Viewing dealers, however, saw it as a Federal period piece of Massachusetts origin, c.1790, and of unusual form with its serpentine front and sides and distinctive tall, thin reeded legs. A photograph taken after the sale and reproduced right shows the piece to be “in the rough” with an early, if rather dull finish, and it eventually sold at $64,000 (£45,715) to a New England dealer.
The item chosen to decorate the cover of the Eldreds catalogue was a remarkably well preserved and strongly coloured English maritime woolwork picture, dated by the auctioneers (on a marine architectural basis) to the late 19th century. It sold at $8000 (£5715) to a dealer who is also a collector of woolwork pictures.
Cape Cod ‘in the rough’
US: ROBERT Eldred’s March 30-31 sale of Americana in East Dennis (Massachusetts) included what they first saw as a 2ft 11in (89cm) wide “mahogany Sheraton-style one-drawer console table”, consigned from a local, Cape Cod estate and valued at $250-350.
