
give speculators a quick profit on a desk he had bought for $5000 years ago. Others saw that
Walton was not bidding on a piece he had once owned, and they also did not bid, and the piece
was passed at $52,000. Walton bought it after the sale and sold it to a client who in 1990 decided
he did not need it anymore and consigned it to Sotheby’s, where it was aggressively estimated
at $150,000/200,000. It was then bought in at $110,000. Then it was sent to Northeast Auctions
where it sold for $44,000 in the summer of 1992, $6000 less than the $50,000 it sold for in 1980,
which reflected how far the market had retreated from a peak in 1980. The story also illustrates
how the wrath of the legendary John Walton lives on, and also that feet matter.
Sotheby’s cataloged it “with replaced feet” and announced that the prospect door was a
replacement. Its hammer price was half the $44,000 it brought in 1992. It is a rare form. An
intact example made in Marblehead and signed by Francis Cook (1734-1772) sold for $698,500
to a collector, underbid by Todd Prickett, at Sotheby’s in January 2010. Another sold for
$605,000 to Billy Mayer at Steenburgh Auctioneers, East Haverhill, New Hampshire, in October
2004. In January 2007 at Sotheby’s, that desk sold for $1,608,000 (est. $800,000/1,200,000) to
Albert Sack, underbid by Deanne Levison. There are only seven bombé slant-front desks known.
Taylor family diminutive Queen
Anne mahogany easy chair,
Philadelphia, with stocking trifid
feet (sometimes called shell feet),
circa 1755, with a cloth label once
affixed to later upholstery that
reads “This chair belonged to /
Mary Richardson Taylor / given
by her / husband Samuel Taylor / It
dates about / 1736 / Bequeathed to
/ Mary Wood / by Mary Randolph
/ 1909.” Measuring 44" high, it
sold on the phone for $62,500 (est.
$60,000/80,000). Mary Richardson
Taylor was the daughter of silversmith
Joseph Richardson. In January 1997
at Sotheby’s, it sold for $68,500. In
1990 at Sotheby’s it sold for $126,500.
A similar example sold for $583,250
at the sale for Mrs. and Mrs. Lammot
du Pont Copeland at Sotheby’s in
January 2002.
Carved mahogany chest of drawers, attributed to Benjamin
Frothingham, Charlestown, Massachusetts, circa 1770, 30½"
high x 38" wide x 20¾" deep, 33" case width, with an Israel Sack
provenance and listed as “Superior” in the 1993 edition of the
The
New Fine Points of Early American Furniture
, sold for $50,000 (est.
$40,000/60,000).
Queen Anne diminutive figured mahogany blockfront chest
of drawers, signed by Walter Frothingham, Charlestown,
Massachusetts, and Joseph Hallowell, circa 1760, sold for
$187,500 (est. $150,000/250,000). The underside of the long
drawer bears the chalk inscription “Walter Frothingham /
Charlestown,” and the inside of the backboards bears the
chalk inscription “Joseph Hallowell.” It appears to retain its
original cast brass hardware and a dark rich historic surface. It
is 29" high x 34" wide x 20½" deep, and the case width is 32".
The Frothingham signature appears quite similar to that of
Benjamin Frothingham Jr. on a high chest in the collection of
Winterthur. Given the location of Hallowell’s signature on the
backboards, the chest could have been inscribed only when it
was being constructed. Therefore this remarkable chest stands
as the sole surviving object identifying Walter Frothingham and
Joseph Hallowell as likely apprentices in the workshop of master
cabinetmaker Benjamin Frothingham Jr.
Queen Anne inlaid and figured walnut high chest
of drawers, Ipswich, Massachusetts, circa 1755,
appearing to retain its original finials and oversize
cast brass hardware, 90½" high x 42" wide x 23½"
deep, with a John Walton provenance, sold for
$75,000 (est. $40,000/60,000) to a St. Louis collector
in the salesroom.
Classical inlaid and figured maple and mahogany ormolu-
mounted games table, Philadelphia, circa 1825, 29¼"
high x 35¾" wide x 17¾" deep, sold for $37,500 (est.
$10,000/15,000) in the salesroom to Alexandra Kirtley,
curator of American decorative arts at the Philadelphia
Museum of Art. “We are just upgrading. We have a similar
table but not in as good condition,” she said.