HAMILTON Designer David Korins' Installation Opens at Sotheby's 'Americana Week'

Sotheby's recently announced its January 2017 Americana Week sales, featuring exceptional and historically-important examples of American furniture and decorative arts, silver, folk art, manuscripts and more, spanning from the colonial era to the early-20th century.

The six sales and 750+ works on offer this month represent one of the most significant selections of this material ever to appear at auction, anchored by an impressive number of distinguished private collections.

As previously announced, David Korins, Tony-nominated set designer for Hamilton the musical and the recently-opened Dear Evan Hansen - among his many other accomplishments - will serve as Creative Director for Sotheby's Americana Week. David will design a multi-floor installation in our New York headquarters, responding to the centuries of American history and craftsmanship on view. The Americana Week exhibitions open to the public today 11 January.

David Korins commented: "I am thrilled to be collaborating with Sotheby's on this unique opportunity to create a new type of consumer journey through their iconic Upper East Side space. I am inspired by the virtuosic craftsmanship and rich history represented in each piece in the sale. My design will explore a theme of a thousand individual threads and stories woven together to tell one collective American story."

Korins recently selected his favorite pieces from Americana Week for Sotheby's blog - check it out here!

Erik Gronning, Head of Sotheby's American Furniture & Decorative Arts Department, said: "Our Americana Week this January is one for the ages. Very rarely does the public have an opportunity to see such a broad diversity of fantastic objects. The items on offer have been kept away in collections for many decades, so they are very fresh to the marketplace. It will be exciting to show them this January with new scholarship and connoisseurship."

ALEXANDER Hamilton: AN IMPORTANT FAMILY ARCHIVE OF LETTERS AND MANUSCRIPTS

Auction 18 January

With a meteoric rise in recognition and popularity over the last 15 years, Alexander Hamilton's story has captured the popular imagination to an extent almost unprecedented for a historical figure. This sale will tell the story of his brief but momentous life through hundreds of original documents - many bearing his signature - that have descended through his family for the last two centuries. Separate release available

THE IMPORTANT AMERICANA COLLECTION OF GEORGE S. PARKER II FROM THE CAXAMBAS FOUNDATION

Auction 19 January

George S. Parker II loved the brilliance of American craftsmanship and design. Over nearly 40 years, he assembled an exceptional, encyclopedic and museum-quality collection of Americana that contains examples from many of the various colonial cabinetmaking centers. This dedicated sale - the centerpiece of Sotheby's Americana Week - features: the only known example of a Queen Anne block-and-shell carved mahogany block-front dressing table from Providence, Rhode Island, circa 1765 (estimate $300/500,000); a pair of magnificently carved Philadelphia side chairs directly inspired by Thomas Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director (estimate $200/300,000); two Philadelphia 'hairy-paw' pieces, including the Joshua Eyre gaming table with carving by Richard Butts (estimate $300/500,000) and a fire screen carved by Martin Jugiez (estimate $100/150,000); and the patriot and secretary of the Continental Congress Charles Thomson's armchair, carved by John Pollard (estimate $200/300,000). Great American portrait painters are also represented in the collection, with works by John Singleton Copley, Charles Willson Peale, Gilbert Stuart, Joseph Blackburn, Ralph Earl, Thomas Sully, and John Trumbull. Mr. Parker also collected fine example of English silver, and the collection contains several examples from the celebrated London silversmith Paul Storr.

THE IRIS SCHWARTZ COLLECTION OF AMERICAN SILVER

Auction 20 January

Iris Schwartz devoted decades to building a comprehensive survey collection of American silver, from its beginnings to the present day. Starting with Hull and Sanderson, the first silversmiths documented in what would become the United States, it embraces masterpieces and characterful items of the Rococo, Neoclassical, Federal, Empire, Revivalist, Japonesque, Art Nouveau, and Modern periods - an achievement of both intellectualism and love of the material.

Highlights from the 18th century include: a very rare pair of American silver candlesticks by Jewish silversmith Myer Myers (estimate $150/250,000) and a beautiful square coffee pot by Baltimore silversmith Charles Louis Boehm for the Ridgely family (estimate $15/25,000). The early-19th century is represented by a monumental American Empire tureen by Baldwin Gardiner (estimate $80/120,000) and rare Antebellum Southern pieces, while the Gilded Age offers a set of twelve Tiffany enameled cups and covers for Nevada bonanza king John Mackay, shown at the 1878 Paris Exhibition (estimate $70/90,000) and a Tiffany "Viking" vase from the 1901 Buffalo Exhibition (estimate $20/30,000). Later silver ranges from a Gorham Martelé punch bowl and ladle (estimate $50/70,000) to a water pitcher by Ubaldo Vitali, winner of the 2011 MacArthur "Genius" award (estimate $3/5,000).

IMPORTANT AMERICANA INCLUDING PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF JOAN OESTREICH KEND

Auction 20 & 21 January

In keeping with the dedicated sales during Americana Week, the various-owner auction of Important Americana is highlighted by additional property emerging from distinguished private collections. The collection of Joyce Volk, noted scholar and author in the field of American decorative arts and longtime curator of the Warner House in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, offers early painted provincial New England furniture from her period 18th-century home. Early Boston furniture from the collection of Amos Staehle features a fabulous bonnet-top highboy, as well as a card table and chairs, while the New York collection of Bruce Westcott is highlighted by one of the greatest groups of Paktong candlesticks ever to appear at auction.

The Colonial silver highlights include a large, rare silver brandywine bowl by Gerrit Onkelbag of New York, circa 1700 which descended within the Boudinot-Atterbury family and was reportedly used by George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and the Marquis de Lafayette, and an early silver tankard by Koenraet Ten Eyck of Albany, NY, circa 1710 that exemplifies the distinctive New York decorative elements of the time. Also of great importance is a silver and mixed metal three-handled cup by Tiffany & Co. that was presented to a workman, Frederick Duesberg, upon his retirement in 1901. It includes the names of fifty of his colleagues and serves as a rare historical document into those employees working at the turn of the century.

The collection of Joane Oestreich Kend features a highly-personal selection of Americana that Mrs. Kend herself acquired for her estate in Millbrook, New York. The group is a celebration of form and function, highlighted by vivid Folk portraiture and dramatic, sculptural weathervanes. The January sale will offer a Gilt and Painted Molded Copper Goddess of Liberty with Flag Weathervane, crafted in New York circa 1880 by J.W. Fiske Ironworks, which stands an impressive three feet tall (estimate $100/150,000).

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF E. NEWBOLD AND MARGARET DU PONT SMITH

Auction 21 January

The Smiths' collection focuses primarily on outstanding examples of 18th-century Pennsylvania fine and decorative arts. The collection includes: a very scarce example of Penn's Treaty by the consummate folk artist Edward Hicks (estimate $800,000/1.2 million) as well as an important miniature William and Mary high chest of drawers (estimate $80/120,000). The brilliance of early Philadelphia craftsmen is on full display with the outstanding Queen Anne carved and figured walnut open armchair (estimate $250/350,000), the wonderful tall case clock with works by the celebrated clockmaker Peter Stretch (1670-1746) and its case by one of Philadelphia's earliest cabinetmakers John Head (w. 1717-1754) (estimate $150/300,000), and the Queen Anne carved and figured maple open armchair attributed to the workshop of Solomon Fussell (active ca. 1726-50) (estimate $60/120,000).

IMPORTANT AMERICAN FOLK ART FROM THE RALPH AND SUSANNE KATZ COLLECTION

Auction 21 January

The Ralph and Susanne Katz folk art collection comprises outstanding examples of 19th-century American portrait and landscape. The offering includes seven paintings by the celebrated marine and landscape artist Thomas Chambers (1808-1869), five paintings by Vermont artist James Hope (1818 - 1892), and five paintings by Ammi Phillips (1788-1865). The collection is led by John Rasmussen's bird's-eye perspective painting, View of the Berks County Alms House (estimate $80/120,000), which is both an extraordinary art object and a historical artifact.

Sotheby's has been uniting collectors with world-class works of art since 1744. Sotheby's became the first international auction house when it expanded from London to New York (1955), the first to conduct sales in Hong Kong (1973), India (1992) and France (2001), and the first international fine art auction house in China (2012). Today, Sotheby's presents auctions in 10 different salesrooms, including New York, London, Hong Kong and Paris, and Sotheby's BidNow program allows visitors to view all auctions live online and place bids from anywhere in the world. Sotheby's offers collectors the resources of Sotheby's Financial Services, the world's only full-service art financing company, as well as private sale opportunities in more than 70 categories, including S|2, the gallery arm of Sotheby's Contemporary Art department, and two retail businesses, Sotheby's Diamonds and Sotheby's Wine. Sotheby's has a global network of 80 offices in 40 countries and is the oldest company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (BID).

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*Estimates do not include buyer's premiuM. Prices achieved include the hammer price plus buyer's premium and are net of any fees paid to the purchaser where the purchaser provided an irrevocable bid.