Featured Pilgrim Sugar Chest

Sooo... Do I have to come for the taste test???
Or you could ship it to me for that?

 

No, not mine, i dropped out at 5k, i already knew which way the wind was blowing, tested the waters with some pre bidding and KNEW, IT HAD BEEN IDENTIFIED! by everyone except the RI School of Design.

 

Aaaah.

 

You dodged a bullet girl! CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR!

 

Next time.

 

I guess that's why they call it a "school".

 

James, can you explain to me what makes this a linen-fold rather than just reeding?I don't see a full-on fold, except for a hint at the blunted lower ends.

Well, it's subjective and you could say "reeded" but, reeding wasn't an "in" thing at that time however, "linenfold" was.
It is not carved but done i believe with hand molding planes and meant to imitate linenfold carving.
Very clever builder i would say and creative to do that within such a small space, the rest of the chest was paint decorated.

Enlarged Stile

 

LOL, Yeah, Jesus, Pitiful! those people REALLY "screwed the pooch" on this one, as pilots in the US air force would say.

 

Pheeww! It seems I escaped...
Sorry for your non win, James

 

No big deal, had the day off, something to do on a Friday morning! It just "popped up" as an email alert to me this morning @ 5 a.m. or so.
And, i was on it like a bad habit!
Apparently, so were many others!

YES! you did, a very NARROW escape!

 

Did SOMEONE in here say there was a "depression" in "brown furniture" prices?????
What's the deal? where in the world are MY depression pieces???
You realize the estimate on "sugar chest" was $600-800 USD???
30K, really? for a sugar chest??? What the hell happened???

 

That "Sugar Chest" went for 32 TIMES its high estimate, SOME DEPRESSION!!!
NOT counting Tax, Shipping or Restoration cost!
And, the folks in here call themselves "experts" in furniture?

 

Obviously the "estimators" need some schooling.

 

Well, it's obvious the auction house had no idea what they had but, that is not unusual, they are mostly "generalists" they know a little about a lot of objects.
They were probably relying on the RI School of Design on everything, they should know, right? WRONG! Some school of design, they had NO CLUE what it was, nevermind it's value! NOT a good look for that school, no doubt!
Still, a VERY FUN morning for me, i enjoyed the hell out of that "Sugar Chest" experience.
Period "Chamber Tables" are VERY RARE, only a 1/2 dozen or so are known to exist, just the idea of acquiring one was exciting.

 

Thank you @James Conrad for this thread.........I loved it!

 

Is the BP really 28%? Is that true for everything on liveauctioneers?

That would make the premium $7000 on a $25K purchase.

It's obviously a site that people keep their eyes on regardless.

 

@moreotherstuff , I believe that liveauctioneers is just a site that offers a place for various auction houses to run their auctions online. Liveauctioneers itself is not running the auctions. So I would expect that different auction houses would have different percentages for buyers premium.

As mentioned earlier, though, I'm only a neophyte.

 

The Rhode Island School of Design should certainly be questioning the qualifications of their appraiser. Lets hope it wasn't a staff member who teaches early American classes.

 

It's actually worse than that, many auction houses now charge an additional 3% if you pay with a CC/Debit card, not to mention they ALL charge sales tax as well.
Add it all up and you are in the 33% - 38% range added to hammer price.
I can remember a HUGE hue & cry when auction houses went to a 25% BP, those are now regarded as the good old days.

Correct! LiveAuctioneers is just a middle man that charges 3% if you use their platform. Naturally, the auction houses tack on that 3 points which is how it went from 25% to 28% to begin with.

 

I do not know but, given what is happening today in American higher education, i would bet it WAS a Staff member, probably of the socialist/communist persuasion who THOUGHT they knew about early american furniture.
Whoever it was, they didn't know enough to know, that they did not know.
So there THAT is.