Ashland furniture sells for $84,250

Items’ origin had stirred dispute
By Jennifer Hewlett
Mid-19th-century parlor furniture from Ashland, the

Henry Clay estate, brought $84,250 at auction yesterday in New Orleans.
An unidentified private collector from Kentucky bought all but one of the seven matching pieces up for sale, which were made by John Henry Belter, a famous New York furniture maker. The six pieces purchased by the Kentucky collector included a sofa, armchair and two sets of two sidechairs.
A matching Belter meridienne — a half sofa — was purchased by a collector from North Carolina.
“Even if one piece is separated from the set, it completely destroys its historical integrity … because its great value is in being together,” said Lexington architectural historian William Scott Jr. Scott became upset last week when he learned that Ashland officials planned to offer the furniture for sale at auction.
“I do very much see it as a crime against the city and our architectural and interior heritage,” he said of yesterday’s sale.
While Scott said he was surprised at the prices the items brought, he questioned why the furniture wasn’t sold by one of the better-known auction houses, such as Christie’s in New York.
“They would have gotten much more money for it up there,” he said.
Tessa Steinkamp, an auctioneer and vice president of New Orleans Auction Galleries Inc., which sold the furniture for Ashland, said she could not identify the people who bought the furniture.
“All I can tell you is they are private collectors,” she said.
She said both collectors placed their bids by phone. The sale was held at the auction company’s St. Charles Gallery.
The sofa was sold for $28,000; the armchair brought $22,000; and the two side chair sets brought $12,500 each, she said. The Kentucky buyer also was charged a 17.5 percent premium by the auction house, she said.
The meridienne sold for $9,250, plus the premium, Steinkamp said.
She would not disclose what her firm charged Ashland for the sale of the furniture, but said that a seller is typically charged a 10 percent commission for an item that sells for more than $2,500.
“We had seven phone bidders and interest in the room,” Steinkamp said. “We opened them up at $4,800.”
While the sale of the furniture was “very slow going,” there was a lot of interest in the pieces, she said.
A dispute over the sale of the furniture began brewing late last week. Ashland director Ann Hagan-Michel said that the furniture had no direct connection to Henry Clay or to the Clay family, and that proceeds from the sale would be used to purchase actual Clay items in the future.
But Scott said the pieces actually were purchased in the 1850s by Henry Clay’s son, James Brown Clay, and put in the Clay mansion, which James Brown Clay was rebuilding at the time. Scott said that Ashland officials were making a tragic mistake.
Scott said last week that he might try to buy the furniture himself, but he said yesterday that he was not one of the bidders at the New Orleans auction.