Hidden Treasures
Searching for Masterpieces of American Furniture
Chapter One
Going Once....
"Lot number 701, the carved maple bedstead.... And we have a $1,500
bid to start it, bidding at $1,500. I have $2,000.... now
$2,500.... on the phone now $3,000...."
When I heard auctioneer Bill Stahl open the bidding on that bed
frame, at Sotheby's Important Americana sale of January 17, 1999, my
heart began to race. Run-of-the-mill New England bedsteads don't
usually have that effect on me. After all, I have been with
Sotheby's for over twenty years-seventeen of which have been spent
as the director of the American Furniture and Decorative Arts
Department-so I've seen my share of maple beds.
My pulse quickened, however, because I knew that within moments that
Federal bedstead would be sold and the bidding would open on the
next lot-a large mahogany secretary-bookcase made in Newport, Rhode
Island, in the 1740s. This particular bookcase was unlike any other
piece of American furniture that I had ever seen before. From the
moment I first laid eyes on it, in a set of hazy, unprofessional
photographs sent ... read full excerpt from: Hidden Treasures ebook
