Skinner Shatters Multiple World Records With Sale of Boston Japanned Chest
In its November 7th auction of American Furniture & Decorative Arts, its best and highest grossing Americana auction to date, Skinner sold a previously undiscovered Boston Japanned chest for $1,876,000. The chest not only set a new high for a single lot sold in a Skinner Americana auction, it was also the most expensive piece of furniture ever auctioned in New England, and it established a new record price for a piece of Japanned American furniture, exceeding the old record by over $50,000.
“Simply put, it’s one of the most extraordinary pieces of furniture and one of the rarest finds we’ve ever encountered in all our years in the business,” notes Stephen Fletcher, Director of American Furniture and Decorative Arts at Skinner.
The chest was originally discovered by Skinner American Furniture experts, Martha Hamilton and Stephen Fletcher on a seemingly routine house call. The piece dates back to 1735-39, and was found in an old farmhouse in a northeastern Massachusetts city. The piece, which had never been out of the family of its original owners, was clearly signed by one of the well-known Boston japanners, Robert Davis (d. 1739). Most japanned pieces from this period come to the market restored; this is only the fifth such piece known to have been preserved in such untouched condition. In fact, the only other known works to have been decorated with chinoiserie by Davis are a high chest of drawers currently in the collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art, and a tall case clock, also in a museum collection. To highlight the presentation of this extraordinary piece of japanned furniture, Skinner's Americana department presented a complimentary lecture, "The Art and Craft of the Boston Japanners," by independent scholar Debrah Federhen, an noted expert on 18th century japanned furniture.
