Americana

Star Spangled Banner to Be Sold at Auction

Filed under: Auctions

The Star Spangled Banner is on display at Christie's in New York. It will be sold by the auction house on December 3.

On December 3, Christie's will sell at auction a rare first edition of America's national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner. Composed by poet Francis Scott Key during the evening of September 13, 1814, the sheet music will be offered in Christie's "Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts Including Americana" sale at its headquarters at Rockefeller Plaza in New York. The pre-sale estimate for the lot is $200,000 to $300,000.

The sellers are two retired Pennsylvania antique dealers who bought the sheet music as part of an album in 1989 for $50. The dealers only later realized the significance of what was contained in the album.

According to Chris Coover, senior specialist in books and manuscripts at Christie's in New York, the dealers attended many small auctions in the Pennsylvania area over a period of many years. At one of these small auctions, they acquired an album that contained popular songs from the 1814 era with most of the songs being undated. "After buying the album, the dealers studied it closely and realized it contained a first edition of The Star Spangled Banner which was bound into the album," says Coover. "They did their homework and realized they had a very rare piece indeed. They were thrilled to be the owners of a great piece of Americana."

According to Coover, there are only eleven copies still in existence, including this one, though, until recently, it wasn't well known that this one even existed. "It is the only one still in private hands with all others owned by institutions," says Coover. "It is quite a rarity."

Gallery: Star Spangled Banner

The Star Spangled Banner on view in Christie's NYC Gallery

A Close-Up View of The Star Spangled Banner.

A Close-Up View of The Star Spangled Banner at Christie's

The first edition of The Star Spangled Banner contains the mispelling of the word

Tags: Americana, auction, Christies, Francis Scott Key, Rare Books and Manuscripts, sheet music, Star Spangled Banner

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Large Auction Features Many Objects Of American History

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions

A treasure trove of Americana is up for auction next weekend when the belongings of Andrew Haswell Green go up for sale. Green, who lived from 1820 - 1903, was known as "The Father of Greater New York", helping to bring together the five boroughs of New York City and to create The American Museum of Natural History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Bronx Zoo. The collection is a museum's worth of American history, an incredible find that has antique dealers eagerly scanning the sale's catalogs.

Most of Green's belongings have remained boxed up for over one hundred years. The Boston Glove reports that boxes were only opened after the death of Julia Green, his great-great-grandniece and distant heiress. Thousands of documents, antiques and more will be sold in a four-day auction at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts by R.W. Oliver's auction house. The auction includes a printed copy of George Washington's will (only 13 copies are known to exist) and Presidential letters from Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Jackson.

Over 2,000 lots and items will be sold without reserve. They had been passed down through generations, prized, but virtually untouched, sealed and stored until Julia Green's nephew and niece inherited the boxes and decided to have them assessed. In addition to the documents, the boxes contained Tiffany silver, antique toys and games, vintage clothing from ballgowns to flapper dresses, stamps, and coins. Catalog estimates of individual auction items range from $50 to $50,000 and the entire sale could bring in over $1 million.

Tags: a.h. green, americana, andrew haswell green, george washington, massachusetts, worcester

Wall Street Icon at Christie's Sale

by Bobbie Leigh (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions

Wall Street is still the center of wealth and ambition in this country although its reputation has dimmed somewhat recently. If you are an antiques collector or American history buff, you have a chance to own an iconic piece of Wall Street at a Christie's sale. On June 22, Christie's will auction off a cobalt-blue porcelain street sign, framed in wrought iron. It stood on the corner of Wall and Broad Streets and dates somewhere between the 1890s and the 1920s. Christie's estimates that the sign could sell between $60,000 and $80,000 but some serious antique collector could easily win this prize with a much higher bid.

Before being consigned to the Christie's sale, the antique sign was on loan to the Museum of American Finance where its temporary home (appropriately) was next to a market fluctuations exhibition. Leena Akhtar, Exhibits and Archives Director, would love to have it back and both she and the consignor hope some generous new owner will agree to loan it once again to the museum.

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Tags: americana, auctions, christies, finance, Wall Street, wall street sign

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Auction of Antique Samplers

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions

Hand-stitched samplers are a bit of Americana that is highly collectable. Ken's Antiques & Auction in Kingston, Georgia is offering up 13 of these antiques from one collection on January 1, 2008. The samplers, which were originally created to teach generations of schoolgirls various sewing stitches and patterns, usually feature alphabets, prayers and poems and small pictures. Thousands of samplers still exist today and depending on the age, condition and provenance they can sell for $50,000. There's something tender about the samplers and their carefully done stitches, they represent a connection to the hopes and dreams of young girls living in a very different world than our own.

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Tags: americana, antiques, auction, samplers

Americana Week in New York 2007

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor, Auctions, Art

It's time for Americana week in New York yet again. Dueling auction houses Sotheby's and Christie's have come up with sets of auctions featuring Colonial art and precious heirlooms. Early American silver, decoys, folk art, Shaker furnishings, painted trunks and gameboards are just some of the items up for bid at various auctions. The Americana Collection of Marc and Laurie Krasny Brown, which will be auctioned at Sotheby's on January 21, features the results of 25 years of solid aggressive collection by the founder of Parfums de Coeur. The Laracy collection, which was profiled extensively in a New York Times article, is described as being charming and playful. The Laracy's aren't giving up the collecting world but they are selling their Georgian colonial house in New Canaan, Conn., and moving into Manhattan where they plan to focus on more modern finds.The pictures shown above are a pair of portraits of Major Daniel Coffin and Elizabeth Stone Coffin by John Brewster which ares estimated to sell for $150,000 to $300,000.

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Tags: americana, antiques, art, auctions

Americana Week in New York

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor

If you are into American antiques, then your travels should definitely take you to New York City in the next few weeks. The second half of January is Americana week (it's actually more like two weeks). The city is host to a variety of shows and auctions during this time period, including the Winter Antiques Show at the Seventh Regiment Armory and events at local museums such as the American Antiques Show at the Folk Art Museum which includes a gala benefit where Martha Stewart will receive this year's American Spirit Award. Antiques and the Arts has a comprehensive listing of upcoming events

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Tags: americana, antiques, folk art, museums